Didn't get away as early as I planned, but that's okay.. solo rides work out that way, it seems.. Made the first leg down to Waco in pretty good order, topped off the gas tank and hit Austin during rush hour.. isn't it always rush hour in Austin ? Pearsall was the first scheduled rest stop and spent the night.. Next morning, the Mexican Immigration folks processed me pretty quickly and I crossed the Customs Inspection without incident, middle of the morn- ing.. By noon, I'd already run through Monterrey and breezed into Saltillo.. By this time, I'd pretty well killed the day and spent a pleasant afternoon with a couple of the bikers who were planning to attend the International rally, there.. We checked into that old fancy motel, Fiesta Inn, had us a real nice dinner and spent the night.. The final leg of the trip to Guadalajara was supposed to be easy and I didn't rush myself to leave Saltillo.. Whew.. that was a miscalculation, to say the least.. Somewhere between Zacatecas and Jalpa.. there was a real road con- struction project underway and I had to run about fifty miles of dirt and gravel.. Guys, we're talking rough road.. There was about twenty five miles of that high- way that had been stripped and covered with pea gravel.. Hmmm.. did I mention that I've got a belt conversion drive on the Green Vul- can, now ? There is an unmentioned problem with that belt drive deal, that we don't hear much about.. Running tire deep in pea gravel is a bad, bad thing to do.. Seems that the rear wheel is picking up that gravel and some of it is being distributed into the traction treads of the belt.. A couple of hours after I ran through all this mess, I was easing into some of the worst traffic of the entire trip, entering the city of Guadalajara.. Suddenly, there was no power.. and I heard a whishing noise when the belt separated and took off.. Although the pea gravel didn't break the belt, it had eaten into the wheel pulley so badly, that it finally chewed through the belt .. There I was in the middle of a six lane street, wall to wall with traffic that was really moving and I was dead in the water.. A couple of scooter riders helped me get the Green One over to the median and I used one of their cell phones to call for help.. The brother in law got to me in short order and we loaded the bike into a pickup truck to make it home.. Next morning, the Green Vulcan was sitting in the local Kawasaki dealer and their mechanic was shaking his head.. He'd never seen an 800 with a belt drive before and couldn't imagine where he'd get the parts to repair the damn- ed thing.. All he could come up with was converting it back to a chain and sprock- et and it would be a month to get the parts from Monterrey to do the job.. Here's the good part.. I called the folks at Scooterworks, who'd fabricated the conversion kit, and they had the new belt and rear pulley on FedEx that after- noon.. Monday morning, right on schedule, FedEx delivered the parts and the Green Vulcan was back in business within two hours.. The weekend was spent visiting with family and friends and those two brothers in law who I'd been concerned about, were having good days, so that time was well spent.. Came time to commence the long ride home and I'd decided on an alternate route which I'd never run before.. Leaving all that horrible Guadalajara traffic turned out to be more of a chore than anticipated.. The Green One decided to quit again.. This time, it was the battery .. In the worst possible circumstances that sucker just gave up on me.. Fortunately, there were about ten bikers and their chicks close by, and again, they helped me get that damned thing out of the traffic.. Although the battery that I needed isn't available in Guadalajara, one of the guys rounded up a smaller battery that would work.. They were on their way to Leon, Guanajuato.. for a rally and I rode with them, to San Luis Potosi.. After a good night's rest, I hit the road again, and had a very brief encounter with one of the uniformed finest.. We had us a very pleasant exchange after which, he went about his other business with about five dollars of my money.. The first top off from San Luis Potosi was about one hundred miles away and while I was there, some of the party goers at the Leon rally came roaring in.. They were on their way back home to Monterrey and invited me to share their ride with them.. Great crew.. and those boys were blistering paint.. By evening we'd made it into Monterrey and they escorted me to one of the better motels there.. After a good night's rest, I was repacking the Green One and while I cleaned the windshield a bit, I discovered one of the running lights was damaged.. You can rest assured, there was a whole lot of hell raised.. One of the security guys finally told me, a car had parked real close to the bike and probably opened a door on the damned thing, during the night.. Since he was already gone, there wasn't much to be done about it.. The motel management offered to pay for the light, but I declined and accepted a free night, on the next trip.. Seemed fair to me.. The trip back to the border from Monterrey was routine and I cleared Customs on the Texas side, pretty quickly.. After another night in Pearsall, the run back to Irving was timed just right and I managed San Antonio and Austin without running through their rush hours .. Made a pretty good run on into Irving, without anything to talk about.. The Mexican had made a very uneventful flight home and she'd expected me on Tuesday, even though I'd told her beforehand that I'd be running loose.. After she finished chewing on me for being worried, she finally gave it up and admitted that she was glad that I was home, safe and sound.. one more time.. The boys from Monterrey have invited me back to Nuevo Laredo.. to attend another International rally, there.. Anyone who'd be interested in attending that rally, should get in touch.. I can assure one and all, those guys sure know how to throw a party and anyone who attends can count on great hospitality and a fun time.. Bill Walker Irving
