Slow Baja - Travel Talk With Slow Baja Basil's Garage

Episode Date: April 12, 2024

Basil's Garage, located in Vista, California, is your one-stop shop for all your Baja Overland rig build needs. As a specialized vehicle outfitter, Basil's offers practical, simple, and capable off-road vehicle builds for long-term remote travel, from selecting the right vehicle to suspension configuration and camp setup to planning every minute detail. They offer in-house advanced electrical system design, lighting, suspension, wheels/tires, bar work, armor, fabrication, camp accessories, and flatbed conversions. They pride themselves on delivering high-end finished products with impeccable workmanship, partnering with quality businesses such as REDARC, MITS Alloy, Go Fast Campers, ARB, ADS Shocks, Baja Designs, Nomad Wheels, and more. Basil's Garage is Slow Baja Approved! Learn more about Basil's Garage: https://www.basilsgarage.com/ Get your Baja insurance here: https://www.bajabound.com/quote/?r=fl9vypdv2t More information on Slow Baja Adventures: https://www.slowbaja.com/adventures

Hey, this is Michael Emery. Thanks for tuning in to the Slow Baja. This podcast is powered by Tequila Fortaleza, handmade in small batches and hands down my favorite tequila. Hey, thanks for tuning in to today's Slow Baja. I'm coming to you from the Shield Man recording booth inside Slow Baja. Down in Baja, Sur. I'm in Los Friles, and I'm, uh,

hunkered down trying to get out of the wind here in Slow Baja to bring you this intro to this podcast and I want to say my heaping dose of gratitude today goes out to Azure O'Neill. She's a beautiful, beautiful human being. We've been traveling together on this project that I'll tell you about more in the future. But she is the programming director at Overland Expo and she's a badass. She's been all over the world on motorcycles and anyhow, we're doing a little Slow Baja stuff together. and she interviewed me today and brought me to tears as she was asking me about, you know, some of the folks that I've interviewed. And I had to think about Johnny Johnson who passed away and think about how lucky I was to have

Carol Mears and Lynn Cheneth and Ivan Stewart all collaborate to get me that interview with Johnny. And anyways, I was shedding a little tear earlier and I'm going to try not to shed one right now. As I tell you about today's show, today's show is with Basil Lynch and Basil Runs. Basil's garage up in Vista, California, which is in North County, San Diego. And he is your one-stop shop for all the stuff you need to prep your rig to get down to Baja, comfortably, safely, any modification you need, suspension, interior, exterior lights, whatever you need to make your Baja rig perform and be comfortable. Basil's the dude. He loves to get down to Baja himself. He's a surfer. He's a photographer. He was just down here last week. Got an oldie but he's a

a goody. This one was recorded about a year ago and a little over a year ago now and it's been bumped a couple of times because I like to spice it up. I don't like to give you too many four by four shows or too many off-road racers or all that. I like to mix it up and this one unfortunately got bumped a couple of times as other things took precedent. But I really like Basil a lot as a person. I love his shop. He's been very kind to me. He put the nomad wheels on my truck. And that's what brought me in there. And anyhow, without further ado, to Basil Lynch from Basil's Garage in Vista California. Hey, it's Michael Lemery, Slow Baja,

and we are at Basil's Garage here in Vista, California, North County, San Diego, if you folks don't know where that is. And I'm so pleased to be here, Basil put on a clean shirt for this. I'm wearing my old Baja shirt, as I always am, and I'm really interested in this whole overlanding here thing. I've heard so much about overlanding. Yes. What is it? There's a lot of different things.

Everyone calls it different stuff, different things. Long-term vehicle-based travel. So spending time out of a vehicle or a motorcycle or on your feet. It doesn't only matter. It's just long-term travel out of a vehicle of some sort. A vehicle that gets you someplace so you can hang. Yeah. Hey, can you tell me about what we've got behind us here?

This is your truck. This is our shop truck, my personal truck. Started off as a 2005 tundra, and really there's not much tundra left. It's been built just as a Baja-specific truck, I guess if you say that. It's really built for me to go on surf trips down to Mexico, be comfortable, be able to spend a couple weeks on the beach, surfing. Yeah, it's definitely over the top and excessive. You don't need any of it. You can go down in a stock pickup truck and be happy and comfortable, or a stock, FJ, and be happy and comfortable.

Yeah, so tell me about that, as I've traveled Baja a long time in an old, stock vehicle that's now getting some some fancy stuff put on it right here at basles tell me about this truck that's behind us because this this to me when I see these things and excuse my ignorance when you have when you take the bed off and you have the box on the back this says Australia to me yeah it's it's been modeled after Australia or after how Australians build their vehicles I kind of had said it to a few friends mine a couple times before is it's like kind of considered Baja the North American version of the

outback. It's for sure rugged, remote, and most of the driving down there is just on harsh washboard roads. Right. So that's kind of what this has been built to do is just do hundreds of miles of harsh washboard roads to kind of get me down to surf spots that I'm looking to get to. And can you show me what's what's inside? Yeah. So this side of the truck, actually just storage. I think we have some T-shirts in there right now, but this side storage kind of houses some of the power system in the back of it. Like I said, this thing's excessive. It's got power. power for days. You can run coffee machines, induction cook tops. There's like satellite internet, all sorts of stuff. It kind of is like that so that I can go and sit on a beach and kind of

still run the shop from afar. Be able to answer emails, get back to people. Slow Baja when you can put my wheels on? Yeah, exactly. Tell me what's in this thing. When you say this is storage, this makes sense. So yeah, storage side. You can kind of see some of the power side on it. So there's an inverter, chargers, the satellite internet connection. You can see a little bit of the battery tucked in behind here. This whole back of this truck is based on a Mitz-Aloy. It's a trained canopy. Australian-made product that we've kind of outfitted here to work for our needs at the shop. So yeah, this side's storage. We fill this side with clothes, full devil bags, camp chairs, water tank, just kind of oddball things. And then we have more storage on the back deck.

Before you get out of here, can we talk about some of these things up here? Yes, there's our sticker door. Can you tell me about some of it? Yeah, there's a special one there. Yes, I have a slow Baja sticker. I put some tacos in your tank. And tacos El Mule. Yes, that is the best fish tacos that I found in all of Baja.

Yeah. Very good. Yeah, some other friends, stickers out there. And Marlon. And Marlon. RIP, Amigo. RIP. Yes.

All right, so keep walking. Let's take a look in the back. Back half of it. So this is, you could get a, this is called the canopy. It's the storage box. You could get a full length canopy where it rained all the way to the back and you had no truck bed. I wanted to go with kind of a 50-50 setup where I have 50% enclosed waterproof storage box and then 50% truck bed. It's a great place to put all of that stuff you don't want inside your vehicle because there's always firewood, wet, wetsuits, all that kind of stuff that you don't want to put in your clean.

Scorpion-laden firewood. Yeah. Who knows what it is. Yeah. So that's there. And so things get dusty back here. Yeah, it isn't like dustproof by any means. I mean, the back of it's open. You can go right through here.

But we did make some canvas walls that zip down. It kind of helps seal it a little bit more. Yeah, and the tent's a passer through as well. So it's got a rooftop tent up here. Cool thing is you can pop the tent up and you can go up on the ladder of the rear of the truck. Let's come around and take a look. Or you can still pass in through here. So you can kind of go either way.

Inside, outside. Yeah, exactly. So most of the time you'll access it from the ladder back here. Simple and easy. Swings down, climb on up. Tell me about these wheels and tires choice. Be it, Goodrich Baja Champions. Yes.

I actually had never run these tires on a vehicle before. Heard great things about them, so wanted to try them so that I could suggest them to customers and say if they're good or not. What do you think? Good so far. Yeah. Put you on the spot. Yeah, that's all right.

I like them so far. Yeah, they're quiet for a mud terrain, not too aggressive. I've run the Yokohamas in the past well, and they're great tires. And I was just going to say, are you polyamorous in that? You've got to try some of these, some of those, check them out. Nobody's paying you to put their tires on you. Not at all. I used to do the sponsored stuff when I traveled and did all of that,

but now it's to test to be able to tell customers yes or now. I like this. To tell customers honestly. Yeah, it's a good product or not. Basil's recommendation. Yeah, exactly. All right. One of the coolest things that I like to show people is the truck bed below the truck bed.

so this has a pretty big six-foot drawer it comes out the back of the truck this is where we carry all of our spare parts random camp stuff that you never want to have it's a good spot we travel with a lot of spare parts just because Baja happens you can kind of be in the middle of nowhere and break something and if you don't have a spare part to fix it you're screwed

so I've heard about that yes happens to happens to quite a few people. I've had my fair share of Baja breakages before, so try and be prepared for those. So this is a show truck, but it's also a Baja proven truck. You're a real surfer. You really drive down there.

Yes. Shall we back up here and check out the rest of the shop? Yeah. Do you want to tell us anything more about? You've got canopies over here. The kitchen side's kind of cool. There's a full kitchen. We can peek out quickly.

He's got other stuff. Let's check it out. Come on Kaiser. So this is the, what I think is the really cool side. So we built a whole kitchen on it. So there's a fridge back here and then, oh it's, these are two hand operations. Let's see how it goes. So this is a full pantry that slides out that has all your foods, pots and pans,

there's a 12 volt oven and more, and then there's an induction cooktop as well too. So like I said, very excessive, but it is a 12 volt oven. excessive, but it is a bit of a showpiece for us to be able to say, hey, this is the, this is the, the possibility as of what you can do out of a vehicle. But yeah, this side's kind of where you end up hanging out at night, it's the bar, have a little bar spot up here. We usually have whiskey, tequila, gin, that kind of stuff. Beer works out pretty well. The four food groups?

Yes, exactly. Maybe some rice. But, yeah, it's been built here at our shop. And tell me about what's inside. I'm assuming you're not sitting on a 20-year-old tundra seats. You've done something else? Actually, the interior of the truck is pretty much stock. I think we built a little platform in the back of it just for my dog to jump up on. But they're nice.

20-year-old tundra seats, southern leather. Let's say they're in beautiful shape. Yeah, and then it's just got a simple little deck system in the back that my dog hangs out on. It's in a little zone. And you've already figured out the absolute best water in the world is Topo Chico in the king's size. It is. You can get it at Costco. There's nothing like four.

Orteleza and Topochico at the end of the day, folks. That's Daddy's little helper. Some good ice. And snorkel, so you can get into a little water there? I mainly have it for dust, really. Yeah, I mean, it would help with water. Yeah, but if you're in water that's up to your mirrors, you've got other issues. Really for dust for me, just so if you're trailing behind other people or something like that,

you're not just constantly sucking dust into the air filter. Gotcha, got you. Let's a live a little longer. ARB awning? Yep. Yeah, Airbnb awning. Makes it pretty comfy. Yeah, it does.

You can live out of it for a week if you wanted to. Let's step into the shop where it's a little bit quieter and see what's going on in there. Hey, so we just stepped inside to Basil's garage. And look, it's Slow Baja. Yes. We're getting some Nomad wheels put on, which I'm pretty stoked about. What can you tell me about this? Did they seek you out?

Did you seek them out? How did you get this relationship going with Nomad? Carter and I met a little while back, and he reached out just to kind of get some opinions on the wheels as they were first. developing them and just to get some feedback saying like, hey, they're cool. Hey, they are cool. Yes, they are. Yeah, exactly. You hooked me right in because I said, hey, you've got some cool wheels.

Yeah, exactly. I'm going to get them. I've been working with them for a little while, and they're good. I like that they're kind of the OEM plus look where it's not this crazy aftermarket wheel. It looks like it could have been on a stock vehicle. Yeah, I think the understated quality is what appealed to me. I mean, they are definitely cool for sure, and they're going to make my vehicle say, hey, you know, this is my custom touch.

Yeah. But they're pretty understated. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. So they're good. And it's been a great company I work with as well, too. And we like them. So we've been trying to put them on quite a few of our builds here in the shop.

Cool. Can you tell me about what you're doing in here? What's going on in the shop? We saw your truck. Everything. What do people come to you for? I see you're dealing with the GFCs right here. Yeah.

So we do go fast campers and rooftop tents. We do suspension, wheels, tires, power, systems, everything except maintenance. We don't do any like water pumps, oil changes or anything like that. Yeah, I noticed because when I was having carburetor problems panicking on my last trip, Colby's like, no, we don't have anybody that doesn't know. Carbator, no. No one knows what a carburetor is. You need a GFC? Yes. We'll get you hooked up with that. But yeah, so we can really do everything. We specialize in doing more custom stuff and not necessarily just like the bolt on that you're going to get at other box brand stores. It's more just going to be, hey, I want this cool custom power pan.

in this spot and I want a couple hundred amber hours of lithium or a fancy suspension or whatever it is it's more on the custom tailored to the customer side yeah so you're walking people through maybe what they think they need or what they think they want yeah and in working them back to this is what we can do this is what I recommend exactly yeah so we're usually like with some of our customers that are wanting full builds full vehicles will have them come in or we'll do a phone call on the phone for half hour hour, our chatting about what's possible, what we recommend, and just making sure we're picking

the correct parts for them. We really love building practical, simple vehicles where it's not this over-the-top thing that's going to need maintenance for forever. It's a bit more of a, just kind of simple, usable, practical vehicle, something that you can rely on and take down the peninsula and be comfortable in. Well, behind me, behind this cool vehicle that's chock full of stuff here, we haven't even gotten all the gear out yet. That's going to come later at Big Olaf. and PB. Can you tell me about the Bronco or the forerunner or what else do you have here? Yeah. So we've got actually another tundra that looks very similar to mine. It's got the same Australian flatbed on it, similar suspension. It's actually a same 05 access cabs. So the

bones of it are pretty much the same thing. He came in for the suspension, power system, all the stuff. The full-size 90s Bronco over here is another big builds that we have in here. Let's turn around. Chrysler, let's switch places here so you can see this cool thing. So this is a full-size Bronco that we're working on for the customer. We've done suspension, bumpers, power, a little bit of a restoration. We built, like rebuilt the door cards and stuff on it just to make sure the doors open and close properly. They're actually one of the most satisfying doors to open and close that I've ever opened and closed now, which is really kind of nice. It gives a nice solid thump to it. But yeah, cool truck. It's been

fun to work on, just lots of things that we're learning and figuring out with it just because it's a little bit older. Well, there's a couple guys who are in my Slow Baja Safari class in the Rapido class this year. So you've got Dave Watts who leads a class for Nora. He's driving one. Bill Bartolucci, who is a good friend from Northern California. We're just on the Baja XL together. He's driving one with his wife. And then there's a sweep that comes behind. It's like an early Bronx.

I'm looking for OJ and his to lead them all down the road. Yeah, I mean, there seems like they cut their teeth down there. There's a lot of people who build them to go down and do definitely more of the go-fast stuff. There's a lot of guys who'll do full cages and engine swaps and huge suspensions. And those things are awesome. But it's cool to start seeing people building them for slow Baja use. More casual cruising around. Yeah.

Do you want to talk about your affinity for slow or fast or what your thoughts are? It's a, I don't know. I like them both. Slow is fun. But then if I can get to the surf break 30 minutes faster, an hour faster, that's more waves, more time on the beach. So I don't know. It's going fast is cool, but I always tell people race car parts require race car maintenance. Yeah.

A lot of stuff breaks when you go fast. Yeah, a lot of stuff will break. You'll get creaks and moans and stuff out of suspension if it's all race car parts. But if you're into that and you want to go fast, then it's a fun thing to do. Yeah. Yeah, isn't there a line from Ricky Bobby? I just want to go fast? Yeah, exactly.

Hey, can you tell me about what's happening under the skin here? It looks like we've got a lot of suspension. Yep, yeah, this one's got a ton of suspension work, a lot of lighting work on it. This one's actually in for a expedition. inspection. So we offer inspections for people to bring in. If they know they're going on a trip, maybe down to Mexico, wherever else it is, they can bring their vehicle to us. We'll go over it, just get hands-on with stuff, make sure nothing's going to explode. Nice peace of mind. Definitely no guarantee something won't explode. But if you can drop it off with us for a day, we can take a

look at it and say, hey, this thing's starting to leak or hey, this thing's making some noise, maybe in the next couple months, take a look at it. Something nice that we can do here at the shop. I see you've got a lot of tires in the back. We do. You've got stacks of nomad wheels. Pretty exciting development that Go Fast Campers have stopped making people, stopped making people go to Montana to get a camper. So you can get one installed here now. Correct.

Yeah. And in the past, up until December or something like that, right around there, you had drive to Montana to get your Go Fast camper. They did have a delivery service, but it didn't meet the. They just couldn't, the volume that was there, they couldn't keep up with it. So now you can order a GoFast camper. It'll be shipped down to us and installed right here. And then while it's being installed, we can do everything else to it. So walk me through the sort of spectrum of what you offer it at Basels, from parts, installation, builds.

We have access to almost anything and everything. There's certain brands that we've learned to like more than others. but we really can do anything and everything except for maintenance. But yeah, we really like just building practical vehicles. And do you have any classes courses or is this just more contractual? You're building something. I'm going to walk you through the process. We're starting to look at offering some classes.

We actually have a shock rebuild and revalve, just like what's inside of a shock class coming up with my buddy Ian from Wheel every weekend. So we're going to get a group of people in here on May 3, third, which is next weekend, I guess, and just open up a shock, say, hey, this is what's going inside, this is why this is a nice shock, this is why this isn't a nice shock, and just go through it all and try and teach people a little bit about it. I also try and do little educational posts on our social media, just saying like, hey, this is why a vehicle has rake, and this is

why rake is good. We've done quite a few about brakes and rake and the gross vehicle weight rating of a vehicle and just all sorts of other ones. So we're trying to educate people. a little bit more about how to build a vehicle and how to build it right. Awesome. Yeah. So speaking of building a vehicle right, you've got your shop manager, Colby here, who just moved from the East Coast. You're from Arkansas.

How do you explain Baja? I mean, I'm assuming most people are building these vehicles with the idea. I've got a Baja bucket list. I'm going to go do this. I'm going to go here. I'm going to do. Yeah. How do you explain Baja to folks?

It's right here on your doorstep. It's an hour south of you. Like, what do I tell them to expect when they go down there? I don't know. I mean, it's wide open camping. and just beautiful emptiness. There are white sandy beaches that you can park on for weeks at a time and not see another person.

Great waves, don't tell anyone, but there are great waves there. Weather is usually pretty good. It can get a little hot in the summer, but you just got to know where to go. But yeah, it's, I don't know, in my opinion, the best place to go do some really remote four-wheel driving and beach camping. And the mountains are great, too.

It's actually a place I haven't explored much, is the mountains. Right. Somewhere I want to go to is, I know there's some, like, beautiful missions up there, cool four-wheel drive trails. It's a place that I think is up on my list of areas to visit is the mountains of Baja. Except the surf is there. I know, it's really hard.

I know. I go down, I'm like, all right, this time I'm going to make a couple days and go and explore the mountains, and then I get the itch and turn towards the beach. But, like, I want to go see snow in Baja. In the northern mountains, you can go and play in the snow in Mexico, which doesn't seem like it goes together, but. somehow it does. It doesn't really go together when you're driving slow ball and it's all open. That's the time of the year that you say, you know what?

We can get south as soon as we can. Yeah, exactly. We have heated seats though now, right? We do have heated seats. That helps a little bit. Always had them. Always had them, but not that much as shiver me timbers over here. Let's walk back over and see what's going on. And hey, I see you got Eric there with his camp tech in the back. Is that something he does, does he fly in and put in pop tops? Yeah, we've been working with Eric and we'll do pop up conversions on your Toyota Land Cruisers and GXs now. Wow. So we do the pop tops and then Eric can do the fabric side on it as well as the interior buildout

if customers want it. Looks pretty at the wheel. Hey, check those out. Check those out. It look pretty good. We're going to see if you get some all out. How many nuts? There are five, six?

We've got more shop noises. Yeah. Well, hey, I think we're going to just work through this stuff. But, man, these look pretty utilitarian. They do. I love it. Yeah, they look good. The color looks good as well, too.

Yeah, I was quite concerned, frankly. And I'm pretty stoked now. Hey, we're going to take a break while this pisses away, and we'll be back. Here, it'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 travelers since 1994. Yeah. Hey, how did you get going in this business? I mean, it looks like you've got a beautiful shop. You've got an eye for detail. Even your signage is astonishing. Hard one to answer, I guess. I don't know.

I've always loved traveling. I've built several vehicles on my own, helped buddies build other vehicles. You're just a youngster. Yeah, yeah. I worked at a shop with a good friend of mine in Colorado. It learned a lot there. And then I've just kind of from there started building trucks for others.

It's definitely a needed thing here in San Diego, Southern California, really. So I saw a little bit of a hole in the market and decided to open up a shop. But it's been really good so far. Yeah, we've done a ton of cool stuff. And you're from Arkansas? No, from New York. From New York? Yes.

Okay, so tell me about the Arkansas. My parents are both from Arkansas. Okay, so I saw two Arkansas plates there. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, originally from New York. I went out here for about 10 years now on and off, lived in a truck camper and traveled for a couple of years, spent a lot of time down in Mexico.

That's kind of where I fell in love with traveling, was just living in a truck and bouncing all over the U.S. Alaska and Newfoundland and all over the place. Wow. From the mean street to the Upper West Side, Basil moved into his truck and said, goodbye, mother, goodbye, my father, goodbye, Butler. goodbye. It's pretty close.

Awesome. So you've seen the states? I've been to every state, driven to almost every state, I think. Not Hawaii, obviously. I've been to Hawaii, but I haven't driven there. But yeah, it's been really good time. Is there any place? I mean, there's a lot of dirt. There's a lot of dirt in the United States. Is there any place that compares to Baja in your mind? Not in the United States, but Newfoundland was one of my favorite places I've ever been to. Newfoundland, Labrador, and Nova Scotia.

Some of the best surf I've ever surf was actually in there. It was freezing. I'm used to it growing up in New York. But it was a very, very cool location. It was similar to Baja where you could camp wherever you want to. There were four-wheel drive trails all over the place. You could just camp on the beach. Very different terrain, like almost Ireland, big cliffs, big grassy knolls and stuff.

And it was beautiful. But close-ish to Baja, I guess. Newfoundland. Awesome place. Yeah. Yeah, very good. I thought I was going there for the Targa, Newfoundland, which is a great stage rally race, which is a lot of fun, but never quite made it.

But Newfoundland's been on my list for a long time. Yeah, I would highly recommend it. That's like the one place that, out of all the places I've been, that I would go back to in a heartbeat, just because it's so massive that there's so many places to explore. Yeah. Do you have any favorite spots you don't, I don't want you to give away any surf spots in Bahá. Do you have any favorite spots that you like to go to, any places in particular? There's sister's area is always a fun area.

It's a surf, yeah. Surf and remote and camping. Yeah, kind of in central Mexico along the coast, where the fuel gap is. That zone, but just on the beach. Lots of fun waves in there, super remote. There's a dirt road that runs along the coast of most of there, so you can do your own searching, look on satellite view, find your own spots, and there's really cool waves.

But the whole peninsula has beautiful waves throughout. Lots of areas I haven't explored, so I'm excited to go down and start exploring. them soon. Tell me about your relationship with technology. It's a love-hate relationship, I guess. Yeah, I've got an iPad on the dash that has the GPS navigation, and then there's a Starlink satellite internet connection in there, and it's nice to have. I can still stay in contact and still help run the shop from afar, but then it's also nice to go on a camping trip with my wife and my dog and just make sure all that's off and still be able to disconnect. Yeah, love hate. It's a good way to put it.

It's interesting being of slightly different generations, we were lost a lot, whether we kind of knew, I mean, we kind of knew where we were, maybe we didn't know where we were, whatever. But it's like you can't get lost now. No, if you've got GPS. No, not at all. Yeah, and I have, like, I have, like, tracks that have been logged. If I know, like, North Road into Scorpion Bay,

I've driven it so many times now, and I've marked where all the huge washouts are on my GPS that I know, hey, I need to slow down up here. There is a huge hole in the road that I know is there, or a washout, it's nice versus if you drive it in this thing, you're probably just hoping there's not a huge hole in the corner. You know, and you just, all of a sudden, you're not paying attention for a second, and you hit that hole, and then you're launched into another hole, and then you're airborne, and it's like, wow, how did that just happen?

Yeah, exactly. But both ways work. I mean, one's a little bit more bouncing in the other, but that's a part of the fun. What's the best way for people to get a hold of you? Where can they find you? Social media or a website. Maybe on Instagram. Yeah.

Basil's Garage on Instagram. That's our website address as well, too. It's all that name. Pretty easy to find us. Or feel free to stop by the shop. Come check out what we got going on here. We always have cool trucks here for people to check out. Awesome.

And then we'll be at all the Overland Expo shows and all that kind of stuff. This summer as well, too. Well, I see you in May in Arizona? Yes. Awesome. We're in the Redark booth. Terrific. You'll see me.

I'll be sleeping right behind the truck. Nice. Perfect. Well, thanks, Basil. Really great to meet you. Thanks for getting these nomads on. Happy to do. And we're going to get down the road here as soon as Michael gets the other three tires on or four tires on. Three and a half?

We've got three and a half to go. And Basil's Garage on Instagram, he's active. We'll get right back to you, Basil's Garage.com. Thanks, man. Yeah, thank you. We did it. Hey, well, I hope you liked that one. We did some interesting stuff, walking and talking, seeing what he does in the shop.

And, of course, getting the wheels put on my truck, which looks so good now that they've gotten a year of dust on them. They're not quite as shiny as they were that day that we filmed. So Basil, yeah, one-stop shop for anything you need for a Baja rig. He's the dude anywhere in Southern California. Get your truck to him. All right, well, if you like what I'm doing here, you know, delivering baseball gear to kids in Baja, bringing you these podcasts. You got to drop a taco in the tank. You've got to help me keep going.

I'm going up to Overland Expo in Flagstaff, Arizona in May, the middle of May, and I'll have some new Baja, Slow Baja beer from my friends at Motosanora Brewery in Tucson. Can't wait to start sharing that stuff. You'll be able to get it at the brewery. You'll be able to get it in a can for me at Overland Expo. But all this stuff takes time and time is money. They tell me time is money. And tacos are money.

And so I need you to drop a taco in the tank. Please do that through the donation link at Slowbaha.com. And of course, while you're at Slowbaha.com, support the show. get some swag, buy a hat, buy a tea, some stickers, do something to show that you're down with slow Baja and what I'm doing. And you know, it really is great. I'm in Baja right now and people are waving and saying hello. I'm seeing my stickers on people's rigs and my stickers and places that I've visited. And it's a good conversation starter. So if you're sitting here listening to me, please help me keep doing this. All right. If you don't have any tacos, I get it. I never have

tacos and you can help me by putting a five-star review on Apple podcast or on Spotify, hit that five-star, say something nice about Slow Baja, tell people while you're listening. That helps some sort of algorithm or something helps people find the show. And that is super important and it doesn't cost you anything. So tacos in the tank or a five-star review or if you're a super achiever, you can do both. That's pretty easy and achievable to do both. All right, well, I'm going to get out of here. I'm in Baja. I've got some podcasts to record and some baseball. all gear to deliver to the kids in Toto Santos. And before I go, I want to tell you about Mary McGee off-road Motorsports Hall of Famer.

She's the bomb. Anyway, she went to a New Year's Eve party back in 62, and superstar actor Steve McQueen told her that she had to get off her pansy road racing bike and come out to the desert and ride he and his friends. Ekin's brothers, famed Baja riders and Hollywood stuntmen. And she did. She kicked ass and she soloed the Baja 500. 1974. Anyways, Steve, back to Steve McQueen, he loved Baja. He said, you know, 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 Shielman seats. You know, Toby at Shield Man USA could not be easier to work with. He recommended a Vario F for me and a Vero F XXL for my navigator, Ted. 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. Sheelman, slow Baja approved, learn more and get yours at shielman.com.