2012 Mexican 1000 - Day 2

I woke up rested and sore at the Cactus II motel.  My head was aching.  Not from the previous day of racing but from the Cactus II’s bathroom door.  They felt that 5 foot 10 inches would be a good height for the door, which meant every time I went into the bathroom I wacked my head.  Other than that the stay was great.

The porch, like the bathroom door, was a head bashing challenge.

even Rosarito is on google street view.

There was a motel diner, next to it an auto parts store and there were dogs to pet.  Mary recalled her childhood of petting dogs in Mexico.  Something you’re not supposed to do but Duffys are genetically unable to resist.

We had a leisurely breakfast and I checked with the auto shop about a power steering line.  Like #10 Ford team, they recommend a mechanic in Vizcaino.  So, we packed up the cars and headed down the road.

 We were further north than we’d thought and it took us two or three hours to get to Vizcaino.   Once we found the shop everything went great.  Vizcaino’s in the middle of a big farming area and it’s obvious they work on a bit of everything.  When I asked them about the part they said they didn’t have one but they could make one (my kind of shop).  I think because we were a “race car” we got priority and they made the hose and installed in a bit over 30 minutes.

For a bit over $100 we left with a fixed car, jumper cables, wd40 and some starter fluid.  It was really nice to have power steering again.

We’d missed stage 1 of day 2 which was a 125 mile road from Bahia de Los Angeles to just north of Vizcaino and headed down the road to San Ignacio and the start of stage 2.

At 175 miles, stage 2 would be the longest stage of the race and probably the most isolated and beautiful.  I was looking forward to it but by the time we got to San Ignacio it was late enough in the day that we decided we should skip it.  Realistically, the stage would take us 5 hours and that would mean doing half of the stage in the dark and that was if everything worked.  So we hung out in San Igniacio.

 

San Ignacio is a beautiful oasis in the middle of the desert.  We stopped and visited the mission, I fixed the throttle (which had been acting funny) and we headed down the road to Loretto.  On the way Mary reminded me of Las Casitas, my mom and dad’s favorite restaurant in Mulege.  

 

We decided to stop for dinner and some of the best margaritas of the trip.  We ate in the courtyard and surreptitiously left some of dad’s ashes in a planter.  His spirit was definitely with us.  Before any of us were drunk enough to pass out and hit our head on the concrete we hit the road.

The drive to Loretto was uneventful.  We got into Hotel Oasis after dark and settled in for an early wake up call.

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