Day 7

We barely make it for the 10 am breakfast cut-off. The daily grind of riding in the heat, frolicking and drinking till the wee hours is wearing us down. Poor us. After scratching what we could out of the almost empty steam tables we head back to bed for a little nap. At the crack of noon we are rolling and have a big ride ahead of us. As soon as we leave town the highway is actually a gravel road. The washboard is incredible. I try going faster and it works but now I’m sailing along at 90kms an hour and every passing car stirs up a cloud of dust that leaves me blind for several seconds. After a half hour or so we are back on tarmac. We run into several construction zones where traffic is stopped since there is only one passable lane. We filter to the front and once the flagman gives us the nod we have first dibs on uncluttered highway until the process repeats itself. We cross a huge suspension bridge over what looks like a reservoir. We are still hurting from the previous night and stop to hydrate the bikes as well as ourselves several times. As we near San Jose we start to see some pretty scary driving. Guys pulling out to pass when there is clearly not enough room. The vehicle being passed will flash his lights to warn the folks coming head on to slow down. With everyone hard on the brakes and the passer hard on the gas it seems to work out with no panic, except for me who tucks in behind the semi I’m following so that if it all goes wrong he will hopefully clear a path. At one point Charlie pulls up beside me and motions that something is wrong with his bike. At the next stop he tells me that it seems as if the rear shock has failed or the tire has gone soft. Visually they both seem fine and we decide to wait till we get to the Hotel to have a better look. As we get to the city limits people are driving a lot more aggressively. They will accelerate when being passed and merge more forcefully. We hit the city proper right at rush hour and a steady rain starts up. Our KTMs are a little wide with the luggage and we don’t use the option of squeezing between the cars like the little Hondas. We ride through the very heart of downtown on a warm Friday night. The streets are busy, taxis, many bikes and throngs of pedestrians. We use a bank machine and are watched over by a shotgun toting guard. As we unpack the bikes we can see that the two bolts that support the rear sub frame of Charlie’s bike have sheared. A problem for tomorrow. Once checked in we opt for the Hotel restaurant and an early lights out. No pictures today, have some video I'll post later.