Road Trip Day Nineteen:
Some Thoughts from the Road…. (While I remember.)
We have not seen any Americans, except expatriates, on our since our Baja Adventures.
We have not seen any billboards in Mexico. Except for near the border. It was nice to have less billboards.
The police and military checkpoints never harassed us, and machine guns and heavily armored trucks only gave us confidence that we were safe. The police did signal us over a few times… to give us directions.
Driving across the middle of Mexico was like driving across Texas, maybe in the 1950’s…. The road was bouncy, and we travelled at about 50 mph. There were no on and off exits. There were not many places for fuel or drink. There were no places where we thought we could safely eat any food. We brought lots of food and water with us.
Thoughts of breakdown or mechanical issues were spooky… if anything happened that we could not fix ourselves in 95 degree sun, things would obviously get difficult. I did have three boxes of tools, and an extra starter and fuel pump, but there were many unknown unknowns. We used the air conditioner when temperatures exceeded 90, but tried to be sparing with it.
There are 10,000(+) foot mountain ranges on the East and West coasts of Mexico. There is rugged desert across Central Mexico. Mexico is spectacular.
Traffic patterns are very different… in the Baja, drivers use a left turn signal to indicate that you can pass them. When you first enter this Baja World that makes no sense… but in these places there is no possible left turn available, so it works. In the central Desert, there is only a two lane highway with adequate shoulders. To pass someone, you flash your lights, they pull onto the shoulder, and oncoming traffic pulls onto their shoulder, all at about 55 mph. This provides (sort of) room for the passing vehicle to charge down the middle of the highway. A little scary until you get used to it.
The Baja was even more remote, but the highway did weave through spectacular places.
You are on your own out here… we saw an eighteen wheeler off the highway, stuck, and wedged into a ditch. All traffic stopped. Other eighteen wheelers chained up to it, and pulled it back on to the highway. There were not many people around. Everyone kept going.
Beverly’s scariest moment… forcing open a latch on a ladies room door in the Mexican desert and frightening a large sleeping dog. She quickly closed the door. Later, she found the correct bathroom. And we have not met a ferocious dog down here. Maybe it is too hot for that.
My scariest moment… when it suddenly occurred to me that Beverly did not have a Mexican Tourist stamp with her Passport, and that we might not be able to take the Ferry across the Sea of Cortez … our Adventure would be incomplete. Happily, this never became an issue and we did not have to return all the way back up the Baja peninsula.
This is a different Universe. It is bewildering, and awesome. We have seen things that are unbelievable. It has been a fantastic Adventure.