Nogales and the beginning of the ride

Finally I made it to Tucson. Just before we went on the ride to Nogales I looked out my hotel window and this was the sight that greeted me. Sure glad they are crows and not vultures.

The next morning was the ride to touch the fence in Nogales Arizona. What a nice gesture this proved to be. The people of Nogales were most welcoming.

Here I am parked in a line of bikes. Before the ceremonies started.

Here is the fence. 1 side Arizona USA and the otherside Mexico.

Here I am touching the fence. Making it a true 3 flags classic.

Here I am with a nice policeman from Nogales Arizona. I was asked by one of the police how long I had been riding a motorcycle . I said about 40 years, Oh wait a minute, I am only 39 years old. Gee I must have been born on a motorcycle.

The shadow on this picture was too bad. The police in Nogales ride BMW's and this guy could practically make this bike stand on its head. He was an excellent rider.

So this guy standing in front of this bike drives up. He is from the Nogales bikers and is the Chief of Police in Nogales Mexico. He opens up this trailer. That is a disco ball hanging inside on the lid. Takes out that speaker and has a sound system and a stage. The guy in the trailer is a deputy mayor of Nogales Arizona and he is thanking us all for coming. It was quite a production but very welcoming. The Mexican chief of police then took whoever wanted to go into Mexico for a ride and about 25 went. The rest were relegated to 3 restaurants which had buffets for us and we were joined by dignitaries and other officers. I had a dish that was a horrible green but turned out to be marlin in a sauce. It was very good.

 

You are not allowed to hang any banners on the Mexican fence so they used this one into parking lot. It worked.

This is Blake Anderson the president of the 3 Flags Committee.

 

 

Just outside Tucson

 

We pulled over after leaving Tucson at 3:30 AM and 3 of us stayed on the highway but Tonni went down into the pull out and it was sloped pretty bad and he fell over so as the others helped him get up right  I took this opportunity to take a picture of the sunrise.

We stopped for fuel after that and I took these pictures hopefully so one could see the lovely terrain we were riding through.

 

Boise Idaho. The trees are starting to turn.

The next stop was a rest area we stopped at briefly and I took pictures.

 

 

This was the checkpoint at Walla Walla Washington. I thought it looked a little crude. Why was it not right in the Hampton Inn. Well I guess they had tents overhead but about 2 hours before we arrived this tremendous wind came up and blew everything away.