Album of the Weeks - Los Freddy's

With all the writing about the race, I've been avoiding the "Album of the Week" well here's an attempt to get it going again.  I give you Los Freddy's.

I found this about 20 years ago in a goodwill dollar bin and since then it's been one of my favorites.  It's a 1975 reissue of Los Freddy's 1964 first lp.

I couldn't I resist it, with the Beatlesque suits and the photo of them at the Tijuana boarder crossing plus I recognized some of the songs.  

According to Wikipedia this album was released in 1964 even though most of the songs they covered were released in 1965.  I think I need to do a little investigating

Anyway, here are the tracks  (you can find most of them on youtube)
- here's a start.

Lado A

Wooly Bully  - fine but not my favorite.  It sounds a bit too much like the original which I don't really enjoy to begin with.  There's also a little skip at the start of the song that irks me.

Sin Razon Para Vivir (Tired of Waiting for You) - Google translates it as "No Reason to live" which is a better title.  I actually enjoy this version of the song more than the Kinks'.

Si Ti Tu Vas (Just a Little) - A pretty solid cover of the Beau Brummel's tune.

Sueno Feliz - nice up beat toon penned by Los Freddy's.  Not great but could hold it's own against most 60s pop.

Ven Dame Tu Fe - More of a 50s ballad.  Slow and moody.  Arturo sings

Divina Maria - slow jam

Lado B

Un Mundo Sin Amor  (A World without Love) - A pretty great cover of The Peter & Gordon song penned by Lennon/McCartney

Muchachos (Boys) - Probably my favorite song on the album.  "Muchachos" sounds so much better than "Boys."

Traeme Mi Amor (Bring it Home to Me) - A little slower and just not as good as the Sam Cook original.

Diciendote te Quiero - Another nice ballad penned by Los Freddy's.  A song that really grew on me.

El Diablo En Su Corazon (Devil in Her Heart) - Tweaking "Devil in Her Heart" into Spanish proved to be a bit challenging but the energy's great.

Estoy Muriendo (Under the Boardwalk)  -  Translated as "I'm Dying" it's probably the funniest song on the record.    "Devil in Her Heart" was a challenging translation, this song is almost impossible.

Sweet Wednesday - Rowher Flats

I woke up this morning and the weather was amazing.  Overcast with a few drops of rain but still in the 80s.  I put on shorts and a t-shirt and decided to take the car for a drive.

I would drive one hour out then turn around and drive back.  That way I wouldn't waste the rest of the day bumping around the back country.  I hit the road at 8:54.

In a half an hour I made it to camp 1 at Rowher Flats.  It was virtually empty, one lonely truck parked in the corner.  I decided to see how far I could go on the loop trail.  I turned down Texas Canyon then up Fall Canyon Road.

Fall Canyon Road

At exactly an hour I reached Sierra Pelona Road and there was a motorcycle and the only other person in the park.  I stop and said "hey."  We talked cars and bikes and racing and Mexico.

Sierra Pelona looked rough ahead so I got ready to turn around.  I was alone, I'd met my hour limit, but the cyclist explained to me that what I saw was a side road and the main road was no worse than what I'd been on.  Also, the view from the top was amazing.  He lead the way and I headed towards the top.

I stayed on the fire road and avoided the short cuts (which later, I would see, would've been a piece of cake).  Who would've guessed there would be a grove of oaks on the top of a mountain.  The view from the top was pretty incredible.  On a clear day I'm sure I could've seen the ocean and well into the desert.

The whole trip made for a very sweet Wednesday.

drawings from the trip 2

Mexican 1000 - and back again - part 2

Saturday morning we left La Paz and headed up the coast.

I decided that Arwen, Mary and the kids needed to see San Javier.  It had stuck in my head since the third day of the race and it would be our last chance to see the town before the paved road reach it.

We got to Loretto and headed up the hill.  Arwen got to drive the land cruiser and have her first experience behind the wheel on a dirt road.  The main road was pretty easy but the detours gave us some rough bits.

Cows!

Horses in trucks!

San Javier was extremely quite.  Almost as if it were waiting for the pavement to get there.  The Mission wasn't open but we had a chance to run around it.  

We stopped and had a soda at the local bar/families living room, and then headed back down the hill and up the coast.  The detour took us a little longer than we expected.

As the sun set we got to El Requeseon, one of my favorite spots on the sea of Cortez.  It's a small island connected to the shore by a sand spit.  The story goes that shepperds would use the island as a safe haven for their goats.  Thus the name Requeseon, goat cheese.

When we arrived the moon was coming up and it was going to be the highest tide of the year.  We talked to the care taker and wished we could've stayed but the lack of sleeping bags or any camping gear made that a bit too much of a challenge.

We headed north, Mary remembered a hotel just south of Mulege that mom and dad loved.  She spotted the sign for El Serenidad and we headed to the hotel to find Ned Bacon's "Killer Bee" parked int the lot.

The Killer Bee -tucked behind the black truck

We wandered in  and ran into Bacon and the crew of the 332 Bronco.  It turned out it was the Saturday night pig roast.  My mom had told me about it but I couldn't remember where it was.  The pigs at El Serenidad are raised on dates from the palm trees which creates some of the sweetest pork ever.  We enjoyed the bbq, conversation and too many of the best margaritas we had in Baja.  We chatted with the owner, Don Johnson (not the Don Johnson), he'd been there since the 60s and remembered my folks.

Eventually we settled into our room for a good nights sleep.  The rooms were old and funky while being clean and comfy.  It was a great place to stay.

The next morning we got up, had a swim and headed to Catavina.

the story continues here

drawings from the trip

2012 Mexican 1000 - and back again - part 1

The race ended with two nights at the Cabo Azul Resort which was relaxing and much too nice.

When it was time to go we took Rhonda to the airport and the rest of us headed north.

This was a tradition of my dad's.  Drive to the starting line, run the race to La Paz, and then turn around and drive back.  It's a great testament to my family's love of Baja and the durability of the Toyota Land Cruiser.

We needed to stop in La Paz to check on some of Mary's friends and on the way we swung by Rancho Leonero.

Now a hotel, when I was a kid Rancho Leonero was the house of a family friend, Gil Powell.   In 1974 Gil passed away and the house was eventually sold and turned into a hotel.  My parents drove by it at some point and hated it.  They described it as too fancy and exclusive and not the "real Baja."  So Mary and I were a little surprised when we turned down the dirt road and saw the hotel.  It was really nice.  A series of rock bungalos and Gil's house had been converted into a bar/restaurant.  Even though it was much much larger it kept some of the spirit of the original place.

We wandered around the hotel and into the bar where we ran into Tom Swift and his son.  They had raced the Stroppe Edsel and were spending a couple days at Leonero to recover.  We hung out and chatted and had a beer..

I found these photos on the Rancho Leonero site.  We got our first Lab from Gil.

As a kid I spent hours snorkeling around the far rock, looking for eels.

Mary spreading some of dad's ashes

Even though we really wanted to stay at Leonero, eventually we headed to La Paz where we realized we'd missed Mary's friend.  So we stopped had dinner on El Malecon and decided to stay at the same hotel we stayed on the way down.  It was on the northern edge of town and we'd miss the La Paz traffic the next morning.

our adventure continues here

2012 Mexican 1000 - Day 4.2 -video update!

our adventure continues here

2012 Mexican 1000 - Day 4.2 -to the finish

There was a sharp left that took us off the freeway.  Later I heard that most cars overshot it and went down the road and turned around.  Me - I decided to lock up the brakes and go for it.  I managed to get the car on three wheels and was very lucky not roll it (there’s a picture out there somewhere).  It was the one time Rhonda really snapped, by calmly saying "dude, seriously, if your going to pull that sh*t, I'm getting out and walking."

That was the start of the second half of day 4's only stage.

Once we got off the road we slowly started to climb.  We'd been informed there would be some rough mountain roads but this didn't seem too bad.  I spent twenty mile trying to pass Bob Land's 38 jeep and annoying Rhonda by sitting in it's dust cloud.  Eventually I passed it and felt like a race car driver.  I'd pull off a couple miles later to start the camera and he'd pass us.

We were cruising along pretty nicely and then in the middle of the first real climb was the 38 jeep.  It turns out the reason he was going slow enough for us to pass was one of his differentials had gone out.  Now on the hill the other differential had died.  He'd gone from 4 wheel drive to 2 wheel drive to 0 wheel drive.

It wasn't a great spot.  He couldn't really roll backward to a good parking place and couldn't go forward.  So we squeezed by and offered to tow them to the next pull out.  While we hooked up we were passed by the Stroppe Edsel and my favorite motorcycle the 1973 Yamaha SC500.

The zebra fj40 may not be fast but it is definitely strong.  We pulled the jeep like a champ and deposited it at the top of the hill.  Then we were on our way and the climbing began.

There had been a fire through the area within the last year and now the hills seemed to consist of rocks and sand.  I'm not a huge fan of heights and as we climbed and the roads got narrower and narrower I got slower and slower.  For me this was not a place to race but more or a place to get through.  I was happy that the fj40 was so narrow and wondered how some of the wider trucks got through. 

We eventually hit the pass and started down.  Down was a better road but you had momentum working against you.  The array of shrines along the side of the road weren't that comforting.

Christmas shrine

We passed the Edsel, the yamaha,  a manx buggy that was limping along on what sounded like one cylinder.   We also passed goats, cows, trucks and trucks with cows in them. Eventually the road straightened out and leveled.  Then we hit a paved road, turned right, went for a couple miles, turned left and were off the road again.

cows

trucks with cows

We skirted an off road park and dropped into a wash.  The rest of the race was sand, whoop dee door and trying to figure out which of the 4 parallel roads we should be on.  Basically the end of the race was a medley of things I found annoying.

Eventually we came out of the wash and onto paved city streets where policemen directed us to the finish line.

Brutus' front axle was held in place by a come along for the last chunk of the race.

We crossed the line and were done.  We parked next to Brutus and I mooched a beer off the co driver from the Oly Bronco.  It was the best Bud Light I've ever had.  I dug through the back of the land cruiser and came across my dad's favorite cocktail, the Canadian Club Martini in a bottle.  Rhonda and I had a celebratory toast and joined the crowd to tell and listen to stories of the race.

the story continues here