February...

Dylan is quite the electronics ADDICT! He was playing a game and the battery was dying so he stood there at the counter charging it and playing his game... Dylan made Daddy a special card for Valentine's Day... it hung across the hallway to our room...

And for once Zac is going to enter the blogging world... in February he took off and had some FUN...

I was able to take a very fun trip recently to Baja Mexico for a motorcycle ride. We started out in San Felipe and headed south and across the peninsula. We criss crossed and looped around and ended up back at San Felipe 5 days later. It was an organized ride by a group based out of Mapleton, UT. There were about 70 riders in total divided up into 5 or 6 groups depending on what you were riding and your riding ability. There were about 10 in our group, I say about because it changed from day to day - crashes, breakdowns and fatigue shaped the group throughout the trip. I signed up for the most advanced group, so I was looking forward to a fast, fun filled week on our bikes. It lived up to my expectations. Here we are on day one of the ride, fresh and ready to ride. Part of the ride was a service project. We all collected clothing and shoes and brought them down with us. We sorted the clothes and gave them away to the locals who were in need. We also gave all the kids rides on our bikes, they loved it. It was a neat experience. They were very grateful. We couldn't miss church...

Mikes Sky Ranch is where we stopped for a break on the first day. It is a hotel in the middle of the mountains of Mexico that is pretty much just there because of all the racing and riding that goes on in Baja. See the snow?? Snow in Mexico? The first night we stayed in the mountains, it was cold and muddy and we woke up to frost on the ground. It had snowed several inches the night before.

Gas is pretty important when you are riding dirt bikes. In a lot of locations, we had to buy gas from the locals that was stored in 55 gallon drums and the only way to get it into our bikes was to use old milk or juice cartons.

This is called Window rock as it has a little window on the back side. The Window Rock trail was a blast. For anyone who follows any Baja racing, they will recognize this as Coco's corners. Coco is a diabetic local who has lost his legs. He is well known in the racing community and has supported the racers for years.

There sure is alot of cactus in Baja... They would reach up and grab you when you least expected it -- flat tires and bloodied arms.

OUCH!! If you crashed into a cactus, you had to pick them out one by one.

Always time for some golf... this dog would chase whatever you hit and bring it back to you. This ride was all about being prepared and riding smart. We carried everything on our backs and had no chase trucks to bail us out. If you broke down, you were on your own to get back to our starting point (San Felipe). Jason had a rock break his case and his bike lost all its oil and seized up. He had to hitchhike back by himself and it took him three days, but he made it!!

There were some buggies that were on the ride as well, they didn't ride with us but we did run into them a couple of times. Riding on the beach was a blast, we had this type of riding for about 20 miles.

We had some nice hotels and beach houses... those are whale bones from a beached whale. Our first hotel overlooking the beach.

Another hotel right on the beach, luckily this one was closed.

We also had a few bad bathrooms, this one was at Coco's corner, and yes, a couple of the guys had the opportunity to use it!This out house was out of order, see the hole next to it? hhhmmmm

We made it.. 950 miles over 5 days of riding. It was an awesome trip.