Alec and I riding ! The day we were looking for!

We did it!
We went riding today Sunday in Beautiful Florida with our dear friends the Kasavages!
Perfect day, great friends, great riding.....
Alec and I were not too rusty for a come back after a long dry spell!


Happiness is riding my new Ktm 105 (Alec)

Happiness is flying my KX

Happiness is with our friends in a box van

Home for few days/ Kids having fun!

Terrorizing Luca is Alec 's hobby!(And Luca loving it)
And Alec testing his new KTM 105!
Meanwhile Carol is organizing cleaning and getting ready while I am working on our next World Tour Leg...South America!

JCO retirement party/Live from Paris

Our dear friend Jean Claude Olivier (The Ceo of Yamaha France for 45 years) retired today!
Everybody from the yamaha world was there... Christian Sarron, Carlos Checca,Michele Rinaldi, Andre Malherbe, Formula one racers and over 500 guests from all over the world!
This was very emotional for me since Jean Claude has been a dear friend for over 20 years and gave us our first tools to be successful!
Thank you Jean Claude for everything, what a ride it was!
I flew to Paris for 48h and will be back in USA tomorrow for bike week then on our way toward South America!

Our friend Lin giving Jean Claude a Valentino Rossi fairing and inviting him to ride the 2010 M1!

Nuclear cowboys

Could not resist!We were home 1 day and we had the travel bug taking us away!
We had to go to Tampa for fmx show!
Pretty cool!
The boys are stoked and eveybody is happy!
Thanks Geoff for inviting us!
THE SHOW IS AWESOME! DON't MISS IT WHEN NEARBY!
http://www.nuclearcowboyz.com/

Airstream Ranch

Interesting display of trailer nearby Tampa

Almost back to square 1

After great pit stop seeing our friends from Boulder city (the Dawes and Hamels) driving back from Nascar race, we are now very close to home!
Should be back later tonight after 8 month gone minus 1 day!
Luca is chilling (pix) and Alec doing the same completely underwhelmed about being back!

Best RV park in the world

Great evening and overnight at our friends the C family

Texas, Texas, Texas and more Texas

Okay Texas is big but we like it that way.....
We used a lot of back roads that made our crossing very enjoyable! (get off freeway 10 and enjoy Alpine ,Marfa and big bend area.....you will not regret it)
On other hand, the weather was brutal....in the 40s at best and a foot of snow in northern Texas.
We are really appreciating the good roads and overall cleanliness compare to Mexico!

Enjoyed our Sunday in Austin, a very cool place and had a great time today with friends Suzan and Gary!
The road is still long to Florida but we will make it by week's end!


Austin Milkshake

Austin

Only in America

Texas

the "wall"......Mexican border in Texas

Reflections on Mexico:(Carol)

Our dearest family and friends were worried for us when we said we would include Mexico in our tour. Yes, its all over the news and the worst fears were swine flu and decapitations. Were we scared? Yes, a little concerned but nothing would stop us going forward with our plans. We had traveled Mexico many years ago and had the best experiences each time so with some precautions in mind such as point of entry and not driving after dark, we are happy to say that it was a wonderful experience. For us foodies, we were in heaven eating tacos. We never really deviated from this one choice except with regard to beef, pork or fish. They were all so good and we miss eating them!! We even completely transformed the way we cooked in our motorhome! Our pantry is now filled with jalapenos, cactus, avocados, tomatoes and of course tortillas. We even made a chicken mole. One of the things we’ve learned to do while traveling is to transform ourselves with our surroundings and that is truly the fun of travel!!
We were also so lucky to meet so many nice locals and travelers (mostly Canadian). The locals were warm and kind and most spoke a little English. With our French base and some highschool French we got by just fine. We always felt safe with the locals but we felt a little vulnerable with the Mexican army (with our half a dozen army checkpoints) and the police(one bribe necessary). They all carried big guns and wore face masks and always gave us the impression that they could be above the law. It just took a little getting used to and it all turned out just fine.
As far as scenery, we hugged the Sea of Cortez and much as possible. This always allowed us a beautiful ocean view and a great place for our morning jog. The highlights were definitely kayaking, bicycling and hiking any mountain we could. Usually we had to blaze our own trails which made it even more fun, especially for the kids. The kids haven’t lost their ability to walk for hours with us but they also know they have no choice!! Copper Canyon as previously mentioned was magic. It really gave a whole new dimension to Mexico since we had never ventured into the higher altitudes. There we saw an entirely different Indian subculture. The landscape was more rugged and the people there were self-contained and had lost nothing of their culture. They all had their own special skills, basket-weaving, jewelry making or just cooking their local cuisine on the side of the road or train platform. We tried it all and loved it! The train ride in itself was magic and you always meet some cool people who have very profound things to say. We felt changed by the experience.
Back in the USA, we pine a bit for Mexico, the serenity, the relaxed pace and the smell of their wonderful cuisine!!


Carol displaying a nice tatoo or maybe some excess chain lube????

Back in USA

We made it safe and sound!
We are back in USA after 3 weeks of "unsafe" Mexico!lol
Everybody was so nice and friendly.....even the cop that made us pay little bribe!
The custom crossing was a long process! Our RV was completely Xray by a multi million dollars piece of equipment!
The amount of money spent in equipment at the little border crossing of Naco was "borderline" (!) excessive!
Our tax money at work I guess!

Florida should be reached within 10 days now

Discovering the sea of Cortez coast (Biking and Kayaking)

3 days of discoveries in one of the cleanest ecosystem left on the planet:
The Sea of Cortez!
We enjoyed dearly the end of our Mexican trip!
Tomorrow we will start slowly to get back to Florida after leaving 8 month ago!
We are excited and not at the same time! Strange feeling!
Anyway, we had 3 great days enjoying the beauty of the area….biking, hiking and Kayaking (and eating plenty of fish Taco!)lol
Mexico is not the farthest destination we went to but the people are so nice and the culture so rich! No wonder 1 million American have moved here for retirement or else!
We could easily spend 6 month around here but South America is waiting for us….. or at least we hope so!
Adios Amigos



We had noodle boy......welcome taco boy!

Alec discovering that you should not pet a cactus

Boys doing art work at the beach



Kayaking the sea of Cortez

3 pounds of Fresh yellow tail....yammy

Boys discovering a Hammock!

Great biking!

Colonial Mexico

Welcome to colonial Mexico
The last couple days we entered the world of old mexico with 2 beautiful towns ! originally built in the 1600 by Spanish conquistadors then later on upgraded by the French!
Alamos was definitely our favorite with a completely restored city very refined! Upscale hotels and restaurant everywhere, lots of Hacienda….. real special and classy!
No wonder the Hollywood elite was used to spend their winter here in the 50’!
El Fuerte on the other hand was more vibrant and dirty ! Not polished at all nor restored but more lively!
This was a turning point in our trip since we entered a Mexico less visited by tourists (barely saw a gringo!)



El Fuerte

How cool is that, we visited an old printing business....real vintage
El fuerte river

Alamos was the capitol of Western Mexico for couple hundreds years!


Coblestones roads....no very kind to our RV! but very cool!

Copper Canyon

The Train to Copper Canyon and Back
This will be what we will remember the most from our Mexican adventure!
We abandoned our RV for a couple of days and went on a train adventure to Creel, Chihuahua !
What a ride it was! Breathtaking and exciting, we stayed glued to the train’s window to enjoy the scenery!
From sea level to 8,600 feet, we had our money’s worth!
Everything changed. The vegetation went from saguaro cactuses to pine trees, the climate became subfreezing, the population was no longer Mexican but Indian!
Of course, the Copper canyon view was fantastic, but we still think the Arizona Grand Canyon is more amazing!
We traveled 15 hours in a very comfortable train with great people!
The train track took 63 years to build compared to 5 years for the Transiberian………!



Train track



Us and Copper Canyon

Ready to board train in Creel

Boys getting ready for a good snowball fight

Creel



Unbelievable scenery

Copper canyon

Since we did the longest train ride in the world(transiberian), we needed to do the gnarliest one...
Here we are crossing the Sierra madre on our way to Copper canyon (bigger than Grand canyon for what they say!)
80 bridges ,40 tunnels 8500 ft climb and 2 more days of train life!

Leaving Guyamas after big rain storm

Water drainage is not so good in Mexico!lol

On the road to Guyamas / San Carlos

This one is on the BBQ tonight! (the fish!)

San Carlos bay

Remote fishing camp

Nice Pelicans

In case if you worried......the kids are still in a good mood!