Everything You Want To Know About Slow Baja & Host Michael Emery
Hey amigos, it's been a year since Slow Baja got picked up on Apple iTunes, Spotify, and Google Podcast. I wanted to take a moment to say a hearty thank you for listening. Since I launched the show, many have asked me about my Baja journey and what Slow Baja is all about. So since you asked, here it is, one year in, I swap seats with my intrepid editor, Christopher Keiser, and tell you all about me.
My first Baja trip came in 1984, just before my Freshman year at San Diego State University. An older cousin who attended SDSU invited me to have lobster down in Puerto Nuevo. We got pulled over on the drive home, he bribed the cop, and we continued on our way home. Welcome to Mexico. Regular Tijuana and Rosarito Beach drinking excursions followed, and camping on the beach in San Felipe was our Spring Break destination for years. At the end of one of those Spring Break trips, Ted Donovan, my roommate, and I decided to continue South. We piled into my old Toyota Corona and headed out -destination unknown. We slept under the stars, ate on the cheap, and had to scrounge beer bottles for the deposit money to buy gas for our return.
Fast forward to 2001, I'm married and have two-year-old twins and a four-year-old. My wife and I needed a break, so we quit our jobs, rented out our apartment, and took the family down to La Paz for an extended vacation. La Paz was way too hot for us, so we moved over to Todos Santos. We had a bliss-filled month puttering around Todos Santos before putting our minivan on the ferry to the mainland. We drove over the Devil's Backbone to Durango and onto Zacatecas. In the beautiful colonial city of Zacatecas, as the only gringos in town, we were warmly welcomed. We spent seven months there before reluctantly returning home. Mexico and the slow life bit me. I immediately began scheming about how to get back.
My Mexico adventuring started in earnest in 2006 when Ted and I took on the grueling La Carrera Panamericana. The 2000-mile La Carrera, also known as the Mexican Road Race, is widely considered the fastest, most dangerous vintage race in the world. We had the least amount of experience, the least amount of horsepower, and we finished dead last. On one challenging day, I said to Ted -if we ever figure out the La Carrera, we will take on the Baja 1000 in a Class 11 VW Beetle. We haven't acquired a Beetle yet, but in 2012 I found Slow Baja, my 1971 Toyota FJ40 Land Cruiser. Later that year, for Ted's 50th birthday, we drove down for a three-week adventure. We traversed the entire peninsula on dirt. It was my first off-roading experience, the FJ40 performed flawlessly, and I was smitten.
After driving the 3000-mile BajaXL Rally in 2019, I started thinking about starting a podcast about Baja. After guest-hosting Jim Reilly's show, I launched Slow Baja. Covid made my goal of recording every interview in person a little more complicated, but I am deeply thankful for all of my guests who opened their homes and their hearts for me. Here's to another year of sharing conversations and exploring Baja together!
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