Day 8 - February 14th, 2025
Ah well, I did say that keeping up posting daily could be a challenge. And I’ve proved myself right! Been too busy working and enjoying the beach life!
Anyway, here’s day 8:
7:26 a.m. Temperature 17.5 C
We wake up to the sound of the ocean. Waves crashing on the rocky beach. It’s warmer here than it was in Southern California but it’s definitely windier and the wind makes it feel cooler than it is. We drink our coffee watching the fishermen starting their day. Some of them head out by small boat whilst others drag what look like large black rectangular mats down to the shoreline. We are not exactly sure what they are doing but they look like some sort of means of catching shellfish. Another local heads back up the beach pulling a child’s toy red car (think Little Tykes) with a Home Depot type bucket in it where the child would normally sit. When he gets to where we are he calls us over to look at the clams he’s been collecting from the rocks. He’s got about 25 huge clams and he tries to sell some to us but we politely decline. Off he goes, heading towards town stopping a few times on his way to try to make a sale to people out for their morning walk.
Shortly after, our neighbour (he’s from Pennsylvania with a motorhome and a side-by-side Raptor type thing on a trailer behind it) comes by holding one sandal. He asks if we’ve seen the other one. Turns out that he left them outside his RV last night and figured the camp dog has made off with one during the night. That explains why there is one solitary brown shoe on the shared sink area behind where we are parked. Our neighbour tells us that another visitor had left that there when he left, the other shoe no doubt lost forever to our doggy friend. He then wanders off in search of his sandal (his wife tells us they are his favourite pair) walking up and down the beach area and finally onto the beach itself, searching in between the rocks. We tell him that the grey Sandal is not the easiest colour to find in the rocks, maybe he should have bought orange ones. He laughs along with us but looks like we find it funnier than he does. As he continues his search we also find it funny that he’s carrying around his one remaining sandal. Perhaps to protect it from the doggy thief, perhaps so he can compare it should he find a sandal in the rocks to make sure it’s a matching pair. Emma finally saves the day (for our single-sandaled friend at least) as she finds the missing sandal on top of the bbq outside the restaurant. One of the workers must have found it and put it there out of the dog’s reach. When his wife returns she tells us of a pile of single shoes she came across close to the house we think the dog is from. If there’s anyone reading this who only has one leg and is in the market for a job lot of single shoes, reach out and we’ll let you know where to find them. Not sure if they’re left or right though!
After pottering about for an hour or two, we packed up and headed out of camp. It’s getting hotter, up to 23 C. First we go to an aqua purificada store where we fill up our three, five gallon water jugs and then onto the gas station to top up with diesel. We also took the opportunity to fill our Rotopax diesel can which we have mounted on our rear storage box. Just a few extra litres in case of emergency. Now, full of water and diesel, we headed South.
Our Destination for the day was a remote beach on the Pacific coast just North of Guerrero Negro where we could dry camp for free. But first we had a few hundred kilometres of rough Baja roads to drive. Hwy 5 South from San Felipe started off relatively OK however, it quickly became a tedious game of dodge the pothole. Potholes here are sometimes small, sometimes large and sometimes enormous. We have read many, many stories of travellers hitting these pot holes and having blow outs and even damaging wheel rims and worse. And this year, the pothole situation was considered the worst in recent years. We wanted to avoid any tire and wheel damage and so travelled slowly, weaving in and out of potholes, copying other drivers when sometimes they just crossed lanes and drove on the wrong side of the highway to avoid the worst if they happened to be unavoidable any other way. The most nail biting (ass clenching) times were when we could see potholes coming up but there was also a vehicle (the semi- trucks were the worst) coming towards you as you knew you didn’t have much room for manoeuvre. The highway is super narrow and there is mostly no shoulder, just a few inches and then a drop off, sometimes six inches, sometimes up to four feet! In those situations the best course of action was just to slow right down in case the holes were deep. And we always breathed in when a semi truck passed, as you know it makes your vehicle narrower when you do that. It was like one of those 80’s arcade driving games where your car was stuck to the bottom of the screen and you could only move from side to side to avoid the obstacles coming down the screen towards you. And the obstacles repeated themselves over and over. We are calling this game Baja Blitz. We had a system, Emma calling out “hole” if she saw a large pothole, “side” if the shoulder was crumbling away and “middle” if she thought the only safe route was moving toward the middle. These call outs were just to back up what I was seeing as I was also keeping an eye on the rear view so I could see when faster vehicles (they were always faster) were coming up behind as then I couldn’t swerve into the other lane as they would be overtaking us. All in all, this just made for a stressful, tiring drive.
We had read all about the potholes and crazy semi-truck drivers (not to be confused with the semi-crazy truck drivers :) ) on Facebook before we came to Baja but no-one had ever mentioned the strong cross winds. Holy shit, the gusts that came across the desert, in some place from the sea, in other places from the desert itself, rocked the van and made me grip the steering wheel tight as sometimes we felt we were fighting to stay in a straight line. The fact that we were driving a giant sail didn’t help of course, the wind certainly had enough surface area to hit. We did get brief respites from the cross winds as we drove through the many places where the highway had been cut through rocky hills however, these rocky hills were made up of loose rocks, some small the size of your fist and some the size of a small car. And a whole variety of sizes in between. The side of the road and sometimes the lanes themselves were littered with smashed rocks reminding us that rocks fell often and caused our stress levels to rise as we braced ourselves in case any came down and hit the van as we’re were driving through these hills.
Blowing a tire and damaging wheels and suspension in giant potholes, being blown off the highway into a ditch or being smashed by falling rocks. Living the dream baby!
Just before Hwy 5 joined with Hwy 1 we lost concentration for a second or two and BANG, we hit a rather large pothole going a little faster than we should. Our stomachs flipped and we held our breath for what seemed like minutes as we continued to drive and assess if we had sustained any damage by the way the van felt to drive. All felt ok but we would have to to pull over to properly assess if we had any damage.
We joined Hwy 1 and drove for a while, our focus back on the job in hand. At least the cross winds and rocky hills were no more, just the potholes to contend with. We pulled over outside the El Parador hotel to check over the van and have some lunch. Everything was good, we had escaped any damage and we took it as a sign never to let your guard down when driving on these roads. I took the dogs for a walk about the parking lot and Emma made some sandwiches. A few other tourists also pulled over, taking a chance for a break, one being a large class A motorhome (those RVs the size of a coach bus) pulling a jeep - we would see this particular RV again soon.
We were the last to pull back onto the highway and resume our journey south. After about ten minutes we caught up with the Class A from the hotel stop and were happy to follow it, the road here seemed ok but it was always better to have another vehicle in front so you knew when the potholes were coming up. We followed it up some windy roads and at least the semi-trucks coming the other way were stopping before the tight curves to let the RV pass first, we snuck along behind. The road soon turned against us again though. Soon there were construction signs and quickly the surface of the highway disappeared. The highway became a rough track, potholes, gravel sections, bumps (if you live in Maple Ridge think of the Albion Fairgrounds parking lot by the barns but one hundred times worse. If you’re not from Maple Ridge, go visit to see what we mean, or just use your imagination). We slowed right down as the van shook and vibrated along the road, it felt like we’re in a tumble dryer. If the interior van build didn’t fall apart from this abuse we would be confident it could take anything. This went on for KM after KM and just when we thought it would never end, it did. For about 2KM then back to the same thing for a few more before we finally got to the end of it. All that way and we only saw one small road crew working, why they couldn’t do small sections at a time we have no idea. At the rate they were going they will still be there next year. Although we think that may be the point.
We couldn’t lose focus now though, we were on the lookout for the small track off the highway, leading towards the sea. We had selected a spot we found on iOverlander where there was a beach we could camp at for free. We found the track and turned off the highway onto a narrow, bumpy, sandy track. Was this a good idea? We had some recovery gear but if we got really stuck would someone else be around to help? We pushed that thought out of our minds as we ploughed on, the road getting progressively rougher, rutted in sections with hard rocks, then loose rocks and small up and down gradients then sand, some hard packed, some softer. Maybe we should stop to air down the tires a little? We slowly moved forward, making sure to pick the high ground wherever we could to give us as much ground clearance as possible. The van lurched from side to side as we made our way over the rough terrain. At a few places the road split into two and we had to make a decision as to which way to go however, we could almost always see the ocean in the distance so we made our way in that direction. After about twenty minutes of off road driving we reached the beach.
A few KMs of coastline with enough space for fifty rigs and there was only one other person here! A whole stretch of beach almost all to ourselves! We picked a spot, backed in and levelled the van with our levelling blocks so we would have a comfortable nights sleep. I walked over to introduce myself to our neighbour for the night. His name was John and he was from Brooklyn but had been living out of the back of his 90’s Jeep Cherokee for over six years. He had travelled throughout most of the USA and Canada, going up as far as Tuktoyactuk, choosing the smaller 4x4’s ability to go almost anywhere over the luxury of something bigger. And he was in his early sixties at least! Pretty impressive.
As it was Valentines day, I made a chicken curry for dinner (under close supervision and with lots of verbal help as I’m not the best of cooks) and we had a romantic, misty moonlight dinner - just me and Emma, closely watched by the dogs in case we dropped some food! Later as night fell, light rain started to fall and patter against the roof of the van, the sound mostly drowned out by the much louder noise of the crashing waves of the Pacific. One more van arrived after dark (a brave, or foolish soul travelling after dark around here). One of the main rules of travelling Mexico is do not drive after dark - nothing to do with banditos or anything like that but just the state of the roads and hazards. You can’t easily see potholes, topes (Mexican speedbumps) or stray cattle in the dark.
We settled down inside for the night, almost all alone for once.
Distance driven today - 319.50 KM
Day 7 - February 13th, 2025
6 a.m . Temperature 11 C
Our alarm jolts us awake. Time to get up, get caffeinated and drive to the Mexican border. Our very first overnight experience at a Walmart had been successful. A few loud cars revving engines and squealing tires in the late hours but overall not much different to the rest stops we have been used to for most of the trip so far. We had spent weeks reading up on all of the options and recommendations and daily updates on the drive Baja Facebook group. Based on those, we decided to cross at Mexicali East. We reached the border by around 6:30 a.m. and there was no line up at all. We were pulled over for inspection - one border agent had a quick Look inside our van, checked our Mexican temporary resident cards (but didn’t ask for our passports) and also our van registration and insurance. Another agent wanted to check inside our roof box and our rear storage box. The other agents were all enthralled by Otis who just loved the attention.
Everyone was super friendly and efficient and within less than ten minutes we were on our way, driving through Mexicali. The wrong way through Mexicali. This was the time that Google maps decided to have a brain fart and tried everything in its power to direct us back to the border as we struggled to find our way to Hwy 5 . We were nervous as we didn’t know where we were going and didn’t want to make any kind of mistake. Driving too slowly. Late lane changes. Not stopping fully at stop signs (a hard stop and count to 5 before you set off again is what we we’re advised). We had read lots of reports of tourists being pulled over by the police in border towns for “driving infractions” that usually seemed to end up with just a warning or sometimes a “donation” but all of which took time. After a few guesses and finally giving up and pulling over to re-set the bloody app we had our directions back. A quick detour up a side street, passing a police car (don’t look, don’t make eye contact) and we were finally on the right road, heading to Hwy 5. And South to San Felipe. We later realized that when we had punched in the border crossing at Mexicali East, we had selected the US crossing instead of the Mexican one so after we crossed into Mexico, Google maps was trying to get us to go back to the US crossing line. Our fault. Not Google. Apologies to Google for all the swearing and horrible things we called you in our ten minutes of panic
For the record, Emma wants to state that it was 100% Simon that was stressing out and getting anxious throughout this time and not her. She was cool, calm and collected and giving common sense suggestions to her spiralling husband that finally resulted in him listening, pulling over, restarting the app and which resolved. the problem. OK, back to the story.
San Felipe is on the East coast of Baja and is a very common first stop for travellers headed South. Baja itself is divided into two - the North is Baja California and the South is Baja California Sur (or BCS for short). We hadn’t pre-booked anywhere to stay, in fact it’s difficult to pre-book a lot of places although some do take reservations. Instead we had a few places we had looked up in iOverlander and were confident at least one would work out. We wanted an actual campsite for the first night so we could recover from the stressful day of crossing the border and driving the Baja roads.
The first forty minutes or so driving out of Mexicali is not very interesting. A mix of commercial and run down, abandoned buildings, waste ground and taco stands. After that it opens up to more of a desert landscape with mountains. And it’s probably, no definitely (up until now) the longest, straightest road I’ve ever driven. If you like going around corners, this road is not for you (didn’t we just spend money upgrading the van suspension to help with things like corners? That will come in handy later but not now.) After just under three hours, we entered the town of San Felipe. We headed straight for Calimqx, the towns main grocery store where Emma went to stock up on a few days worth of groceries (and maybe a few verve as) and I walked the dogs around the parking lot. We actually had to park on the street as the parking lot was too small and had covered stalls that the van would not have fit under. Fully provisioned, off we went to the first camp spot on our list Campo Touristico No. 1. We rolled in and there was only one other rig there. $300 pesos for the night with electricity and right on the ocean. We picked a spot, backed the van in, opened up the back doors and cracked a beer. Brought the camping chairs down from the roof box, set up the Starlink and we were all good for our first day in Baja. Another two vans rolled in late afternoon and that was it. The dogs ran around and made friends with a black dog that lived there - he wanted to be friends with Freya more than Otis but she was giving him the cold shoulder. There was also a restaurant on site but that didn’t seem to be open.
We caught up on some work, took the dogs for a walk on the beach, drank a few beers and went to sleep early. It had been a tiring day. And the sound of the ocean sent us to sleep, reminding us of the sound of the river back home.
Distance driven today: 214.85 KM
Day’s 5 & 6 - February 11th & 12th, 2025
February 11th
6:45 a.m. Temperature 10 C
One of us is very excited about today. The other, not so much. We will let you guess which is which. Today’s the day that Phoebe (Oh, sorry. We forgot to mention that Phoebe is the name of our van. The kids picked it back in 2018. Not exactly the aggressive, off road, wilderness camping beast name Simon would have chosen but it’s like when you let your kids name a pet or something, that’s what you have to go with. At least it wasn’t snuggles! So Phoebe it is. And no “Smelly Cat” references please.) Anyway, as we were saying, today’s the day that Phoebe gets her big suspension upgrade at Agile Off Road here in Santee, CA. That was the appointment we had to make and is why we had to just drive to get here with no time for sightseeing on the way down from Canada.
We knew that we had to upgrade the suspension as the van is big and with our camping build it’s also very heavy. If we channel our inner Jeremy Clarkson we would say that It drove like a pregnant hippopotamus with a wounded leg! And going around corners it was even worse! And going over bumps it was very, very sloppy. The stock Sprinter suspension, especially the rear leaf springs were just not up to the job anymore. We had to get an upgrade however, we couldn’t do it until the build was totally finished as it required weighing the front and rear of the van to correctly spec the springs. We did that at a weigh scale on Vancouver Island when we did a short road-trip there last September. And as Phoebe is a lady, we won’t reveal her weight here.
So, at 8am we checked her in and went to wait in the showroom. Agile’s set up is great - they have a sofa, flatscreen TV, coffee machine, water, snacks and free wifi as well as places to work, a washing machine and dryer and a shower. We used them all. After all, we were there for the whole day. More so after we also decided to get the big brake upgrade so we could properly stop the thing once we got it going. And the throttle tuner we also got certainly helped with that!
We ate, worked and watched two movies - Kinda Pregnant with Amy Schumer which was very funny, we would both highly recommend and Subservience with Megan Fox which was OK. A bit freaky really, especially after seeing the AI robots in the news at this year’s CES in Las Vegas. Fiction becoming reality? Not too sure why all of the SIMs have be so good looking though. Why not make a nanny robot that looks like Nanny McPhee or Mrs Doubtfire instead? Would probably have saved all the problems caused in the movie. ;)
Also, the dogs got lots of walks during the day to stop them getting stir crazy sleeping in the showroom. It was during one of these walks that we discovered that Aluminess Products (the company that supplied our side ladder and SUP pole and our rear storage box) were based just across the street from Agile.
By 6 p.m. we were all done and after saying our goodbye’s we headed out to the van to check out the upgrades. Looking good. Looking real good. A little over an inch higher off the ground (just a result of the stiffer springs and shocks, it’s not a lift kit and we didn’t want it to be) and not sagging in the rear anymore. And isn’t that something we all want ;) Getting to test out the upgraded driving experience would have to wait until tomorrow though as were tired and just wanted to make dinner, talk to the kids and go to bed. By the way, I should mention that our “kids” are 19 and 21, so not really kids anymore. But they are our kids so we will continue to refer to them as such. Also, “young adults” sounds ridiculous. Thought we would mention their ages in case someone reading this thinks about calling social services to report children abandoned at home while their parents swan off in a van to Mexico. They are more than capable of looking after themselves and we think they actually prefer having the house to themselves when we are gone. Plus this time they don’t have to look after the dogs as they are with us. Freya is a Goldendoodle and is 3 years old. She is an old soul and is very loving and sometimes unsure about new situations. We love her very much. Otis is a Bernedoodle, he is 9 months old and is a crazed, psychotic, maniac. Apologies any to crazed, psychotic maniacs reading this. No offence meant. It’s just his puppy mentality. He’s not just a puppy, he’s a PUPPY!!! Maybe he’ll calm down. Hopefully soon. Maybe he won’t and this is just his personality forever. We love him anyway. Otis adores Freya. he loves her completely. Freya likes Otis. Freya also hopes Otis will calm down.
Distance travelled today: 0 KM
February 12th, 2025
7:30 a.m. Temperature 9 C
Albert Hammond lied to us. “It never rains in Southern California.” Yes it bloody well does! It’s raining today! In San Diego! We wanted sunshine. We left cold, snowy Vancouver for sunshine and we get rain. Typical.”
We did our usual, dogs go potty, make coffee and hit the road routine. Man, does she drive like a dream! Corners are no longer a problem, there’s no pre-corner thinking, mid-corner adjustment or post-corner regrets, just turn and go. No more body roll. She drives like a car. Much more responsive in accelerating. And now she stops like she means it.
We headed to the nearest Walmart for some D cell batteries we needed for our shower controller and in the line up at the register, the lady in front of me let me in front as I only had one item. I thanked her and asked is it was a Scottish accent that she had. Turns out she was from just outside Glasgow and had been living in Santee for a long time. We chatted briefly and when I mentioned the rain she said that “ok, we need it.” So maybe I won’t curse Albert Hammond and the weather gods anymore. My new Scottish friend says they need the rain and if you know anything about the Scots it’s that they know all about rain so she’s probably right.
We drove East out of Santee on Hwy 8, a scenic route that took us through the Valley of the Moon, a strange place with hills of boulders that looked like they had been piled there by some strange alien beings. It was spectacular scenery but it was a short drive as we were only headed to the Yuha Well rest stop to set up to work for the day. We have Starlink for internet (we’ll certainly need it in Baha as some parts have no cell signal) and got it set it up and together with our laptops, extra monitors and mobile printer we were all set to get shit done. And get it done we did. Until about 5 p.m. when we set off for Calexico and our first ever overnight stay at a Walmart. And we also purchased our Mexican auto insurance policy online during the day.
We filled up with Diesel at the Walmart gas station, did a little grocery shopping in Aldi (Emma was happy with that as we don’t have Aldi in Canada) and ran into Walmart to buy a box of staples (we had run out - obviously way too much stapling while getting shit done earlier in the day) and a pack of diet Pepsi (we should state that other cola beverages are available, we are not sponsored by Pepsi and have not been paid for this advertisement. Although if anyone from Pepsico is reading this and you want to sponsor us please feel free to reach out, any fees similar to what you paid Michael Jackson or Michael J Fox in the 80s would be fine. Failing that, free truckloads of diet Pepsi would also be acceptible.)
We had dinner and tidied up the van to get it ready for the border crossing into Mexico in the morning. We threw out the garbage and some apples that we knew we couldn’t take across the border (I’ve always wondered why it’s always the healthy stuff that border agents have problems with. Fruit, vegetables, eggs, etc - we’ll confiscate those thank you very much. Your healthy foods are a danger to our country’s very existence. How dare you! Cadbury’s chocolate bars, Doritos, diet Pepsi - ooh yes please. Bring them all in, no problemo. (again, we should state that other chocolate bars and corn type snacks are available, we are not sponsored by Cadbury’s or Frito Lay (coincidentally a subsidiary of Pepsico so maybe we could talk about a combo deal?) and have not been paid for this advertisement. If anyone from Cadbury or Frito Lay/Pepsico are reading this ……….. etc, etc.
We settled down for the night, not sure what to expect from the Walmart camping experience.
Oh, and we have had a reader get in touch with a question and a request. “Debbie M” from Maple Ridge, BC, Canada asks - “Did Otis throw up or poop out the sock?” Well Debbie, I can confirm that the sock was most definitely pooped out. It wasn’t a pretty sight and Emma definitely will never wear that sock again. Otis did also throw up something a few days ago but we don’t think that was the sock he ate, must have been something else. Maybe the other sock? :\ She also requests that we do a tour of our home on wheels. We will put something together over the course of the next week and see if we can come up with a “van tour” video. We have been recording some video on our trip so far and we will probably put together something to cover the trip, not sure if it will be a few or maybe just one for the whole trip, we will have to wait and see. We are definitely more comfortable with writing a blog rather than talking to camera for a vlog but you never know.
Tomorrow morning we cross into Baja, Mexico!
Distance driven today: 178.53 KM
Day 4 - February 10th, 2025
7:30 a.m. Temperature: 6.5 C
Usual routine of walking the dogs whilst Emma makes coffee and then we hit the road. Back Northbound until we get to the next exit and then back across to the Southbound side. One last day to get to Santee, just outside of San Diego for our appointmemnt tomorrow. Not that far to go, just under 600 KM we think however, we have to get through the Los Angeles traffic to get to where we are going and the few times we’ve been in that (back when we took the kids to Disneyland and had a shuttle from LAX to Anaheim) it sucked big time.
A quick pit stop in Bakersfield to go to Best Buy (we needed a few cables to connect our Firestick to a monitor as we forgot to pack them) and we also picked up some snacks in Walmart and a couple of retractible leashes for the dogs at the pet store. Before leaving, we had some breakfast in the parking lot, yoghurt with granola and banana - healthy stuff - we don’t look this good without you putting in the effort you know ;) Then we hit the road again and as we drove past Pyramid Lake down to Sulphur Springs it seemed like we were above the clouds and they looked loike a giant wave breaking, coming towards us. We took a photo but it didn’t come out the same way it looked. We mistakingly took an exit in Santa Clarita as we weren’t able to change lanes in time and then we hit the LA traffic! Wow! It was similar to yesterday’s traffic nightmare between Sacramento and San Francisco but at a much, much slower pace. And when I say slow, I mean virtually at a standstill. The speed limits around here must be a dream to most people and I feel for those that have to commute through it twice a day or even just drive in it for work. And we only saw the I5 portion of it - all seven lanes - there were countless other highways and side streets that we could see that were just as gridlocked. We crawled along for a few hours passing signs of all of the places we had seen on TV or read about over the years - Santa Monica, Burbank, Hollywood, Monterey, Pasadena, Long Beach - the list goes on. Getting hungry and stir crazy, we decided to exit the interstate and have some lunch and let the dogs stretch their legs. At this time we were close to Anaheim so we exited and looked for a gas station. Driving down the streets we had previously taken in a courtesy shuttle bus for Disneyland was a little surreal and it took us a while to find a gas station that didn’t have biodiesel - apparently you cannot use it in a Sprinter van unless it’s R99 (something we learned after much Googling sitting at a bio diesel pump after having read the warning sticker on the van’s fuel flap.) After filling up, we found a park and Emma made lunch while I took the dogs for a walk. Then back on the I5 past Santa Ana, Orange County and Laguna Beach. We decided to drive the coastline for a while and exited the I5 once again at Capistrano, stopping to admire the view in San Clemente (Emma wants to go back and explore there.) Also at San Clemente as I was walking back to the van after taking some photos of the coastline, a truck pulled over and asked me for directions. In those situations I’m always tempted to make something up and send the unsuspecting driver off towards who knows where but I’ve never actually done it. Instead “Good Simon” (yes he exists) takes over and I admit that I’m just a visitor also and they go in search of accurate information elsewhere. Or so I assume. Maybe the next person they ask is just like me but without a conscious! Who knows.) Anyway, back on the I5 for a bit and we exited again at the Lantern Point viewpoint, amazing views but there was a sign warning of rattlesnake activity so we left the dogs in the van. Got a great photo of them through the windshield where they look like they are driving and navigating, I’ll try and remember to upload it below.
Soonafter we started to see signs for San Diego and arrived in Santee which is just outside. We found where we had an appointmemnt tomorrow and we were allowed to park and sleep in their parking lot so no need to search for a rest stop or other place to park up. We found a local pizza place on Google (The Sizzling Pizza) and drove the short distance there where we picked up a meat lover’s special (delicious by the way) and as there was a beer store at the other end of the stipmall I popped in to buy some (can’t have pizza without beer. Or Wine, but we needed a beer after the day’s traffic nightmare.) We went back to the parking lot to eat, called the kids and settled down for the night. Tomorrow was going to be an exciting day! Well, probably more exciting for one of us than the other.
Distance driven today: 553.20 km
Day 3 - February 9th, 2025
4:30 a.m. Temperature -4 C
Otis is crying, he needs to go pee. We try to get him to go back to sleep but nothing works. There’s no alternative but to get up and go out in the cold for him to go potty. Oh, and now Freya also wants to join in with the fun! As we are both now wide awake (the early night helped), we decide to get up, get dressed and hit the road super early whilst there was hardly any traffic. We had another great night’s sleep, the rest areas are awesome. There are signs saying no overnight parking and the rules state that you are allowed a maximum of an 8 hour stop but iOverlander has lots of write ups of people sleeping at them and not being bothered and our experience backs that up. There were people sleeping in RVs, vans and cars as well as the truckers in their parking area. All of the rest stops have toilets and pet areas and some have vending machines and potable water taps.
Anyway, I took the dogs out in the snow and Emma made coffee and then we set off at around 5:30 a.m.
We seemed to be the only vehicle on the road except for a few semi trucks and so we slowly made our way along, climbing up in elevation, past Mount Ashland and crossed into California. The agriculture checkpoint was closed (maybe too early, maybe it’s not open on a Sunday) so we didn’t have to stop and drove into Northern California still in the dark. Everything was fine for the first 15 minutes or so and then suddenly there were traffic signs with flashing winter weather warnings and the fog descended upon us, reducing visibility to just a few meters. Also, all the while we were climbing, the temperature was also dropping rapidly. We went from about -4 C at the rest stop where we started and fell to -10.5 C when the fog descended. It was pretty nervewracking driving the big, heavy van up the windy mountain roads in the thick fog. The headlights of an occasional semi coming up behind us quickly then thundering past at speeds that we didn’t feel comfortable travelling at. We continued to make our way slowly to the peak where we came across about 10 to 15 semi trucks on both sides of the highway just parked up with engines running and lights on. We wondered why they were there and soon realised that they didn’t want to go down the steep windy roads in the freezing fog. We however carried on, at an even slower pace, thankful for the GPS so at least we knew when the bends were approaching. We eventually made it out of the fog and we stopped again at another rest area to have a second cup of coffee and the dogs got another potty break. There was heavier snow at this rest stop and although they had ploughed most of the parking lot, the sidewalks and pet areas were not which made for an interesting walk for myself and the dogs. As we set off again through the Klamath National Forest, the sun was finally rising giving us amazing views of the snow covered trees and the mountains. The blue sky that appeared out of the sunrise framed the scene perfectly and the whole Mount Shasta area looked awesome, we would love to return and explore the area further in the future.
We stopped twice more on our way through Northern California, at the first rest stop for a short break and at the second rest stop for about 2 hours to catch up on some emails and to get over our early morning start. As we set off again, the temperature had risen to +14.5 C (an increase of 25 C since this morning.) We were definitely heading in the right direction!
Traffic was fine until we passed Sacramento. Here, all hell broke loose! A lot of people you meet in Canada will tell you that Vancouver drivers are the worst and that Vancouver has terrible traffic. Well, welcome to California. I think the speed limits here are just a suggestion, particularly for truck drivers and lane changing must be a requirement. That’s the only logical explanation. And why change from one lane to the next? That’s way too easy. Beginner level. The experts change two, three even four lanes at a time. Mario Kart but in real life. This insanity went on until we had passed the San Francisco exits and then normality sort of returned.
We stopped for diesel just outside of Tracy and decided to look for a place to stop for the night. The problem was that we had passed quite a few rest stops in California that were closed for renovation, why they couldn’t just do one at a time I’m not sure but we eventually found one that was open but it was on the Northbound side of the interstate at Coalinga. We checked the map and found it was only about a mile back from that rest stop to another exit where we could get back on the Southbound side in the morning, so we decided to pull off and head the short distance to the Northern side rest area for the night.
Emma made a curry for dinner, we video called with the kids for a bit to catch up on events back home and watched some You Tube before going to bed.
Oh, and I almost forgot. Today was Superbowl Sunday. Not that we are at all interested in the football (that’s American Football everywhere else in the world, we don’t mean soccer which is real football.) Taylor Swift’s boyfriend’s team were playing the Eagles. It seems that we often end up in the US on Superbowl Sunday without even realising it. Year’s ago, we went to Seattle for the weekend and a barman in a pub asked if we were there to watch the Superbowl. We were probably the only people in the country who didn’t even know it was Superbowl Sunday. The ad’s are funny though. Even though they don’t broadcast them in Canada. We have to watch them on the news.
Tomorrow will be the last push onto San Diego, ready for our appointment on Tuesday.
Distance driven today: 812.29 KM
Day 2 - February 8th, 2025
7:40 a.m. Temperature -2.5 C
It was a good night at the rest stop, a few trucks coming and going but it wasn’t noisy enough to keep us awake and we had also run the heater in the van a little before we went to bed so the van stayed comfortably warm throughout the night. We rolled out of the rest stop at 9:10 a.m. and headed to Kelso where we stopped at Target to pick up some windshield washer fluid (we were empty), a few snacks and also filled up with diesel at the gas station across the street.
For the rest of the day, we stuck to the I5 as planned and drove the rest of the way through Washington state and into Oregon. We drove past Portland (which we love) and down past Eugene, which until now had been the furthest South that we had driven in the US (for a minor hockey tournament). We stopped a few times during the day for food and to let the dogs do their thing and as we are aiming for a maximum of 600 KM between each gas stop (so that we don’t run dry and have some reserve), we stopped to fill up at Central Point. After that we were planning on driving until we reached northern California but we were tired so we stopped instead at the Suncrest Safety Rest Area just past Medford, close to the Californian border. For dinner, Emma made a spicy Italian chicken sausage pasta with focaccia and we had an early night.
Not the most exciting of days to write about, tomorrow should be better as we head into California.
Oh. And the sock re-appeared this morning! Woohoo! Crisis averted!
Distance driven today: 610.99 KM
Day 1 (February 7th, 2025)
Day 1. Set off day. Planned time of departure: 9:00 a.m. Temperature -6 C.
The van is already prepped with all of the gear we think we will need for the trip. OK, that comment is coming back to bite us on the ass at some point during the trip when we realize we should have brought something that we haven’t, probably at the expense of some item or items that we will never use and that are taking up valuable space for the item that will be needed. Anyway, without a crystal ball we think we are happy with what we have packed.
So all we have to get done this morning is pack our clothes, toiletries, dog stuff and hit the road.
10:00 a.m. - OK, not quite going to plan. Not sure about you but things in our house take a little longer than anticipated and departure time is always a moving target.
10:30 a.m. - Yes! We are all packed and ready to go! Emma just needs to get her shoes on and we can set off. And it was at that point that Otis decided that he hadn’t eaten enough for breakfast and one of Emma’s socks did look particularly tasty.
10:31 a.m. “Fuck, No, Otis has eaten one of my socks”; “Are you sure?”; “I think so”; “You think so? So not sure?”; “96% sure”; “Fuck"; ”It was a thin sock, not one of those thick Argyle type ones”; “OK, maybe not that bad then?”
What to do? Rush our little furry psycho to the vet screaming he’s swallowed a fucking sock., resulting in an agonizing wait with maybe a very expensive surgical solution. Or set off on our adventure whilst we agonizingly wait with maybe the same very expensive surgical solution only in US Dollars. And that shitty exchange rate isn’t going to help either.
11:37 a.m. And we are off! Piloting the fully loaded van out of the driveway and in the direction of the gas station to fill up the tank. Otis seems unphased by the panic he has caused and we have decided that whatever happens will happen and if we have to stop off at an emergency vet on the way, so be it. Fingers crossed for us Eh!
After filling up with diesel, we hit the highway with a full tank. Onwards to the border. Well, we got as far as 24th Avenue in South Surrey before we took a slight detour to Tim Hortons as we had forgotten breakfast what with all of the doggy excitement. Now with full bellies, onwards to the border.
We crossed into the US of A at the Pacific Highway crossing on 176 Street as it’s only a 45 minute drive from home. As we are not Canadian Citizens, we had to go into the office to get our 90 day visitor visas but we were in and out within 20 minutes. Next stop was Trader Joe’s in Bellingham to stock up on groceries for the US leg of the trip. We didn’t want to get too much as we knew we wouldn’t be able to take meats, cheese or fruits and vegetables across the Mexican border so we only wanted enough to last for about five days. Emma went in (without her phone as it turns out) as there was no way I was going to be able to park the van in the parking lot, it was crazy busy. So I circled the block. Three times. Then decided to wait in the street behind. It was at this point as I phoned Emma to let her know where I was waiting that I discovered she had left her phone behind on the dashboard. Shit. Now I had to circle the block and drive past the entrance every 5 to 10 minutes to see if she was outside waiting for me. Apparently it was very busy so after about 5 circuits I gave up and parked around the back in the loading zone with the nose of the van sticking out around the corner just enough that I hoped she could see me. It worked and eventually, loaded with groceries and snacks, we were back on the road.
We planned to drive the I5 South all of the way to San Diego - this was our only scheduled stop as we had an appointment on Tuesday that we we committed to. More on that in a later post. For the rest of the trip we had a route in mind but we were mainly going to wing it as to where we stopped and for how long. For the I5 portion the plan was to drive as far as we could each day and spend the night at rest stops along the highway, with stops to stretch our legs and give the dogs a walk and potty break.
By the end of day one we had driven down past Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia and stopped for the night just short of Grand Mound at the Maytown Safety Rest Area. We had dinner (Trader Joe’s chicken and rice), walked the dogs and hit the hay.
It had been a long, stressful first day.
No sign of the missing sock yet!
Distance driven today: 344.56 KM
Mexico Roadtrip
OK, for those of you who asked for a blog - here we go!
Not sure how this is going to go as neither of us have had to write anything since we were in secondary school English back in the mists of time, well 1987 at least. And yes kids, that’s when we had to write using an actual pen on paper with joined-up hand writing and everything. No laptop, no spellcheck and certainly no ChatGPT to help. We can still remember the agony of having to come up with a minimum of 500 words on subjects such as - “What I did in my summer holidays” and “Shakespeare links the human and the fairy worlds in A Midsummer Night’s Dream - Discuss.” Just typing those has made us come out in a cold sweat. Why we have agreed to voluntarily subject ourselves to writing what is effect a short essay everyday (wow, that’s optimistic) we’re not sure.
So - New blog post number 1 may be the first and the last!
Maybe.
Perhaps.
Watch this space.
Anyway, we should start.
Maybe the header “Mexico Roadtrip” has gotten you interested but first we should probably give you a little background on who we are and the trip itself. Yes Debbie / Jaime, we know you already know this but we are hoping if we are suffering the pain of writing this blog that some other people may actually read it too! We are Simon and Emma and we are both originally from Wales in the UK (Rugby, Tom Jones, Gavin & Stacey, big fuck off dragon on our flag, etc) and we moved to Canada with our two kids almost 20 year’s ago. We settled in Maple Ridge just outside Vancouver in British Columbia. Years passed by, life went on, the kids grew up and bam, Covid hits. That period of lockdown got us thinking about a lot of things including our future retirement plans and well, one thing led to another and we ended up buying property in Bucerias, Mexico. Since then we have flown back and forth between Canada and Mexico a whole bunch of times and have enjoyed our time in both locations. We should say that we both work online so anywhere with a laptop and internet access works for us - not sure we are digital nomads exactly but you get the idea. Over the last few years we have also converted a Sprinter van into a camper and have been using it to explore around BC a little. So throw Maple Ridge, Camper van and Bucerias into the crazy idea shaker and we get to “Mexico Roadtrip”.
Still here? Anyone………? Great. So:
Our plan is to drive with our two dogs, Freya and Otis from Maple Ridge, BC, Canada to Bucerias, Nayarit, Mexico via Baja California and Baha California Sur. Once we get to La Paz, we will take the ferry to Mazatlan on the Mexican mainland and then drive down to Bucerias.
Total distance as per Google Maps is 4,177 KM (or 2,595 miles) excluding the ferry crossing. Although the actual distance travelled will be more and we will be recording the trip using the Gaia GPS app.
Wish us luck!
