Are We Insane?: Why How What Who

So our good friend Dan moved to La Cruces New Mexico about a year ago for a job. We had talked about doing a bike tour up in the Gila National Forest, but that kept getting pushed back due to the extreme heat in the summer and my lack of vacation at work. Dan and I had also been talking about how we would like to check out the Baja Peninsula. These ideas came together somehow and we ended up with this grand idea of riding bikes down the Peninsula instead of through New Mexico.

It seems every older person we talk that with thinks this is a horrible idea. We are going to get our heads chopped off in Tijuana or we are going to shrivel up in the desert. Our friends of similar age think its going to be great. It can't be that bad...there has even been a book written on the subject "Bicycling Baja" by Bonnie Wong (which I purchased on amazon for $.05, something tells me its not terribly valid in this day and age, but we will find out).

To those of us going on the trip the idea sounds great: camping on the beach, eating seafood, camping in the desert, escaping the winter for a few weeks and of course riding bikes.

To get back on subject, Dan and I started pitching this idea to some friends and after the holidays we had a party of 7 confirmed: Emily and Chris who are living in Chicago, Jes who lives in Kansas City, Andy and Suzanna who are living in Knoxville, Dan the New Mexico Man, and Me, living in Nashville. The plan is to meet up in San Diego on February the 21st and cross the border either that evening or first thing in the morning. The big debate at this point is whether we should take a bus down to Ensenada or just ride bikes. We are thinking its going to be difficult to get 7 bikes and gear under a bus, but we may be mistaken, there may be more room than we know what to do with. The ride from Tijuana to Ensenada seems to be a little bit unpleasant from what we have researched on this site...but it is only one day out of 21, so we can put up with it if we need to.

At this point the only other definite plan of the trip is we have to be in La Paz on March 15th to fly back to the states.

The hope is that this journal will be updated a few times on the trip and will serve as a good way for our friends to check out what we are doing and can be used as a resource for those who may want to do a trip of similar fashion.

see you in Mexico.