2010 LCP: Arrival in Tuxtla Gutierrez

!Hola!  Very limited internet here, we arrived Tuxtla Gutierrez on Monday after a very long roadtrip.  Yesterday alone was 15 hours from Tehuacan to Tuxtla in the mountains averaging about 30mph and was the 5th day of road tripping for Dave and Brian from MN.  And all is well.  We had many obstacles yesterday, closed tollroads, washed out roads, construction, chaos, two flipped semis, etc. but that is expected in Mexico, and we had no flat tires, broken axles or anything crazy, just went airborne with truck/trailer/race car one time on a gargantuan dip in the road that was hiding. 

The caravan included two Mustangs To Go trucks and trailers carrying the Bag O'Nails and the Gypsy Wind, plus Geezer the TBZ crew carrying El Jefe.  We picked up Russ along the way who is carrying Linda & Stewart Robertson's Studebaker.  We saw nothing along the route regarding unrest in Mexico - it is business as usual here from our vantage point.

I had flown into Aguas Calientes on Saturday night, where Geezer, Eloisa and Uriel picked me up.  My flight was late so we didn't get home and to bed in Zacatecas until 1am which made for an early morning as we began our road trip to the start of the race.  I rode in the Big Mama with the TBZ crew, there were 6 of us so I sat in the front on the center console between my dad and Rene with a clipboard for a backrest and of course, no seatbelt.  It was a tiny bit uncomfortable but I appreciated the ride.  We met up with the Mustangs To Go Crew around 2pm in San Juan del Rio and I hopped into Todd's truck to begin our third "luna de miel" - our third honeymoon.  Wow, did I then appreciate the cushy seat in Todd's truck!

El Jefe and the Gypsy Wind passed tech inspection on Tuesday.  The Gypsy Wind needed a few tiny supports added to the rollbar but everything else passed fine.  It is hot and muggy here in Tuxtla and the shade of the big state fair tent helps.

Thierry arrived Tuesday night after two very long days of travel from Belgium.  And he is smiling as usual.  Eric, his copiloto, had supposedly landed and is en route to the hotel though earlier today when he arrived in Mexico City and went to check in for his last flight to Tuxtla, was told that the airline he booked had gone bankrupt a few months back!  Always an adventure in Mexico!

!Saludos Amigos!

2010 TBZ Crew:  Kristin, Rene, Fabian, Bimbo, Hugo, Antonio, Geezer





Mi hermanito, Rene.

Reunited with Todd on the road!

A quick stop to discuss hotel options in Tehuacan, our stop for the night.

I adore the sights, smells and sounds of Mexico!

This is so typical of how we travel, it makes me laugh.  This is Rene pulling a big Yoo Hoo (u-turn) hogging both lanes of traffic and jackknifing the trailer, with Bimbo hanging out the back seat.  We block a bit of traffic with our big rigs along the way, and we are not even that big. 

Our first night together on the road trip. We had a big team dinner, 10 of us in the caravan.  Tacos de Arrachera for me! 

I don't know what Hugo ordered but it was a pile of food and it appeared to make him happy.

The scenery in this part of southern Mexico is breathtaking and very difficult to capture in a photo.  The mountains and their passes are endless; the roads unforgiving.

The fog made the poor conditions of the roads even more difficult.

I convinced Todd to stop for 15 minutes at a local mescal brewery south of Oaxaca.  We had seen the places last year but didn't have time to stop as we were towing in Gerie Bledsoe's Nova and had work to do.  This place was called Don Tacho and the specialty is a smoked mescal - never tasted better mescal or tequila, wow. 

I missed the photo...this guy stopped in the middle of the road to pick up a dead lizard thing, if it was an iguana it was pretty skinny. Looked like a croc to me. 

I love this guy with his full suspension mountain bike on the wooden wagon.

Russ, stopped in the middle of the road waiting for diretion.

Our caravan buddy, Russ, carrying Stewart & Linda Robertson's Studebaker down from Canada.

The tollroad had just closed about 50 cars/trucks in front of us.  Now what to do?  The other tollway was closed as well.

The detour to get across a small canal and access the tollroad at a more southern point took us through neighborhoods and tight corners.

 Barely made this corner.

We still don't know if this was a protest to close the tollroad or people were just hanging on the road because they could.

Still traveling at night.....burning a grass/brush/garbage fire in your front yard was the popular thing to do in Ariaga.  We still had 3 more hours of mountain travel and finally arrived in Tuxtla about 10:30pm, a 15 hour day.