More on Driving in Baja

As we’ve headed north, and are now within two hundred miles of the U.S. border, we have several additional observations about driving here. While the narrow lanes, winding roads and lack of shoulders on the roadway no longer bother us, we have noticed that whenever there’s an oncoming Big Rig or 18-wheeler we become a bit hyper-alert, rigidly assuming the “10 and 2” hand position on the steering wheel, and move as far to the right side of our lane as feels safe without falling off the edge. Part of the cause for this is that a dozen or so times now, while passing one of these large vehicles, we’ve been startled by a sudden, loud “THUNK!” on the side of our car near the driver. It turns out the cause of this noise is our outside mirror slamming (folding) into our car as a result of the proximity of the passing vehicles, high speed, and wind velocity caused by this close passage. Because we’re pulling our trailer and can’t see behind it well with the regular mirrors, we have removable extension mirrors that stick out about 8 inches beyond the regular mirror. In one instance, the wind velocity and proximity of our passage with an 18-wheeler was such that it blew the extension mirror right off, gone forever. Fortunately we were camped next to a nice couple at Bahia de Los Angeles who were carrying two extra extension mirrors for just this reason and offered us one. Another observation has to do with the signage along the highway, some of which is amusing and some of which is very sweet. There are signs urging travelers: “don’t mistreat the signage”, or “don’t throw garbage” or “drive slowly and carefully so you will arrive safely”, and “don’t leave rocks on the roadway”. This last directive stems from the fact that 18-wheel truckers prefer to drive at night when no one else does, and when they have a break-down they block their wheels with rocks, or place rocks in the roadway several hundred feet behind their stopped vehicle to slow oncoming drivers and alert them to the presence of their stopped vehicle – this instead of reflective triangles which we see in the U.S. Then, when the 18-wheeler is ready to travel again, they drive off leaving the rocks in the road, an obvious hazard to others.