Via Mexico: Chapter 2

      Unfortunately, I was the smallest of the three.  As this guy came charging through the gate he approached Michael first and immediately started swinging while yelling at us to give him whatever we had.  We had no intention of giving him anything, and nothing is what he got.  Michael had enough arm length to hold the lunatic off until he got bored and came after me, I was not so fortunate.  The fists immediately started swinging and crack!  He landed one square on my nose, breaking it and creating a facial blood geyser.  The moment this happened he turned and ran.  At this point, I'm standing there in the parking lot holding my nose with blood pouring out like a faucet.  While all this was going on, the driver of the car the nut followed in had called the police, they arrived quickly to assess the situation.  I explained to them what happened and that the guy ran off and was probably long gone by now.  Surprisingly though, the idiot came back!  Not sure why exactly, but he did.  Clearly when you are that high on drugs you stop making rational decisions.  Regardless, he came back and got arrested.  Upon arrest, he explained that he was in fact high on crack and had multiple warrants.  I'm guessing our friend, Says hello with Fists, is still enjoying his getaway at the State of New Mexico Resort and Spa.  

       When the flashing lights of the squad cars made there exit, we walked back out to our bikes to decide what to do.  As we stood there, both in a little shock from the ridiculousness that had just ensued, a white Cadillac Escalade rolls in.  Inside this pristine Cadillac was an older, grey haired  gentleman that immediately showed concern for us.  It was clear that I was not in the best of shape, plus the fact that it was freezing cold and we were on our motorcycles.  He came to a stop in front of our bikes and asked what was going on.  We filled him in on our intro to Albuquerque and our plan to ride to Puerto Vallarta.  He was intrigued by both and offered to take us out to eat as a way to show us that not everyone in this town was bad and to hear more about our upcoming adventure.  Happy to meet a friendly face we took him up on his offer.  We all went to our rooms, unloaded our things and met in the lobby ten minutes later.  

      From the hotel we took a short walk downtown where we found a casual bar/grill to sit, eat and drink.  This was one of those times that makes travel of anysort worthwhile.  Instead of sitting around feeling down about the situation, we were very much enjoying ourselves with the help of a stranger.  We sat there for a couple of hours trading stories and ideas on all sorts of topics.  In fact, this gentleman is who turned me on to the phrase "rocking chair stories", a phrase I still hold on to whenever I find myself in a precarious situation.  In addition to treating us to food and drinks, he also arranged for us to park our bikes in the underground employee parking area (it turns out he was a traveling salesman and stayed in that hotel every week) to ensure there safety, then went even further and gave us his Spanish-English dictionary.  As the evening came to end we meandered back to the hotel with a few more stops along the way to shoot some pool and taste test some more beer, eventually getting back to our rooms for a good nights sleep.  

      Day one of our trip proved to be a test of will.  We encountered cold, snow, rain and an attempted mugging.  We found this all almost humorous because everybody had been warning us about Mexico and nobody mentioned the hazards of Albuquerque.  Regardless of what happened on this day, we would not be deterred.  Tomorrow would be a new day.