Post: #1

New here. There’s an intro thread in the noob forum.

It takes me about a day to get to the Tex-Mex border on my motorcycle and Laredo, TX is one of my crossing points into Mexico on my solo rides. When I do get to Laredo I generally stay at the La Posada hotel. This is a historic hotel that was once a convent and later became Laredo’s first high school. The hotel complex also has a very nice steakhouse (The Tack Room), which is also a historic building that was at one time a residence, later housed a telephone company, and is now the aforementioned steakhouse. Nice bar inside this restaurant. See the link for info on the hotel and restaurant http://laposada1-px.trvlclick.com/

Generally I get to the hotel before nightfall. I check in, unload and do PM on the bike, get cleaned up and then grab dinner at the bar in the steakhouse. I cross the border the next morning at first light.

I entered the bar that evening at dinner time and noticed two people sitting at the bar. A very attractive woman in business attire, an empty stool to her right, and then next to the empty stool was a local cowboy. As I walked in I noticed that the cowboy glanced over at the woman a couple of times. However, he was not talking to her. So I took the empty stool that was between them, nodded hello to each and ordered a scotch. When my drink arrived I took a swig and put it down. The cowboy then asked me, “Are you a homERsexual?” I chuckled as I answered, “no, why do you ask?” He said, “Because your nails are somewhat long and they are shiny like if you had a manicure.” He must have noticed this when I raised the glass to drink with my right hand. I then answered, “Well why don’t you think about who is sitting next to the good-looking woman now. This stool was empty when I got here; you weren’t sitting next to her, and so allow me ask you something, Sir. Are you a homERsexual?”

Feel free to comment in the interim. More coming up…

Post: #2

So this was said in jest. Bartender laughs, cowboy dude laughs. So the lady next to me then grabs my left hand to look at it. She raises up my hand and inspects my nails. Here we haven’t even been introduced and she's copping a feel. So she looks past me over to the cowboy and tells him that my nails are short and dull on my left hand. Then she gives me a long look straight in the eyes and asks, “You're a guitar player aren’t you?” I answer, “Yes, ma’am.”.........

Post: #3

Cowboy dude doesn’t believe about the guitar playing. The bartender is having a great time watching all of this unfold. So I say, “Look if anyone has a guitar lying around, I will gladly play some music.” The bartender then makes a phone call in Spanish (very high population of Spanish speakers in Laredo, TX). After the bartender hangs up I talk to him in Spanish. He tells me to walk out the front door, turn left, walk to the corner, diagonally cross the street, go into the curio shop and retrieve the guitar that's in there. His amigo owns the shop. So I tell the lady (we’ll call her Jessica) not to let anybody take my seat at the bar. Jessica winks at me, “I love your Spanish.” Cowboy dude is fuming. Haha!

I come back in with the guitar, tune it by ear and start with a Mexican tune titled “La Llorona.” Even cowboy dude applauds. There’s a nice patio for dining at the steakhouse, and playing on the stool is kinda uncomfortable so I ask Jessica if we can move out to a table on the patio. She’s all smiles by this time. Bartender says to me in Spanish for me to just leave the guitar at the front desk in the morning. So I play some more Spanish stuff for Jessica. Songs like Romanza, La Paloma, etc. As we left the bar to go to the patio I said good-bye to the cowboy dude, “See ya later dude. Did you say your name is Homer?”

More...

Post: #4

Jessica’s room faced the river. At the La Posada the rooms at the back of the hotel face the Rio Grande River and from those rooms you can see both bridges that cross from Laredo into Nuevo Laredo on the Mexican side. I left her room early in the morning so that I could get ready for my early departure into Mexico. She asked me to call just before I crossed so that she could see me and wave good-bye to me from the balcony. I thought she was joking. I called her room just before I crossed the bridge. When I got to the other side I pulled over and sure enough there she was standing in the balcony. We waived to each other. Haven’t heard from her and know I won’t either. She never made a comment about the wedding band on her finger and neither did I.

This adventure ride had just begun and would get even better.

**end**

MC

Post: #5

Nice story and writing, you really led me on and I read all of it. But why is it in 4 posts?

Post: #6

(05-02-2013 10:40 PM)JayD Wrote:  ... But why is it in 4 posts?

(1) In case someone wants to inject questions during the pauses.

(2) Also keeps them from copying a very long post when they want to respond in the quote format.

Post: #7

By the way guys, for long motorcycle rides I use a tracking device. This is not a GPS. Doesn't tell you were to go, but tells others where you have been. This lets family & friends know you are okay. And if you are not, then it's good for body recovery

The device is called SPOT. It pings a satellite which then writes your location to the internet. It only stores your last 50 locations. Here you can see me on the return trip and where I crossed the border at around ping 41.

Post: #8

I dont know if I should start a new open thread on this city or bump this one. I think trip reports should be only for the major cities but small city thread should only have the name of the city. O well. I dislike the title of this thread.

Think about heading to the L next weekend. Hitting McAllen Friday then L Saturday. My boy has been there a few times promoting and said it's cool. If it's anything like Brownsville then being black has a huge advantage.

Plan on hitting the city around 3 and daygaming at the mall to find out what's hot that night. Pre game at a few bars then settle on some club. Anybody has any recent intel on the city? Any recent intel on Nuevo Laredo? I really dont like partying in the border towns but my boys always end up going over on drunken nights with no problems. Thats Matamoros and Reynosa though. Appreciate the info. Will drop a new open thread if I end up taking the trip.