Thoughts before leaving for Mexico...

Traveling to Baja over tax season and expecting to be able to work may quite be the stupidest thing I've ever decided to do!

I have been wanting to RV down to Baja ever since we started having the garage sales to get rid of all of our "stuff" before going on the road. In Tahoe garage sales are pretty much viewed as an open party and the perfect opportunity to go hang out at the neighbors for a few hours without buying a thing. When people saw our big rv parked in the driveway quite a few of them regaled me with stories of their winter escapes to Los Barilles, on the southeast side of Baja and I was more than a little intrigued. I took copious notes, much to the dismay of my husband. In 2010 things were not so good over the border and there were many warnings about rvers getting into trouble with the banditos and ne're-do-wells. Bill put the kibosh on any immediate plans for Mexico travel and we kept ourselves very busy traveling around the "lower 48." Every now and then, I would speak to someone who was going, or had been, down there and I'd look over wistfully to my loving husband (who really denies me nothing) and he'd just shake his head. Early on in our travels our hash friend, Panty Free, introduced me to Pat on Facebook. Pat had full-timed for a while and fallen in love with Baja - she had just settled down permanently in Pesdacero and was in the process of building a palapa for her Class B rv (van style.) I became enthralled with her project and she posted pictures on Facebook as it was being built. As unusual as it sounds to non-Facebook users, I became friends with Pat, even though we had never met. We viewed life in similar ways and I just really, really liked her! As opportunity would have it, when we were in the SF Bay Area, a few years ago, we arranged to meet a bunch of our hash friends for brunch in Oakland, and guess who was in the US for a visit and was going to join us for brunch? PAT!! I was finally going to get to meet her! Anyway, I transgress..and there is also a whole other blog on that, anyway.

Pat and Panty Free (aka Laurie)

Friends, Sini and Bob, who we had met in January 2012 at Slab City (and traveled with on and off that year) after a year's hiatus, were back on the road and we reunited with them in Palm Desert in November. They were thinking seriously of joining the Escapees (an RV Travel Club we are members of) on their annual Mexico trip down to Baja in January and wanted us to join them.  OMG!! Over the last couple of years travel had become safer in Baja and I knew if we were traveling in a caravan Bill might be up for it - and he was! Biggest problem for me was that this was right at the beginning of tax season.

with Bob and Sini in Acadia National Park, Maine - June 2012

The Escapees trip was going to Ensenada for a week and to San Quintin for two days and then back to San Diego. Many people would not travel right back, but would form into smaller groups for travel to other parts of Baja. I was not driving to Baja without going to Pescadero and Todos Santos to see Pat or without seeing Los Barilles! Sini and Bob wanted to travel down to Cabo, so we had at least one travel partner for an extended trip. I had heard from others that the only really sketchy part of the trip was between San Diego and Ensenada where we would be traveling with the group, it really wasn't that crucial that we were in a big group for the rest of the trip south. Sini and Bob had some time constraints and had to be back by mid-March. Since it was going to be tax season I wanted to get settled for some extended time both in Todos Santos (TS) and Los Barilles (LB). I don't know if you can see where this is heading, but my default planning mode jumped in and I started to research where we might be able to stay that had decent electricity and wifi. Good electrical hook-ups were pretty sparse in the TS area but I found a great place in LB. It took weeks to get in touch with someone in TS and I thought we had found the perfect spot when they cancelled on me. It may all work out but right now we don't have a place tied down 100% for our TS stay. But I've decided not to stress about it - right now, anyway!

Figuring out how I was going to be available to my clients was my most important issue I had to address. My "go-to" techies, Technomadia, had not rv'ed to Mexico yet and had no info for me and everyone I knew who had been down there wasn't working, so couldn't really offer me the kind of help I needed. I set my fingers on the information superhighway and started my research with a vengeance. Luckily for me there are lots of others out there blogging about this. I read and read and read and took lots of notes. I will get into the nitty-gritty details on a later post, but I think (fingers crossed), aside from a few glitches, here and there that I am a little worried about, I am pretty well set.

It's now the day before we leave. We've met up with the other 48 rigs and 87 people that we'll be traveling with and I am trying very hard to stay present and not worry about if I'll be able to work or not. Like I keep telling everyone who asks, and Bill keeps reminding me, if it doesn't work out, we'll just drive back. BUT if it does work out - won't that be fun?!!