Baja – Page 13 – The ExhaustNotes Blog

18 again!

Gresh left New Mexico headed for Los Angeles early this morning. What’s that white stuff?

Imagine you’re an old fart like Gresh and suddenly you could be again 18 years old again. That’s kind of what happened to me just a short while ago. Now, old Joe Gresh, he’s inbound from the Sacramento Mountains (don’t let the name fool you) in New Mexico, the Tinfiny Ranch, headed here. The guy wanted to make the drive in one day in order to be staged for our run into Baja tomorrow. Hey, that’s okay. It’s going to be warmer where we’re going.

Anyway, back to that 18-years-old-thing again. That’s what I want to be. 18 years old. And while I’m dreaming, throw in a new 1966 650cc, made-in-England, Triumph Bonneville, but let’s add electric start, six speeds, disc brakes, and a flawless finish. That’s my dream.

Only it’s not a dream. That’s where I am right now.

The bike is a new Royal Enfield Interceptor. It’s a 650. The styling is perfect, right down to the big tach and speedo that almost say “Smiths” (if I have to explain that, you wouldn’t understand). It’s made in India instead of England (hey, the current Triumph Bonnevilles are made in Thailand). My take? This new motorcycle has out-Triumphed Triumph in being more faithful to the original layout, displacement, and feel of the ’66 Bonneville I’ve lusted after for years. But with lots more refinement.

A brand new Royal Enfield 650 Interceptor in my driveway. It’s my ride for the next 10 days or so.

For my good buddy Orlando: See, it’s orange…the fastest color!

You can almost see where it says Smiths. This, folks, is what motorcycle instruments should look like!

Want to read another strong statement? On my 25-mile ride home from So Cal Moto in Brea, where I picked up the Royal Enfield, I decided I’m going to buy one. Oh, I’ll find some nits to pick over the next 2000 BajaBound miles and I’ll share them with you here, but this bike answers the mail. And the price? Well, a new Triumph Bonneville cost $1320 in 1966. I know, because my Dad bought one. A new Royal Enfield is $5799, I think. If you take that 1966 $1320 figure and adjust it for inflation to 2019, it comes out to $10,298. Buy a new Enfield 650 and you’ve already saved $4500. That’s the argument I’m going to use with She Who Must Be Obeyed. I think it will work, too.

I’m going to break our rule and post more than one blog today. We are living in exciting times, my friends, and I can’t wait to share the excitement with you. The 500cc Bullet is about 45 minutes out (it’s being delivered from the RE dealer in Glendale) and I’ll post an update about that later today, too!

I can’t wait to get on the road tomorrow.

Stay tuned, and hey, sign up for our automatic email blog updates!

BajaBound on Royal Enfield!

The new Royal Enfield 650cc twin. We’ll be riding this and a 500cc Bullet single in Baja!

Ever wonder what Royal Enfield motorcycles are like? I mean, really like? You know, on a real adventure ride?

Joe and I are headed south tomorrow morning, and we’re riding (drum roll please) Royal Enfield motorcycles. Not just any Royal Enfields, either, but factory bikes of a most interesting flavor…the exciting new 650 Interceptor twin (the actual bike you see above) and a 500cc Bullet single. We’re picking up both bikes today, and wow, are we ever pumped!

This is going to be extremely interesting…it’s one of the very first long distance trips on the new 650, it’s the first time it will be in Baja, and we’re excited about all of it. You’ll get our unvarnished impressions of how the bikes perform, how they compare to each other, and how they compare to the other bikes we’ve ridden.

These are exciting times, folks. The market is changing dramatically with real bikes at real prices (not the bloated, heavy, monstrous, and expensive behemoths most of the manufacturers have been shoving at us for the last 20 or 30 years). You know, I’ve been wanting a classic English vertical 650 twin for decades, and as a guy who rode singles all over China, Colombia, Mexico, and the US, I’m doubly excited about the Enfield 500cc single. This is a dream come true and we’d like you to read about it and enjoy the experience, too. Joe and I will see the whales, enjoy the fish tacos and other amazing Baja cuisine, and ride the best roads in the most exciting place in the world: Baja!

You can bet we’ll be riding with our BajaBound insurance, wearing our RHeroes workshirts and doing the things guys do on trips like this. And more likely than not you’ll be reading more about this ride in Motorcycle Classics, RoadRUNNER, ADVMoto, and Motorcycle.com magazines (Gresh and I have had stories in all these publications). In the meantime, you’ll be able to follow the adventure in real time right here!

We’ll be posting from Baja every day, with great photos and great stories, so stay tuned! And hey, while you’re here, why not sign up for our blog update notifications? Just add your email address to the widget you see on this page, and you’ll be eligible for our quarterly adventure motorcycle book giveaway!

Auto Email Updates Are Back!

BajaBound, Arjiu and Dajiu are. Stay tuned! This photo is from a 2008 trip with good buddy Joseph Lee, looking out over Bahia Concepcion. I bought the ’06 Triumph Tiger you see above from Douglas Motorcycles, and it was a grand machine for touring Baja.

It’s been a challenging time, but the WordPress automatic email blog notifications are back on line. I’d like to be able to tell you why the “improvement” caused things to stop working, but I can’t. The people who create the software for this feature (they call it a widget, which is probably and insult to widgets worldwide) advised deleting the update and rolling back to the original version, but that didn’t work initially, either. So we waited a few days (especially after seeing the help board explode with other bloggers complaining about the failure), tried the rollback to the unimproved version again, and voilà, it worked.

Our apologies for the screwup. Eh, these things happen. If you want to sign up for blog update notifications (and we think you should), the widget is in the upper right corner of this page if you’re viewing the ExNotes blog on a laptop, and it’s at the end of this blog on a mobile phone. You might want sign up for two reasons…one, the blog is great, and two, we’re giving away another moto adventure book at the end of this month to one of the folks who get our automatic updates.

Stay tuned, mi amigos, because there’s more good stuff coming your way real soon. Uncle Joe and I are headed into Mexico next week, and you sure don’t want to miss any of the Baja updates!

The Ruta del Vino

This post will wrap up our Tecate visit, and the focus of today’s blog is the road south out of Tecate. The Ruta del Vino is a magnificent road that runs through the northern Baja countryside to Ensenada, passing directly through one of Baja’s wine growing regions.

If you missed the earlier Tecate posts, here are the links:

Tecate
Malinalli Sabores Autóctonos!
A Tecate Sunrise

Getting to the Ruta del Vino is easy. After entering Baja through Tecate, just continue south. You’ll pass under the Tecate sign shown in yesterday’s blog, hang a left on Avenida Revolución, and then turn right on Boulevard Universidad (which becomes the Ruta del Vino and Mexico Highway 3).

You’ll pass through the center of Tecate and climb a hill as you leave Tecate. You’ll see a bunch of pottery stories selling clay bowls of all kinds. A little further south is a monastery on your left, and a little beyond that is a sign over the road welcoming you to the Ruta del Vino.

The Ruta del Vino has several things to offer. The first is magnificent scenery through Mexican countryside. Then there are the vineyards. They are on both sides of the road. The third are the restaurants and hotels. And I guess the fourth is the destination, as the Ruta del Vino runs all the way to El Sauzal, a tiny community on Ensenada’s northern edge. That’s where the Ruta del Vino intersects with Baja’s Transpeninsular Highway. Turn left and the Transpeninsular Highway will take you through Ensenada and all the way to Cabo San Lucas. Turn north and you’re on your way to Tijuana and San Diego.

Along the Ruta del Vino, which is Mexico’s Highway 3.

Northern Baja wines are surprisingly good. I’m not a wine connoisseur; I just think they are good and they are certainly reasonably priced. My favorite vineyard is the L.A. Cetto vineyard, which is roughly 45 miles or so south of Tecate. As you’re traveling south on the Ruta del Vino, the L.A. Cetto vineyard is on your left. The road to it used to be dirt, but it was recently paved and it’s an easy ride now. The L.A. Cetto vineyard usually has a fair crowd and on our last visit, there was a general feeling of excitement in anticipation of a visit by senior members of the Catholic clergy. As we were leaving, an entourage of several priests and the region’s Cardinal were arriving.

The now-paved road leading to the L.A. Cetto Vineyard. That’s my Subie Outback, which is a grand automobile for these kinds of tours.

A Mexican motorcyclist on the road to the L.A. Cetto vineyard. All the gear, all the time. The motorcycle is a Zongshen, marketed in Mexico under the Italika name.

The L.A. Cetto grapes. This is a composite photo showing a 180-degree view from the south (on the left) to the north (on the right). It’s stitched together from three photos. Photoshop does a great job at these kinds of things.

The L.A. Cetto vineyard offers wine tasting, and they sell wines, vinegars, olive oil, olives, cheeses, nuts, and more. When I’m on the motorcycle, my friends and I will usually stop to buy some cheese and olives for a snack. The vineyard has outdoor tables in front of the wine tasting areas. The vineyard also offers factory tours, but they were only in Spanish on the day of my most recent visit. You can buy and get back across the border with any amount of olives and olive oil you wish to take, but there’s a one bottle limit on wine. I picked up an L.A. Cetto Malbec on this visit, which I’ll try later this month. If you’d like to read more about the L.A. Cetto vineyard, here’s an excellent article in the BajaBound.com newsletter.

We had a great lunch at Los Naranjos, which is just a short jaunt further south on the Ruta del Vino. It’s about a half mile down the road on the right. The cuisine there is impressive, and nothing wraps up a great meal at Los Naranjos better than their apple pie. Make sure you try a glass of their namesake orange juice, too. They grow their own oranges and squeeze their own juice. It’s superb. One more thing: The salsas at Los Naranjos are the best I’ve ever had. One in particular was a darker salsa with crushed almonds. I asked if I could buy a bottle of it, but Los Naranjos doesn’t sell this one other than as a serving with each meal. They saw how much I liked this particular salsa, though, and the chef made up a couple of plastic containers for me to take home.

Inside Los Naranjos. It’s rare to see it this empty. On Sundays, it’s a favored destination for Mexican riders and it’s packed.

Susie and I split a shrimp omelet for lunch. This was just half of the normal serving.

Los Naranjos is part of a larger country estate. You can walk around the grounds and take in the interesting sculptures, birds, tilework, and more. I also found out that there’s a 30-room hotel on the premises, something I did not know before this trip. I think a stay there will find its way into a future Baja itinerary.

To put all this in perspective, all the recent blog posts about Tecate and the Ruta del Vino described what Susie and I did in less than 24 hours. We rode down from the Los Angeles area in the afternoon on a Thursday, crossed the border into Tecate around 4:00 p.m, had our great dinner at Amores that night, we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast in Malinalli Sabores Autóctonos the next morning, we explored downtown Tecate later that morning, and did our trip along the Ruta del Vino in the afternoon. Then it was back up to the border to get back into the US that afternoon.

Waiting in line to cross the border. The Wall already exists. That’s the US on the other side. It would have been a lot quicker getting through on the motorcycles.

Wall art as we waited to cross the border. Photo by Susie.

Getting back to the border is not too hard to do, and the lines to get back into the US are generally better than they would be in Tijuana. Just follow the Ruta del Vino back into Tecate, and as you near the center of town, watch for the Garita (border) signs. You have to turn off to the right and parallel the US border for a mile or so, and then make a U-turn to get in line. On this last visit, because we were in the Subie, we had to get in the car line, and our wait was about an hour (you’ll want to take a restroom break before you get in line). If you’re on a motorcycle, though, you can get through a lot easier. Just find your way through Tecate to the point where the line of cars approaches the US border crossing, squirt through an opening in the K-barriers, and cut the line. We do this all the time on the bikes.

And folks, that was our whirlwind one-day Tecate junket. I liked this approach where instead of zooming up and down the peninsula, we selected a particular place and explored it in some detail. I’d like to do that in the San Quintin area on a future trip…there are some cool things down there. Anyway, Joe G and I are headed to Baja later this month on the motorcycles. Stay tuned; it’s going to be another grand trip!

Tecate…

Getting into Mexico through Tecate is about as easy as it gets. All you need to do is find your way to California Highway 94, which twistiliciously parallels the border below Interstate 8 (the mind-numbingly boring slab that runs from San Diego into Arizona). Roughly 25 miles east of where 94 originates near San Diego, you’ll see Highway 188. Highway 188 is only a mile long, it turns due south off 94, and it runs right into Tecate.

On the US side, Tecate is little more than the US Customs and Immigration station with a couple of buildings scattered along the road. Just keep riding south. You’ll see the signs warning you not to bring guns into Mexico (duh), and suddenly, you’ve entered Mexico. There is no Mexican border control officer. You just ride right in. You can do that going south. Don’t try it in the other direction, though.

I guess I should mention, too, that you’ll need your US passport. You can get into Mexico without showing your passport, but if you want to get back into the Estados Unidos, well, you get the idea.

The place to get your Mexican tourist visa is a bit complicated to get to. Well, sort of. It’s right there as you enter Mexico, the first building on the right, once you’ve crossed the border. You’ll bounce over a couple rows of Bots Dots (those annoying grapefruit-sized metal domes). The drill is to park (but there’s no place to park), walk across the road you just rode in on, hoof it back to the Mexican customs building (but there’s no sign on it), walk around the road through a gate as if you were walking out of Mexico, cross back again, and, if you’re like me, wonder what you’re supposed to do next. Look for the steps, go up a half a flight, and then enter the Mexican immigration area. There are no signs. Just wander around looking like you’re lost (you won’t have to act, because you will be), and ultimately, somebody will ask if you need help. I get the feeling not too many people actually get a visa when they enter Mexico. But you’re supposed to. There. I’ve said what I’m supposed to.

When you get back on your bike (or in your car), continue south on the street you came in on, and you’ll immediately see the sign telling you yep, you’re here…

A better view of the sign welcoming you to Tecate. Note the sign below…the wine country is straight ahead. Baja wines are quite good. We’re pointed due south in this photo.

Tecate is laid out kind of like a T, with the top of the T following the border to the east and the west, and the long part of the T heading south toward the Ruta del Vino wine country. The drill here is to go a block or so past the Tecate welcoming banner you see in the photos above until you T into Avenida Revolución, and then turn right. If you go about a mile or so, you’ll see one of the two places I stay when I’m Tecate. It’s the Hotel El Dorado. It’s okay and it’s not expensive. My preferred place to stay, though, is the Hotel Hacienda, which is another mile east on the same Avenida Revolución. The Hacienda has that amazing Malinalli Sabores Autóctonos restaurant I wrote about in the ExNotes blog yesterday in a connected building. The Hacienda also has more secure parking (they lock up the parking lot at night). I think the rooms at the Hacienda are a wee bit nicer, too. The price at both places is about the same, and they are both on the right side of the road as you continue west.

Hey, one thing I ought to mention is that Mexico has stop signs that look exactly like ours, but somehow they are way harder to see. If you’re approaching an intersection, start looking for a stop sign. They won’t jump out at you.

You’ll see plenty of gas stations, and in Tecate the gas stations take credit cards (that’s not always the case further into Baja). Until recently, Pemex was the only gas you could buy in Mexico. Being a government company, though, Pemex ran out of money for exploration (and then they started to run out of gas), so the Mexican government now allows other oil companies. We saw BP, Chevron, and ARCO stations in Tecate.

Tecate is dominated by the Tecate Brewery, which is the tallest thing in town. The brewery is smack dab in the center of town, and you literally can see it from just about anywhere. They used to offer brewery tours, but alas, I was unable to book one. Maybe they still do, but neither the phone number nor the email address on the Tecate website worked for me. I wandered onto the Tecate factory grounds to try to get a tour, but I struck out. A worker told me the Tecate Beer Garden is still open, but there were no tours. He said the Beer Garden was well hidden between two iron-grated doors. He was right. We couldn’t find it.

The Tecate brewery dominates the Tecate skyline. You can see the plant from anywhere in town.

Mexico’s post office uses motorcycles for delivery. The bikes we saw were CG clones offered by Italika. It looks like a cool job.

So, imagine you’ve just crossed the border into Mexico and you are at the apex of that T described earlier (the T that is Tecate). If you turn right and head west on Mexico Highway 2, you’ll eventually run into Tijuana (although why anyone would ever want to do that is beyond me). If you turn left and head east on Mexico Highway 2, you’ll eventually run into the Rumarosa Grade (a very scenic place described earlier in our blogs about the Janus trip) and then Mexicali. If you go straight and head south on Mexico Highway 3, you’ll leave Tecate and dive deeper into Baja. Highway 3 becomes the Ruta del Vino and it is a fabulous ride through the northern Baja wine country. Highway 3 ultimately intersects Mexico Highway 1 (Baja’s Transpeninsular Highway) and the Pacific Ocean at the northern edge of Ensenada.

We’ll pick up with the Ruta del Vino in tomorrow’s blog, so stay tuned!

The Ruta del Vino…a fabulous ride through northern Baja from Tecate to Ensenada.

Malinalli Sabores Autóctonos!

Jonathan and Pablo at Amores in Tecate. You can read about our dinner there in yesterday’s blog. When we asked Jonathan for a Tecate breakfast recommendation, his answer was immediate and unequivocal: Malinalli Sabores Autóctonos!

I wanted a quick overnight trip to Tecate to grab a few photos of the roads into and around the city, and some photos inside the city, for a story I’m writing about the place as a superb moto destination. Sometimes you just have to go with what awaits, though, and what awaited Susie and me on this trip was an unexpected discovery: Tecate is a foodie’s paradise!

So here’s the deal…at the end of our completely world-class dinner at Amores on Friday, I asked Jonathan (the head chef) for a breakfast recommendation. He smiled and said the best place in town, and his personal favorite, was Malinalli Sabores Autóctonos. Jonathan explained that this restaurant not only prepared regional specialties, but they had researched historical specialties from all over Mexico and their breakfasts were superb. I asked how to get there, but I was feeling the effects of the huge glass of Cabernet and my five-course Amores dinner, and I was only half-listening to Jonathan’s directions. They were complex, and he was giving me street names and directions I couldn’t follow. All of sudden, Susie jumped in because she heard something I missed. “The Hacienda Hotel?” she asked. “That’s where we’re staying!”

Talk about a small world…I had stayed at the Hacienda Hotel several times before, and I never noticed the Malinalli Sabores Autóctonos restaurant. I think that’s because I usually check in at night, and I’m on the road early the next morning. Sometimes you need to slow down and smell the roses, I guess. The next morning (yesterday morning), Sue and I enjoyed one of the best breakfasts ever in our new good buddy Alicia’s Malinalli Sabores Autóctonos. It was wonderful. They opened at 8:00 a.m. We were waiting at the door when they did so.

The Malinalli Sabores Autóctonos restaurant. It shares a driveway and parking lot with the Hacienda Hotel, my favorite in Tecate.

Alicia’s restaurant specializes in authentic dishes as mentioned above, and in using varieties of corn for their tortillas, empanadas, and other dishes from different regions of Mexico. The restaurant also emphasizes the culture of the Kumiai Native Americans, a tribe from the Tecate area (something I was not aware of prior to our breakfast yesterday).

A Kumiai doll on display inside the Malinalli Sabores Autóctonos restaurant.

Artwork abounds in the Malinalli Sabores Autóctonos restaurant. We saw this young lady as soon as we entered.

The buffet line awaits. The aromas were inspiring. I thought I was hungry when we entered; the feeling intensified when we encountered the selections. The coffee was extra special (more about that in a bit).

Maria, one of the friendly folks who took care of us yesterday morning. The steam and flavors were intoxicating.

So, about that buffet…allow me to share with you just a few photos of the Malinalli Sabores Autóctonos selections…

A beef dish. It looked (and tasted) wonderful. I could do a photo essay just on the buffet line.

Eggs, prepared the way I like. Malinalli Sabores Autóctonos also offers omelettes prepared to your tastes with a variety of authentic ingredients, but the buffet line was so overwhelming we decided it alone was enough. It was more than enough, actually.

A pork selection. I had pork the night before and I didn’t sample this, but it smelled delicious.

Cheese empanadas, with a pastry shell that provided flavors that were out of this world. A few minutes later, Maria brought out more…and they were chicken empanadas. They were delicious.

Coffee, Malinalli Sabores Autóctonos style. There were clay cups in from of this pot, and you ladled the coffee into your cup as if it were soup. The coffee has cinnamon and brown sugar already mixed in. It was unquestionably the most exotic and most delicious coffee I’ve ever tasted. Wow, was it ever good!

Sue and I were lost in the grandness of our morning meal, and we both commented on our surprise that Tecate had such incredible restaurants. While we enjoying our buffet selection, Maria brought a plate with their specialty corn tortilla shells and eggs. It was yet another delicious and unexpected treat…

Thick, fluffy, regional corn tortillas caressing fried eggs. What a treat!

We met and spoke with Alicia, the Malinalli Sabores Autóctonos owner, after our fabulous breakfast. Alicia told us the story of her restaurant. Her pride in what she was doing was evident. It was a grand experience.

You might be wondering…what did this magnificent morning meal set us back? For both of us, it was $11.13. That’s US dollars. Not only was Tecate proving to be foodie paradise, but the prices were stunningly low. $11. Wow!

Folks, trust me on this…time in Tecate has to be on your bucket list!

Hey, on another topic…here are a few updates from our advertisers. For starters, you can bet I wore one of my R Heroes USA shirts on this trip, as I knew we might hit some cold weather. Here’s a photo Susie snapped of yours truly as we went deeper into Mexico later that day at one of the Ruta del Vino wineries…

Do I have a career as a male model? I think not, but this photo in the L.A. Cetto Winery shows my R Heroes USA workshirt well. I’ve been wearing this shirt for 10 years!

I wanted to mention that if you’d like to purchase one of these grand shirts, here’s the link to see. It will take you to a page that finds your closest R Heroes retail outlet. Trust me on this, folks…if you ride, you need one of these shirts in your life!

A Mexican police officer in a truck just like this one came over and directed me to get into another line. If he had wanted to see my insurance papers, BajaBound had me covered.

Next topic…I was sure glad I had my BajaBound insurance on this trip. It’s what I use on every trip across the border. Bajabound is inexpensive, it’s good (I know guys who needed to submit claims and they pay promptly), it’s easy to get online, and it’s required. You have to have Mexican insurance when you visit Baja. We had a Mexican police officer direct us into a different line as we waited to cross back into the US yesterday. I felt secure in the knowledge that if he wanted to see my insurance paperwork, I was covered!

The Blue Rim Tours Four Corners Tour starts at the end of May. Check it out!

And hey, more good stuff…our good buddies at RoadRUNNER magazine are hooked up with Blue Rim Tours, and they are offering an amazing Four Corners Tour later this year. Having visited the places this tour touches on, I know this is going to be a good one.

And folks, that’s a wrap. The rains have returned to So Cal. We had a nice window of good weather, and the Tecate trip was a blast. Stay tuned…there’s more good stuff coming your way!

A Tecate sunrise…

The sunrise part will actually be a bit later this morning. Last night, in Tecate, was stellar.

Gresh and I are heading into Baja later this month, but life is what happens while you’re making plans and Joe and I both felt it was best to push the trip out for a couple of weeks. I’ve got a wedding to get to, Joe Gee is busy pouring concrete and getting his new tractor online, and before we knew it, our current activities and those of the next few days ganged up on us. We ran out of time for our planned 2019 10-day Baja expedition. It’s gonna happen, but not this weekend. Give us a couple more weeks.

Still, I had the urge to cross the border, and specifically, to visit Tecate. I have a story due for one of the magazines, and Susie and I decided to drive the 147 miles and spend the evening in this fine northern Baja town. Yep, it’s dateline Tecate. It’s where we are now.

Getting here and getting the trip together was a snap. Throw a few things in an overnight bag, grab the Nikon and a couple of fast lenses I like, get my BajaBound insurance for one night in Mexico (it was ridiculously inexpensive and it’s the only one I use when I’m in Baja), and we were off. Three hours later, we crossed the border into Mexico.

Susie and I felt like a fancy dinner last night. You might be wondering…in Tecate? Oh, yeah. Amores is definitely the place for fine dining in Tecate. Dinner there is a world class gourmet event. Amores is tucked away in a hidden corner of this border town, and it is, to borrow a phrase, an Epicurean delight (I love that word, but I confess I don’t know what it means…if there’s a place called Epicurea, tell me about it and Gresh and I will ride our motorcycles there).

Our Tecate dinner was exquisite. We opted for five-courses (Amores has options that go up to seven courses). Each course was better than the previous one, and the first course was awesome. Yep, it just kept getting better and better.

Here you go, folks…enjoy!

Susie in Amores, in Tecate, Baja, Mexico. We could tell right away…this was going to be good! Amores is a bit tough to find, and the exterior offers no clues as to what awaits inside. But find it, enter, and an amazing experience unfolds.

Adriana pouring our wine. Sue opted for the Merlot; I had the a Cabernet. Everything served in Amores is local; these wines are from northern Baja vineyards.

Bread baked in Tecate. Jonathan, the Amores Master Chef, told us that Tecate is known throughout Mexico for its breads. Who knew? The bread was exquisite, as was the olive oil and balsamic vinegar, the onion jelly (it had incredible flavor), and the locally-prepared kimchi. Kimchi! In Tecate! Go figure! Again, who knew?

Course No. 1: Our salad. But not just any salad. Hydroponic lettuce (grown in water), hot and cold vegetables with thin pear slices, and an amazing blend of tastes. Just exquisite!

During our dinner, I snuck over to the kitchen. That’s Jonathan, the Master Chef. He visited with us several times during our meal, which made it even more enjoyable.

Another photo of the kitchen crew hard at work. We were having a great time.

Course No. 2. We weren’t sure what it was, until Pablo, one of the two chefs, came over to explain it to us when I asked for a fork. They brought a soup spoon, and I learned that I was looking at baby octopus. Still, why a soup spoon?

Ah, yes…the tomato-based soup, poured over the octopus at our table. Again, it was delicious.

Course No. 3. Susie and I both opted for freshly-caught Baja corvina. It was delicious.

But wait…there’s more! This was my Course No. 4: Pork, and it was even better than the last course! There are two cuts of pork here and both were wonderful.

Susie’s Course No. 4: Chicken. I tried a little bit and it was yet another wonderful dish. These guys are world class!

And finally, our last course: Dessert. That’s a homemade cake adorned with assorted fruits and a blackberry sorbet nestled in brown sugar. It was as good as I’ve ever had anywhere in the world, and it made for a fitting finale to our grand Tecate evening.

You know, Tecate is a gritty, industrial border town that anchors the northern end of the Ruta del Vino and is home to the Tecate Brewery. I would have never imagined this kind of dining was available here. Los Angeles, sure. New York City, you bet. But Tecate? Who knew?

We’re going to try to get a tour of the Tecate Brewery today, and then it’s on for a quick run south on the Ruta del Vino to the L.A. Cetto vineyard for olive oil, olives, a bit of wine tasting, and of course, a bottle or two of wine to take home. Good times, folks!

To Hammock or not to Hammock…

You guys remember our good buddy Mike Huber, whom we met on one of the Baja rides. Mike is a former US Army paratrooper, a GS rider, and a great guy. It was good to get an email from Mike a couple of days ago, along with the following guest blog…

Combining my two favorite passions in life of motorcycle and camping is new to me, but I quickly fell in love with the lifestyle and have grown to embrace moto camping so much that over the past two years I make it a point to moto camp at least once a month.

As I developed my passion for moto camping I began following blogs and Facebook groups to seek out tips and tricks that can make my moto camping experiences more exciting and comfortable. I began to notice that some moto campers on these pages camped in their hammocks full time and didn’t even own a tent. This awoke my curiosity since I always travel with an ENO double nest nylon hammock. On most nights when I camp I usually hang the hammock when I have a few hours to kill where I can get comfortable and read a book or just gaze into the campfire after a long day of riding. Even though I travel and use a hammock frequently I never thought of sleeping in my hammock while camping prior to reading these blogs.

A short time later I was traveling from Arizona to Colorado and I found myself in a beautiful state park camping where I had spent over an hour or so sitting in my hammock next to the fire. I decided to give this hammock camping thing a try. It was a clear night and the moon and stars were really popping so I threw a few logs on the fire, loaded my sleeping bag into the hammock ad settled in for a restful night’s sleep.
Below are a few pros and cons I have found with my limited hammocking experience:

Pros:

• Able to see the stars the entire night without having to leave your bed
• Lightweight and compact
• No pressure points in a hammock so it can be much more comfortable and warmer being off the ground
• A level area is not required so at times you can be closer to bodies of water

Cons:

• Some parks do not allow hammocks to be hung on any park property or trees (see photo)
• If you are in an area with no trees (EX: deserts of the southwestern United States (and using a cactus is a really bad idea)) there may not be a place to safely hang your hammock
• Without a properly equipped hammock facing bad weather can be a challenge

I enjoy the unique experience of hammock camping and whenever conditions are right have continued to camp in my hammock. I am now in the habit of setting up both my tent and hammock at my campsites and go with how I feel, the weather, and my surroundings. Hammock camping is another option to have, and with moto camping having more options is never a bad thing.

Mike, that’s an awesome blog. Thanks for taking the time to think of us. Your photos are outstanding. Let’s get together for a taco or two the next time you’re in town. Gresh says he’s buying!

R Heroes USA!

I’ll get to R Heroes USA, the title of this blog, in just a bit. There’s a story behind today’s title and it goes like this: About 10 years ago, CSC donated a Mustang replica to the Firefighters Cancer Support Network (the FCSN), a charity of firefighters focused on helping firefighters and EMS workers with the disease. The motorcycle CSC built for the FCSN was a great-looking bike, and when I picked the colors for my CSC 150 I had it built exactly like the Firefighter model…

A Mt. Baldy firefighter checking out my CSC 150 several years ago.

When Steve and Maureen donated the bike, the FCSN gave Steve and me each a sweatshirt. I liked mine immensely, and in fact, for the last 10 years it has been my “go to” shirt for knocking around, or whenever it gets really cold out here, or whenever I’m riding in cold weather. Yeah, I’ve got a heated vest and all the right motorcycle gear, but when it’s seriously cold and I want to layer up, nothing beats that sweatshirt. It’s warm and it’s incredibly comfortable. When we did the recent Janus Motorcycles Baja ride, I knew it was going to be a cold expedition and I knew I’d be wearing my blue pullover sweatshirt.

My 10-year-old R Heroes shirt. This is my favorite shirt. It’s still in great shape. R Heroes makes them right here in California.

Most recently, we’ve been in a cold snap here in So Cal, and I’ve been wearing my FCSN shirt pretty much every day. It made me think: I’ve been wearing that sweatshirt for nearly 10 years. That’s phenomenal. I thought about that a bit, and I realized: I need to get me another one of these.

I looked online, and I couldn’t find anything of the same style. You see, it’s not just a sweatshirt. It’s got pockets, it’s got a YKK zipper (the best there is), it’s fleece-lined,and like I said, it’s warm. It’s also just long enough to cover anything you might have strapped on your hip (even a big old .45). It’s perfect. I usually don’t get excited about clothes, but I fell in love with that pullover.

With no initial luck on the Internet, I looked inside the shirt. I couldn’t find a label that indicated any of the sweatshirt companies I thought I knew, so I looked a little harder. There was a tiny label that said “R Heroes USA.” What’s that? I thought, so I did a search on that name, and oila!

It turns out that there’s an apparel company called R Heroes USA, it was founded by a firefighter, they manufacture here in America, and they focus on gear for firefighters (that explains the great pockets and the uber-high quality). I sent an email to R Heroes USA, one thing led to another, and my new good buddy (and R Heroes USA founder) Chuck took my order for a new shirt just like the old one. It’s their Model 505 workshirt. It should arrive about the same time you are reading this blog.

I’m pumped, and I know I’ve got another good 10 years in front of me with this new shirt. You can do the same, you know. You can’t order directly off the R Heroes USA site, but you can get to a list of their dealers and if there are none nearby, you can send R Heroes an email just like I did.

Like I said, I had a nice conversation with Chuck (the R Heroes USA owner and founder). One thing led to another, and what do you know, R Heroes USA is looking to reach beyond the firefighter market. The Model 505 (and probably other R Heroes USA shirts) are perfect for riding, and ExhaustNotes has a new advertiser. It’s a win-win-win all the way around, folks. Click on the R Heroes USA logo below (or right here), give the site a visit, and get yourself what I’m here to tell you is the best and longest-wearing shirt on the planet!

New deals from Janus and CSC

Our good buddies at Janus Motorcycles have a special deal for ExhaustNotes readers…if you mention ExhaustNotes when ordering a new motorcycle, Janus will give you a free polished stainless steel exhaust upgrade (or anything else of equivalent value). Just click here to get to the Janus order page.

I had a grand time on the Janus Baja adventure ride, and these are unique motorcycles. Janus motorcycles are handcrafted gems with an exquisite fit and finish, and they gather crowds wherever they go.

Devin Biek, one of the Janus co-founders, putting a Gryffin through its paces on our Baja adventure ride.

Here’s more news, this time from CSC Motorcycles. CSC has announced new colors for their 2019 TT250 motorcycle, which include subtle letter decal color changes on the white and black versions of the bike, and an all new blue color (a first on the TT250).

The 2019 TT250 colors. The 2019 bikes should be in the US in a couple of weeks.

These are cool colors on the new TT250s, and at $2,195, this motorcycle has to be one of the best deals on the planet. I have a black one and I love the bike. To get to the CSC order page, you can click here.

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