Trail of Missions – DAY 5 – 2016 Ladies Co-Driver Challenge – Event 1
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Trail of Missions – DAY 5 – 2016 Ladies Co-Driver Challenge – Event 1

Author: Charlene Bower

Day 5 – Today we broke out of our comfort zone and into the water

20160727_113321We arrived in Santa Rosalia at dusk the night before, so the sight seeing had to be done in the early morning hours if it was of interest. Of course it was, we were doing everything. Curt LeDuc headed up the tour that took us downtown to the Eiffel Church, yes, one of three buildings named after Eiffel including the Tower. The noted European influence was present in Santa Rosalia throughout all it’s buildings, and ask me about the smokestack one day when you see me, it’s very intriguing.

Read About Day 4 – HERE

Bower Media Trail of Missions D5-5After our mini tour was over, we headed back to the hotel to join the rest of the group and finish prepping for the day. Each morning Marcie and I had our jobs. Marcie was basically in charge of the inside of the Jeep and clearing the hotel room, while I was in charge of the outside of the Jeep and anything mechanical. For example, Marcie would pull out waters and put in the right place, and make sure that the ARB fridge was then refilled of water. She made sure everything made it out of the hotel room and into the right spots in the Jeep, added snacks to our snack stash and towards the end of the week started wiping the inside of the Jeep down. On the outside, I would do a full undercarriage inspection so I could see if there was any new damage from the day, or if anything was leaking or a challenge. I would check all the fluids, of which Bower Media Trail of Missions D5-5the only thing we had to top off was the coolant. Then, I would wipe down the whole outside of the Jeep to make sure that it was picture ready for the cameras that day…we were on a TV shoot and I never took that for granted.

Our first stop of the day was at the Mulege Mission outside of Santa Rosalia. I will have to admit, I have never seen a Jesus in a clear casket before. It was a bit eerie. I will have to look that up to understand the significance when I get back to Internet access. Once Bower Media Trail of Missions D5-5again, we made it up onto the roof of the mission, it wasn’t as clean as the others, we had to trek our way through a lot of pigeon poop, but it was worth it. Again the view was spectacular, and the helicopter agreed as he buzzed us for a couple of shots which you can look for on the ABC Special in September. I will have to mention that we got our picture taken with the Mayor while on the roof, which was a one and only for this trip. I appreciate the respect that Cameron gives to the towns, townfolks and missions at every stop.

See our Facebook Post for this Day HERE

Steekers is a part of Baja. I made 500, but I don’t think we went through 100. Unlike race weekends, the kids and families were inside their houses and carrying on as they would everyday. There were instances when we would come through a town and the kids would see us, running to the fence line to ask for stickers. We had our Ladies Co-Driver Challenge stickers to hand out in addition to the BFGoodrich Tires Jeep Frankie posters to hang on their walls. It is nice to be able to give and watch them smile, even over something that is small to us.

Bower Media Trail of Missions D5-5We found a spot along the beach of Conception Bay for lunch. Put our feet in the water and chatted with some different folks. There were almost 60 people in total on the trip so it was a fun challenge to make sure to spend time with each of them and get to know their stories. Everyone has a story to tell.

And we were off, to yet another beach location. This time….we broke out of our comfort zone and went for the bathing suits!! We walked into the water and enjoyed the ocean. The humorous part is, we made this decision based on the temperatures of Conception Bay, and now we were on the Gulf, a much colder water!! It was still enjoyable and a good moment of comfort zone busting!

Bower Media Trail of Missions D5-5The rest of the afternoon was asphalt into Loreto where we would pull into our destination for three nights: Villa del Palmar Hotel. We took our big bags into the hotel and enjoyed the 6th floor view of the resort and the Gulf. The beds were soft and the bathroom immense. After wandering around getting ourself situated, we went downstairs to get some dinner and ended up right on time for a group meeting. The evening carried on with antics, but I was just super happy to have Internet for the first time in days. Time to catch up and get some “we’re alive” posts on Facebook!

The day wasn’t over yet, the best story of the day would find itself being created at midnight. I had taken my quick shower and was settled in bed while Marcie went in to take her nightly shower. I had dozed off when I was awakened by Marcie: “Charlene, there isn’t any water!”   Of course, when someone uses your name to Bower Media Trail of Missions D5-5wake you up, you know there is a problem, so I was immediately in questioning mode, but a little groggy. “What do you mean there is no water?”   My mind was spinning…this is a nice resort, they surely aren’t on a generator that turns off the water at a certain time. She had been trying to get it to come back on for over 5 minutes, while she stood in the shower with soap in her hair. “I guess call down to the desk and ask if they know of the problem.” So I heard her half of the conversation which included “Ok, so he’ll be up in 5 minutes?” WHAT!?!   The water fix has nothing to do with our room specifically, I can almost guarantee that. Plus, this was the first time that we were technically separated from the group, everyone had rooms all over the resort, no one close by to hear us scream. So, with recently watching entirely too much Dexter, I jumped out of bed and got us prepared for a maintenance guy to come into our room at midnight… Marcie got dressed while I went into the kitchenette and pulled out two knives, one for each of our right hand pajama pants waist bands. Then I grabbed up a pen for my left hand and she held her coffee cup. “What are you going to do with that?” “I’m going to throw it in his face first!” We were prepared!! 5 minutes went by, 10 minutes went by, and it was time to call down again to understand what the issue was…as we were both falling asleep, the initial rush of a guest wearing off. The call confirmed that it was a pressure line at the water tank that had failed and the maintenance guys were working on it. We both unloaded our knives and set down our other tools on the nightstand. We found Marcie some bottles of water to wash the shampoo out of her hair for the evening and we both slept sound. Yes, the water worked perfectly in the morning.

Follow the Story to DAY 6 – HERE

 


Author: Charlene Bower