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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64480
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
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The passing of a true friend, Neal Johns aka "Aridologist" (memorial service 2-1-20)
With great sadness, I was just informed that our favorite 'aridologist', Neal Johns, has passed on to the great frontier.
We wish his wife, Marian, to have all the love we can pass on to her and that his many "wives in waiting (WIW)" as well as all his male friends share
warm wishes to her in this time of sadness.
Neal hasn't posted in a while as he became unable to use the keyboard easily. He last posted here three years ago and in 2016 posted photos of their
home that survived the fire in Lytle Creek.
In my book, I included a photo of Neal and Marian that they gave me from the cross rock on El Camino Real:
We met up with Neal and Marian near Mission San Borja in 2001:
Neal often joined along on our trips... such as the Lost Mission Search of 2001. He extracted a cholla cactus from David Eidell's leg on that one!
Our last trip with Neal was in 2010 on the Nomad trip to Mission Santa María...
The day before we go to the mission, having dinner at Baja's Best in El Rosario. That is Teddi ('Baja Bucko') next to Neal.
HB Murphy chats with Neal.
Neal Johns making the road better.
Neal was very responsible for my buying a Tacoma. Here he is taking a heavy pop up camper with his, to the mission.
Neal at Mission Santa María.
Vaya Con Dios mi amigo!
[Edited on 2-2-2020 by David K]
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Ken Cooke
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8921
Registered: 2-9-2004
Location: Riverside, CA
Member Is Offline
Mood: Black Trans Lives Matter
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What a surprise! I am very sorry to hear this. Vaya con Dios amigo Neal. DEP! In 2004, Neal showed me the route that he called, The Pole Line
Road." I later visited his home and he showed me his Baja book collection,and we had some BBQ chicken with his wife Marian. Good times I will never
forget.
[Edited on 12-28-2019 by Ken Cooke]
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John M
Super Nomad
Posts: 1906
Registered: 9-3-2003
Location: California High Desert
Member Is Offline
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A good friend...
Barbara and I are profoundly saddened by this. We've known Neal and Marian for thirty years, bummed around the Mojave more times than we can remember.
We learned early on that when Neal would caution us to "trust me" we did just that.
It was probably two months ago that we visited with Neal and Marian at their home. Neal wasn't too communicative but he had his sense of humor and the
twinkle in his eyes when he'd tell a story.
May he rest in peace.
John & Barbara Marnell
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Graham
Senior Nomad
Posts: 558
Registered: 6-16-2006
Location: San Diego and DeTour, MI
Member Is Offline
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Thanks for passing on the sad news and the tribute David... echo all your thoughts. Neal was a great character, and what a sense of humor!
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Barry A.
Select Nomad
Posts: 10007
Registered: 11-30-2003
Location: Redding, Northern CA
Member Is Offline
Mood: optimistic
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Very sad to hear this. Many thanks for the info, David. Neal was a rock, and a fountain of info on both Baja and the SW USA, and I admired him
greatly.
Barry
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BajaBlanca
Select Nomad
Posts: 13165
Registered: 10-28-2008
Location: La Bocana, BCS
Member Is Offline
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RIP
Sorry I never got to meet you.
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Paulina
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3810
Registered: 8-31-2002
Location: BCN
Member Is Offline
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I will always treasure my title of WIW#1, and miss my friend Kneal. Yes, I put the K there on purpose. Do yourself a favor and search out some of
Neal's past posts. What a sense of humor he had. I still look for Stick Lizards and try not to get caught up in northward Zard marches, all because of
that great man. Rest In Peace, Neal.
Marian, my thoughts are with you. Peace.
P>*)))>{
\"Well behaved women rarely make history.\" Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
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BornFisher
Super Nomad
Posts: 2103
Registered: 1-11-2005
Location: K-38 Santa Martha/Encinitas
Member Is Offline
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Very sorry to hear this. Although I never met him, through his posts and from what others have posted over the years, I feel like I knew him. He was a
treasure, I was a fan. RIP Neal.
"When you catch a fish, you open the door of happiness."
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Paco Facullo
Super Nomad
Posts: 1301
Registered: 1-21-2017
Location: Here now
Member Is Offline
Mood: Abiding ..........
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Yes the passing of a great Man from the greatest generation ...
Sad that such a bundle of knowledge and experiences leaves us but happy that he sheared his life with so many.
Never had the fortune to me Neal bur sure wish I had..
Since I've given up all hope, I feel much better
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thebajarunner
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3687
Registered: 9-8-2003
Location: Arizona....."Free at last from crumbling Cali
Member Is Offline
Mood: muy amable
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Always enjoyed his posts.
He had more "Wives in Waiting" than the entire LeBaron gang
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TMW
Select Nomad
Posts: 10659
Registered: 9-1-2003
Location: Bakersfield, CA
Member Is Offline
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Condolences to Marian. God speed Neal.
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64480
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
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One of Neal's favorite sayings was, "If you come to a fork in the road and don't take it, God will get you" as he was a serious Desert Explorer (and
belonged to a group by that name, often writing for their newsletter. Neal also wrote for Discover Baja Travel Club. It was one of these articles
about the 1942 Pole Line Road that got Ken Cooke interested in checking it out and has since organized several Jeep (and other 4x4) tours of it.
Neal Johns served on a Navy ship, a WWII veteran as far as I know, and after leaving the navy, never wanted to be on or near the ocean again! The
desert was just the place for him!
El Camote has some fun footage of Neal Johns during one of our group trips in 2001 and perhaps more? It was during my first search for a lost mission
south of L.A. Bay and was a great day for all of us. Paulina, Mike Humfreville, Desert Rat, David Eidell, plus other Amigos de Baja were all along on
that adventure.
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64480
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
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A Neal Johns Trip Story from 1980, posted here in 2014
Neal replied to one of my Shell Island trip reports:
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posted on 1-5-2014 at 09:35 AM
Yes, DK, I remember Shell Island....
Baja's Shell Island Adventure (1980)
I had discovered the remote Baja beach (now named Shell Island by David K) poking around the area the year before in my Land Cruiser. The two-track
off the old road between San Felipe and Puertecitos had looked inviting, so I took it. My religion is simple, if you pass a desert side road without
taking it, God will get you! After a few miles, we (my girlfriend and I) arrived on the edge of a muddy lagoon separating some sand dunes from the
mainland. We had lunch while we tried to decide whether to drive through the mud or not. We could see that the two-track continued but my chicken
blood was running into my brain. Just then a Jeep passed us with a smirk, and drove on through to the dunes. That was it! No darn Jeep can show up a
Land Cruiser! We crossed with no problems even if our Tru-Traks (remember TruTraks? The BFGs of yesteryear) clogged up.
Surprise! There was a pristine beach on the other side of the dunes with no one in sight except way down south. Hundreds of shells littered the beach
and we had lots of time to look at them because for every revolution of the tires, we moved forward about two feet. Airing down the tire pressure
helped but there was still a lot of slippage. After camping the night, we went on to other things.
Move the clock up a year and I am poking around Baja with two buddies, one with a Jeep CJ-5 and the other in another Land Cruiser. Nightfall
approached and I declared "I know a great place to camp!". It took us a while to get there and it was dark with no moon. The lagoon was full and the
two-track disappeared under the water. Said I: " No problem, I have been here before and if you stay on the track, there won't be any problem, just
follow me". That's when things started to go terribly wrong.
I took off in low range with the two guys behind me and things went OK until the unseen underwater "road" bent right, and I didn't. I started to bog
down and screamed the infamous words "Pass me on the right!" just before I got stuck. The Jeep did so and went two more car lengths before he got
stuck. We heard on the CB the other Land Cruiser say he was stopping. There was a loud silence before they started cursing at me. The other Land
Cruiser was stuck also. The Jeep had a winch on the front bumper which was of little use because we were behind him. I had a small portable winch
which we hooked up to his trailer hitch on the Jeep to pull him backwards a ways. As the winch owner, they let me stand in the foot of brackish water
and operate the controls. What could go wrong, it was only 12 volts? My screams told the others that the kickback voltage from the motor windings was
more that 12 volts and that experiment quickly ended. Next, we broke out the Hi-Lift jacks and pushed some large jack boards down into the mud without
moving the Land Cruiser upward. By that time it was midnight and we decided to sleep in the vehicles until daylight. They didn't sleep too well
because they thought the rising tide would bury them alive. A few crabs in the water and mud did little to calm their fears.
The next day's vista was very informative. If we had continued straight the way we were going, we would have been in the unseen mud flat on the edge
of the dunes which was much worse that where we were. Guess we missed that right turn. We fooled around some more with the Hi-Lifts to no avail and
then turned our efforts to the Land Cruiser closest to the mainland. By burying the spare tire in the mud and using a come-along puller, we got him
out about noon. We drove back to San Felipe and tried to hire the large wheeled war-surplus boat launching vehicles to come and pull us out. No luck,
they had to remain there to pull the boats out. We then had to decide which would be better, a 400 foot rope, or some planks to serve as railroad
tracks. Eight foot long, two inch by twelve inch planks were decided upon and we went to the lumberyard on the main drag. They sawed them to length by
hand and we loaded six of them on the Land Cruiser fenders/running boards.
Back at the lagoon in the late afternoon, we set to work getting the Jeep out. For some reason, they vetoed getting my vehicle out first. We pounded
nails into the boards and bent them over to give more traction to the soon to be muddy "railroad tracks" and started to work. Using the boards as
giant jack boards for the Hi-Lift, we managed to get the wheels started up on four "tracks" and laid two more boards behind them. The plan was to go
like heck backwards until the Jeep ran out of track and then pray. We must not have prayed to the right Gods because as soon as the Jeep got off the
boards it would go only about 50 feet, and had no steering control whatever. Oh well, only 350 feet to go. The boards that we could manhandle and lift
so easily early on, took on a life of their own toward the second midnight. The suction from the mud on a heavy eight foot by 12 inch board was all we
could overcome toward the end. We got the Jeep out at midnight and my former friends camped on the warm, dry, sand and informed me that "if" they were
around the next morning, "maybe" they would help me out.
The next morning, the water had gone down a little and we started on my Land Cruiser. Around dark, we and our aching backs had it almost out so we
quit and they again camped in tents on the sand while I spent another night in the Land Cruiser. The next day after a little more work, we all headed
for San Felipe. We checked into Ruben's Camp where we proceeded to wash off the six inches of mud onto the gravel driveway. We got a few funny looks,
but it was a rustic campo at that time so we got away with it. When queried as to where we got the mud, we just shook our head and said "south". A few
months later, my former friends presented me with a tee shirt that said "Pass me on the right!"
Rumor has it that there is a causeway there now.
(Fact: The causeway bridge is high in the air and useless.)
My motto:
Never let a Dragon pass by without pulling its tail!
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Steve in Oro Valley
Nomad
Posts: 105
Registered: 11-14-2002
Location: Near Tucson
Member Is Offline
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Neal was my favorite, even though I never met him.. I am going into my 1000 yard stare. now...
Steve in Oro Valley
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pappy
Senior Nomad
Posts: 679
Registered: 12-10-2003
Member Is Offline
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Ah man...RIP.always looked forward to his posts. Was thinking of him, and one photo in particular. I was questioning if I could take my pop up camper
into a certain area and I recalled the photo posted years ago of him in his taco with pop up handling a tough road. It’s the photo posted above...
Sad to hear of his passing.....
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64480
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
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I host some of Neal Johns' Baja trip photos on VivaBaja.com...
Sept 2002 trip with friends: http://www.vivabaja.com/neal/index.html
Feb. 2003 trip with Marian: http://www.vivabaja.com/neal2/index.html
A sampling:
Neal in the 1940s
Graham Mackintosh's burro 'Misión' at Jim Dandy's in La Purísima.
Petroglyphs near Mulegé.
Near San Borja
The original La Virgen shrine on the old main road.
Neal breaks his toy!
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elgatoloco
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4323
Registered: 11-19-2002
Location: Yes
Member Is Offline
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Sad news. We did not know him really well but always enjoyed his posts and travel stories. We crossed paths with Neal once in Baja at Santa Ines
because I recognized him and his truck from the interwebs and we had to go over and introduce ourselves. We had a Callen camper shell at the time and
he showed us the many benefits of his pop up camper and how quickly you could shut down camp and get to the next fork in the road. We ended up getting
our own. Later we visited his house in the states that was up the creek and met Marian. The house was like a museum and reflected both of their unique
interests and personalities. We had a great time that day. I joked how my wife would love the desert more if there was water. I still have the AAA map
that Neal marked up with 'secret' and not so 'secret' springs, tinajas and the like. It was all new to me and I am grateful that he shared.
Condolences to Marian and all his family, friends and WIW.
RIP Neal.
MAGA
Making Attorneys Get Attorneys
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64480
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
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The Desert Explorers Newsletter just came out with wonderful tributes to Neal Johns... his life history and many photos.
I will try and see if I can post it here...
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Ken Cooke
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8921
Registered: 2-9-2004
Location: Riverside, CA
Member Is Offline
Mood: Black Trans Lives Matter
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Quote: Originally posted by David K  | The Desert Explorers Newsletter just came out with wonderful tributes to Neal Johns... his life history and many photos.
I will try and see if I can post it here...
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Do you know where I can get a copy of this newsletter?
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64480
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
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From any Desert Explorer member.
I was sent it from a Nomad member. I asked him about posting it here. I think all friends of Neal (and even those who didn't know him) will appreciate
seeing it.
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