I sometimes think that adventures are born in the minds of the foolish. But sometimes you have to be a bit foolish to make things happen. Maybe that's why some folks jaws would drop when we told them we left from our home in North Idaho on Feb. 18 For a 7,200 mile trip to Baja and the Southwest!
One day I had foolishly mentioned to my bride Susan that in the past I've thought of riding to the Southwest in the winter. I guess I underestimated her thirst for adventure and courage to attempt such an undertaking. I suppose she thought that after riding 7,500 miles last summer that this wouldn't be so bad, just a little cooler perhaps. Well I knew from past experiences with cold weather riding that I had to do the homework to make us as comfortable as possible. I ordered two sets of electrically heated jacket liners and gloves. Riding in the cold without this and you slowly get the heat sucked out of you.We kept an eye on the weather for a break so we could leave here and make it to the coast where it would be warmer. We got about a two day break in the weather where the roads were clear and the day temps in the 40's. When we left it was 28 deg.F. Just turn the little knob for more heat! I had two Balaclava's on my head. Our knees and feet got chilly but we made it to Portland and stayed with Jeff and Cathy. We found them in the BMW anonymous book. Turns out he is an Iron butt rider. They ride like a thousand miles a day in endurance rides. I was keeping our day rides down to around 400 miles and that was plenty.
We stopped in Corvallis, Or. To see Ruby Maxfield, a friend of ours originally from Bonners Ferry, at a nursing home and she was shocked and delighted to see us. We pressed on through the redwoods to Eureka Ca. To visit my daughter Rebecca. She took us to the beach and over to the Redwood park and hiked amongst the giant trees. We had a good time celebrating her birthday a little early.
While we were celebrating, Mother Nature was moving in with a day and a half of rain for us when we left there. We found out that spray on waterproofing on leather boots doesn't. We stopped, wrung out our socks, put dry ones on and then a plastic bag over the sock and we were good to go. Gloves got wet also, but the heaters still work. No we didn't short circuit and light up like in the cartoons.We went down 101 and went over the Golden Gate Bridge. That is a great site. I proceeded to get lost in San Francisco and got a close up look at China town. The GPS had a hard time getting a signal in there.Once we got over Tehachapi pass and into the desert things were moocho bettero (practicing my Spanish here).
We camped at Salton Sea, and it was a beautiful place. Next day we hightailed it for the Baja crossing at Tecate. We had lunch just before crossing the border and Susan saw a guy drawing beautiful pictures so she hired him to draw one for her. Meanwhile I pulled into the Gun-O-Rama store and picked up an Uzi for My tail gunner Susan to blast all the bandito's we would run into in Baja. Just kidding. You don't want to get caught with a gun down there. Besides we felt completely safe. Everyone was very nice and so were my experiences from the four other trips there.I stopped in at the immigration office across the border to get a tourist visa. I didn't know you were supposed to have one for each person. So we found that out when we headed back and got to a checkpoint and I had to get another visa. I asked Susan as we crossed into Mexico: "Are you ready for a culture shock?" She got one as we went through the area and saw the poor living conditions in that area.
We made it to our destination for the evening, which was San Quentin, Baja. Jardine's was the name of the place. It was a nice new hotel and great restaurant. The room was $25! We had a nice seafood dinner while being serenaded by a nice Mexican man and his guitar. The margarita's we're I think double strength as we were almost staggering back to our room! Seafood was our big dream on this trip. So much so that we had canned sardines for lunch seemed like every other day! San Ignacio is a must see and we saw and experienced it. It is an oasis in the desert. With 125,000 palm trees and a lagoon with waterfowl. We camped next to the lagoon. Our campground host heated our shower water with his wood burning water heater. Gravity feed no less. In town they have a wonderful town square with the oldest church in Baja on one end. It is a Franciscan mission built about 1740. We went to church there twice.Next day we made it over to the Sea of Cortez and headed down the coast past beautiful sandy beaches, and very blue water. I spotted John and Janet Smith from Spokane on the road ahead of us in their 5th wheel. We passed them waving but they didn't know who we were till we met them later at their beach camp and had a beer with them. It was 100 degrees when we passed them they said!
We stayed at a campground in Loreto overnight and it was a pretty campground but I sleep with earplugs as kids going buy with radios booming till eleven and then the dogs start barking till four and then all the roosters have a crowing contest till eight. Lots of chickens and dogs in Baja. Which reminds me of this stray dog along the road that we zoomed by. A mangy, skinny dog with a coffee pot stuck on his head so he couldn't see where he was going! That made me feel sad. Then I think about the people. You know a lot of the people down there don't have much but they are happy anyway.Well I have a coffee pot on my head of sorts or so some Harley people would think so! But I can see through this coffee pot and what I see is very beautiful. We drive past La Paz and make it to Los Berillos and camp at a nice campground in town near the beach. We put our tent under a red flowering bush. We stayed there two days and enjoyed the local cuisine and danced a bit also. We were on Baja time so we had a relaxing time there. Going to church there with the Mexican people was an experience for me as they were very inviting and had wonderful music.
We wanted to camp at the place I had spotted on the Internet at El Cardonal, twenty miles north and so we took the dirt coast road which was quite a GS ride but we made it. It was a great place! It was Private, a beach almost to ourselves, great restaurant, and hosts, and a chicken nesting in the tree we camped under.We met lots of characters at this place! One, John, alias Goat man, told us of his face to face meeting with Sasquatch and other "true stories". Another was one of the local fishermen who was drinking beer all the time. He luckily was hung over when we went deep see fishing and his partner Antonio took us out. He was a great guy and guide. First we went to the sardine fishermen and picked up some live ones for our bait. Then we headed over to catch the bigger fish. We were catching them right and left or in my case left and right since I'm a lefty. We ended up with 36 fish between three people, Me, Susan and Bill who we met in Loreto. All for $180 between the three of us. We gave 10 fish to Antonio and Bill took some and we gave the rest to our hosts who prepared the fish for us for the next three days! One day our hosts wanted to make us Carne Asada. They gave us the money to buy the meat and we went to town and brought it back by motorcycle courier.
I thought that was pretty trusting and nice of them. The food was great. He made giant margaritas also. Our time was running out so we had to start heading north. It was a sad day to leave there.We stopped at the same three places on the way back and enjoyed them again as we said good by to Baja. We found a great place to camp called Buckeye hills near Buckeye, Az. We were like the only ones there and we had a campfire that night. The stars were out and it was just perfect.We always hate to leave places like that but we will be back. I had a place in mind for us near Parker, Az At Echo lodge. It was one of the few resorts that accepted tenters. As it turned out we were the only tent there. We were amongst all these giant motorhomes and they were all amazed at us riding a bike and sleeping in a tent at our age! Susan kept telling them how wonderful it was and that she always wanted to try something like this. We made some nice friends there.
It was a beautiful spot on the Colorado River with palm trees along the beach. They had a store, laundry and showers so we were set. We stayed five days even though it was on the pricey side. We took some day rides and hiked around a bit. The visitor center lady turned out to be a relative of Susan's and she invited us to their family reunion next year about this time!More reunions were in store as we went to Casa Grande and met Bill, one of Susan's high school classmates. We ate Chinese and had a good visit. Bill lives in the mountains above Vail, AZ. Off the grid.We headed for Pahrump, Nev. to visit with Ronna and Terry at an RV park there. We camped at Tecopa hot springs and commuted to their place twice. On the way we got caught in a foot relay race and so it was bumper to bumper in the desert on the bike with hot gear on. I couldn't stop and there was a cop behind me so I didn't want to pass. So that took awhile to get through!Terry and Ronna fed us lasagna and took us to a brothel. We had to see what that was like. We had a drink there and watched the goings ons. Very interestink.Heading west now we make it to Kern River campground at Bakersfield. Another nice place! An old hippy guy gave us firewood for the night and morning. He rides also. He took our picture as we left. Pressing on north now we pass through Stockton, Ca. And I noticed a ship in the harbor. Of course the one time I took my eyes off the road a woman decides to pull into my lane on top of me!
I slammed on the brakes and beeped my pathetic horn at her and that didn't faze her. Lucky for her all my photon torpedo's were all gone. No signal, No nothing, completely oblivious. That kind of traffic made me glad to arrive at our next destination, Mercey Hot springs, about 100 mile south of San Jose. This is where Rick and Annabelle work part of the winter restoring the buildings. I've been riding with them for about 6 or 7 years now. It is a great place to relax and soak. We took a ride the next day in the surrounding area and had lunch at Flapjacks. in Tres Pinos. I got to meet the famous motorcycle racer Don Castro who has a shop next to the restaurant. It's another sad departure to leave Mercey and our friends. But we have to get home to those gloomy skies, snow and cold temps.
Time to put the electrics back on. We had many beautiful views of snow capped Mt. Shasta on the way up and ended up in Rogue river, Or state park right off I-5. We saw the yurts in the park and decided to opt for our first yurt experience. It was nice. It even had an electric heater and beds. We only stayed in hotels about six nights altogether.The next day was occasional rain and cool. We went up the Columbia Gorge and spent the night at La Quinta's in Kennewick. Susan deserved a nice treat on her last night of the trip. She accomplished more than any woman I know by doing this trip.The final push to home base was even cooler and half the day was wet. Susan was glad to be back home as she thinks North Idaho is the tops. But we won't forget this trip because we had the time of our lives.
Jerry and Susan