Thursday, December 11, 2008

Logistics of Fun

Yesterday it was forty eight degrees on the beach. That's cold. It's not as harsh as the conditions my paddle surfing brothers to the north and (god bless them for their commitment to the sport) the north east are dealing with but for us down here in our nation's most southwesterly corner it's pretty ridiculous. Shoot, my hands even got numb.

I don't know about you, but for me, when winter rolls around the vestigial bear in me starts coming out. I start to move slower, I want to hibernate. Winter is tough for me, even if it is only a San Diego winter.

So, like geese, we're making plans to head south. The truck's been checked out, tires inspected, Mexican insurance policy arranged, tourist cards stamped and travel trailer stocked. I've bagged up four stand up boards and one regular surfboard. I'm packing along five paddles, a 6.5m Hot Sails Maui windsurfing rig, a 12m Globe Kite and a 6' Sling shot directional. We'll throw in the Yamaha 3000 genset, ten extra gallons of gas and a couple of lawn chairs. In a week we'll fire up the Tundra and pull it all across the border and down to Cabo San Lucas.

We'll be driving for about two and half days, covering close to 1200 miles and burning through five audio books and both of the hundred song Ipod playlists (Baja South A and Baja South B) I've spent hours constructing. We'll probably get somewhere close to 12 miles per gallon pulling my twenty-two foot trailer. I'm figuring that we'll eat about a hundred gallons of gas. At a cost of about two bucks a gallon we'll drop around two hundred dollars in fuel each way.



Photo: And let's not forget how killer the sunsets are down south!

Driving both ways that's forty hours behind the wheel. I'll put two thousand four hundred miles of wear and tear on the V8, spend sixty bucks on M-80s, thirty bucks on surfing monkeys, twenty bucks on serapes and drop four c-notes on fuel and who knows how much dinero on margaritas, Pacificos, papas rellenas and tacos.

Is it worth it? For ten days of clean, blue, southern Baja surf? For campfire cocktail hours or afternoon, beach sand siestas comfortably taken in the shade of a dropped tailgate? For a million laughs, a thousand smiles and countless warm water waves shared with just family and friends? Do we even need to answer that question?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Vaya con dios amigo. Look forward to a thorough documentary of your adventures.

John Ashley said...

Thanks Chris- I will completely capture this adventure. Look for still photos, videos and words.

Have a great holiday season my friend!

Andy Gere said...

Stay safe and enjoy John. Still a lot of reports of bad guys down there, but you know the deal. Lots of photos!

PS I'm going to head out right now and jump in the water to poach a few wind blown frosty peaks in junky conditions and 40 degree air temps...I'll be thinking about Baja the whole time.

John Ashley said...

Go get 'em Andy!

I will document the whole trip and if I can get on the internet, I'll update from the road!

Stoked!