Feels like winter again

Changing plans keeps us on our toes and after seeing what we wanted in Tampico we figured we could leave for San Fernando and be one step closer to the border. Along the route we passed through more ranches and farmland, then over the top of one hill the temperature literally changed from 25C to 17C in about 3 miles. Welcome to the cold front that has been plaguing the southern states for the last couple of days. I decided that when the temperature hit 15C we would pull over and put in the thermal liner, so about 5 miles later we pulled over. The temp is manageable but the 40mph head-wind made the ride considerably more tiring. The bikes also didn’t like this as our gas mileage dropped considerably, we were now getting just over 200km per tank compared to the 300km we were used to, luckily there are gas stations everywhere in Mexico. Anyway, enough about the weather, we had also heard from some other travellers that came this route that there were numerous barricades and bandits and all kinds of trouble, so once again we seen nothing like this. We did see a few army trucks with very cold looking soldiers, and two army checkpoints. We actually don’t mind the army checks, they usually just ask a couple of questions and occasionally want o look in a saddlebag, but never any issues.


We did a couple of laps around San Fernando before we found a hotel, they are all on a street just across the bridge on the way out of town. We decided on the La Quinta Hotel, a fairly large hotel with the reception office next to the road and the rooms about 150yrds back, beyond the empty strip mall, past an abandoned farm quanset, between the wrecked semi’s, down the palm tree lined driveway aka. Four trees-two on each side, through the gate facade, and into the largest freaking parking lot we have ever seen for a hotel in the middle of nowhere..and we are the only guests. So here we are, the wind is howling, blowing leaves around in front of the room and drowning out the city noise, the movie Physco comes to mind for some reason. Strangely eerie. Once we got settled into the room we realized that this area usually doesn’t see 2C as there was no heat in the room, but they did give us two very heavy blankets which reminded us of camping as we snuggled under the blankets to keep warm.