Slow Baja - Larry Evans A Boy In Baja

Episode Date: October 12, 2025

Larry Evans spent his childhood traveling to Baja with his family in the 1960s and 1970s. Evans credits his mother as the instigator in getting the family to Baja. Evans called his mother a pioneer; I would call her an influencer. She would host parties where she would show slides of their family adventures. Encouraged by the images, some of their neighbors eventually bought 4x4s and joined them in Baja too.Enjoy this heart-warming conversation about idyllic boyhood adventures in the early days of Baja before the highway was paved.Follow Larry Evans on FacebookMentioned in this episode: Slow Baja Winter ExpeditionSupport the Slow Baja PodcastBuy Baja Bound Insurance 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. Well, if you've been listening to me for a while, you know I'm an absolute minimalist when it comes to Baja travel. But the one thing I never leave home without is a good old paper map. And my favorite is the beautiful, and I mean beautiful, Baja Road and Recreation

Atlas by benchmark maps. It's an oversized 72-page book jam-packed with details, and now you can get it from me at slowbaha.com. That's right. You can get it in the Slowbaha shop, and in fact, you better get two, one for your trip planning at home, and one for your Baja rig. And if you love maps and you can't get enough of them like me, let me tell you about two sites I am absolutely obsessed with. Eastview MapLink and LongitudeMaps.com, whatever you're looking for in Maps, it's there.

From the entire benchmark collection to Baja Wall Maps, to Custom Maps, you'll find it all at longitudemaps.com or EVmaplink.com. You know I've long said it. Ask your doctor if Baja's right for you. Well, if you've been hankering to get down to Slow Baja with me, you've got to check out the Adventures tab at slowbaha.com. All my trips are there, from my famed fall vintage extravaganza to my winter and summer expeditions, which are open to trucks of any age.

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slash contact. And if you'd like to go to Baja and you don't want to go by yourself, You don't have a vintage vehicle. My winter trip doesn't work out for you. I am happy to talk to you about organizing and leading a private guided tour. I've done it. I've loved it.

The pictures are over there at slowbaha.com slash adventures. And you can check them out. And if you've got some questions, let's talk. From the Shieldman recording booth at Slow Baja Studios, thanks for tuning in to today's Slow Baja. My heaping dose of gratitude goes out to Raul and Caroline from Rancho La Bayota. You know, that place has become my home, away from home. I cannot say strongly enough how much I love visiting Rancho La Biota and how much I love starting my Slow Baja expeditions there. So Rancho LaBiota, Caroline and Raul, sincerest and deepest gratitude for

hosting me and my guests at your beautiful, beautiful ranch. All right, well, today's show, today's show is with Larry Evans. And Larry had an amazing childhood visiting Baja in the 60s. His parents were quite adventurous. They had four by fours, bought four by four so they could get into Baja in those days before there was a paved road. And Larry had a rather idyllic childhood visiting Baja. And his parents were, I guess what you would call,

influencers back in the day. They were, they'd come back from Bahan, they would show slide shows to their neighbors, and they would get their neighbors to also invest in four-by-fours, and then they would bring them all down, and they'd camp out on the beach, and it was a very, very adventurous thing in those days to be camping, you know, two weeks a month, that sort of thing. And Larry's mother took spectacular photographs, coda chrome slides. And Larry still has those. We had a magnificent slide show at his place up in Oregon. And I think we would have gone all night, but he burned the bulb out on the slide projector and didn't have a spare. So we had a wonderful time and we had an amazing conversation the next day and talking about Baja in the 60s. And anyways, well, without further

ado, today on Slow Baja, Larry Evans. Hey, well, it's a beautiful day here in Grants Pass, Oregon. I'm with Larry Evans at his stunning home right here on the river. Excuse my ignorance, what river is this? This is the Rogue River. The Rogue River. I only knew that because it was a brewery. I'm with Larry Evans' beautiful home in Grants Pass, and I am so excited to be here.

We had a fabulous slideshow, a slide show last night about your childhood spent in Baja, and I can't wait to get into that. That's right. So let's just jump into it. Noah, who's behind the cameras. Noah and I are on our way to Overland Expo. I got Frank in my lap. And I've got Larry Evans here who's going to tell me about growing up and traveling to Baja in the days before it was all paved. Oh, yeah, very little pavement back then.

Yeah, born and raised in San Diego, mom and dad, very much the pioneer spirit. And the proximity with Baja right in our backyard was really handy to start. exploring and this was in the early 60s probably 64 63 and my mom was a pioneer and wanted to get out and see what's down there well I love that first shot that you shared with us you're a Malibu convertible all right and you guys went to Guadalupe Canyon and that's right tell me about that they one of my mom's friends saw an article and I think it was sunset magazine and had some beautiful pictures of the Palm Canyon and these bubbling hot water coming out of the mountain and said, hey, let's go down there. It's only a couple hours south of the border. And they

threw everything in that Chevy Chevelle Malibu convertible, like you said. And we headed out with our coolers and towels and a couple of beach chairs and just had a wonderful time. And what happened after that? I think your dad got the bug basically. That's right. So pick that up. Yeah, that was a trip. And they came home and they said, you know, this two-wheel drive sedan is not going to cut it south of the border on these dirt roads and rocks. So they went to John A. Rose Toyota in Mission Valley. Yeah, Mission Gorge Road. Yeah, about one of the first FJ Cruiser wagons that was imported from Japan. And that was the beginning. Hang on for a second. You glossed over how spectacular that red and white FJ 45 stunning. It was stunning. Yeah, it was a it was an eye catcher. You know,

to see the slides 50 years late, six, is it 60 years later? It's almost 60. That's, I mean, it just a beautiful, beautiful machine. Yeah, it was an amazing vehicle. We probably put 100,000 miles in Baja on that vehicle, and then I got it when I got to be a driving age and kept it going for a few more years. And it was mom and dad and you and your brother? Yep, Mom, Dad, my brother and I

and our 100-pound German Shepherd named Prince. Tell me about what that was like. Obviously, you had the only one in town. You guys were the adventurous family that went to Baja. What was that like for your neighbors, your friends. Were they envious? I would say so. My teachers in elementary school

weren't that happy because my mom pulled us out of school for weeks at a time and they'd be kind of like, wait, wait, what do you mean? We've got a class to teach, but my mom said, hey, they're going to learn more on a camping trip than they will sit in here reading books. So it was a good experience all around. Very, very nice to see

a different culture and really live it, you know, by day to day, not out of a pages of a book or a 16 millimeter movie. We were actually on the ground, experiencing life. Well, break it down for me. How would a typical family trip to Baja go? Your dad was working, so he couldn't be away as long as your mom.

But your mom, judging from the slideshow last night, didn't have any fear. She was a gal who was out and shown her boys. Yes, she was. The remotest, most remote parts of Baja. And back in the 60s, there really was no sense. safety net. No cell phones, no really radio service to call for help. You're basically, whatever was in the car is what you started with is what you had for the whole trip. So we're at the mercy of finding gas, finding ice if we were lucky. So you had to pack everything

in a cooler and she had these waxed cardboard chicken boxes that we loaded all our gear in. I mean, the days, there was no target. You didn't really go out and find this nice plastic rubber made case. So it was very kind of put it together with very rustic materials. to make these trips happen. But those trips happened. They did happen. And, you know, we had good food for maybe four or five days. And as the ice melted and the meats were eaten, you kind of move on to crackers,

peanut butter, you know, cheese, hard salami, oysters, you know, the smoked oysters and sardines. It was pretty crazy from a culinary experience. Yeah. You were mentioning last night a little bit about once the tuna fish cans became the primary protein. It was bad. I mean, as a kid, you're okay with it, but I remember eating the smoked oysters. The eye opener with that was it tasted really good in the evening just under your Coleman lantern until the day my mom brought open a can of those for lunch. And I saw what they look like in the broad daylight. And I go, oh, my God, I've been eating those for weeks.

and here it looks so disgusting. But it seemed to me, judging, again, from what you shared with us, that your parents also were catalysts for friends to get in on their good times. Oh, sure. Their friends would hear about our trips, and they say, oh, man, I've got this old Waggonier or a C5 or K-5 blazer, and we'd love to go down there. We've seen your pictures.

my mom would show slides and have prints and they said we want in on the action. Would she have a night where people came over and watched slide shows have dinner and a couple of drinks? Oh, yeah. And she would be wrangling them into the next trip. That's right. Or they'd see our car around town and go, where do you guys take this thing? So yeah, they definitely want it in. And we welcome them or my parents welcome them.

It's always good to have a companion car in case someone breaks down. Right. Get stuck in the mud. Yeah. So talk a little bit about the Malibu went away. You got down to John Rose Toyota on Mission Gorge there and got that beautiful red and white FJ45. And then Dad got on to modifying that

because that vehicle, which was the best vehicle in the world for what you were doing, needed further refinements for Baja. Let's talk about that a little bit. Well, of course. And he did what he could. And as we talked about it, there was no, Dick Seapack or four-wheel drive outfitters at the time. So he did upgrade the tires.

I think it was like a good year, you know, really heavy-duty tire, but no big flotation, no all-terrain tires, no mudders, none of that stuff. Even the wheels were still the steel, just a steel wheel. We added gas cans, Jerry cans, a big tank in front. They put a rooftop tent on top of the wagon with a bed for sleeping with water tank up there. So they did their best of what they had available. So mom and dad were on top up above, sleeping under the stars. Up on top, under the stars.

Under the stars on a platform that was on the roof rack. Correct. And then the kids all slept on cots, or sleeping bags in the sand or whatever. Yeah, we got booted out to the sand out with the coyotes and rattlesnakes. And luckily, nothing tragic happened. But as a kid, you enjoy that too. We kind of lined up all the cots, my brother, and if we had friends along on the trip. and it was really fun to be out there in the wilderness.

So in the wilderness, you did a lot of exploration, you know, tide pooling, checking out old, you know, mines and whatnot. What did that do for your curiosity? Well, as a child, yeah, your curiosity is endless. So it was a wonderful world to experience where there's, it's pretty much all nature, a lot of animals, a lot of sea life and shelling, great driftwood. my mom's trips were usually around either coast, so we'd go down the Pacific or a lot of, most of our time, her favorite was on the Gulf. A little warmer, calmer seas.

We would sometimes bring inflatable boats and did a lot of snorkeling, and it was really a wonderful experience. Did you have some favorite spots after a while, or were you always looking for the next spot? Yeah, I think my mom was, we did have a few favorites. Back in the day, even just south of San Felipe, was pretty deserted. You have a few fishing camps that we would go back to. Further south, you could go into Las Animas and other areas. But even Gonzaga back in those times, there wasn't much there.

We're in Oregon. We're in Oregon. They like to cut wood up here. Someone's taking a tree down. Yeah, someone's got a neighbor taking a tree down. Your mom didn't like being around civilization. There were zero photos. Right.

I know, right. In several carousels we got to watch last night of being in towns or cities, didn't look like you were hanging around at the Bullring in Tijuana or downtown Ensenada in the tourist zone or any of that. You were out. You were really out. She was photographing beautiful sunsets and the wild vistas. Right. But what I took away from all of that was it was it was just you guys.

and the folks you brought with you, whether there's two cars or two trucks or four trucks. Right. Seemed like. Or alone. A lot of times we were just all by ourselves. Right. And, yeah, the first day of driving, the whole point was to just get south of all the cities. So you go as fast as you could, Tijuana and Ensenada and Santa Tomas and, you know, get to that end of the pavement.

And if you're going to San Felipe, you load up on, get some tequila and controy and some fireworks, and then head south onto the dirt road as fast as you could. Tequila Controy, that's for the mom's and the dads. Right, to the margaritas. The margaritas. And the kids got the fireworks. Exactly. Oh, those fireworks were fun.

Yeah. Yeah. The ubiquitous fireworks. Lots of any accidents that came with that? Any accidents? Yeah, did Dad teach you guys to be very careful? There was one accident. My brother had a big bag of fireworks.

And for some reason, it ended up kind of in the trash pile that then he threw into the fire pit in the morning thinking it was just paper and then within you know a couple of seconds the whole whole bag of fireworks went off with skyrocket shooting in every direction oh every direction everyone scurried and ran and the dog ran and that was that was the only tragedy no one got hurt but that was surprising that was a good one yeah just just tossed that into the burn pit and yeah yeah be careless and burn it well we we we would went through some images again that really just took me to those simple times, building rockets. Oh, that's true. Yeah, we did the Estes rocket, model rockets.

Model rockets were a thing. Look it up, folks. You kids, look up model rockets. You would build rockets. That's right. And then you would launch them. And then you'd go retrieve them. Yeah, the, out of paper tubes, you know, like something like a paper towel roll, and they had little balsa wood fins on them and nose cones and a little solid propellant engine. And, yeah, we'd launch those and sit there and watch them and run after them when they come down with their parachutes. You know, because Baja has, you know, a lot of, like, dry lake beds and stuff that was perfect for that. Yeah, we did that in my childhood, and, of course, the wind would take them into somebody's backyard or something. You didn't always recover the rocket after you built it.

So you had the whole process of the time it took to build the thing, and you had time that you needed to fill. He couldn't be tide pooling all the time. No, that's right. This is all before the day. You know, you didn't get on your phone. You didn't have a little pocket, you know, game boy with you. Yeah, so let's talk about that.

What were the family games? Would we play cards, dominoes, checkers? Very rarely. Read a book? Yeah, really not. a lot of my mom and dad would read and magazines, but kids, we just, as soon as you got to the beach, you just take off running in every direction and we're digging in the hills and, you know, just looking for wood and driftwood and shells and things like that. But we didn't really bring

a lot with us, maybe a couple of toy trucks or something to push around in the sand. But back in those days, we were just out there experiencing what was there in front of us. And back in those days, the kids that you were running into in Baja had so much less. Sure. So tell me a little bit about your mom and her drive to always bring and always give. We would, you know, as we grew up as two boys and we'd outgrew our clothing and shoes and boots and jackets. So we'd always throw in several bags of those sorts of things. And as we'd drive into town, a lot of these villages.

and little communities that we'd get to off road were quite primitive, and they didn't see a lot of visitors. You know, most people were driving by on the grated dirt roads is heading south as fast as they could, and we'd be up in the mountains and seeing these people, and you'd give them bags of shirts and pants and belts, and they were just so happy to see these things. I remember one gentleman at one of the, it was a turquoise mine, I believe.

It was cold winter's day, and we had this old leather jacket that my dad, had outgrown and we gave that to him and it just lit up his face. He put it on. It fit him perfectly. And he just like did this nice little dance around and thanked us so much. And you could just tell it really was touching that he had something really beautiful that he would probably have never had. And so those things were very heartwarming for years to come.

You'd go back and I'd see these kids running around. I'd go, oh my God, that's the shirt I gave him two years ago. And, you know, you recognize it. It's really fun. Yeah. You think it did anything for your perspective on life? I imagine. That where you came from and how other people.

I mean, there's cultural anthropology standpoint there. That's part of the education that your mother was giving you that wasn't in the classroom. I mean, we are so young. I mean, I would have been, you know, seven to 14, you know, that range of the 60s and 70s. And I think there's that unconscious cultural. experience you're having that really does kind of brings you up to what life is all about. You know, it's not about, you know, buying things and having a jewelry and this sort of things, but it's more helping people and seeing these other cultures and how they live in comparison

to your life. Definitely made a difference. Yeah, and unpacking that a little bit. Did you continue traveling after that as you as you progressed in life and through after the Baja period was over because it did end. It did end. I think probably my last trip south of the border was probably in the early 2000s. But, you know, as populations grew and the pavement came and houses started getting built, it started to take away a little bit of that romance and kind of the virgin aspect of what Baja was like in the 60s and 70s.

And as time grew, we started exploring different areas. is in the United States as Sierra's and Death Valley and other parts away from Baja. But, you know, those Baja memories were just so amazing. It was a good time to be there. And tell me about that there were some bigger trips, some trips where you got all the way down. Oh, yeah. To go to Cabo San Lucas back in the late 60s was a chore. So I think it was a five-week trip.

And I believe that trip we did on. on our own one vehicle, the Toyota. That Toyota lasted for 15 years. Amazing. And yeah, my dad could only take two weeks off of work. So we left San Diego as a family and made it to, I think, L.A. Bay or La Paz, somewhere in there where we could get someone flown in. So my parents had a friend that flew down to relieve my dad.

My dad flew back to work. And Bob Jarrett, a friend of my families, he flew down and took over the, the driving and kind of served as the, you know, the father figure for the man of the trip. Yeah, the man of the trip for the second half. And that all worked out great. He, he loved that experience and it worked out so we could do a whole five-week trip to the tipping back. And tell me a little bit about that flight here in a DC-3. Oh, yeah. He wrote a whole story about it when he came back. It was a DC-3. I'm not sure where he probably picked it up in Tijuana. And it was loaded with, he said, I think there was even like chickens on board. And they would drop off

supplies in LA Bay and then take off again after refueling and then make it all the way to La Paz and that pilot was just a crazy pilot. He would fly low through the valleys and over mountains and he wasn't even sure he was going to make it to meet us. I'm imagining that was Francisco Munoz flying Air Baja. Yeah, you mentioned he knew him. He was flying turtles and flying lobster and had his money making routes and flying people when he had them to fly. Yeah, speaking of turtles. The famed Francisco Munoz, yeah. Yeah, when we were in L.A. Bay, I so vividly remember they had this concrete kind of bunker

low-walled shaded with thatch palm trees to keep all the turtles from overheating. And as a kid, it was sad to see these beautiful creatures, big, heavy, must have been a hundred pound each turtle just sitting there roaming around in their sandpit. And yet I knew that the restaurant,

the Pappadeas family was running, would be cooking. those up at night. And so it was kind of this odd contrast for me to see the live creatures and you felt a kinship with them. But then later that night, you know, they're serving turtle for dinner which is really an amazing

an amazing meat to eat. Yeah, times change. Yeah, no more turtle meat. Times change, yeah. Well, back to that FJ-45, of course, being a Land Cruiser guy myself, tell me about how that truck held up. I did see one image last night that there There's clearly some repainting, some bodywork had been done around the hanging of a...

You had a lot of jerry cans. Oh, yeah. A jerry can here, jerry can there, spare tires. Well, to go on those trips, yeah. You didn't know where you were going to get gas. It was going to get siphoned out of a big rusty can. So my dad put, I think there was one, two, maybe four jerry cans on the side, a couple extra spare tires. And it saw a lot of hard work getting that truck down there and back multiple, multiple times,

going across muddy salt flat so it started to get that cancer of salt underneath because my parents really didn't wash it out very well when they got home and there was one time my mom said hey the paint's looking pretty bad on here so we're going to repaint it I said what do you mean we're going to repaint it said oh yeah I got I got a couple of cans of white and a couple cans of red and she masked it off and we're out there as kids with these rattle cans spraying the truck red and white again which didn't turn out so well but it was better than it was I guess just covering up what was there. Right, covering up the rost and the dings and scratches.

Oh, yeah. Well, as you said, there wasn't an off-road industry there. We're on our way to Overland Expo. There's certainly an off-road industry now built around helping people get out and explore. But those days, you were pioneers, really. Sure. Was your dad a handy guy? You said he was an insurance.

Oh, yeah. He was in the insurance business. Right. He was an insurance claims manager for GEICO. at the time and uh but we're very limited on resources on how to fix that truck up you mean the tires you could find were truck tires you know very heavy load range but they weren't very good for sand uh they help the side walls are okay for rocks but no off-road tires no mudders no no all terrains the wheels you're limited to steel wheels not nice uh aluminum alloys um so yeah the

The truck itself, suspension, you know, you're limited to old traditional hydraulic gas shocks or shocks, but it was very limited to get down there. So, you get the vehicle to work correctly. And just the washboard, the rough roads, all that, the strength of the metal was such that you were ripping the metal out, trying to keep the tires on and the spare fuel, the Jerry cans on. Oh, yeah, just the, the washboard roads would shake everything off the car. So like those, the mounts for the tires tore through the sheet metal that they had to get fixed when they got home. So it was kind of a constant battle to keep that car running on the roads that they would drive it on. And inside the car, this slow going at times, what did you and your brother do to entertain yourselves? Well, you weren't watching DVDs.

No, no DVDs. No, no ear pods, no, we didn't have any music on our iPhone to listen to. So you pretty much have the window down and you're just looking out the window. we had a German Shepherd that would sleep across our lap because my brother and I are on the back bench seat. My parents are in front and the German Shepherd is just sleeping on top of us bouncing along and all the gears and back and stuff on the roof. So it was just visually experiencing that at, you know, 5, 10, 15 miles an hour was quite fun. And if we were going really slow, I would often sit on the hood. my dad would stop and my mom and I

or we'd write up on the hood and that was a really neat experience. Well there's a beautiful photograph that I'll share of you and your mom on the hood and are you having a hug or a kiss or something? Oh, hug or a kiss. It was beautiful. Yeah, right there it was kind of a stormy day, probably headed home along the Gulf there south of San Felipe and

what was nice about riding on the hood is you got the heat of the the engine would keep your butt and legs warm so it was actually a comfortable spot to be even on a blustery day. Getting back to the the undeveloped time in Baja, where you're going places, you know, even now, you know, I know that I drive around. It's very rare that I would add that one, one five-gallon jerry can,

let alone two, but that was standard. Right. You were always adding from your cans. You never knew when, goodbye, Frank. You never knew when you were going to find gas or what kind of gas you would find when you did find it. How about food? Were you, there weren't the restaurants that there are now. Baja is such a culinary destination now, but that wasn't part of it at all.

No. Were you finding restaurants? Were people cooking for you? Did you have any experiences? We were just talking about Papa Diaz and Mama Diaz for her famous turtle dinners. I did have a turtle dinner. Every Saturday the turtle dinner. But most, I mean, the whole goal of getting to Baja really was to avoid townships

and any sort of infrastructure. So, yes, we would pop into the communities to get gas. Maybe if you're really lucky, you might find ice. You might find some fresh fruit. But generally, we had everything with us. and my mom and dad would cook everything, get that old Coleman stove out. And at the time, this was like the white gas one

that you had to pump up. And it was splatter and spit and very frustrating to keep the flames going well before propane was available. And we would find local fishermen. They'd come in on the pangas or maybe you'd see them in their little fisherman's quarters up there that they built out of old Ocoteo branches

and they would trade. My dad would bring down magazines a Playboy was very popular at the time. And man, when you'd whip out a Playboy magazine with the beautiful Caucasian women, that was worth several lobsters or maybe a nice big fish. Old calculators, battery-powered calculators were popular, as was, see, what else did they trade with?

Yeah, calculators and magazines, I think those were the top things that would, you know, and then we'd cook them up. Or we'd forage ourselves. We'd go clamming. on the Pacific coast, my favorite was abalone back in the day. It was way up shallow. When the tide goes out, you can go see them on rocks,

and you just kick them off, run up on the rocks, and break them off as fast as you can. And those are sure tasty. You know, pound them out on rocks and fry them up with some breadcrumbs. It was amazing. Well, we're going to take a break right there, contemplating, trading Playboy magazines for fresh catch of the day. Fresh catch of the day.

fresh catch of the day. If you're heading to Baja with your fresh catch, you're going to need some insurance to do that. We'll be right back afterward from Baja Bound. Here it's Little Baja. We can't wait to drive our old land cruisers 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 at BajaBound.com. That's Bajabound.com, serving Mexico traveler since 1994. A 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 were 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 recipients of the Baja Baseball Gear Deliveries. And congratulations to Guerrera Negro and Mulejah, the Ostonaros and the Cardinalitos won silver and bronze at the state championships. Big stuff. And 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 and 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. I want to tell you about these new Rocky Talkie radios that I absolutely love. Heavy duty, beautifully made, easy to program, easy to use.

We had 28 people, 15 trucks on the Slow Baja Winter Expedition. You can hand these radios to anybody from a 14-year-old kid to an 80-year-old, and they'll know how to use it. They are that well-designed. One charge lasted the entire week. We are never out of range. I happen to upgrade to the accessory whip antenna for my radio and for my sweeps radio, the Donovan Brothers.

We were never out of contact. I can't say it strongly enough. Rocky Talky Radio's Rockytocky.com. Check them out. Slow Baja approved. Hey, we're back with Larry Evans. We're talking about his amazing childhood going to Baja with his very adventurous

mother and father and the old land cruiser. And judging from the photographs, your friends, you know, old K-5 Blazers, I'm saying old, they were new then. They were new. Land Rover. Right. Yeah, that Jeep Wagonier. 88-inch wheelbase.

110-inch wheel base. The Jeep Wagoner was beautiful. Obviously, new Bronco scouts were in the photograph. So this is the real origin of what I'm trying to recreate through my slow-ba vintage to get these vehicles to come back and go slow and do these sort of things that you were doing when these vehicles were new. Again, did you have, was Mom the Navigator? Did she have the map open on her lap?

You've got a Bible that you're going to show me a little bit later with we're going to film. Yeah. Yeah, here again, there was no satellite imagery. There's no Google Maps. There's no laptops that she can refer to. Back at the time, I think you were saying that, well, the surface of the moon was better mapped. In 1969, when they went to the moon, they had better mapping in the moon than they did of Baja in those days. Yeah, so here we are.

It drove my grandmother crazy that my mom would take her grandchildren down to Baja where she can't even reach them by phone. and has no idea if we're alive or what's going on down there. But yeah, she had the early, it was at Gearhart and Gulick. The Bible. Yes, wrote some of the earliest books of maps. And a lot of the maps would get on, you know, my mom's trying to figure out where to go. And they'll say that these roads haven't been vetted. But that didn't stop my mom.

She said, well, turn right here and we'll just follow the road better traveled. And she'd take very copious notes on mileage and, you know, how far. this went and what turn and sometimes we get to a dead end and have to circle back. But at least, you know, we had everything recorded. So if we ever came back on a second trip, you would really know how to get there. And so, yeah, we're really limited by resources to make it. Yeah, but it was like looking at somebody's recipe book. It was like looking at Grandma's recipe book.

It is. Then not only she had the recipe, but then she had all the notes of what she added or how she made the dish. And I think that's the amazing thing now. so much technology, but just to get to what you just said there, which I have to emphasize going on the road, you're on a dirt road, the road that's better traveled. Right. In Baja, they're only making roads when they need to get someplace. Sure.

People aren't doing these sort of things out of charity. Right. So when you see a road, take the, you know, the more defined tracks is how I usually do it when I'm driving around, seat of the pants stuff, wondering where I am on the paper map, you know, and following the tracks that are better defined. And that's, that's all you can do. That's all you can do. And, you know, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. I remember we were trying to find Santa Gertrude's mission once and just got to the B. We tried different roads and the light, we were losing light and getting dark and we just had to camp in the weeds or a

wash because we just never could find it, at least that trip. We went back and did successfully get there. But some of those spots were so remote and unknown. No map. that you kind of, and you're looking at your gas. I mean, we can't keep exploring. You're going to run out of gas here. So you are limited by that too. And it was kind of funny. A little caveat to the gas story is my dad had those jerry cans on the side,

and he would tap them to see, you know, how much gas we got left? You know, why didn't he write it down? I don't know. But there was one trip where he would tap on the can. I said, oh, man, we're almost out. We need to find gas. And so we went into Gonzaga. I don't remember where we were to get gas.

And he opens up the can. and it's full. So his ears deceived him, and we actually had five more gallons of gas that he thought was empty. But anyhow, that was a funny story. Well, on the flip side of that, as I said, I usually have two jerry cans,

and the one time I needed the second one, when I opened it up, I realized that I had forgotten to fill it while driving in, you know, the old adage that in the old days, you couldn't bring gas into how you had to buy your gas there. Yeah. So that's always in my brain of coming in with the cans empty.

And then when I filled the can, I filled the one that was closest. to the gas tank. And I forgot to fill the one on the other side. I was out at seven sisters thinking, I'm about to run out of gas. That's not good. Then I was on fumes and really sweating it, really sweating it.

Or you have to wait for a new gas to show up. They're empty. Oh, they'll be here in three days ago. Let's talk about that. Did you have one of those experiences? That actually never happened to us, but I had habit. Dad was so well prepared. Yeah.

Yeah. We had that experience in 86. My father and I ran out of gas in Catavina. Of course, now they have guys selling gas. out of the back of their own vehicles. Those days they didn't, and we had to wait for the Green Angels. In those days, the Green Angels would drive the Highway 1, and we were able to buy gas and continue on down the way.

But getting back to those sort of things, mechanical issues. Did you have things that broke that needed to be fixed on site? One catastrophe, when the truck was new, the Land Cruiser, we were just going across those salt flats on your way to San Felipe. So luckily we hadn't gone very far, but the timing chain broke on the engine. Well, that's pretty catastrophic. I mean, there's no, you don't fix that on the side of the road. So we had to pull off and camp overnight and tow the truck back to Mexicali,

and they had to get apart from the United States, a new timing chain. So that stopped our trip for a couple of days to get that fixed, but that never took away from my mom's desire that this isn't going to stop me. It just postponed the beginning of our trip. So as soon as the timing chain was fixed, loaded everything back in and we headed south for, you know, a two-week vacation. So fresh time machine. Never daunted. Well, so undaunted, timing chain is a serious.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. And so to get one of those and get it down there and then get it installed and get going. Yeah, and back, get on the road again. And unfazed. Unfazed. And that was, my mom would leave, a lot of our trips, we would leave San Diego and it's raining and it's, you know, December and it's cold. and I'm thinking like, why are we going camping?

And oh, no, we'll be fine. You know, you get south of the border and things clear up. And most of the time, she was right. You get south of San Felipe and the way the weather current was. You get out of the rain, it gets warmer. And, you know, we had wonderful time. But it was a little bit a mental game, I think, for everyone to be excited about camping when you're leaving San Diego on a rainy day.

Fishing, spear fishing. A little bit of spear fishing. Yeah. Neither of my parents were fishermen, fishermen, but, you know, Yeah, we did bring down like a Zodiac. You couldn't help it. Yeah. Being in Baja, the fish are there and plentiful.

Oh, yeah, why fish when you have a lot of people fishing? So we never ran out of opportunity to meet some people. And the people that live there were more than happy to discuss their fishing. And they go out on their pongas and bring stuff in and they're happy to share their catch. The other thing my parents did is since we were out into these remote villages on both the Pacific and the Gulf Side is, They brought a Polaroid camera and a little cassette recorder. And we'd be sitting around the campfire, and the kids, local children and families would come over. And they'd kind of stand back in the shadows for a while because they weren't, it's not like they were invited.

They were just very curious. Yeah, they're curious. They were viewing a foreign species. Yeah, what are these people doing? Who are these people? They'd see a lantern and they're cooking food and they got a campfire going. And my parents would invite them in and they'd, you know, slowly come in and my parents would give them a seat. and they'd sit around the fire and we'd start talking.

My mom knew pretty good Spanish. And during those conversations, my dad's got the tape recorder going, unbeknownst to them. And then as things would settle down, he'd rewind and push play. And they would hear their own voices being repeated, and they were just so amazed that the technology of the day, a cassette recorder to play back what we had been talking about. Or my dad would play like Christmas tunes, if it was Christmastime, and they heard music, maybe for the first time, recorded music out in the middle of nowhere.

And that was really a neat experience. The other thing was they'd take their picture on a polar camera and outspits this little piece of white film. And you'd hand it to the kids. And they'd watch it. And they'd watch it develop. And it was shocking, I think. They'd look on their face and they'd show it to their mom and their dad. And here they are.

And they'd take that with them. and I imagine they cherish that for a long time. Yeah, for sure. So Larry, as you were heading off to college, the Baja days came to an end. Pretty much. Yeah, I had to focus on my career. You know, it was probably, you know, 20 years old.

And although we did enjoy four-wheel driving, and I had a Ford truck, my own Ford truck, we did accompany my parents on a couple of those trips. But, you know, times had changed. My focus was on my career of design and advertising. And, you know, I have my wife with me on those early trips with my parents. And it was fun, but yet it was different, you know. You know, I had grown up, and Baja had changed a little bit.

And you could see the development. Many more paved roads, more people, more trucks, more developed, more houses, more resorts. and it was just becoming something that didn't resonate the same way that it did in the 60s, 70s, and early 80s for me. And so, yeah, life changed, Baja changed, and kind of moved on. Yeah, was there a moment when the road was paved that your dad felt like, hey, new road, we really need to go drive it? Or was it something other than like, oh, well, that's for all the other people now. We used to do that before they paved the road. so we don't need to do it now that the road's paved.

Yeah. And five weeks to Cabo was a long time to take. I mean, it did save some time so they could access parts further south a lot quicker than spending a week to try and get to Gonzaga or something. You could take the pavement and get further down. And a lot of times that my mom would try and do, and we would do as we would intersect the old road. And a lot of times we'd get off the pavement just to drive on the old road and go see the old spots that we remember, the hidden little lagoons.

the washes and the shrines that were built into these big boulders near Catavania and take those side roads. That was still, those were still available and open, and the pavement was kind of became more of a thoroughfare just to reach those destinations, but we would still go off road. And then back to your mom, did you end up taking more side roads in your life because of that childhood? Probably. It definitely, I mean, I'm not quite the pioneer and as rugged as,

my mother was. I do like some of the more modern conveniences, you know, a lot more ice in my drinks and better food. And it kind of, you know, I wanted fresh sliced roast beef, not, you know, that sliced stuff that's been soaked in vinegar and salt and cured. And I started to develop a taste for better food. And to have better food in Baja, you've got to be more prepared with bigger ice chest and that sort of thing. So, you know, you know, you know, you know, Yes, I am a pioneer, but not at that level. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, Larry, it's been really a delight to get to know you a little bit. The photographs that your mother and father shot of your childhood have been such an inspiration in my own mind of what I'm trying to do with Slow Baja vintage and bringing back those simpler times. Really was astonishing last night sitting in your... The cottage. in the cottage watching a slide show, a good old fashion. That's right. Slide show. Yeah, those old sounds.

And we actually burn out the bulb watching them. Burned out the bulb or else we would have watched all 100 carousels. We were going into the wee hours of the evening anyways or the late hours of the evening. But it was really delight. And I can't say sincerely enough what a pleasure it is to meet you and hear some of those experiences that you had as a youngster. Wrap it up. Leave me with one crazy, wonderful Baja experience that stays with you after all these years. Oh, yeah, there is one story that I really kept under wraps for probably 30 years, never told my dad about it.

My mom passed, and she never heard this story because it was so dramatic that, but yet I didn't want my dad to go without hearing it. And that was when we went to El Marmel, probably I would guess, in the late 60s. The town had probably been recently abandoned, so you drive over the hill and you see the big onyx mine there on the mesa. And there must have been 50 little homes still built together with old pieces of lumber and wood and Ocoteo. But they even had glass windows in them and you'd peer through the glass and you could see the clothing was still hanging in their closets. the mine operator that owned the area was their stucco house. It was quite a nice structure was still there. And it was a cold, windy December probably.

And so we camped. And actually the big owner's home became our camp that night to get out of the wind. But my brother and I, my brother is quite the character. He saw one of the end. entrances to the quarry and they had like a little mine dugout and he wanted to go inside so we went inside this mine tunnel the adit and he uncovers a box of old dynamite that had been there for years probably and he picked out three or four sticks of dynamite that wasn't leaking any nitroglycerin because basically dynamite in those days was sawdust soaked in in nitro and for some reason he wanted

to bring it home and I'm thinking, boy, this doesn't sound like a good idea and he carefully wrapped it up in a towel and we headed back to camp and the next day my parents said, okay guys, we got to head home now and I'm thinking where'd this dynamite go? This is your older brother. Oh yeah, my older brother. So you're not going to rat out your

older brother. No, no, we won't give out any names but you know he was into chemistry and love building crazy stuff and his... Your brother was a Yeah, mad scientist Mad scientist. So he's got a stick of dynamite. Well, he has three sticks of dynamite rolled up in an old towel or something.

Your parents know nothing about this. No, knew nothing about it. And he told me to, you know, be quiet. Don't say anything. And so we're loading up to head back to San Diego. This was like the last day of our trip, and we had a day's drive home from there. And so we're all getting into the car, and we're all loaded up. And I'm kind of looking around like, where did that go? And I look over at him and I said, you know, where did you put that?

you know, kind of quietly. Where'd you put that dynamite? Yeah, he points down at his feet and he shoves his boots. And he says, it's right there. It's right on. I'm like, that's under dad. And sure enough, we drove all the way back to San Diego with three sticks of dynamite under my dad's seat. And we get to the border and, you know, the typical questions.

U.S. citizens. Oh, yeah, yeah. And he looks in the back seat and he looks at us, any food, any fireworks. and, right, you know, any fireworks, I'm thinking, wait a minute. Now, listen, does dynamite, does that qualify as fireworks? You know, my lips were sealed. And we get home and we start unloading. And then the dynamite makes it into his bedroom.

And he puts it up on his shelf with a little, like a little dish to capture the dripping nitroglycerin out. I mean, who knows what he was going to do with this stuff. But my parents never knew this story until I finally, I wrote this story. a little book about it and read it to my dad and my dad just couldn't believe that that all happened back in the 60s and he lived to tell and he lived to tell that's right we're going to leave it right there larry that he lived to tell good one oh that i'm glad you shared that with me that's really lovely well thank you very much and with the rest of the yard work here that's right we're going to call it a day and get up the road to ben for overland expo thanks larry that's and thank you for coming it's

been fun to share with you guys and you're doing the slow Baja that really is the best way to see that country. I say it's the only way to see that country. That's right. All right. We did it. All right. Good.

Thank you. Well, I hope you like that conversation. Larry's really, I can't say sincerely enough, how cool it was for him to host No and I for the conversation and the evening before with the slideshow. And again, literally could have watched these beautiful photographs. of his childhood in the 60s and early 70s going to Baja. I could have watched those all night. Well, if you like what I'm doing, if you like me making these intimate podcast recordings,

meeting people where they are, you know, that takes time, and people tell me that time is money. So I'd love to ask you to drop a taco in the tank. You can do that by going to slowbaha.com slash donations. Click the link there, drop a few tacos, keep me on the road making these conversations. recording these intimate bits of Baja that keep me so excited to get back to the next one, get back on the next trip. And if you're over there at slowbaha.com, you can always visit the store.

We've got some cool stuff in the shop now. All the stickers are there. Shirts, t-shirts, hats, all the stuff. This store is fully stocked. So love that you're reping, you know. You always get a great conversation when you're wearing your Slow Baja hat or your Slow Baja tea. so get over to the slow Baja shop and get some merch and get out and rep and meet people who love Baja too. Okay, well, we are at the time of the podcast where I tell you about my old pal, Mary McGee,

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