Incredible, Amazing, Idyllic!

Tlayacapan, Morelos – Tehuitzingo, Puebla, Mexico

Years ago when I started the Loppet Foundation I was still working as an attorney, so we hired an intern to run the show. One of her duties was writing press releases. 

My friend Bruce and I used to have to tone down her writing. It was full of superlatives. Amazing-this. Fantastic-that. With lots of exclamation points.

”The Loppet is going to be the most incredible event of your entire life!!! The moon and the stars will sing as you ski!”

We always told her to just stick to the facts. Kind of undermines your credibility to always tell people how to feel about things . . .

But the thing is – sometimes the shoe fits, and you need to tell people that . . .

That’s how our ride was today. 

It was incredible! It was amazing! And the birds really were singing the praises of the mountain scenes. I would let the pictures do the talking – except that the pictures never do the mountain scenes justice. Maybe we need to get a real camera. Or maybe we need to learn how to take better pictures with our phones. Whatever the case, the pictures we have never achieve the majesty that you find in real life . . .

So here is a mixture of words and pictures to hopefully give you some idea . . .

We started the day with another 10-15 kilometers of descent. Pretty nice to put that much in the bank without even having to pedal. 

Then a section of highway where we were able to keep the bikes moving at a relatively good pace. Nice scenery – but nothing incredible yet. 

The rest of the day? A series of passes – each one seemingly better and more scenic than the last. And the landscapes? We started with pine trees (Did I mention that yesterday – when we were still up at like 8,000 or 9,000 feet – we saw apple trees blooming? So crazy. Blooming in November. They must have some trick to force them to do that . . .). We moved down through corn fields. Then bluff lands. And we ended the day getting pretty close to full-on desert – complete with some badland type stuff. 

Some of the fun stuff along the way . . .

Goats . . .

Castle Crossing

Lunch. We stopped at a little stand in the mountains and had their version of tacos. Turns out that you never really know what you’re going to get in Mexico. And, increasingly, we don’t think it’s a language barrier. It’s just that one place will give you tacos that are basically a dab of meat with a few onions. And another place will give you a half pound of meat in each taco – plus a bunch of great accoutrements. Today’s lunch was of that variety. So good!

It also helps that we have overcome our fear of the water. No. That’s no right. We’re still afraid of the water. It’s just that we’ve figured out that everyone else is too. The upshot is that we can get the cool drinks they have everywhere. Because now we realize that use filtered water and ice from a real ice-making service. It’s not like they’re using tap water to make this stuff. Because as far as we can tell – and as far as we’ve been told – no one drinks the tap water . . . 

We love the hibiscus drink (Jamaica they call it here). We basically get a Big Gulp sized hibiscus drink and we’re happy as can be. With all the biking and the mountain sun you really can’t ever drink enough . . .

Dinner. Equally good today. Turns out that there’s a guy at the $21/night hotel we’re staying at – Jaime – who lived in Houston for 35 years. Very helpful for figuring out what we actually want. Jaime loves Houston and has two adult children there, but he got divorced and fell in love with a woman in this town – so now he lives here. Anyway, we asked Jaime if there was a place we could get pasole tonight – because we get a little tired of the same basic thing otherwise – and good pasole might be our single favorite Mexican food. 

(Our friend – and loyal blog reader – Tom first introduced us to pasole a few years ago. Good thing – because if we didn’t know what it was we would probably be missing out now as well . . .)

Jaime asked his dad, who was sitting right there, and there was a whole lot of hand gesturing that ensued. In the end Jaime said he had nothing to do and walked us across town to the little stand on the main square that his dad had recommended. It looked closed, but when they figured out that we wanted dinner they instantly re-opened and we were in business. They put chairs out for us, gave us a choice of meats and two minutes later we were eating our pasole and drinking our Jamaica drink.

Yum!

After dinner we’re wandering around town, trying to find a “grocery store” where we can buy some milk and cereal for the morning – when a gang of about twenty bikers on real bikes with bike kits and lights and everything – comes blowing by on the main road in town. Who knew? We didn’t have a chance to talk to them – but clearly there’s a cycling community around here. 

And I have one more thing for you today . . . 

Back in Illinois or Missouri I wrote my first song. You might remember it. It was pretty popular with a niche crowd – the eleven people who were reading our blog back then. Okay, maybe only three of the eleven paid any attention – but still . . .

Anyway, I thought that was just going to be a one-off. (Diana always talks about one-hit wonders with some scorn. An example would be “Play that Funky Music” – by Wild Cherry. Or “Afternoon Delight” by the Starland  Vocal Band. Anyway, I didn’t really want to be a one-hit wonder.)

But it turns out that riding in the mountains is a great vehicle for inspiration. Sadly, I can’t perform the whole thing for you because there’s no studio or anything – but here are the lyrics to my totally original, not-at-all plagiarized, amazing new song. It’s called I Write the Blogs, and here’s how it goes . . .

We’ve been riding forever

And I wrote the very first blog

I put the bikes and the stories together

I am Munger, and I write the blogs

I write the blogs that make the whole world sing

I write the blogs of love and Mexican things

I write the blogs that make our readers cry

I write the blogs, I write the blogs

My home lies on the road, beside Diana

And I’ve got my own place in her soul

Now when I look out through her eyes

I’m young again, even though I’m very old

I write the blogs that make Mexico sing

I write the blogs of love and biking things

I write the blogs that make our readers cry

I write the blogs, I write the blogs

Oh, my stories make you dance

And gives your spirit to take a chance

And I write some rock ‘n’ roll, so you can move

Stories fills your heart, well, that’s a real fine place to start

It’s from me, it’s for you

It’s from you, it’s from me

It’s a worldwide jour-n-eeee

I write the blogs about this whole world trip

I write the blogs of love that are really hip

I write the blogs that make our readers cry

I write the blogs, I write the blogs

I write the blogs about this whole world trip

I write the blogs of love that are really hip

I write the blogs that make our readers cry

I write the blogs, I write the blogs

I am Munger (Munger), and I write the blogs…

Lots of blog points for anyone who can put all of this to music. 

Just send me a video and I’ll post it for everyone’s listening pleasure. 

And, by the way, Diana hates Barry Manilow. Which is, of course, appropo to nothing, but I just thought I would mention it. As Gru said in Despicable Me, Sundays just seem like a weird time to pull off a big heist. But Sunday just feels like the right time to mention that Diana hates Barry Manilow . . . So there it is. (And, by the way, I love Barry Manilow and Neil Diamond and all the other sappy artists of the ‘70s). 

Tomorow? It looks like more of a climbing day. Well, at least it will be cooler and less deserty I guess . . .