June 8 to 11
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I left Palapas Ventana and headed north. Riding through this part of Baja California is BORING. Lots of straight flat roads, sagebrush, and cactus.
At this point, because of timing and the fact that there really isn’t anything of real interest in this part of Baja (at least not at this time of year) I was just trying to crank out the miles to get to the US.
We did have a celebration along the way, however. My trusty steed, El Pinguino, turned forty thousand… miles, that is.
Of course, we pulled over to celebrate. I toasted his longevity and perseverance with a libation of water, and annointed El Pintguino’s windshield in honor of the occasion, and we both contemplated what the hell we were doing out herein the middle of the desert in 110 degree heat. We came to the conclusion that we were there because I am completely mad, but since we couldn’t do anything to change that on we went to spend the night in Loreto.
The next day (June 9) I continued north in the 100+ heat, at least until I started approaching Guerrero Negro. At this point the road curves in towards the Pacific, just above Scanlon’s Lagoon, which is famous for the grey whales that breed there in the winter. Suddenly I hit a cold front, and I mean it was like suddenly walking into a freezer. Within ten minutes (and this is accurate… I measured) the temperature dropped from 105 degrees to 74 degrees! All of a sudden I went from sweating to freezing my buns off.
After a night in Guerrero Negro I had another cold day of riding to Ensenada, where I spent the night in a motel “with options”: That is, the option of paying for a room for two hours or all night! No… no other options were available! I opted to pay for the entire night, and in the morning headed for Tijuana and the US border.June 11 - Into the US- The line in Tijuana to cross the border into the US was about three hours long (as I was informed by someone sitting in a car as he shot visual daggers in my direction). Fortunately, bikes aren’t restricted by such mundane restriction as lines. Rather, we take advantage of helpful little things like breaks in barriers, sidewalks, grass, and any little gap between cars. Using all these I managed to find myself within about two vehicles of the US border in about 20 minutes. Wonderful… except for the fact that I had never completed the paperwork to exit Mexico! This might not be a problem for most day-trippers to Tijuana, but I had paid a $300 deposit when I entered Mexico from Belize to assure that I would take my bike back out of the country and I had to visit Mexican customs to make sure I would get my money back. However, there’s no going backwards in the never-ending surge of vehicles to the US border! When I asked the US customs agent what I could do, he said “get on the 805 freeway, make a U turn a couple of miles up the road, and go back to Mexico”. Not my preferred solution, but that’s what I did.
After re-entering Mexico I found the right office to get my documents cleared (not, by the way, right at the border), canceled my temporary import permit, and went back through the maze to the US, where they checked my passport again and declared me a non-terrorist allowed to enter my own country.
Now I was driving in the US, and I have to say it frightened the hell out of me much more than central America or Mexico. I can deal with traffic and curvy roads, but who came up with this idea of 12 lanes of cars going 70 miles an hour until they all create a traffic jam and stop at the same time! This shit is scary! No wonder there’s road rage.
But I survived, and made it as far as La Jolla, to spend the night with one of my oldest friends, Fred Steiniger and his wife Laura. Fortunately, they had an adequate liquor supply, of which I was in desperate need and we had a nice visit until Fred had to leave to take care of a family emergency in Tucson.
I spent the day getting new tires for El Pinguino (the 3rdset this trip), and headed up the road a bit to Carlsbad to spend a very nice night with our niece Audrey and her boyfriend Justin.
On the 13th I headed up to Los Angeles for a week of visiting my family.
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