As I sit here at a local coffee shop in Denver and look over images and videos of the Hondas to Honduras, it brings me back to the excitement and innocence a multi country adventure can really bring.
We were so naive.
A few years earlier, we had completed really our first Generation Adventure Philanthropic trip, riding motorcycles from Tucson to Cabo San Lucas with a stopover about 50 miles east of Ensenada in the middle of nowhere to spend a day with children at an remote orphanage. This was a culmination of an earlier dream of philanthropic travel. One if the founding concepts of our little group is giving back to the community. We originally formed a non profit named “Our Fathers Legacy”, based on the ideals and selflessness our Fathers (and family) had distilled upon us. Both Dan and my father were US military veterans, and had seen terrible things. They chose to take a different path, and live a good life, giving back when they could, and even when they couldn’t.
After this epic 3000-mile motorcycle journey to the bottom of Baja Mexico and back, I was approached by Dr Paul Brinkman on an upcoming trip to Honduras for an Ocular brigade. This was a medical mission that was 5 days of hard work, teamwork, camaraderie, and giving that was so incredibly fulfilling to me. I came back to the US with new friends, and experiences I would never forget. Next, we were lucky enough to correspond with a host family in Havana Cuba, and traveled there to stay for a week and understand the Cuban history and culture, truly enjoying our time and memories with our family. The amazing events they had been through and still endeavored were strength to my wife and i.
6 months later Dan and I were planning our next philanthropic trip and knew we only had about 15 to 20 days we could realistically be gone. Our ideas turned to riding back into Mexico to possibly find an organization we could be of use to. As this would be a motorcycle journey, we knew it would be a round trip travel, so we were limited in our mileage. Until Dan brought up, “what if we only traveled one way”?
This opened up a completely new thought process, and I immediately thought of my time in Honduras, and the good work that Honduras Ministries was doing, as I had first hand seen the commitment shown, not only to the people of Honduras but to the welcoming of new individuals wanting to help.
I reached out to Dr Brinkman and to Jim to discuss a crazy idea. Donating 2 motorcycles to the cause and delivering them personally!
We had grand ideas of low maintenance Hondas for the trip. The idea was sound, the brutality of the terrain, timeframe and exertion on the machines proved to be a challenge. We spend the next 5 months locating the motorcycles, restoring, and working on them to make them to be mechanically sound for the trip ahead.
We started off the trip by renting a van at Denver International Airport, loading our small steeds and driving straight through to Brownsville Texas for our departure across the border. We had all paperwork in order, and put our little bikes in our room the first night. The next morning would start this epic journey on 90cc motorcycles 2500 miles, through 6 countries.
We crossed into Mexico with no issues. Was quite ominous as the clouds gathered and the rain and hail storm started the morning of our departure. We fueled up the bikes and external tanks and set off for a 250 mile day. Our estimated mileage based on our initial thoughts of how the machines would perf9orm at sea level vs 5000 plus feet at home were a little over zealous. The terrain would prove to slow down the little bikes to make those large mileage days just not possible.
We traveled the coast of Mexico around the Caribbean to the Yucatan Peninsula, our first country destination was Belize from there. Unfortunately, Dans bike was starting to mechanically break down from the stress of riding 8 to 10 hours a day at a wide-open throttle, to maintain 40mph as much as possible. After being on the road for 5 days, we looked at the mileage and the timeframe, and decided that Belize would really not be possible and still make our arrival time in Honduras. At that time Dans bike became unreliable. We made the decision to donate the bike to a local church, and purchase a new Motorcycle for Dan to ride. We then headed south to Guatemala. After crossing the border we headed inland to Coban, where my motorcycle developed a catastrophic failure. We limped it to a local dealer (same brand as Dans bike as to make maintenance for Honduras Ministries that much easier) and started a process to trade in my bike on a new one.
After acquiring the new motorcycle for me, we were on the road to Semec Champey Guatemala. We then traveled across Guatemala to the El Salvador border, and continued to ride the coast of the Pacific to the Honduras border. Our original plans had us catching a ferry to Nicaragua, but civil unrest and time restraints altered that plan, and it was decided to head directly to Choluteca from the El Salvador border.
We unfortunately had more than a few border crossing issues, and these took up precious time that we were to spend in Honduras.
Finally, we crossed the border into Honduras and rode the last 60 miles to Choluteca. The culmination of the event was at hand. We were fortunate enough to get in and have one day traveling to the villages that would eventually be using the motorcycles. Dan and I feel very blessed that we were able to see how they would be used, and meet one of the new riders! We felt like parents passing down the item to the next generation for use. We so very appreciated getting the opportunity to meet everyone, and really learning what the depth of what Honduras Ministries was doing in support of the community. They are doing good work down there.
It was a bittersweet ride that last evening, knowing that our ride was over, the bikes passed on, and the long flight back to Denver was to begin.
There is so much more to this trip that Dan and I experienced. Some of the greatest days we have ever had on a motorcycle, and some of the lowest of times as well. This trip was such a growing and educational experience for the two of us, we are grateful to have had the opportunity
Trips such as this inspire me and empower me to do more for the world as a whole. It is a small place, people are people no matter where you go. More individuals need to travel and understand the world community, understand that some of our problems are quite trivial compared to what is happening outside the US. I am a very lucky man.
I want to thank Jim, Francis, Manuel, Erlys, and Karen for their support and friendship. I also want to thank Right Time Watches here in Denver for their contribution of timepieces to be distributed to individuals through Honduras Ministries.
I especially want to think my Wife, Kelly, and my mother Louise, for the love and support I needed to dream, envision and complete this trip. Without their support this would not have been possible.
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover!”
