a dream realized...

So once again we entered Mexico; the first time we had been beaten - primarily by our own stupidity, over confidence and lust for adVANture.  This time we tried with all our might to plan, re-plan, check and re-check plus dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s.  Well we made it beyond our first attempt by a good 15KM(about 8 miles) and then we pulled over…

This time we pulled off the road and into a RV parking lot that happened to be in front of a right point break that is consistently rated as one of the “best most consistent point breaks in all of Baja.”  I was starting to freak out; the swell had picked up a bit, the wind was offshore and glassy head high plus waves kept peeling down the line with only about 6 guys in the water.  I had to tell myself to soy tranquillo; as I have learned that enthusiasm, while being one of my strongest character traits can also lead to irrational decision making and I was about to get into some of the biggest surf of the trip so far.

I made myself a cup of espresso and then I sat on the point and watched the waves until that coffee was gone.  Dudes were ripping; airs, cutbacks, and a few mini-barrels.  I was about to be the biggest kook in the water; essentially, the guy in the way, smiling like an idiot, getting caught inside and probably the most stoked.  Being from Colorado has its perks as we don’t have waves and as a result most waves that the others pass on are pretty much everything we need and want in a wave.

I went back to the van to find Rach passed out on the lower bunk with a bit of a cold and began to de-wax my 6-8 single fin hull that I picked up at Mollusk in San Francisco.  Coming from SF the board was covered in Cold Temp wax and was literally melting off in the warmer water of Southern California. I re-waxed it with cool-warm wax, threw on my wetsuit and headed off to the point to try and make my way into the lineup.

Just getting into the water was sketchy; the shore bottom was covered in large cobblestones coated with moss/seaweed/green extremely slick stuff, crashing waves and the occasional urchin for the first 20 feet into the water until it was deep enough to paddle.  I made my way out and again, sat and watched the waves break.  Then I positioned myself a bit inside to pick off a smaller wave; I caught one and immediately realized my mistake (in addition to catching the first set wave.) While surfing down the line, the wave and I were headed for a rock about the size of a Volkswagen bug – I kicked out the back in a panicked maneuver that landed me in the direct impact zone of the next 3-4 larger waves.  I paddled and duck-dived, but I ended up almost right back on the rocks where I started.

…I paddled back out, sat and waited and watched.  Gradually, I rotated into the lineup with the 5 other guys and then got a couple decent waves.  Super stoked, I headed right back into the lineup and watched the dudes get some really good waves from the top of the point.  By no action of my own I got sucked by the current into top of the point position and then paddled right into the biggest wave of my life.

Overhead and terrifying I raced my little single fin hull down the line as the wave walled up in front of me, I made it through a section of white wash, let the wave wall up again, trimmed down the face in a crouch, a dude “yewwwww’d!!” at me, carried plenty of speed through the flats to get past the Volkswagen bug rock where the wave re-formed at a second point, finally trimmed up and down a bit and then kicked out the back.  Legs shaking, shit eating grin and the little kid in me screaming, “do it again, do it again” I headed straight back to the point.

I am the Lorax and I speak for the trees…

Joshua Tree National Park :: May 17, 2013

To put a few miles under Dolores' belt and shake out anything else that she might have up her sleeve we decided to check out Joshua Tree – what a great decision! If any of you haven’t had a national park blow you away, I’d suggest adding this to the list of places you’d like to visit. 
It was like Moab, Arches, Yosemite, with a shake of Grand Canyon and Mars all melded into one – a completely unexpected dose of total awesomeness that we both needed. The Flintstone like piles of rocks were stacked perfectly throughout the park. Each pile had rocks resembling something hysterical like Homer, Tucan Sam’s beak, a perfect round ball, Clinton’s nose – it was hours of entertainment for us.

The light during sunrise and sunset is a photographers dream offering a perfect warm glow for any chosen subject. Most people that have visited the park mention the trees and how it makes you feel like you’re in a Dr. Suess book.  I can’t say enough about the trees and all the other flora and fauna that we saw.  If you know me, you know I’m especially excited by plants; I’m stoked by all the different ways photosynthesis is carried out. The way each of the plants here has evolved to exist and flourish in such hostile environments and climates: minimal water, occasional flash floods, snow,
high winds and even to the point of being reliant on one another is quite impressive.  Throw in a couple of oasis(es) with giant shady palm trees and I was pretty much in heaven.

To top it off, I saw a bobcat on my way back from the bathroom in the middle of the night.  You may ask yourself why in the world I had my camera with me in the bathroom to offer the opportunity to take this not-so-great photo. The answer is this GIANT black widow.  No one believed me that it was there so I wanted photographic proof. The real treat came in the morning when George discovered that the little kitty cat had left him a present on his washcloth.

Back to the beach, and hopefully a Mexican beach soon.

More photos from this trip can be seen over here >>

As luck would have it… Alpine, CA

There have been more than a handful of false starts for this trip, but as everyone keeps reminding me it is an adVANture.  So I guess that solves that, we’re not on a trip but an adventure and our van Dolores is calling the shots.  So far, although I’m not sure I agree with her every decision, I can’t say I question her judgment.  She has a way of showing us that awesome people exist everywhere in the world.

If we had tried desperately to find the one place in the nation we could land that could help us solve the little pickle that we’re in, I don’t think we would have found a place with this much talent, kindness and the background to help us perfectly.  The VW world is amazing, and sometimes small. The VW/Subaru motor world is even smaller, and turns out just as amazing. 

Our predicament of being towed back to San Diego with a giant paperweight and little budget to make it anything more than that, made me understand how you see VWs left in corners of fields. Prior to this I had always asked myself how you could leave such a classic vehicle to rust away? Now I fully understand – they end up there because they push you to a breaking point.

Evaluating the cost of a new engine and the serious blow it would have on our budget coupled with the lingering feeling of even if we did put another new engine in Dolores, did we have the confidence in her to drive her all the way south? Or would we need to start thinking about other options…  Could we even afford to sell the van? Could we ship it home to work on it?  Could we burn it to the ground in the Days Inn parking lot?

Our day had started at 5am for the border crossing, we didn’t want to end it with a decision that might rule out the plan that we’d worked so hard for.  We decided to sleep on it. George, unable to sleep combed the internet while sobbing softly for a solution until the wee hours of the morning.

As luck would have it the next morning George got a single phone call. The man on the other end of the phone was Steve of S&S Motors and pretty much our hero.  Not only is he arguably one of the best Subaru motor builders in the country and a super nice guy, he’s also a winner of the Baja 1000. Our hero Steve allowed us to stay on his property and work on the van. During which an important and exciting discovery was made: nothing was wrong with the motor itself. Instead, the new starter we had installed during our Denny’s breakdown a few weeks earlier was a cheap-o part; a bearing in it had failed and jammed against the flywheel making the motor seem seized.

George, being the awesome husband that he is, took one for the team. To work off our time there he got to partake in his favorite construction past time of hanging drywall on the ceiling of their new dyno test area – just a cool 1000 sq ft in 97-degree weather. 

Between that and recovering from some binge working on the van we’re taking a few days and a few miles to make sure Dolores doesn’t have any other tricks up her sleeve. San Onofre happens to be the perfect place for this; sun, waves and an awesome vibe - easily my favorite beach in California so far.