The Long Pull to La Paz

Driving and getting there when you are traveling overland part of the adventure and also the challenge. Last night we all prepared for day's drive, drained our black and grey water, started unhooking the utilities. Greg was especially inventive in getting his black water to drain and used the method of the Mexicans who seem to be masters at making it work with whatever is at hand. 

Greg gathered pieces from everyone but got the job done. This park had one of the more difficult drains we  have encountered so far. 

This little patio was just outside our door and that is our pickup parked in the little space. We will be coming back here on the way home through Loreto. It is a small but joyful park with our laundry ladies across the street. The whole thing is very human scale. Side story, Saturday, I thought the women in the laundry shop lost my favorite shorts, I only have two for this journey. We had picked up the laundry on Saturday and I panicked. The women at the laundry could not find them for us, so I returned to the park, relooked at the stack and lo and behold, there were my shorts between my long pants. All the clothes and bedding we sent over were ironed and folded and placed together in a plastic bag. I went back saying pardon, pardon. The woman there said, que bueno! She then hugged me. I almost cried as we were both happy over the find. Their prices are so low compared to our laundries and they are so human. Forgive for the degression and so  on with the tale of travel.  We had to do a careful dance getting everyone in and everyone out at 8:00am in the morning. Dave, one of our fearless leaders had stayed awake plotting our course out of Loreto from the park. Dave and Liz Seattle have a Class A. The biggest RV since that is their home. Dave had to make sure they could get out under the sagging power lines and he did it. We all caravanned out of Loreto and made it without incident to highway 1. Then on we went our group of 8 varied trailers, Class B's and cabover. 

Driving Highway 1 to La Paz took 6.5 hours and was 320 kilometers. It is mountainous and winding, up and down and the traffic of semis and regular cars and the Baja Racers making their way home to various countries was heavy coming the other way, We space ourselves so vehicles passing us can weave between us. Our handy walkie talkies are going constantly. We have our positions when on the move. Bill and Liz in their Class A RV are number 8. They alert by phone when there is traffic behind them to the rest. Number 1, our leaders Dave and Darlene alert all to the traffic coming and when it is clear to pass so we can signal to the people trying to pass us that it is clear. Our number 7 is George and Mary in their cab over pulling a quad, number 6 is Euclid and Ruth in their Class B, number 5 is Diane and Kirk, number 4 is Kristina and Paul in their Escape 21, number 3 is Greg and Ann in their Escape 21, number 2 is Judy and Jim in another Escape 21 We talk to each other letting each know when someone is behind so we can signal with our left signal when it is clear to pass from information we get from Darlene.  This is our rhythm when we travel. 

One moment of drama today. As we followed Darlene and Dave, suddenly their kayak came loose from their pickup and flew to the side of the road in front of us followed by the ties that had been holding it. They thought quickly because there was no were to pull over and radioed to Jim and I as number 2 they next stop which was a gas station about 10 miles up the road. They said just keep going and they would meet us there. We all did well, Jim and I picking up road clear or not and they, in the meantime, managed to get the errant kayak into their trailer and back on the road. We are becoming a well oiled team! Yeah for us and Bajas Amigos. 

Darlene, Ruth and Dave relaxing with a pickle ball game after a long driving day. 

Dusk at Manantha RV in La Paz. On the right, Kristina and Paul's rig and Judy and Jim to the left. End of a lovely sunset.