TMW - 11-22-2009 at 09:35 PM
Crossed the border at Mexicali Wednesday evening with my friend BJ. Arrived in San Felipe and had dinner at Georges and spent the night at the El
Capitan hotel. Not much happening in town. Up the next morning and after breakfast stopped by to visit friends and then headed out to check out the
pit area at Borrego. BFG and Yokahoma tractor trailers just arriving. Decided to head over to Ensenada.
Arrived early afternoon and checked into the Desert Inn hotel. Walked around contingency for a couple of hours. Bumped into some friends and had a few
margritas. Dinner at the Bronco steak house then off to the rider/drivers meeting at the convention center. Arrived a little late and caught the tail
end. Met a movie producer who plans to make a feature length picture of the 1000 and he was hanging with many of the riders and drivers. The producer
said LR had crashed pretty bad and probably would not drive with Norman in the Trophy Truck. Reading the post race comments LR did. Met Johnny
Campbell and noticed the cast on his right hand, no race for him.
The morning of the race I went down for the start of the bikes. I gave my best wishes to 600x and 601x, us old guys got to provide support. 201A was
an all girls ATV team although the entry list said it was a 50 or 60 yr old guy there was what appeared to be 4 teenage girls. The last ATV was an
older guy with enough stuff on the thing to spend a week on course. I was surprised to see several women bike/ATV racers.
Back to the hotel to clean up and get BJ out of bed and have breakfast. Over to the ditch for the Trophy Truck start. Unlike previous races there was
no jump in the wash at least as far as we could see. From pictures posted in the Off Road section it must have been further down. There were people
throwing batches of hats then what looked like stars the size of a paper plate to the crowds. The drop into the wash was a alittle different. The
bridge had been remodeled and a new ramp was built to drive into the wash. No 90 degree turn in the wash to throw dirt, sorry RG. After the class 12
cars were coming threw we went back and checked out of the hotel and got on the road to Borrego.
Stopped at the Loco Mocos taco pit. Great food for a great cause. Decided to run over to the entry point onto Diablo dry lake. Bob Bower had a group
of people BFG was entertaining for the 1000 and they were there watching. Watched several bikes, ATVs, Trucks and cars go by. Back to Borrego to the
Checkers pit and heard Stuart Chase had run off the course and down a hill around RM34 and was way back. Decided the go into San Felipe for dinner.
Another great steak at El Ninos. Then down to RM310 to the Checkers pit. Hung out there for a while and Roy Ward came in for a gas and go looking
good. About 11pm I called it a night and went to the hotel.
We stayed at the Don Jesus hotel which is behind El Capitan. Great parking area and the rooms were clean etc. But the guy that designed the bathroom
needs a refresher course. They put the toilet so that when you open the door it hits it. In other word you open the door and go in then shut the door
to use the toilet. If they had put it in the corner no problem. Also there is no light above the sink. The hotel resturant had an excellent breakfast.
It's Saturday morning and while listening to weatherman on the radio we head back to Borrego. People packing to leave. Got a race update from the BFG
pit people. Went on up the hwy to the San Matais wash and jumped onto the race course to see what the wash was like. A lot of soft sand. At Trinidad
we went back to the Baja Pits pit. A class 10 car and class 7 truck came in for gas. We left and I decided to show BJ the Goat Trail. We leave
Trinidad and hit the Goat Trail. About a 100 yards up there is a very large rock on the right to get around and another rather large on ther left to
get over. Being in a full size extended cab GMC truch it took a little work but I did it. The Toyota would have been much easier. The cattle guard was
not a problem. Near the top we met a cowboy on horseback. A few miles into the trail we came upon a ranch house which I don't remember being there
before. Three men were outside by a truck, we waved and went on. Back to hwy 3.
At this point it's near 4pm we decided to make a run for the border. We took the Laguna Hanson turn off of hwy 3 and run up the El Compadre trail.
Soon we were stopped by the military at a check point. On our way again and at the Laguna Hanson turn off there were maybe 6 or 8 people on horseback.
Look to be tourist types probaly from the resort near there. On we go past the Indian village. At the Casa Verde jct is another military check point.
On again and a few miles before the El Compadre ranch was yet another military check point. This time one of the young soldiers looks into the cooler
and spots some 24 oz cans of Hurricane malt liquor. There are three of them and they are laughning like little kids so I give them each one. They
looked pretty young so I figure this will give them a buzz. The rest of the military was about 200 yards away at their camp in the trees. These three
guys were in a hole with a fire. I hope they don't get into too much trouble if their commander finds them a little tipsy.
We left the soldiers and make it to Santa Veronica for dinner. Then on to the border at Tecate. Had a 15-20 minutes wait.
This was just a fun trip to watch the 1000 and we did have fun and got to meet some friends I haven't seen in a while.
[Edited on 11-23-2009 by TW]
capt. mike - 11-23-2009 at 09:38 AM
wow you covered a lot of real estate TW! thx.
i was arm chair again.
David K - 11-23-2009 at 09:45 AM
Thanks Tom... You really covered a lot of ground!
Udo - 11-23-2009 at 10:06 AM
WOW
That was a lot of driving Tom!
Nice report for us armchairs.