HERE I was sitting, in my little home office, looking out over fresh snow blanketing the valley below our home, wondering if this was a left over April Fools joke? Just 3 days ago ago it was into double digits, in fact as high as 13.
Sitting here, packing my things (I'll be leaving for Phx in barely 36 hours) I was reminiscing about previous trips and rides. For example there was our first Baja trip, where Deb and I were were pulled over with the Baja Dodge van, to about a hundred police cars and heavily armed Idaho troopers and a long row of traffic. They asked to see our registration info for the van and while she was uprooting the glove box, then the under seat storage, I asked the guy by my window while two other officers stood by with shotguns "what in the hell is going on?" The reply... 'Just routine' For what I thought?
An invasion?
Turns out there had been a prison break . As we wait our turn, he looks into the van over my shoulder. In the box I had my Two XT 600's, the very same ones you see even now on this blog.
"Hey... are those XT 600's!?" he blurts out, "I got one of those...."
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| Baja Norte/ Sud |
And so it went, we eventually were allowed to go, found a new friend, and never did round up the paperwork, which as we later found was sitting on the kitchen table along with a few other "DO NOT FORGET" pile left 8 weeks previously.
Or there was the time I was going into the US at Sweet-grass MT and when I pulled up to the wicket a rather stern looking agent asks me the usual and ends with 'what's the purpose of your trip'.
I replied "I'm here to support the US economy!"
That was about 9 years ago. He failed to see the humor in my statement, which btw, was true. I had to park, come inside go through the waiting game and finally someone came by and told me I could leave.
Two of my faves were crossing into upstate New York around 1996 and Baja around 2000. (?) and Deb and I were driving my little goes like stink, Suzuki built triple cylinder 1 L turbo Fire Fly on the former.
I think this crossing could have had a dozen cars during a normal day. The rather stern looking Border agent says to us... and I'm not joking you know... "Do you have any guns or drugs?" I replied, "no but I heard you can get some here..." Deb punched me in the shoulder so hard it's still got her knuckle imprint!
We spent the next 2 hours sitting on the curb while they went through the FF thoroughly!
But... this is my best one by far.
Around 2000, Lantie and I were coming back from the San Felipe area, her on a DR 650 and me riding Rock's XT 600 (identical to the one ... well you know.
We crossed into the USA at Tecate, home of the famous
Cerveza! Apart from the 500 cars ahead of us and only a single lane along the "Border Fence" yes there was one even back then, it was uneventful.
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| Baja ATV's 2 buckets of oats per hour. |
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| Sunrise |
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| TWO |
THREE
Except the parked, black van with US Border Patrol printed on its sides, pulls us over about 20 miles after crossing. Two agents, one sitting in the driver's seat with the door open and his feet on the pavement. The other dude walks over to us and takes a turn or two around the bikes. asking us text book questions. He must have been young and new on the job. How can I tell, well, it's like this...
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| CATAVINA |
His last question to me was, ready... "Am I carrying any illegals?" Honest to God, I thought Lantie was going to fall off her bike!
