Day 6 – Today We Hit Milestones
I can give you jobs and a job description, but to explain and have someone master the jobs while in the mix of the juggle is an ultimate challenge. Especially when the challenge is on the fly and none of the jobs have been done before. My new saying is: Co-Driving - The Juggle Is Real. Legitimately, Marcie had a rough first 5 days of the trip. She came in over anticipating failure and actually set herself up for it in her mind. Instead of finding facts and looking for answers to questions, she continued to doubt herself and her abilities, to the degree that she shut down. From day 2 on, I put her in charge and instead of stepping up to own the challenges, she allowed herself to mentally beat her down. I will take some responsibility because I was not going to give up. I pushed her, I never stopped challenging her or correcting 
her. I tried different ways to communicate to get her to respond and get out of the negative mode and it wasn’t until this morning that I was able to, somehow, get through to her in a different way. The conversation was intense. I gave her two options, and she chose the right one.
Read About Day 5 – HERE
In addition to the jobs, are our bodies. Many people take their bodies and routines for granted. We can’t take our personalities for granted in close proximity situations, or even in the big world surrounded by people, you must own them. As part of my travels and crazy schedule, I have learned my trigger points. I have learned 
what I have to do everyday, as part of my routine, to maintain my composure. And then you have to manage it, which is especially hard on a trip like this. If you need two cups of coffee every morning, then make sure that you get them, even if it means having to get up 15 minutes earlier because we are leaving at a certain time. I know I need to snack consistently to keep my blood sugar up, so I always have snacks! Water is a very important piece to the puzzle for me that many take for granted as the mind has to stay clear to be focused.
I am excited that Marcie was able to recognize and overcome all of these challenges! She owned being a co-driver by Day 10. She was able to manage her tasks as well as her body. I couldn’t be more excited for her accomplishments.
When we got into the Jeep as was ready to take off for our day trip, Marcie was ready. We drove on the asphalt to the dirt and then into the rocks! This was a moment in time that we both considered FUN and made us smile. The pace was slowed down into rock crawling mode and we got to put the Jeep into 4 Wheel Drive, I even locked in the diffs just to have a little fun. There really are all types of terrains to be had in Baja, I am glad that we were able to take a little time to give us Jeep folks some rock time! For those Raptors that followed us down that one trail, it wasn’t that bad after all…
See our Facebook Post for this Day HERE
Our destination for the day was the San Javier Mission. In our notes, we were supposed to be feeding the town folks dinner, but we weren’t really sure what that meant. Were we going to be cooking when we got 
there? Were we going to be standing on one side of the aisle serving? What did this mean? The answer was pretty clear when we got there, AB Off the Grid Catering had dinner ready for 200 towns folks and our group! The catering group had gone around the town a couple hours before we got there to let everyone know to come to the church for dinner. When we arrived there were many people in town waiting for us to park and share our afternoon with them. After some photos with everyone next to the vehicles we had the opportunity to share our posters, stickers and Bower Media offroad calendars while Cameron autographed posters.
The dinner was set up for the townspeople to be our guests, but still enjoy the opportunity to eat together in an interesting open outdoor room. Everyone was looking at each other awkwardly, a language barrier blocking us from learning their stories and understanding their lifestyle, while they probably felt the same about us. Instead we used smiles of gratitude and thumbs up to communicate the excellent food.
Marcie and her daughter had bought toothbrushes, toothpaste and pencils to share with the kids of Baja. As I looked around, I confirmed with Cameron that this would be a good place to hand them out. With the help of a couple Spanish speaking friends on the trip, they lined all the kids up from smallest to biggest and Marcie was 
able to say hello and gift them all with something special. The smiles and reactions of gratitude from the kids was priceless. A good deed done.
The opening few days had been tense, but that phase is officially over. Today’s conversation allowed it to go away, and the events of the day allowed milestones to be put into place including rock crawling and giving significant gifts to the kids. Back on the trail...
Follow the Story to DAY 7 – HERE
