I was in sitting in the CanDoo office after a long hot summer day, going over the daily report with Jimmy. Suddenly he looked up from the report, and said, “Kelly, I want to do an Off-Road Tour from Ensenada to Los Barriles. Do you think we can do it?” Since the word NO does not exist in my Vocabulary I immediately said, “Yes for sure! No problem!”
The next day I started wondering what I had gotten myself into, and how serious was Jimmy about this tour. Thinking this could be a great adventure, I went ahead and pulled the Baja 1000 Off Road route map off the internet and head south to get Posters made announcing CanDoo`s 1st Annual Baja 1000+ Off Road tour.
When I returned to the office and excitingly showed Jimmy the posters, a big smile broke out on his face and he exclaimed, “So we are really doing it!”. My response was, “When you say you want to do something, it`s my job to make it happen.
After one advertisement on Everything Los Barriles I had 5 people in the office within one hour signing up. And by the end of next week, we had the tour full. So the planning began, I took over the logistics of the Hotels, food and clients` travel plans. Jimmy went to work to get the tour vehicles ready.
Our crew headed north on Thursday November 19th with all the equipment and most of the employees from Candoo. They made the trip to Ensenada with all the vehicles and support personnel without a single problem. They even stopped along the way to help several people in cars that were broken down.
On Saturday November 22nd we had all the vehicles and the clients in Ensenada, ready to take off early the next morning for San Felipe with Jimmy Diaz leading the pack. Everyone was excited and looking forward to this first ever locally organized Baja 1000+ OFF ROAD TOUR. Each day the group drove 200-250 miles per day. Day 2 they arrived in Baja de Los Angeles where a beautiful Hotel overlooking the bay and special prepared meals were awaiting them. On day 3 the tour stopped in San Ignacio, then on day 4 Loreto Bay, day 5 La Paz, and day 6 they ended here in Los Barriles, an enthusiastic and happy group.
Our Honda Talons 2 seaters 1000cc performed beyond our expectations, without a single breakdown. We did have 2 minor tip overs, one of the clients that tipped over was asking for her phone while she was hanging upside down. We thought maybe she was calling for help…..but no. She wanted to take a selfie!!!
At the end of the tour, I asked each client if there was anything we could have done to make it better. Each client said, “There is not a single thing that we could possible complain about.”