A 357-Mile Day!

Folks, this will be the last blog entry from Baja…we ran a romping, stomping, perfect 357 miles today on our California Scooters, and we are only 180 miles south of the border.  Yep, we ran over 1800 miles so far, all the way down to Cabo San Lucas and back up to our digs for tonight.   That would be the little town of San Quintin on the Pacific Ocean.  We’re staying in the Hotel Maria Celeste, which is a place that popped up since my last trip down here.  The hotel has wireless Internet service, but it’s not working properly.   I’m typing this on a flash drive and I’ll try entering it from the hotel lobby later tonight.

So, about that 357 miles…it’s our longest day by far (pardon the pun).  We were up about an hour before sunrise way down in San Ignacio, and we left at first light.  We stayed up late last night changing a tire on my bike (I ripped it up somewhere between Cabo and San Ignacio).   After J and John replaced my tire, we checked the oil on all the bikes.  We also checked the nuts and bolts that we’ve found have a tendency to loosen with the kind of abuse we’re giving our bikes.  I’ll point these out in a subsequent blog entry, but I can tell you there’s nothing unusual in this regard with California Scooters.   I’ve had the same kinds of issues on my Triumphs, my KLR 650, and my Harleys.   Motorcycles vibrate and things loosen.  It comes with the territory.  It’s part of the fun. 

We’ve been on the road a little more than a week now, and as you know from reading our previous blogs, the weather in the last few days has been hellish.   Hellish with humidity, actually.   Our journey took us below the Tropic of Cancer, and the heat and humidity have been rough…not on the machines, and maybe not on all of the guys, but certainly on me.   Simon hasn’t been bothered by it (he said it was a lot worse when he rode across India).  I’m not used to that kind of heat and humidity, though, and I was not feeling too good about another day with temperatures over 100 degrees and sticky humidity.  

My mother always told me to be careful what you wish for, and today certainly proved her warning to be right on the money.  When we left San Ignacio, the air had that pre-dawn heaviness that promises misery, but then a funny thing happened.   We went through the military checkpoint just north of San Ignacio, and a few miles down the road, we had a heavy marine layer.   That’s fog that’s just few hundred feet above ground, so it was cool and we had good visibility.  Wow, this is nice, I thought.   I reckoned it would burn off in 20 or 30 minutes, and then we’d get the high temperatures and humidity I dreaded, but the marine layer stayed with us all the way to Guerrero Negro and beyond.   After riding about 50 miles, I realized I was cold.  It felt wonderful to be cold.  For a while.  Then I realized I was really cold.   As in cold enough to pull over, dig out my jacket liner, and layer up.  That was just the ticket.   It felt perfect.   No glare and cool air.  We rode the next 40 miles or so to Guerrero Negro feeling great.  The bikes purred.

After a great breakfast at Guerrero Negro, we were on the road again.   The guys in the Malarrimo’s restaurant did their usual outstanding job for us.   Incidentally, if you ever head down this way, Malarrimo’s is my preferred spot for whale watching tours.  I’ve done several, and Malarrimo’s is the best.   The hotel and the restaurant are nice, too. 

After topping off the Scooters in town, we expected to be stopped at the Immigration checkpoint just north of Guerrero Negro, but the Mexican officers just waved us through.   Sometimes they stop you and sometimes they don’t.   Today, we got a pass.

We continued to enjoy the cool weather for another 30 miles.  The marine layer lifted and the temperature climbed back up to 101 degrees.   It was dry, though.   We were back in the Vizcaino Desert.  Hot, you bet. Humidity, not today.   It was a lot more tolerable than what we’d been through in the last few days.

Before we realized it, we were in the boulder fields around Catavina.  J told us we  had covered 168 miles already.  We stopped at Catavina’s Desert Inn for lunch (we stayed there on the way down).  You gotta try their tortilla soup (it’s great).   It was hot outside, but the restaurant has massive doors at both ends.   With the doors open, we had a nice breeze.  Simon said he wanted to get more photos, so we took it slow for the next half hour and Simon shot mpegs for his publishers.

From Catavina we continued north through the Vizcaino Desert.  It’s desert punctuated by mountain ranges, and that means twisties.   John and I wicked it up a bit…we ran through the twisties at speeds up to 65 mph.  With the Scooter’s hardtail configuration, spring-mounted solo saddle, and wide bars, I felt like Gary Nixon or Bart Markel (I’m dating myself here; they were the leading flat-trackers in the ‘60s and ‘70s).  The Scooters were purring perfectly.  It was a grand ride. 

John and I have been exploring Baja on motorcycles for close to 20 years now.  He’s an easy guy to travel with, and he always laughs at all of my jokes (so I naturally like the guy…a lot).  We’ve done the cruiser thing, we’ve had other bikes, and we both ride KLR 650 Kawasakis.  And, we both love California Scooters.   He’s been a great guy on this (and other) trips, and he’s another guy that just doesn’t let the small stuff bother him.   He’s a great engineer, too, and his insights on this trip are going to be very helpful to us.

My good friend John Welker getting ready for the day's ride

I know this cool spot overlooking the mountains just south of El Rosario, and we stopped so I could get a photo of John, Simon, J, the bikes, and the Power Wagon. 

Simon, J, and John at the northern edge of the Vizcaino Desert

J’s Power Wagon is an amazing vehicle with awesome capabilities (much like its owner).  J has been enormously helpful on this trip.  Cool, calm, unflappable, articulate, and just a joy to travel with.  We’ve worked together before in a company that manufactured sails for ocean racing yachts, and I hope to work with him again in the future.  The guy is incredibly bright. 

Two amazingly competent entities...J Brandon and his Power Wagon

After grabbing the above photos, we stopped in El Rosario at the world famous Mama Espinosa’s restaurant.   With his fluency in Spanish, Simon was quite a hit with ladies in Mama Espinosa’s.  After Simon mesmerized our waitress, she turned to me, expecting me to be as fluent.  I told her (in English) that I taught Simon to speak Spanish. 

Simon is another amazing guy.  As you know, he’s the dude who rode down to Tierra del Fuego and back on a 125cc pizza delivery bike a couple of years ago, and then across India on a similar machine last year.   Now he can add buzzing the Baja peninsula in its entirety on a 150cc California Scooter to his resume.  Simon’s going to be 78 in a few months, but I don’t think of him as a guy in his 70s who still rides motorcycles.  I just think of him as a great writer who loves to travel internationally on bikes…a guy who is probably the world’s most knowledgeable person on small-motorcycle long-distance touring. 

Simon Gandolfi on a California Scooter somewhere in Baja (photo by John Welker)

After a great dinner at Mama Espinosa’s, we were back on the road again for the 40 mile sprint to San Quintin.  That’s where I am now as I type this blog entry.  As I said earlier, the wireless service isn’t working, so I’m going to try uploading this from the lobby.

Tomorrow, we make our break for the border.  It’s been a grand ride, but it will be good to be home.