BajaNomad

First Drives

TSThornton - 6-23-2022 at 09:28 AM

Not a recent trip report, but just a couple of pics from my first drives down. Anyone else?



Spring 1988. Non-stop from Denver to this abandoned unfinished hotel a little north of San Felipe where we squatted for a week. I've half-heartedly tried to find this spot on the last couple of drives but have been unsuccessful. It's quite a bit more built out.



Spring 1989. Baja hook set. Non-stop from Denver except for an overnight in Ensenada to Playa Coyote south of Mulege. It's refreshingly essentially unchaged, except I don't think you can wade for clams and scallops like you could then.



Four dudes and camping gear in/on my highly capabale Baja rig, a '77 320i. It needed a little love. I had a good tool kit and help from the capable mechanics in town so no problem, but I spent quite a bit of time in this position.

pacificobob - 6-23-2022 at 10:06 AM

I drove a borgward goliath from la paz to TJ in the spring of 1969. It took 16 days. We wouldn't have made it without the kindness of strangers.

mtgoat666 - 6-23-2022 at 10:55 AM

My first drive was about 1970, when rents took us on vacation to Disneyland followed by trip to TJ and Rosarito, where we stayed at Rosarito Beach Hotel.

I next went to Rosarito 20 years later,... the hotel was no longer what I remembered, sad!

Nowadays, I avert my eyes when I drive by Rosarito...

I must be old coot, always complaining that things were better in the old days


WestyWanderer - 6-23-2022 at 09:21 PM

These will be the old days some day, enjoy them while you can.

May not be what it was, but likely much better than what it will be.

JZ - 6-23-2022 at 09:53 PM

In the 80's I went down to Rosarito with my parents and my sister who is 19 years older. I was about 12. Parents and I did a 2 month road trip from Ohio to Cali and back. My sister lived in SoCal.

Moved to LA in the mid-90's after college. Late 90's, early 00's we did a couple drives to Ensenada.

My first real drive in Baja was December 2002. Had been boating on the Pacific for a few years and one day my friend and I were drinking and looking at a map. We decided to trailer the boat down to San Felipe and do a long trip down the coast of Baja.

We made it 300 miles to Santa Rosalia before the North wind just started blowing out of control. Had to ride in a 1980 Datsun pickup to get my truck/trailer, drive back down, and pull the boat out of the water. I was hooked from then.

Pic of JZ taken a bit North of San Felipe. We left LA about midnight and drove all night.


[Edited on 6-24-2022 by JZ]

Lot's of first time memories...

David K - 6-24-2022 at 09:04 AM

My first trip to Baja... 1965, to Gonzaga Bay:



My first trip the full length of Baja, by Jeep, 1966:



My first time fishing for dorado, off Cabo (1966):





My first vehicle in Baja (modified Myers Manx VW) at 14:



My first non-parent camping trip, driving my buggy to Baja, at age 16 (1974):

Agua del Mezquitito waterhole

The original road to/from Gonzaga Bay.

sancho - 6-24-2022 at 09:31 AM

Quote: Originally posted by WestyWanderer  
These will be the old days some day, enjoy them while you can.

May not be what it was, but likely much better than what it will be.






X2, '83 or so after reading 'Peoples Guide to Mex', I was
in line at the TJ airport getting the last seat to Vallarta,
a guy came in had the last reservation. Ask the ticket taker
where was the bus depot. Coming down the Santa Rosalia
grade on the bus, the sun just coming up, had me then.
A nite at the Las Casita Mulege. The first trip was the most
memorable