Bikes Stolen in Penjamo

We had met so many wonderful people here and had no problems that maybe we got a little too comfortable and weren’t as careful so we didn’t take more stuff off out our bikes like usually. When we pulled in the day before I wasn’t feeling good and went straight to bed with chills, spent all night sick in bed, so I didn’t take anything extra off my bike like I normally would. The next day, I still wasn’t feeling good and Dennis had a migraine so we didn’t travel. After the radio interview a little after 5pm, I finally decided I needed to eat so Milton and I went out, got the camera out of one of the bikes, and went walking. The police have a video showing the bikes being stolen at 5:40pm, still daylight out, but they can’t see the faces in the video. They rode away wearing helmets. What three people just happen to wander around wearing helmets, to me this seemed planned. Lots of things we would do different now but it’s too late now.

Here is my inventory of what I have left: one pair of pants, a couple shirts, two dresses, my socks and underwear, one pair of flip flops, shampoo/conditioner/soap/toothpaste/toothbrush, tank bag (filled with misc crap) one riding boot (the right), my special walking boot for my left (the broken foot), one pair of Klim riding pants, one pair of summer gloves, one helmet. Milton has his riding boots, tennis shoes, two shirts, shorts, pants, helmet, and tank bag. Thankfully, we did take all of our electronic equipment off of the bikes so we have our computer, GoPro, camera, and smart phones.

What’s gone: all of our camping gear is gone, tent, air mattresses, sleeping bag, camping chairs, stove, French press and the coffee that our friend Carlos from Colima gave us (not the coffee, damn those thieves), water purifier, kitchen gear, food. The rest of our riding gear, Milton’s Klim pants and Aerostich jacket and heated liner, my Klim jacket and heated jacket, Klim winter gloves and an extra pair of summer gloves misc flashlights, batteries (Milton laughed at the number of batteries I brought, was I thinking they wouldn’t have batteries down here or something)
Because of Milton’s respiratory issues we had a lot of medications for him (Antibiotics, inhalers, steroid injections for emergency use) all gone. My first aide kit. Since I am a nurse, it was a pretty extensive kit probably some overkill but I could handle just about anything on the road. The last hat that Milton’s mom every knitted for him is gone. That is the one that brings the tears to my eyes.  ( He thought he had lost it right before we left but he actually had packed it away so he wouldn’t lose it, Our friend, Sarah, in Redway gave him a hand knitted hat to replace it right before we left and that one is gone also.)  At least we were able to scatter his mom’s ashes before this all happened otherwise those would be gone also. Oh, and they now have some NA literature and a couple step working guides, maybe they’ll make good use of them and work some steps around taking things that don’t belong to them.

Milton and I worked so hard for this, many times we worked two jobs, we weren’t excessive spenders. When other friends took vacations we stayed home to save our money. We paid cash or didn’t get it. Our riding gear and camping gear were purchased a little at a time over a long period of times. We’d get something every paycheck or so because we don’t do credit cards, looking for sales but buying quality so things would last. Not sure what Dennis has planned, but Milton and I wanted this so bad that we were willing to sell our home in Tacoma that we had just remodeled with our own sweat equity to help pay for this. I loved that house but was willing to give it up to follow this dream. At this point, Milton and I feel there is no turning back as we can’t unring the bell, so forward we go, the only question at this point is how.