Category: Uncategorized

Day 13 11/8/2021
Odometer- 25,589 – 25,758—– 169 Miles Today (3058 Miles Total)
San Luis Potosí – Cascadas De Micos in Platanito

My GPS tracks for the trip. Btw. When you open the link it starts out in Nashville Tn where the company is based out of and then zooms out to the whole world. Ignore my tracks in Europe from the last trip. It’s a bit of a complicated system where I had to use two different software companies to make that map on Spotwalla. Enjoy!

https://new.spotwalla.com/trip/8354-102e3c09-202f/view

Sup Homies!

I had a lovely stay at a hostel last night in San Luis Potosi. Met a guy from California and a girl from Italy, they busted out the guitars, played for a few hours and sang. It was lovely to have that at “home” for the night.

I haven’t been sleeping much even with all the exercise and how tired I’ve been at the end of each day. Last night I heard some noise outside the hostel at about 2:30am so I weren’t outside to check on the bike and it was there and fine. Couldn’t go back to sleep after that. I got the bike loaded up pretty early and got some breakfast at the restaurant on the corner from the hostel. Second day in a rowI had breakfast and I’m loving it. Oh the little things!

Rode in some thick fog this morning with maybe 500’ Vis and it cleared up in about 40 minutes which was nice since it was 39 degrees when I got on the bike this morning. I THOUGHT MEXICO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE HOT!

I had a 4 hour ride this morning to these waterfalls my friend found about a month ago. The ride here was pretty cool through the mountains, maybe 200KM worth of twisty mountain roads. The scenery also changed quite a bit. Most of my riding has been in desert like conditions and when I crossed over the mountain range east of San Luis Potosi it completely changed to a lush green landscape. The roads reminded me of the mountain passes over the Sierra Nevadas North and South of Yosemite. Huge pine trees and slowly turned into more humid and hotter air which was very pleasing. The morning started out at 39 and by 2 it was 85. So I think I officially escaped the winter even though I’m pretty sure I already said that once or twice before on this trip!

I found a pretty sweet campsite next to a river which is crystal clear which is weird because water only stays that clear if the water Is too cold for bacteria and algae to grow in and that’s not the case here its pretty warm! I literally have a crystal clear blue river 8 feet from my tent! Heaven! As soon as I got here I just jumped right in fully clothed since my clothes needed a wash and god damn it felt good!

I wanted today be a nice chill rest day in the water since it’s my favorite thing in the world.

I went down the road a bit to the park where the big waterfalls are for a quick 100 pesos which is $5USD. Went for a swim to the waterfalls and followed some people around to jump off. I then swam all the way back to the lockers I put my backpack in and grabbed my phone to take some pics for you guys! I made friends with a family of 6 from Chihuahua. They didn’t speak any English and I didn’t speak any Spanish so we sort of communicated through my broken Italian and few words of English. Man we had such a great time swimming around exploring the waterfalls and getting under them. Thanks to Ron and Kylee for chatting with me today on that excursion you guys got some cool pics! It was really nice to make some friends with strangers and even though we couldn’t talk to much we had a killer time for about 3-4 hours in the water!

Got back to my tent at sunset and I miss this little red and white piece of material I can call home and feel pretty safe in no matter where it is. Its pretty warm tonight, I’m sweating at 8pm in my tent but its better then 39 degrees. I think the low will be 65 tonight with some rain so I’m looking forward to that. The sound of the river next to my tent is quite relaxing right now.

The amount of freedom i have right now is actually pretty scary coming from how busy of a life I’ve had the last year working in the city and Skydiving. Its actually giving me quite a bit of anxiety and it sucks! This feels illegal and like it shouldn’t be allowed. Weird how society makes it the norm to work 5 days a week with a few weeks off a year until you turn 65 to the point where this just feels so off and messes with your mental health!

Oh and the animal from the other day was a Pizote or a Coati. They’re both the same animal just different names. Gramps Yak and Christina got them right and maybe some other people but too many emails and messages to remember!

Just realized I took so many pics today so it might turn into a 2 part email again!

Night y’all! Stay warm up there in NY! 😉

Day 12 11/7/2021
Odometer- 25,220 – 25,589 —– 369 Miles Today ( 2889 Miles Total)
Monterrey Mexico – San Luis Potosi

I really hope you guys are enjoying these emails they are hard to keep up with after a long day of riding and exploring!

Also check out the link to my gps tracks. Someone asked me to post it on every email.

https://new.spotwalla.com/trip/8354-102e3c09-202f/view

Woke up at sunrise today and had no idea where I was going. Once I loaded up the bike at the Airbnb I opened up google maps and decided to go south to a small old town in the mountains called Real De Catorce. I stopped for breakfast at this little shack on the side of the road about an hour into the 5 hour drive I had mapped out. As soon as I pulled up this gentleman started speaking a little English to me. He pretty much went up to the food cart and started ordering all kinds of things for me and I was thrilled by it all. Finally my second real meal since friday! I grabbed a few extra liters of water for the road and took off. I found this small little town online a few months ago which I didn’t know much about. It was more about the adventure to the town and out of it since the town wasn’t much to look at. When I got close to it off the highway I got on a cobblestone road. Actually more like rocks cemented to the ground. it was the most bumpiest road i’ve ever driven on i think. I wasn’t sure if I was going to rattle apart first or the bike! I honestly don’t know how my bike didn’t fall apart on it, it was nuts. I’ll have to admit here the italians do a much better job making roads out of pavers! hah!

Anyway once I got to the end of the road there was about a 1/4 mile long line of cvars which I just skipped and when I got to the end there was a line of cars coming out of a tunnel under a mountain and we were waiting to go through once they all made it. I got through the tunnel which was about 1.5 miles long and probably full of pollution from all the cars. Not much to see in the town and I couldn’t make a wrong turn trying to leave or else it would have been a nightmare trying to turn around. On the way out of town it was a downhill cobblestone road on the edge of a cliff a few hundred feet tall. One wrong move and you’re dead. There were old jeeps with tourists on the roofs getting transported up the mountain and it was wild watching two jeeps going separate ways around each other. They almost clipped my bike a few times and even while I was riding. I took some videos of it but I’m not sure I can post them on here they’re too big of a file but you will see some pics.

After the long ride down the mountain I got to a deserted town, filled up with fuel, and made a few phone calls about where to go next. I found a few cool waterfalls southeast of me and decided to head that way. The boring way was 4 hours on a highway mixed with other roads or there was a 7:45 way with some back roads and mountains. You can guess which one I picked! The ride out of there was pretty eerie and humbling being in the middle of nowhere. There were mountains maybe 150 miles away in each direction and just bushes up until then. I passed a few small towns on my way and even passed a funeral I think. There was a car with about 150 men on horses following it! I didn’t think i could find a decent spot to camp since i was going to be passing a big city an hour before sunset, i didn’t want to stop riding too early so i got a Hostel in San Luis Potosi. I rode 4 hours of the 7:45 drive so I have about another 4 hours tomorrow to make it to the waterfalls I found. The ride today was mostly desert so it’ll be nice to hit some lush green mountains tomorrow. The temps finally warmed up today, it was 77 for parts of it and I think I finally put the down jacket away for good!

The ride today through the desert and nothing else around was a weird feeling. A Lot of anxiety about the bike breaking down which will go away soon hopefully. Also just a weird feeling overall being so far away from everything and just being on your own. I’m curious to see how that feels when I get to Peru, Bolivia and Chile where these empty roads for hundreds of miles are going to be on dirt!

Day 11 11/6/2021
Odometer- 25,139 – 25220 —– 81 Miles Today ( 2520 Miles Total)
Monterrey Mexico

Note – Since i figured out how to BCC everyone in the emails please feel free to write back some ideas you have, what you’re thinking, or have any recommendations for places to check out! I’ll be the only one to get them! Thank you!

WHAT A DAY!

First day I woke up in Mexico and alot went down. Got up at sunrise today and i decided i’ll go check out some stuff i saved on my maps. Hopped on the bike and rode east a bit to some wild limestone rock formations and mountains. The view was spectacular. After doing a little bit of off-roading to a scenic spot that I couldn’t make it to, I got a flat! Bummer! I didn’t have half my tools with me but I had no other choice. I rode near the entrance of the park and propped some huge bricks and rocks in my top box to lift the front wheel off the ground. Now I also was going to try to make it to a crossfit class at 11am and it was 9:15 so hell yeah I was in a mad rush to change it! Soap and water is key to getting the tire off the rim or else it’s a pain in the ass. Of course I didn’t have that with me so I ended up using my chain lube instead and it worked like a charm. I also didn’t have all of my “spoons” (the tools to get the tire off the rim). I only had two new ones i haven’t tried to use yet and like butter the tire slipped right off, threw the new tube in. A nice man and woman came over on a road bike and asked if I needed a ride anywhere or help but I made it without their help! People are so helpful here, oh and he also spoke great english! New record time…25 minutes from wheel off to back on, filled her up with air and I was good to go. I couldn’t believe it. Definitely boosted my confidence for the rest of the trip.

My last trip in Europe and Africa was 14K miles and I got a flat at about the 4-5000 mile mark, took me and my friends like 6 hours to change it. I don’t want to even talk about that….it was embarrassing.

2500 Miles into the trip and my first flat is here. Hopefully it’s the last one but I doubt it! I was even riding in my only pair of jeans and didn’t even get a speck of dirt on them! Great Success in the Borat voice! Made it to the crossfit gym, crushed a workout with the people.

Finding food here in the city has been very rough for me, really two days into the trip in Mexico and i didnt have a full real meal yet. (My spanish is non existent as i just started learning and i keep speaking to everyone in Italian since i keep getting the two mixed up!) I’ve just been living off of protein shakes I bought in Austin. Next I was on a mission to find another tube. Three bike shops later and I got one.

Now I am heading over to Cerro de la Silla on the eastern side of Monterrey for a hike my friend did about a month ago. He got an incredible shot of the city and some mountains in the morning. He said it took him about 3 hours to get up and 3 to get down. I started the hike with my headlamp, battery pack, down jacket, cameras and a liter of water. Well right off the bat I realized I fucked up bigtime. I’m usually good with no water on big hikes from all the running I used to do but this hike was all vertical and no flat spots. I was pretty bummed thinking I wont be able to make the top and after the crossfit class my legs were smoked.

About 1/2 way up the mountain there was a viewpoint and some women selling drinks and snacks. BOOM! Got two liters of mexican gatorade and a bag of oreos. buried one liter of the gatorade in my stomach along with the oreos and kept on hiking. Some fit young people at the midway point were telling me how hard it was but I was way ahead of schedule compared to their times so I had faith I’ll make it! Ended up doing the climb in 1:35, 3.2 miles wirth 3700′ of incline. I can’t wait for you guys to see these pictures I took when you’re done reading this. Also if anyone can identify these creatures that were all over the mountain please LMK what they were. They were super friendly!

I was going to stay up top for the sunset to get some shots of the city at night but the last big climb was in Palm Springs (9600′ and 13 miles I think) my right knee went to shit on the descent. I started the climb back down and sure as hell within about 300′ of walking down hill the sharp knee pain started right up. I got pretty worried about the knee since it was worse than last time. I started walking backwards for as much as i could which didn’t hurt at all. Suddenly night time came and walking backwards with a headlamp was pretty shitty. All i thought about was one step at a time and i’ll be down in a few hours hopefully. I stopped at the midway point to take some pictures of the city for about 30 minutes. As soon as I got up I knew I fucked up. legs were super cramped up and it hurt like hell. There were about 10 steps I took on the descent where the pain was so bad that if the next step hurt that bad that was it for me but luckily the next step wasn’t as bad.

So after I got home I went out for some dinner with friends i made at crossfit, got home and passed out!

Just a little note for you all from all my travels and climbing that I’ve done. I have passed on this info to a lot of people that I’ve met over the last many years so I figured I would throw it in here too.

A really nice app to download for hiking or anything travel related is Maps.me . It has every single hiking, walking, driving dirt path in the world on it and works off of GPS with airplane mode on so you don’t need service for it to work which is a game changer. I gave it to a few people over the past few years and they told me it definitely saved their ass from possibly getting into a fatal situation outdoors on a hike they got lost on. They were very thankful. It also saved my ass more than a few times.

Another little life saving trick for hiking is to wear as much wool as you can. Smartwool and icebreaker make great products. Cotton is the death material to wear on an excursion where you get lost and might have to spend a night outdoors especially if you get wet. Wool dries much much faster than cotton and you don’t get as cold.It also doesn’t smell. The shirt, socks or underwear have to be more than about 65% of wool for it to work that way it’s supposed to. Don’t be buying clothes that have 40% wool with 60% elastic poly in it.

Yesterday on the climb my shirt was soaked completely on the way up and I took it off and hung it off my backpack. I brought a long sleeve wool shirt incase i got stuck up there for the night and I needed it on the way down. it was nearly dry when i got down and you guys who know me really well know how much i sweat. This morning when i left monterrey i put the same shirt on that was soaked in sweat and it didn’t smell one bit. That’s pretty much my life right now. Wearing all wool and not having to wash it for days at a time. When I find a river I jump in it wearing all my clothes and get back on the bike. it keeps me cool for a bit until it dries and doubles as washing it! I know half of you think it’s disgusting but it is what it is for this type of trip! Anyway if you go for a hike, always wear wool. It might save your life and you’ll be very thankful if you get into a situation you didn’t expect.

A big shoutout to Lilly for helping me translate a bunch of spanish my first two days here!

Day 10 11/5/2021
Odometer- 24,718-25,139 —– 421 Miles Today ( 2439 Miles Total)
Austin, TX – Monterrey MX

Hello friends!

The last few days was spent running a bunch of errands,napping, working out, enjoying some good food and seeing my friend Shyama mostly along with seeing Veronica, Miguel and Veronicas Mom Angela!

Today i got up before the sun came up and started packing up excited to hit the road! Met a few people in the Elevator on the way down to load up my bike and it just amuses me when we get into the conversation and i tell them im riding to Argentina. They literally dont believe me for a second. Then comes the next question….Whats your IG! Hah. Its incredible to see how many people are dying to see the adventure unfold.

Anyway! I loaded up the bike and hit the road. It was 4 hours to the border crossing which was a breeze since they didn’t even stop me to check my passport. Im lucky i had a friend Steve Yak (Grandpa) do the trip in 2017 or so and unfortunately for him he passed the border and went straight down Baja to take a ferry to the mainland. When he was waiting for the ferry in Cabo after a 1500 mile drive down from the border they told him he needed a Visa and a Vehicle permit that he can only get at the border crossing in Tijuana. Unfortuately gramps had to make a 1500 mile drive back up to get a piece of paper and all the way back down. INSANE

So i crossed the border and waved down a border patrol officer and he guided me to the right direction. Right before i left his side he proceeded to make sure i understood how crazy i was that i was doing this trip alone. He made it seem like its going to be super dangerous. Its getting a bit annoying how some people are controlled by fear. I wish people would just keep those comments to themselves! Off to the building where i would do my paperwork,…. a few photocopies and a quick $490 and i was free to go. They charged me $50 for the vehicle permit and the other $440 i will get back when i leave Mexico and go to Guatemala.

As soon as i left and hit the road it all settled in like the good old days of my solo bike trip across Europe and Africa. Just seeing the drastic change of scenery as soon as i crossed the border was wild. I made the 3 hour drive down to Monterrey to my Airbnb so i can ease into the new country instead of camping. Thanks to my friend Lilly she translated everything about finding the place to talking to someone i found working in the housing development for the Airbnb about how to find my room, get in and figure out secure parking for my bike.

I unloaded the bike and headed into town. It was a pretty chilly day 55-60 degrees and super low overcast so seeing the mountains disappear into the clouds was incredible but not very photographic! Or should i just say i suck at taking pictures on this 5D. I parked my bike in front of a hostel my friend stayed at a month ago doing the same trip as me and i ran into the owner of the Hostel since i parked right next to his bike. He ran into me on his way out and invited me to a motorcycle show tonight which will be pretty cool! I get to meet a bunch of people and make some friends! I went out for some tacos after that. I got 6 tacos for about $3.50. Incredible!

Just wanted to throw this out there. After my last moto trip in Morocco and Western Sahara Desert to being in Mexico now. it makes me really appreciate being a US citizen and growing up in the US with so many opportunities within reach for us. The amount of poverty out there with a dead end for most people is very sad to watch. We have life so easy in the US yet people have so much to complain about which is insane to see from an outside perspective. After speaking to people in many different countries and knowing what we make in a year at our jobs is what they dont even make in ten years really makes me think about how lucky we are. It all came back to me pretty quick today seeing some of that here in Mexico. Some of the people really dont have much at all but they’re willing to give you their shirt off their backs and their hearts to someone passing by from the few interactions i had today.

Sorry for all the typos, back and shoulders are killing me from the 7 hour ride today! I didnt get to take too many pictures today but tomorrow its actually supposed to be sunny for once and ill be taking a ton of pictures!

Day 6 11/1/2021
No riding today (2018 Miles Total)
Austin, TX

Woke up before the sunrise today thanks to being an hour behind Eastern Standard Time. I got right in the garage and started wrenching on my bike. First thing was a shock brace i needed to support the rear shock because BMW kinda sucks. Without it doing some heavy off roading the upper shock bolt will bend and actually bend the frame totaling the bike in some cases if it isnt caught early enough. I was on my way there as the bolt was bent but just barely. Close call

I ended up using Veronicas bike (which ill be buying when i get home from this trip) to run a bunch of errands today and im pretty bummed i cant get my hands on one to do this trip with.

After a bunch of errands i started working on the wheels. Miguel and I took my old street tires off and were changing them with a new set of offroad tires since there will be A TON of off roading on the trip. Theyre supposed to last 15K miles so we will see about that.

During that process i started working on changing the front brake pads. A little pin holding the brake pads were seized up from all the snow and salt in the northeast. After i picked up veronicas mom who flew in from NY at 4PM Miguel got his hands on a torch, and along with some PB blaster and about 5 hours of work we got the pin out thanks to some elbow grease from Miguel and a hammer!

Tomorrow ill finish putting the tire on the rear rim, change the oil, finish the front pads. Thursday im having some parts come in from Oregon and i can’t leave without them so i hope they come in on Thursday!

Heres some pictures from the guys being messy mechanics and some homemade wine from Miguel!

Also a picture of my GPS tracks since Wednesday!

Day 5 10/31/2021
Odometerv- 24,169- 24,718 —– 549 Miles Today (2018 Miles Total)
Jackson, Mississippi – Austin, TX

On my ride towards Texas i stopped in Mississippi since i found a good deal on a hotel room which i rarely do, and once i got to the hotel room i remembered why. Ill just say that on my elevator ride up (which was falling apart) another guy mentioned how much getting shot the other day didn’t hurt, but the aftermath of it brings him alot of pain….

Needless to say i got up at 5:45 AM , loaded my bike up as fast as i could and got the hell out of Mississippi. I was in a mad rush to get to Austin to see some friends and finally get off the bike for a few days after 1200 miles of riding in two days. I got pulled over in Texas doing 71in a 50. The Officer just wanted to make sure i had a motorcycle license and let me go. Close one but it wont be the last im sure. I got to Austin to my friend Veronica and Miguels house. Ive known Veronica for maybe 11-12 years and i havent seen them since their wedding in 2017. We just hung out the whole night and chatted. It was lovely. She’s also having twins!

Heres a picture and a video of my drive through the backroads of Texas. Pretty boring but weird roads in the middle of nowhere. 200 Miles of it was on roads in the middle of nowhere. NOT SURE IF YOU GUYS WILL SEE THEM SINCE IT MIGHT BE GETTING SENT AS A LINK. SORRY!

Also we found some pictures of us jumping in Florida back in 2011. Damn we got old!

Day 4 10/30/2021
Odometer- 23,513 – 24,169 ——656 Miles
Laurel Bloomery, TN – Jackson, Mississippi

I woke up at sunrise, loaded the bike up gave some hugs to Pawel and Nadine hoping it won’t be 6-7 years until I see them again and started my long ride towards Austin, TX. It will be my last stop before I head off to Mexico. Leaving his little town the leaves were beautiful this time of year and its what made the ride out of there so scenic. The weather was absolutely brutal on the ride though. I left at 8am and found a horrible hotel in Jackson, MS which I got to at 5:30. 9.5 Hours on the bike today. I screwed up big time In the morning keeping an eye on a big storm I was about to ride into, my phone didn’t update the direction of the storm and I thought I could shoot a gap in the weather by taking a southern route but by the time I got on RT75 where it was supposed to clear up it just kept dumping rain on me. I could have avoided most of it if I caught my weather app not updating. So instead of being in rain for 3 hours I ended up being in a heavy rainfall in 50 degrees for about 7 hours. With my new gear I haven’t done a big trip in yet water seeped into my sleeves and got my gloves wet, sleeves and the waist area of my body. Not happy but I dried off when there rain stopped at about 3pm. Not much exciting news yet since America is quite boring down here in the south with just a ton of highways but when I get to Mexico I promise ill dump a ton of lovely photos on your guys! 🙂

Day 3 10/29/2021
No riding
Laurel Bloomery, TN

We woke up at sunrise again and we loaded up the mountain bikes in Pawels truck and headed off to Iron Mountain for some Mountain biking. Joke was on me as the first 30 minutes was pretty much all uphill on went rocks, leaves and branches. Next was some pretty insane downhill MTB trails over some decent sized rocks for a few miles and with me wearing no gear at all it was full on for sure, Pawels bike has pedals which you need shoes to clip into and we both realized that at the trailhead since he forgot. So I did the whole ride with pedals my feet didn’t get any grip on but thanks to my 10 years of experience riding BMX and mountain biking I had enough skill to go for it. The downhill section was pretty much suicide for me if I crashed with the boulders we were cruising over at about 15 – 20 Mph. Luckily I didn’t crash or else I would have definitely gone to the hospital with broken bones. Thanks for trying to end my motorcycle trip early buddy but better luck next time! 😉 The rest of the day was just hanging out relaxing and catching up on life. It downpoured the rest of the day as well. The view from his property below is breathtaking!

Day 2 10/28/2021

Odometer – 23,305 – 23,513 —— 208 Miles
Floyd, VA – Laurel Bloomery, TN

We woke up at sunrise loaded up the bikes and while doing that I knocked my bike over with the luggage and broke my plastic hand guard on the left side. Casualty number 1 of many more to come on the trip! We got right back on the Blue Ridge Parkway for about 100 miles or so until we had to get off to head towards Pawels house! Watching him ride and getting some coaching from him was pretty cool. He was a motorcycle track coach on the Expert level for a few years before he got bored and got burned out of it. Watching him ride the twisty turns after what he taught me was really lovely. He’s very smooth and so much goes into riding bikes in corners I never even knew existed. Glad he got to shape me up a bit before this long trip!

He bought some property in Tennessee a few months ago and pretty much owns a mountain with an incredible view. He cleared out the land and threw a RV up there until he has time to build his house himself next summer. We shot a few hundred rounds of bullets, went for a walk around the property, went for a ride through some twisty mountain roads by his house and pretty much called it a day. The weather wasn’t great as it rained most of the day with 30-40mph winds so happy we weren’t on the bike for too long

Day 1
Odometer- 22,700-23,305 ——605 Miles
Brooklyn, Ny – Floyd, VA

Please don’t reply to this email as I think everyone in the email will see the reply and the email chain might get annoying.

Click here to track my movements with updates every 5 minutes!
GPS Tracker

The beginning of a new adventure! I woke up ay 5am today with too much energy to lay in bed any longer. The day has finally come. I finished bringing the rest of my life into the basement and finally changed into my limited supply of clothing from my panniers before they got loaded up on the bike. I left New York at 6am today and headed southwest. It was a chilly windy day which I spent about 400 miles of it on the highway through 6 states. The goal today was to get to the Blue ridge parkway which is a beautiful twisty road through some mountains going from Virginia till North Carolina. Im riding to Tennessee to meet up with my friend Pawel I’ve known for about 10 years. He’s a motorcycle track racing coach so i thought it would be nice to have him make fun of my terrible riding for a few days before I head off on this trip and maybe he can even clean up my riding! Once I got off the highways the fun finally started on the BRP. I did about 150 miles of some of the most scenic mountain roads in America with some incredible colors of leaves with fall starting here. I managed to not even get a speeding ticket! Pawel actually called me up and was going to come meet me 150 miles into the start of the BRP, he said he booked an AirBnb Southwest of Roanoke,VA which we would stay at for the night and then tomorrow he would do the 6 hour ride with me on the BRP to his place in Laurel Bloomery, TN. Getting that phone call from him with his plans really cheered me up as I was having a rough start to the trip with all of the emotions this morning. We went out for a quick dinner, got back to the house he found and caught up after not seeing each other for 7 years. Pretty glad I didn’t have to camp the first night as my back is killing me from spending 11 hours on the bike for the first day. Heres some pics from the ride today. Pretty boring stuff so far but things will start to get fun as I leave the country I’m sure!