MEMORIAL DAY WEEKENDs in Baja... a few select photos
1999: First time to Mission Santa María, with BajaMur...
2003: Matomi/ San Fermin road with Max & Polly ('MacGyver' or 'GilaOro')...
2005: El Rosario beach/ La Lobera with Baja Angel...
2007: Mission Santa María, we go with the Squarecircle...
2008: Shell Island...
2009: Shell Island...
2010: Nomads to Mission Santa María...
Neal Johns had a differential failure shortly after leaving the mission. This was his final Baja camping trip that I am aware of. Neal passed away in
December 2019.
back in the eighty's the place to be was the legendary memorial day fiesta's at Alfies.......kind of fizzled out over the years for some reason?
[Edited on 5-24-2020 by del mar]
Things don't last, especially as one generation dies off... It is a sad thing! I was very young for the generation that drove to Cabo only on dirt
roads, pre-1973... and now many if not most only know of the peninsular drive on a paved Highway 1.
The Thanksgiving feast at Alfonsina's is what I enjoyed with my kids in 2002 and 2003. We camped at Brandi's Cantina de Floyd both times. Desert Bull
popped by in 2003. Sad that Brandi is gone, so young... Heck, her pilot friend Doug Bowles (I flew from Alfonsina's to Oceanside with him) is gone
too, flew into a mountain in bad weather with his grandson, a few years back. Ugh... sad times.
David, you are a modern day ESG ! Just WOW on the trip to Mission Santa María / oasis area. Another new one for me. Not quite the c-ckeyed optimists
of the 1700's Jesuits but the vehicles coming down the boulders is outrageous. I read your Bound article - yes, widowmaker, transmission buster , and
ball breaker can be added too I think. Is there a truck or two that have been abandoned? Hopefully not. You need a caravan of people to explore this
way.
The water in a desert always inspires me. I was told to my surprise Baja is loaded with water apparently. Close to the surface in fact. Actually
confirmed by hydrology science I do not know.
[Edited on 5-25-2020 by white whale]
This ain't no party, this ain't no disco, this ain't no foolin' aroundLife During Wartime
- Talking Heads '79
Mission Santa María is one of Baja's magic places (to me)!
Yes, water flows out of that mountain, year-round. It is also near the top of the mountain, so where is all that fresh water coming from???
Have you seen the videos made in 2010 of us Nomads going in?
Turn up the sound... on the Bog video... Zoom (Paul's lady) is hilariously funny when she hears that I am following them easily and screams as they
drop into the deep water! This is just 1/2 mile from the mission...
I would like to remember Neal Johns, a Korean War navy vet who traveled to Baja on our 2010 Memorial Weekend trip to Mission Santa María:
Neal and Baja Bucko at our dinner party (Ed Lusk's 'Baja's Best Restaurant', El Rosario) the night before we drove to "Mission Impossible"
Neal chats with Paul Murphy enroute to the mission.
On the peninsular divide, 4.5 miles from the mission.
Group photo L to R: Bajatripper (Steve & Zully), CG (Chris), Baja Angel (Elizabeth), Kurt G, Neal Johns, Baja Bucko (Teddi), edm1 (Art &
Maya), HB Murphy (Paul & Zoom).
After Art's motorhome, Neal's camper was the next heaviest rig.
Neal was right behind us, and we were #2 behind Paul.
Video: Following me is Neal Johns, coming down the Widowmaker. Getting Neal back up, the next day, would be the challenge!
At the mission, taking a break in the shade, after the hard drive. 3 hours to go 15 miles!
The next day, just a short distance away from the mission, Neal's custom rear differential blew out, and the front one alone couldn't pull all that
wait, so he needed to be pulled. There couldn't have been a more difficult road to pull a camper over... But there also couldn't have been a better
group of amigos to take that on in stride!
We finally quit about 1:30 am, and slept in our cars, having got Neal over the high point of the road.
CG stayed with Neal and was able to get him to El Rosario, where the differential was repaired with help from Antonio, Baja Cactus.
Neal left this world last December and several of us Nomads attended the memorial in February.
In this video from 2001 'BBBB-1' (produced by El Camote), Neal is at Minute 10:27+ and don't miss him at the end, Minute 22:22+ https://vimeo.com/389613694 (other Nomads and amigos are featured who are no longer here).
I wrote to Neal's wife, Marian to see how she is doing, having lost Neal plus the Covid-19 thing that has cancelled all the Desert Explorers trips she
so enjoys.
She corrected me on a couple of items, and I just edited my post above: Neal was a Korean War vet, not WWII and he and Marian went back to Baja
several times following his 2010 Mission Santa María trip with us.
Thanks Marian!
"If it were lush and rich, one could understand the pull, but it is fierce and hostile and sullen.
The stone mountains pile up to the sky and there is little fresh water. But we know we must go back
if we live, and we don't know why." - Steinbeck, Log from the Sea of Cortez
"People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care." - Theodore Roosevelt
"You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who they think can do nothing for them or to them." - Malcolm Forbes
"Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others
cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else's hands, but not you." - Jim Rohn
"The best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer." - Cunningham's Law
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Emergency Baja Contacts Include:
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On the peninsular divide, 4.5 miles from the mission.
