On Wednesday the 20th we anticipated heat again, but the day started cool and with heavy fog - I really wasn't too happy, having to dig out my wind breaker and rain gear...the ups and downs of life and traveling life is no exception.
Not only the fog with it's limited visibility, but the truck traffic increased as well (which is not a good combination), I put my tricky road strategy to work:
Simply to hold my space on the road and this is what I do:
When I see a truck approaching in my back mirror I move further into the middle of the road (it helps to have a bright, orange cloth attached to my pannier) to force the truck to either slow down or use the lane with the oncoming traffic to pass me - once I see that the truck is moving over to the left, I increase the space between the truck and me by moving back to the right side of the road. This way I get enough room and don't need to panic. Often and mostly there is no shoulder on these roads. Some stretches, as you can imagine, since we are in Mexico, have pot holes and broken pieces of asphalt and not even a pit to bale...
But if the traffic is heavy and there is lot's of cars/trucks on the other lane as well and the truck doesn't slow down (often on a down hill), James and I will call out to each other to bale and jump into the pit -granted there is one available...
Today in the fog in the fog desert visibility was bad for the good part of the day, but when it lit up later, it never got hot. Closer to the Pacific again, we rolled into Guerro Negro after 80 miles with a tail wind of support.....3pm in the afternoon! We kicked ass!
The touristy hotel took us in, let us camp in the back amongst the RVs with water, electricity, wi-fi and really good food.
Time to rest, eat, get hydrated, connect with loved ones and be merry.
We just "conquered" the most desolated/hot place Baja has to offer.
Thursday the 21st was spent washing laundry, socializing, sleeping, resting, futzing with electronics only to find out that the hotel wi-fi is unstable - so, off to the internet cafe - but, why the hell is it SO DAMN COLD? Fog desert - so far south and the Pacific has the "upper hand..."
