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Just curious, anybody here read the book???




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Yep. I've managed to pick up about a dozen Baja books & counting. Good read.

Yes, came out in 1978... Nice read on how Ben took a break from his TV show during the Watts Riots ('65?) and drove as far south as they could (2WD) that year... near San Quintin, I believe... and how they caught the 'Baja Bug', got a 4WD truck... and began their adventures southward!

I first read the book probably 20 years ago. From time to time I take an old book down from the shelf and re-read it again, like meeting an old friend after a long time apart. Sometimes a book that will impact me in a different way from the first time, often due to the simple fact of maturing and life experience.

That is what happened to me with The Baja Feeling.

When the writer began to describe a beach trip they had taken outside San Quintin their description of the place became very familiar. I soon realized they were giving the exact topography and details of the beach just down below us. He continues on in that chapter to share their interaction with small children playing on the beach (including a boy crippled from polio), with their uncle watching them from the house on the cliff above. He gives the name of the small, crippled boy as Ricardo and then names his cousins playing alongside.

Ben Hunter and his wife Margie attempted to help the young boy and even brought down an orthopedic surgeon to see him, having made arrangements to operate on the boy in an attempt to help him to walk. Unfortunately, when they drove into town to meet with the boys father - Manuel, he turned down their kind offer and little Ricardo never had his surgery.

I know this family very well and confirmed the story with them. They all remembered Ben from the photos I showed them and were quite surprised to hear that their story was included in a book. Little Ricardo today is 52 years old and remains in a wheelchair. He has a small truck and gets around on his own having adapted the small truck to handle his wheelchair wherever he goes. His life has had many ups and downs but that happy-go-lucky personality remains.

The uncle watching the kids from the house on the cliff above? Our own Don Alvaro...

Great story! Thanks Ron...

Funny how our connection with a book can change once we discover a close relationship to the story. My friends here shared lots more about Ben and his wife and their trips down here to our beach that weren't included in the book. Makes the story even much richer for me...