17 days…

Yep, the countdown is on….just 17 more days and we’re on our way to Cabo San Lucas…

Hey, check this photo out from a trip my good buddy John and I took to Cabo back in the mid-90s…we’re about 800 miles south of the border in this shot.   That’s the Sea of Cortez on the right, Mexico’s Transpeninsular Highway on the left…and the marker with all the graffiti is right smack dab on the Tropic of Cancer!

We’ll be passing through this very spot on our California Scooters about 3 days after we cross the border! You can bet we’ll stop for a similar shot I’ll be sharing with you!

Lots of folks are asking about this trip…I realize it’s a bit much for most people to just stop what they’re doing, hop on a motorcycle, and buzz the Baja peninsula for a week…but so many people want to know all the details I thought I would share our emails planning the trip.   Here’s one I sent to John, J, Arlene, and Simon earlier this evening…

J, J, S, and A:

One option to consider…how would you feel about departing on the 10^th (that’s a Friday) instead of the 11th?  We could either leave early in the morning, or we could leave mid-afternoon, get to the border around 5:00 p.m., and ride down to Rosarito Beach to spend the night there (it’s halfway between TJ and Ensenada, and it would give us a big jump on the first full day’s ride into the interior).  The Rosarito Beach hotel is a cool place to stay and there’s a 5-star well-hidden restaurant I especially like in Rosarito Beach.  Please let me know at your earliest convenience regarding leaving on the 10^th.

Don’t buy any insurance for Mexico just yet…I will send details to you on that shortly.

You will need a current passport to get back into the US; I believe you all have a passport.

J, John, and Simon, you are probably going to want to get in town here the day before we leave (especially if we go for an early morning departure).  Please let me know when you plan to arrive in our area at your earliest convenience.

It’s a certainty we’ll be searched; there are lots of checkpoints along our route.  The Mexican infantry units manning these checkpoints are polite and the young kids carrying those .308 assault rifles are always interested in the bikes, so it’s not scary or anything.  But we will have our stuff searched.

Within reason, don’t worry about having too much to carry.   We have J and his Power Wagon, so we will be carrying very little on our California Scooters.   Please don’t pack like you’re moving, but we should have enough capacity with J’s truck for each of us to bring a reasonable amount of stuff.  We’ll be on the road about a week.  I usually bring old clothes that I discard along the way, and I’ll usually wear a pair of jeans for 2 or 3 days before I toss them.  In the next day or so, I’ll shoot you the list of what we normally pack on these trips.  My strong advice is that you bring a camera and good motorcycle rain gear (I’m not expecting rain this time of year, but you never know).

Folks, I can’t wait.   But you probably can tell that from my earlier posts. 

More to come…