Slow Baja - Drive The Globe With Michael Ladden

Episode Date: June 4, 2024

Growing up in rural New England, you’re bound to see many Jeeps, trucks, and tractors. Many people have them for transportation and working on their properties, and the Ladden family was no exception. Fascinated from an early age while watching his dad with his Jeeps, it’s a piece of family lore that Michael’s first word was “Jeep.” A pivotal moment in Michael’s life came when he left his first big job after college and explored Africa. This journey ignited a passion for Land Rovers, adventure travel, and a desire to live life on his own terms. Despite a successful career in real estate and hospitality, his adventurous spirit eventually led him to sell everything and embark on a 220,000-mile expedition across all seven continents. When the pandemic disrupted his global journey, Michael didn’t let it deter him. Instead, he adapted his plans and turned his exploration towards North and Central America. He has spent significant time exploring Baja California Sur, Mexico, riding the peninsula on a KTM adventure motorcycle and most of the Baja Divide by bicycle. In addition to his ground adventures, Michael is a private pilot and just released a book about his African adventures. Michael has visited 122 countries and proudly states he’s been to nine out of ten of the worst ones! Get your Baja insurance here: ⁠ https://www.bajabound.com/quote/?r=fl... For more information about Slow Baja:⁠ https://www.slowbaja.com/⁠ More information on Slow Baja Adventures:⁠ https://www.slowbaja.com/adventures

Hey, this is Michael Emery. Thanks for tuning into the Slow Baja. This podcast is powered by Tequila Fortaleza, handmade in small batches, and hands down, my favorite tequila. You know, I've long said it. Ask your doctor if Baja's right for you. If you've been hankering to get down to Slow Baja,

you've got to check out the Adventures tab at Slow Baja.com. All my trips are there from my vintage extravaganzas in summer and fall. Summer is old, old, funky, slow stuff. Fall is not quite as old stuff. And, of course, your meals are included on the fall trip. Good dirt roads, private campsites, ranch days, great food and great people. Let me tell you about my winter 2025 expedition. You know, that's already on the calendar, winter 2025.

That's for you folks with the new stuff, all those folks, the complainers who tell me they don't have anything old, but they want to come with me? Well, the winter expedition is for you. We've got whale watching. We've got beach camping. And once again, that is open to trucks of any age. The common denominator on all these trips, they're small. They're immersive.

We go slow. We say hello. Well, to find your trip, check out the Adventures tab at slowbaha.com. Now, stay tuned because I'm going to be adding some non-motorized adventures soon. So who's ready to go on a mule packing trip with me in the mountains above Loretta? You know, I just went and I can't wait to share a super, super slow Baja experience with you. And just so you know, I'm always open to help you with your Baja trip planning. And if you like me to organize and lead a private guided tour, I've done it.

I loved it. All the pictures, all the information, all the deets are over there at slowbaha.com slash adventures. Or just hit me up at slowbaha.com slash contact. Hey, big thanks to those of you who've contributed to our Baja baseball project. You know, we launched our gear deliveries on my winter expedition. Michael and Matthew from Barbers for Baja. We're along for the ride, and we got to deliver that critically needed baseball gear up and down the peninsula. It was really, truly amazing.

And on my last trip, I got to go to the state baseball championships and see some of our alums playing, some recipients of the Baja baseball gear deliveries. And congratulations to Guerrera Negro and Mulej, the Austenaros and the Cardinalitos won silver and bronze at the state championships. Big stuff. It's really fun to be there and fun to see them. All right, well, please help us continue this vital work. Make your tax-deductible donation at the Barbers for Baja.

Click, barbers for Baja.org. click the Baseball in Baja link, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I really do. It is so amazingly gratifying to be able to give these kids this chance to keep playing this sport. Keep them on the field, keep them out of trouble. Please check it out. Baseball in Baja link at barbers for Baja.org. Thank you.

Well, thanks for tuning in to today's Slow Baja. I just want to take a second at the top of the show here and acknowledge Jake and Callum Robinson and Carter Road. I never had a chance to meet these guys, but I think they were slow Baja kind of guys. And I just want to say my heart goes out to their family and their friends and all that. Okay. On to today's show, I just felt like I had to say that onward and upward. My heaping dose of gratitude today goes out to Andrea Hanks.

You've heard me mention her name before. Her dad, Irv Hanks, was a navigator. in the very first Mexican 1000. He was part of that banquet Bronco team. The guys that wore the tuxedos just had the best attitude. We're goofing the whole time. And Andrea has been a terrific supporter of the show. And she got off to Mary McGee's garage sale

and bought some great stuff from Mary McGee, including her team Dotson jacket. And when Mary was being inducted to the Offroad Motorsports Hall of Fame, Andrea got the jacket back to Mary so she could wear it at her induction. I just think that is so cool. And Andrea has the distinction of wearing the number one plate. And enracing the number one plate can be the heaviest plate to wear. But she is my very first Patreon supporter.

I had forgotten that I'd even put all the information out there for Patreon and never, ever, ever, ever got traction in that out of the blue. I got a notification. and dang it, Andrea, she's my first supporter. So thank you very much. And folks, if you're out there on Patreon supporting other folks doing good stuff that you admire and you want to support, I have an offering that's coming there very soon. It's not there yet. I'm on the road.

I'm doing some camping. I've got Overland Expo. But stay tuned. I've got a very cool Slow Baja Patreon offering. And hopefully you folks that are there helping folks do this kind of stuff will take a look and say, yeah, I'd like to. be part of that. So all right. Motocinora Brewery in Tucson, I will be there later today.

So by the time you hear this, I will have already sampled some slow Baja Mexican logger. That's right. There's a new Mexican logger. You can get it at the brewery, Motor Sonora, in Tucson. And I'm going to have some in cans that I'll be handed out to folks during happy hour at Overland Expo. So if you're listening to this on your way to Overland Expo,

come on by it'll be like high school will be really quiet and i'll be slipping you a beer all right um i'll be at the storyteller pavilion with old slow baha and please stop by say hello i've got some fresh new stickers making their debut the keep baha slow sticker will make its debut at overland expo i only have 5,000 of these things so please um come by see me and get your Slow Baja sticker. Today's show is with Michael Ladden, who will also be at Overland Expo. He's in the big orange truck, the drive, the globe, six-wheel drive truck. And he's just a very good guy and a damn serious traveler.

I sat down with him in Los Frilis in Baja, and we had a conversation. He's been to, I believe, 122 countries. And he is very, very slowly making his way through Baja. I think he said he spent 19. months of the last three years in Baja. He's got a bike and a motorcycle and his big truck, and he's working his way through all the dirt roads, and he's a great source of information about Baja specifically, but again, 122 countries all over Africa, all over all the bad countries, as he likes to say, he's been there, nine out of the 10 of the worst country. So without further

ado, Michael Ladden of Drive the Globe talking about slow travel and Baja today on slow Baja. All right, we're going to start it all over again. Excellent. Michael Ladin, nice to see you here in Slow Baja Landia with your big, beautiful truck in your winter camp. Saludos, amigos. Saludos. Welcome, Michael, to the beautiful Los Freilays, BCS here. Yeah, I'm going to turn you down.

You like to, you're loud. I'm loud. I don't have an indoor voice. Hey, well, it's damn nice to run into you. And very kind of you to have me over to your house for a servesa. I'm going to put my sunglasses back on. It's pretty dang. Well, you know, it's a little overcast today, but it's moments of sun for sure.

Well, I'm delighted to see you again and be able to talk to you a little bit about your life and drive the globe and your pets. turtle that you travel with. That's right. And so let's... I'll introduce you guys to boot in the expedition turtle at some point. That's about the first I've ever heard of an expedition turtle, but I like it.

I like it. So let's get into your story. You're a Connecticut kid. I'm a Connecticut kid in New England or born and raised out east. And I... I've heard the first words you ever uttered were Jeep. Is that true? Yeah, my first word that I said was Jeep.

before mom or dad. And I think that's largely because we used to stay in the garage all the time. My dad would take me out there and probably, you know, I don't know if you can do this anymore nowadays, but you lay me on the floor, concrete floor in the garage and while he worked on the Jeep. So I'd heard the word Jeep all the time and I guess that's what I said first. Yeah. Well, I'm glad I don't have to bleep the other words you might have heard dad say. That's true.

If you're working with my dad in those days, we would have had 17 bleeps in a row. I just remember vividly when I was a kid. to take dump runs on Saturdays. Oh, my stars. And my dad would always be like, hey. To the dump. Yeah, he was always like, keep your feet off the mat on the floor because, you know, the mat was the only thing between, you know, your feet and the pavement below because the cheap was all rusted out.

Yeah. And then we quickly got rid of that. And we had three, we actually had three vintage land cruisers. And we used them to plow the driveway. And it was a big driveway, right? Yeah, it was like three quarters of a mile. long. Yeah, that's a quarter of a mile long.

All right. So you did some outdoorsy stuff as a kid. You had a dad who had four-wheel drive vehicles and liked to get out and use them around New England. Where would you go up to Maine? Or what would that? Yeah, we used to go,

oh God, Moosehead Lake in Maine. We traveled around. We went up, I remember going to the kiddie, the Atlantic Province, as a Canada. Us as a family, camping in the old Coleman canvas tent. Oh, the pop-up. Yeah. Oh, yeah, the big tent.

What did that? Do they fold out and then pop up? I think they folded out and popped up. Yeah. Something like that. And it was the four of us because I have one brother. So it was my parents, my brother, me, and we had St. Bernard's. So we had big St. Bernard dogs. Did they sleep inside? They did. Yeah. Wow. They did. And it was one summer in particular. I never learned a true story. I know. getting off topic here.

Let's get off topic. I learned how to swim, not until I went to Africa in 1991, but that's a different part of this. But the reason I didn't know how to swim really before that is because I went overboard on this little boat in Moosehead Lake in Maine when we were on vacation. And if it wasn't for the St. Bernard jumping in and rescue me, I may not have made it. Wow. So after that, I was like, I don't really want to do swim lessons.

I don't really like the water. Huh. I do now. Yeah. Amazing. Saved by St. Bernard. What was that St. Bernard's name? Well, we had two. One was Boozer, and the other one, the female was Panda. And they were, I think Boozer was 190 pounds.

And the female was maybe 160. Amazing. It's a big dog. So you already referenced that you went to Africa in 1991. But you were a classic Connecticut kid, played hockey, went to college. Played everything, yeah. Baseball, hockey, soccer. tennis, golf.

It's the way kids used to be before they specialized in one sport at eight years old. Exactly. Now it is, yeah. Yeah. And so off to college to play hockey in college? Yep, played some hockey. Blew out my knee, my right knee. I've had surgeries on both knees so many times at this point.

I actually just retired from playing hockey. I played on the same adult, quote, men's team for 28 years, I think we played the same guys, played together. Wow. So I retired from that right before I went on the road full-time four years ago. All right. Well, tell me about out of college. You were selling computers working for Xerox, which was a pretty hot job in that day. First job out of college.

Get your suit, get your tie. Get in and close those deals. Close those sales, Michael. Close, close, close, always be closing. High stress. Had to wear a blue suit. Had to have a red tie. Had to have a white shirt every day.

And, yeah, I was stressing. and it was, I was making, I was making so much money. I didn't know what to do with it at the time, right? I was, I don't know, 21, 22 years old. And a guy in a cubicle behind me, Eric, big, tall guy. Like, Eric is, I want to say he's, I don't know, he lives in Hawaii now. I want to say he's 6'6, maybe. And, um, blonde, tall guy.

And he goes, Mike, you want to go to Africa? I go. That sounds like fun. Where's Africa? So he's like... I go, what do I got to do? He goes, oh, it's easy. You know, just get to get some money and we're going to go over, get a one-way ticket.

We're going to go get some shots down at the Yukon Health Center at the infectious disease. It's a little that you tell me it was like 14 shots and some of them were in your butt. And, I mean, boy, that it hurt. And yeah. And I, you know, I hated my job so much. I didn't tell my boss that I was quitting. They knew Eric. was leaving, right? But they didn't know that I was going to go with them. And until the Friday

before I go, I'm going with Eric. And they just all looked at me like, yeah, sure you are. And we got a one-way ticket from JFK in New York. And I call, I remember calling, to this day, I still remember. I called my mom. I didn't tell anybody I was doing this. And I called my mom the morning that I was going to fly out. And I go, and she goes, I can't talk right now. I'm in the middle of something. I go, you got to talk. I go, I'm going to Africa. We got a one-way ticket tonight. Listen, mom. Listen.

Yeah. And she's like, why, what do you mean? What do you mean? I don't understand. I go, so I tried to explain it. Of course, did a terrible job at it, of course. Right. And back in those days, remember, no internet, right?

No cell phones. Right. You were going to be gone. Like gone, gone. Like you could send a letter and maybe it would get here. Yeah. Or when we finally got to Morocco, which I could tell you that story, when we landed.

I decided within 10 minutes of landing. It was the worst decision I ever made in my entire life. But that's a different problem. But I just remember trying to get call home from a phone booth, like a box. You had to go to a phone office, a telephone office, and then they'd yell at you, you know, in Arabic, and be like, your booth number eight is ready. And you'd run in. And it might as well have been talking to home back to the States from Mars or the moon or something. And the quality of the call was so bad,

I finally decided I wasn't even worth it. And the price. And the price. And it was expensive. Yeah. And the price. Comparatively, because we were literally living. And I have a journal, which, by the way, I'll promote myself.

I've got a book coming out on my travels in Africa. And I tell the story. It's like, you know, we were living at that time probably on anywhere between $2 and $6 a day. Wow. It's all we were spending. Wow. Yeah. There is a time in Baja where I was on that kind of allowance.

Right now it's a gallon. Summer of 80, no, spring break of 86. Yeah. Eighty-seven, yeah. We picked up bottles on Sanis Pack Beach to get deposit money back to drive home. Perfect. If you didn't get enough bottles, you had to stay longer. No, I mean, we were pretty much, we had enough, we calculated pretty down to the penny how much money we had to get back.

and then we picked up two boxes of bottles, and that gave us another four bucks per bottle. And so that per box, we had an extra eight bucks and made it back. Yeah. Well, Michael, so, um, worst decision you ever made landing in Morocco,

um, how did it go from there? So it's interesting. Eric could speak, um, well, we both obviously speak English and he could, he like knew like,

for some reason he had learned like Mandarin. like new Chinese, but neither one of us obviously knew Arabic and French was not our specialty either. So we promptly got off the airplane at the airport and we're pretty sure that the big sign in the door said that, you know, you had to go that way. Well, the big sign in the door, as it turns out, said authorized entry only, you know, military access. And that's the door we went through. So you can just imagine how the first hour or two or three, as they searched us repeatedly, went through our bags, unloaded our bags, how that went. Not so good. And I quickly learned that, you know, wow, this is the first time I've ever been in a location that I have absolutely no idea what anybody's saying.

So that was weird. Yeah, and you can't read the. And you can't read anything. Can't read the script. There's no, there's no deciphering it. Nope. And it was obviously before days of Google Translate or, you know, anything else. So you're just, you forget it.

And so tell me how it went from that auspicious beginning. Well, it went okay after that. We finally were able to get into a taxi. And we took a, this is Casablanca, right? We flew into, and then we got it. I forget where we went first, but we got into a, back then we were staying in youth hostels mostly. So we went to a youth hostel. Once we got in there, we met other travelers.

It started, you know, and they showed us. They can decode it. This is where you go get this falafel or whatever, you know. It got better. And then you'd meet some people and you'd try. around and we really had no plan you know I tell people that we I traveled remember this was not this was not vehicle based right so this was backpack we we we took trains we took buses we took matatos we took you know camels we you name it

private rides we walked we hiked we did everything bicycle so it was it was interesting getting around we had no plan very similar I guess supposedly to I guess where I am right now and we are going to get to you got to Baja, but that'll take a while. So stick with us, folks. Stick with us. We'll get to the Baja part. But yeah, I didn't have any plan. So, you know, I ended up spending 13 months in Africa.

It was life-altering for sure, without a doubt. And Africa gets into your bloodstream, I think. So I've gone back now. I don't know how many times I've been back a bunch of times in different places. And how did you think you were affected mentally, physically, spiritually, by seeing a culture that was so different than ours and so different than New England. Yeah, I mean, that's a good, you bring up a great point, Aaron. And this is very, very similarly, you and I have talked, you know, off microphone earlier about, you know, Baja and the cultures and different things.

But that's, you know, I've learned over my lifetime of travel that I travel for the culture for the people. And you keep your mind open. The people, the people, the people. Yes. The people, the people, the people. And the people. Yeah. And you realize that, you know, where you came from could be very different and you're set in your ways. But you quickly learn that no matter where you are, I find anywhere in the world in any country, in many ways the people are still the same, right?

The core values are very similar. Meaning that, like, people are, you know, everybody's trying to survive. They're trying to make enough money to feed their family, get food, you know, live some semblance of have some happiness. They want to go away on a vacation or a couple days off of work or whatever it is. We're all the same, regardless of what language you speak or what you might look like or, you know, all this other stuff that we get wrapped up into in the States oftentimes. That's a whole other topic, guys. But Africa was enlightening because I just remember the first time there, you know, I learned. particularly in North Africa, if you even mention to anybody that you were in need of something,

next thing you know, the guy would be like taking the shirt off of his back, literally and handed it to you. So I quickly learned, oh, don't say anything. Don't look at anything. Don't want something. And then, but I quickly related that to people are willing to help you, no matter where you are, right? Particularly when you're a traveler and you're different, right? You walk in, You look different. You speak different languages. You know, things are different about you. But they genuinely want to know.

They want to know. Similar to here. Yeah, who you are, where you're from, what you're all about. Yeah. Are you leading with a smile or you... That's right. And that gets you through. I mean, I used to teach a class at Overland Expo about, you know, border crossings and, you know, security on the road and stuff.

And I always tell people, look, two things. One, go with your gut, number one. And number two, smile. Be friendly. it's worth more than anything else that you're going to be able to get through something is just be friendly. Yeah, it works for me. Absolutely. I've got my name on the side of the truck.

It's not like I'm hiding from anything. Exactly. Better be nice. Well, Michael, you took that trip 13 months. And then before you know, in only a couple of years, you're leading trips through Africa. How did that come about? You had got into Land Rover's and built up a bit of a bit of. a reputation inside the Land Rover world?

It's weird to say that a vehicle could change someone's life, but like in theory, when I went to Africa that first time, I saw Land Rovers, and maybe I had seen them on, you know, actually back then probably didn't even watch much TV, so I don't know if I would even see them on the Discovery Channel or whatnot, but I saw Land Rovers and I go,

wow, that's a really cool truck. I wonder if we have those back in the States. So when I returned from Africa, it was 1992, and I bought an old 1965 Land Rover Series 2A. It was in its original state. I got it from an Idaho potato farmer. I'm actually still owned the truck, by the way. And I've now traveled around the world in it.

But that truck, I'm the second owner of. So I've owned for what, what is that, 30 years? Wow, that's amazing. And I still own it. And then I met so many people through that, quote, Land Rover community. And then, yeah, at one point, I was president of the Land Rover Club and ran events, big events, land rover events. And, yeah, I just met so many people.

The guy that I just traveled with on the Baja Divide on our bikepacking trip, I actually met through Land Rover's Eric. And that's how we met at a Land Rover event. So it's definitely changed the dynamic for me, for sure. Wow. And how did Drive the Globe evolve? Drive the Globe started in 1995. We, a partner and I came up with the idea of doing trips, basically self-drive trips for other people. So we would coordinate, we'd arrange visas and figure out the food situation and where we're going to stay and lodging and everything.

And then market these trips. But our niche or our specialty was longer-term stuff. So, and more complicated, probably, locations. We did a, in 2001, we did a trans Africa trip with for vintage. So it wasn't just running the mill trucks. It was vintage trucks. Yeah, you're not doing camel trophy. No.

No, they weren't camel. No. So, I mean, we also now passed, we kind of jokingly call it the breaking parts across Africa trip. You know, as you can imagine when you had the newest vehicle, this was 2001. The newest truck was a 1972. Okay. And the oldest truck was mine, I believe, was a 65, so the range was there.

Some good memories made? Oh, incredible. Like, just incredible, yeah. Yeah, and that was really the first big trip that I did in Africa that was vehicle-based. And then I've been back a number of other times now with different vehicle. Actually, all land rovers back in Africa, for sure. Because Africa is great. You either want a landrover or a land cruiser.

I mean, those are really the two trucks. that are just everywhere there. Well, I've got a land cruiser here, and it's gotten me all the way down to the southern tip of Baja. And when I go to Baja, I like to have Baja-bound insurance. We're going to take just a quick break to hear from my friends. It's their 30th anniversary of selling Baja insurance, Mexican insurance, the folks,

and letting them come down here and explore people like Michael. And they even insure, you know, big orange trucks like this. They even insure big orange trucks like. this. All right, so we'll be right back after work from Baja Bound. Here at's Little Baja, we can't wait to drive our old land cruiser south of the border. And when we go, we'll be going with Baja Bound Insurance. Their website's fast and easy to use. Check them out at Bajabound.com. That's Bajaubound.com, serving Mexico traveler since 1994. All right, well, we're back here, Michael Addin in the Arroyo, the wintering grounds for Drive the Globe.

I'm really taken with this little table from Tembo Tusk. Can you tell me about this for a second? Can we give a shameless plug to Jerry? Jerry and Tembo Tusk? Jerry and Tembo Tusk. It's a great company that I found out about that made scottles. And a scottal is basically South African for a walk, right? And I quickly learned after being full time on the road that I didn't want to carry a whole mess of stuff.

So I cook like 90% of everything on the scottles. And they also make these tables and they make, oh God, they got a, fire pit now and they've got all sorts of different things they make for camping. Jerry is a real traveler. He's a cool dude. And Jerry is, he's got an FG-40. Jerry and I, yeah, and Jerry and I just spent, we came across the United States this past fall, and we had a good time. We definitely had a good time together. Well, shout out to Jerry at Tembo Tusk. I'm digging your table, buddy.

Yeah, and it's, you know, it's perfect table for servesa. Exactly, and I am digging the servesa because it's a little warm. It was cool out earlier. It was. Now it's warm. We're getting all the temperatures today. So, Michael, you got into drive the globe. You got into leading people on these vehicle-based trips, and you had a pretty amazing adventure with vintage land rovers across Africa. But you also went up into the Arctic and all over the place.

Can you talk about that a little bit? I mean, we are going to get to Baja. I promise you, folks. We're going to get to Baja, I promise you. Especially since I have like a phobia of cold and snow and ice. But I've done a number of trips up north through Alaska, up the, Dalton Highway, the Dempster Highway on the Canadian side, all the way up to Tuktoia, I can never even say it. I can't screw it up every time.

All the way up in Alaska on the other side, just beautiful country. One of my favorite places, actually, we've done trips as well, was Labrador and Newfoundland, which you'd be surprised at how remote that is. And that's Atlantic side of Canada. but Labrador, the Trans-Labrador Highway, you take the ferry over to Newfoundland, just out of this world scenery, it's amazing. And did you pre-run any of that, or did you just wing it? A couple of the trips I had pre-run some of it,

only because, like Newfoundland as an example, I've been to probably seven or eight times, but largely our trips were really adventure trips. So you're selling the idea that this isn't, you're going to figure some stuff out a long way we we we could plan to a point right so you know largely the food and the lodging and things like that were planned to a point um and the logistics of it but but you know everybody had to kind of go into it together and understand that look stuff happens i tell people all the time the more you plan the more you're going to be disappointed right exactly

things go wrong exactly you know so So I try to keep things a little loose. And I know not everybody's personality is good with that. No, but that Zen mind beginner's mind is the real deal. I mean, just keep an open, easy, you know, mind, and you're not going to be too disappointed. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

So can we transition here in part two of the show about how you got going to Baja? Because you weren't intending to go to Baja. You had a whole world trip planned. So I drive around the globe. So I, to backtrack slightly, you know, when I did, I started to drive the globe in 1995 and then was very busy with it for a long time, did a lot of traveling up until about 2000 and, oh, I don't know, maybe let's call it 2008 for sake of argument. And then I really got off of a venture, unfortunately. And I went through a period of time where I worked a lot.

I started up a real estate company, which I still own today, and I had a chain of restaurants, Irish pubs actually. So during that time period, I just simply largely stopped traveling, other than, you know, obviously, you know, beach vacations and things like that. Are we still recording? Yeah, we're good. Oh, good, good. Good, good. Probably talking too loud. Just double checking.

But so what happened is, like anything else, I kind of got to the point where I was getting burned out. And I felt like, you know, my dad was funny. My dad retired when he was 52 years. old. Wow. And I felt like that sounded good to me, you know. So I got out and I decided one day, I go, you know, this isn't for me anymore. I'm doing too much, too much work, not enough, not enough travel. And I decided that I wanted to put, so I had been to, I think I had mentioned this, I had been to about 122 countries across the world. I wanted to put it all together. I was pretty extensively traveled in Africa. I had been to parts of South and Central America,

all through Europe, parts of Asia, through the whole Middle East. I've been to, I like to joke that I've been to like the top, think of the top 10 countries that you've heard on the news that you would never want to go to. I've been to nine of them. Let's try to figure out which the 10th one I haven't been to, but nine of them I've been to. Anyways, I wanted to put it all together in one big thing. So I said, you know, I'm going to hit the road full time. and I sold everything. I sold, I got rid of everything, literally everything. I spent like four or five months on a Facebook marketplace like selling everything, silverware, dishes, clothes, furniture, everything, got rid everything. I have no, I have no house anymore. And four years ago, I went full time on the road.

Now, my timing was not so good. The pandemic hit and I was limited to what I could do and where I could go. and I started out, I left, I'll never forget the day I pulled out for the last, the first time, you know, and you pull out and you're, you get about three miles down the road and you go, oh God, what am I doing? I don't have a house. What am I doing tonight? You know, all of a sudden you're... I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. Where am I going? Oh, wow. This is weird. And anyway, so I largely for the first year I spent on the east coast of the U.S. because it was a pandemic lockdown. So I went down south. I cruised around, whatever. And come to find out my buddy Eric that I just did the bike ride with has a house, a summer house, up in Rockport, Massachusetts.

And I had kind of nowhere to go, you know, because like I said, you really couldn't travel. It was really a tough time. Campgrounds were closed, like national parks were closed. It was weird. So anyways, I went back to the north shore of Boston and started camping in Gloucester, Massachusetts. And the world works in weird ways, right? So I'm literally at a campground in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and I meet this couple, Bill and Lori. And they're like, you know, we've been going down to Baja for 30 years.

I go, really? I go, and I had just spent the winter in, you know, Florida and Alabama and whatnot, and it really isn't, honestly, it's not warm enough. So they're like, whoa, you should come down to Baja. I go, okay. Baja, if you go on my website, was not on my map, was not on my route around the world. It wasn't any part of the trip whatsoever. But I said, you know, it sounds like I could do that, probably go to mainland, you know, Mexico,

and then keep going down the Pan American. And so I go, okay, I'll come down. And I didn't know, you know, they told me, Lo's fraylase down towards the southern tip. Okay, don't know any difference. And I'll admit, at the beginning, I was, in fairness, full disclosure, I had been, I had been to Baja before, but only by flying in. So I had been to Cabo.

I had been here before. It wasn't like I didn't know where Baja was. But anyway, so I drove down and, yeah, I fell in love with Baja, and it wasn't on the route. And it was weird. And I came in here and I, you know, I just settled in. I think in my head, I go, who the heck would come down here for 30 years of the same place all the time? And now I'm in, this is my third season.

In the same place. In the same place. Yeah. And I just fell in love really with the people and the culture. I mean, I don't need to tell you. The food is amazing, right? And it's just, it's an amazing place full of stories. so many different people I've met

and now I've had the fortunate opportunity of also motorcycling and bicycling. So last winter I bicycled from San Diego, California, all the way down to here, to have a Baja on a fat bike all off road, no roads. And that's Baja Divide Trail primarily, yeah? It's the Baja Divide. And so I've had the fortune of seeing just all these places

that I think largely most people don't even ever, see right they don't just you've seen slow Baja you've lived slow Baja I live slow Baja oh for sure yeah yeah I don't like to I have a I have a motto on my on my trip regardless of whether I'm in Baja or not I don't I very rarely will drive more than a hundred miles in a day I like to be in camp and set up by three o'clock in the afternoon and I just there's no rush and I get asked I get Razzed online about this to this day about Mike I thought you were doing the trans world expedition, you're going to go around you. I go, I am.

But I didn't tell you how long it was going to take. Poca-a-Pogo. Yeah. Yeah, just wait for it. It's coming. Yeah. You know, and I just don't know. You know, my buddies that are over camped up next to me, Kevin and Brenda, are down here now.

They've been down here most of the winter as well. And they're heading to the mainland and then I'm going to continue down the Pan American, which I'm going to meet up with them. So I am going to continue down there just for you guys out there to understand that. But, you know, I can't tell you, like, we're talking, we've been discussing mainland. We might stay two, three years in the mainland Mexico. Yeah. Plenty of reasons, too.

Yeah. So. Well, you've created a nice little life here. I ran into you in town in Cabo Pomo. I was having a little breakfast, doing a little dog sitting, getting prepped for my Carl Honore in Praise of Slowness podcast. So I was listening to Carl's TED Talk making some notes. And you just rode up on your bike. You obviously you know what my truck looks like.

I've spotted you or dropped by here for the last three winters come to see you. And you're off dropping your laundry off. And you've got some things dialed in around here. You've got the ranchers who live up this Oroyo and you've got tell me about it. I don't need to tell the folks about what you're doing here. You tell me about it. I like to call it immersion travel. So that's kind of my word I use.

Emergent travel. So, you know, I see a lot of people, first of all, one thing, I always tell people, they ask, you know, how can I do this? What can I do? Number one, don't, don't, don't, get out and do it. That's the first thing I tell people to do it. Just go do it. The second thing is don't get ready to get ready forever, forever, because that's what people do. They get ready to get ready and they never actually do stuff.

Right. Do it. Third, it's not about the speed. This is not the Indy 500. This is about seeing things. So for me, my style has become park in a location and linger. I call it lingering. Stay for longer.

And the world around you opens up. It's almost like, it's like, you know, the saying that where you say, only play home games, make everybody come to you. Yeah. Well, the world opens up, right? So people know how to find me, right? At this point, you know, you know where I am. But in reality, what happens is you meet people, right?

So I met the ranchers of the Arroyo here. And they come down once a week and take food order. She's an amazing chef. And she'll take a food order from everybody and sells us a home-cooked Mexican meal, like once a week. Sometimes I even buy a couple and put them in the fridge. And it's just become amazing. Oscar comes on Thursdays to deliver. fresh vegetables and produce and sometimes he's got chicken and he's got eggs or he's got different

things that he'll come in i buy my turtle his his lettuce he's a bougie turtle he only likes organic grown from the baha farm here so um you know that kind of thing it's like you know laundry yeah i met i met michael today i was going into the cabo poma to drop off laundry you know it comes back folded next day smelling great and you know it's five bucks right so if you were traveling and just driving through places, you wouldn't learn this, right? You wouldn't know this existed. Right. So part of the way I like to travel is to really, really learn where you are.

So now, you know, the better part of the last three years. So I've actually figured it out. I had spent 19 months in Mexico over the last three years. Wow. Spent more time in Mexico than I have in the States. And what that's done for me is like I've really feel like I know Baja. really well at this point. There goes a...

Little side by side. I don't like those. You said it. Sorry, guys. Yeah. I tend to say what I think, but I don't like them. Yeah, you're saying you really got to know Baja. I really got to know Baja because I've been to virtually every single...

I mean, I've been down almost every road that exists in Baja. And it's funny, because I'll talk to people. You know, you'll run into people at various things and they'll be like, you know, I went to so-and-so. I went to La Ventana and I went to Toto Santos and I went to La Paz and, you know, they're naming off, you know, obviously bigger cities or bigger towns. And I remember one day I was having a conversation with somebody and I said, you know, there's 99.9% of the roads in Baja are dirt. And I remember the reaction, a couple of them looked at me and go, no, no, it's all paved. And I go, oh, you are, you are, you are, you are not, I mean, there's a few of them.

five paved roads in Baja basically right I mean that's about it you know there's there's 19 there's two there's five there's three I mean there's not that matter I don't know if there's a four anywhere but yeah yeah I don't know but uh I go oh no oh no I mean and then the other thing is if you look at a map

you know and I highly recommend benchmark maps like I that thing is to me is like the holy grail right yeah I've got them all over the house I know and I look at him sometimes and I'll just like I'll just pick a random square on it I go have I been there What's there?

And as good as that map is, let me tell you, there is nowhere in Baja and any part of this 1,000 mile long peninsula that you cannot get to somehow and that there aren't some people there somewhere. Because what I've learned is that every single Arroyo is a navigable road, basically, right? Right. And sections of Baja that look uninhabited. You're primarily doing this on your bike. You've got adventure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I will tell you that having a motorcycle and a venture bike and a bicycle will help. Yeah, for sure.

But I will tell you with four-wheel drive, you can probably access 90% of Baja, for sure. Yeah. There's no question. There are places to go so far off. If you wanted to come down and not see a human for the rest of the winter, you could definitely pull that off. desolation on our doorstep is what I call it it is it's like I just I just did the Baja Divide bicycle route what they call the Cape Loop

which in concept you would think because it's in the southern tip here you're closer to Los Cabos you're closer to Tos Santos and La Paz you would think that it's more supported and more I guess less off the grid maybe oh no oh no no no it was you had it all to yourself it was I couldn't believe how far I you can be down here. Huh.

Well, tell me for just a minute about bicycling here. I know there's a couple bicycle shops in Baja. I know it's one in La Paz. Is that correct? Or Mule Haas? There's one in La Paz. There's one in Los Cabos down here. There's one in Vicente Guerrero on the way down.

There's like, they're around. Okay. So bicyclists can get through it and get stuff fixed or get supplies or whatever they need. So I am parked where I am right now on, quote, the Baja divide. And for those of you that are not familiar with it, It is one of the most famous world bike packing routes. It's known to be extremely difficult.

And people come from all over the world to do it. And we get about, last year they estimated about 600 to 700 people do the Baja divide. Wow. The Baja, like I said, it's 1,800 miles down the peninsula. I'm on the route parked here, and I put it out on the Facebook group, the Baja Divide Facebook group, you know, stop by if you need water, surveza, or you just want to camp, or you want to cry on somebody's shoulder. And we've had probably 60 to 75 people stop by riding this year.

The vast majority of them are going from, a lot of them are riding from Alaska or Argentina. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. So, you know, right when you think you're a bad boy, you know, you find out somebody else is the one up just, you know what I mean? And these people are on a bicycle. And by and large, they're riding on not on roads. We're not talking about on pavement. This is, this is, you know, mountain biking. 1,700 plus miles on dirt.

Yeah. Yeah. Hey, Michael, you said something earlier about places that, you know, the top 10 places you're not supposed to go. You don't really ever hear anything great about Baja in the news. People think, you know, it's crime-ridden. You think, you know, I'm running trips, even college buddies now in their 50s who are coming with me on these trips that I'm doing.

They came to Baja in the 80s. They went to San Felipe in spring break in the middle 80s, and their wives are calling and saying, oh, I don't know, is it safe? You know, how do you address the notion of, or the reputation of what's happening here versus what's really happening here? That's a great question, Michael.

I mean, like, the reality is, is that I tell people, do yourself a big favor. Turn off CNN, Fox News. Number one. Turn off the chatter. I got to tell you, in my experience, Baja is infinitely safer than many places that I can name in the United States. I think, unfortunately, some of that is generated by, quite frankly, you know, discrimination or a misunderstanding of culture, news stories that skew the picture. you know, it's too bad.

But it is, you know, trust me, I've got plenty of friends that are, Mike, you're out of your mind. You're going to get chopped off. You're going to get kidnapped. They're going to steal your truck. I've got to tell you how many times I have been approached by people that have told me that my truck is going to get stolen by the cartel. Okay. I've heard this a zillion times. And my quick answer to that is, number one, nobody wants a big.

slow bright orange truck right like it just simply is not the case and uh yeah yeah it's it's it's it's a weird thing and can you address the flip side of that the beauty of what's going on here with the people that you're interacting with the kindness the thoughtfulness the caring the smile you know the stop in the roadside cafe where they're hand-making tortillas and the lady's just so stoked that you showed up and you're having lunch in her little place. Yep. Everywhere I go, what I find is is that anything, one of the, one of the premises I find about the Mexican culture, and particularly in Baja here, is that there's a can-do attitude.

So there's no, no is not really an answer. So like if, you know, a couple weeks ago when I was riding on the bicycle, you know, we'd roll into these, you know, using the word village is a strong statement, right? It's got two houses. If you walk up to a house and you ask them, you know, is there a restaurant around or something? The answer is always yes. They will open up the door and they'll start making your casidias or something. Come in.

Come in. Come in. What do you need? Everybody that drove by us, are you okay? Do you need Agua? You know, it just goes on and on. And it's always a can do. It's like I blew a tire out on my truck here and these are 47 inch tires.

They're big tires on the hill. Coming down a dirt road on a very steep hill. blew out long and short of it is. I ended up people pulled over and helped me. We got the tire change. But a couple weeks later, I went to, you know, have to get the tire mounted. And I'm a little concerned because in the United States,

finding somebody that do big tires like this is not that easy. You know, you've got to go to a big truck stop or something. So I'm at this little rinky dink tire place in La Jara up the road here. I was telling somebody that also, by the way, is a tire shop and a chiropractor. Wow. Slow Baja needs to know about that. Yeah, that's a good place. That needs to be in my guidebook.

But I drive in there. You know, my friend Ivan over here took, we took us pickup truck with the big tire in the back. Drive in there, half expecting them, you know, just my American mindset to be like, they're going to be like, you know, no, bueno. You can't do this. This is impossible. Losiento. And they were like, yeah, exactly. And they were like, oh, no problem.

No problem. Bring it in. Bring it in. Yeah, they're going to do it. They videoed it. They took pictures. It was the biggest tire they had seen. They put 45 minutes.

I was in and out $17 it took to do the tire. In America, they charged me $55 minimum just to throw away the old tire. Yeah. And how many new friends did you make out of that? All of them. I would go back there and all of them. Every one of them. Exactly.

I went to town. The guy was waving at me the other day. I was at the little Tienda that's right around the corner from them. And he's like, oh, la. No, and that's legit. That's the tire guy. That's legit. It is legit.

It is legit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that's the thing is. And once again, though, that goes. to a little bit to immersion travel, right? Because I've met so many people.

Even the police that go up and down here at the police station up there, they come out of La Barbera, and they have a water spicket there. So one day I was there coming into town with my truck, and I asked the guy if I could get, he goes, oh, no, no problem. We could get you water. So they're filling up my water tank. The police guys are out there helping me put the water in the truck. And now every time when they drive by, they wave,

they remember, like, there's the guy with the orange truck. Yeah. Yeah. And that's it. That's something, again, you can't really hide. There's the guy in the orange truck. Yeah, yeah. Tell people, one of the things that, you know, many people, particularly world travelers, have kind of two points of view on this. A lot of people like to stay under the radar. They figure the quieter, they, you know, draw less attention. You're going to have less problems and everything. I go with the opposite mindset. I'm loud. I'm big. I'm bright. And my general feeling is 99 out of 100 people in the world. world are good people. So I figure if 99 people are looking at my truck all the time, the one bad guy is not going to mess with it because all these other people are looking at it all the time. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I think you're absolutely right about that. And again, you lead with a

smile and that's got to give you some good karma. Hey, Michael, why does, why does adventuring matter? Why does travel matter? Why should people embark on doing something, whether you're in an old truck like mine sleeping in a tent on the ground like I'm doing at my age I still can't believe I'm sleeping in a tent on the ground how does that happen to somebody who's sleeping in a time on the ground too yeah to somebody who's doing it a little more comfortably exactly I'm going to go see the chiropractor at the tire shop and then I'm going to go see the massage therapist who lives up the arroyo Sarah how does it happen I mean I think people should travel first and foremost it takes away preconceived ideas of what you believe to be your reality.

And I think that's a big one, particularly for Americans. I think we have so many, our society is so polarized at this point with so many divisive issues. If people would travel more and see that it is done and it can be done different ways in different places, and not to be, you got to take yourself out of the judgmental. phase, right? So instead of being judgmental, be focused on

what can you learn. Like, I look at it as a learning thing. The more you learn, it's not about going and telling people how to do something. You know, and obviously, as Americans, unfortunately, we've been pretty good at that, go around the world

and tell, but this is how you need to do it. And then what happens? It doesn't work, right? It doesn't work. So you've got to stay out of judgment. And when you stay out of, of judgment. Do you feel like you have a pretty good time? You've been all over the world, 122 countries.

Yep. You know, when I was growing up, I think I always wanted to go to every country in the world. And I honestly, I don't know how many countries there are. It probably depends on who you ask. But, you know, I've got a lot more to see and a lot more places to go. But I feel like, you know, if I got run over by the Slow Baja Landcruiser right now, I would have lived a good travel life. You know, I've seen a lot. lot of things. If you had those four bottles of Fortaleza and Yeho that you've been bragging about and you were sharing them, I might run you over just to get a couple of them get out of here. Hey, tell me about this adventure turtle you've got. So I got a turtle. I've always had turtles.

I actually had a turtle for 31 years, I think. It's astonishing. That is just astonishing. And I had him for a long time. Anyways. And he was old when you got him. He was full grown when I got him, yeah. So he was, you know, he could have been 100 when he died. I don't know. Wow. But, but, um, the current, turtle is 10 years old. I got him as a baby, so he was not taken from the wild. He was a bread turtle here in the States. And he was about this big. And he's grown up, well, somewhat grown up now. He's 10. He's a Russian tortoise. So he's only about, you know, five inches or whatever. But I took him on the road for the first time this past fall, and I didn't know what was going to happen. And he is living

his best turtle life. He loves it, particularly since he's a desert, desert. tortoise, right? He loves it here in Bahá. He loves the warm weather. He likes to be outside. I let him in. So every night, it's funny, we joke, and it's actually kind of true, he's the perfect pet. So if anybody out there is looking at ever getting a pet tortoise, it's a great pet to have because he gets up every morning. He's like a teenager. He gets up at about 10 o'clock. Comes out of his hole. He lives under my cabinet in the kitchen, and he comes out of his hole. He looks up. I pick him up, take him outside. He's potty trained. he stays outside all day long. He eats his lettuce.

He's a vegetarian. You've got him in an inflatable pool. He's in an inflatable pool I found at Walmart. Funny enough. Very deluxe kitty pool. And then at the end of the day, about 6 o'clock, when it starts, this sun starts going down, I put him back in. He goes right into his hole under the counter, and that's it. And he's in there all night, and he comes out in the morning.

Before I took him on the road, I was so nervous. Like, oh, my God, am I going to step on him? What's going to happen? Nope, never comes out until he's ready to go out. outside and he's simple you can go away for a couple you don't have to feed him like he could go weeks without eating really so it's sort of easy

and he doesn't he's even potty train that's amazing and they don't crawl around all night scraping them underneath the cabinet so he goes in the cabinet he goes to sleep you hear him scraping around a little bit he digs himself in his little burrow and then boom 10 minutes later he's asleep and that's it you don't hear from

until the next next morning and not even early I turn out my um I have Amazon Alexa on board the truck. So she has a reminder for me. So every morning at 6.30, she goes, remember to turn on the expedition, Turtles light. So I turn his light on

because he's like an LED light that's inside his habitat. So that wakes him up. But turtles don't move that fast. So it takes him about three, three, four hours to get ready to come out. Well, I'm looking forward to seeing you at Overland Expo in May

and we'll be up in Flagstaff. I don't know if we'll be camping next to each other again, but I'm going to come over and get fed by Jerry and Tembo Tusk. This truck's going to be there. You can see me at, I'll be in the Tembo Tus booth, which is like right around the corner, like literally, like, you know, stone's throw away from the creator showcase vehicle area that you're going to be in. We were camped right next to each other last year,

which was so funny for me to be in a tent pouring rain. You and Downton Abbey over here. You were in Downton Abbey and I was in the rain. But I was very surprised my little. Seeger tent his first time I'd ever had in the rain and it stayed dry inside. Yeah, everything. It was astonishing. That's the thing about Flagstaff. You never know what's going to happen up there. Like, you know, I've been there. I've been, like I said, I think 14 years of Overland Expos. I've had, we've had snow, we've had rain, we've had wind. It's been hot. You never know what you're going to get there.

And that's mid-May. What is that? I want to say it's like May 16th, 18th. Yeah, I was going to say 15 through 17, 16 through 18, something like that. It'll be in the show notes. Check it out. And where is the best place for? for people to see all the fun stuff you're doing. You've got TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook. Tell us all. Website is drive the globe.com, all social medias, whether it's Utah, TikTok, Instagram.

It's right there behind me, drive the globe. Drive the globe. You can, if you want to see how this truck was built, I've got a, so far, we're in a 20-episode build series on building this rig out, which, by the way, I built in four months this summer. Don't recommend that. And your sale of your last one, pretty well. Bring a trailer. I'm not going to plug

my old employer. I'm not going to plug my old employer, but I was there when it closed. Yeah, you're pretty happy. That's right. That's right. Yeah, I auctioned it off and it went at Overland Expo. And funny enough, they came and the guy flew in and picked it up there. And they ended up driving a U-Haul cross-country back to Connecticut to build this truck.

I remember you peeling the logo off of the side. That's right, yeah, yeah. Doing that. All right, one more time. Drive the Globe.com. And at Drive the Globe for all social media. At Drive the Globe. All right. Well, check Michael out. He's got a lot of stuff going on.

He is the happiest guy. Best teeth in the overland world. There's a hockey player. Yeah, always good with the laugh and a beer. And we've had a few already today. And it's pretty damn hot. I think we're going to have another one. I'm going to get out of the heat here.

So Michael, really nice spending a little bit of time with you hanging out in Los Freilace and look forward to our paths crossing again real soon in Flagstaff. Absolutely. Thank you, Michael. I've enjoyed talking, and yeah, let's travel together. That would be fun. I'm going to bring the old Land Rover over. I'm doing a slow Baja with the old land rover. You know, I think if you brought the Old Land Rover over, we could probably get a bunch of all the other Old Land Rover trip. I think we could. Yeah, let's work on that. All right, you're here to hear first, old land rover owners. Yep. Come to Baja. It's pretty damn good here. All right. Thanks, Michael.

All right. Thank you. We did it. Well, I hope you like that show Michael Ladin. Really a great source. of information, create wealth of information. He's been there. He's done that and love the attitude. And he's traveling with this tortoise, which is just great. If you like what I'm doing, please, please, please take a second. Support the show. I'm not made out of money. I'm doing this thing on a shoestring budget. And every taco that you drop in the tank helps. You know, I'm asking for a lot these days. I'm asking you to help out the baseball gear donations, which has just been so heartworn.

a bunch of Slow Baja listeners stepped up to help out the Akalani's high school auto shop kids to get their postal jeeps that they've built to down to Baja with me in June for the Slow Baja summer vintage. So I appreciate every taco that you folks drop into the various different tanks. But the one that keeps this show going, the one that you're listening to right here is the donation link at Slowbaha.com. Taco in the Tank. Buy some merch. Get those new stickers. Help me out if you can. And if you don't have any tacos, you know, I understand because most of the time I don't have any tacos either. And you can always help by dropping a five-star review and saying something nice on iTunes or do they call it iTunes anymore. They don't call it on iTunes. They call it Apple Podcast. Drop your five-star on Apple Podcast or on

Spotify. Tell people why you're listening to the show. Tell people why you're still listening right now. show forward this show to somebody and say man you've got to be listening to slow Baja right enough um all the trips are there uh the merch is there uh good things are at slowbaha.com so spend some time over there and help me out if you can and to wrap it all up let's talk about mary mcgee off road motorsports hall of fame or the first person the first competitor to solo the Baja 500 yeah that's right the Baja 500 is coming up mary McGee was the first one she soloed it on a motorcycle back in 74. I think she got half of a warm orange drink on that as her only sustenance. She had a pal, Steve McQueen, who was pretty cool dude. Steve loved Baja, and he said it. He said,

Baja's life. Anything that happens before or after, it's just waiting. You know, people always ask me, what's the best modification that I've ever made to slow Baja? Without a doubt, it's my Sheelman seats. You know, Toby at Sheelman USA could not be easier to work with. He recommended Averio F for me and a Vario F XXL for my navigator, Ted. This Ted's kind of a big guy. And Toby was absolutely right. The seats are great and they fit both of us perfectly. And let me tell you, after driving around Baja for over a year on these seats, I could not be happier. Shieldman, slow Baja approved, learn more and get yours at shieldman.com.