Day 66
42,369 – 42,867 498 Miles today (20,167 Miles Overall)
Bariloche, Argentina – Perito Moreno, Argentina
We got up at about 8am and I was worried I’d be leaving alone since Lars took a nice woman back to his hostel room he met last night. But he got up on time and we got to leave together. Although he was so goddamn slow getting his shit together that I had to wait around for about 40 minutes for him to get his shit together. I got out of town at about 9:10 and it was 14 hours to this town called Gobernador Gregores. We thought we had a good shot at making it to the town but after riding for a few hours we said fuck it we should slow down a bit and get some food and relax on the ride. The ride was quite boring but beautiful. Long straight roads for hundreds of miles. The winds were blowing like hell the whole way. We had a steady 30 mph cross wind for the entire ride. It sucked. I pulled ahead of Lars and put a lot of miles between us so I would wait for fuel in the long lines and by the time he would catch up he would sneak up in line and we would fill both tanks and pay together. Trying to save time on these long days and these little things help out a lot.
We pulled over for lunch in this small town. I saw a good review on IOverlander. We had soup of the day and some meat as usual for a very cheap price. It was delicious. Back on the road and the winds were even stronger. My helmet was pushing into my temple so hard it was actually hurting to the point where I had to ride for hours holding my visor with my hand to keep the pressure off my head. I’m going to remove that thing tonight. I do not need it anymore down here with these winds. I found a nice trick where we hide behind an 18 Wheeler for a few minutes because they block the high winds for us. The drivers were cracking up. They knew exactly what we were doing within seconds of us parking our bikes on their left side in oncoming traffic. We stay until we’re ready to keep going or until oncoming traffic heads our way which is pretty rare. Coming back out of the burble from the truck into the strong winds is scary because the force is so god damn strong and hard in one big shot. The wind was so strong at one point that it broke my windshield extension I’ve had on the bike for 80K miles.
We pulled into a town called Perito Moreno for fuel and I wanted to get my first coffee on the road because I was falling asleep with how boring the ride was. As we were pulling into turn I heard his bike clicking every few feet. I knew it a few seconds later. His chain was done for. I told him to move up a few inches very slowly and I saw it in a second. One of the links on his chain busted and the roller fell off. I don’t know when it fell off but we were so god damn lucky it happened in town. We filled up with fuel and worked on getting him towed to the next town. I said he should get to the next town because It looks like I found a decent mechanic on IOverlander. We decided I would go ahead and figure out what to do for him while he would work on a tow. He had no service here which sucked. I got on the bike and hauled ass to the next town. I got there 1:45 later with some even stronger winds. I found the mechanic and figured out we can get him a chain here in two days from the east coast. It would be a bit complicated but not bad.
Next I bounced around to 10 hotels and hostels to try to get the best deal for him in case he’s stuck here for a few days. I eventually found some cabanas that were like $15 a night I think. It was a big log cabin with a few bedrooms, shower, kitchen and it was beautiful. I waited around town for him to see him pull into the town with the tow truck but he ended up texting me at 9pm saying he was in town on the tow truck. I met up with him and guided him to the cabanas. He was stoked with everything that I set up for him. He jumped on my bike and we went into town to meet the mechanic and they can plan their shit out. Next I took him to dinner on my bike and had a few beers. We went back to the hostel, showered and went right to bed!
