Polor bear run new years day 2011

the guy that tricked Daves wing had a sweet BMW R1100GS with a side car

Nate took his bags off so he was riding "hipless"

Mr Al Carroll and his rig

here are some pictures of our latest endeavors from new years day. We went for a short ride with the largest showing of riders i've seen for the Polor bear run. i think there was around 18ish that went on the ride. The 5th member of our Pa to Panama crew Laban was out sick for the day. so we got him a get well soon card that said "feeling droopy? thats poopy". we laughed.
 

just some photos from Guatemala

a dump along the road

in the back of the land cruiser

Dwayne love getting in nates personal space. nates not a big fan

we are home

just a real quick update. we made it home! i'll try sometime to post my experiences and pics continuing from my last post in costa rica. so check back once in a while! in the mean time here are some pics from our last days

 

till another day when i'm more motivated

Kevin

 

Back in the States

After entering Mexico on Sunday afternoon we set our sights for the U.S. border. Compared to most of the other Central American countries Mexico has pretty nice main highways which allowed us to make good time through the country. On Monday we were trying to make it near Veracruz to a BMW dealer so Kevin could bike up some parts for his bike. On the way there we were running out of gas and it didn't look like there were going to be any gas stations coming up anytime soon. I said a little prayer asking God to provide gas or allow our bikes to make it to a gas station with the little bit of extra gas we had with us and before I knew it we came upon a road side stand that was selling pineapples and wouldn't you know it he had about 17 liters of gas which was enough for each of us to get to the next gas station. Before we got to the gas station however, we ran into our first road block of the trip. I guess some of the locals had set up a road block to protest something, so there we were stuck beside a long line of trucks, buses, and other vehicles. Not wanting to wait for the road block to clear we began to pick our way down through the traffic. Laban decided to make the first move and try to go between two tractor trailers. Things were pretty tight and he managed to make it almost between them, but he ended up getting wedged fast mere feet from being through. So, with a little tugging and pulling we were able to get him free and pull him back to freedom. We found another way around and ended up making it near the front where there was a gas station. After filling up we found an alternate road past the road block and continued on our way.

On Tuesday we made it to Veracruz and thankfully they had what Kevin needed. They even pulled the parts right off of a brand new bike that was on the showroom floor, so we were very thankful for that. After leaving Veracruz we ran into an incredibly strong wind that was blowing at 30-40 mph with gusts over 50. It was quite miserable to say the least but we eventually made it through it and ended up finding a hotel near Tampico.

Wednesday morning we left quite early and started making our way towards the border. It was smooth sailing all the way to the border and we arrived in the early afternoon at Matamoros. After finally finding where the actual border crossing was we got our bikes checked out of Mexico, got our passports stamped and crossed over the Rio Grande into Brownsville, Texas. We spent Wednesday night in Kingsville just a little south of Corpus Cristi. Yesterday we rode from Kingsville to just north of Dallas where we stayed last night with one of Chad's friends.

 One thing that we have definitely noticed as we have started to ride north is the cooler temperatures. We have found ourselves bundling up when it is only 65 degrees out, so I'm not quite sure how I'm going to manage when we get closer to home and it is in the 30s. I guess it looks like I will be purchasing a lot of thermal underwear and bundling up quite a bit.

Today me, Nate, and Kevin are heading up to Yukon, OK to stay with some friends of mine. Chad and Laban are getting some things done to their bikes today and will meet us in Stillwater, OK tomorrow afternoon. From Stillwater we will start working our way east, with stops in Tennessee and Virginia along the way. We should be arriving back in PA by next weekend, so we'll see everyone soon.

-- Dwayne

A Recap...

First off an apology to our followers for not posting on our adventures this past while. And unfortunately the internet connection tonight is to slow to upload pictures but they'll be soon to follow.

Ok going way back to Costa Rica.
We were able to purchase a motorcycle for pastor Ronald Chacon, Thank you to everyone who donated to the cause. He was very thankful, and the bike will be very useful.

We cruised across Nicaragua, except for having to pay one bribe to the police. Then we rode past the next set of cops who tried pulling us over pretending like we thought they were waving at us. Thankfully they didn't radio ahead to have us stopped cause the next set of cops we came upon actually did wave at us. But the ride up through after Managua to the border was quite beautiful.

Laban dropped his bike while the police had us pulled over

Paying the bribe

And Honduras was some more beautiful riding. And we had a wonderful time with Nate's relatives. There we changed oil in the bikes and Kevin was able to figure out why my headlight wouldn't stay on. Honduras was the only country where we didn't take the time to do something touristy. The border crossing from Honduras into Guatemala was the nicest and quickest so far.

Dwayne changing his oil

Laban swinging away

Playing settlers (Chad won)

Nate helped feed the cows

The sunrise the morning we left for Guatemala

Taking a quick break along the way

Guatemala was awesome. We stayed with my aunt and uncle Galen and Phyllis Groff for four nights. We got there Saturday evening and immediately went with Galen to take a lady and her baby back to her house. She then invited us up to her house which was a 5 minute walk up a muddy path through a coffee field and had an beautiful view of the surrounding hills, and she gave us coffee and bread. It was good to be back in the countryside again.

Sunday morning we went to a local Kechi church. I always enjoy experiencing a different culture worshipping God. We were then invited by a family to eat lunch at their house and that was good to, seeing how simple these people live and yet how happy and satisfied they are. The rest of the day we just relaxed back at the house, played some games and such. Monday we did a work day at the Bezaleel School. We drew a map of their large terraced garden area so that they could be more efficient in what they plant, also fixed some faucets in the girls dorm, and did some painting in the guys dorm. As always it felt good to give the bike a break and do some work for a change. That evening Phyllis made us a delicious thanksgiving dinner.

Sunday afternoon nap

Playing Phase10

Drawing the garden

Tuesday Galen let us borrow their Land Cruiser and we went to Semuc Champey, which has become my favorite place on this trip. Natural water pools of pristine clear blue water. Something like 18 pools in all. We went jumping and swimming from pool to pool searching for small caves underneath the waterfalls. Its hard to explain the area, the large river actually runs underground underneath these pools but some of the pools are quite large, it is really an amazing place.

With Wilmur and his sister Raquel

The rewarding view from our hike up looking down on the pools

The river going in underneath the pools

Wednesday morning we packed up, said goodbye to Galen and Phyllis and headed north towards Tikal. On our way we stopped and toured some caves, massive caverns really with some huge impressive stalagtite/stalagmite formations. And ancient altars where the mayans would have worshipped. We got a hotel close to Tikal and Thursday we spent most of the day touring the ancient Maya ruins of Tikal, another favorite place of mine on this trip since I love old stone structures. But these were really old - 2,000 to 3,000 years old. simply amazing. how does a civilization like that just dissapear?

We crossed into Belize late that evening then and got a hotel for the night. Friday we drove through Spanish Lookout, a successful Mennonite colony there in Belize. Had some awesome ice cream there. We then headed towards the coast and Hopkins Bay. There after checking several housing options we decided to spend some money one last time and stayed at Hopkins Bay Resort, our favorite "hotel" on the trip. We had very nice condo to ourselves. Saturday morning we got connected with a local who took us out to the keys to do some snorkeling. And awesome snorkeling it was, so many beautiful colorful fish and other sea creatures. Its a whole new world underneath the water. So we did that for a coupld of hours then spent the rest of the day back at our house watching football and relaxing, it rained quite a bit then the rest of the day, but we didn't care cause we were inside nice and dry.

And that brings us to today where we left Belize and crossed into Mexico this morning. Now the plan is to ride hard and be in Texas by Thursday. We do have to make a stop to pick up some parts for Kevin's bike though. Anyways, pictures to come soon.

Chad

Mexican streetside tacos

Bike Repair

After my accident in Panama, I knew my there were still issues with the front end of the bike. I took the bike apart (at the Hostel de Clayton where we stayed two nights along the canal) and determined both front forks were bent. 

Diagnosing at hostel

The bike was still ridable, but I was concerned about riding it all the way home and doing more damage in the process.  Chad was able to contact the Suzuki dealer in San Jose, CR, and they had the parts I needed. Dwayne also needed a part for his bike, which they had. We got to the dealer about 9am, Monday a week ago and had to wait over an hour for the guy Chad had talked to. He was able to get my bike in right away and within 3 hrs it was fixed!  There's still an issue or two to be fixed, but not enough to keep me from riding it home.

Dealer in San Jose

Bike in the ER

Bent forks which were replaced

I'm so thankfully for God's provident care in providing parts for my bike so I can continue this journey!
Also, wanted to post a picture of us waiting in the dealer but couldn't. Thanks guys for waiting it out with me and missing b-ball (Got a game of 20?s in though. Tiles, really Laban?).

Nate

the things I’ve seen and done……..

Within the last few days I saw these: Dwayne and Nate wreck their motorcycles, watched a man die, saw mounted cows heads (Holsteins), watched everyone get into Nates “personal space”, rode my cycle over the panama canal, hit two buses with my fist while riding, got sick, flicked off more buses, got hit/hit a bus with my cycle, got hit by a truck while hitting another, got bad fuel or something in my cycle, changed my oil, kicked my cycle, whacked my cycle with a large hammer a number of times, I’ve gone through four boarder crossings, slept in a bunkbed with chad, met Mennonites in at least 3 countries, helped fix chads bike, talked with old friends at home, made new friends abroad, done countless wheelies, dropped my cycle once, pounded out the miles, sat and ate, and I’ve watched millions of pounds of boat and cargo be lifted up with ease, watched God bless places just by us walking in, Laban sleeping under his cycle in a parking lot in panama city, chads head being bandaged up, the sun rise, chad trying to explain why his head was cut, and watched native Guatemalans worship in their church.

This is all in a matter of a few days. I will refrain from typing up the list of things and people I have thought about, that would take me the rest of the night and be boring to most people. But now for a in depth look at what I’ve been up to.

So from San Jose Costa Rica we headed south to our most southern destination, Panama City. That’s where it hit me that we road a long freaking way. Pa to Panama on Two wheels, ok sometimes just one wheel. We were going to go down the Pacific coast but due to all the rain taking out some bridges we figured we better go down the gulf side. So we stayed close to the panama costa rica boarder. The next day we where going to try and make it into panama city then check out the city and the canal the next day and then head back the following. So we got up early to get to the boarder and get a crossed. Well we got there at 7 am and the boarder people had not shown up yet! What?! We had gotten early for nothing?! Well we didn’t wait long till they got here and checked us out of Costa Rica. Then after traversing the most questionable bridge, we had to check into Panama. Lets talk about this bridge for a moment. It was originally a railroad bridge but best as we could figure out there used to be a main bridge that got washed away, this had to be years and years ago because the railroad bridge was being used for everything for quite a while. So with the tracks still in the center of the bridge they just laid planks down for the motos and the cars to drive on. Well the panks didn’t really stay in place so they had gaps and holes just waiting to swallow our tires and send us crashing into the river. Ok we probably wouldn’t of gone into the river but we would of gotten thrown into a chain link fence or into the railroad tracks, both of which would of hurt and both would have been very bad for our bikes.

we rounded a bend and saw this

After a long time waiting at the boarder to get all our paper work we were off. Nate was leading us up and over the mountains toward the canal. Everything was going great we went up the mountain then after cresting the top the road conditions deteriorated quickly. Potholes, bumps, loose gravel, and wet roads. Now combine that with some tight corners and what do you get?? a two bike wreck that’s what. As was posted on the blog earlier via video post Nate then Dwayne both went down. There was some damage to both bikes, Nates front forks we found out later were bent quite badly but still functional. Dwaynes front brake lever was busted off, along with his CB antenna. After getting both bikes on the road again and everything back in its place we headed off. Now another hour behind schedule riding in the rain, Dwayne with no way of communicating with us besides hand signals, we stopped to fill up with fuel and decided it wasn’t going to be wise to ride in the rain at night and that we better start looking for a hotel. Panama City could wait till the next day.

Dwaynes road rash on his bags

Laban out for the night

coming into panama city

everyone makes fun of how big laban and i's toboxes are. this guy had us beat

sick of riding around looking for a hotel

Laban was sick and tired

Laban getting some shut eye when we stopped for like 10 min

some lane spliting in slow motion

this bus tried to kill us right after this picture. he swerved to block our pass

nates bent forks after his little wooopsiedo

So the next day we spent looking for a Suzuki dealer only to find out it was some big holiday and everything was closed for the day. We then proceeded to spend a good 4-5 hours looking for a blasted hotel. It was killing me. We had found one but it was going to be $$ so we that we would keep looking. Turns out nothing is cheap in Panama. Finally we found a little hostel, just before dark.