Parral Archives - Iron Roamer

Stop off at Torreon on the Way to Monterrey for a New Tire.

I decided to go to Monterrey for a new tire, but on the way I would stop off at Torreon.

There was apparently a tire place in Durango I could have gone to, but I didn’t feel like going backwards. Over the past couple of days I had gained more confidence in my cracked tire. So I decided to go to Monterrey where there was a BMW Mottorad. It was either a 2 day ride or a short 1 day ride for those Iron Butt riders

Music

To date I have not listened to music while riding. I generally prefer just to hear the sounds of the road unless there is a lot of wind and then I put on my custom ear buds.

Today I decided I needed to listen to some music. I was feeling a bit out of sorts and thought the music may be uplifting. For the most part I find music depressing ha ha ha. However, the songs I have on my ipod are one I find uplifting.

The songs are everything from rap, hip hop, country, and rock. I would say they are mostly rock though. And mostly old school rock since there isn’t much being sung these days 🙁 But I do have Kid Rock and the much maligned Nickelback.

Breaks

I have been keeping up with my breaks every hour and find them quite enjoyable.

Today was turning out really nice. The music is just what I needed. And for my breaks I had left over pizza from the night before ha ha. Hawaiian

Torreon

It took me a while to find my hotel in Torreon due to all the construction. And it was right downtown. I like downtown hotel as it is easy to walk around. But they are a pain to ride in.

I finally found the Savoy Express.

I am staying at hotels because they are relatively inexpensive compared to the US and Canada. This hotel was equivalent to what I was paying for a Motel 6 in the US. And it is nicer.

Like I am finding at most places, the staff at Mexican hotels are so friendly. Perhaps it is because of my lack of Spanish ha ha ha. It is always a challenge, but fun. It was no different here.

After checking in I explored the town.

It was funny how they were building a big pedestrian mall and no one was on it. Yet on the main road it was packed with chaos.

I found Torreon to be a pretty cool city.

My Route for October 25, 2016

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.

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.

My Route for October 23, 2016

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.

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

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.

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.

The Very Cool Copper Canyon

I was excited to leave Parral today to reach the Copper Canyon.

Copper Canyon

The Copper Canyon is actually 6 canyons and is larger and deeper than the Grand Canyon! I had read a lot about it and was anxious to see it.

My original plan was to go to Creel for the night and then to Batopilas for another night and then back to Parral. However, I was very concerned about my tire and didn’t want to be stuck in the middle of no where along some dirt road. I aborted the plan and decided to just go to Creel 🙁 But even going to Creel took me through some of the canyon.

Creel

I was excited to reach Creel. It was a cool town with quite a few indigenous people walking around in their brightly coloured clothes.

I didn’t want to treat them like some sort of spectacle but I did take one picture.

On second thought, perhaps they wanted that since after taking another walk around Creel it seemed to be all about tourism. My initial excitement about Creel wore off quickly. It was set up for Copper Canyon tourism and I felt like it was sort of soulless if that makes sense.

I did tak a walk around off the tourist street but it still felt that way.

Casa Margarita’s

I had booked a hotel called Casa Margarita’s. It was difficult to find. When I did find it, there was no one there. The door was open though. I just sat in the lobby waiting for a long time. Not much security here.

Finally I was escorted to my room. It turned out to be really small. No air conditioning and no window to the outside. Just one into the lobby below.

I just didn’t feel comfortable here. Since I wasn’t going to Batopilas, I thought of spending 2 days in Creel. Not any longer. I decided I would go back to Parral the next day.

Batopilas

While in Creel I heard from a fellow adventure rider who I had met in Fairbanks, Alaska. Unfortunaly, he was now hospitalized in Mexico City with heart problems. Anyways, he had heard I was thinking about going to Batopilas. He wanted to warn me that the town was filled with drug gang members.

I had previously read about this in another blog. In that blog he said the gang members left him alone while he was there.

Perhaps another good reason not to go there with my cracked tire.

Boot Problems

The day before the zipper puller thing on my boot broke. Just googled it and it is called a pull tab. I wasn’t too far wrong! I had been using plyers to pull it up and down. When I was taking my boots off at Creel I couldn’t get the zipper to come down even with plyers. Eventually I worked it down.

I asked the hotel Manager if there was a shoe repair place in town. He said no.

I went for a walk to think about how to solve this problem. Zip ties came to mind. When I got back to the hotel I pulled out the smallest zip tie I had. Sure enough, it worked!!!

SOOOO proud of myself ha ha ha.

Well … the place was dead. I just went to bed after a really nice ride to get here.

My Route for October 22, 2016

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.

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.

Parral

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

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.

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!

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

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.

Music

Breaks

Torreon

My Route for October 25, 2016

Creel

Highway 16 and 24 to Parral

My Route for October 23, 2016

Day off in Parral

Dominos

Copper Canyon

Creel

Casa Margarita’s

Batopilas

Boot Problems

My Route for October 22, 2016

Knees and Breaks

Crack

Tires

Parral

My Route for October 21, 2016