A 72-year-old expatriate Guadalajara resident will jump on a bulky vehicle Saturday morning and set off alone on a 1,000-mile road trip to Arizona.
His motivations are the same ones that induced him to take a similar but much longer trip to New York a few months ago: to meet up with friends and family at his destination.
“I don’t ride just to ride. I don’t have time for that,” said Will Prescott, who has lived in Guadalajara since 2007 and recalls that he has taken about 12 long road trips in his life. “I’m always going to see someone or do something.”
His upcoming trip to Arizona is to attend a ten-year reunion of the U.S. Peace Corps group with whom he first came to Guadalajara.
But once on the road, less tangible rewards take precedence:
“I do enjoy motorcycles. I got my first moped when I was 13, in Alaska.” His large BMW, purchased 18 months ago, is comfortable, he adds. It doesn’t vibrate excessively and after riding for ten hours, his legs need stretching, but he doesn’t feel sore. In addition, it is powerful enough to easily move through highway traffic.
“Besides that, I enjoy seeing and smelling the countryside. When you go through a pine forest, you can smell the pines. You don’t have the windows closed and the air conditioning on.
“I’m really not that unusual,” he emphasizes. “I know people in their eighties who are doing this. There are a lot of motorcycling groups. I participated in one here in Mexico and I wasn’t the oldest. Plus, BMWs are expensive, so a lot of young people can’t afford them.”
He adds that GPS makes figuring out the route easy. “I have a removable unit and you can set it to give you the best route, avoid tolls, avoid freeways, and so on.”
While Prescott, a retired geophysicist, tends to downplay the rarity of senior motorcycle enthusiasts, his experiences and hobbies reflect an undeniable and unusual hardiness. He doesn’t own a car, generally walks everywhere, hikes up and down local canyons at least once a week, regularly runs marathons, goes on an annual, two-day walking pilgrimage through the mountains of Jalisco, goes on trips to help a group named Trek Medics cope with emergencies in areas such as the Dominican Republic …the list goes on.
As for differences in motorcycle culture between Mexico and the United States, where he spent most of his life, Prescott views Mexico favorably.
“On the highway, traffic here isn’t as dense. You see more buses and trucks and they’re better drivers. Also, Mexicans usually drive in the rightmost lane, unlike in the States, where on freeways they tend to drive in whatever lane they want. Mexican drivers are probably more aggressive in general but I haven’t had any problems with aggression, either here or in the States.
“Of course, you always have to drive a motorcycle defensively and try to anticipate anything a car could do, because sometimes they don’t see you. But Mexican truck drivers can be very courteous – they’ll signal me when it’s safe to pass.
“That can be confusing, since they may use their left turn signal to tell me it’s okay to pass,” he said wryly.
Every motorcyclist’s nightmares are breakdowns and rain, Prescott said. “You can’t carry a spare.” As for rain, he has driven in storms for hours and depends on rain gear and a visor, unless cars and trucks throw up so much spray that he must give up.
“Once, in the States, I had to pull off a freeway into a residential subdivision. A guy saw me coming and stood near his open garage signaling me to come in. I stayed talking with him in his house for a few hours, then took off. I didn’t ask his name and I could never find the house again. People can be really nice.”
Prescott noted that as a youngster, he was never good at sports, but always had a lot of endurance and liked solo activities such as overnight hiking.
“I don’t mind doing stuff alone. And I’m lucky to be healthy,” he added.