“Bucket List” adventure – participating in the Baja 1000

I’ve come to truly believe that “collecting” adventures and stories is one of the best pursuits you can have. I, and should say we … have been trying to practice this for the last 10+ years … it is something we hope our kids also get bitten by. So … when the opportunity came to be a part of the Baja 1000 Offroad Race … I/we took it.

A great friend often speaks about serendipity … it is a credo that he lives by … and funny enough, something that has some merit to it. As most of you know, our girls are active in dance … ok, they dance a lot … and we are not the only family that has this “problem”. One day, while picking up Kate from a dance friends, house … I spot an offroad racing Jeep in the garage. Sort of weird thing to see … as Florida is not known for offroad racing.

Turns out, that Tim is an avid offroad racer, very skilled on motorcycles (with trophies on the wall) and with a general love and interest for all forms of offroad racing. In conversation, it turns out that Tim has been to Mexico to participate in the Baja 1000 before … but his Jeep never has … so … this year, he’s going and I, Abuelo, Michelle, our friend Rob are tagging along for the adventure.

To be fair, our adventure started several days ago, as Abuelo and I left Florida for out drive to Mexico … yep, I did it again … this time, driving from Florida to San Diego, in Abuelo’s pickup with a trailer in tow.

The drive was somewhat uneventful, we averaged about 60mph in speed, drove around 600 miles each day, consumed huge amounts of fuel, and contributed significantly to global warming … apparently not enough, as we froze most of the time. We had a trailer tire blow out in Texas and also ran out of gas (used our spare fuel to keep going). By the way … Texas is huge, and an evil place to drive through … as you enter the state, you figure, Ok, we’ll be through here by tonight … 2 days later, you are still in Texas and it never seems to end.

Another first for me in this country was driving through checkpoints … truly odd in our setting … I’ve driven through checkpoints in Northern Ireland (long time ago), in Venezuela and in many other countries … but never here … We crossed in our drive 4 different Border Patrol checkpoints … all traffic had to go through it, they blocked the interstate and “talked” to everyone.

  I guess, we didn’t fit the “profile”, as they waved us through each time … funny … since we had a 24ft enclosed trailer, capable of easily housing 50+ “immigrants” … hmm … maybe we can make some extra money on this trip.

Our destination was San Diego airport, as the plan was to meet Robin there. He’s a long time “adventure” friend, great photographer (in case he reads this) and always up for anything. We arrive at the airport, 5 minutes after he did … we couldn’t have planned it any better … nor did we try.

With Robin in tow, we make a dinner stop at Denny’s … a must do, for Robin … apparently there is no Denny’s equivalent in the UK … go figure. Do our last “provisioning” stop at Walmart and stop at a motel about 2 miles north of the Mexican border.

We head to the Mexican border around 8A … and get flagged to the side as we cross. The border "guard” asks what we carry, I say, “Race Jeep” … he asks if we have any documentation on the Jeep … I say, “No.” … he says he wants a picture of it and a promise that we won’t leave it there … so … he takes a picture of it, I sign a photocopy of my passport and write on it … “I promise to return with the race jeep one the race is over.” … he says thank you and let’s us go.

They never looked at Abuelo’s passport, never looked at Rob’s … heck, they never asked about their nationality. He took a picture of the Jeep from the side door, never looked inside, never asked what we carried, didn’t ask what was in the back of the pickup truck … truly, very easy and pleasant … I wonder if getting back into the US will be the same …

We arrive at our “hotel” in Ensenada around 10A … discuss where the trailer will be parked and get told our “cabin” is not ready, as they are repairing the water heater … no problem … we unhook the trailer and head our to explore Ensenada and do some recon for the race.