David K - 8-8-2012 at 06:07 PM
As I get ready to publish a new book with my co-authors, I think back 38 years to the first full year the Baja Highway was open and how Americans had
no fear about Mexico the way they do today... anticipating a whole new breed of Baja travelers, no longer restricted to those with trucks and four
wheel drives.
There was no new guide to the completed highway, when I began putting together trip notes and drawing maps. Tom Miller would be the first to have one
for sale, 'The Baja Book' in 1974. I was approached by the publisher of a tourist/ traveler's magazine, after I wrote them of my plans and they had
seen my first book. They asked if they could publish my guide and make it part of a special edition of the magazine, that would be more book than
magazine. I said sure, but it would need to be revised and expanded.
My folks were very supportive of my desire to write a book on the new highway and other roads in Baja I have traveled the past year, once I could
drive myself... I was just 16 when I started work on the new guide. I had already self published a booklet on the new highway still under construction
in the summer of 1973, when I was 15. I sold every copy printed, at local book stores.
In the summer of 1974, we took a trip to the tip as well as some side trips then (Cabo Pulmo, San Javier, Todos Santos) to have a complete guide of
Highway One, and other roads.
The publisher cut short my prep time, so I didn't finish drawing all the maps, and there are some rough edits but, it was an experience in doing such
an endeavour and not too bad for a teenager...
Here is the cover, the intro page, a sample of the road-guide, and a sample of one of the maps... hand drawn, even the coastline was not traced...
This was published in January, 1975, I was 17.
Anyway, there may be some stuff of interest of how it looked to me as I traveled Baja in '73 and '74.