John's adventure in Baja

A one day ride turns into a five day draining adventure for this 81 yeal old senior, John Van Rooden..

He had no idea that the road on the map was such a nightmare in reality. Since we had left for the states he was not able to tell us that he, with his little poodle, Lexy, had decided to take a ride; he expected to be back before we returned. Little did he know the roads below Puerticitus and between Gonzaga Bay and Highway One were such a challenge. Although he had a very comfortable 86 Cadillac highway car it was not meant for this. First he had a flat. Some nice local helped him replace it with his 'donut' spare....but that didn't last but about half an hour on these roads. He decided to spend the night in the car. Nothing to do next morning but to ride on the rim till he found a used tire shop which helped him find a match that would work for the rest of this trip at least. Back on the road again, he began having trouble climbing those horrendous hills which are not much more than roadbed. For some reason he kept losing power and would have to let the car cool every 15-20 minutes or so. It took 4 hours to make 15 miles to Catavina, a little corner in the middle of nowhere. Another night in a small unknown motel. There a mechanic said it was the fuel pump, and after ordering a replacement from Ensenada which took another night and day, the repair was completed.....but did not change the problem. Well he knew another mechanic in another town 60 miles away that could surely solve the problem. All this took time....days, which meant food and lodging for John and his puppy.

Yes, this mechanic could solve the problem. He took a hacksaw and extracted the cadillidic converter from the system, and re-welded the pipes appropriately. Thank goodness, this solved the problem. But John had learned his lesson. He was not going to return on that wicked trail. He would now head out on Highway 1 and find his way back to Highway 3, then Hy 5 to home. With no more problems we can close the book on this 5 day adventure/nightmare for John. (st).