Tonight we are in Panama City, hoping to fly to Quito ASAP.
Today's ride turned out rather eventful. We started out from
Boquete in some fine weather, and then drove down to the city of David
where we fueled up. Coming out of the gas station Eric was last
in line, and fell behind. After the usual 100 miles or so, we
stopped at a McDonalds, but he didn't see us and drove by. What's
more we couldn't go after him because when I pulled into the parking
lot I realized that a mount for one of my Jesse Saddlebags had broken,
and the thing was just barely hanging on. It was scary to see,
and I can{t believe it didn{t bounce off somewhere. Part of
the clamping mechanism just sheared, and only the two lower slots
were holding it on.
Conveniently, there was an auto parts store across the street. After
about 45 minutes of getting a bolt, a nut and some washers (and learing
the Spanish for all 3 parts), and spending a whole $.75 I had the
bag secured back onto the bike. In a more permanent style, unfortunately.
The beauty of the old mechanism was that you could easily take them
off every night.
A few hours later we rode through Panama City and arrived at the airport.
No sign of Eric. The predetermined protocol for such a situation
was to email, but of course we wanted to find him soon so that we
could get on with flight plans. Well, it was the end of the
day anyway so we looked for a hotel. And couldn't find one.
So we asked. There is exactly one in the area, and they know
it based on their room rates. As Dick is inside securing the
room, I hear a motorcycle, and turn around to see Eric coming around
the parking lot. He took a little different route through town,
but ended up at the same place - the one hotel. He got through
Panama City with a map some National Police drew for him. We
followed a bus that had the airport name written on the side.
Whatever works!
A mosquito is haunting me. I can't waitto get to the malaria
free zones in South America. I'm outta here!!!
Tuesday December 27, 2005 - 09:51pm (PST) |
