{"id":2297,"date":"2018-03-30T18:53:28","date_gmt":"2018-03-30T18:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/diomederacing.com\/blog\/?p=2297"},"modified":"2018-04-05T19:34:03","modified_gmt":"2018-04-05T19:34:03","slug":"more-from-south-of-the-border-sonora-rally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diomederacing.com\/blog\/2018\/03\/30\/more-from-south-of-the-border-sonora-rally\/","title":{"rendered":"More from South of the Border! Sonora Rally!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Route Area for the Sonora Rally:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I didn’t get to go with them last year for this one, but I’m told it’ll be similar to the Baja Rally I did with them in Oct. last year. I’ll be driving the truck and trailer again. They are planning on just throwing my Tiger in the bed of one of the trucks one I get to San Luis. It’ll stay there likely until we get back to Santa Fe.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That first night there is a briefing and an update about how the rally works.\u00a0 Nicely organized, but that room was a bit too small for everyone, and it got hot in there.<\/p>\n

The boys:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

So the first day is tech and the prologue.\u00a0 That sorts out the start order for the first day, it also gives everyone idea about how to navigate with the road books.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Jim getting ready for the Prologue.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The start:<\/p>\n

Jim ended up with his favorite number.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Kent:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

David:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t get Scott\u2019s start but Debby did:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Deb and I taking pictures of Jim coming in from the prologue.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

So everyone was pleased with their prologue, David decided to change his oil, and that\u2019s when things kind of went downhill for him.\u00a0 This is never a good look for a bike.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Jim and I rode the Tiger to the Rider\u2019s briefing while David, Kent and Abe stayed to work on the bike.\u00a0 Jim took Scott\u2019s commuting bike back to El Bosque, where they were taking parts from that bike of Scott\u2019s to fix David\u2019s bike.\u00a0 I stayed at the hotel. They already had 6 people there, I wasn\u2019t going to be able to much help at that point.\u00a0 David and Deb didn\u2019t get back to the hotel until after 1am.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The next morning I heard that we had to head over so there could be a motor swap\u2026.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I have to give them (Jim, David, Scott, Abe, and Kent) all A LOT of credit.\u00a0 They got the motor swapped and David made his original start time!\u00a0 Way to go!!!\u00a0 It was impressive to watch and I didn\u2019t mind going grab tools or other things when needed.<\/p>\n

Once they all got started, we headed off to El Golfo, but not before the three of us (Deb in Kent\u2019s truck, me in Jim\u2019s truck & trailer, and Abe with Scott\u2019s truck and trailer) got lost at least twice trying to get out of San Luis RC.\u00a0 Thanks to a very nice guy, who came up to us while we were trying to figure it out.\u00a0\u00a0 He told us that the GPS was wrong and pointed us in the right direction!\u00a0 Poor Kate, I never made navigating easy for her.<\/p>\n

It worked out alright, we got there with plenty of time to set up and get comfortable.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Not a bad view of the beach from our pit area.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Scott rolled in first, before the boys.\u00a0 That was pretty much how the whole rally would go.\u00a0 That guy is wicked fast.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The grunion were running the two nights we were there.\u00a0 David got the best picture of it.\u00a0 Kind of cool to watch.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It was a nice site and the bivouac each night was great.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The boys the next day starting from right in front of our pits.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I had a good walk on the beach that day while we waited for the guys to get back.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I sat on the beach for awhile in the eve again, catching up on my voicemails and few phone calls, while I watched the fish again that night.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The next day we were off to Puerto Lobos, not to bad a drive and if a few of trucks hadn\u2019t gotten stuck in the deep sand before we got there.\u00a0 We might have been able to camp on the beach.\u00a0 But I wasn\u2019t willing to get someone else\u2019s truck and trailer stuck.\u00a0 So on a side road a short walk from the beach we camped.\u00a0 Jim seemed okay with the call\u2026<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The beach there with the Bivouac was really nice.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What I had forgotten to add in this section was how David tried to light his azz on fire…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

They figured that the screen in the exhaust had gotten plugged up and the exhaust started to shoot flames out the top.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Not the smoothest event for David.<\/p>\n

I took my tent down to the beach and found a nice dune to hide behind.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t even have to put the fly on the tent that night.\u00a0 It was AWESOME, to go to sleep staring at the stars and listening to the water.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Next up was Bahia Kino.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t as far mileage wise, but Jim informed me that there was about 36KM of road that was in bad shape so I should be really careful.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know who told him that, but it was like out of the 200 or so Kilometers there was only 36K that was in good shape.\u00a0 Since Deb had the small truck and she could dodge the road hazards better than Abe and I could she took off.\u00a0 She also had to leave in the am before the racers, so she could meet them and top off their fuel tanks at one of the check points.<\/p>\n

Kate and I didn\u2019t have a very good time figuring out where the bivouac was.\u00a0 \u00a0I got us lost, so we ended up seeing a lot of Bahia Kino.\u00a0 I found a spot to turn the trucks and trailers around, but I had given up the easiest spot to Abe.\u00a0 That left me dodging power poles on both sides of the two lane road.\u00a0 I missed the one next to the trailer, but I tapped the one in front of me.\u00a0 (I got some shyt the other night, as some of the creosote was still on the bummer after he washed the truck.) \u00a0Seriously, it wasn\u2019t a hit it was a tap.\u00a0 I needed those extra inches to get aim in the right direction.\u00a0 LOL.<\/p>\n

We finally found the spot, but not before Kate steered us down a NARROW alley that had tree scraping the sides of the truck and trailer\u2026 Again, I got more shyt for that one\u2026 LOL.\u00a0 He should just be happy the rig made it there after that flipping road.<\/p>\n

The beach there was stunning!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I\u2019m shock each time at the number of sea shells everywhere.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That night was the awards ceremony.\u00a0 Scott finished 2nd<\/sup>, Jim was 7th<\/sup> & 2nd<\/sup> in the Dakar Challenge, David finished 11th<\/sup>, (given he almost didn\u2019t ride and about set his azz on fire not shabby), and Kent finished.\u00a0 There were two days he didn\u2019t ride, due to mechanical issues that get fixed and just being over whelmed by some of the terrain.\u00a0 He really did great, esp for someone who\u2019s only been riding for 5 years.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll fess up that the margaritas at that place totally kicked my ass. I\u2019m still not quite sure what happened after the ceremony finished.\u00a0 Or how I got back to the hotel.\u00a0 Given the pieces I have been told.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think I want to know.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I just know that 3am I woke up wondering where I was, how I got there, where my phone was, where the rest of my clothes were, and why I wasn\u2019t feeling so great.<\/p>\n

3 hours after that, I was forced to get up and head back to truck and trailer where my bike was waiting for me so I could ride back to Santa Fe.\u00a0 At this point I wasn\u2019t feeling a 100%, but I knew I was feeling better than I deserved to be feeling.<\/p>\n

Feeling the way I was, I didn\u2019t stop except for gas, to use the bathroom, and to get some more water.\u00a0 Since that seemed to help me feel better.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t take any pictures, except for this one.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure that from it you can tell that my day didn\u2019t end much better than it started.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Now I made across the border rather quickly, I\u2019ll just say that when you end up in the wrong place, you get very prompt attention and escorted to the front of the lines.\u00a0 I was lucky that they didn\u2019t go through everything on the bike, but I was yelled at.\u00a0 Yes, yelled at for quite some time, too.\u00a0 They took my passport and made me wait for a while, but then escorted me to a quick exit and back to US soil. Ohh. Little did I know that in a couple more hours, it was going get a bit worse.<\/p>\n

The front tire rapidly went flat.\u00a0 NOT a good feeling!\u00a0 I was a bit freaked out by the time I got the bike stopped on the shoulder of I-10, I also had hit some debris on the shoulder and dented my rim.\u00a0 Also a really scary thing.\u00a0 Then up, was the struggle of getting the bike onto the center stand.\u00a0 That bike is seriously a bitch to get on the center stand.\u00a0 The sprint was heavier and not as difficult.\u00a0 What gives with that?!<\/p>\n

Followed by, figuring out that I didn\u2019t have a way to power the air pump.\u00a0 Making a panicked call to Jim. Only to find out he wasn\u2019t anywhere close and wouldn\u2019t be until the next day.\u00a0 He did walk me through how to cut the wires on it and hook it to the fuze block if I had to.<\/p>\n

Next was having to stand on the wrench to get the axle loose. By the time I got the tire off one side of the rim, the tube out and was trying to get new tube in (and had been working on it for what seemed like forever).\u00a0 \u00a0I was a wreck and on the edge of losing it.\u00a0 When a VERY nice couple stopped and asked if I needed some help.\u00a0\u00a0 He and I worked at getting that tube in, then I used the outlet in their car to put some air in the tube so I wouldn\u2019t pinch it while putting the tire back on the rim.\u00a0 Then used the outlet some more to pump the tire\/tube up to its needed pressure. \u00a0\u00a0I am pretty sure if they hadn\u2019t stopped I might have been there for a couple more hours working on it.\u00a0 I was just too relived when I got it on the bike and I hadn\u2019t pinched the tube getting the tire back on the rim.\u00a0 That would have been a huge mess.\u00a0 The middle of no where, a dead cell phone, and a flat tire.\u00a0 Talk about a bad day.<\/p>\n

I decided to stop in Willcox AZ, I\u2019d been there plenty of times for the track just outside of town.\u00a0 Once in the shower, I had my melt down.\u00a0 I think I ended up falling asleep before 8pm and I didn\u2019t wake up until 7am the next day.<\/p>\n

I had just gotten back to the room when Jim called to check in on me and ask if my tantrum was done. Lol.\u00a0 I think he was surprised when I told him it was done and it was tears and not foot stomping.\u00a0 He told me to double check for cactus thorns in the tire before I left the hotel.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This time I got someone to help me put the bike on the center stand.\u00a0 By golly, he was right, I found one.\u00a0 I worked on getting it out of the tire with my leatherman for a while.\u00a0 Then I headed home, I\u2019m thankful to say it was totally uneventful that day.\u00a0 I made it home before dark.\u00a0 I managed 3100 miles for this trip per the odometer.\u00a0 Not shabby.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Route Area for the Sonora Rally: I didn’t get to go with them last year for this one, but I’m […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,16,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dirt-bikes","category-epic-adventures","category-not-racing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diomederacing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diomederacing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diomederacing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diomederacing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diomederacing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2297"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/diomederacing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2307,"href":"https:\/\/diomederacing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2297\/revisions\/2307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diomederacing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diomederacing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diomederacing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}