Last one, I promise. At least for the two weeks that Brad and I did. Last week I returned to Baja for six more days of riding from Loreto to Cabo San Lucas, this time alone. I got some pretty great footage, especially from my nearly 100 sometimes-treacherous miles of dirt riding to the tiny isolated fishing village of San Evaristo. I'll put that together for one last video blog, eventually. In the meantime there's (gasp!) aviation activity to write about, I'll get that up soon.
Episode 5, wherein the Big Red Pig gets fixed, Sam and Brad make the best of a long stretch of pavement on Highway 1, and we explore a bit in the mountains above Loreto before stashing the bikes and flying up to LAX on Horizon Air.
Wherein I do my best impression of a TV talking head due to a lack of footage and photos from our 5 nights in San Ignacio, we attempt to rebuild Brad's bike in a small town far from anywhere, and we have an incredible encounter with two very friendly Gray Whales.
Wherein I go an entire day on dirt without dropping or somersaulting my bike, we stay on a ranch and discover where beef comes from, and Brad's Big Red Pig suffers its most serious breakdown yet.
Also, I realize that Google Maps' coverage of Baja is quite scant and it's difficult to find many of the places and routes I've been talking about. I modified the GPS routes we used for navigation to reflect the routes we actually took, converted it to a KML file, and uploaded it to Google Maps. Because these are off-road GPS routes, each leg won't follow the trail or road we took perfectly, but each turning point should be pretty close to right on our route. You can access the Google Map of our entire trip here [new window].
I got back from my two week dirt bike trip down Baja California on Thursday to find a letter from the FAA waiting me, approving my special issuance medical. Now I'm waiting for the company to come up with a return to service plan for me, but expect I'll be flying again very soon.
In the meantime I'm having a little fun with the photos and film from the Baja trip. This was one of those trips that didn't go even remotely as planned, sometimes to the point of extreme frustration. Through it all, we met many fantastic people and had amazing experiences we never would have had if everything went according to plan. In short, it was a real adventure.
Partly because I got so much GoPro footage, I decided to try something different in how I report the trip on this blog. Rather than doing a lengthy writeup, I'm putting together several documentary episodes - video blogs, really - about the trip. I expect the first one to be ready shortly. In the meantime, I put together a short (4 minute) music video featuring some of the best action of the trip. Enjoy!
It's been an interesting winter, with a pronounced lack of deicing, snowstorms, holding, divert fuel calculations, or icy Saskatoon layovers. Of course, being on medical leave also means I haven't had any nice sunny San Antonio layovers to help cope with the Minnesota winter doldrums, either. I've been able to stay surprisingly busy - medical treatment, chasing down paperwork for my special issuance medical application, a few weekend trips to warmer locales like LA and Alaska, a few paid writing assignments, and the various duties of a hausfrau haven't left too much time for moping. In two weeks I leave for a long-awaited dirtbike ride down Baja with my friend Brad, and I expect to get an answer on the medical shortly after I get back.
I'm looking forward to it. I've started to really miss flying - hassles and ennui of modern button-pushing regional airline flying included. I miss being part of a crew, I miss being useful, I miss going places and having some variety in my week. I miss just being in the air.
At least I have the Cub to fly. It falls under Sport Pilot rules, so I don't need a medical to fly it - only a driver's license and self-certification that I'm fit to fly when I take it up (my medical wasn't denied or suspended - don't worry, I checked with EAA Legal to make sure I was ok first!). Mind you, Minnesota winters aren't quite the Cub's element - if it's not snowing or blowing stink, it's usually too cold for comfort - but I've been able to sneak in a few very enjoyable days aloft. I think I'm actually the only club member that has flown it since November!
A few days ago, I took my friend and fellow NewCo captain Dan up in the Cub to try his hand at taildragger wrangling. I brought along a GoPro Hero HD camera I recently scored off craigslist for the upcoming Baja trip, and a roll of duct tape to secure it to a strut. The footage came out pretty decently for my first effort, and I made an amusing little video on iMovie out of it. Enjoy!
