Trail of Missions – DAY 4 – 2016 Ladies Co-Driver Challenge – Event 1
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Trail of Missions – DAY 4 – 2016 Ladies Co-Driver Challenge – Event 1

 

20160727_113234Day 4 – Today we met Pancho

The list of instructions had us purchasing $10 or so of food and usable goods for our first stop of the day. Cameron helped with the situation giving us some perishables that needed to go into our ARB Fridge to stay cold. We rolled out of the Bay of LA and headed towards the San Rafeal Fish Camp that was down a long dirt road, their only road to town.

Read About Day 3 – HERE

We added a passenger to the back seat, this time it was an awesome girl, Emma. She is the daughter of the caterer for the event. It was a slow day for them, so she got to ride with us! It was fun to learn that she is from Southern California, but will be joining us in Arizona when she comes back to school at ASU in the Fall.

Bower Media Trail of Missions D4-25When we arrived at Pancho’s he was out waiving.   He lives in a setup that consists of a (plywood) wood living room and kitchen. Off the porch he has a cab over camper where he has his bed and living arrangements set up. His bath house is off the house by about 50 yards, but his guest bathroom setup was positioned for the best view of the whole bay! Imagine living here full time with no transportation or contact with the outside world…we all decided that it wasn’t our cup of tea!

Bower Media Trail of Missions D4-25Marcie, Emma and I greeted Pancho with big smiles and open arms. He was highly entertained by us ladies, as we debated later if he was still drunk from the night before, or had started on the sauce a little early that morning. He showed us around, allowed us to put a sticker on his cabover and wanted to share his gift of shells with us. We obligingly took the shells, but ended up having too many. We gifted some onto the Craft family just as we got into the vehicles. We tied ours up in a bag, but they didn’t. At the next stop we got to hear all about the huge bug that jumped out of the shell while they were driving!!! Guess we gifted the right one 🙂 Since, I have learned a lot about these shells as we have tried to clean them and get rid of the odors.

Bower Media Trail of Missions D4-25After a nice visit, we were back on the trail and headed towards San Fransicquito, what used to be an American resort town that folks flew into. With the different storms knocking it down, it has turned into some ruins and a fishing town. The water was gorgeous and watching the kids play in the waves was a highlight.

See our Facebook Post for this Day HERE

One of my major challenges of the trip: Staying in the Jeep and not jumping out to take pictures. I found one of Bower Media Trail of Missions D4-25the first places that I wanted to get pictures of Frankie during our lunch break. The old buildings were awesome with the water in the background. I set him up for a couple shots. On the next portion of the trail we were able to stop for a minute next to some huge cactus, and again, I set Frankie up for some great shots. I am so used to being the one taking the pictures that it felt weird to not be ‘getting the shot’. Instead, we have a lot of in the car dash shots that hopefully show off some of the different terrain. What can I say, it’s the photographer in me.

Bower Media Trail of Missions D4-25Our next stop was Pozo Aleman, a ghost town with buildings still remaining. It was interesting to find that the people that lived in this town used holes in the walls to build their houses. Marcie, Emma and I all picked out our houses and posed in front of them…one of the silly moments.

As we traversed the rest of the day, we utilized the BFGoodrich Tires on mostly dirt, and then jumped onto the asphalt for the last leg. Driving on the asphalt in Baja isn’t necessarily a walk in the park, it is still difficult as most of the shoulders are small, or gone, and the lanes are narrow making semi’s passing quite the experience.

Bower Media Trail of Missions D4-25Our final stop of the day will be Marcie and my most memorable moment. We stopped at the San Ignacio Mission, where like all the other missions, we found our way up onto the roof. This one was a bit sketchier to climb up the side of the building, pass through the bell towers, and start to wander around. As part of this roof, there was a dome that sits above the pulpit with an amazing cross. The caretaker had given us permission to get up there, but after watching the kids, it was going to be a monkey moment! We did it. Marcie was much more graceful than me! We made it to the very top and enjoyed yet another amazing moment in Baja.  We could see for miles. We were as close to heaven, in multiple ways, as we could possibly be.

Follow the Story to DAY 5 – HERE