The trip is done, Chris and I are still friends and we talk of doing it again for a 6-month trip.

If you didn't receive all the email reports and want them, Chris put them up on the internet at www.netoasis.com/2007mexico

The 9 days we spent in Zacatecas were filled eating, drinking, music and touring. We had Cuban, Venezuelan, Spanish and English music, from salsa, rumba, classical and rock. We toured a 400-year-old silver mine, hiked a couple of thousand vertical feet to the top of gondola mountain and local overlook. We hung out in the local mercado and shopped and ate, birria (goat meat) was our favorite meal.

We watched the silent procession on Good Friday night that lasted for two hours with thousands of participants, each walking about one small step each two seconds. We watched great fireworks on the opening and closing nights of the cultural festival.

Zacatecas was a happening town for the whole week. Main downtown streets were shut off from vehicle traffic and it was pedestrian traffic only. It was very busy and we were in the heart of it.  A disco was almost directly below us and stayed jumping until 4am every night. We were glad we had earplugs. It was fun city to stay in.

On Saturday, the day before Easter, we went to Juarez by bus, a town about 30 miles away. They were having their own 10-day festival. This day, fancy cowboys and fancy horses from all over Mexico come to rope and lasso Judas, many Judas's. They are effigies strung up from ropes across the streets. They are rigged with fireworks and explosives. The game is to light the fireworks on the effigy and while these are going off, lasso and pull down Judas. No matter whether the effigy is pulled down or not, they explode into pieces at the end of the fireworks. This was all done with about 2000 horse riders and 50,000 spectators all in close proximity. Then many of the caballeros have their own mariachi band following them around. And while this is going on, many mariachi bands are playing on bandstands in the same place, my guess would be 100 mariachi bands.  Plus add in the hundreds of beer stands selling 10's of thousands of cans of beer and you can guess this was one wild party, !  all government sponsored, the governor of the state was there to help things along. We left by mid-afternoon, so we avoided the late afternoon/evening party.

The day after Easter we started our ride to the United States. Over the next week, we went to Durango, rode the Devil's Backbone again, stayed in Mazatlan, Los Mochis, Guaymas and Magdelena de Kino. We spent 2 nights in Guaymas eating large shrimp, drinking margaritas and enjoying our last beach and ocean visit of this trip.

We crossed into the U.S. mid morning on April 15 and spent a couple of days with my dad, sort of.

Within 24 hours of being in the U.S. we were back in Mexico. It was interesting getting up the first day in the U.S. and saying 'buenos dias' to people on the street. So we went to Nogales, MX and walked the tourist markets, drank more margaritas, ate more Mexican food, bought more tequila and felt better that we were able to say goodbye to Mexico one more time.

We've been in Moab for 6 nights and will head back to Colorado tomorrow; it's about time to go back to work.

Overall this trip has been fantastic. Chris and I are still the best of buddies. We have learned more about each other and how to deal with our limits. We've learned how to get her into the cities and what she is capable on her motorcycle, such as riding off-road in Mexico City.

We are a little worse for wear physically but not to bad.

We ate food on the street the whole trip and loved it.

The good part is we are talking about doing this trip again, in a year and a half, for 6 months the next time, and yes, on motorcycles again.

Even though we saw so much, we bypassed so many places we wanted to go. Most of the cities we saw on this trip we wouldn't visit the next time because there is so much more to see.

We saw lots of Mayan ruins, some we would go back to and more new one's  to go visit.

We learned how to ride motorcycles south of the border and most of the time it was a lot of fun.

We feel it was easier to see the towns and meet the people because of how we traveled, the look on many people's faces when Chris took her helmet off were priceless.

We experienced weather from winter to the heat of summer.

We were geared up properly for this ride and would change very little the next time. The work I did on our motorcycles before we left made the trip great. I finally found (in Moab) the pin in my tire that was giving me slow leaks for 6 weeks.

All the countries we visited had their own beauty and we would go to all of them the next time to see more.

We met so many nice people on this trip, we want to go back and meet more.

Chris and I feel fortunate to have made a trip of this magnitude, with our chosen form of transportation, with so little hassles and issues.

I could bore you with miscellaneous details but you will have to find us to get them. Everyday and every hour was a new event worth remembering. But, it would take me 8 hours every day we were gone to write about them and it's not easy on a motorcycle.

We took many pictures when we weren't riding and someday we will have a small slide show.

Next time we will take a video camera, maybe mount it on our motorbikes.

Thanks for listening to my babble for the last 3 months. Have fear; you may be included in our next trip's email list.

Rick and Chris