AARP Gone Wild ~ Baja Style 2013

Like Barry said not a hijack at all, at least not as far as I'm concerned. It's nice that you are reading the report and have an intrest in the ride and what's being ridden.

I see the dollar peso thing was explained. The first time I was in Baja and saw prices on a menu I had the same reaction you did and it took a bit for me to figure out how to see those big prices and relate them to dollars rather than pesos. Traveling in Baja is inexpensive compared to so many places in the United States.

I'm glad you are enjoying it and it's bringing back good memories for you.

When it storms in the desert things change because there is now water where there was none. The desert is an amazing place where plants, animals, insects and birds survive with very little water for long periods of time. When it rains their water is replenished and stored in water ever manner they do it for the long dry stretch ahead.

Unfortunately since the storm was at the end of our trip rather than the beginning we weren'’t able to witness the full effects of the rains such as the flower bloom that occurs a few days after rain in the desert. I would have liked to have seen that and maybe one day I will.

What we did get to see were the vultures out in full force. On the way south we saw some but on our way north during the rain there were many more. The cactus tops were filled with them. After I got home and viewed my pictures I was disappointed I didn'’t stop and get better photos of the vultures. Most of the time I get fairly good photos on the fly and I thought I could capture the vultures as I was riding by. Nope, I didn’'t do so well with it but I’'ll post two of the pictures so you can see what I'’m talking about.


I searched to see if I could find information about the vultures that would tell me why so many were out there. I didn'’t know much about the birds other than they are ugly and their heads don’'t have feathers so they can stick their heads in places to feed without feathers getting hung up or dirty or something like that. While searching I did discover that vultures, at least the turkey vultures, don’t kill anything they just eat what they find already dead. They also spend a lot of time cleaning their feathers. So they eat disgusting dead things but are prissy about their cleanliness.

Yep, I sure wish I would have stopped and got better photos of the Baja desert, the stormy sky and the cactus topped with vultures.


Bruce had gone on ahead but I knew we would catch up with him soon as soon as he pulled over to check something out. Nope, he's not here.


The storm is still brewing.

Cinderella’s Castle in the distance.

We found Bruce at the Castle.


A nice entrance to a beautiful view but nothing else.




Indoor plumbing. I think I’ll pass.


The Superbug being a bit of a poser. I don’t think that silly bike realizes it’s no where near as good looking as it was when it was new.


Back at San Felipe and at Kiki'’s either Bruce or Barry had checked the weather report and discovered there was another storm blowing in right behind the one we had just been in. We had campsites reserved but we opted to get rooms instead. It’s nice having both available at the same place.

I wonder what Becky and Lee are plotting and why aren'’t I in on it?

This post is for Barry’'s friends and family.

Hi Everyone.
I know some of you are following this thread. I’'m happy to have you along and hope you are enjoying the pictures and stories.

Barry and I have been friends for a number of years and for years he has been referring to me as the WWW = the Wicked Witch of the West. Now where he ever came up with that escapes me because I'’m as sweet as they come.

While in Baja that question was answered, I’m not a wicked witch at all, Barry has been confused and the truth is . . . . . . . .

Up, up and away


I don’t think his broom was minding him, maybe it won’t fly unless he is wearing ATGATT (all the gear all the time).

After we got settled into our rooms we made Barry leave his broom behind and walk to town with us for dinner.

Looking at those clouds I think we made the right choice with getting rooms.


We don'’t have palm trees in the Pacific Northwest so I needed to get a picture of one with clouds behind it. Sometimes I’m so easily entertained.


The lighthouse looks different with clouds behind it. Are you getting tired of seeing this lighthouse yet?


San Felipe looks different now than it did a few days ago.

The mountains out there almost look peaceful.


A few minutes later they took on a totally different look.

We had been looking forward to having the fajitas at Bajamar again. They were so good. There’'s a nice view from there to go along with the great food. There is still activity going on in the sky.


Here comes dinner and it'’s steaming hot.


I'd ride to San Felipe just for these fajitas.


Bruce has a bowl of soup that looked more like the entire pot of soup. Holy cow.


Dinner was very good and we walked back to Kiki’'s in the dark. The storm had hit in the area of Kiki’'s and there was a huge puddle (lake) at the entrance. It looked deep and we had to find a way around it to get into Kiki’'s. I was too busy looking at how much water there was to remember to get a picture. Without a drain system when it does rain there the water has a way of puddling up.

Hanging out at "camp".


The wind was blowing pretty hard and the palm tree was looking like the trees in the news reports during hurricanes. I tried to get a picture, which didn'’t turn out worth beans, but I will show it to you anyway. That palm really does have all it’s sides and looked normal the next day.


The rooms were nice and comfortable. The bedspread was soft and furry it was like sleeping with a big soft stuffed animal.


There was even a refrigerator in the room in case you wanted cold drinks.


And a bottle of water.


I’ll be back in a little bit with more stories, we still have a couple more days before we get home . . . . .

Day 8 to El Centro, CA Saturday 11-23-13

I’'m sure by this point you won’t be surprised that we were up to watch the sunrise and what a sunrise it was.

LittleWan, here are some sunrises for you.

As I started down to the beach I notice all sorts of activity on the water.


Fishing boats, all kinds of fishing boats, I counted 15 at one point. Some were holding still, some were moving slowly, while others were motoring right a long but they were all staying in the same general area.




The colors are fading but things are still interesting.




Pelican playing in a wave, either that or it miscalculated its flight pattern.


Look at all those seagulls.


Time to stop playing on the beach and get ready to go.


The bikes are packed.


We headed to breakfast. It all felt familiar.


Bacon and cheese omelet


OK there's Lee, Bruce, me, and Becky’ taking the picture. Where'’s Barry?


Barry, stop watching the table dancers, it’'s time to go.


One last look at the walking bridge, club Boom Boom, the lighthouse and the Chapel on the hill. Bye, Bye until next time.


Time to say good bye to San Felipe.




When I go places as I ride away not only do I think about the great things I saw and did I also think about the things I didn'’t see or do and want to return and experience. With San Felipe I would like to see one of their celebrations and I would like to stay up and see their nightlife. The mornings were very quiet in San Felipe and you could tell that come night time things liven up. We never stayed in town late enough to see that nightlife. Club Boom Boom that we walked by each time we went to town was always so quiet it looked vacant but reading a report from someone that was there recently and stayed near the club indicated it is a hopping place at night. While there I didn'’t even think about staying up and checking out the nightlife but as we were riding out of town then I thought about it.

We were on our way so I will just have to return to see the things I missed this time.

Military checkpoint ahead and once again we were waved through.


There were miles and miles and miles of these white posts.


The hillsides were very colorful.


You must be able to get cell coverage here but they don'’t want you to use your phone while you’re driving just like at home.




The hills and colors were interesting and we were making good time.


Then we found construction.


The dirt was easy riding so this isn'’t bad. . . . . . .

Riding along happily and all the sudden Barry passed me and motioned for me turn around. Hmmmmmmm where’'s Lee? We went back and found where he’'d left her with a flat tire.


The first thing Lee said when we stopped was "I managed to get the bead broke on my tire". Part of the discussion we had back in Gonzaga Bay was how to break a bead and Barry had explained a bead could be broken by riding on it after it was flat. Good job Lee!!


Luckily we were in a wide spot and there was visibility both ways so it wasn'’t a bad spot for this little exercise.

Bruce and Barry being buddies or up to something, I don'’t know which.


Lee was busy unloading her bike.


The bike goes up on a rock for a center stand.


There'’s the culprit.


Lee shows us what she thinks of the nail.


I’'ve never seen Lee look like this before and that grumpy face only lasted about 2 seconds, long enough for me to get the picture, then she was all smiles and happy again, even with a flat.

Getting the tube out of the tire.


That heavy bulky tube that Lee had been packing was coming in handy.

I attached my slime compressor to the Superbug and Becky added a little air to the tube.


Time to put the new tube in the tire.




And air up the tire.


Reinstall the tire and adjust the chain.


Time for Lee to repack the bike and there'’s the center stand rock.


It took 1 hour and 15 minutes, which wasn'’t too bad since there was unpacking and re-packing that needed to be done.

And we were moving again.






Rest area


Yes, much better.






The storm had been through here.


We were back on pavement.


I can't imagine living out there.




We stopped for a minute to determine where we were going and it happened to be where people just dump their garbage next to the highway. This area made me appreciate the environmental regulations in the United States.


Now to cross the border . . . . . . . .

We were crossing the border in Mexicalli. I was apprehensive about crossing there, I was more comfortable with Tecate but this was the best way to return. Bruce was leading us through. Thank you Bruce.

I liked this fence.


We make our way through Mexicalli.


We stopped at a money exchange right before the border. When we came out we started down a street that looked like it dead ended right where the line was crossing the border and that line was long….. Someone in a car stopped and told Bruce where to go saying there was a motorcycle lane and we could by pass the cars. We headed down a narrow alley and I though OK we'’ll see what happens here. Not far at all, maybe a block there was a break in the barricade and it was the motorcycle entrance. Lee was having a little bit of a problem getting through as her bags were just about too wide. With a little bit of wiggling and tilting she got through.

With all of us through the barricade Lee ended up being directed up front and a nice guard walked to where we needed to go to show us the way. It was a little strange how we came in to the motorcycle lane but it worked and that'’s all that mattered. Lee pulled up to the guard at the border and he asked her a few questions then asked for her passport. She had to dig it out. While she was doing that another guard was telling the rest of us to have our passports ready. We all lifted our passports and showed them they were ready as we were laughing at Lee for not having hers ready. The guard started off looking guard grumpy but ended up laughing along with us.

Only a few basic questions were asked, passports checked and through the border we went.




When we left that morning we were figuring on getting further than we did. Bruce had told us about a Casino about half way between El Centro and San Diego that might be a good place to stay or maybe go on to just east of San Diego depending on the time. Well, it was later than we planned and we decided we should stay in El Centro and head to San Diego early the next day. Where we stopped to make the where to stay decision was about a half a block from a motel 6 so we just grabbed rooms there.

Bruce and Barry missed Nora and Didi and I think they were checking to see if they had heard from their sweathearts. They act all macho and stuff but they both have hearts of gold.


We had time to clean up or at least as clean as you can get with only dirty clothes available before we headed for dinner. Now that we were back in the United States we were ready to eat American food and I got to experience something I had heard of but hadn'’t tried yet.


Bruce and Barry gave us the low down on this place. Bruce grabbed a table and saved it for us while the rest of us went in. OK let’s go in and check this place out.




Lee and I decided Becky needed a new hat.


We decided Barry needed one too. Doesn’'t he look sophisticated?


Bruce was spared the hat thing since he was nice enough to get us a table. That place was busy and I can see why, those burgers and fries were mmmm, mmmm, good.


We walked back to the motel, took care of things and called it a night fairly early. We planned to head out early the next day since Lee, Becky and I had flights to catch the in San Diego and we still had 100 miles to go. The ride should only take a couple hours but we also had to unloaded the bikes, load them on the trailer and load all the gear in the truck and get to the airport. . . . . .

Day 9 Going home, Sunday 11-24-13

We were up early and got our bikes packed. Interesting that the gal checking us in put us in handicap rooms. I guess that goes with the AARP discount.

We didn’'t park there through the night, the bikes were only there long enough to load them in the morning.

Becky and Lee were eating in their room (oatmeal) meanwhile Bruce, Barry and I headed to McDonalds for breakfast and senior coffee.


Lee is ready to go.


Headed for San Diego with Bruce in the lead since he knows where he is going.




As we were climbing the hills to Crestwood Summit and Laguna Summit Lee and my 200s were struggling to keep the speed up. The road is a fun road filled with sweepers and Bruce kicked it up to have some fun on the road (He waited for us at the top).




At the top of the hills we stopped to warm up. It was much cooler here than it had been in Baja. Barry would be leaving us before getting to San Diego.
Barry saying goodbye to Becky.




Barry passed all of us and waved good bye.


There goes Barry. Bye, see you next time.


We made it to San Diego. I had to get the Hotel Circle sign for Kootenai Rider.


My GPS wasn’t any good for navigating in Baja but it kept track of the miles. For being out 9 days we sure didn'’t ride many miles but had one heck of a good time. Becky and Lee had about 50 more miles since they had the ride to Coco’s Corner that the rest of us didn'’t do.


Now it was time to get out of our riding gear, get the bags off the bikes and load the bikes on the trailer.




We got them all on the trailer.




The two Suzukis are getting mighty friendly with each other.


We got all our gear in the back of the truck. We didn'’t pack it as nicely as Nancy did but we got it in there.


We had everything packed and had enough time to be able to walk across the street to the Marina for lunch and more American food.


It sure was nice to have a salad.


Lee had a salmon salad and boy did that look good too.


Hey Barry, we thought about you.


While in Baja none of the tables had pepper on them and Barry kept looking for pepper so we found him some pepper in San Diego.

We got a picture of all of us together, too bad we didn'’t get another one while Barry was still with us.


Bruce hugs Becky good bye.


Bruce would spend a few days in S. CA then haul our bikes back to Spokane. Becky, Lee and I caught the shuttle to the airport to catch our flights home. Becky and I to Spokane and Lee to Missoula.

Becky and my flight was delayed and would be taking off at about the same time as Lee’'s. We were on Southwest and she was on Delta. As we are taxiing down the runway we saw the plane Lee was on. We waved to her and I’'m sure she saw us and waved back.

Another pretty sunset seems to be a perfect way to end a wonderful trip.

Merry Christmas! ​