It was almost the same time last year that we came up with this idea of driving to Cabo. After all when we owned a motorhome we toyed with the idea of going to Mexico more than once after having had friends doing it and meeting many others on the road who recommended it as well. As you may know we’ve sold both motor homes now (maybe one day we will buy another?).
Our last motorhome and tow car. (2017)
2019 - Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida, Gulf Coast, Alabama, Texas & others in the Corvette.
You see we, like the millions before us had flown down to Cabo last year. Our daughter Hailey had been going there for years and kept telling us to try it,” you’ll like it!”
When she was a little girl growing up, our neighbours had a little girl too and they were best of friends and still are. Their little girl (now all grown and married) now lives in San Jose del Cabo. This is a much smaller town than Cabo San Lucas and only 15 minutes away. In fact it’s located where the Cabo airport is. All the way down and at the end of the Baja peninsula - it’s known as Land’s End!
We had been there once before on a 3 hour stop with a cruise ship that we were on. Neither Barb or I care for the touristy places with Discos everywhere and Spring Break type atmospheres anymore, so we didn’t add Cabo to our must do list. We decided to take Hailey up on her recommendation. San Jose del Cabo as it turns out is exactly what we like! More on that later.
So after spending 5+ weeks there last winter we decided rather than come again and rent a car let’s make it an adventure and bring our own car! Have we done crazier things? I’m not sure, but some days we would ask ourselves just that!
Last winter in Cabo
Nice clear roads - Montana south bound!
Our 2020 Trip Map
COCHRANE, Alberta to Todos Santos, Baja California Sur, Mexico.
Well over 4500 Kms of driving in real life!
Barb and I are both lucky in that we both love travel and we both love the same types of travel, some times with a little adventure thrown in. Therin lies the best way to describe almost everything in our travels. The more travel we do, the more we want to do!
As you may know back in the summer of 2012 we sold the family home to better enable our travel bug. We bought a Villa (simply just a too expensive duplex!) that has an HOA who looks after the snow shovelling and yard work in case we are away. Lock and Leave! It has turned out to be the perfect decision for our lifestyle.
Just recently and right before Christmas we bought another Villa on the same street!
Talk about timing. We were already booked with deposits for this trip at the end of January which was only a few weeks away! We now found ourselves owning another Villa too! We quickly readied our current home for sale and boom we were able to sell it within 48 hours. So, the plan was set and was working as we had prayed it would.
Buying and selling our homes right beforehand!
What’s the plan you ask? Well the plan was to make a mess out of our comfortable lives that we once had! We bought the new place because of the views and it had a walk out basement with more room. Every morning we now wake up to the view of the Rocky Mountains at our fingertips and wow we love it!
Too cloudy for a view of mountains today - but a nice Chinook Arch!
We started moving into the new place. It was only a block away and like our last move we told ourselves just a short one. But you still have to pack and move everything and we it did as fast as we could, all while having work started to renovate the new place. It was a wind storm of activity.
So much so that Barb got sick right at the beginning and then her back went out too. That made it even more challenging but that’s all over now. Thankfully! Just the renovations to go and most will be done while we are away on this trip.
Sorry for the drool here but I had to lay out the background. In other words why do something easy when you can do it crazy & stupid like us!
Our awesome Son in Law (Neal) owns a business that does custom building and renovations. So before leaving Barb worked with his Designer and the two of them came up with a plan to renovate the new kitchen. The house was built in 2008 and Barb wanted to up date it.
Neal has awesome “Award Winning” work so we had hoped he could fit us in. The plan was set. Within days of us leaving the kitchen was totally removed by Neal and his team at Knight Custom Homes.
We are committed now - The kitchen is gone!
Now, back to leaving town! We got away nice and early for a change. It was about 0715 as we left the local Tim Horton’s coffee shop near our home with a double double coffee in hand. Southbound we would go, only to stop for fuel and snacks along the way. Through Lethbridge, Montana, a quick car wash in St. George, Utah we did fly, finally stopping on the other side (south side) of Salt Lake City, Utah where it was warm!
The roads were all good and mostly clear and hardly any traffic - perfect conditions for a quick roadie in January!
After a quick night’s rest we were up and at em again and flew on down to Las Vegas. We stayed at an old favourite called Sunset Station. We had stayed there twice before way back in my car racing days. Clean, cheap, good food all without the busyness of the Vegas Strip.
The next day now January 27th we made it to an Air B&B just outside of San Diego, California where we stayed a couple more nights. After that over closer to the Mexican border in Chula Vista where we grabbed a hotel for a few.
The Border between the USA & Tecate Mexico (east of San Diego & Tijuana).
I had hoped to stop and see friends in the Los Angeles area but both Barb and I were sick by the time we left home with bad colds. They wouldn’t have appreciated us showing up for a visit in that condition - so unfortunately we skipped LA (Los Angeles).
