Big day, I don't know if we'll have time!

The first day on the bikes with the girls was a big one. We managed to pack in about 300 miles, including getting out of the city in rush hour and our second stop for a bribe on the trip. The day was whizzing by and we were looking for a place to camp as the sun was starting to sink in the sky when we passed a semi crawling along on a big sweeping curve only to find a cop standing in the middle of the highway waving us over. Seeing as passing lines on the road ceased to mean anything when we left the states, I figured we were in for a bribe. The cops started with the usual aggression tactics then they moved on to separating the group to create confusion and anxiety, followed by the threat of a large fine combined with delays in travel and the loss of our license. When I just said ok to all the penalties and that I was sorry, they didn't know what to do. They even asked me why that wasn't a problem for me! I said I would be happy to pay the tickets as I was so sorry for breaking the rules. This really threw them for a loop and they figured they would just come out and ask for some money at this point. I told them I would be happy to bribe them, but I didn't have any money. I asked where the nearest ATM was so I could go get them some and they got really scared that I was going to report them so they settled for a couple of bucks that I dug up in change. House of Motorrad 1 cops 0. They even wanted to help me with directions to the best camping down the road after that. We headed to their suggestion and found a nice forested area backed to a corn field and had a great nights sleep.

The next day we topped our mileage from the previous day and ground out about 380 miles! We had lunch, to break things up, at a nice little restaurant along the way. We tried to order some simple Milanese sandwiches and we were treated to a banquet! Appetizers and all. It was quite a feast. The day got really hot after lunch, the thermometer read 103 as we cruised into a small town just short of Mendoza. The police were working overtime in this area as we got pulled over again! This time we had done nothing wrong so we just sat and talked with them for a while and never gave in to a bribe. They didn't try real hard though and after a few minutes we had a photo shoot and everyone was smiling and laughing. We made it to Mendoza and tried to find a bodega that we had researched for our lodging. The address on trip advisor led us to the wrong part of town and then directions from an Argentinian got us almost all the way there followed by more directions and some dumb luck we stumbled upon it only to find it closed. Discouraged we headed back into town and found a hotel and decided to hit the wineries by bicycle tomorrow. The night was capped off with some excellent Spanish tapas and wine followed by a game of musical rooms in our hotel. The room we had didn't have a functioning toilet. The repair man was able to get it fixed, "mas o menos", which meant that he made it run over constantly. We transferred rooms only to do so again after we discovered a broken air conditioner in the next one. 1am rolled around and we finally got some rest.