Slow Baja - Baja Beginners Get A Dose Of Adventure On The NORRA Mexican 1000 With Sam Hurly and Danny White

Episode Date: February 23, 2023

Today’s Slow Baja conversation is with filmmaker and photographer Sam Hurly and his Baja chauffeur and amigo Danny White. Sam creates automotive films and photographs for Turtle Wax. He convinced the fine folks at headquarters to send him down to Baja to follow us in the NORRA Mexican 1000. Sam needed a skilled off-road driver with a reliable rig to pilot him while he made photographs and shot film. Danny White got the call. The Baja beginners get a heaping dose of adventure --and they speak candidly about their pre-trip worries and the multitude of scary stories that (well-meaning) Baja veterans gleefully shared with them. After a day or two in Ensenada, the myths and preconceived notions flew out the window, and after a few tasty tacos, all was well. Watch the Slow Baja Turtle Wax Sponsored film here. Watch the behind-the-scenes cut of the film here. Follow Sam Hurly on Instagram here. Watch his YouTube channel here. Learn more about the NORRA Slow Baja Safari here.

This podcast is powered by Tequila Fortaleza, handmade in small batches, and hands down, my favorite tequila. Hey, folks, it's that time of the year again. It is the Nora Mexican 1000. The Slow Baja Safari class is your ticket into the happiest race on earth. We take the green flag every morning. We drive the best stages, but we've got a little time. We're going to stop.

We're going to take photos. We're going to take a little swim, maybe buy an ice cream cone. And we're going to get back across the finish line in time for a shower and get cleaned up and watch the racers come in. And then we all go to the big fiesta. Each night, have a fine dinner. And back out of it the next day. It's five days to get from Ensenada to San Jose del Cabo. We start on April 30th in Ensenada, and we end up with a huge beach party, May 5th,

Cinco de Mayo at San Jose del Cabo. It is a major league adventure and the Slow Baja Safari class is your ticket in. For more information, N-O-R-R-A, that's nora.com, or you can always message me through Slow Baja. Hey, well, thanks for tuning in today to the Slow Baja. I am on the Baja X-L rally.

I'm currently in Pescadero, Baja, California, Sir, at a beautiful house and I am sitting in my shield man's seats in Slow Baja, my mobile recording studio, letting the breeze blow by, letting the birds chirp. And these shield mans are just so comfortable. So I thought I would sit here in the shade and record this introduction to this great show. My heaping dose of gratitude goes out to Sam Hurley and Danny White. They came down in April.

They came down in April working for turtle wax to film the Slope. Baja safari class. And this is a little behind the scenes on two guys who had never been to Baja before. They'd read all the hype, had all the worries. And they had a job to do. And they came and they did it. And I am so proud of the film that Sam made, Sam Hurley, terrific filmmaker. So that is my heaping dose of gratitude today, the subjects of today's podcast.

Sam Hurley, my beautiful wife, Amy Leonard's nephew. We've had some great car adventures together. drove a 240 Z cross country. There's a film on YouTube about that. And Danny White, who managed to get Sam all the way down the peninsula and all the way back, documenting the Slow Baja Safari class and the good folks at Turtle Wax for putting their money behind my crazy idea and sending Sam down to film me. And if you haven't seen the film, folks, it's called Experience Slow Baja. It's on YouTube now.

There's a link in my bio on Instagram. There's a link on the featured section at Slow Baja. Baja.com. So check it out. It's a great look at the Nora Mexican 1,000 Slow Baja Safari class and Sam recently released part two, which is a behind the scenes of all that. And I just love it. Okay. So I am currently on the Baja XL rally. I've got a couple of other folks to say thanks to Baja bound insurance. I know you know I talk about them every week. They're a sponsor of the show. They really are the best. And I do want to say, hey, thanks to Baja Bound insurance to Jeff Hill for, uh, dropping a couple tacos in my tank, let me get some gas to get up and down the peninsula on the Baja Exile, 3,000 miles in slow Baja is a lot of gas, and I need to thank those folks for doing that. My friends at Tequila, Fortaleza, Big G, and Billy, thank you so much for supplying Fortaleza Tequila, the best tequila in the world. It wasn't all that long ago that nobody knew about it, and now you sell every drop you make and you are still, still, I cannot believe it,

you are still sending tequila with me, Slow Baja, to share with these folks who love Mexico and love tequila and maybe didn't know about your brand before I started sharing it with them, but now they are hooked. So thanks tequila for tolaza. Sheelman seats, Toby Pond, man, man, these things are the best. You know, you made me a deal I couldn't refuse, and I'm so glad you did and you were so creative in letting me take care of the payment side of this. And folks, if you've been thinking about upgrading your rig, Sheel Man, you sit on them, it doesn't feel like anything special,

but let me tell you, after 12 hours of bouncing down dirt roads in Baja, you get out feeling great. So thank you, Toby and Sheel Man, USA. Thank you very much. White's boots. White's boots. You know, I've been wearing a different brand for a long time. I got a pair of whites boots.

just needed a pair of rough suede Baja boots and they had the boot that fit the bill and man they are amazing they're perfect straight out of the box I thought I was going to be breaking boots in this entire week White's boots handmade Spokane since 1850 something

get some if you can find them and last but not least my friends at Seeger reached out to them they've got this fabulous old school tent you know I don't like camping folks I've told you that I don't if I can get a hotel room after 12 or 16 hour in slow Baja I'm going to take it. But there's some nights that we need to do some camping,

and I have long, long disposed of my tent and my sleeping bag and all that stuff. And I'm really in love with this old school yellow a-frame tent. And I reached out to the boys at Seeger, and they were kind enough to make sure that I had that tent and some Seeger swag for this trip. And right now I'm sitting in the sun, currently in the shade, but I'm sitting in a Seeger sunshirt.

I've wanted a sunshirt for so long. It makes me look like a pro-fisherman, except that this one has this really cool pearl snaps and it's western cut and it's got two pockets and that's a must. If you're over a certain age, if you're over a certain age, you need two pockets when you're in Baja and I'm delighted to have this Seeger swag. And thanks, boys. Really appreciate you contributing to Slow Baja. Okay, without further ado, Sam and Danny and a little behind the scenes of a couple first timers to Baja having a major league adventure. I hope you enjoy the show.

It's Slow Baja. I'm in beautiful Sandy, Utah, and I'm here with the Turtle Wax Slow Baja team from the Nora Mexican 1000, and I'm just, I'm going to say it. I'm just stoked that you guys are here. We live here. We're stoked you're here. Yeah, it's the other way around. Well, it's beautiful Sunday morning. We're in Sam's living room. Sam's got the whole technical setup. It's a very first time I'm recording a podcast, and I have no. idea what the levels are doing or anything. Sam's. I got you. Sam's on it. We've got stands. Everybody's wearing the headsets. It's pro grade folks. Pro grade. I hope this one sounds good. The reason I've got you guys here today is really just to dial in a conversation about your thoughts, your experiences on the Nora Mexican 1000 as two guys who'd never been to Baja before.

So Sam say hello and then Danny say hello so people know your voices, hear your voices. All right. I am Sam Hurley. I'm from South Dakota. I don't know if this is the intro I'm supposed to give. Yeah. I've lived in Utah for about nine years now, but I'm a photographer by trade, freelance for a handful of years now. And as Michael might have alluded to, I've been doing a little bit of work for a rally driver who just raced in Baja, I think,

his first time last year, but still a fairly new job, so we'll keep that intro short. And the other connection here is Sam is my wife Amy's nephew. Yes, so Michael Slobaha is family. I have, I have. I've watched this young man grow up. True, yeah. No actual blood connection to Slow Baja, but by marriage I am related to Slobaha. And I gave you a LICA, so that's all you need. Indeed. I have a permanently loaned LICA that has supplied many film photos in M6 for

the film books that I so much love to make. That is the photography that keeps me interested and alive in the photo world. As well, I guess I should add, the company that I've worked for the most as a freelancer, the handful of previous years, is Turtle Wax, and that is our connection with this year's Nora Mexican 1000 and Michael's title sponsor for this. And we'll get on to that in the moment, but Danny say hello. Hey, hello, I'm Danny White. Um, Well, I've known Sam more or less since you moved here. We met not through Baja or anything to do with it, old BMWs, and became buddies and roommates. And over the years have kind of transitioned.

And let's see, I met you. We came to San Francisco and I met you and I saw the 40 sitting in your garage with boxes on top of it. And at the time I had a land cruiser at 80. and I looked at that truck and I was like, does he drive this thing? And Sam started telling me, oh, he drives it. And it didn't look like it at the time. It's a small garage.

It is. There's not a lot of room in there. No, it's a little snug and side to side there. But yeah, so I've been fortunate to make some good relationships over the years and some rad opportunities. Well, you pulled up in a beautiful FJ80, FJ-80, F-Z-80, whatever those things are called. Remove the Z for the nerds, but yes.

Well, we went to the Land Cruiser Heritage Museum yesterday, and I heard somebody refer to the FJZ, and I've never said it that way. Well, let's get on to the task at hand, boys. We had a darn good time in Baja, and I really want to get you guys to just be honest and open about your thoughts, preconceived notions. You know, when I talked to Sam about doing this project and pitching it to Turtle Wax to have Sam follow me. He said immediately, well, I need a driver.

And of course I suggested a friend of mine who's, you know, a professional videographer and wants to go to Baja as well. And Sam's like, nope, I got Danny. Ended discussion. If Danny's available, he's doing it. And so what were the first things that you thought about as worries, fears, things to get off your chest, you know, neither one of you've been to Baja, but Danny, you grew up in San Diego, right?

Yeah, yeah, I grew up down in San Diego, and growing up, we had crossed the border quite a few times. We never went too far south, you know, T.J., of course, growing up with friends and family here and there. Went to Rosarito, I think twice as in my youth, but I've been in Utah now almost 12 years, and I haven't, I didn't even have my passport prior to this trip, you know, back when I would. That's right. I forgot. There was a crush to get your passport.

It was a tight one. But yeah, prior to this event, I mean, you didn't even need your passport when I would cross the border. But I never went that far south either. So it was a little alarming at first when I started to sit down and sink in like, oh, I'm going across. And you hear some stuff. You hear rumors. And, you know, the news kind of makes things sound, in my opinion, worse than they really are. Or old.

extremely touristic old people giving you notes on how they always get stuff stolen. Yeah, I had a fun conversation with an older couple that claimed to spend some time in Mexico regularly, and they put me a little more on edge than I think I needed to be. But yeah, I called Sam, and I was like, hey, do I need to worry about this? Do I need to, you know, like, what's the situation? What do I need to prepare for? What sort of worries were they filling your head with, if you don't mind me pressing a little bit? No, you're fine. What I was told the most was make sure you have 20 to 50 bucks cash hidden in one pocket and then some in your sock.

Yeah, the fake wallet. Yeah, that situation. You're going to have to pay people off. You're going to have to, you know, quite a bit. And yeah, I mean, skip too. No, that never happened once. So I just want to address that because I helped somebody make their first trip's first female solo trip to Cabo recently. and I saw all the advice that was getting heaped upon her at this Facebook group. I won't name it. And I just sent her a message and said, you know, if you have some questions, I'm happy. I spent a lot of time in Baham. I'm happy to help.

And this question comes up a lot. What do you do about the Morditas? It's called bribing the police officers. What do you do about the corrupt cops? And I said in my experience, since 1984, on my very first trip in 1984, we, We got pulled over. I was in the back of the pickup truck riding back from Rosarito from a dinner in Porto Nuevo, lobster dinner. And we got pulled over.

And it was supposedly illegal to have somebody riding in the back of a truck, which if you spend any time in Baja, that's about as bogus as it gets. My cousin was in the front seat. His girlfriend was driving because the two of us had been drinking and she hadn't. He quickly offered a $10 bribe. That was that. And fast forward to 2021, where I got pulled over for rolling through a stop sign in Santa Rosalia, and the police officer took my driver's license and had me follow him to the police station, and a two-hour-ish standoff transpired.

And a very strange result came from that where no money was changed hands, and I was, no money changed hands and I was free to go. Oh, hold on. Is that the story that ends in someone thought you looked like their father? and cried and let you go. Because that might not always happen, but that's a much better end of this. So again, it was just a strange situation. I don't have any experience getting pulled over.

I did get pulled over. I had rolled through this stop sign at 10.30 at night on a Sunday in a little town had no traffic. And the police officer saw me do it. And he took my license. And I thought, you know, it's late. We still have a couple hours of driving. I would have preferred to have settled that in France.

on the side of the road right there and to have been on my merry way as rapidly as possible. But he took my license and I had to fall into the police station, which the drive to the police station was long enough to give me pause and up a, you know, a windy road to say, is there really a police station up here? Is this really good? Is this guy going to get my truck? So all these thoughts do go through your head. But as it turns out, there was a call made to a supposed judge. and fines were levied and I thought they were outrageous.

So I suggested that I wasn't going to pay. And two hours of sort of that going back and forth, the police officer motioned me around the corner. I'm assuming it was out of the eye shot of the coworkers or his coworker was playing Candy Crush pretty intently, though. So I'm not sure that she was actually watching everything. But I thought maybe there was surveillance, that he wanted to step out of the view of the surveillance camera.

And he motioned, this was, again, January of 2021, so we were wearing masks, COVID. And he motioned me to pull my mask down. And when I did, he started crying. He teared up and started crying. And he told me that his father had passed away two months earlier in the United States. And that I looked just like his father. And he let me go. gave me my driver's license back and I got to go and I that happens that happens so uh the point

of this was what to do I've never had money in this pocket or that pocket or a fake wallet or whatever a strategy to deal with with the supposed corrupt cops that are after you on every corner um and I I did upon leaving the the police station um I reached down into the back of the Fort La stash in the truck in Slow Baja, and I pulled out a bottle of Fortaleza, and I set it down next to the police officer, and I said, have a drink with your dad tonight, and got Ted, the Baja visitor, and we got the heck out of there. So again. So the answer is impersonate an officer's father.

Deceased father. Deceased. That's key. That's key. That probably could get you out of him. Well, no, but the point is, I mean, what is that? 30-something years apart. Yeah.

Two incidences in 30-something years of driving. So I don't know how many times I've been pulled over in the United States, but I'm assuming it's a few more than that. And again, I haven't had any real problems in Mexico. So first topic we've addressed. Well, it was, I think, the first day, our first day driving south, once we crossed the border, I had a couple bucks that I put in my shoe, and then in the door card of my truck, I had some cash, too.

and by the third day I was like, this is absolutely a waste. And we had already done. He got a blister. He's like, what the hell is going? Yeah, it wasn't worth it. No, I pulled my shoe off and I, soggy wet, you know, some money. I was like, yeah, this is. It's hard to pass that money.

BARTENDARTINDS don't take soggy shoe money in Bahá. They didn't want that, no. But, I mean, we had driven a few hundred miles at that point, a few days down, and I've instant change of heart, I guess you could say. I was like, I feel as welcome here as anywhere. You know, everyone's health. happy to help. I can't communicate well. I don't speak Spanish. And I still, you know, by the last day we were in, down in Cabo, I was on my own a full day while you guys had been taking care of some

stuff. And I went and got my truck wash and I went and got some tacos and a drink. And the whole time I went and got oil change. And I had a smile on my face and I felt welcomed and at home and comfortable. And yeah, it was a very different experience than the preconceived. No. that, you know, I had something to worry about. And not to say you don't have to be careful, but it's a much more welcoming place than... Yeah, and you were driving a brand new, beautiful Toyota Tundra pickup truck.

That's not something that, you know, as people would say, oh, I'd never take something that nice to Baja, you know? Yeah. So back up a little bit. Sam, we converse quite a bit about what you need to do Once Turtle Wax signed on to send you guys down to cover this momentous adventure, we converse quite a bit, and you had a lot to do.

You had to get the truck prep, Danny Prep. I think I'm sure I recommended Baja Bound Insurance. And the FAMA that you guys had to get, you had to stop across on the Mexican side of the border and then come back in and get your your tourist's thesis. Did that all go down because I was supposed to be with you and then I ended up babysitting my truck in the shop in Ensenada and going to wine country? Yeah, I think you guys connected with Ted Donovan, the Baja visitor

and came in that group, if I'm not mistaken, correct? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the difference in our transportation was either renting from a company that I'm not remembering and doesn't get a promo out of Las Vegas because we didn't use them. It was a fifth-gen Forerunner that was quite well outfitted to be used wherever

and allowed to go to Mexico which is one thing that's kind of hard to find. It's hard to find a rental. Rental vehicles, yeah, and especially being outfitted. So there was the balance of that in the budget we were able to use or using a similar amount for prepping personal vehicle for Baja.

So talk to Danny. He confirmed that he could go to Baja and if I remember correctly, it was a balance of I don't, like, it's not that I want to take my truck, but I want to take my truck. Like, I trust my own truck a lot more than I'm trusting a random one that I'm finding. Like, anything that happens, kind of happens, but at the same time, like, I'd rather be in my own vehicle. And it's rad to have your own car somewhere else and say, like, yeah, this truck went to the bottom of Baja with me. So speaking for Danny there, but, yeah, so we were able to use it. I think we got some nice front shocks.

If you'll see our video later, damn, those rear shocks. So prepped them a little bit, got some nice lights, and that prep was on the way on that front. And then getting to the border, post-Danny getting his passport. So you guys drove from Utah down to San Diego in one day. Straight down to 15. We stayed at a nice hotel in the bay in San Diego. And the next day we met up with your. crew, yes, Baja visitor.

Is that his Instagram? Ted Donovan, the Baja visitor, shout out. Yeah, we got Baja visitor Ted. He's a pretty good tour guide. Yeah, he's good. We had Bronco Privateer. We had... Jim Moffton, hello.

Yeah, we had rats. Yeah, and the Silver Lady. Yeah, and Eric. His 1987, FJ60. Yeah, Eric, and then, uh, what are they... So you had my whole college. Yeah, yeah. My whole college buddy crew, who's now, Ted just turned 60.

So we were a long ways. out of college folks, but it's been a couple months, so I don't remember everybody's nickname. Then you had Big Olaf and Kevin. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So across the border, we did have to stop and do the tourist visa thing. Everything went fine there. No hiccups.

And so let's talk about that for a second. It can be unnerving to you just driven across the border. So you've seen the guards, you've seen the guns, you've seen the sunglasses, you've seen the signs, and you've crossed the border. And you did that in Tijuana, correct? Correct. So it's a big effing border. It's multiple lanes and traffic last turn for the United States, head back now of, you know, damn ye.

And you get across. And luckily, we've got some folks there who's saying, okay, now we park here and everybody goes in there. But it is a little, like, you know, I've done it a couple times solo and I've got a truck full of stuff that's all open. And so, you know, you've got to walk inside and do this thing. But it only takes five minutes. Yeah, I mean, I think we had a couple little hiccups that were our own fault or just not understanding. But yeah, it's like you get hit with a little bit of a wall of, oh, everybody is now speaking mainly Spanish.

They'll test you with that first. And obviously, like any other country, you know, if it's a no-a-la-espaniol, or if you're asking them if they speak English and then going from there, and I think the closer to the border, usually the more likely. Yeah, most border stations have multilingual employees. Yeah.

So at that point, that was fine, dealt with it, and on to tacos. So, yeah, it's definitely the rush of getting hit like, oh, shit, we're doing this now. and then the slow ease past that, yeah. And so on to that, you make your right turn, you go across the trickles of the Colorado there as it comes into Tijuana,

and then you follow that big border fence. You're inside the country, following the border fence, due west. You've made now a U-turn, and you're heading back west to the beaches, and you get out to the beaches, and you hang a left and start heading down the coast, and you stopped at Tacos El-Yaki, correct?

We stopped at tacos. Yeah, we tell tacos El Yaki in Rosarito. Yeah, delicious. Anybody want to jump into that, first tacos in Baja? Yeah, it did not disappoint. No. They were really, really good. No, no, yeah, they hand us, you hand us your tinfoil tacos, right?

And you're throwing on some of the extras that you get in the other side booth there and sitting on a wall and everyone's standing around, having a drink. And you just, like Sam said, you cross over and everyone's speaking, Spanish and you're trying to fill out all this paperwork. By the way, they gave me a red pen. I filled out my form. Oh yeah, you can't use red. And I hand it to her and she goes, no, do it again, no red. And I'm like, nice. So I got, I get back in line and fill out another form. Anyway, but yeah, it hit you strike, you know, the second time you get hit. Oh, I'm here. I'm eating tacos and this is amazing. Like it's a whole, it's a whole different feeling. I'm going to jump ahead here

and say that for me personally, the best tacos I had were an Ensonado. When you're you and I walked a couple blocks away. It was, I think it was Biria and maybe just steak. But what was the hotel call? I'm going to throw a minor promo out there for where the best tacos I had. What was the hotel in Ensonata called? I'm going to find it on Google Maps really quick. Oh, what was our hotel?

The Villa Marina, Via Marina. Yep. Yes, the big pink tower. Mm-hmm. Shouting out for location only. I'm not sure I'd ever stay there again, but. It's my fourth trip to the Via Marina folks. Oh, Siento.

Yeah. So, Danny, that, you know, so you've probably driven through almost the busiest part getting around Tijuana. Yeah, going past the wall. You didn't go through the center of town, but just the edge and you skirted it down and you got onto the toll road. Yep. And we were going up, we were going up this grade, we'll call it, very steep. And this younger guy pushing a. cart up. I think actually he had to pull it. It was, you know, you start to see these things. You're

kind of like, you'd never see that back home, right? Little things. And so you do kind of start to process all this stuff. Like, we're in a different place big time. So then you stop and you take those bite of those tacos and you're like, yep, this is different too, you know. And once you started driving from Rosarito where you had the tacos down the coast where you start to see, you know, the curving road and the beautiful ocean is on your right. And you start to see Ensenada down there at the bottom of the hill. You know, are your fear subsiding at all? A lot.

Yeah. As things open up, you start to see some new construction of, you know, definitely some newer stuff going in. Some money's getting spent there. Yep, and things are starting to break up. We had pulled over at, you can tell it used to be some sort of, you know, roadside attraction, but now it's just a fruit stand, a candy stand, and we had stopped, and it subsided, like you said, quite a bit. You're just kind of in awe of how beautiful it is looking over the coast.

You're up on this big cliff looking down the coastline, and it's just beautiful. And then you get to the Via Marina, and you see all these other vehicles are there for the same. thing. That's kind of cool. Yeah. I have the restaurant. Sam's bringing in the best tacos in Encinada right here, folks. We're not going to say the best, but this is one that really, really sold the deal. I can't say the word very well because I say it burria, but it has an extra, Birya.

Yeah, but it's got an extra ER in it. So Birria La Guadalajara. Yes. And they're on Macharo Street in Enzada. So great. Well, it's funny to hark back. Sharp-eared listeners will remember my interview with Colin Corrigan of Cervasaria Trans-Pencillar, and he's recommended that place. That's his Sunday morning spot.

Yeah, it was awesome. No English, but happy as ever to have us and take care of us. It was awesome. There you go. You don't need to speak English to eat good food. Yeah. Or you don't need to speak Spanish to eat good food in Mexico. Spanish at best from this guy.

All right. So you've gotten down the coast in one piece. You're an hour-ish into Baja Mexico now. Preconceived notions are flying out the window with a good taco or two good tacos from Meliaki and you've arrived in Ensenada. What about the, we ran into a few places like toll roads. Uh-huh. What was it like five cents? Oh, yeah.

No one told us about like the tiny payment toll roads. Yeah, it's like 25 cents. And then there was $2. $2.25. Yeah. $2 and $5. Yeah. Okay.

You better have your nickels. So you could, the closer to the board. That was one thing that we were like, oh, we got to tell people, bring loose cash of like 20 bucks and ones and quarter. And they kind of went away the further down we went. Sure. Yeah, after it's not or you're done. Yeah, and they still took American dollars closer to the border. So, yeah, there's little tiny things like that.

But, yeah. You can spend U.S. currency almost, well, you can spend it all the way through Baja. Yeah, if they take that. The conversion rate is more favorable in the north than it is in the south. So it's not going to be as favorable for you to spend dollars as pesos the further you go. But you're right. On the toll roads, that's something that Slow Baja should talk a little bit more about for folks who are driving down. Have some small bills for the toll roads.

They haven't gone automated yet with the credit card swipes. Yeah, it's not much. It's just inconvenient if you didn't have. $2.5. What have you. Exactly. All right. Well, next stop. Next stop. We're in Ensenada, and you're seeing some hustle and bustle. You're seeing lots of vehicles. We've got a job to do. We've got to get slow Baja through tech inspection and get some stickers installed. Before to take that damn photo.

Yeah, we muff that. I didn't even see the photo, so I guess it doesn't matter. Yeah, yeah, we didn't get all the stickers on. We got the one important one. We got turtle wax on the hood on the right side. What's title sponsor, Sam? That's Turlwax. The one sticker I did get on. So even the video that you took of me at the Good Luck Amigo sign at Tech Inspection,

I mean, you're stoked and all that, but I'm there. I mean, I wasn't visibly mad, but I can see myself. Yeah, I'm just like. You was focused. It was everybody was everywhere. No one was here. We finally pushed your car up to the photo spot. And I said, I need to put this fucking sticker on because it's not going to get put on otherwise.

So we got the one on. It worked. Yeah, you just saw through the weakness of my team. There you go. Or the talkativeness of you. The highly distractible nature of my team. I'm obviously talking or solving some problem for somebody someplace or pouring a Fortaleza, you know, if it's non-drive day. And, yeah, so the mundane details of getting the truck totally trimmed out before we got that first photograph or even staying with it to get it inching up the line.

Yeah, well, I'm glad you're there, Sam. We got it done, and like I said, I couldn't find that photo, so it didn't really matter, and I got a thousand of our own photos. So all good. Well, let's get back to in the hotel, you know. Very blue room. It was probably really cool 20 years ago. So that is a sweeping generalization that I'm going to throw right out that I just say most of the, rooms in Baja are to some degree

similar to where we stayed in the Viam Arena. A little bit of age. A few years, they were built a few years ago. Maintenance budget might not be, you know. Starch budget for the seats is high, though. Or the sheets. Sheets are well starched and bleached, yes. And that's just par for the course.

I think that's just the way most of Baja isn't to find something that's different than that, I think it's truly exciting. And that's when I always like to level that slow Baja proved on a spot that is trying harder or is different or is doing something that's truly, you know, higher effort. Yeah, it seemed like there were a fair bit of new developments. Like even that, I don't know if it was a holiday inn that was. Yeah, yeah, right around the corner. Yeah.

And then what was the town after your first shock debacle, little ways down the coast, where it was a marina that we got to stay in a really nice hotel where we all got dinner late at night right before they closed? we somehow got the master super king suite with multiple rooms and double bathroom and three balconies I got to rip my shocks apart in the parking lot on the ground I think you were talking about Loretto yeah yeah that's pretty nice town yeah so yeah I mean and I'm sure you get to Cabo it's certain ones that have more tourists you're going to find way nicer places that that hotel was pretty nuts right yes it was we were there for four hours yeah so can you talk a little bit about

The road conditions, the driving from Ensenada south, we went to San Felipe, so across to the Sea of Cortez side. And then we started down the interior east coast of Baja folks. So from Ensenada took a great drive down the coast to Santa Tomas over the hill to the edge of the. Pacific, down to Errindira, cut back across to Valle, Trinidad, Valley Tee, as the off-roaders like to say, to Valley Tee, a dirt road. So we're all on dirt roads now. Down to Irondira, across to Valley Tee, another fabulous taco stop there at, we call it Valley Tos, I think it's El Rancho or...

Cone Caso as well. Tacos Cancaso. So good. what was it like once you started relaxing about the truck runs fine on the gas, the roads are, the paved roads are good, the dirt roads aren't requiring all of my off-roading skills that you've honed here in Utah. Tell me a little bit more about Danny,

how your experiences accumulating and how you're starting to feel about the trip a day in now. I still remember when we first hit dirt too, and your little giggles popped out because you're like, holy fuck, we're doing this. Because like when you first, Because, I mean, we're trying not to use the F word on this show, Sam. Oh, sorry. Hey, editor, bleep it.

Holy frick, man. Yeah, you hit the dirt. You're giggling. It becomes real. I think at that point, we had skipped ahead because we were, like, two or three days in, and then finally we hit dirt, and it's becoming real. We tried to jump ahead of you so we could shoot you passing by. But how did the driver feel?

I was having a blast. It was. they weren't crazy rough roads some of them i mean i will admit it was nice having independent front suspension with some nice shocks because i was moving pretty good we were going at that stretch where we we were running with uh the 9-11 yeah we were behind a bronco for a little bit and then they pulled off and then we ended up behind the 9-11 until we got to is there a specific name for the the kind of cliffside drive lookout point where we got all those shots Brian was telling us.

Yeah, so that's Errindira. Okay. Yeah. So that was our first coastal run from Santo Tomas south of, south of Ensenada. Then you take a right and drive well over a dirt hill mountain and then down the coast into this fishing village. Yer and Deere. And it's just beautiful. Yeah, we turned right and went past some homes, you know, some village little area and up over this hill.

And the road got a little worse, got a little worse. And we were able to. up though and then we got past that bronco and i got to i got to go a little faster and have some fun he's like yeah man you got to get ahead of them so we can get up to this spot until day four when i got mad he kept going faster you know a little faster a little faster what happens in the car stays in the car that's what ted and i always say until you roll and it flies out of the car just kidding that didn't happen No, I did. And, yeah, the roads were, I mean, we were going faster than we needed to, and they were fine.

You know, it was nice, not, I'm, you know, I've driven plenty of trucks with solid front axles. Maybe not as comfortable in some of those trucks, but with the right speed, no problems at all. No problems at all. You don't even need four-wheel drive for the majority. unless you get yourself in a pickle. Yeah, a little silt. You might be nice to have four-wheel drive, but obviously you were with the Porsche 9-11.

Rally 9-11. Shout out to... Sheriff. Sheriff, yeah. Great. Carl. Yeah, Sheriff and Carl down from Oregon. So that car's obviously two-wheel drive

without a lot of ground clearance relative to your truck or to my land cruiser. And that, you know, they were on it pretty well. Oh, yeah. And broke a few things. We had some stretches where the road split and we're both. going, I'd say, pretty high speeds, you know, neck and neck.

And he really was pushing that thing and doing well. Doing really well, yeah. Well, the slow-baha Safari class folks is supposedly limited at 60 miles an hour. Yeah, that's what we were doing about 58. Yeah, the Stella tracker. The Stella tracker will let Nora know if you're exceeding that speed. And levies, fines and levies may be applied at Nora's discreux. But what I'm getting to is, again, and a lot of people have notions of what they need to drive on dirt in Baja.

And I think what you found is what I like to tell people. Basically, you know, you may be driving there and you're tricked out overlander and a local guy is going to come by in his, what have you, 25-year-old, 30-year-old vehicle, typically on three baldish tires and maybe down one-suff. cylinder with, you know, his whole family and a few friends in the car. So it could be, you know, a 30-year-old Mitzie-Bishy pickup truck down one cylinder running on three only with three bald tires and they get through just fine. Yeah. Yeah, it's like I kind of emphasize my point is if you want to drive fast and you want to kind of get wild, it's nice to have some of the high-end stuff, but it is so far from necessary. You know, I have a mostly stock, FJ60,

and it's rust in the fenders, the whole deal exactly what you'd expect out of a good old Toyota, you know, 40-year-old truck, and I would feel more than comfortable driving that thing down there. I'll have to get you down. Yeah, I think it would probably just be kind of the basics or preparedness.

Like ground clearance is nice, but like backup things. Like even in our case, we found shocks when ours got our rears got messed up yeah but like if we had an extra set of shocks or we had obviously your spare like little preparedness things but it's not even that was me pushing the truck i don't have limiting strap straps on the rear end and i was definitely going faster than i should have been and that whole rear axle was was dropping all the way down and it just ripped the threads out of the the top bushings of of my fox uh rear shocks and uh that was more

me pushing it harder than I should have, especially day three, like Samman mentioned. And then, then the truck not being up to being down there. So having spare shocks, I'd say, it's probably excessive at that. Excessive, but. Maybe like one extra, like you, you always see the Baja trucks, especially the, the Shelby Raptors that have two in the back and only go to the mall. Like, they have, like, say two extra wheels. Like, that could be a good thing. I got that. Yeah, because you might Not, like, if you lose one tire, you might need an extra. So we had a spare tire, too, and we never even used it. Yeah, yeah.

So thinking simplicity, because, yeah, you don't need to go excessive. Maybe, like, tracks, we had to use those because four-wheel drive wasn't working at one point. Yeah, my ABS module got mad at me and the wiring anyways, yeah. Yeah, but even so, if you're in a group, like, people are there to help or locals are there to help. Like, you don't have to make your fifth-gen-four-runner weigh an extra 3,000 pounds to be prepared for anything. It's yeah, it's not as... Yeah, I think that's a salient point to discuss. I've really tried to minimize the amount of stuff that I brought again.

I have a small vehicle, and I've been driving that vehicle to Baja on dirt roads now for 10 years, so I have accumulated some mileage and some experience, but I'm not an off-roader by any means. I'm not a pro-grade off-roader. And I think what you're saying is, or what I like to say to people, is make sure your vehicle is sound. that it can drive down the road without overheating, you know, that is well-maintained, that the fluids are not leaking out at great rates like they were on mine on this trip.

So keep the fluids in the vehicle where they're supposed to be and have a good set of tires. And I think that's important. Again, you know, I really pressed my luck. And I'm thankful for Nora and to Yokohama for a set of tires for this year's event. But I was running around on 2007 all-terrain TAs. and they were hard and they were great, but, you know, that was probably pressing my luck to be driving those things for that long

with that many miles on them. So really, it does distill down to proper maintenance of your vehicle, whatever that vehicle is, a good set of tires, a proper spare tire. And, again, if you have space and funds, whatever spares you want to carry, but you were able to, after you blew your shocks, both shocks, separate days,

but after you blew them, you were able to go to an auto zone and pick up shocks that worked, right? Yeah, they got us home, yeah. Yeah. And even without, like, when we were running on three, it really wasn't even that bad for a minute. I had to take it out completely, just the nature of the break. It was remove the shock, drive on. I do have some helper bags back there, so I think that helped cushion a little, but there was a lot of sway without two rear shocks.

And we were able to drive, finish out that day and get into town. and, you know, I had to have some patience, but no issue. And there was a shock waiting for us when we got there. Yeah, and again, I'm not sure that folks understand that any sizable town is going to have an auto parts store. Yeah, there was auto zone. No, O'Reilly. I'm an O'Reilly guy over AutoZone. I'll say it out loud.

But AutoZone were in most major cities. I think we even saw some of Turtle Wax in AutoZx. Yeah, yeah. I bought some Mexico. specific turtle wax with Spanish on it. That was pretty cool. Cool. And it helps to have been in a vehicle that we saw a lot of down there, a tundra.

Yeah. A lot of Toyota. So you're going to have a little more option there, I think, on availability. But any major manufactured vehicle, you're going to have a lot of the parts accessible. Here at Slow Baja, we can't wait to drive our old land cruiser south of the border. When we go, we'll be going with Baja Bound Insurance. The website's fast and easy to use. Check them out at Bajabound.com.

That's Bajaubound.com, serving Mexico Travelers since 1994. So, Danny, you stepped up, I believe, on day five, was day four? Day four, you stepped up and acted as crew chief for me, which was greatly appreciated. Yeah. And I think you realize with all the things that I'm doing outside of the vehicle, in addition to all the miles that I'm putting on the vehicle, vehicle. My vehicle isn't getting looked at at the end of the day. Nobody's going over it and saying, hey, the levels are this, the levels are that. I took a half-hearted swipe of the oil without even wiping the dipstick and putting it back in. So I pulled the oil dipstick, saw a little lump of

black on the bottom, and said, yep, we're good to go. And that was after a 16-hour day on four hours of sleep. Yeah. And, you know, got back in the truck the next morning, and we're at the start line at 6.30 and took a.m. flag and got 25 miles up the hill and went, you know what, we got to pull over. This thing's making lots of noises that it never makes. And I was having fuel delivery problems as well. And so on the side of the road, you changed, you changed, I'll say it right there, you changed, my fuel filter, which was dirty and clogged and nasty. Right. So I had a spare fuel filter, of course, and added you had oil. Yeah.

So you added as some Instagram FJ40 owner in Paris said to me, that's like pouring water into... I had oil for... Your tundra. My tundra, not for an old tractor. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And he said, that's like pouring water into your engine. I said, when you're dying of thirst,

any water will help and just needed to get down the hill. When you hear the engine... Going glug, glug, glug through the oil pan. You're definitely critical. We were low. So at that point, I decided, you know what? Yes, I'm supposed to be leading this class, but more important, I can't kill my vehicle to lead the class. So we turned around, went back down the hill to Loretto, and pulled right into the first major service station that we found, which was a Michelin,

big commercial operation, nice building. But it would be like driving into any six bay corporate mechanics shop here. But the difference there is you pull in, you tell the guys, I'm in this event, I'm having this problem, I need your help. And what do they do? Sam, do you want to take it from here? Yeah, they had three mechanics. Yeah, they had full, cars full. Every bay was full. All the racks.

They jumped right to it. I think they jacked it up. One guy got under, checked that there weren't any fluids. Seiko. I think the term is Seiko. That means dry. Gotcha. There you go.

And then my personal favorite part was they didn't have the gear oil or whatever that we needed. So he quick hopped on his moped and drove over to Auto Zone for us and then came back and got it. Yeah, I gave him some money and you ran to AutoZone. Yeah. So, and then from there, stickers and some free turtle wax because we had way too much of it. And they were stoked. Did you pay for anything? No, no.

And that's the thing. They don't have to check with the manager. They don't, they don't see, tell you that there's an appointment next Tuesday. They can't take you until then. It's drop everything. The truck's jacked up. One guy's on a, on a trolley or a roller underneath. Two guys are looking at this.

One guy jumps on the scooter and buzzes over to AutoZone. And they come back and it's filled with diff oil and, you know, engine oil and this and that. And we're on the road in a half hour. Yeah. And let's not forget, too, I was going to say you mentioned with your fuel filter how dirty it was, which could have been a byproduct of the rust that also caused a hole in your tank a few days before. And on a Sunday evening at 6 p.m., a local mechanic and his son welcomed us into his home garage to pull your tank out, clear it out, and weld it and put it back in.

No problem. Yeah. You paid him, but he, I mean, why wouldn't we? It was nuts. So that's another, I think, salient point. there are people who have skills and run businesses who are available to help. So if you have a problem, and I, you know, heck man, I've got a leaky fuel tank. That's a problem.

I thought that problem had been resolved in the preparation for the event. It turns out that the gum. Yeah, it turns out that the handmade, uh, filter, handmade gasket, uh, on the fuel tank, um, wasn't the problem. There was actually a problem in addition to that. That repair I'm trying to put this politely, folks. That repair didn't work. The first

And to describe that repair, it was bubble gum. Well, let's back up. So the first, there's a gasket on the top of the fuel tank, and the shop that was prepping my truck in Ensonata thought that's where the fuel smell, fuel leak was coming from. So they

took it upon themselves to replace the gasket. And the first gasket that they made, because that's not a gasket that you can go to your local O'Reilly's and buy, leaked. And so the next day was spent making another gasket out of cork this time. And that gasket leaked. And so at the driver's meeting, I was discussing this problem with Kurt Leduc,

Off-road Motorsports Hall of Famer, Kurt Leduc, shout out, Amigo. And he said, well, he said, here you go. He said, you know, ivory soap or chewing gum. Well, I didn't have the ivory soap, and I did have chewing gum in the car that was kind of old, but I had a pack of double mint in there, and I chewed it all up at 11 o'clock at night. You and Kurt went into your car and chewing it up and spitting. Well, I took his advice and just, I was out in the parking lot at, again, 1030, 11 o'clock at night, chewing a pack of gum and packing it in above, and that actually,

did fix that. It did solidify overnight and that gasket stopped leaking. So that top part of the fuel tank was no longer leaking, but that did allow us to find that there was a whole someplace out of sight on the bottom part of the fuel tank. And again

folks, the fuel tank is directly under the seat. So it's not a easily accessible thing. You can't see it from underneath the truck. It's hidden underneath the passenger seat. We're literally sitting an inch or two above it. And so with

gasoline dripping out from underneath the fuel tank, but not being able to see where that is, that means your seats are coming out. That means your center console's coming out. That means your fuel tank's coming out. And that all needed to happen at 6 o'clock on a Sunday night in San Felipe. And our man, my man, Nora's man, Caesar, the

San Felipe connection, put me on to a fellow and we got to his shop and he jumped on it with his assistant, and they pulled my seats in the center console and the heated elements and everything, all the wiring and all that stuff, and they got everything out, and they found the problem, and they drained the fuel tank, found the problem.

And the thing that I love the most was the local solution, how do you get the gas fumes out of the gas tank? After you've poured all the gas out of the gas tank, I'll never forget this part. Before you start welding on the gas tank and blow, us all up. You have to make sure that all the fumes are out. And so he connected the fuel tank inlet, the filler neck inlet, to the exhaust pipe of his dune buggy, his Baja buggy. Yeah, a little air-cooled V-a buggy. And he just ran that engine for 10 minutes,

pumping the exhaust into that gas tank to dry everything up and rid the interior of the gas tank from the fumes. And then he set the... He tested it with a torch afterward. Well, yeah. So he set the fuel tank on a... Shopping card. Exactly.

Modified shopping cart. To set the scene, to set the scene, folks. And then lit a torch and very deftly standing out of the blast zone, touch the lit torch to the fuel neck opening to make sure if there are any fuel fumes, residual fuel fumes there, that the explosion wasn't going to take us out. And once he realized that it was fine, and his boldness grew, and his pucker unpuckered, he said about welding up the hole or soldering up the hole, correct?

What would you call it, Danny? What's the technical term? Was it soldered or welded? He welded it up. Yeah, he welded it up. And, yeah, he killed it. It was, I don't even know that there was much pucker, to be honest. He seemed to be going about it as if it were every day.

Yeah, I razzed him a little bit, and he gave me, I gave him the puckers sign. Yeah. He gave me a little laugh and a little hop, skip, and a jump saying, yes, he was puckered there on the backside as he was touching that. He approached it with a pretty calm demeanor, though. Yeah, and I think, again, the point was, here's a guy, this repair shop is in the front of his house. There's stuff everywhere. six, eight, twelve, Baja bugs,

all sorts of vehicles, desert racing vehicles everywhere. And of course he's a desert racer himself. But he had the skills. And it's Sunday night. And whatever the entire duration of the repairs was, I think, two-ish hours, two and a half hours. It was long enough.

We were there long enough to go out and get tacos for everybody. Ted and I walked across the... And we needed to also get something at the auto-pourable. heart store there, didn't we? I think you guys handled that as well. We just got gas, I think. Yeah, we had to go. We had to get gas for once, because we drained your tank there. That's right. So we had to get gas and come back and then buttoned it back up. And then we ate tacos on the hood while he kept working on the tank there. And there were dogs. A few dogs. Fighting for scraps. Yeah. Yeah. There were. There was a new dog there that.

Cute without food, scary with food. Yeah. But getting back to what I'm trying to. really drive home here two guys who have not been to Baja yet and this is this is end of day one of our event and we're in a guy's front yard open shop and he's he's got the skills and he's making the repair and it may not be the same way that it would be done in a shop here but the result was the same the fix was fixed and everything got put back together and everything worked my heated seats work my new shield man heated seats they they worked again and the center console got put back in the right place,

my new Tuffy center console, and the new repair didn't leak. And, you know, again, I don't know how many miles I have on that thing now. 1,000 plus on dirt and 1,500 or 1,600 on pavement getting home, and it's perfect. Yeah. It seems like, I don't know if this is the right word for it or not, but just ingenuity in general.

Like they're there. I mean, it's a byproduct of racing, and I'm sure Baja bleeds in. to that because you could see they had a lot of stuff that that lean towards racing but i i feel like mexico in general they have their way of like getting stuff done and figuring it out even with minimal resources like they're going to dig in and they're going to find it and it doesn't matter if it's 6 p.m on a sunday yeah it's it's to be applauded it's pretty awesome yeah it is to be applauded and i think it's also it's hard to convey that to folks who um you know are going for

their first time. What happens if, what happens if I get a flat? Well, there's a darn yontaria in every town. Every village has a tire shop. So you're going to get your tire fixed. Somebody's going to fix your tire, plug your tire, sell you a used tire in the right size if your spare is not the proper size. It might not be the the approach you're familiar with where you walk in and they say, oh, you know what? You need all four tires because you're all wheel drive or this, that, the other. Yeah, my temecula location has that size. So it'll probably be two days before we get here. Right. Yeah, it's a different approach, but it gets you down the road and everyone's got a smile on their face in the process. It's pretty killer there, how they're able to just solve the problem.

And it's not, oh, I can't do it to 100%. I can't do it as good as it was brand new, so I'm not going to do it, which is something you might see a little more up here. Down there, it's we're going to get you going, and that's all that matters. And, Danny, you have some experience in the service industry working in, in, you know, automotive repair and service writing and all that, correct? Sure. Yeah. So you just saw like the, you know what, we're just going to get you down the road.

Right. Get it fixed, get it down the road. So we got down the road that night to our hotel. And then the next morning, I thought, was a terrific morning. We went to the Chenwith Legacy Lodge for a group breakfast. Again, shout out to Toby and Nicole Pond from Sheel Man, who picked up the tab for a group breakfast for the entire. Shout out.

Yeah. Safari. Slow Baja Safari and the Rapido Safari all descended on Lin Chenith's beautiful lodge there, right on the beach in Persebo, just south, 20 miles south of San Felipe. What did you think when you rolled, I mean, it's kind of a little bit of a trek to get in there. You're down this dirt road and you hang a left. I have an opinion. All right, let's hear it, Sam.

So here's another recommendation. Make sure you sort out your nav either beforehand or while you have service because this was one of the the more inner grumblings mornings that we had. We as media people, we tried to get ahead to be able to shoot you guys. We didn't have our maps sorted well enough for that day because we had a different race, classes route. So we barely found the Chen. Chenethe.

Cheneth Lodge, yeah. So. Well, let me just say, Sam. Yeah. I feel your pain. I concur because I didn't have the maps downloaded either. And that was a, we're not going to dive into this on this podcast, but that was a Nora email issue that everybody received two map, two class maps, and our map, the slow Baja class, was

not easily downloaded because I downloaded it at the Chenet Lodge on their Wi-Fi because I couldn't get it from our hotel. But to add some positivity to that, while we were on the side of the road waiting for everyone to show up, which they didn't. Sam's, you know, doing his thing, getting his photos, being productive, I'm sitting in. in a lawn chair in the back of my truck watching all the other Baja trucks going by, the big boy stuff, if you will. The racers.

And while I'm sitting there, I had two different people pull up, park next to me, hang out. I met a guy I grew up just right up the street from me in San Diego. We had a drink together and watch trucks drive by. And that's another thing that you'll see down there is a lot of whether they're from there or they're from up north, wherever they're from, people want to be there. and they're stoked to be there, and you're going to meet some amazing people. They're friendly.

Even if you're sitting there thinking, I'm not supposed to be here, I need to be somewhere else, and you're stressed out about it. You're still going to meet some good people along the way. Yeah, okay, so I'll expand upon that even further. Don't let work take you down. Or just don't work while you're down there.

Don't mix working fun. Just have fun. And we were only 10 minutes away from the lodge, but we had no idea where it was. So once we got past that, it was all good, and we just stuck to your bumper the rest of the rest of the day. Maybe a little too close some of the time. We'll get on to that, folks.

But that was an interesting day because the last discussion that I'd had with the race director at Nora was we were starting from our hotel, driving through the arch and heading via the paved road directly to breakfast. And I was quite surprised to learn at the start of that because, again, I didn't have the GPS downloaded at that point for our route. So we were sort of going by the seat of our pants. I was quite surprised to learn that there was an actual off-road stage at the start, that we weren't just getting right onto the paved road to go to the Chinneth Lodge. So as soon as I was able to get off the dirt and just get onto the pavement from taking the green flag, I drove to the lodge because I wanted to be there ahead to make sure that the breakfast was ready and all the details were detailed and the T's were crossed and the eyes were dotted and all that

as the as the host who had arranged all this for for shiel man and so I just went off the map and off the schedule and just be lined to the lodge which and of course I've been there a couple of times so it wasn't a problem well you know I was sort of surprised that everybody arrived an hour later 45 minutes to an hour later because they had a stage to drive and then we had this fabulous breakfast and then Johnny Johnson came and talked a little bit about his career and racing and what it was like to to, you know, race with Big Oly back in 1971 and 1972. And Big Oly that had, yeah, Big Oly had gone over already by then. Yeah, Big Oly went over on the first day.

On the first day. That's right. At the end of the first day coming into San Felipe. Yeah. And then maybe the third or the final day. So, but Big Oly was there. Yeah. Big Oly was back and driving.

They stayed in, I think they stayed in San Felipe and fixed. They were looking for a starter and a few other things. They stayed at Chenworth a little bit longer. everybody. At Chen Worth, he was having trouble getting started. Yeah, so they needed to find a starter. And so there's another interesting story that through the, um, the vintage Bronco owners of Baja club, they found the parts that they needed. So again, you're not going to go to your local Raleys and in San Felipe, they would have a great collection of auto parts stores and resources, one of the best in that, that side of the country in the north. But they had to go to a totally different

game plan to find the parts that they needed. And of course they found them within the day and got them in. Somebody gave them the starter and the other stuff, the flywheel and the things they needed to get that old Bronco going and they got it. And they got it going. They were right back in the event. And that's, again, I think things that people need to hear, you're going to get your problem solved.

It might take a day or two, but you're going to get your problem solved. And, you know, on the Baja XL, 2021, yeah, 2021, a fellow came down. from Utah and he had a big Dodge pickup truck and got stuck in the mud the first day and burned up the transmission. And so, you know, again, I looked at that mud and said, I'm not driving out there. No way. But the course went there. And if you were in the competition category, there were coins to collect by driving that route. And I just said, no way, I'm driving around. It's way too wet. My truck's not going to, I'm not getting dirty. And he stayed in San Felipe for three days and had a transmission shipped, you know, from someplace in the United States to Mexicali

and then got a ride in a taxi from, you know, in a truck taxi from San Felipe to Mexico picked up his transmission, which had been shipped down, and then got it. It took three days, but he got it installed and got back into the event. So there are solutions. It may take a bit.

A lot of the taxi drivers down there too all said, oh, you're here with Nora. Oh, I race too. I race. Yeah, they would tell us about their class 11 bugs and stuff like that. A lot of them. So it's definitely a theme you see down there of support because everyone's, so many of them anyway, are somewhat associated to it.

Family. Yeah. It's all part of the off-road racing family. Right. So after Chenet, which was a darn nice spot, I just don't want to, I don't want to diminish that vision. Yeah, it was great once we found it. Great.

Once we found it. We were able to dole out. And delicious breakfast. Yeah. And once we got rid of the other folks. we were able to bestow the riches that we had for our Slow Baja Safari class only, bestow all the gifts upon our class, the Adobe Guadalupe wine, the benchmark maps Baja Road and Recreation Atlas.

And the turtle wax spray mist, interior detailer and glass cleaner. And what was the other one they got? That was it. Was it just one? No, no, they got two. He listed them all in one. Yeah, interior detailer and glass cleaner. Let's say that one more time.

Should I say it in my narration voice? No. I'm going to, I'm going to take it from the top. And once we got rid of the pesky other Rapido Safari members, we were able to actually bestow the gifts upon our Slow Baja Safari class folks for their goodie bags for rolling with us. So they got the Adobe Guadalupe, a beautiful bottle of white wine. And they got the benchmark maps, Baja Road and Recreation Atlas. And turtle wax, spray mist interior detailer.

and glass cleaner from Hybrid Solutions Line. And that, actually, that stuff is fabulous. You can find that voice on YouTube, ladies and gentlemen. I'm taking a couple of those home with me today because somehow I don't have any left in my land cruiser, and those two products are absolutely fabulous. I have thousands and thousands of bottles in my garage. Well, again. That is a pretty critical thing to have down there.

It's some cleaner. Your truck's going to get real dirty. Yeah, glass cleaner was a hit. Yeah. Yeah, and the glass cleaner. Being able to do that throughout the day daily, it made for a nicer drive. And in my vehicle where you've got both sides of the glass exposed and I'm cleaning both sides of the glass multiple times a day, I'm going to say that glass cleaner is absolutely the best glass cleaner I've used. And if I don't have my windshield clean at dusk, it's absolutely dangerous to drive with the oncoming headlights and the old pitted windshield, my 50-plus-year-old old pitted windshield.

So it needs to be as clean as possible. And I even use these, Mr. Clean, one of those little magic erasers. Doesn't matter. Yeah, it doesn't matter. The hybrid. Let's get back to Turtle Wax, folks. Well, so heading down the road, that's when we started really picking up some good dirt from Chenet and getting down to Beheia de Los Angeles, which was, you guys had a room with Wi-Fi, as I understand.

Damn right. We were staying at an Airbnb. with no, it has a generator, folks. The place you were at looked like it should have Wi-Fi. The place we were at didn't look like it should, but it amazingly did. Yeah, you were at Campbell-Archelon. That's a spot I'd love to visit on my next trip to Bahia de Los Angeles. If you get room seven, the toilet, you have to fill a garbage can up with water

and pour the water in yourself. Well, this is hearkening back to my earlier comments about there's something in almost every, there's something in almost every Baja hotel, motel, room situation that always requires a little something, something. If you have the right attitude, it's just hilarious and you figure it out. That's why we're laughing so hard.

And so that's where the bumper sticker, the genesis of the bumper sticker came from. Ask your doctor if Baja's right for you because it's not right for everybody. If you care, if you give a shiz, it's not for you. I'm cleaning up the language, guys. Well, and it stems back to what we're saying about, you know,

they might not be able to get your brand new set of tires for you, but you're going to get on the road, they're going to fix it for you. And it's kind of that mentality across the board. Even in these, you know, what I assume to be nicer hotels

in comparison to some of the other places that locals live, you're still dealing with a lot of, you've got to be a little bit ingenuitive and appreciate, you know, what you have there. And it's part of the theme and it's part of the spirit of being in Baja. And it's great.

Yeah, I think the spirit is an important, point to dwell on here for a second. It's not as buttoned down dialed in, what have you. It's not exactly the same as you can drive on a lot of dirt and a lot

of places in this country and you've driven on a lot of dirt in this country. There's something different in driving that dirt. There's something different in not having sell, not knowing that you can call AAA and somebody's going to come pull you out and swipe your credit card and it's going to be

fine. You know, you do have to have, you have to have a little bit of an adventurous spirit, and you do have to have the ability to take responsibility for your machine. But as we've discussed at Nazium now, there are folks to help you. So I'm going to backtrack a little. And when you say to having a little responsibility, you had mentioned earlier, you checked the oil real quick on your truck in the morning. I will maybe emphasize, I would support someone, bringing extra oil, extra coolant, and extra air filters, because your intake is going to get disgusting. Whether you have a...

Intake was nuts. Yeah, I was cleaning my intake at the end of every day thoroughly, and it's still... And my oil got dark quick. So kind of back to being prepared, what we were talking about, you can drive a pretty basic vehicle down there. I will say keeping that intake clean, keeping some extra fluids and checking them throughout the day, every night, every morning

is definitely going to make your trip more enjoyable and keeping on the road longer. Yeah, and that, again, that's, you know, my nonchalance and distraction that kept me from taking those very basic steps is what had us on the side of the road, you know, on day four, which we're going back to rolling into the Michelin and Loreto, solving that problem with those enthusiastic fellows. And ironically, that's one of your favorite things to end up having to figure out. So it was fun. Well, it won't be a problem again now because I've got the, I've got the protocols and the proper sized

sockets and wrenches at the weight so I can always check my diff oil and check my transfer case oil. And, you know, that will not happen again. And that's good knowledge for me to have as a non-mechanic. And that's another thing that I like to emphasize, folks, I'm not a mechanic. Ted's not a mechanic. We have very little mechanical knowledge between the two of us and we're driving a 50 plus year old vehicle in Baja a lot. So if we can do it, I think most people can. So let's roll on down the coast a little bit. Through Bahia de Los Angeles, we had some very long days. I had that 16 hour day down to, from San Felipe to Loretto, and then beautiful short night in Loretto and then out the next. day on to La Paz. What was your take once you got to a big, you know, in my opinion, La Paz is a very, you know, for Baja,

it's kind of a bigish city after seeing a lot of, a lot of desolation on your doorstep, a lot of wide open spaces, a lot of barren dirt roads, a lot of, you know, villages, towns, but nothing like that. And you come up onto La Paz, which is a, I think not, it's, it seems to me, a locals only kind, not a locals only kind of place. It just seems like a place that's much more Mexican than, say, Loretta, which has a sizable, small population and a sizable expat population. La Paz seems very much like it's a spot built by Mexicans for Mexicans.

Yeah, well, and I felt like I saw a little bit more and more of that as we went on. As we went south, you feel a little more like you're getting, away from, you know, the more metropolis, of course. And, and, and, but it was, uh, it's still kind of stuck out like a sore thumb compared to what we had seen that day, you know, and, and the day prior. And Loretta was a beautiful place and maybe just because that day was a long day of driving. That was a rough day for all of us, I think. But, uh, yeah, La Paz was a rad experience. It was, you appreciate it so much, you know, and you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you.

You're on the dirt, those long roads, those long days, you get into these cities. But, yeah, it was. I can't remember La Paz for some reason. I remember our short stop after our first shock incident. That was Loretto? Yeah. I can't remember. I remember these by the hotel we stayed at and then the start line, like what the start line looked like, but I can't remember.

So the drive in La Paz, you're driving past lots of big car dealerships, big box store. Right on the water. Yeah, and it's right on the water. And then we got all the way to the Malacon, which is the waterfront area. And we drove all the way down the Malicon to our hotel, which was the Marina Villa. I want to say the same name for the Encinada, but it was another villa, Villa Marina. This is the one where we were in the corner? We had to park behind the hotel and then walk back around it.

And the hotel ran out of water in the morning. Oh. Were you there for that? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, this was the one that had the balconies. We got the nice suite. No, I thought this was when we camped.

No, that was Loretto. That was Loretto? Mm-hmm. All right, we're not getting into the details of the hotel. Loretto, our Lopaz is a big city, so it's past a lot of car dealerships. We were near the bay with all the boats, right? Yes. Yeah, exactly.

Oh, okay. Mine bad. And again, you know, not a lot of time to see the town. No. We ate dinner at the hotel that night at 10.30 at night or something. It was quite a light arrival. In the morning getting up, though, as the sun was coming up over the, I'll call it the bay, there was a bunch of sailboats and boats out in the docked out there.

And we kind of, we went the wrong way and had to turn around, but we got to see a little bit more. And we were following Baja bound, and we all kind of went the wrong way there. But, yeah, as the sun was coming up over the city, and the roads were pretty nice through the paws. Yeah, that's very nice. That's very nice. That was the point there. That's like, you know, it's a pretty nice city. And then we got down this.

That was our nicest hotel by quite a ways. Yeah, and I each had our own private 10-foot square balcony to enjoy the sunrise. Yeah. Very nice. Yeah. It's great. And cold showers. Netflix in my room on the TV.

We only had like six hours there, but I decided that I'm going to ruin my night's sleep just to slightly enjoy the amenities here. So backed up all my files, watched an hour of hitch while you're backing up all your files. And I went to bed immediately for my solid five hours. So the terrible thing about being a photographer in your era versus the photography work that I did in my era, you know, slightly younger than you are now, after the event, the day's event was over, that film went in a bag and you got to have a beer and chilled out. There wasn't any further work to be done until it was daylight again and you were trying to get into your next spot to get your next, shoot your next

role of film. But once the film was shot, you're done. Until development and that part where it's where it leans back to us. Yeah, and you're downloading

and backing files up and doing computer stuff and you can do that stuff all night. And a lot of Mexican, a lot of hotel rooms in Baja do have, a lot of hotels in Baja

are a little bit challenged in their Wi-Fi. So that can be an issue as well if you're relying on Wi-Fi for the issues. We kind of backed out of that. We didn't depend on the need to lean into posting consistently. That's what I was getting to. So if you're having to shoot and edit and post, that can be a very late night trying to get those posts to upload. I mean, driving the event is easy.

Yeah, posting about it is hard. Yeah. Yeah, we need a little bigger crew for that. So, yeah, we just backed up everything locally. We had a little Wi-Fi to communicate with who we needed to communicate with. Shout out Deb. But, yeah, so we didn't really post. All right.

And then getting down the coast the last day, it was a pretty good day. Yeah, yeah. I miss the opportunity to get in some beautiful water. Shoulda coulda woulda, but, you know, we had the job at hand. But the stop at the Tropic of Cancer, it was cool to just be passing that for one. But got a nice coconut and some frozen treats. That was great. And then, yeah, it was kind of the final stretch after all of our things that went wrong,

you know, rolling into San Jose del Cabo. You know, we feeling like we did something and we made it. Well, rolling out of La Paz within, what, 30 minutes or so, we started, you know, we were on this dirt road and all of a sudden you come around this corner and you're, I don't know, 100, 200 feet up above the ocean and you just can see this whole coastline and you're on this cliff side. And it's just, it's, it's,

it's, it's, it's, I had to, I had to stop. I literally, I stopped my truck, got out,

um, and luckily Sam wanted some photos anyway, so it worked out well. And, and I just had to appreciate it because it was, it was magnificent. It's the weird balance between what feels like desolation and then getting these coastlines that are as beautiful as anywhere in

the world. Yeah. I had to mark that. I have that saved on my, on my map to go back there because that was quite, quite amazing. And we did get down to a quick, some people got in the water. I know that Yeti and Yolo jumped in the water. I saw Jim's abs too, so he was definitely.

Shut up, Rafa. Bronco privateer turned 59 on this trip and looking good, Jim. Still got a ass. Biggest six-pack on the trip. I did not. jump into the ocean. And Yeti and Yolo, their truck got stuck in the sand, a little lightweight two-wheel drive ranger.

Nick Butsey pulled him right out. They got him out in the G-Wagon. Nick Butsey from North Dakota, pulled him out. Shut up, Fergo. And I had no four-wheel drive once again that day, so I wasn't willing to risk going down into the sand like that. Well, let's get again another thing, Danny, that you were just sort of surprised at,

if you had a preconceived notion kind of wrapping up now, or we've gotten to Cabo, had quite a, quite a diversity in terrain and roads. And that little last track that we drove was so spectacular coming down the coast. I wouldn't have wanted to have a trophy truck trying to catch me on that road. That would have been a very scary experience. Yeah, yeah.

That was something we ran into a little bit on day three, I think it was. and it all landed with us. San Borha Road and the San Borja mission was a little hairier than I would have liked with trophy trucks coming behind. And you guys were sticking right on my bumper. And I don't know if we need to really go into that. The smarter play probably would have been to abandon our schedule. Yeah, it was just an unfortunate coordination in a minor, a minor way. Because the nature of our class is going slow and stopping to see stuff.

So it's only natural that people are going to catch up to us. And yeah, it just was what it was. So pushing slow, Baja at 60 miles an hour on a dirt road going airborne. going airborne with Danny four feet off of my rear bumper was more harrowing than either one of us needed, frankly. It was a good time. I had fun with it. Yeah, we were testing our own ingenuity.

Yeah, it's all good. And our guardian angels. Coming around that bend, though, and seeing that cliffside overlooking, it was just one more instance where I was like, I can't believe how lucky I am to be here on this trip, you know, top to bottom, there was, I had access to everything I needed and more.

The food was amazing. I never got upset stomach or anything. We made sure to bring some plenty of water for ourselves, but that wasn't an issue down there either. It was consistently the further south we got, the less I wanted to go back. It just was more comforting, more welcoming. For sure.

And, you know, it built on itself, of course, you know, but it was, it was all. all in all, just not what I expected in so many positive ways. Yeah, your potentially negative expectations. Yeah. I think we're blown away with beautiful Biria lunches and incredible dirt drives. And the ability to find the things like we were on a, what, a 60 mile dirt track when you blew your shocks. We just turned around and drove back and, you know.

Tip limped it nice and slow. You know, got the shock you needed. Not the $1,000 Fox Racing Shock. No, no. You had in there, but the $50 one from the parts store work, didn't it? Yeah, but Dur alas helped us out, man. We were good to go. So what I thought I needed, right?

Building this list in my head, getting my truck prepared, what I thought I needed versus what I actually needed. And the next time I go down there, it's going to be, the stress level will be definitely significantly lower. Not that I was overly stressed, but the fear of the unknown. Sure. And I wouldn't hesitate to take my 30, 40-year-old land cruisers now. You know, I wouldn't hesitate to be more relaxed and enjoy that, especially, I mean, us doing some of these legs with the high-end race trucks put a little bit of a different pressure.

on the trip versus the high-end race trucks trying to pass us and get on with their high-end racing endeavors not going slow like you are. I'm pushing my truck probably 20, 30 miles an hour faster than I should be and they're still trying to eat me alive.

So that was, I think the only thing that had had any stress for me, the whole trip, once I got into my comfort zone and now going down there and not being worried about that factor of something chasing me, it would be, there wouldn't be a hesitation. There wouldn't be a stress.

There's so much accessible to you a little bit. You do need to be ingenuitive. You do need to have some prep work ahead of time, as we've discussed earlier. But you can go down there pretty carefree and enjoy whether it's a nice hotel or camping on the beach. I wanted to bring that up. You popped out a beautiful tent from your friends at Polar. And I was little...

Nate hooked us up. Yeah, I was a little envious. And I just thought, you know, again, after one trip down, would you feel comfortable heading back and camping? No questions asked. Those beautiful beaches? The map you gave me. Uh-huh.

The benchmark map. Baja Road and Recreation Atlas, 72 pages, folks. I even had Sam, I, well, because I was driving, I'm like, Sam, quick, open up the page, find where we are. I need you to mark this and make this note for me here. and I've got a few spots saved that I'm already trying to figure out my next trip down there where I'm going to go and I'm not going to go necessarily for a race or during a race and I got my camp spots marked out and I'm going to take an old truck down and I'm going to enjoy it

you know to the fullest and take my time on those views we had we had a Sam had a goal it was he had to get his oranges yeah wanted to buy some narahas naranhas uh Yeah, curbside and then E1 in the water. Yeah, so we finally, we found some. I kind of had to lock up the brakes and pull into a dirt lot out and backed up. I'm like, go get them. He's like, what, what? And then we looked down the road and there were like four other staining.

Up ahead of us, yeah, because we hadn't seen one in like a day. So all of a sudden we got worried. But we got his oranges and we set up camp one day and had the chairs out and the awning and went out into the sea of Cortez and ate an orange. while fish are swimming around our feet and we're just kind of chilling and it was. Oranges with exfoliated toes. Yeah, there you go.

Nivelyn on your dead skin. I think you guys had already started back ahead of us as we were making our way back up the coast. But we pulled off and went to one of these little bays and Bahia de Concepcion, one of these beautiful bays. There was a little bit of an algae issue that was going on. So we were looking for a bay that we could get some

swimming and that didn't have the algae bloom going off. And we found one. It was just interesting, you know, you drive off the side of the, you know, the dirt driveway off the side of the road, and you backtrack down this dirt road, and you get to the little beach. And most of the times in Baja, at least on the Sea of Cortez side, many of the campable spots, the easily attainable spots, the best little bays may have a family there that controls that area and you're going to pay a day use fee or an overnight camping fee or what have

you. And there will be a little bathroom. room or a tiny little palapa that'll sell whatever, catch the day tacos. And I love that. And so we were in a little spot. Again, now we're three vehicles because I think Big Olaf and Kevin rolled with you guys. Yeah. So we were down to the two older land cruisers, my 71, Todd's 87 and Jim's brand new Bronco

privateer brand new Bronco. And we had a day. The six of us had a day out. there and I was sure that we were going to have to pay a day use fee or something and as we were sort of packing up to leave here comes the guy trundling over and you know it just didn't I didn't want it to be a scene I didn't want to get strong arm you guys have been here for whatever an hour and you need to pay and the guy was just so nice hey how are you what have you and I hate to say it you know one o'clock in the afternoon we just broke out the bottle of Fortaleza and lined up the shot glasses

and we all had a ceremonial salute to his beautiful spot in the world. And he gave us a little Spanish toast, you know, and I made him do it again so I could record it because it was so beautiful. And then we gave him all the six shot glasses, and he was thrilled. And that was that. We didn't pay our day use fee. You just came over, and we packed our trash out and, you know, made a new friend in the world. And I can't wait to get back there and see him again.

And I think that's the other thing that maybe people don't understand the friendliness of the local folks. Yeah. Yeah. If you're willing to have a conversation with them, if you're willing to open up. You're willing to share. You've got to get out of your comfort zone a little bit too, but only in good ways. And you're going to get that right back. Yeah. Be nice and talk to people and don't be afraid to mess up your Spanish too. I had a couple locals be like, you don't have to tell me you're terrible at Spanish. Just like, just try. It's all good.

especially when it's funny because like I'll say it in Spanish like Mui Terrible or whatever and then they'll cut completely to perfect English you'll be like dude just try like oh hey well I do say go slow and say hello is a nice way of approaching travel anywhere so let's let's wrap it up Sam what's your or Danny whoever wants to jump in here first what's your lasting takeaway well I think I've kind of already emphasized on it but I'll just say it again to kind of sum it up, but I can't wait to get back.

I can't wait to go and enjoy it, whether there's a big event, whether there's a race, whether you're with a group of people or by yourself or just with someone you care about, going down and enjoying it and taking the time to go down that dirt road and find that little beachfront spot to camp,

you know, to spend some time in the bigger cities, to experience the food, the restaurant, the people, You know, one night we went out and we went to a higher end restaurant and we had an amazing meal and a live band was playing and it was, I'll remember it forever, you know, with everyone there and we're. La Lupita in San Jose del Cabo. That was a lovely night. It was a great night. Amazing night. It might have been the first night I realized that my wristband got me food. So that was great. So, you know, again, just I can't wait to go back and. And it. experience it with a lower, I guess a lower stress level, but just to have that smile on my face and take it all in. Sam? Yeah, I mean, Danny covered the conception, the preconceived

worries very well, similar scope there and getting those things taken care of and feeling a lot better about a lot of things. And it is, I think, really important to take things as they go or as they come and make sure you're enjoying it because you know the stresses are there you take care of those and and be there while you're there like you said i think yesterday your head being where your feet are because it is really important to get caught up on a lot of things back home and and work and elsewhere so yeah we can let's build a little list again too what was what was everything that we said we should need we have oil we have extra air filters yeah that was a big one keeping i i should have emphasized that earlier. The air filter, like you got a, I ended up going around to everyone's

trucks one day and either banging out their air filter or cleaning them out with the compressor. That's a, that's a big one. You don't realize how filthy those things get. It was like magic. Everybody couldn't believe how that dirt got there. There's just so much of it. It's crazy to see even like a regular air filter. You don't think about it. But yeah, I mean, a basic, you know, you get a little bit of ground clearance, whatever vehicle it might be. I think all of us tend to lean towards Toyota. But you could do this in a Subaru wagon easily. Just making sure your maintenance is up. Check over things.

As long as your head gasket's been replacing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Check over your maintenance. Plenty of cool. That's a little stab there. She's Subaru Bros. Coolant oil, you know, just some really basic, basic things that one day I did just drain my oil out.

It was disgusting. You know, after that, what was that long day? We had like 16 hours in the dirt. Yeah, yeah. I just, that was San Felipe. I just drained my oil out. I didn't even replace my filter. And I put fresh oil in it.

And I'm a little bit over the top, right? Not everyone's as stressed out about it as me, but I like my trucks to go 300K, and that's always what I'm shooting for. But just those simple, simple basic things in a regular vehicle, you take your time, you're going to be just fine. Maybe a little bit of coolant. And then from the cleaning side, because you know who got us here, turtle waxed, glass cleaner seemed like the biggest hit.

So getting that, whether it's, I think the main product down there is dashing glass, otherwise the mist glass cleaner. And hey, while you're at it at AutoZone, grab the three-and-one hybrid solutions detailer because that pink Corvette you see on there was shot by yours truly. Pink Corvette, get that one. Yeah, it's great. And, yeah, while we're on that note, this wouldn't have happened without Turtle Wax. So Kelly Kagney, who's not with Turtle Wax anymore, she's moved on to crazier things. This was three years in the making that we tried to do this.

She was behind it all the way. She was like our turtle mom over there, always making sure things happened, was stoke. about anything and and yeah she none of this would happen my career wouldn't be the same without Kelly in that sense and then my other turtle family we got nick Janicki who came over from Zeno we got Holly I'm not going to butcher your last name Holly M sorry and then you can't forget Dan and Mary who helped with designing of our bespoke sticker for for this event that was incredible all the way up to Darren and uncle Mike the turtle man Uncle Mike.

Well, not you, Uncle Mike. I just called him, ironically, Mike. The head lab guy at Turtle Wax, Dr. Turtle. And then, yeah, you, my Uncle Mike, too. So thank you again, Turtle Wax for everything. Again, this wouldn't have happened without it. And they've been more or less family in my career and endeavors like this. Well, it was a lot of fun to turn the tables and have you get me a gig.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. To be able to represent Turtle Wax and bring you guys with me to tell the story. So if folks want to see the film that you shot, the Instagram stories, the what have you. Danny, where can people follow you if you'd like them to check you out? My Instagram, I'm just Father White, Father underscore White on Instagram. That's pretty much it for me. I'm pretty basic there.

You'll see some pictures of Danny's fun life in old trucks, land cruisers, and his tundra and Baja and Sam. Where can people follow you? So I am Sam Hurley. You spell Hurley without an E. If you put Hurley in Sam, H-U-R-L-E-Y, you'll get a 17-year-old TikTok Fianom, who I think is going to Texas for track and field. Congrats, bro.

I am Sam, H-U-R-L-Y. I get taken to stuff so much. So you'll see stuff there, and then as well, I think we're going to try to hold this podcast until our film is done. We'll coordinate. Exactly. So that'll be on Turtle Wax's social media and YouTube channel. That's what you'll see all.

Turtle Wax. Turtle Wax. They're easy to find. With a W-W-W-W-X. Yeah, yeah. All right, well, I thank you guys for making some time for Slow Baja today and telling some stories and tell us what's really like just not ever having gone to baha and having just being honest about your fears and and really honest about um the experience you know the real world experience

after getting past all that stuff yeah so thanks again thank you yeah and thank you sam for bringing me along thinking of me turtle wax yeah i think i've helped with a handful of things over the years and i've been lucky if you've been my friend you've probably been in a product video i appreciate it And thank you for the invite. Slow Baja was such an amazing experience. So thanks. Even that day on the side of the road with you changing the fuel filter and glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug. Sam had me shooting videos doing shoutouts for Cruiser Outfitters,

cruiser Kurt, and thanking the boys we made use of our on the side of the road time. And, you know, getting back to sort of the beauty of that day, just after we got up to the top of the hill and I realized there's no way. I've got to turn around and go back and get my truck, you know, fully lubed and serviced. We still spent a half hour up in San Javier checking out the mission and getting a cold drink at that stand. Because, you know, you can't go back down the hill without a big cold. It was hot. Yeah.

Yeah. We got to sign that book in the old mission built in 1700s. It was so beautiful. And all the cobblestone. Drop some coins. and lit a candle for my good luck and left a slow Baja sticker on the altar with all the photos of folks who are hoping for miracles in their family. I wanted to be right there with them and hope for my own little miracles, and they came true.

Yeah, endless stories from this trip. We could go on for forever. So everybody out there gets your trip on, you can slow Baja anywhere, whether it's Baja or beyond. Yeah. So, yeah. Ask your doctor if Baja's right for you. We did it. All right.

Thanks, guys. Thank you. Well, thanks for listening to those guys talk about their candid conversation about their first trip to Baja. I've got another first trip to Baja with me, Christopher Kaiser, my podcast producer. He's riding shotgun, taking pictures, shooting video. We're going to start doing some YouTube stuff so you'll be able to see more of slow Baja from in the car and what we're doing on YouTube, building that up a little bit. So if you like what we're doing, you can see it all. at slowbaha.com. All the episodes are there. You can drop a taco in the tank at the donations tab.

You can certainly see where I've been featured, see the YouTube film, see the Toyota Trails magazine articles, listen to the podcast that I've been a guest on. And you can always buy some Slow Baja swag at the Slow Baja shop. There's still some black sweatshirts, dad hats. You've got to look past the cupboards are a little bit bare, but there's still some cool stuff there. And I appreciate your support. I really, really. do and maybe by the time you listen to this, I'll be on Patreon. So if you're doing that Patreon thing, I'd appreciate you looking me up and helping me keep the show going week after week after week and without any more yabberin. To paraphrase Mary McGee's pal, Steve McQueen,

Baja lover Steve McQueen. Baja's life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting.