I felt a sense of relief today as I safely reached Monterrey on my cracked tire. All that anxiety was for nothing ha ha.
Breaks
I continued with my breaks and listening to music. You know I can’t remember what I was even doing in the photo below. I was happy about something. Maybe it was the music.
Earbuds
During my breaks I would take off my helmet. When I did, it would catch my ipod earbuds and pull them away from my ear.
On one break the little rubber piece on the end fell off. I couldn’t find it anywhere. Then it happened again. Luckily, when I bought them they came with a larger and smaller rubber piece. When I get to Monterrey I need to glue them on so they don’t come off.
Monterrey
Monterrey is a big city of about 1.5 million and considered one of the wealthiest cities in Mexico. However, in recent years it has also had problems with violent drug cartels.
Like most big cities there were freeways and lots of traffic to negotiate. I was trusting my GPS to get me to the hotel I booked.
BMW Navigator IV GPS
I have been using the GPS that came with my bike when I bought it in 2013. I am finding out it isn’t very accurate or precise in Mexico. You have to do some interpretation when reading it. And it doesn’t always get you to the right place.
To compensate I make sure I also get the coordinates of the location I am going to as well as marking it both on Google Maps and Maps.me.
On this occasion my GPS took me “close” to my destination.
So as I have done several times previously, I had to stop, pull out my phone and see where I was on Maps.me. I was only a block away from the Suites DIOH.
Suites DIOH
The Suites DIOH is a non descript hotel I guess. You buzz to get into the reception area. This isn’t that uncommon in Mexico. Like usual, the people didn’t speak English. After some work I learned a new word, “piso.” They put me in the penthouse on Piso 10.
Parking was an issue. The ground parking floor was on a steep angle. Not good for parking a motorcycle. To get to the second parking level I had to negotiate a corner that angled one way and then angled a different way. Not a normal curve up to the next level. Complicating matters was that the road was not smooth.
My riding skills couldn’t cope and I stalled out. Not fun on a hill like that. But I finally made it up.
My room was big. And the views from my balcony were awesome.
There wasn’t much around the hotel so I picked up a few things from a local store and settled in for the night … looking forward to getting my tires replaced tomorrow.
My Route for October 26, 2016
Enjoy it all!
Thanks Connie! it has its ups and downs for sure. Sometimes it does get lonely riding from place to place in a foreign country where you don’t speak the language. But there are also high points when you encounter people who make you laugh and you experience new things.
Looks like a lot of fun Brian! For your info, just about every time I ride, I have music on. I had the same problem with the earbuds and the rubber inserts falling off when the helmet comes off. I have tried several different brands…. both expensive and relatively cheap…… and the best I’ve found are the Blackberry Q10 Premiums….. they fit in comfortably and have a small loop that locks in the ear. And they don’t cost a ton. They are getting harder and harder to find, but you can still get them online for anywhere from 10 to 25 bucks. And they sound really good! And no…. Blackberry did not pay me for this endorsement…. lol.
ha ha ha ….. I have had the same problem back home. I had more ear buds back home I never used because they just didn’t work right. I lost the pair I brought with me for this trip and had to buy a new pair in San Diego. I like the over the ear clip too. The only ones I could find like that were JVC.
Anyways …. I finally took gorilla glue to them and glued them on. So far so good ha ha. I will look for those blackberry ones. Glued on rubber buds are not ideal.