Baja Bernie - 3-27-2008 at 06:54 AM
A trip report of course—of sorts
Amazing just how great these Nomad folks do be. Invited I was down to the Vermillion Sea to spend a day, a week or a month just lying about along its
shores from Los Barriles—just had to visit Don Jimmy Smiths resting place by the side of the road where he greets each passing soul—to Buena Vista,
Rancho Leonero, La Ribera and finally Punta Colorada.
Please don’t ask why I would waste my precious time lollygagging around these most famous and sun drenched throw-backs to a far better and slower
paced places—why does one climb a mountain does come to mind. So many wonderful offers that I couldn’t refuse so I began to plan a trip of huge
portions. I checked and everybody said I had chosen the most ideal month of the year to visit all of these folks I had come to know over the years.
April was to be my invasion month. I would spend a few days with this old friend and then a week down that way with another—you all know how it
goes—the invites just kept coming in to the point that I was forced to begin culling through them because I only had a month of days to fill and
almost as many nights. I must be sure to be there for a full moon because I have heard of her rising over the Sea of Cortez since I was a youngin’
and that be a ton of years ago.
Okay! So after much research and work I had my trip figured and began to contact all those lovely folks who had made such wonderful offers of
hospitality to this old guy. Amazing how many of them had family dropping in at the exact second that I had planned to stop by. One lovely lady
secretly told me that her husband had been on a toot for over a month and that she could not possibly spare any time for me because she would be
trying to sober the slob up and that he just might become upset at my presence—all of this six weeks before I had penciled her offer in on my dance
card.
Ah! Their hearts be in the correct place and I will still stop by and visit—over a quick Pacifico and then away before they can throw me out.
So! By now I think you get my drift. I began to scale back on my trip and started to arrange my own lodging when I was contacted by a couple of
folks in that city of peace up north a bit.. They wanted to know if I could make it there for a few days and if so they would arrange a great party
of all the Nomads who hang together in La Paz. That was extremely tempting in the beginning but he petered out about the same way that things did on
the East Cape.
Then all of a sudden I am contacted by a guy—Ed, Dale, or what ever his real name is—who I used to work with in the Cop Shop so many years ago that he
had to remind me just who he was.
Anyway, he suggested that if I shared driving time with him as he transported a car to a Mexican friend somewhere on the Cape that he could secure a
weeks free lodging—somewhere down there.
I did have some reservations because I had planned to fly over what we all have begin to know as “No Man’s Land—Baja Norte. Look he said, “Between us
we stand about 13 feet tall and weight about 550 pounds and both of us still have that hard nosed look of cops who have seen it all and know how to
handle ourselves.” Wow, right I vaguely remember what he is talking about—sorta like that guy of old—Pablo Bunyan and his ‘buey azul’ (for you
language challenged folks that is—blue ox). Who would mess with these old fools.
Besides we would be driving a quarter century old van that no self respecting crook would bother with—it would take a week to get it clean and then it
would probably only bring about a hundred bucks or so on the less than open market.
So I accept this guys, whoever he is, wonderful offer and we etch our trip in stone. Day one was to see us leaving Chula Vista with the first night
seeing us in Guerrero Negro. Well, Darn! We didn’t get there because we didn’t leave when we were scheduled to because the car need some last
minutes things—like brakes and tires—so I am sitting here starting this trip that really should begin tomorrow without any understanding for where we
will be staying nor even when we will get there.
Yeah! I know, the perfect way to see Baja—at a hundred miles an hour in a vehicle that has no papers and which, gloriously will not be used on our
return trip whenever that will be.
I do know that we will be stopping in La Paz to buy return tickets on a Mexican commuter flight that only flies into Tijuana on odd days. From there
we will catch the Greyhound Bus across the border and back into the U.S. where we will take the Tijuana Trolley back to Chula Vista.
So what more I need to know? I know about when we will start and how and I do know, almost, when we will return and how. The in between stuff will
be fun and a surprise for all of us.
Oh! I was going to post reports of my trip as I found my place wherever I landed. BUT a very good friend has begun to forget things so I gave her my
laptop so she could post things that happened real time so she would know where she was and who she had been talking with.
I will scribble notes and should I really return home then I will attempt to decode my notes and post the middle of my trip for our enjoyment.
Baja! I just love it. Viva Nomads (remember most of what I write is with tongue firmly in cheek)!
Los Barriles, Buena Vista
longlegsinlapaz - 3-27-2008 at 12:09 PM
Keep in mind two old adages: 1. Fish & guests & the 3 day rule! 2. Spontaneity ain't all bad!
So which side of the border are you on at this very moment?
Footloose &
fancy-free can have it's own merit!
Long legs
Baja Bernie - 3-27-2008 at 01:12 PM
The North side and I suppose it also has its own rewards.
Eli - 3-27-2008 at 05:56 PM
Bernie,
I anxiously await your arrival. Let us know when you finally hit the road. There are internet cafes all along the way. See YOU soon, Sara
This goes with the one I just posted on the Eastcape
Baja Bernie - 3-29-2008 at 05:26 PM
Eli,
I am really looking forward to watching you perform in the Shakespeare Festival, visiting your gallary and just plain visiting........it has been far
to long.
Paulina - 3-29-2008 at 06:48 PM
Bernie,
I'm sorry that we didn't run into each other in Bahia this time around, but like I said, I'll take a rain check.
Regarding your adventure; sometimes the most memorable are the least planned.
P<*)))><