Alright, so it's been a crazy few days, and there's a lot to catch up on, but I'll do my best. I'll start where I left off, with my entry into Mexico. I was pretty nervous about the customs/immigration process (importing an expensive vehicle into the developing world is not always the easiest process...There's a lot of red tape involved, and not knowing the language definitely hurts.)

So, I crossed the border into Mexico, which was surprisingly easy because....They don't really have one. They are one of the few countries in Central or South America that doesn't rigidly control their borders. They have a "commercial zone" that lasts for 20-30 Km on the Mexican side, followed by checkpoints that make sure you're supposed to be there. If you don't have the right paperwork, they send you back to the border to get it. The checkpoints look alot like this:

Fortunately I knew this going in, so I immediately found the Customs/Immigration office just across the border. It looked something like this:

Once inside, with the few broken bits of Spanish I actually remember from Freshman Espanol, I navigated through the dizzying process of Tourist Visas, Temporary Vehicle Import Permits, Passports, and Liability Insurance forms... To be honest, the border crossings has been one of the things that has worried me most about this trip. But this was surprisingly easy and really went well! After about an hour and a half I was on my way, with a renewed sense of confidence and pride in my ability to handle the road that lay before me.

Then I got lost. In Raynosa, Mexico. Literally the instant I pulled out of the Customs office I had no idea where I was. I was looking for MEX 40, but it was nowhere to be found. And just to be clear, Raynosa is not a nice place. My confidence was immediately shattered as I was exposed to the craziest driving I've ever seen. (And I've ridden in rush hour traffic in both NYC and LA, and they've got nothing on this.) Nothing is marked, Some stop signs are only recognizable by their octagonal shape, but without enough paint left to know that they were ever red or carried the words ALTO in big white letters.

Another thing about driving in Mexico (and the rest of Latin America) lanes are optional. In fact, I think people actually go out of their way to not use them. Same thing with turn signals. So, there's a bit of adjustment. But I have to say, as crazy and aggressive as the drivers are, they do seem to be paying attention to their driving. Honestly, I'm more scared of a soccer mom in a subdivision sized SUV on a cellphone lazily drifting into my lane than I am a local in a beat up pickup truck speeding through traffic like Dale Earndhardt. (rip #3 w. wings)

So, after about an hour of riding through what is absolutely not a nice part of town, (I forgot to mention it was raining this whole time!) I finally made it to MEX 40. This was the main road to Monterrey, and it definitely took some work to make sure I stayed on it. Roads split, change names, and generally go out of their way to be confusing down here. As I'm planning my routes now, I generally just plan on a solid hour to navigate any major city that I happen to pass through on my way.

The road to Monterrey was a toll road, which is much nicer, safer, and faster. All good things, so I went. And other than being cold and wet, there's not too much to report. Ahh except that my GPS maps were utterly useless, and my paper map flew off the motorcycle at 75 mph. Crap. That would have been helpful in a few minutes...


...when I got to Monterrey. When I finally made it to Monterrey (imagine Chicago except with worse drivers and road that don't make much sense and you're pretty close.) It's an extremely american-ish city, with close to 8 million people. And an applebees. Ugh, I can't tell you how disappointing it was to see an Applebees. Don't get me wrong, I love half priced apps as much as the next guy, but come on! That's not why I drove 2000 miles! Anyway, after getting lost in Monterrey a little over an hour, I continued on to Back2Back Ministries, an organization that helps run Orphanages here in the area. I had been down here litterly 9-10 years ago with my school, but hadn't been back since.

When I finally made it to Back2Back, I was able to reconnect with some friends I hadn't seen in years, as well as make some new ones. I got to spend the next four days connecting with some amazing people- People that really love and care for kids in need-and have shaped their entire lives around this one purpose. I had the amazing honor of spending time both with these people and the kids that they care for. More to come!

Day 0: Final Trip Preparations:
If the "best laid plans of mice and men often go awry," then averagely laid plans on an abreviated time table probably suffer a significantly higher level of difficulties. At least this was the case for me. My motorcycle has had been in the shop for nearly two weeks getting a bunch of major services done that I'd planned...and a few I didn't. I finally had the bike back in my possesion at 3 pm, a whopping 18 hours before I was supposed to leave. And just in time to run to another bike shop to have all new tires put on. After a quick dinner with the family, the rest of the evening was spent packing, organizing, and doing last minute maintenance and electrical fixes. It was a late night and I was up until 3:26am....only to get up at 6:30... Nothing like a good night's rest to start an adventure.


Day 1: Cincinnati to Brownsville, TN. (437 Miles.) In my brief experience, the things that we dream about and look forward to most often leave us unsure of how to respond or feel when we finally get them. This has definitely been my experience on this trip. As I pulled out of Cincinnati, finally on the road after months and months of planning, I was shocked at how "real" my dream had become...how "normal" it felt. The day had started at the Bluebird Cafe in Norwood- a pre-motorcycle trip tradition for me. And from there I hugged family goodbye, took a few pictures, repacked a couple things, and was on my way. At times I began to panic about the scope of what lay before me. At other times, I just giggled like a little girl at how lucky I am to even be attempting something like this. And other times, I felt cold. And bored. And tired... And all the things that I felt while I was at home. And yet I wasn't at home, and hopefully won't be for a very long time.

Day 2: Brownsville to Waco, TX. (610 miles) This day was pretty miserable honestly. As I pulled out of America's Best Value Inn, it was cold, but the sun was shining. I skipped breakfast and got some good miles behind me. But before long, the sun disappeared and was replaced with torrential rain. I'd ridden in the rain before, so no big deal I thought. Well, at 75 mph in rain on a motorcycle, nothing stays dry for long. After about an hour, I was freezing and wet, with "prune-fingers" underneath my gloves. Pissed off and freezing I stopped at a rest stop to dry off. I completely changed my clothes, but back on my wet riding gear, and spent about 20 minutes with my gloves under the hand dryer after literally wringing water out of my gloves. Not fun. As the day went on, the rain stopped, but the cold didn't. But hey, this ones on me-who plans a motorcycle trip in February?! The best part of the day was when the riding ended and I made it to my buddy Griffin's place in Waco. Griffin works for Habitat for Humanity, so we stayed in a super-cool old renovated house, and had Firemans Four, an excellent local Texas brew.

Day 3: Waco, TX to McAllen TX. (412 miles)
After an early start (including a breakfast burrito at an amazing little Mexican place) I rode to McAllen, a smaller border crossing east of the much larger Nuevo Laredo. (which the US State dept. has had adisories against travel due to the drug war there...)

Not too much to report on this day. I listened to XM and the audio version of the newest Dan Brown book, and road. I made it to McAllen about 8pm, went to wall mart to pick up a few last minute things, bungie-corded a little caesars $5 pizza to the back seat, and headed back to the hotel room to do some last minute planning and make sure my paperwork was in order until 3:30 in the morning...

More to come later! The following day (my first day in Mexico) was more adventure than I'd bargained for...stay tuned!

I've tried about 12 times now to start this post, and I'm not quite sure how to begin. There's a lot to say, but not all of it is important just yet. I'll start with the basics and go from there.

Four days ago, I left Cincinnati for an adventure- For something that I know will stretch me, and that I hope will grow me. The goal is this- to drive a motorcycle from home in Cincinnati to the southern tip of South America, Tierra del Fuego. The trip will be a minimum of 16,000 miles and the one way trip will take roughly three months to complete.

The bottomline is that if I were looking for a vacation, there's any number of better options out there. Cancun, Cabo, Cleveland. Just about anything would be more relaxing and stress free than what I'm talking about here. But I'm not looking for a vacation, I'm looking for a challenge. When I started dreaming about this trip, I relegated it to "bucket-list" status: Something that I'd like to do one day, but could comfortably assume I'd get to it later... Besides, I'm a reasonably healthy guy, I like to think I've got a solid 80 years in me before I kick the bucket.

As I thought about it I realized that there are lots of good, pragmatic reasons not to do a trip like this. It's dangerous, it's expensive, it's time consuming, it's lonely... the list goes on.
But after some conversations with friends and some reflection myself, I realized there was only one reason I wasn't willing to try it now- It was fear.

I'm in a pretty unique place in life right now- Where I have some money set aside. Where I have time to spare. Where I have flexibility from family and relational commitments that might keep me from attempting this later on. At some point I realized I was out of excuses. The only one I had is that I was afraid. And to be honest, I still am. Here are some examples- all just from today. Trying to figure out Immigration and Customs without knowing the language or procedure, surviving latin america big city driving, getting hopelessly lost in the wrong part of town after your paper map flies off your bike at 70mph and your GPS proves to be utterly worthless.

So yes, I'm terrified about what I'm attempting. I'm aware of the size of it. And Is there a good chance I might not make it? Yup. There's a very good chance I'll have to stop part way and come back later on to finish it up. I'm okay with that. Because, frankly the destination isn't the point, and it never has been. I'll do whatever I can to get as far as I can. And beyond that, we'll see. The important thing is what I'll learn along the way. I believe that all real growth comes from challenges- like muscles being torn and stretched only to reform stronger.

I apologize for the long, rant of a post. I just wanted to lay the foundation for what's coming.
But, today has been absolutely insane, and I'm exhausted. Good night! I'll write tomorrow about my time at orphanages and a shanty town in Monterrey.
Andy