Slow Baja - Giving Back With Doug and Shannon Miller

Episode Date: January 11, 2023

Doug and Shannon Miller open their hearts to share honestly about their service-first approach to family travel. After their newly adopted daughter from China needed open heart surgery, they did the only sane thing you can do with two weeks of "use it or lose it" vacation. They packed up their fresh-from-the-ER-brood and headed to Baja! When Doug realized his family was spending their "vacation" hunkered down on a wind-whipped beach so he could enjoy kite-boarding, they began exploring family-friendlier locations. One day a flat tire on their minivan led them to seek help nearby at Rancho Sordo Mundo, a home for the deaf and mute. Soon they realized why they had come to Baja. Seventeen years of service travel, and giving back have followed that initial encounter. Enjoy this uplifting conversation with my new friends, Doug and Shannon Miller. To learn more and support the places mentioned in today's show: Casa Hogar Mulege BCS click here. FFHM Orphanage Vicente Guerrero BC click here. Rancho Sordo Mundo, Deaf Ministry click here. PAW Animal Clinic Mulege BCS click here. To contact Doug Miller about Baja service travel, click here.

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. Hey, I want to tell you about your new must-have accessory for your next Baja trip. Benchmark Maps has released a beautiful,

beautiful Baja California Road and Recreation Atlas. It's a 72-page large format book of detailed maps and recreation guides that makes the perfect planning tool for exploring Baja. Pick yours up at Benchmarkmaps.com. Welcome back. Thanks for listening. I am excited to be here for another year of the Slow Baja podcast. Today's heaping dose of gratitude goes out to Baja bound insurance. I could not bring you this show without their support. If you're driving to Mexico, take it from me, Slow Baja. Go to Baja. Baja Baja Baja, you can get it right through my website at Slowbaha.com. Click that sponsor page.

Click their logo. It takes you right to their site. You get the same great price. They drop a taco in my tank. We're all tickled. And I get to keep doing this. And you get to keep doing that. All right.

Today's show is with Doug and Shannon Miller. I got to know Doug after he dropped a taco in the tank. And as we were emailing back and forth, telling each other about where we were headed or where we had been, I was really moved by the experience that Doug had had with his family. They'd started out going to Baja for some windsurfing way back when, and their trips were just sort of taken over with volunteerism and service work, and it really touched me to read those stories, and recently Doug emailed me a pick of one of my slow Baja stickers down in Ensenada, and I was in Ensenada. I was in Eni,

Sanada for the Nora 500. I was just surprised and he was surprised to learn that we were both there. So I invited him over to watch the start of the race. Then we had a lovely breakfast. Ted Donovan, the Baja visitor, had a lovely breakfast with us at Victor's 24 hours right there next to the Via Marina Hotel. Had a fabulous breakfast. And then Ted split and Doug and Shannon and I found a quietish corner. There was some background. street noise, chopping of tacos, motorcycles, buses, trucks, what have you. But I think their message, their words, transcend all the distractions of the noise. So without further ado, I bring you this heartfelt conversation of service and giving to the people of Baja with Doug and Shannon Miller.

So I'm with Doug and Shannon Miller, and I am delighted to see them. These are friends from sisters organ and they spend some time in Baja and we're going to just have a hopefully a straight from the heart it's the way the conversation's been going all morning so I hope you don't freeze up now that we've got the microphones in our hands and there's a lot of street noise folks and I'm sorry about that but we're making this podcast happen on the fly it's the Baja 500 you guys are here on your anniversary today is my anniversary and I'm just delighted Doug you reached out to me said I saw your sticker and I said, hey, I'm in town, you're in town, and here we are. So I've been touched, honestly, deeply, sincerely about the experience that you've brought your family here. And I

just want to say, let's just jump into it. Let's talk about the Whatever Project. Yeah. Well, before the Whatever Project, our first time in Baja, I had never really heard of Baja. and Doug said, why don't we go to Baja? And so we had two kids in diapers. And you were living where now? We were living. In Hood River, Oregon? Yeah.

And so it came down and literally learned very quickly that we needed to layer their car seats. So it's towel, garbage bag, towel garbage bag, because they would soak through their diapers and we didn't have anywhere to change it out. So we had one kid that would wet the bed in a sleeping bag. and like we were cleaning it out in the Sea of Cortez and the whole nine yards tent camping out of our minivan. So that's where we started. And that was a 10-day trip, I think.

And we loved it. And that was with two kids. And then we adopted our third from China, and she has a heart condition. And she was dying. And it was miraculous that we got her home. And we landed at the Seattle airport and went straight to Children's Hospital for emergency open heart surgery.

And we knew that it would be like, she could be in the hospital for a long time. So Doug stayed home and saved all this vacation. And she thankfully sailed through surgery. And we had two weeks of use it or lose at vacation by January 1st. And so I don't know what made us decide this because she was itty-bitty. She was two. So we had a two-year-old, a four-year-old, and a six-year-old. And we decided that what was best for family bonding was to do.

go back to Baja camping. So we came back and did, we call it the whatever project and just decided we were going to get up every day and serve. And whatever came across our path, we were going to do it. And so that was the whatever project where we just totally fell in love with Baja. And the first thing that happened was we got a flat tire. Day one. Day one. Yeah. Day one. And Doug, you can talk about that. Well, I think we were nervous coming to Baja, coming to. to Baja with kids and then coming to Baja, especially with a little girl who was fresh out of open heart surgery. And, you know, I think there's a lot as a parent. There's a lot that goes through your mind coming to Mexico. And yet we wanted that adventure. And I think getting a flat tire

was especially scary because that was the first moment where it felt like it was something that wasn't planned, something we couldn't control. And it's just scary. We were in the middle of nowhere. And so I remember pulling over to change the tire and just wondering what was going to happen. And Doug, hang on for a second. You're in a minivan, right? Minivan. You're not in the land cruiser with the cherry cans on the back and the pop top. This isn't an Instagram overland assault on Baja.

This is your family car with your whole family in it. With fishy crackers crunched in the floor and probably a bottle of milk under a seat somewhere. Right. You're wondering where that smells coming from. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, and packed to the gills. I mean, sleeping bags stuffed between the kids, cars, seats. Oh, we packed stuff behind their heads. Like, they could barely move so that we could fit all the diapers and everything that we needed.

It was crazy. So we were pulled over to fix this flat tire, and almost immediately another minivan pulled over. It was a Mexican family, and the guy got out, and we just kind of wondered what was going to happen, and he immediately offered his help. And within a minute, I would say another truck pulled over, another Mexican family, they got out to also offer their help. And they were there. They helped us with the jack. They helped us as we changed the tire. Our kids were there. Their kids were there. It was this amazing shift of perspective, kind of turning that fear into, wow, this is an amazing place. Yeah, and during that, our kids got a hold of the markers and covered themselves head to toe with markers.

So we've got pictures of that too. It took the whole time because we didn't shower because we were camping. So they were covered ahead to toe with markers for the next two weeks. Awesome. Slow Baja approved right away. Right out of the gate, folks. And so from that experience, you've been able to engage your life and your family with some of the orphanages and institutions here in Baja. And I don't know how that came about, but just what? Let's walk through some of that, you know, from your personal camping, hanging out with folks at Coyote Beach and the windsurfers and kite borders and the water recreaters wintering in Baja from Oregon, the people who live to recreate, whose bicycles are probably worth more than my car. Tell me about how from that experience led to what I think is what we're going to get into on this podcast is what motor. motivating your travels now. Yeah. Well, the first time we went, we went to La Ventana to kiteboard. Really was a big piece of it.

And down there, it's amazing and it's beautiful. There's huge campgrounds full of Americans, Canadians, that are there to kiteboard. And so Doug would go kiteboarding. It's not a great place for kids necessarily. Little kids, there's like kiteboard strings all over the beach. So it was like, kids don't touch that and things like that. And it gets windy if you're kiteboarding.

It's really windy, yeah. Yeah, that's why you're there. And so that second year when we did the whatever project, the day after we got the flat tire, we had to get the tire fixed, and we were kind of in the middle of nowhere, and so we wound up, the only thing we could find was, it's called Rancho Sordomudo, and we stopped there to see if they could point us towards a place to get our tire fixed, and it's a school for the deaf and mute. And so the director of it took Doug into a village, and I was there with three small kids

with no language in common because it was Spanish sign language. And so we spent the whole day there just interacting and playing and hanging out with these kids. And Shannon, one more time, refresh me on how old are your children? They were two, four, and six. Two, four and six. And two girls from China. Yeah, and then now we have a fourth child too. And so I think that just caused us to pause and go, wow, there's way more to Baja. than we knew or that we had ever pictured.

And so from there, that trip we wound up, somebody invited us to go. In my mind, it was like out in the middle of cactus to hand out Christmas presents. And we wound up going through stuff we had gotten for our kids to give them for Christmas and giving it away and just getting deeper and deeper into, like, there's this beauty of Baja

that's all about the culture and community and families that are there. And then on the way back, we had a friend we checked email twice and one friend this friend emailed us and said there's an orphanage in Baja that are my parents used to volunteer at you should totally check it out and we're like sweet Baja's a big place so we'd drive to every town and be like I'd be looking like maybe that's an orphanage maybe that's an orphanage like not really knowing and then he emailed us back on Christmas Eve with the address and it was right on our way home it's in Vesente

Garero and so we decided to like check it out and like we awkwardly were sitting in our minivan we're obviously an adoptive family and trying to figure out if we were going to go into this orphanage and our little five-six-year-old daughter kept saying let me out of the car and so we finally thought she had to pee and she like be-lined it into this office and pulled herself up over the counter and said Jesus told us to serve the kids and we were like Okay, here we are. And they gave us a tour, and it's this amazing place, and they invited us to come back the next year. So I thought we were going to wrap up the whatever project with a little bow.

It's our two-week thing, and it was the last day of us being in Baja, this invitation to come back. And so that started this journey of coming back, and each time learning to come with a heart that's open to say, we're going to learn. And there's so much for us to come humbly and learn and see. And then just over time, it's been a 17-year journey of every time seeing and learning something new. And it's made us better people, I think. Absolutely. Going to just catch my breath. Sorry.

I'm just sorry. Shannon has tears in her eyes. I'm keeping them in check. And I'm just going to catch my breath for a second and just say like, tell me about, tell me about. the perspectives that maybe you were bringing with or concerned about and how that changed from like the story you were telling over breakfast about your daughter and you thought you were doing something for the kids in the orphanage and your daughter's like well these are my friends And like she had already bonded, you know, there.

And let's just talk about sort of maybe, I don't know if it's baggage or perspective or what that you brought with from where we live to what you saw and how that changed your perspectives or your realities. I think that going back to the orphanage and we were there for a week maybe, we were the first family to ever serve there. And so there was like some, some of it was awkward because they'd say, oh, you just take care of your kids. And I was like, no, I'm here to help you guys. And I think I came with this almost arrogant, like, there's ways that, what I can do to help. And just a very American mindset about that.

And it was like the third or fourth day. And they gave us a day off to go to the beach. And I was so excited because I was like, kids, we're going to go to the beach. They hadn't seen the beach yet. And we're driving in our little mini van to the beach. And it literally, like, Raven, our oldest was like, what are we doing? And I said, you're not going to believe we're taking you to the beach. It's a surprise.

And the car was dead quiet. And from the back, her little voice was like, I want to go back to the orphanage. And I asked her why. And she said, because that's where my friends are. And it was just a huge check for me of, well, I was looking at as we're helping. this place that somehow, I don't know, I had disconnected the relationship from it and realizing like we're all the same and these are our kids friends and it just changed this whole thing for us. Like the way our kids talk about Baja is about our friends in Baja who happened to live in an

orphanage. But there's this beautiful friendship that's there and I learned so much from it. Like I'm different because of that. Well, Doug, let's bring you in. Shannon is the storyteller. But, no, I appreciate it. So great to run into you guys here. And you've been delightful to me.

Our initial interaction, Doug dropped a taco in the tank, which I'm always thrilled about when that happens, folks. I'm going to be honest. And then getting on to sort of what motivates you and not knowing a whole bunch about that world. Um, really, I think every, every, um, place that you've been involved with is a future podcast for me. From your friends doing veterinary work, retired veterinarians to Casa Hogar in Mulehe, to the, um, the school for the deaf and mute. And Luke was, is definitely a future podcast guest. Let's get on to where you've spread your, your 17 years of coming here now. and how where what places you've been to and what maybe what you I'm going to give you the free

platform just to to open the door to others to say this is this is what we experienced and if you're like-minded don't be afraid here's I mean from dropping five bucks on the tab at causal regards grocery store where they buy their supplies to you know getting more involved and and just let's decode it for people who don't have any ideas Well, yeah, thanks, Michael. These are not big, slick operations with PR firms and advertising budgets. So you're finding stuff and you're able to just, you know, say hello and then become part of what's going on. So on your own terms.

So much of our experience in Baja has been unexpected turns of events that become amazing experiences. And many people share that experience. Us coming together today is a great example. But I think that, you know, as we have come down more and more to Baja, we have learned to kind of try to hold our plans loosely if we can. To try to come, I think, like Shannon said, with a sense of humility, just culturally, and kind of an awareness that we think we may have the answers. We may think we have a strategy that we can use to help others.

but to come and just be open-minded and hold things loosely such that as opportunities arise, you can try to take advantage of them. I think to answer your question about where we've spent our time, you know, we did start going further south to La Ventana for kiteboarding, but... And that was your recreation. Yeah, that was a recreational drive. You were there to... That's why people come to Baja.

Better weather, recreate? Yeah. Yeah. You bet. And each year... I'm not faulting you for that. You're going to get in at the Perligate, buddy. You've done good things. Kiteboarding aside.

Each year we would stop in Bahia Concepcion south of Mulejahey. And there was a beach, Coyote Beach, where we would camp. And we started getting to know some of the people on that beach. And we started developing some friendships there. And we also realized it's a lot less windy and a lot less crowded and a lot better for the kids. So we ended up spending increasing amounts of time on Coyote Beach. in addition to going to the orphanage that Shannon mentioned further north, and we would still explore around quite a bit.

And while we were there, we met a group of people that was a small church community. I don't know if you'd even call it that. It's a group of people that would meet together, but they really had a heart for serving the people who had needs in the Baja area. Yeah. Can you talk about that a little bit? Which feeds? I'm thinking about

So the first time we went to Coyote Beach We heard that there was somebody who had let us These kayaks And is this guy who is now one of our closest family friends His name's Mr. Gary And he had a palapa That said Mr. Gary's dead stuff

And he's a raven expert And he had collected fossils And different things from all over Baja And had a palapa Full of all of it And our kids fell in love with it And that's kind of the hook that started us going back to Coyote Beach. And he actually, our daughter is a freshman at OSU, and she's studying marine biology.

And she wrote about Mr. Gary and her experience at Coyote Beach in her college essays. Like he was her science teacher when we would go down. And those relationships just, there's nothing like it. But it was taking the time to be interruptible, to spend 45 minutes looking at Mr. Gary's dead stuff in a palapa that started to build a. the relationship. You never know where your college, the college path for your kids will be ignited, right? Yeah. Amazing. We're going to take a quick break here, folks. We'll be right back with Doug and Shannon. We're going to talk about benchmark maps and Baja Bound, and we'll be right back, and so stay tuned. 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. Their website's fast and easy to use. Check them out. Baja bound.com. That's Bajabound.com serving Mexico travelers since 1994. Hey folks, you know, I'm always telling you, ask your doctor if Baja is right for you. Well, I don't know what your doctor's going to say, but I want to let you know right now, it's the open enrollment period for the 2023 Baja XL rally. That's right. If you need a little Baja care, you got to get in right now during the open enrollment period for the 2023 Baja XL rally.

February 17th through 26th, it's 3,000 miles in 10 days. It's a minimal assistance rally. That means there's no rescue trucks or no medical helicopters or no travel guides. You get to rely on your own wits and resources and probably the other 150 or 180 vehicles that are in this rally with you who are always darn nice and willing to tow you out or give you a ride to the auto parts store or the mechanic or whatever you need. But, hey, the Baja XL is open to anyone by anything. So if it's street legal, you can drive at their classes. There's a competition class if you want to get in and solve geotagging treasure hunt questions all day and all night. There's the four by four touring class that Slow Baja does where we just pull out our benchmark map first thing in the morning,

get some macaque, get some egg, some hot coffee, take a look at where the route ends that day and figure out what the most scenic squiggly dirt roads are on our map. And that's how we do it. Again, there's no judging. It's a heck of a lot of fun. It's a major league adventure, and it will certainly, certainly cure your symptoms of mild, seasonal lack of adventuring. All right.

Ask your doctor if Baja is right for you. The BajaXL rally more info at BajaXL.org. Or feel free to DM me through slowbaha.com or the Slow Baja Instagram or Facebook sites for more info. We're back with Doug and Shannon, and we're talking about just some heartfelt times with Uncle Gary's dead stuff. So Uncle Gary, did I get that right? Mr. Gary's dead stuff. Uncle Gary sounds creepy. Hey, we're back with Doug and Shannon, and we're talking about Mr. Gary's dead stuff, and how that could actually, you know, those times and those studies could actually plant the seeds that takes your child who doesn't live anywhere near the ocean right now currently, right?

to study oceanography. So Baja, you never know what's going to happen. So you've had some experiences and I want to get on to Mulehe. It sounds like that's a center of travel. And it seems to be a place, of course, just recently flooded again and a mullah hay seems to be a place that lives kind of close to disaster. But there's some really beautiful things going on there. And every time I'm in mulehay, I think to myself, why aren't I spending a week or two weeks or six weeks here? Why am I just rolling through for a day or spending a night? So talk to me a little bit about where you're going and what you're doing and who your friends are and a little bit about the... In Mule He?

Yeah, in Muleau. Yeah, I think we stumbled upon this little community of retired people in Mulehaye. And they're, like Doug said, they're working hard to do, like to care about people. And so we just started tagging along. we discover an orphanage down there called Casa Hogar, which is this tiny, it's a schoolteacher who started taking in kids that didn't have homes. And she's just grown it to the point where, I don't know how many kids are there now. I think there's around 28 kids last I heard.

And just trying to, just not even meaning to, being connectors of people on the beach with Casa Hogar. and then we've done trips up and down the Pacific to help with fishing villages and schools and stuff there, these Santa Claus trips that we've learned so much and dragging our kids with us has been really fun. And they've learned a lot. It's changed their DNA a lot. You were just telling me about some of your friends.

Or you have a retired veterinarian friend who's doing some work in... Yeah. There are two retired veterinarians that I know of who are from America and live in the Muleha area. They have homes there. And they run an animal clinic that's free or discounted for Americans and free for locals called the Paws Animal Clinic.

And we're not too connected with it other than we know one of those veterinarians, Fred, fairly well. And we were able to adopt our dog down there. It was Niña. She was a Mexico junkyard beach dog that, had been left down there and she was pretty beat up and pretty skinny and her ears had been chewed down competing for food and we were able to adopt nina and and she was treated at pause clinic and got her all the everything she need to have done and now she's the sweetest dog ever so fred is a as a friend of ours who also happens to live in central oregon not far from us so

it's amazing how many friendships we've made in baha and then how many connections were able to sustain when we come back home to the states. Yeah, Fred has great dance moves. Noted, Fred. When I get you on the show, you're going to have to show me some of those dance moves. Well, again, I don't know if you're able to really articulate. I see it in your eyes, Shannon, the love and the warmth for the experiences you've had. And again, I'm trying to, you know, in your words, get the love.

get the feeling of like, if somebody wanted to get involved, obviously you're oriented to this approach in life, but you've said you've learned some real lessons about yourself in our American approach and having a plan and a fix. And Doug articulated beautifully about, you know, trying to keep things a little looser now. How is the 17 years of coming changed you, changed your family, change your children you've got one in college now so what's the age span currently currently is 18 17 15 and 9 okay and so getting back to that first trip where you had two four and six right first trip no they were two and three two and four just the two kids our first year yeah oh I'm doing the math yes yeah what do you think the effect has been on your your your family gosh that's

hard to put into words, but I mean, it's like we didn't go out like with this plan of we're going to like bring our kids to Baja and it's going to do X, Y, and Z in their life. It's just now looking back and going, I can't believe how deeply it's a part of like their DNA and their sense of adventure and desire to continue to come to Baja and do, you know, all the things but also not only the adventure I think it's the humanity piece of it of they just have this deep love and appreciation for the people in Baja and you know both expats and people who live in Baja full-time they have this appreciation for just getting to know people and their character and their

corkiness and everything I'm trying to think of this like how to put it into words is really hard. Yeah, again, it's, it's quite clear to me you didn't come with an agenda to say, with our kids serving others, it's going to do this for them. And it just seems like you had this natural evolution, and now you've had a window to look back on it. And I think it's, looking at your faces, I wish you're here, folks. It's just, you know, it's quite sincere and honest and intentional now. Let's change gears slightly and just say, hey, it's your anniversary, or what was your anniversary,

and you're here on a little anniversary trip, trip without your kids. First trip in 17 years without kids. Yeah, look at the smiles. Come on. What are you seeing? You're going to go to the Valle. You're staying with an Ocean View Airbnb and Rosarito. So let's talk about this trip.

And what's it like for just the two of you? Yeah. You're doing it? Well, it's been wonderful so far. I think traveling without kids is obviously a completely different experience. And I think the simple luxury of not having to worry about who's hungry, who needs to use the restroom. And boy, that place looks kind of cool. Let's just stop and check it out.

It's something that's much easier to do when you don't have four people and a schedule to keep and mouths to keep full. Two dogs as well. Yeah. I think also normally we're in a bigger car with a trailer often because we'll trailer down here and camp out of it. And so just being able to explore and Sonomore has been fun. We definitely plan to go to the Valle today and see more of that. We've mostly just passed through it in years past. And the start of the Nora 500 this morning was a wonderful surprise.

Yeah, crazy. And so we got up extra early and drove down from Rosarito and spent two or three hours watching watching the starts, and that's just been a special treat for us. So we hope to see some of the racers later today. Well, I think there's a good shot. We'll catch some of the racing after lunch in Valley, Via Trinidad, Valley T, as we say, off-road racers, Valley T. But I'm curious about the way you approach this trip, because I think it's very interesting.

You said you flew down to San Diego, and then what happened from there? Well, we flew from San Diego. We took an Uber. from the airport down to the border. And I had been across the border once when we were donating a vehicle to some folks down here. So we took an Uber to that same crossing. Well, as it turns out, that crossing was closed. Yeah.

So we had a surprise walk. Ped West or something. Yeah. So we walked over to Ped East. And already we were having to hold our plans loosely at that point, of course. And then we got across and we caught a taxi to the airport. Our plan had been to catch an Uber, but we didn't have cell service right there. It's a strange dead spot right there.

Yeah, it is. So then we switch gears and got a taxi to an airport. Out at the airport, we rented a car, and from there it was pretty straightforward. And it didn't freak you out at all. I mean, that whole process of walking across, and again, I recently went to Ped West as well, and I walked all the way down there, and there were two taxis sitting there, and I'm lugging some stuff. And they're sitting there because they know that people go to that, they walk all the way down there, and then it's like, ugh. Yeah.

And they're ready to run you back to the other side. But I, I sweated it out and got my steps in. Yeah, yeah, it was warm. It didn't feel that freaky, but I think it's because we've done a whole bunch of different stuff that, I mean, it definitely is that, like, jarring. Like, oh, yeah, that's right. This is different. But, yeah, it didn't feel super scary. Yeah, from the news in the States, you'd think we're in hand-to-hand combat here at the border every day with hordes of mongles coming over the hilltops.

And it's, yeah, you just took an Uber to the border, you walked to the wrong, you went to the wrong place, you got to the right place, you crossed, you got a taxi because you didn't have cell service. And there are taxis there. You just raise your hand, and he's happy to take you to the airport. And you said, Aeroperto, and he took you there, and you walked up and ran into your car. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and we got to the airport and we were like, we don't know where the car rental place.

He just dropped us up at the main airport. So we went inside and found an information booth and they helped us. And we realized that we don't know a lot of Spanish that has to do with car rental insurance. So we just nodded our heads a lot and signed the paper. Okay. And you got a fine, newish car and you're on your adventure. Yeah. Yeah, we're doing great.

It's just been so fun to explore, like I said earlier. And honestly, to get a little bit off the normal tourist track, even here in Encinana last night, we just took the opportunity to drive up and over the hill here and kind of down through some just regular communities, some newer neighborhoods, and just see kind of other faces of the city because we've seen so much of the Malacone fish market areas. Right. Yeah. If you haven't been to the black market, fish market over here, it's kind of an interesting treat. And two corners up is a famous little tostata stand that Tony Bourdain visited and made very famous,

but it's still fabulously good food. And I just have the guys make me whatever they want to make me. And it's a wonderful, whatever it is, they put it in front of me, and they tell me what's on there. And everyone is sensational in its own regard. And so that's a beautiful thing about Ensenada. The food here is really good. It's a little bit of a sleeper city that way that has this incredible art. food thing going on and craft beer and all that.

And it's, you know, yes, it's in the Touristone, but yes, it's right outside the Touristone for the locals as well. Well, I think we're going to wrap up because I have a morning drive here that I need to catch up. We've got to get an hour down the road before lunchtime, and it's 11 o'clock now, so I just want to say, hey, thanks. And again, Doug and Shannon from Oregon,

doing good things here in Baja. Doug, I don't remember social media. Are you out there? Do you want to interact with anybody? No, but Shannon is. I know. We've been emailing back and forth. Shannon, if you want to tell people or if somebody's interested in their, you know, hey, can you help me? I want to do something on a family trip in Oregon. I don't know if you want to have your social media out. I just have like Facebook and Instagram. I don't like. All right. Don't worry about it. Folks. I'll have the links to, I'll have the links to,

to the folks, the places we talked about here on the show notes. And if you're interested in making a donation or figuring that into a future trip, I do hope you check out their websites. And we're going to let that big truck go by, folks. Thanks for listening through this podcast, doing our best outside, trying to find a quiet space in Ensonata. And we have some tacos getting chopped next door and some trucks rumbling by in an occasional motorcycle.

So Doug and Shannon, thank you so much for. making a few minutes to talk about your Baja. Yeah, thank you. Love. Cheers. Thanks. Have I told you about my friend True Miller? You've probably heard the podcast, but let me tell you, her vineyard, Adobe Guadalupe

Winery is spectacular. From the breakfast at her communal table bookended to an intimate dinner at night. Their house bred Azteca horses. Solomon, the horseman will get you on a ride that'll just change your life. The food, the setting, the pool. It's all spectacular. adobe guadalupe.com. For appearing on Slow Baja today, our guests will receive the beautiful benchmark map 72-page

Baja Road and Recreation Atlas. Do not go to Baja without this, folks. You never know when your GPS is going to crap out, and you're going to want a great map in your lap. Trust me. Well, happy New Year, and thanks again for listening. I hope you enjoyed hearing that one as much as I enjoyed bringing it to you. If you're interested in learning more about the groups you heard about in today's show,

or supporting their work, please check out the show notes at slowbaha.com. Click that episode tab, check out the show, and you'll see all the notes, all the links to all the things we discussed in today's show. You can support the work I'm doing by dropping a taco in the tank. All donations are welcome, and that is the best way to get the coveted ask your doctor if Baja is right for you, bumper sticker. Again, you're going to want to go to Slowbaha.com. click on the donate tab, select your amount, make a safe and secure payment, and remember to put your

address in the notes so that I can send you a thank you and some stickers. Hey, and while you're at slowbaha.com, you see the theme we've got going here? While you're at slowbaha.com, you better check out the Slowbaha store and buy some merch. I have Slow Baja sweatshirts in stock, and those are a little on the athletic side. If you're slim-ish, they're going to look great on you. I've never been accused of being slim-ish. I'm 5'10, 175, 180 pounds, depending on my Fortaleza and Taco consumption. And I wear large, and it looks pretty darn good on me.

If you're a little bit more on the Grande side, I've got T-shirts in stock that'll fit you beautifully. And of course, there are hats, the modern trucker in all three flavors, the dad hat, and I've still got some knit hats if you're someplace cold like I am. All right, so please support the work I'm doing and spread the word with some slow Baja merch. I really appreciate it. I'll be back with another show soon. And until then, to paraphrase one of the coolest cats ever to head to Baja, Mary McGee's pal. I hope you've listened to that show.

Mary McGee's pal, Steve McQueen, Baja's life, anything that happens before. or after is just waiting.