December 2, 2006
San Quintin (pronounced San Can-teen by the locals), Baja, Mexico
Today we thought we’d get all the way to Mulege. Go where the weather is warmer – it’s still pretty cool here at night.
Well, let me tell you a story…. Many people told us we were NUTS to be driving our motorhome down the Baja. They warned us of the roads – we had to see for ourselves. After all Michel is a truck driver / tour bus driver, he can handle ANYTHING!! The roads here are verrrry narrow. The white line on the right side of the road – is the end of the road and the road drops. That’s not the worst thing – in many places the road has actually broken away. All this being said, the worst thing is that there are trucks on this road!! Many, many BIG trucks. Try meeting one of those on a 19 foot wide highway when your rig is 8 feet wide and you know theirs is that wide (say nothing for the mirrors). Ron - I certainly can see how your mirror got clipped off. There were times when I’m sure there was only air between mirrors!!!
Oh and one more thing – no one warned us of these – speed bumps – EVERYWHERE and ANYWHERE!! And not necessarily marked. Only the Mexicans can take a nice smooth highway and totally ruin it with speed bumps. And these are not the small dot kind …. These ones stretch across the road. Now sometimes the speed is posted at 40km, but who in their right mind would take one of those at that speed. The first one we hit, we had no idea it was there, there was no posting for speed bumps only a reduced speed. So we come into this town at 40km – hmmm a little less – and kaboom!! We were air borne. Well these speed bumps go from Ensenada to who knows where – we did 200 miles of them !!
So now were sitting here at San Quintin with 2 broken shocks and air bags that won’t inflate. There are many mechanics in this town – their specialty is shocks and struts – imagine that…. Anyway after 4-5 hours of labour, and $260.00 later, all was okay to roll.
We certainly didn’t make Mulege!! Now the big question – which way do we go?
1 comment:
Well we won't say we told you so! We can just hear your voice telling this story! Mike and I had a great laugh reading it. you are a great story teller. Hope the rest of the trip goes smoother. Keep safe and healthy.
Chris and Mike
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