Art projects, snowboarding and teeth

So since I'm still recovering from foot surgery and it's been a snowpocylypse out in Boise I've been staying inside an knitting and reading. It's been quite relaxing and nice actually.
Here is one of my knitting projects I did for one of Emiko's friends. He said it was itchy so doesn't wear it which makes me sad. I made it with baby yarn for socks and booties and stuff. So that sucks.
I think it's cute though and he plays with it like a snake toy. So whatever.  It looks cute on Emiko that's for sure. What a great model.

I've finished my gifts of imperfection book and it changed my life. I loved it and will have to read it again in a couple of years.
I also read 'A thousand splendid suns' which was good but SUPER depressing and I cried and felt a lot.
So now I'm reading the Eragon dragon series. Changing it up you know. So far, so good. I have the whole box set so can read it whenever I want. I'm excited.

Here's another knitting project I'm doing for Emiko's birthday. I'm going to make her a wonder woman scarf. Here's one of the rectangles. It's pretty long and I'll join it together on the short ends. I'm going to make a red one and a yellow one the same as this blue one, then I'm going to make two more blue ones that are plain and knit white stars and sew them on. The scarf should be awesome. I'll show you a picture when I'm done.
This is the first time I've EVER paid for a pattern. I usually refuse, but I forked up $3 for this pattern and am ok with that. I think it'll be worth it.

Here's the view from the girls front window the other day. They're lucky right? Emiko was pointing it out to me so I knew I needed to get a picture of it for the blog. Sure they get the noise of the cars as well but I think they're used to it now and look at that view.

Here's Takeshi walking to school in the snow. Yes I made them walk to school in the snow. They've got good clothes and shoes and good umbrella's. So I sent them off on their way and they did just fine.
I'm pretty sure a couple of my mates picked them up to and from school though, so whatever.


Here's a video of it.

Dru took Masaru snowboarding for the first time ever the other day. They were excited to go and I'm glad they finally went.
Dru said Masaru did amazing and was impressed.
Dru's brother, Ryan, gave Masaru the snowboarding set up and to him we're very grateful. We inherit a lot from his brother and are lucky man.

So it only cost him $15 to go, which was great for us.
Now Dru has to figure out what he'd like to do for him and get him a pass or something. Since I don't ski, it's all Dru. So whatever he wants to do is fine by me.


Masaru snowboarding. Good right?



Then Nawang came to visit the other day and did a face swap on the kids. Hilarious.

We love these two man.

Then finally this kids front tooth decided to pop into view. Can you believe that? It's been almost a year and nothing. We kept pestering our dentist and he kept telling us that it's fine and we need to be patient. Turns out he was right and here it is. Yaaaaaaaa


Here is Takeshi being an egg. This kid man..............

Yuki had a clothespin doll class project she had to do. She had to make the clothespin into an ancestor and write about it. So she solicited Dad and together, with the help of her gift from Auntie Les, they got started. They'd do a little every night. Here it is with just a kimono.

Here it is with it's face and hair and more details on the kimono.







And here's the finished result. How cute is it right?
Yuki's going to paint a background page to show where it would 'live' and then write a little about it.
I tell you man she's lucky to have a Japanese background, cause Japan has some cool stuff.

So that's what's been going on here in our neighbourhood.
I'm still trying to be good with my eating. I'd give myself 4 stars so that's pretty good.
My foot is healing well and it's just the last little bit to heal. Putting pressure on my toe is getting a little easier. I'll be interested to see the x-rays at the end of the month.

The age old and forever problem......................

So I had big plans to be super good while my foot was healing itself, but it hasn't happened the way I thought it would.
I decided to be good once the new year hit and took the cabin trip 'off', it's always better that way than trying to fight it.
But now I'm looking at my body and I'm not happy with myself and how I've let myself go so much.
I don't feel good and know I need to do something about it.
I haven't weighed myself for a good reason, cause weighing yourself suck man, but while I was working out today I decided I needed to bite the bullet and start making real progress to get back in shape as I once was.
Monday's are my measurement days at the nutrient place and I need to start doing that again. Having a place to measure 4 different things in my body as well as someone to talk to about my progress is a good thing and I need to start doing that again. They had one person there I really like and they left so it was easy to stop going, but at the end of the day, my body is my body and I need to pull up all of the past motivations and 'work hard' attitude and get started, again, with getting my body in the shape it needs to be before mountain biking season starts and I suffer a heart attack going up the foothills.
I just feel better when I'm fit and healthy, but at the same time it's easy to eat yummy food as well and my body isn't the type of body that can keep up with my eating habits and remain super fit.
Story of my life man.
Bad habits slowly filter in and creep into the daily routine and then the next minute your pants are feeling tighter and that dress you once could fit into just fine you have to hold your breath for 3 hours to wear it to church.
It's a tough thing to admit too, cause you think 'oh I'm alright, it's not too bad' but today I realized it needs to stop and I need to start again.
So to my bloggers I wanna ask this question, give me your 'go to' for breakfast, lunch,snacks and dinner for a healthy way to eat. I'm open to new recipes and healthier ways.
I'd love some ideas and tips or websites. Whatever you got, I want it.
Monday I'll start and it's the big day, this week I'll be good and do my best and I'll have to eat humble pie as I look at the statistics and then work a game plan to get back to what I once was.
My foot should be given the ok at the end of the month and then I'll be able to up my cardio. For now I'm doing weights and a little cardio to stay in the habit.
I miss biking, but I'm doing better than what I thought I would.
Here's to me and having the body I want in 2017!!...................again............just like in 2015 hahahaha

Cabin Trip?

Before I dive into the cabin trip I just needed to put up some pictures of my second cousins. These are my cuzzie Chris' kids picking cherries in my old stomping ground.
I used to pick cherries in this same town for money.
I remember when I closed my eyes all I saw were cherries, cherries and more cherries.
They were so yummy.

Fun times.

So friday we took the kids out of school at 1pm to take them to Utah to our mates Puggs' cabin.
He's got  a snow cat {below} and his cabin has 9 miles of snow all the way into it.
We used to go in via snow mobile but he's recently purchased a snowcat from somewhere and will use that.
He hadn't been up in the winter season so went up on friday morning to get it all prepped for us.

When we were about 3 hours into our trip heading to Utah Puggs had texted us with bad news. He couldn't get it to go.
He said the amount of snow up there was crazy too.
We figured he'd be able to fix it but then the more he texted us the worse the outlook was looking for any chance of getting it to run.
We went through some ideas of what we should do, should we turn around? Just wait it out? Call it quits and stay at Dru's mother's for the night and head back?


Here's outside the cabin door where the kids usually look out to the forest below.

He thought maybe it just needed some petrol and tried that to no avail. Plus the snow was so deep he couldn't get the water turned on. So double whammy meant that the cabin trip was off.

Puggs and Stacey have recently moved into a huge house though and Dru and I proposed that we make their new place the cabin for the weekend. We had to obey some rules though, to make it authentic. We weren't allowed to leave, no church, no shop runs, nothing. We could let the kids play outside, like at the real cabin, and go for a hike around down to Puggs' shop, but that was it.
What was truly a commitment was the other family, the Maxwell's, who only lived 10 mins down the road, they had to commit to all the rules and stay over for the whole weekend just like it was the cabin.
They committed and we were all in. So it was basically a sleep over at Puggs and Stacey's house for three nights hahahahaha and it worked out PERFECTLY!!! I felt just like the cabin due to everyone's commitment to the cause.

Puggs was super bummed about not being able to get the cat running and not being able to go to the cabin and so it made it even easier to obey the rules to let him know we were committed to this trip no matter what, and if a plan B had to be made, we'd make it and make it GREAT!!
I actually can't believe how well it went. It was awesome.

Friday night we had dinner at the Habit and all met there to eat some burgers. We then headed to Stacey's house to hang out.
We put the kids down in their spots and worked everything out. The Nakaya boys were in the basement, all the girls were in the music room, the Maxwell boys were sleeping with their parents and the Davis boys were sleeping with their parents and Dru and Melissa had a room to themselves, well.......at least until Emiko came in and slept with us, then we shared it with her.
Everyone had their space and it was sorted out.
The Davis' had breakfasts, the Maxwell's had lunches and the Nakaya's had dinners. We all had our food and were ready to roll.
Puggs stayed the night at the cabin cause he was tired and over it. So we face timed him and then we all sat up and talked and talked until it was time to go to bed. We always stay up late and hang out. It's nice, until the next morning!! We try to get naps in though.


Stacey had made waffle's that morning for us and we waited for Pugg's to arrive back from the cabin.
He arrived around noon and it was nice to have him with us and the cabin trip be complete and in full swing.

There were 12 kids in all. All under the age of 11. The youngest was 1. We were on dinner that night and Dru and I committed to making a Japanese cuisine, sushi, gyoza, rice and tempura. Dru got started with the sushi the night before, putting on a pot of sushi rice then starting a little after breakfast was cleared up. Everyone loved watching him working his sushi magic. I was just grateful for Dru to making it again. I love that man's sushi.

The kids all played really well together. It was pretty amazing to say the least. Even Masaru, with no kids his age, played well and seemed to do great with the whole thing.

We turned on some sports game and then milled around helping and watching Dru roll all the ingredients together.
Then took some quiet time knitting, napping, reading, playing, watching TV.  We then sat around and made gyoza and tempura together as well.
Dru finished off the final touches of dinner.





Man I can't believe all that sushi. It looks so yum. We ate all of it. I wish he'd make it once a week. But it takes him so long man that I feel bad about it. It's like a party in your mouth with every piece. So good. The kids ate well and we all had a blast.


Here's all the kids minus the baby. This was one of the few times they were quiet. I'm telling you man, for how good they were, it was sure nice to get them into bed. Just how quiet it was was worth the hassle of collecting them into bed.

Then that left us to play games together.
We played settlers, but because there was only enough for four I 'pretended' to play 'with' Dru AKA he just played himself and I sat and talked and didn't have to think, and the Maxwell's played together as one force and the Davis' played separately. It worked out. I think Dru won. He's pretty good at that game man.
We also taught them the card game the Thompson's taught us the other night, 'up the river, down the river'. Everyone loved it. It was a hit and I'm pretty sure Puggs won and had the perfect game.
We stayed up way too late playing cards together, way too late.

Sunday was the same as Saturday. Woke up to an awesome breakfast. Milled around, knitted, relaxed, watched TV, read books, took a much needed nap, played with the kids.
It was just like the cabin. We went for a 'hike' and looked at Pugg's new shop. Topher did the frame work and Dru's brother is putting on the finishing touches of his office in there. It looks great. The kids thought they'd hit the jackpot with all the machines and tools in there. We had to keep an eye on the kids to make sure they didn't hurt themselves.
It was the only time I went outside all weekend hahahaha
The kids played a game, once we were back, where they all had a shop and were selling things. It was pretty cute.
We had great lunches from the Maxwell's and Dru woke me up from my nap to help make dinner. I swear to you that it felt like my head had hit the pillow for seconds and he was coming in to ask for help. I couldn't believe it.
So we got up and made soup, salad and breadsticks for everyone. I thought it was great. We put the kids to bed and again, it was so nice to have a little more quiet time.
We played cards all night. I'm pretty sure Stacey won one and Topher won one and maybe Dru? I came close and Nat never came close hahahaha Poor Nat.

Here we are celebrating with our spirit fingers. I think when you haven't slept for a couple of nights and you're used to a certain amount of sleep you start getting a little 'sleep deprived drunk' everything seemed funny, which is great.

Emiko had hit her head and so we'd let her sleep on the couch. Here's Dru taking a little cat nap and making sure she's ok. Dru doesn't do too well with little sleep. He gets naps here and there though. I thought this picture was pretty cute.

Here's our spirit fingers.

Here's one of the fort's the kids made. This one was made by Masaru. It stayed intact for half of the trip. It was the coveted place to be. Here's Yuki doing some reading in it.

We went to sleep late again.
The next morning Puggs made the best breakfast I've had in a long, long, time. Then we got to work packing, cleaning and getting things sorted out to leave.
It'd been a great weekend and packing up and cleaning always sucks but it is what it is.
Stacey couldn't believe her luck with us cleaning and mopping and vacuuming her whole place. I'm glad we left it clean, so if this has to happen again, she won't mind.
Stacey was the best person to have this happen to. She is so chill it's not even funny. She honestly doesn't care about mess, never seemed stressed, what a great host she was and a trooper for letting us stay and be there the whole time.
She was excited to do it and grateful for the cleaning we all did.
We said our goodbye's and were so proud of ourselves for sticking to the rules and making it a weekend that felt totally like the cabin.
The trip back to boise even went quick as well, which is a bonus.
It was a long way to go for a 'sleep over' but I wouldn't have it any other way. Great way to spend Martin Luther weekend.
Here's to Martin Luther and here's to the 'cabin' trip.

Snow days galore............

So the kids were suppose to go to school last Wednesday, but it was cancelled due to snow. That's so exciting for them you know and we were all pumped that it was another holiday. Personally I think they could've went if it was Utah, but because it's Boise, Boise doesn't plow the side streets, so they're extremely treacherous.
The kids and I went outside and spent the next 3 hours shoveling our driveway and our footpath and our neighbours footpaths as well. We ended up talking to two out of the three neighbours and getting to know them better. It was nice and hard work. Masaru stayed out with me the whole time.
We went to 6 different stores to find a snow shovel as Dru had previously broken our one we had, but to no avail, they were sold out everywhere. We've kept trying to find one and still can't. So we've been borrowing our neighbours shovels. Thank goodness.
We ran out of salt as well, so now the driveway is simply slushy ice and snow mixed together. My bet is salt is sold out too.

The kids decided after some food and a hard mornings work out, that they'd get cozy in the cozy cone and have a relaxing rest of the day which was ok by me.
I made them read, however, and practice their piano. It's good for them.

We then had another snow day on Thursday. The kids couldn't believe their luck!! Another day to relax, do the driveway and stay warm.
Then there was another on on Friday too. We couldn't believe our luck. What are the chances of three in a row? Friday's one was due to freezing cold temperatures. It was 0 F which is -23 C, so it's pretty cold.

Dad decided to take a snow day for himself and go with a couple of mates up to Bogus and go snowboarding. Here he is with Joseph and Keith. He said it's no Utah snow but he still had a ton of fun anything and I'm so glad he went.


Takeshi had a bday party to go to. His mate Kai was turning 8. His mother sent me this picture and said that she kept finding Takeshi by the food. Hahahaha He's my foodie man. He loves food. I thought this was so funny.

That Friday night we also went to our mates the Thompsons house for home made pizza's for dinner. They were amazing and we even had the privaledge of listening to Matt play his Christmas present for us and sing. Loved it.
It was nice hanging out and the Thompsons taught us a new card game which we instantly loved. It was a really nice night and I'm sad we don't hang out with these guys more!!

Mum also texted me this picture of my niece at the pools. So she gets a picture in the blog cause she's cute.

Then Saturday it kept snowing and snowing. Look at the trampoline.......... Dru realized he needed to do something about that so geared up and got rid of the snow on our roof, then Keith's roof, then off of the trampoline then off of the shed, then off of our neighbours roof as well. By the time he'd finished it was 6pm and I'd hardly seen him all day. What a trooper man. Such a good guy.
The kids helped too then jumped off of the neighbours roof as well.



This isn't the best angle but you get the idea. When I was watching them I was at the kitchen window cleaning and saw them jumping off of the roof. It looked pretty awesome. Kids just being kids.

It was pretty cold outside so Dru made sure to dress warm for all the work he did. It was like he was snowboarding all over again. Lucky he has warm clothes.

Meanwhile inside the kids had decided to have play dates that they were starving for. We had two of Takeshi's friends over, Carter and Hank and Emiko's little friend Toby. Yuki went to her buddy Harper's house and I think maybe Masaru went to Caleb's but I can't remember for sure. They had a good time but Takeshi is a bit of a bossy boots and his mates didn't wanna play with him for a while. He came up to me and said 'What's the point of having your mates over if they won't play with you?'
I had a little talk to him about figuring out WHY they didn't wanna play with them and maybe working on a solution to get them to play with him again. It seemed to work out.

Dru came back from working all day and said "Quick, take a picture of my beard frozen" so I did.
Sunday was a snow day as well and church was canceled. So I started reading a book and finally finished my 'imperfect' book that'd I'd been working on. I loved that book man and am glad I read it.
This new one was on my list of books to read and it happened to be on my shelf. So I picked it up and started reading it.

Emiko even made me a bookmark so I didn't lose my page which was super sweet of her.


I read it on and off Sunday and on and off Monday. It was an 'easy' read but it was SUPER depressing man. A heaviness filled my heart and I cried and cried for the lives of these women. I mean it was a good book I guess and well written cause I fell in love with the characters, but their lives were super sad man. It made me appreciate Dru and my life as a women in countries that don't suppress. I don't think I'll be reading his other book 'Kite Runner' for a while though. I need some sunshine and happiness in my life first.

Dru spent half of Sunday helping someone else take the snow off of his roof, then came home and we were able to relax with each other and get some things done around the house.
It's always nice having Dru home, cause things get done.

Then Monday there was another snow day, then Tuesday there was a 5th snow day as well. It's pretty crazy man.

So the girls and I decided to start reading Charlotte's Web together. I think Emiko liked the idea of it but gets a little distracted while I'm reading. Maybe it's my reading though, I should spice it up a little bit.

Then yesterday the kids finally had their first day of school and Takeshi needed me to take this pic of him doing his one required project over the break. Pretty cute.
The kids were excited to go to school which I've only seen after the summer break. I think they like seeing their mates and teachers you know. Even Masaru was ok with going back to school and that kid could stay home forever I think.

We then had YW's last night for our activity since we canceled last week's activity and one of the girls named Kathryn gave me this bracelet as a gift.
Can you believe that?
I LOVE it so much. It's so beautiful. She's such a good girl who doesn't see her potential and how great she is. I wish I could help her more but she assures me I'm going a great job.
I'm a little embarrassed to get this gift cause I know she's not made of money, but I'll treasure it forever.




We woke up this morning and were told that there's yet another snow day due to dangerous ice. So the kids are home again today. It's quite laughable actually.
But I'll take it and we'll just do things around the house and be together for the day. I actually have a bunch of errands to run today so that's pretty suckie for the kids cause I'll be gone here and there. But they'll be ok and can figure themselves out after they've done their chores.

I've enjoyed this time with my kids and realize that they're probably going to have to do make up days for all this time off. We'll see where they put it.

Gratitude Blog Day

So I know I'm totally sporadic with my Friday gratitude blog days, but that's fine. At least I'm semi doing it, semi consistently.

What I'm trusting

This week I'm trusting my body and my doctor. Let me tell you what I mean.
My foot is doing amazing. It's been a long recovery, like I knew it would, but the minute I took that boot off and let my foot move like it should it hasn't been sore even once. I'm so grateful, even though my body is getting old, that it still heals as it should. What a gift. I don't know if it's related at all, but I know that creating muscle, eating mostly right and being good to it probably helps.
My doctor said that over half the people are still in a boot and limping around because they don't do what they're asked and stay off it and ice it constantly for the first 3 days.
I knew when I committed to this I had to really commit and I'm glad I did. My body has changed and I have my 'feeling fat' days, but I know that letting my foot heal as it should, is the best thing for me and for my body. I have the rest of forever to get back my fitness and muscle mass. It's what I do and it's part of my routine.
Having this time to let my body heal and recover has testified to me that I need to listen to my body and doctor and trust it/them. I've got a pretty sweet scar that can hang out with all the other scars on my body and simply tell a story like the rest of them do.

What I'm grateful for

So this week I'm grateful for a house that keeps me and my family warm. It's been pretty cold outside and yet here I sit in a warm house with my kids eating lunch at my side. What a blessing.
I'm also grateful for our Landcruiser which is a beast in these Boise unplowed snowy roads. I feel safe in that car and am always reminded of it when the snow hits.
I'm grateful for our warm snow clothes, blankets, slippers, good books and our neighbours who've let us use their two snow shovels for the last three days.
I'm also grateful to my kids. They've spent hours helping me shovel the driveway and the neighbours footpaths. They've helped keep the house clean and have played and done everything I've asked them. My kids are so great man. Sure they fight, but they're good kids who love and care about me. I'm glad they're turning into hard workers, they'll rise above others because of this ethic they're developing and hopefully be able to help others even more. I love them. They're good people.

What inspires me

This week what inspires me is Utah's snow control. When they had 2 feet drop over Christmas all the streets were plowed and ready to drive on within hours. Here in Boise the streets haven't been touched and a lot of people can't even drive in their streets without getting stuck. That's crazy to me. Say what you want about Utah, but that state knows how to take care of their roads in a huge storm and that's inspiring. Do you think Utah takes more cash from their tax bank to do this? It didn't seem like they did? Is it just organization, equipment? Who knows, but the difference between snow control between Bountiful and Boise is 100%.

How I'm practicing my faith

I taught a lesson the other day on Heavenly Father. It was nice to study for and nice to teach. I enjoy teaching these youth and having their feedback about topics. I have faith in my heavenly father. I always have and I love this. My faith is built on the basic's and I'm grateful. It's also built on my truth and what feels true to me. I also love this. It helps me move forward with faith and live my life that is joyful.

49th Baja 1000

Prologue

Driving/riding in a Trophy Truck (or any desert race truck for that matter) has always been a bucket list item for me.

Participating in the Baja 1000 is one step closer to fulfilling that dream. One of my best friends started desert racing several years ago when Marc purchased Matilda, a class 5 VW Baja Bug. Two years ago an opportunity presented itself to purchase a 2010 Lexus LX 570, built by the Geiser Brothers (one of the best desert race truck builders in the industry).

Soon after the purchase, they replaced the front fenders, grill, and bumper, turning it back into a 200 series Land Cruiser. Why? Because the team consists of Cruiser-heads. In fact, that’s how the team, Canguro Racing, got started. They were all a part of the Utah Chapter of the Toyota Land Cruiser Association—Wasatch Cruisers. And racing a Toyota was the perfect fit.

Canguro now races in the stock full class. Stock full requires that you run a production truck with the stock motor, stock transmission, and stock control arms. Meaning, the only real change is the suspension—minus the control arms, of course. With a suspension upgrade, they now have the travel to absorb two foot whoops at 60+ MPH. The 200 series Land Cruiser is a great choice for the Stock Full class because the stock motor is a 5.7L V8 that tops out at about 120 MPH on the smooth sections, not to mention the reliability of a Toyota.

Monica has over 20,000 race miles on her and she’s still running strong—a testament to Toyota’s reliability. Now, 20,000 miles may not seem like much, but considering the abuse of racing it’s more like 300,000. Monica is driven like she’s stolen every second she’s roaring down the dirt—pedal to the metal. Ask a desert race team how many miles they have on their motor since the last replacement or rebuild and their answer will not likely be in miles, rather months. Motors simply don’t last much more than 12-18 months before needing a rebuild. Unless, of course, you’re running a Toyota.

Racing the Baja 1000 requires more than a car or truck and a couple of drivers. Baja requires a team. When I say team, I mean team. Canguro Racing has 6 drivers/co-drivers and one additional co-driver (turns out Marc gets motion sickness and can barely drive the first 120 odd miles). But that’s not the entire team. Those seven couldn’t possibly make the 800+ miles of grueling desert terrain without support—fuel, repairs, tires, water. Canguro has roughly 30 chasers strategically placed around the course, constantly on the move, chasing Monica.

This particular race had 7 chase vehicles outfitted with spare parts, tools, fuel, tires, and 2-4 men (one women, Heather, made the trip this year). Canguro had two Toyota Tundras, two Toyota Tacomas, one 100 series Land Cruiser, one Lexus GX470, and one Chevy pulling the flatbed Monica rides down to Baja on. This year was a loop race—starting and ending in Ensenada Mexico—running 854 miles of some of the roughest desert and most scenic desert on the planet.

This year the stars aligned and I was able to join Chase 1 with my brother Ryan, my BFF Ryan—aka Mista Puggs, and mutual friend Topher. Mista Puggs drove third, so we picked up Will (second driver) at the first driver swap near El Rosario. Chase 1 is 2010 Toyota Tundra fitted with a drawer system, utility rack, offroad lights, tools, and spare parts.

WEDNESDAY—Travel.

Most of the team headed to Mexico the weekend before the race to enjoy the beauty of Baja and camping on the beach. Chase 1 arrived in Ensenada on Tuesday. I took a 6am flight on Wednesday from Boise to San Diego and took the bus/train down to the San Ysidro border crossing. Once I walked across the border, I bought a ticket for $11USD on the ABC bus line and took the 90 minute ride down the coast to Ensenada. Fast 6 was playing, but was a Spanish voice over. So I bounced between watching the driving sequences and the coastal beauty of Baja.

Using the find a friend app on my iphone, I was able to walk from the bus stop to the restaurant Ryan and the rest of them were eating. After finishing up lunch, my first priority was to find a pharmacy, which are hard to find in Ensenada—you’ll only find one on, oh, just about every corner. Melissa and her mate, Nydia, had a list of items that I was instructed to purchase and mule back to the states. Luckily my brother speaks Spanish, so finding the desired items was a breeze.

After shopping for pharmaceuticals and eating ice cream, we had a team dinner at a nearby restaurant. They reserved a private room in the back for a more intimate setting. Playing on the TV was Predator, in Spanish, of course. By the end of the meal, many of us were lingering so that we could see the end of Predator—after all, we all grew up with Predator. And, most, if not all, probably haven’t seen the film in over two decades.

Somewhere along the way, Canguro Racing connected with Juan Carlos—a fixer of sorts. Juan Carlos provided hotel rooms and security. Juan Carlos rented Hotel Cortez for the entire week of Baja. Several race teams, including Canguro Racing set up their headquarters at the hotel. Hotel Cortez sits atop a parking garage, and during Baja that garage is more like a race shop. A dozen or so race cars of varying classes were camped in the garage. But luckily, Juan Carlos arranged 24/7 security so tools and parts didn’t grow legs and walk away.

The hotel was just a block away from Baja Mil, the start of the race. This year, racers started lining up the night before contingency—safety inspections of each race vehicle. By about 11:00 the line made it up to the hotel, so we decided to put Monica out on the street and reserve our spot in line for contingency. Worried about the safety of Monica—she has tools and spare parts attached to her—we greased the palms of one of Juan Carlos’ security guards to watch over her all night. He happily obliged. Later that night, Mista Puggs went down to check on something in Monica and the guard came over hissing at Puggs. When the security guard is hassling you about messing with your own race truck, you know you’re in good hands!

THURSDAY—Contingency.

By the time we got out on the street, the line for contingency was about a mile long, maybe longer. I’ve never seen so many spectacular trucks in my life. Lined up behind us were two Toyota Tacoma race trucks. Part of Baja includes letting the fans, mostly locals, come and inspect your truck. I suppose it’s somewhat similar to dogs sniffing each other’s butts. The kids want autographs and stickers, or should I say Steeka. They come up all day saying, steeka steeka, steeka, steeka, steeka. I muled down 200 Canguro Racing stickers, we didn’t leave Mexico with a single one.

Breakfast consisted of street vendor churros and soda.

Once we reached the starting ramp, it was like stardom. Fans screaming behind metal barricades wanting stickers and whatever goodies the race teams are willing to throw out. This year Canguro had plastic measuring spoons and cheap sunglasses. You’d have thought we were handing out Ray Bans the way they reacted. Perhaps the most fun part of contingency.

Contingency took us a couple of hours to get to the inspection zone. While we waited for the inspection of Monica, the race suits and helmets, I spoke to a Japanese team. They were running a Geolander which is more suited for the Dakar than Baja, so it was somewhat intriguing for many. I spoke with one of their team members and found out that the driver was iron manning the race—driving all 854 miles. I always get confirmation that my Japanese needs work whenever I get the opportunity to speak to a Nihonjin. Someday I’ll study again.

After passing inspection we grabbed some tacos from one of the street vendors. Absolutely delicious, but I put on some pico that had large chunks of Jalepeno that lit me up. Puggs always teases that Ketchup is about as spicy as I can handle. That’s not entirely true, but I am soft when it comes to spice. After tacos, we cruised around and checked out the trophy trucks, including BJ Baldwin’s Toyota. Although the only thing Toyota about his truck is the logo.

Trophy Trucks are built from the ground up with 36 inches of travel and 800+ HP motors pushing 39 inch tires. The price tag? A cool million. These trucks are torn down to the frame after every race. Every bolt replaced, new shocks, and new motors. Very few are wealthy enough and lucky enough to run in the Trophy class.

After a little down time in the hotel, Chase 1 went out for a team dinner, more tacos and Fanta Fresa (strawberry) in glass bottles made with real sugar—my official diet for 4 days, with a smattering of Churros and Thrifty ice cream.

After dinner, Ryan and I headed across town to the BFG drivers meeting with Mista Puggs. Canguro Racing runs BFG Baja tires, which makes them eligible to register with BFG. Any team running BFG tires can register with BFG which allows them to use BFG’s 5 full service pits, radio relay service, GPS race map, and the BFG race book—the holy grail of the Baja 1000. The book contains invaluable information about the race course; detailed maps of the BFG pits, locations of access roads to the race course, and time tables about how long it takes to travel in between certain points on the race course, highways, and access roads.

On our way back to the meeting we noticed that Chase 1 had a noticeable whine. After some initial investigation, we thought it was a fan clutch bearing. We stopped at Autozone, Napa, and some other local auto parts stores searching for replacement parts. To no avail.

At 7:00 we had a team meeting. At the team meaning we discuss logistics. Dave puts together the logistics plan, assigning each Chase team duties and locations along the course. Safety is number one.

After the team meeting we went back to fixing Chase 1. Fortunately, Chase 1 shares the same motor as Monica, so we had the spare part we needed. Sure enough it was a bad bearing, but not bad enough that it couldn’t be put on Monica if needed to finish the race, so we replaced the part on Chase 1 with Monica’s spare and the Chase 1’s old bearing became the spare for Monica.

Friday—Race Day.

Breakfast was a little more upscale and a slight deviation from my Baja diet. I forget what’s it’s called, but it’s basically a shredded pot roast mixed in with scrambled eggs, served with hash browns and toast. It was delish. Marc was instructed to run all food choices past Ryan for approval. Remember, Marc gets severe motion sickness, so the team tries to monitor his morning food intake—staying away from diary and the like.

Motos and quads start the race at 5:30 am, starting every 30 seconds. Then, there is a gap to give them time to get out ahead of the Trophy class which started around 10:30 am. The race starts in town and quickly jumps down into a wash that runs through town and out to the open desert. We caught a ride with Chase 2, heading out to their assigned portion of the course, to a good spot in the wash to watch the Trophy Trucks, then the side-by-sides, Baja Challenge, class 8s, and then us—stock full. Watching these trucks roar by was incredible and I loved every minute of it. Once Monica raced by, we headed back to the hotel to jump in Chase 1 and headed out.

Our first assignment was to drive to Santo Tomas and monitor comms. By the time we got settled into our spot, we were hungry. Lucky for us, there was a street vendor selling pizzas. And damn fine tasting too. We sat and watch race trucks roar past while consuming our pizza. After an hour or so, the street vendor packed up her tent, oven, chairs, and tables. All in a tiny sedan. It was apparent that this wasn’t her first rodeo and had relocated her entire operation via this tiny sedan in one trip many times before. We kept watching, wondering if the entire shop would fit on this car. Sure enough, it did. It was quite impressive.

We got a call on the radio from Monica that another race truck had rubbed their back corner and wanted us to make sure the body paneling wasn’t a problem. So we geared up with Skinny Pete and Fast Eddie (a pry bar and 4 lb. sledge, respectively), and went course side to fix any issues. Monica came roaring past, but didn’t stop…the paneling was a non-issue. Back to Chase 1 to head out down the peninsula.

As we headed down Mex 1 in the darkness, calls over the radio indicated that Marc wanted out early. Yup, the sickness was in full effect. Come on Marc, you’ve only got a few more miles to the scheduled pit. But, at race mile (“RM”) 110, Marc tossed his cookies. Spewing is not normally that big of a deal, unless of course you’re strapped into a 5-point harness and wearing a helmet. That’s right, in the helmet. But, after that, Marc felt great and finished his leg.

I have no idea how you could continue to race with the horrible stench of vomit in your helmet, but Marc finished his leg. Will C who was co-driving for Marc jumped in the driver’s seat and Trent co-drove in Marc’s place. The co-driver is vital to the operation, responsible for navigating the course, check vehicle instrumentation, communicating with the chase trucks, keeping the go-pros clean, and watching the mirrors. If another truck comes up behind you and you don’t get out of the way, you’ll get nerfed (rammed). So it’s always a good idea to keep a close watch on traffic coming up from behind—especially if you happen to get a head of a trophy truck.

After rolling through a military check point, common place in Baja, it was time to grub. We bellied up to a taco bar and ate tacos to our hearts content.

After filling our bellies and the tank of Chase 1, we located our next pit, meeting up with Chase 3 and Chase 4. We settled in and set up for the incoming race truck. This was a full pit—refuel, torque the lug nuts, change air filters in Monica and the Parker Pumpers (the air system feeding the helmets), refill camelbaks, check bolts, trans fluid, oil, adjust and clean the lights, and a full driver/co-driver swap.

Each pit was assigned a pit chief. The pit chief made assignments. Everyone had an individual assignment (refuel, or change air filters, or torque lug nuts). You did your assigned task and then stepped away from the truck. Once everyone was away from the truck, they’d take off.

Monica rolled in at 10:30 pm and we quickly got to work. Pits have always been Canguro’s nemesis, taking too much time, sometimes as much as 15-20 minutes. This particular pit wasn’t too bad, under 9 minutes, but improvements could be made.

Monica would hit nearly a hundred-mile loop before pitting again, which was 40 minutes up the Mex 1 for us, so we drove up and settled in for an anticipated 3-4 hours of sleep. When you chase in Baja, sleep is a luxury and you take it where you can. We were pretty pumped about the prospect of getting some solid sleep.

About 45 minutes after settling in, we got a call from Chase 2—Monica broke an upper control arm. We quickly scrambled and got the spare parts needed off Chase 4 and Ryan, Topher, Will and I were off like a bride’s panties in Chase 1. Monica was reported to be sitting at RM341. As Topher raced down Mex 1, Ryan, Will and I poured through the BFG book and other maps to determine the fastest route to Monica.

Time is never on your side in Baja. Every minute counts. Especially when you’re gunning for a first in class finish. Last year, a refueling SNAFU and deep silt ended the race for Canguro, This year Canguro was determined to take the trophy off Rod Hall’s H1 Hummer.

We initially thought we could go to a close by BFG pit and give the spare part to another racer to deliver up course to Monica. But after lots of phone calls, radio chatter, and pouring through maps and the BFG book, we found an access road that would put us about 30 race miles from Monic. After 40 minutes from leaving our pit, we were on the race course. Now, 30 miles doesn’t sound far, but when you’re on a a gnarly section of course, you’re doing well to average 7 MPH. Despite Topher’s aggressive driving, it took us over 3 hours to reach Monica once we hit the race course.

We were driving against race traffic, but luckily the 65,000 lumens of light blaring from each race truck gave warning of oncoming traffic. Although we didn’t always have ample warning, there was one close call that required driving over a few cactus to dive out of the way. But, it gave me a moment to step outside and toss my cookies. I must say, tacos and Fanta Fresa makes for the most delightful spew, assuming of course spew can be categorized as delightful. Driving fast down the windy Mex 1 while reading the BFG book made me a bit car sick. Ryan gave me some nausea pills and then I was pretty good.

When we finally found them at 4:30 am we found Kurt and Puggs huddled around a camp fire next to Monica. Baja is freezing at night. They hopped in Chase 1 to warm up while we went to work on Monica. They had Monica jacked up and the upper control arm almost removed; they didn’t have a big enough wrench for the upper bolt. Fifteen minutes later, Puggs and Kurt were on their way again.

Puggs said it felt like they had a flat, so they pulled over to investigate. Good thing they did because they were likely less than a mile from wiping out the entire right side. Although Monica was back at it, we weren’t out of the woods yet. We had to hit the next checkpoint by 8:00 am or we’d be out of the race. And we were 140 miles behind the class leader, Rod Hall. But, at least we were still ahead of Ford’s factory race team running a new Raptor. We passed the Raptor shortly after we got on the race course, but they had to loop around behind where Monica was broken. We hung out for another 15-20 minutes after Monica barreled down the course, but no Raptor. As we were about to load up, Topher said, ‘turn all the lights off.’ Unaware of the approaching dawn, with the lights distinguished, we could see the beautiful silhouettes of cactus and Joshua trees. A truly serene picture, unable to be captured by our cameras. As we headed back down the course to the access road, the rising sun created more stunning views of this beautiful wilderness.

(Check out the sunrise in the reflection of the glass in the mirror)

It was 7:30 am by the time we made it back to the pit, Monica had already come and gone. But, we still had over 50 miles to the check point. 8:00 am rolled in and the check point started packing up. Chase 3 was begging them to remain open. They agreed to stay until 8:30 am. But that was still going to be tight. After some back and forth with SCORE, they extended the check point until 10:00 am due partly to the late start of the race and because of numerous race trucks still moving on the course (each race vehicle has a GPS tracker that tells the speed and location of each race vehicle). Monica passed through the checkpoint just before 9:00 am.

Chase 1, 3, and 4 all moved up Mex 1 to RM 520 for a full pit. This time, we pitted in about 5 minutes.

Our next pit was RM 720 and we had to get up there with the race fuel. We were looking at a 3-4 drive because we had to loop all the way up to Ensenada and then across and back down. Beating Monica to RM 590 was going to be tight. But, while we waited for Monica at RM 470, a spectator came over and started chatting us up. Turns out he does a lot of running around Baja and knows the geography like the back of his hand. He told us to take the race course and head straight over about 70 miles of dirt. Really? “oh yeah, the course if smooth. It’s a farm road just like this” pointing to the smooth ride road in front of us. After looking at some maps, we decided to take his advice.

Sure enough, the shortcut was relatively smooth and quick. We got over to RM720 in about 1.5 hours. Plenty of time to get some tacos and Fanta fresa. After full bellies, we wandered over to RM720 for our last and final pit. Due to the short cut, we had plenty of time to hang out and relax. One by one, each chase truck arrived at the pit. Lots of stories, jokes, laughter, and a few Zs for some. Some even pulled out the hammocks and cots. I was spewing I opted to leave my hammock at home. A mistake I won’t make next year.

At this last pit, Dave would swap seats with Darren, who would drive Monica home. We pitted in less than 5 minutes.

Although the boys kept closing the gap on Rod, we were still 50 odd miles behind and only 134 miles to go. We always knew that we’d have a hard time making up 140 miles unless the H1 had a flat or a breakdown. At this point the strategy changed and the goal was to simply get Monica across the finish line. Finishing Baja is feat unto its own, winning first in class is a cherry on top. But a cherry the team wanted badly after last year’s DNF (Did Not Finish). Canguro has a 4-hour lead on the H1 last year when they had to throw in the towel.

Everyone started heading back to Ensenada with a few stops along the way to monitor comms. We lost comms with Monica due to the mountainous terrain. And then our webchasers texted that the H1 was not moving. (We had 4 webchasers back home on Utah that took shifts monitoring the GPS trackers on us and the competition, texting updates as to who was where. This was often helpful because constant communication with Monica isn’t always possible, so knowing she was still moving was nice.) Come on Monica, answer…

The gap was getting narrower and narrower. Finally, we got word to Monica that the H1 was not moving. And just like that Darren and Dave went from 85% to 110%. We all hurried back to Ensenda to be there for the finish.

The GPS tracking has a bit of a lag and doesn’t refresh as quickly as you’d hope. Everyone was at the finish line checking the GPS. The H1 was now moving, albeit at 6MPH. Monica was hitting 20MPH and closing the gap. The H1 was 15 miles out and Monica was 30, but more than doubling the H1’s speed. A victory was still possible. It was like watching game 7 of the World Series all over again. Such a nail biter. Texting back and forth to the Webchasers and others at home, checking the iPad GPS feed…

Then, around the corner came…the H1. Damn. We finished 14 minutes behind the H1 class leader. Narrowing a 4-hour deficit to 14 minutes over the course of 500 miles. Another 30 miles of race and the results may have been different. We fought hard, but the control arm killed us.

the loss, we were extremely happy and proud to have finished another Baja1000—3 out of 4 finishes.
Turns out, Marc spewing in his helmet is a good luck omen. Of the last 4 Baja1000 races, Marc spewed every race except last year’s when they DNF’d.

So what do you do after finishing the Baja 1000? Celebrate with tacos of course! The team converged upon a favorite taco place a few blocks from Baja Mil. After 32 hours of racing, everyone was hammered. I laid in bed needing a bottle of water. So I texted Mista Puggs and asked if he happened by Chase 1 if he’d grab me a bottle. I was awoken to Puggs handing me a bottle of water. Apparently I sent the text about 30 seconds ago.

SUNDAY—Travel Day

6:00am came fast. I woke up in the exact same position I fell asleep in. I don’t think I moved once the entire night. Felt like I just fell asleep when the alarm went off. We wanted to try and get a jump on the border crossing before all of Baja returned to the states. Wishful thinking. It took about 3 hours to cross the border. More churros from street vendors as we slowly crept toward the border. Hordes of street vendors were there pedaling their wares.

Chase 1 dropped me off at San Diego International at noon for my 6:00pm flight home to Boise. Baja was an experience of a lifetime and I can’t wait to return…