PAV Blog Day 13_2.02: Tempe, AZ to Puerto Peñasco, MX

Goodbye USA!After seven days in Tempe the day has finally arrived. Even though we've already traveled 1400 miles, today feels like the beginning of the trip. Flying out of the country is one thing, riding out with everything you need for the next 3 months of your life strapped to your bike is another.

We rode to Lukeville, a small border town south of Phoenix. None of us knew what we'd be in for, life is so much more worth living this way. We crossed the border, not needing to pullout our passports. Just over the border, Milan riding out front, was waved through and then immediately after a bell rang and Lawson was waved to an inspection
station. The rest of us pulled off with him. It was a very small border with only a few people on hand. A police dog was barking at the end of his leash, which made everthing seem somewhat more official and definitely heightened all of our levels of seriousness. They told him to get off his bike and open his boxes so they could check them. Milan was the first off his bike and casually walked over. He told us it was a random check as he walked by us. He immediately started a conversation with the two inspection agents. Milan has a way of doing things that flows naturally. He caught them up in conversation as if there were actually reason to distract them from
Lawson's boxes. After a few minutes of chatting and questioning back and forth, most of which I didn't understand, they wished us good luck and we were on our way. I later realized they completely forgot about making Lawson open his boxes, it was brilliant. I had a feeling the rest of the trip would have similar situations where Milan would save us time and furstration just by being himself.

We spent the next two hours buying insurance and having the tourist info guy prepare our registration documents to speed up our immigration check in Hermosillo, a few days down the road. The sun dipping low in the sky and we weren't positive how long it would take us to get to our first destination in Mexico, Puerto Peñasco, also known as Rocky Point. Yes it is a tourist destination, hence the English name. We hadn't had anything to eat yet and it was around 4:30pm, so we stopped and grabbed some authentic Mexican tacos; my first REAL Mexican food. Goodbye Taco Bell.

The next hour and a half was a beautiful ride that really made us feel like we were in the middle of nowhere. Mountains rose dramatically from the plain our highway wound through. Because vegetation is so minimal you notice the landscape much more than in the northwest. The plain literally met the mountains at their base with little to no rise. It was strange.

We were racing the sun now, night time on a mexican highway is unanimously bad news. After a long straightaway of half developed properties we made our way into the town of Puerto Peñasco. The streets were busy with cars and people but fortunately Milan knew where to find a place to camp. We rolled down a sand covered road up to a fortressed camping area. It was beautiful and right on the ocean. A few campers and buses lined the beach front and we decided to setup camp between two of them. We were greeted by the neighbors which made us feel somewhat at home. The beach stretched for a mile or two with the city on one end and resorts on the other. The half-full moon hung overhead and lighted the ocean. It our first night in Mexico and none of us could have asked for more. There are a few pictures from that night but unfortuntely they're on everyone elses cameras so I'll have to post them later.

At one point, after everything was setup and we were on our way to bed, a neighbor came over and offered us some of their firewood. They were a husband and wife with four kids, "The LOUD family" (an acronym to preserve anonymity), who'd been travelling for the last six months or so. After talking for a while we found out that TLC and Discovery Channel had filmed them for six episode of their own reality show called "Six for the Road". The camera crew would follow them for a week at a time and film they're everyday life on the road. We had a great talk and they invited us over for breakfast in the morning! How amazing! They already had four other mouths to feed and they were adament that we have a hot breakfast before getting back on the road. We said our goodnights and went off to make a campfire on the beach. What an awesome ending to a night that already went down as one of the best we'd had.

I decided to sleep in my hammock, hoping the night wouldnt be too cold. After a bit of lounging in it, I threw my sleeping pad in to add extra insulation. The light breeze was enough to chill my backside. On the beach in Costa Rica I wouldve been too hot had I used anything more than my cotton liner and boxers.

In the morning we woke up early and packed our gear before joining The Louds for breakfast. They'd prepared pancakes, toast, bacon, eggs, and much more food than I'd seen in weeks. It's amazing how happy food can make a person. They insisted we dish up first, we protested, they insisted, so we didnt argue:) We talked about their life on the road and how it was packed into the megacab dodge and the converted toyhauler fifth wheel. This was their home, everything they owned. They all agreed that they loved it and wouldnt rather be anywhere else. We talked about our trip and our plans for the future. They were very encouraging to talk to. i think they made us all more excited about what we were doing. One thing that really got me was they wanted us to all write something in their leather memory book. They'd met so many people through their travels and yet they wanted us to be apart of their book. What blew me away even more were some of the other people who'd signed it! To name a few, Al Roker, Kate Couric, Captain Sig from TLC's "The Deadliest Catch". They recently been on the Today Show! How cool was it that they'd wanted us to be apart of it!? So we all wrote a little something and felt like we were a part of something bigger. We started talking about their Blog, which is how TLC found them in the first place, and they insisted we give them our Blog and Facebook pages so they could link to them from theirs. Cool right? Now consider their page got over 1.2million hits last month...wow... And this was only our first day in Mexico. They also offered to get us in touch with their production agency and mentioned one of their cameramen, whose name has escaped me, would be all about filming a trip like ours. Perhaps our return trip will be a TLC special? Who knows?!

So after filling up on fantastic food and conversation we went outside for more packing, goodbyes, and a group photo. We've got some great pictures, but it'll be a few days before I can add them to this post. We chatted more about the trip, gave the kids motorcycle rides, and Vern (Mr.Loud) took a spin on Lawsons motorcycle, his first time ever! He did great, riding by us one time yelling, "where are the brakes?!". Just before leaving, the kids ran out with homemade snack bags to hold us over until lunch. Just thinking about it makes me choke up for some reason. These people were so nice to us and yet they had nothing to gain. They were just genuinely nice people. We took an awesome group picture, gave some hugs, and rode off towards the dusty town. Any problems or worries we'd come into Mexico with, had surely been left behind. It was a day I'll never forget.