Better late than never, here is a little trip report from my vacation over the New Year with Sandy. We went to Punta Final on the Sea of Cortes side of Baja California, Mexico.

Part 1 -- Getting There

Like usual I rushed to get everything packed and somehow managed to get it mostly done. I changed the oil and filter, installed a roof rack, replaced LBJ's, replaced spark plugs and PCV valve, vacuumed it, and that was about everything I did to it for the trip. I had a big long cardboard box in the back I was using to store a lot of my stuff and I would sleep length-wise beside it. This wasn't the best setup as I had to pull stuff out of the box to get at stuff at the bottom. I have since built a wooden box which allows access to lower items; I'll post a write-up of that soon.

I headed out after work on Friday, the day before Christmas Eve to cross the border. I picked up my new bumpers and seat covers as soon as I crossed the border and stuffed them in the car, and slept in rest stops along I5. Luckily on the way down from Vancouver to LA there was minimal road salt. I just missed a snowstorm on Siskiyou Pass in southern Oregon.





On the final pass in the mountains over to LA, there were tons of people jamming the roads, all coming up to play in the snow.



I stayed with my friend Mark for a couple days in Long Beach and swapped out the bumpers at his work. Goodbye hunk of rust held together with Gorilla Tape:





Goodbye nice cloth seats, to be protected with new Coverking seat covers:



Nice view from Mark's work in the Port of LA:



Then we all headed down early one morning, Mark and family in the Ford Sportsmobile and me and our other friend Josh in my T4R, heading east from San Diego over to the Imperial Valley and crossing at Calexico. We then drove straight down to San Felipe, had brekkies and continued on down to Punta Final. It doesn't take long to do the stretch south of Puertecitos now, but we used to drive that road 20 years ago before it was paved and man was that epic. Now the highway kind of sucks and every 2WD tourist and his dog will be going there now. Oh well. They say change is inevitable but I don't buy that. Lots of change is bad.

Got in just at sunset:



Lots of critters on the beach at night:



A fresh new morning!