Buffalo’s Baja photos (and a bit more)…

Our good buddy Buffalo, as you read earlier, is an artist.  I had not met Buffalo before this Baja adventure when his cousin Tim told me that Buffalo wanted to ride with us.   Both of these guys had purchased new RX3s, and Tim had already signed up for the Baja ride.  My first reaction when Tim told me about Buffalo was yeah, right, but I need the guy’s real name.

“His real name is Buffalo,” Tim told me.

Whatever, I thought.  Buffalo it would be.

Here’s one of Buffalo’s photos in Baja.  That’s Buffalo on the left and his cousin Tim on the right…

I knew Buffalo was going to be an interesting guy almost immediately.  He was traveling to Azusa from Des Moines and he transported his RX3 (after a few modifications) in the back of his minivan.  I saw this photo on Facebook and thought to myself that this is going to be fun…

When I first met Buffalo at the shop the day before the Baja ride, I thought he was Tim.   I hadn’t seen Tim in a month or so and I thought maybe he had grown a beard.  The two guys look that much alike.

So like I said earlier, Buffalo is the real deal, and his talents go beyond painting to include photography.   I asked Buffalo if I could share his photos on the CSC blog, he said okay, and I’m featuring them in this post.  This is going to be fun, folks.

This photo shows a fleet of orange RX3s parked in front of Mama Espinosa’s in El Rosario…

I think this one is in Ensenada on our first night in Mexico…

This is one of Buffalo’s selfies, somewhere on the Transpeninsular Highway…

These next three photos, I believe, are on the salt marshes near Scammon’s Lagoon in Guerrero Negro…

The next several are from our foray to the Sierra San Francisco cave paintings.  The first one is on the road heading east into the mountains.  That ride was glorious.  I think the rider you see in the photo below is me.

This one is from the Las Casitas courtyard in Mulege.  Our good buddy Javier let us bring the bikes into the courtyard.  I think this is the best hotel in all of Baja…

This photo is along the Bahia Concepcion shoreline…

…and this one is in front of the mission in Loreto…

We had street tacos in Tecate on our last night in Baja, and Buffalo took this shot of meat cooking on the rotisserie (they call it al pastor)…

Buffalo grabbed a shot in Tecate the morning we left.   If it looks cold and wet, it sure was…it was 41 degrees that morning and raining!

Buffalo posted this map he put together showing our route…

One of the great things about these CSC multi-day adventure rides is you get to know the people you are traveling with.  So here’s the deal:  Tim (who you see in the photo at the top of this blog) is Buffalo’s cousin.  Tim bought an RX3 and planned to ride Baja with us, and he told Buffalo he needed to do the same.   Buffalo bought the motorcycle, having never owned nor ridden a motorcycle before.  He took a motorcycle riding class and put 300 miles on his RX3 before packing the bike in his minivan and driving to Azusa.  Imagine that:  Buying a motorcycle, having no riding experience, taking a riding class, and setting out on a 2000-mile adventure ride in Mexico.  Like I said earlier, this guy is the real deal.

I asked Buffalo on our second or third night in Baja what he did, and his first response was that he pretty much did whatever he wanted to.  I pressed the question a bit (being the nosy dude I am), and Buffalo told me he was an artist.  I then asked (being the smartass I am) if he was famous, and I could tell by the body language that Buffalo was unsure how to answer that one.   Hmmm, I thought, I’ll bet this guy is famous.  So that night I Googled “Buffalo Bonker” and what do you know, I found his website.  I spent some time on it and I was impressed.   Today, in assembling this blog, I came across a Buffalo Bonker interview, and it is a bit more revealing about our good buddy…

 

Now I understood…if you really are famous, how do you answer when somebody asks if you are? Imagine that…we were traveling with a true artist.  And just so you know, we actually found out how Buffalo got his name (watch the video; we did better than the reporter who asked the same question).  But we’re going to keep that secret.

One of the things I talked about in Moto Baja! was that folks who buy the RX3 and go on these rides with us tend to be extremely interesting people.   Buffalo and everyone who has ridden Mexico with us make that point.