Day 8 Dec 26

Welcome to the hotel California.
Today the Toll roads will be replaced by two lane black top at Tepic. Its there that I turn west and south to Central America 2 (CA2). This will take me south to Porta Vallarta and Alcapulco. In the month previous to my departure Terry and I had taken a 14 day luxury cruise through the Panama Canal. This had been a long time dream of hers and it coincided with her 60th birthday present. On that cruise we had a few ports of call that I would be skating through. Porta Viarta was one.
That morning I had the option of using toll roads to Tepic or the Carrilla Libre (free roads). It was time to slow down and I chose the slower free route. a pleasant ride with lots of scenic distractions. The road to P.V. from Tepic is a great twisty with lots of opportunities to exercise your skills in braking passing and accelerating, It was the first chance I had to challenge the chicken strips on these tires.
chicken strips are the section of the tire that get exposed to the road when you lean the bike over in the corners. You can wear a tire out by flat slabbing (freeway cruising) and never expose the sides of the tread to the ground., or the bike can be used to negotiate corners at speed and greater angles, thus using more of the tread on the sides.
Different bikes have different capability's and can attain different lean angles.
On my 60th birthday I was considering a present to myself that would let me explore them. Terry had organized a wonderful birthday party that included guests from all of my past. Matt was there and we had a great celebration that culminated with him and I climbing out the window of the hotel in the early A.M. and sitting on the pitched roof with a bottle of Tangle foot, reflecting on the aging process. I was explaining to him that I had some reservations about buying a track bike. A 600 Honda that was not street legal and would be trailered to the events. I was feeling a little bit of guilt about what I thought was an extravagant birthday gift to myself. Matt listened to my whine and then said " Dad if you don't do it now I'll use your money to do it when your dead". That's what got me into exploring my chicken strips. His intent was selfless, an expression that I should spend his inheritance, I did my best but Still wonder if I could maybe have spent a little more on things we could have done together.
This road gave lots of opts to explore the speed and agility of a Moto. Even if it was over weight, top heavy, and shod with tires that were not designed for the track, sounds a lot like a  description of me not the bike. Entering P.V. I passed the dock area for the cruise ships and recognized the streets where T and I had  strolled down to the old town market area, past Senior Frogs. Lots of heavy traffic on cobblestones. CA2 gets a bit obscure and you are occupied with splitting lanes passing on the right and left. Everything from donkey's to pedestrians pop into your way. Its easy to get lost and off CA2 here but its hard to get a long way off track.
The first part of the day had been a little consumptive of fuel. Above 5 thousand RPM the mileage drops down a bit. I was in petrol search mode and about 12 miles south of P.V I came across a P.Mex that had not opened yet (under construction). P.Mex is the government run fuel supplier for Mexico. I asked a guard at the facility how far it was to the next fuel and his reply was 300 kilometers. I am thinking I can do this but in the end resign myself to retracing the 12 miles getting fuel and starting out with a 300 mile capability.
This was an early indication of how some of the locals don't relate to where they are on a map. I pull out a map show them where we are on it and ask if there is fuel between here and another city on the map and the response would indicate that they didn't know where they were let alone that there was another city in any direction. You have to be careful about the credibility of advice, sometimes it was spot on and others it made no sense. I know in my other travels you sometimes have to recognize that the advice is from the perspective of the giver. If your in California on a bicycle and ask how far it is to a land mark the answer is often in minutes of travel on the freeway by car, you have to extrapolate. I thought I sometimes got responses in C.A that were relative to horse back or airplane I couldn't be sure which. It turned out the next fuel was about 50 miles out, I would have made it with a 100miles to spare.
Here met a couple of young guys on Motorcycles that were on their way to Argentina on a BMW and a Kawasaki. We chatted for a few minutes and compared bikes and itinerary's. They commented on how light I was traveling and I mentally registered that their 650 cc bikes were loaded down with huge aluminum panier's and trunk and tank bags. I am sure they knew they needed  lots of equipment and everything they had was necessary. I was getting by with one less pair of underwear.
Last nights finish in the dark with low fuel effected my decision to stop tonight an hour early at Barra Navidad and it was lucky because it took three inquires to find a motel. I was happy with it, it was secure , desk manned all night and a place to lock down the bike. I was using the steering head lock, a disc lock, and good cable to a BFR (big fuckin rock).
The local Yacht club was parading the bay with there boats all decked out in Christmas lights. I got to enjoy a nice meal with a great view and a walk through the market place. I found conversation with several Canadians in the watering holes and had an early turn in.