We employed a fello and his good lady with a ute to bring Chiwi and Hobbit back to the USA as Ellen could not ride.
We left Lo De Marcos, 7.00 am sharp so 8.30 Mexican time... hmmm what happened to 7.00 sharp?? a n y w a y the trip was uneventful, we arrived at Navajoa and got a Hotel at midnight after clocking 1000 km of our 1600km drive.
Following morning we set off at 9.00 am sharp, 10.15 am Mexican time ... hmmm what happened to 9.00 am sharp ... there is a pattern forming here.
Only 10km out of Navajoa BANG and the left front of the truck drops to the road amidst grinding and thumping sounds, our driver to his credit held it straight and bought us to a stop, we all bailed out, we just past a road cone on the side of the road so I ran back and placed it 100 metres back from us in our lane.
Upon returning back to the truck we had established the bottom suspension ball joint had failed (mostly cos it was fncked to start with) and bailed out of the swingarm and the whole lot had gone to ground, it had hit the tire and gutted that wide open too.
The swingarm was ground down and torn open so was stuffed and they had to find a replacement.
We were there two minutes when a couple of mechanics pulled up, they organised the tow truck (uh ouwh ... here we go again) and we were on our way back to town.
So here we are right back at the beginning of the report sitting waiting for parts to turn up, we are supposed to be in Nogales tonight crossing to the US tomorrow.
The guy for the shocks turns up, yes the RHS is yesterday so he takes off and gets a new pair, he comes back, argh wrong ones, hmmm, ok come back 1 hour later and has the right ones, but only one has rubbers and washers .... WTF.
We sit and wait another 1 and 1/2 hour.
This is how Mexicans can two a 2 hours job into a 6 -7 hour job so easily and as usual the only time we DO have something organised like our pick up in the USA at Nogales this shit happens and we to simply sit around and wait for others for the most of it seemingly simple shit.
For the most of the time we have no timetable or organised deadline as this seems be the only time when shit happens and it stuffs things up.
See what happens now.
We finally hit the road again some 7 hours later and drive into the night to Hermosillo, we ended up staying at a love Motel and we had to be out at 6.00am which enabled us to get a good start by 7.00am, we carried on to Santa Anna for breaky which was very nice.
Upon finishing breaky we continued to Nogales to the border, to get out TVIP back turned into a bit of a drama as the bikes were loaded front first ....where the VIN numbers are, the (huge) lady wanted us to unload them completely ... we managed to get the manager across an shuffled things around enough to read them and get our deposits back.
We carried on to the border and had to fill out an I94 and pay some money to extend our VISAs in order to get sorted again.
We met up with Neil a fello ADVer who offered to come and pick us up, very kind indeed, also a HUGE thanks to his boss Al Jesse http://www.jesseluggage.com who gave Neil the time out to come and pick us up, in this harsh world there are still great people around, you guys rock!!!.
The bikes were unloaded from the ute and reloaded on to a trailer after a carpark reassembly job
Neil in action
Both bikes loaded we were ready to do the finally leg to Phoenix so time to say goodbye to our driver Manuel and his good lady who we will catch up with again when we head south.
Now we are in Phoenix, re grouping, ordering replacement gear and selling bits and pieces off and playing the waiting game with Maya and here arrival.
Not much to report other than slowly waiting.
1 comment:
It wouldn't be an adventure if nothing happened. :)
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