No Problem.

 

12-12-12

What a cool date, but what a challenging day!

First official day of the Rally and we're supposed to meet up outside of town somewhere for a convoy into the center of town and the official beginning of the rally. Meet at the Applebees next to the Holiday Inn on the road into town. Sounds simple enough...

My sense of direction (or lack thereof) isn't helped by the confusion designed into the roads and tunnels of Guanajuato. Google Maps has been my friend for a long time in unfamiliar areas, although it sometimes takes me on what I refer to as the scenic route. Several of us leave the campsite almost on time, I plan on being last as I usually am but plug Holiday Inn into my phone just to see if they lead me on the same route as google would. Theres one on the map not far away so I figure that must be it and choose it.

The first bit of confusion is a guy at the entrance waving us all uphill because his delivery truck is blocking the route downhill that we normally take and are familiar with. The next intersection our convoy is stopped and/or turning around, seems like they're not sure where they're going. This is the way I originally came in, I'm a little familiar with it. And my gps says go this way anyways. I've got GPS, follow me! I'm now in the lead, and we make our way across town. At some point in traffic Scott winds up in the lead, no problem. A few minutes later another rally member passes everyone and stops us, directing us to another route. Gps reroutes and seems this path works also, No Problem! That person drops back and lets Scott continue to lead. A short while later we see another rally member, a local, heading a different direction. Well thats odd, I wonder where he's going? Oh well, I'm sure we'll see him at the start. We meander up some side roads, Eddie and myself are the only ones in radio communication at the time. He asks me if we're going the right way, I tell him google says so, Scott has been staying on the right track. Eventually we stop and the route takes a sharp turn up an alleyway. Everyones a bit confused at this point, this doesn't really sound like the directions we were told before departing. At this point we're down to about 4 vehicles, the others have all taken different routes.

I look at my GPS and is indicates we're only about a kilometer from the Holiday Inn. As I've experienced before, sometimes Google takes you to the back door or side street, I figure we're just going the back way so I charge ahead to figure it out, telling everyone else to chill for a minute. I quickly realize google has us on a terrible route, and the road diminishes to little more than a footpath. Cara suggests turning around, but I know we're close to our destination and urge Donkey on, we bounce along happily on an overgrown dirt track. We eventually are deposited back onto pavement but find our path hindered by low hanging christmas decorations. I climb out and remove Donkey's CB antennae to provide clearance and make our way to the end of the route.


Huh. This isn't a Holiday Inn at all. I look at my GPS and choose a random road that I hope will return us to a major road. I call for Eddie on the CB, no response...

Guanajuato and the Mexican Spider Monkey

 Camping was good, we stayed up too late and slept in, broke camp and hit the road about noon. Theres alot of toll roads in mexico, we spent $50-70 american. The free roads are often in sad shape.

Just outsode of Guadalajara we pulled into a rest stop and I was assulted by a kid about 5 years old before I even got outof the vehicle. He climbed up the side of the Donkey like a mexican spider monkey and before I knew what was happening he had the door open and was practically in my lap. He was chatting away in something not english, the only thing I could make out was an occasional 'Senor'. I shoo'd him away so his mom could wave a washcloth at me, which she did after babbling at me in her language.

We've been able to move much quicker on the mainland thanks to the toll road. We probably spent $50 on tolls the first day, but saved 2-3 hours by doing so. Much faster and better condition than Baja, but I would have opted for the free route if we weren't in a hurry. Not because it's faster, but because the toll roads skip everything, like an interstate in the US.

We found a street named Alaska. Had to take a picture.












While Stopped to take a picture of a streetsign, we noticed a taco stand and got lunch. While eating lunch, I noticed a key making stand. I needed a spare key so I tried to talk to the kid working it. Neither one of us could understand each other and we eventually decided he didn't have a blank that would match the Donkey. While failing to get a key made, I noticed a cool little sculpture and took another picture.









Our first day on the mainland we left Mazatlan, passed thru a couple Policia and Militaria checkpoints and made our way to Tequila! They have a town called Tequila! How cool is that? We actually stayed in a town called Etzatlan, a little south of Tequila. They were having some sort of festival, with lots of fireworks. It was pretty neat, we wandered around and watched some dancers, and also got to see lots of street vendors. To dark for decent pictures but I did get a one of the church.


It's sunday morning now, and we're within striking distance of Guanauato.

more miles

We had some things we wanted to get done before mexico so we put the hammer down and got to our timeshare in San Diego. Eddies Rover was dropped off at National Spring to have the springs beefed up. We bought some bits to get CB's running in both our rigs and some other odds and ends. I'm getting some Mud Terrain tires put on today, should give the Donkey a little attitude!

I'm having some trouble activating my Telcel sim card, hopefully I can sort that out before crossing into Mexico, otherwise I'll be stuck with just wifi hotspots for comunication.

The wheels on the van go round and round...

I might have underestimated the amount of driving involved on this adventure. We haven't been acomplishing huge mileage numbers, but we've been spending quite a bit of time every day on the road. Despite living in Hawaii for the past year, I am still not accustomed to how quickly it gets dark. I need to attach some more lighting around the Donkey to help with all that. I have some really cool LED's that should do the trick whenever I get around to it.

Crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, I can now cross that off my bucket list....

Blast off!

We finally got outta Seattle Tuesday the 19th about 3pm. Only a little behind schedule, but ahead of the 5 days I originally planned on being in Seattle. Unfortunately, that meant we had to cut a few corners and delay a few projects I wanted to complete on the Donkey until later, I hope I'll have time to get to them soon. It's friday and I haven't done much other than drive so far.

The weather has been chilly and wet, yesterday was the first day it didn't rain most of the day. We're glad both vehicles have awnings, they have came in very handy camping. Right now, camped in Brookings Oregon, I see clear blue skies, it should be a good day. We're cruising through the redwoods today.



One of the projects that was left unfinished was plumbing the heater. It's japanese, so the fuel fitting is metrtic and all we could find in Seattle at the 2 places we checked was standard. I was stressing a bit because it was already after our planned departuyre time and I still had alot to do. Rather than go on a wild goose chase and waste half the afternoon I decided to bag the heater and rough it. It's been in the forties at night, not bad unless you consider I came direct from Hawaii,

The Eagle Has Landed!

Well, Eagles, Cara counts too. But we're not really eagles, or even birds. It was kinda an euphemism...   no wait, Google says thats wrong. I had to look it up because I can't think of the right word. Nevermind.

The point is, Cara and I are in Seattle! We caught the redeye out of Hawaii friday night, enjoyed an overnight rest in some undersized airline seats while being serenaded by a 2 year old in the next seat crying almost the entire flight. Caught the Light Line train the next morning to my Gary's house and eventually picked up the Blue Donkey.

While we were at North Westy (the shop that fixed up Donkey for our trip) Eddie and Kathryn showed up. I stole some pics from Eddies Facebook because he wouldn't give them to me....

 

After an exhilarating test drive with Kirk, the head honcho at North Westy, we all caravaned back to Gary's for some Drinking. Um, I mean planning and refitting of the Donkey. While we (Eddie and myself) watched, Gary began building furniture by flashlight until it was too late to continue annoying the neighbors.

We had some delicious dinner the girls prepared and experimented with my portable icemaker. Thats my kind of living! Eventually we called it a night and crashed. Tommorow should be a productive day.

 

First night camping....   OK, Gary let Cara and myself stay inside. Hopefully we'll get the heater installed today. Donkey will be ready soon!

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Day two in Seattle.

Rain.

All day.

Rear hatch makes a decent roof, but it drips into the cargo area. With Gary and Eddies help we made great progress, but underestimated the job ahead of us.

Beginning stages of a rear cabinet....

Gary and Eddies work in the main cabin, Gary has some great carpentry skills.

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Day three in Seattle.

More Rain. Alot. Floods in full effect in Washington. Do you know where your Ark is? We're still working on cabinets, Eddie completed his Clutch master cyl instal, helped Gary install a new Master Cylinder on his truck. Mostly finished and painted cabinets. I screwed up my project several times, Gave up and went to  North Westy for some time on the lift to replace some front end stuff. Kirk is the man for letting us use his facilities and tools to finish prep Donkey prior to our trip. We replaced the front CV's and tierods, a couple other small items and a good pre-trip shakedown. Kudos to Kirk for helping us out, Thanks!!

Donkey continues to run great, having a proper boxer is enjoyable. Cruising at 65 is cake.

My heater is installed, but I still need to run the fuel lines.

We'll see what tomorrow brings, hopefully theres less rain. We haven't even thought about packing yet.

If you ain't first your Last!!

Eddie and Kathryn departed Anchorage this morning.

A short 700 mile drive to catch the Alaska Marine Highway ferry in Haines, Alaska then a week trip ultimately landing them in Bellingham, Washington on the 16th. This is the most current pic I have of their vehicle (1967 Rover 109 Diesel), maybe they'll send me some fitted with roof rack etc when they get a chance.

Road trip

My good friend Eddie was planning on taking an epic roadtrip this winter in his modified Land Rover 109, and talked me into joining him.


Thats Kathryn, Eddies Girlfriend taking the 109 for a test drive after they installed a turbo-diesel motor from a Benz in it.



The idea is to leave Alaska in november and travel to Mexico in time to compete in the 'End of the World Maya Rally' which will end in Bacalar Mexico 12-21-12, along with presumably the rest of the world according to some peoples interpretation of the Mayan Calendar.
If the world continues to turn afterwards (highly doubtful) then we will somehow find our way back into the USA and return to our jobs and attempt to rebuild our life savings in anticipation of the next world ending event.