The Adventures of Familia Bajaboy

Pro-tips are a fun way for us to share little nuggets of information with each other.  I decided on this trip to Mexicali to share some of my tips for driving on Baja Mexico Highway 1 with Gabriel.  He is now 15 and will be driving soon.  In fact, Grandpa Gary spent a great deal of time on his recent visit teaching both kids to drive. Now in no way am I saying that I am an expert or that my knowledge is supreme.  But I've been driving in Baja for 38 plus years.  And over the past three years, I've been making the trip north almost once a month.  So I figured, it was time to share some of my wisdom nuggets with Gabriel.  We thought it might be fun to make a video and share it with others as well.   I recently bought a Go Pro 12 as I've wanted to tell our story with more than just words and pictures.  I started a YouTube channel  The Adventures of Famila Bajaboy  years ago mainly as a repository for our family videos.  But at the urging of our good friend, Anita, I've dec

 Yesterday we went to a neighbor’s birthday party.  It was a fun afternoon of laughter, food, and of course lots of cold beer.  My neighbor, Tarraya, was busy cleaning a crate of radishes, or rábanos in Spanish.  I asked him where he got them and why would anyone want a crate of them.  He began to tell me a story that only seems normal for here. He said he got a call from a ship’s captain.   The ship was headed for Hawaii but was sidelined due to a hurricane or poor weather, I don’t exactly recall which.   The ship was full of produce that was spoiling and the captain asked Tarraya if they wanted to make a trade.   I’m not exactly sure of the details but it involved cases of beer in exchange for the produce and diesel fuel.   I guess late at night the exchange was made.   I noticed about five crates of produce in the back of Tarraya’s truck.   It was spoiled and he was going to take it to the dump.   I suggested I would take it off his hands.   He agreed in disbelief.   This morni

We recently went to one of our favorite little markets in town, Escondido.   They have a great selection of meat so we decided to pick up some hamburger on a friend’s suggestion.   The young man went back to a freezer and pulled out some cardboard patties.   We were dumbfounded.                 We reached out to our friend to confirm we were at the correct market.   She said yes but the meat we wanted is called carne molido.   We  went back and this time asked for a kilo of carne molido.   The young man pulled out some lean meat and threw it into a meat grinder.   The meat came out very fine and had no fat.   It definitely was not what I was expecting.  It also did not have the expensive price tag of a US meat market.                 After a few days of contemplation, I came up with a game plan for the meat.   I cut up an Italian sausage to add some fat to the meat.   I also added bread crumbs along with my standard seasonings.    The meat now had a consistency a bit closer to wh

One thing that is certain is that nothing is certain here.   I used to get so frustrated coming from a very structured life north of the border only to find everything is a moving target here.   It’s okay to make plans but do not get upset if things don’t go as planned because most times they won’t.   I learned early on, to take things as they come and keep my expectations low.   Yesterday was another great reminder…. We went to bed planning on going for an early morning hike.   I woke up early, made some coffee, and checked my email.   I decided to go out to the brew room and assemble my new electric Brewzilla and slowly prep for our first brew day.   I went back in the house to grab another cup of coffee and noticed the electricity was out.   I didn’t think much about it until later when I talked with our neighbor, Tarraya.   I asked him about the electricity and he said the power was on in the village.   The alarms in my head went off and I knew our plans for the day were change.

I promised Pancho that I would deliver a small tv/radio to him during our summer break.  I'm sure he figured I'd forget but I was certain I would follow through.  I asked the kids if they wanted to join me for a turn-around road trip and they were stoked to join.  Now to decide when to head over..... We were about a week into our month long stay in Baja and had just finished doing some work on the casita.  Our builder and amigo was visiting with us when I mentioned PSR.  Roberto had never heard of this place nor visited the Sea of Cortez for that matter outside of the big towns likes Santa Rosalia and La Paz.  I jokingly suggested he join us and he quickly accepted.  We would leave the following day. I quickly threw some tents, chairs, and other odds and ends in the truck.  The next morning I picked up Roberto and 8:00am and we were on our way.  The kids were ready but I reminded them we had many miles of dirt road ahead of us.  We stopped in Vizcaino, bought some food for