and by Dos Amigos - that's the wife and I hop on the GS and get the F*$K out of dodge for a few weeks. We don't really have culture here in the United States. Everything we have is borrowed from the Germans, the French, Irish (etc).... or Spanish. Having grown up in California, my culture is actually largely Mexican and Spanish. The only real American thing we have is Thanksgiving and Jazz.... but our street names are Spanish, our architecture is Spanish, when you go out to dinner there is usually salsa on the table....hell there is a Mission in my hometown. I've spent most of my life listening to people speak Spanish, and I've been correcting tourists' pronunciation of the word "Cabrillo" for as long as I can remember. As my wife and I ride near the border, I try to make sense of the massive walls. I understand that there has to be some sort of official way to bring people into the country but the active struggle to keep people out of the country is just un-American. This entire country is made of immigrants - it's not a question of IF you family immigrated, just WHEN they did. A song plays over and over in my head; "Another idiot comes on the box Breathing privileged air Preaching to the fair Rallying one muscle under God Leading on the cheer Leaning on our fears This state of ignorance means nothing to the faithful God is with us now they disregard the world beyond the wall" On the other side of that wall are people, with kids, and cars and jobs. We are all no different. If my head gets cut off, I will die - just like someone from the far side of that wall. I have no desire to erupt a political debate but things like this piled on top of working way too much, family politics and the astonishing culture of consumerism that has been build around Christmas makes my wife and I want to get the hell out of California for awhile..... ironically on Thanksgiving and into Mexico. ....BUT first we have to filter through the 17,000,000 assholes in Los Angeles order to begin the journey of 1000 miles. This is our first step.
Love me some Baja. Funny thing is your LA commute looks worse than the Mexicali border crossing on race weekend out of Mexico. Have fun!
Im not sure what the hell I was thinking of - starting and trying to do this ride report while in rural Mexico.... plus im not going to be spending a whole lot of time on the computer while on a trip...... so ill leave a teaser looks like im riding an Anteater, doesn't it?? We rolled into San Filepe today - freakin gorgeous here
internet is pretty spotty everywhere - not that I would have it any other way.... Yesterday we left San Filepe and the took the BEAUTIFUL road all the way down to Gonzaga. The new highway is GORGEOUS and rivals California's Hwy 1 easily. It's paved to within two or three miles of gonzaga - we literally ran out of highway! We were tooling along and we passed the guys making the curbs - who waved - we passed the paving crew - who waved - then it was graded dirt - then we passed a incomplete bridge (thank god I was following orders and just cruising along....) then we decided that we should probably be off of the new highway and onto the old one. Gonzaga was amazing - more on that later. Today we took the dirt road (along the Baja 1000 course as we found out) from Gonzaga to Coco's and eventually onto Bay of LA. It was not horrible going two up on the GS with all the gear - but certainly not easy. We had one REALLY close call with a full on slide at about 45 mph in the sand so I slowed down after that.... We ran into several groups of guys on the way. One group was from Colorado, one from Utah and one random guy by himself from BC. Lots of gringos out here... we are hoping to make it to Cabo in 3 or 4 days and turn around seeing as we will have run out of continent by then. We are amassing pictures and we will do a full and obnoxiously long ride report when we return
oh yeah! did I mention that i ran into this cool ADV guy in San Felipe? was great to run into you, man!
Subscribed, keep 'em coming AJ! Nice running into you at the shop and also nice to finally meet Mrs. Pasta! Hit me up should you need anything, ride safe!
Yeah actually I do need something.... that poster!! and it was really nice to run into you.....I got to prove that you exist. Yesterday we stayed in Mulege. It was essentially destroyed in a hurricane a few years ago so the rebuilding process is very much under way. a few of the roads are nearly impassable as we discovered but its still a pretty cool town
had a crazy highway ride yesterday from Loreto to La Paz where i amassed hundreds of butterflies and bugs on the bike and helmet. Thought nothing of it when I was going to bed last night. This morning I woke up and grabbed my helmet to notice in horror my helmet was covered in spiders and ants. Today's ride is going to be.....interesting. Never worn a nest on my head before. :huh
We did the AMAZING stretch of road from Loreto to Santa Rosalia today. Santa Rosalia is a pretty cool town. It's like the old west meets Monterey, Ca but Mexico style...... definitely worth checking out. We are heading into Guerrero Negro tomorrow to have a beer with some ADV riders, then up and out in a few days.... then I can finally start uploading pictures to tell our dammed story!