Trod Bogs Sadly – Oddstray's Blog

It was cold this morning in Ensenada.  Hit the road without breakfast (and more importantly, without either orange juice or tea!).

It was pretty slow progress, lots of traffic. The new road-cuts north of Santo Tomas really save time, and they are working hard on upgrading the rest of that section – to the point that we were waiting in line for about 30 minutes to get through a section being torn apart by monster levelers and graders. But hey, we are in no hurry 🙂

The new sections of road don’t have the dreaded drop-off right at the edge of the road, allowing a little more margin for error. This margin is liberally used by overtakers – actually by those being overtaken, to move over into.

Then there was the long agricultural section leading into the complex north of and including San Quintin. Slow. Topes. Hidden ‘Alto’ signs. Inexplicable speed limits that none seem to adhere to. But hey, we are in no hurry 🙂

Getting up to midday, my blood sugar level was getting seriously impaired, so we stopped at a Tourism Center and tore into some bread and hard boiled eggs – and in my case, a treasured sausage roll. Still no tea, though. Orange juice? At last 🙂

So, finally, we get south of San Quintin, and all the traffic quiets down, and we make good progress at a general rate of a few clicks shy of 100 km/hr. But the drop-offs at the side of the road return, and the road itself is narrow, and I wonder whether to fold the drivers side mirror in….

At the Pemex gas station in El Rosario, we fill up. Good news and bad. We’re getting 15.5 mpg (I think that’s the good news?). Gas is $4.40 a gallon.

A block later is Mama Espinoza’s Motel and Restaurant. Here we stop, and sit in the sun:

It feels like 75 degrees F. Oh. My. That’s so welcome.

Later we eat at the restaurant. B’s chicken tacos were really good (she says), and my camarones rancheros were to die for (B agrees).

143 miles today. Tomorrow looks like quite a bit further, but with less traffic, so all is good.