Tag: American Suites

Back to Parral

To ride back to Parral from Creel I chose to do another route. It wasn’t that spectacular. But I still liked it 🙂

Creel

I was up early and anxious to get out of my cramped quarters. As I looked down the main street in Creel is was a ghost town.

creel-street

There just wasn’t any soul to the place. No life. No hustle and bustle that is so prevalent in Mexican towns. I understand it is still the low tourist time. But that is just the point.

Anyways … I rode out and stopped for gas. Beside me was another adventure rider on his BMW. We talked for a bit. He was from Zacatecas Mexico out for a weekend ride through the curves of the Copper Canyon.

Highway 16 and 24 to Parral

Despite thee road being kind of boring and straight. I enjoyed my ride. It was sunny and warm. There were nice rolling hills. And I was taking my breaks.

break-time

break-hill-background

My Route for October 23, 2016

creel-parral-map

Day off in Parral

It was nice to spend a day off in comfortable surroundings. Parral itself was not that nice, at least within walking distance of my hotel.

I looked around for a tire place – nothing. Next on my list was a place to get my haircut. I didn’t see anything. Last was a place to get my measurements taken for a suit for my daughter’s wedding – nothing.

To my amazement though, I saw a Vancouver Donuts shop! Never heard of it before, but I had to go in.

vancouver-donuts-outside

vancouver-donuts-truck

The place was full of pictures of Vancouver – my home big city I guess you could say.

vancover-vancouver-donuts

I wanted to find out how this place got here and if the owners were from Vancouver. Perhaps someone from Vancouver was even there. Unfortunately, the people there did not speak English. And my Spanish is so rudimentary I didn’t know how to ask the questions I had.

vancouver-donuts

Oh well … I enjoyed a coffee and donut amongst the pictures of Vancouver.

Dominos

Another discovery on my walk was a Dominos Pizza.

It was Monday and that meant Monday Night Football. So that evening I ordered a pizza, got some beer, and watched football. A bit of home away from home ahhhhhhhh.

Discovery on the way to Parral

On the way to Parral from Durango I made a discovery that was not good. My goal was to ride through the Copper Canyon. However, it was too far to go in one day. The stopping point for me was Parral.

Knees and Breaks

For the last number of days my knees have been hurting during my rides. I made a decision to stop every hour for a break to walk around, eat, and hydrate.

As I left Durango it was pretty nice out. However, it wasn’t long before it completely clouded over. It was cool when I left and it looked like it would remain that way. I was thinking of getting my cold weather gear out.

Crack

On one of my breaks I walked around my bike looking it over. as I looked at my tire I discovered a crack.

crack-tire

My heart sunk with the thoughts of impending disaster.

Tires

I knew was tire was getting bald. In fact in Canada I could get a ticket for the condition they were in. But if I bought new tires everytime the wear marks showed it would cost my a fortune. At the same time, I fully recognize how important tires are. And I am well aware of my lack of mechanical ability ha ha.

So I was trying to hit that sweet spot of getting good mileage out of my tires, and still have them not fail on me.

Seeing a crack I knew I had reached that point and perhaps beyond. For the rest of my ride I couldn’t help but think of it going flat on me.

I continued on taking my breaks and hoping for the best.

motorcycle-brian-break

motorcycle-break

Parral

When I reached Parral I encountered a pleasant surprise at the hotel I booked. The rooms were awesome.

american-suites-room-bed

And the people were sooooo nice. It was just what I needed. There was a problem with my key to get in my room and the staff were so responsive. Even though the cleaning staff didn’t speak any English, we shared lots of laughs.

I left the room to look around a bit and buy something to eat for my room.

parral

The hotel was next to a hospital. Handy.

And around the corner was a Walmart.

On the way I found a motorcycle ride in bar!

american-suites-room-bed

A iron statue playing the violin to Iron Roamer for his cracked tire.

briian-iron-statute

After getting some food I just enjoyed my big clean room, researched cracked tires, and talked to the staff through my open door. I usually keep my door open until dark to talk to people as they walk by. Strange I know ha ha.

As expected, my research revealed that a cracked tire is not good. It means it is getting old and dry and should be changed right away.

My Route for October 21, 2016

durango-parral-map

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