Month: August 2018

Favored moto forums…

Ah, the motorcycle forums.   Truths, half-truths, and outright lies.  When I worked for CSC, I used to watch the forums regularly for people who posted about CSC so I could answer honest questions and take on the trolls.  After doing that for 10 years, I concluded there are a few mean-spirited people posting stuff on the Internet who don’t have a clue (I wrote an entire chapter about that in 5000 Miles at 8000 RPM).   It didn’t take a full 10 years to reach that conclusion, though.  It took about 10 minutes.

Having said that, there are three forums I enjoy visiting, and here they are.

ADVRider.com.  This is the first forum I ever read. There are more than a few folks there who are full of what drops from the southern end of a northbound horse, but there are a lot more who are knowledgeable and helpful. My screen name on ADVRider is Gatling. If I had it to do over again, I would use my real name, but I chose Gatling several years ago (mostly because I wrote a book about the Gatling gun).  My favorite threads are the Shiny Things thread, the Thumpers thread, and the Electric Motorcycles thread.

Chinariders.net.  ChinaRiders is a much smaller forum focused on Chinese motorcycles.  Yeah, there have been a few yahoos on that forum (as is the case on all forums), but the ChinaRider monitors do a good job and the flakes don’t last long. My screen name on ChinaRiders is CSCDude. I picked that name when I was working for CSC. If I had it to do over, I’d use my own name.

ElectricMotorcycleForum.com.  My newest favorite forum is appropriately titled ElectricMotorcycleForum.com.  It’s also a small forum, but it’s picking up speed and I like the place. It’s a good source of information on all kinds of things related to electric motorcycles. My screen name on that one is Joe Berk.

If you have a favorite forum and you’d like to suggest it, please include it as a comment to this post.  We’d like to know about it.

All spun up…a real hot tamale!

A Ruger No. 1 in .257 Weatherby.

I experienced something recently I had heard and read about in years past, but I had never personally experienced. I’d been wanting a .257 Weatherby No. 1 ever since they became available.   To understand what that means if you’re not a single-shot rifle aficionado like I am, I need to start with a bit of background.

Roy Weatherby was a southern California entrepreneur who developed a line of ultra-high-velocity rifle cartridges in the 1940s and beyond.  Weatherby built a rifle company around his proprietary cartridges, and they are fine firearms.  Roy has gone to his reward, and he was one hell of a man while he was with us.  I met Weatherby in the early 1980s and I know of what I speak, but that’s a story for another time.

Next bit of information:  Of the several cartridges that Mr. Weatherby developed, his personal favorite was the .257 Weatherby.  It’s a very, very fast quarter-bore (a .25-caliber cartridge) that has a huge brass case holding a lot of propellant, which vents all its fury on that little bullet when, as they say, the hammer falls.  The cartridge is wicked looking.  The thing resembles a hypodermic needle, and if you’re shooter and a reloader like me, you get all gaga over such things.   The .257 Weatherby has muzzle velocities approaching 4,000 feet per second.  To put that in perspective, consider that the 5.56mm NATO round, the one used in the so-called assault rifles and our US Army M-16, is “only” a 3,100 fps cartridge.   The .257 Weatherby is super fast.  It’s the fastest .25-caliber cartridge there is.  In that caliber, there’s nothing faster.

Next bit of gun info:  One of the most desirable and beautiful rifles in the world is the Ruger No. 1.  It’s a single-shot rifle, which means you load one round at time.  When I hear my gun buddies get their shorts in a knot about the “gubmint” limiting us to 10-round magazines, I have to laugh.  That’s nine more than a real rifleman needs.  One shot, if you’re doing things right, is all it takes.

Next point…last year, Ruger offered their No. 1 single-shot rifle in a very limited run chambered for the .257 Weatherby cartridge.  I love the Ruger No. 1 and I always wanted something in chambered for the .257 Weatherby cartridge.   For me, it was a no-brainer.  I had to have that rifle, and I finally found one (at a good price, and with nice wood).  It’s the one you see in the photo at the top of this blog.  It’s awesome.  Circassian walnut with nice horizontal streaks, a 28-inch barrel, and chambered for the ultimate round.  The stock looks good from both sides, too.  Take a look…

The view from the driver’s side.
Another shot of Circassian splendor.

The excitement with a new rifle like this (beyond the pride of ownership and the dreams of distant hunting trips) is developing a load that groups tightly.   Usually, I can get a rifle to shoot into an inch at 100 yards with the right combination of powder, powder charge, bullet, primer, seating depth, and the other variables in cartridge development.  It’s a mini-engineering development program, and finding the right recipe is a big part of the fun.  Maybe someday I’ll do a blog on that, too.

So I started with my first load, which consisted of 87 gr Hornady bullets, and varying loads of IMR 4350 propellant (what most folks would call the gunpowder, but we reloaders call it propellant).  The rifle was grouping okay (nothing great; I haven’t found the perfect load yet), when I got to the last load to be tested. It was a max load, which means it had the highest propellant charge I was testing that day.

None of the loads showed any pressure signs (like flattened primers or difficulty opening the action).  That’s what you watch for, to make sure you don’t create loads with excessive pressure.

Even the max load seemed okay, but when I fired the first shot I saw from the hole it made on the target that it was tumbling. After firing the next four, two more tumbled and, not surprisingly, the group had opened up significantly.

It was a lousy load from an accuracy perspective, but here’s where we get to the “never seen this before” before part of the story.

Here’s what the target looked like…

Tumblers!

Now, for the really interesting part.   Check out the bullet hole at the 7:00 position…the one at the lower left (the target was mounted on its side).

Here’s a closeup of that bullet hole…

Check out the comet-like trail starting at the top of this bullet hole…

The dark roostertail you see above is the lead spraying out of the bullet’s copper jacket as the bullet disintegrated in flight. Some of the bullets disintegrated sooner and started tumbling before they hit the target.  This one was breaking up as it went through the target!

Like I said, I had heard of this phenomenon before, but I never actually experienced it firsthand. The muzzle velocity, according to my reloading manual, was just under 4000 fps. Just for grins, I calculated the bullet rpm at that velocity, and by my reckoning, it works out to something approaching 300,000 rpm.  That little puppy was spinning, and between the centrifugal forces the bullets were experiencing at that rpm and the aerodynamic heating at those speeds, they were breaking up in flight.  That’s fast!

Interesting stuff, to be sure.

Phase III: Climbing Mt. Baldy

Slick, taking a breather at the Mt. Baldy Lodge. My apologies for the mediocre image quality; all I had with me was my iPhone.

Phase III (pardon the electrical pun) of our City Slicker testing involved riding Slick from my home up to Mt. Baldy Village.   It’s a 2,500-foot climb over 9.2 miles, and it’s rough.  It’s a challenging climb on a small IC-engined motorcycle, and it’s really, really rough on a bicycle (as I know from personal experience).  I knew power consumption would be higher based on our Phase I and II testing (see those results here and here), but the earlier tests did not include steep climbs.  Phase III was a fairly steep uphill climb all the way, and then a steep descent all the way down.  Here’s the route I took, up and down…

A satellite map of the test route…north Upland to Mt. Baldy village.

I didn’t know how Slick would do, and I didn’t want to run the bike down more than 50% (you know, to make sure I had the juice to get home).  I decided in advance that if the bike hit the 50% energy remaining mark on the way up, I’d turn around and head back.

I need not have worried, though.  I sailed up to the Mt. Baldy Lodge (that first photo you see above) with 56% power remaining on the charge indicator.   I stopped to take a picture, and then I turned around and rode home.   Here’s what it looks like on a miles versus battery charge plot…

Miles versus Battery Charge, up and down Mt. Baldy Road.  The bike started with a 99% charge and was at 56% remaining after climbing from 1700 ft above sea level to 4193 ft above sea level.  On the way down, power consumption was dramatically lower; I covered the same distance using only 10% of the battery’s charge.

As you can see from the above chart, energy consumption on the way down was near zero.  I used 43% of the battery’s energy (from 99% to 56%) to make the 9.2-mile, 2500-ft-elevation climb, and then I used only 10% of the battery’s energy (from 56% to 46%) to cover the same distance riding downhill.  Cool.

I ran this test in the Eco mode, mostly because I didn’t want to use too much energy on the climb.  In the Eco mode on flat ground, the bike tops out at an indicated 37 mph (don’t forget that the speedometer is about 8-10% fast, so actual speed is lower).  On the climb, Slick slowed to an indicated 33 to 34 mph on the steepest hills, which is about what my 150cc CSC Mustang could manage.

On the way down the mountain, Slick ran 43-44 mph (still in the Eco mode), and the throttle became meaningless.  The bike coasted downhill faster than the motor could drive it.  It reminded me of my bicycle down this same stretch.  On my bicycle, I topped out at the same speed and pedaling was useless because my Bianchi was already going faster than I could pedal.

Watching Slick’s regeneration function on the dash was cool.  The red regen plug (to the left of the battery charge indicator) stayed red for most of the run downhill.  I previously wondered if the bike only regenerated at lower speeds; I now know it regens at all speeds when Slick is going faster than the motor is driving it.   Just like before, though, I never saw the charge percentage indicator go up (say, from 48% to 49%).  It just stayed at a given percentage for a much longer time.  I asked the wizards at Zongshen about this, and they confirmed it’s what they would expect.

The knee in the x-y plot at the 56% charge level is where I turned around (at the Mt. Baldy Lodge).   It shows that Slick uses way less energy going downhill than it does going uphill.   Like they say…duh.   The slight changes in the slope of each line (for the uphill section, and then for the downhill section) are due to changes in the grade on Mt. Baldy Road.  There were undulations in the road, and that’s why there are minor variances in the slope of the line on both the uphill and downhill portions of the graph.

Once I was home, I put Slick back on the charger for the ride back to CSC.   I’m headed out on a road trip next week, and I wanted to return the bike to Steve.

I did the climb up to Mt. Baldy with the lights off.  My bike is a preproduction sample, and it’s not wired to keep the lights on.   The production City Slickers will have the LED marker lights on all the time(that’s a US requirement).  The LEDs will consume a little energy, so the range will be somewhat less for the US bikes than what I’ve been reporting.

To get a feel for what the impact of having the lights on might be, when I returned the bike to CSC I rode there with the headlight and taillight on.  This is a more severe test than would be running the bike with only the LED lights (the headlight and taillight consumes more energy than the LEDs).   Previously, without the lights on the 16.4-mile ride to CSC from my home took 35% of the battery’s charge.   Running the same route today with the headlight and taillight on, I used 42% of the battery’s energy.   Note that this is more energy than would be consumed with just the LEDs (but it is representative of energy consumption when riding the bike at night).  And, I was hotfooting it a bit. I wanted to stay at around 34-35 mph, but Slick was smelling the barn and I frequently ran faster than that.

So there you have it.  Eco mode, Power mode, and a steep climb and descent on the CSC City Slicker.  Stay tuned; there’s more coming on this fascinating new electric motorcycle.  You’ll see it here first.

Wild Conjecture: The Harley-Davidson Livewire

I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings but us oldsters are through. Our time has passed. No one cares if we like electric motorcycles or have range anxiety or just don’t like the silence. They don’t care. Bemoan the new kids all you want but we are dead-generation walking and the future always bats last.

Harley-Davidson, having had their finger on the pulse of the American motorcyclist for more than 100 years, can feel that pulse weakening. They get that Easy Rider means a mobility chair to anyone under age 50. With the Livewire H-D is busting out of the leather-fringed, concho-ed cage they so carefully crafted for themselves and it’s about time.

Electric motorcycles just make more sense than electric cars: City-centric, short range, narrow and easy to park. E-bikes comfortably fit into the existing technology envelope as it stands today. While always appreciated there’s no need for advancements in battery technology. E-motorcycles work right now, man.

Generation X, Y, and Z are down with plugging in electronics equipment wherever they go. They grew up watching battery level indicators like we grew up watching fuel gauges. They don’t have the same history or values that we have and they’d be a pretty sorry generation if they couldn’t come up with their own idea of fun.

As usual on Wild Conjecture we have no factual information on the Livewire so the first thing I noticed is that the thing actually looks good. The heavily-finned battery compartment is kind of huge so maybe range will be decent (100-miles would do it for me).  Large diameter dual discs means this may be the hardest stopping H-D yet. More than likely the rear disc will be assisted by regenerative braking because it’s fairly easy to do and adds a few miles to the range.

The rear suspension resembles Yamaha’s Monoshock system from 40 years ago except with a much shorter shock absorber. The frame appears to be cast aluminum, a construction method that eliminates costly, complicated robot welding machines and messy human interaction. Forks appear standard and I don’t see any way for the front wheel to charge the battery under braking.

One of the problems I see with electric motorcycles is that they try to be like internal combustion motorcycles. They measure their range against gasoline mileage. They pit their performance against machines that have had 100 years of refinement. For the most part they stack up so-so. E-bikes should embrace a less costly approach; give up a few miles of range and a few miles per hour for a faster charge time. Maybe cheaper, quick-change batteries so commuters could keep one at home, one at the office and one in the motorcycle thereby eliminating the wait time for charging.

The Livewire is an even bigger leap of faith for H-D than their ADV bike (which breaks no new ground) and I’m not sure it will sell out of a traditional motorcycle dealership. Maybe sell them from kiosks at Red Bull events? The Livewire should appeal to a younger audience but it’ll have to be less expensive and carry less emotional baggage than Harley’s oil burners to do it.

You can read about our other Dream Bikes here.

More good stuff…

I thought I might take a minute and explain the other pages on the ExhaustNotes.us site.  For starters, to get back to the main ExhaustNotes site, you’ll notice there’s a link at the top right of this page that says ExhaustNotes Home.   Click on it and it will take you to our home page…

The photos on our Home page are cool.  The one at the top was in the Gobi desert.  So’s the Gresh photo…I shot that from the saddle of my RX3 as Gresh and I were riding into the Gobi for the first time.  The one to the right is yours truly about to enter the Forbidden City in Beijing (Gresh shot that one).  And the photos below?  They are our advertisers, and they are all great companies.   CSC Motorcycles is the North American importer of the greatest small-displacement motorcycles in the world.  BajaBound is, hands down, the best insurance company when you’re going into Baja (and you need to have a separate insurance policy whenever you do so).   RoadRUNNER is one of the world’s great motorcycle magazines, and the only one devoted exclusively to touring (this month’s issue has our China story).  Douglas Motorcycles sells Triumphs and Zero motorcycles; my good buddy Art runs the place, and it’s where I’ve bought my Triumphs.

So, about that Gresh photo…click on it and you’ll be whisked to the Gresh page, which includes links to articles Joe wrote.   Joe is one of the world’s great motojournalists.   His writing is witty and captivating, and if you’re like me, you’ll find yourself laughing out loud as you read it.   Joe wrote the “Cranked” column for Motorcyclist magazine, and you’ll find links to those here.  What I like about Joe is he sees things other people don’t, and he captures his observations well.  More good news: Joe started a series of “Wild Conjecture” pieces (articles written without a lot of actual, you know, facts).  We’re adding “Wild Conjecture” links here.  You’ll want to spend some time on the Gresh page, folks.

Although I’m not in the same league as my good buddy Arjiu, I’ve got a page, too.  Click on the Berk page, and you’ll have a set of links to my stuff.

We’ve got an About page.  You might want to take a minute to read it; it explains how the ExhaustNotes site came to be and what we’re all about.  And the photo at the top of the About page?  Ah, that’s a story for another time…

There’s our YouTubby page.  Joe and I have done a number of YouTube videos and we’ve got them here.  You might wonder why “YouTubby” instead of just YouTube.   Visit the page, and you’ll find out.

The Books page is me bragging a bit, and you having an opportunity to buy some cool books.  I’ve thought about this a lot, and you should buy all of them (several copies of each, actually).  They make great gifts.

Ah, the Baja page!  If you want to learn more about riding Baja, this is where you want to go.   We are the ultimate resource for information about motorcycling in Baja.  The routes, the roads, the restaurants, the hotels, the cave paintings, the legalities, the bikes, insurance, the missions, whale watching, and more…if it pertains to riding a motorcycle in Baja and what to see when you’re down there, this is the spot, folks.

Finally, there’s our Advertising page.   The ExhaustNotes site has traction, and if your target market includes adventurers, here’s where you can reach them.  Get in touch with us, and we’ll get you there!

Wild Conjecture: The Harley-Davidson Pan America

 

Much like when your old granny starts using Instagram or throws down internet slang terms like LOL, Harley-Davidson’s new, Pan America concept motorcycle is a sure sign that the out-sized ADV fad has played itself out. It can’t come a moment too soon for me because these giant dirt motorcycles are the worst idea to come down the pike since Thalidomide. I won’t list the moto-journos that have injured themselves on these bikes but it’s a who’s who of two-wheeled typists. Remember, these are the pros!

H-D has ignored the segment these last twenty years for good reason: It’s simply not their bag. Change comes slowly to The Motor Company. They’ve been very successful building and selling a cruiser lifestyle. People tattoo H-D logos onto their bodies! Who else but a Batdorf and Bronson coffee fanatic would do that?

Back on topic: The Pan America. Harley doesn’t keep me in the loop so I have nothing but a promotional photo to go by but the thing doesn’t look half bad. There’s just a hint of Royal Enfield Himalayan in the styling but that’s not a bad thing. The fairing is kind of goofy, a requirement for ADV bikes. It’s got a decent-looking skidpan and a nice flat seat that looks comfortable.

The engine looks like a restyled version of H-D’s 750cc liquid-cooled Street power plant but with displacement rumors swirling around 1200cc, maybe not. Maybe it’s a V-Rod engine. Anyway I can’t see Harley building a new engine just for the Pan America unless it’s the beta test of a wholly new Sportster power plant. There’s almost no way the thing will weigh less than 600 pounds, again, seemingly not a problem for the chuckleheads who plow these big bikes through the trails.

I haven’t heard of any major reliability issues on the 500cc-750cc Street models or the V-Rod so if it’s either engine the thing should be more reliable than the class-leading GS BMW’s. I’m hoping the thing is chain drive as toothed belts squeak like crazy in the dirt and shaft drives seem to snap in half with alarming frequency.

The rest of the cycle parts look really modern, Japanese even, and the Pan America shows that Harley can build a bike that rivals the Europeans and Asians anytime they feel like it.  They just haven’t felt like it.  Until now.

Check out our other Dream Bikes here!

Baja Cuisine: Palomar to El Rosario

We’ve already covered my favorite Baja places to eat from the border down through Ensenada in our previous installment of the adventurer’s guide to Baja dining.   This next set of Baja dining recommendations covers the corridor south of Ensenada, through San Quintin, all the way to El Rosario. This region covers the wine country and the agricultural district, which ends in the San Quintin area. After San Quintin, Baja’s Highway 1 (the Transpeninsular Highway), continues south through low-lying coastal plains hugging the Pacific coast. Then it’s a brief climb through a set of twisties into El Rosario.

There are great places to eat through this stretch of Baja, folks.  Let’s take a look…

Palomar

This is a cool little place that’s on the right side of Highway 1 after you’ve passed through the mountains south of Ensenada. The food is good, it’s reasonable, and it’s always fresh. I like their chicken tacos; my friends seem to always gravitate toward the shrimp.

The El Palomar, a nice spot to stop for lunch.
The Pemex next to the Palomar restaurant.

There’s a little general store next to the restaurant, and if you need Baja kitsch, this is a good place to get it. More importantly, there’s also a Pemex station. I’d advise topping off here. If you’re on a motorcycle (and of course, you should be), this will get you all the way to El Rosario.

San Quintin

What can I say? I love this area. It’s one of the last vestiges of the northern Baja agricultural region.  There are three places I like here. One is the restaurant in the Mision San Quintin. It’s a hotel restaurant (it’s pricey for Baja, but it’s cheap compared to US prices), and it’s good. I’ve stayed at the hotel and had breakfast and dinner here; both are great. The orange juice is always freshly squeezed, and it’s fantastic.  To my great surprise, I didn’t have any photos of the Mision San Quintin when I prepared this blog entry.  Sounds to me like a good excuse to ride down there again.

Another is the Molina Viejo restaurant, near the Old Mill Hotel, which is right on Bahia San Quintin. The good news here is that the 4-mile ride to Bahia San Quintin is now paved (no more white-knuckle soft sand or deep mud, thank God).  Even before the road was paved, though, the ride out was worth it.  There are two great restaurants hidden away back here (the Molina Viejo and Don Eddie’s), and the food at both is stellar.

Fried mushrooms at the Molina Viejo. They’re awesome.
Good buddy Dave on his FJR. Fortunately, the road into Bahia San Quintin is now paved!

Both restaurants are literally right on the bay, and occasionally a gray whale will find its way into the bay. When that happens, it’s an amazing thing to see and hear.  The Molina Viejo has a fried mushroom appetizer that’s a favorite, and any of the entrees are excellent. This place rivals the décor and feel of any restaurant in the US, but it hasn’t been discovered yet (and that means the prices are low).

The Molina Viejo, a great restaurant right on Bahia San Quintin.
Having a beer or two before dinner at the Molina Viejo.
The real deal…Mariachi singers in the Molina Viejo.
A good day, a good ride, and a Tecate overlooking Bahia San Quintin. We saw a California gray whale swim by this very spot one night.  Life doesn’t get any better.

The other restaurant, Don Eddie’s, is on the opposite side of the Old Mill Hotel.   It’s not as fancy as the Molina Viejo, but I think the food is even better.  If you call ahead, Don Eddie (he’s a real guy) will prepare a buffet-style meal for your group.  We do that whenever I’m leading a group tour, and the breakfasts are particularly fabulous.

An incredible Don Eddie dish….shrimp and pasta. Bring an appetite!
The seafood medley at Don Eddie’s. The food is off the charts. The prices are ridiculously low.   Hey, that’s Baja.

El Rosario

El Rosario is the last town on the Transpeninsular Highway before you enter the Valle de los Cirios. That’s an experience like no other; it’s the barren and beautiful wilderness that is Baja. But I digress; the focus here is the dining, and El Rosario (as any Bajaeno knows) means two things: Top off at the Pemex (it’s the last one for 200 miles if you’re headed south), and eat at Mama Espinosa’s.

Decals and more at Mama Espinosa’s. Get one for your motorcycle; people will know you’re the real deal.
I’ve parked my bike here many, many times.

Mama Espinosa’s is a Baja icon, a legend among many Baja legends, and perhaps their most legendary dish is the old gal’s lobster burritos. This little tiny spot is a “must see” on any Baja trip. It’s literally world famous. It’s a stop on the Baja 1000. There are zillions of decals from folks who race and travel Baja. It’s got a cool wall-sized Baja map so you can get a feel for where you are.  But you really don’t need the map.  Ride into Baja and you know…you’ve arrived.  You’re in Heaven.

Lobsters at Mama Espinosa’s. Folks, this is the closest you’ll ever get to Heaven without a one-way ticket!
Mama’s chicken burritos, my personal favorite.

Mama Espinosa’s is known for their lobster burritos, but my favorite is Mama’s chicken burritos.  I think they’re great. The bottom line is this: You won’t go wrong with anything on Mama Espinosa’s menu.  It’s all good.

So there you have it.  The next push south on our culinary cruise will take us all the way down to Guerrero Negro, and the best fish tacos on the planet.  I’m not exaggerating.  Trust me on this. But that’s a story for the next installment of our ExhaustNotes dining tour.

Stay tuned!

Shine on…

Here’s an interesting story that popped up on my news feed earlier today.  It seems an errant scooter rider, a young one at that, was stopped by the Maine State Police riding his scooter on the Maine Turnpike late last night, using only his cell phone for a headlight.   There must be more to the story, because after stopping him, the police gave the guy a lift to his destination some 70 miles away.   I can’t make stuff up this good, and if you doubt my word, you can read the original story here.

So that story naturally pulled my attention to a somewhat similar experience with my good buddy Baja John and his girlfriend Annie.   This goes back to 2006 again, shortly after John bought a place right on the Sea of Cortez in Bahia de Los Angeles.  Literally, right on the sea.  Oceanside housing.  It’s awesome.

Casa Baja Juan, in Bahia de Los Angeles.
Baja Juan, probably telling a fish story, in his back yard.

I had just bought a new Triumph Tiger.  John and Annie invited me to their new place.   Who can say no to an offer like that?

My Triumph. On the ride down to Bahia de Los Angeles, we hit very dense fog. We stopped and waited for it to lift.  At one point it was so thick I couldn’t see the ground.

Here’s where the story gets interesting.  When John bought the Casa Baja Juan, it came with a VW bus.   John worked on it for a week and got it running, and it became his get-around-town wheels.  He never registered it, so it had no plates, but it was cool.  I love old VWs, especially the buses.

The VW bus that came with Baja John’s oceanside estate.  Lights?  We don’t need no stinkin’ lights!

That night, we took the VW and went to dinner at the best taqueria in town, just a short distance away…

A typical Baja roadside restaurant. You can get some mighty good food in these places.

John, Annie, and I had a great dinner, a few Tecates, and then it was time to head back to his place.   There was a problem, though.  The sun had set, and the VW had no headlights.  The three of us pondered this situation a while, and then John remembered he had a flashlight.

John handed the flashlight to Annie and she hung out the passenger window, lighting the way as we rolled down a dirt road to John’s house.   We couldn’t see squat (the flashlight was pitifully weak), but we were laughing so hard we didn’t care.

Then we drove past another restaurant on that dirt road.  Imagine that: Another restaurant on that same dirt road.  Then I saw who was sitting under the veranda as we went by.  Uh oh, I thought.

There were three Mexican police officers having dinner, sitting out front, just a few feet away as we passed.  The police officers saw us, we saw them, and Annie waved, using the flashlight, which I thought would only accentuate the obvious:  We had no lights and the VW wasn’t registered.

The police?  They waved back, holding up their cervezas in a salute to our ability to adapt, improvise, and overcome.

Ah, Baja….

Sunrise, the next morning, looking east over the Sea of Cortez.