Hey all!

We pulled out of paradise yesterday, headed to the Cancun KTM shop.  There was rumor of another KTM shop in between here and there, so we checked it out.  It was too new to have any inventory but they told of another KTM shop around the corner.  So we took off for that one.  This one was right down town Playa de Carmen, a hopping beach town.  It is primarily a scooter rental shop for the tourists, but the KTM importer for Mexico just happened to be there.

Eric Gallardo, a super nice guy and he took care of us.  We went to lunch, he called the next dealer on our route and had him order tires so they would be there when we got there.  Then we started talking about our route home.  He suggested we ride the course that he had set up and used in the Red Bull coast to coast rally just a couple of months ago.  It goes from Vera Cruz to Puerto Escondito, all excellent dirt road and even some single track!  He Described one section crossing this mountain range.  It sounds like single track and is the only pass for miles in either direction!  You can see on the map all the roads have to go on either side of this mountain range.  It should be good!

But then, trouble.  We lost our map.  I blame Chuck, Chuck blames me, but he has been in control of the map since we left.  Only because it didn{t fit in my map case.  He has done a good job of reading the map, except when we were around Copper Canyon and were lost for 3 days, and nights!  So we are using a map from the tourist office, it has cartoons of mermaids and dolphins on it and hardly shows any thing.   Luckily the roads are very well marked and we can just go from town to town.

We spent the night in Merida last night, it was a pretty cool old city, we went down town for dinner, you know, the square and loads of old buildings, pretty nice.  But while at dinner it started raining and we only had on our good shirts and shoes, so all our stuff was wet.  Clean now, but we.

We got up early this morning and headed west, we rode 500 miles today.  A personal record for me.  My butt is fine, the BIll Mayers Saddle makes all the difference in the world.  Also the temperature was lower so it was very comfortable and not a bad ride at all.  We are in a town that is unpronounceable, I can{t even spell it again, look at the title of this piece.  It is on the beach and we had dinner over looking the gulf.  There is a big ship washed up on the beach, probably 150 feet long and in ankle deep water.  It is recent too, because it is fully rigged and they must plan on rescuing it on the next high tide.

Tomorrow we ride 300 miles to Vera Cruz to the KTM dealer there,  we both need tires, and an oil change plus some other things before we start a 1,000 mile dirt section across the country.  From Puerto Escondito we turn right on the coast high way and head north to home.  I guess Idaho has been getting the snow and the skiing is great!  I miss my friends, and ICE CREAM!  And my dog.  I{ll write more tomorrow then it might be a few days before we are back in civilization.  So keep those cards and letters coming and I{ll talk to you soon.

Charlie