I woke before dawn. Actually I'm not sure I really slept at all. The wind rocked my tent viciously all night. I thought I might be meeting the Tin Man and the Scarecrow soon. I was tired but I needed to get out of the wind so I packed up. All of my gear and the bike was covered in a thin layer of grit. I had to fiddle with the latching mechanism on my helmet's chin bar because it was jammed with sand. Riding through several sand drifts I managed to get back to the main road and found a petrol station. Despite the persistent wind, I really enjoyed the ride today. Mexico Highway One is a narrow ribbon of asphalt that carves its way down the length of the peninsula. I merged into Highway One about an hour into my ride thinking it was going to be a more major highway. It wasn't. It's two lanes but they are narrow and there's no shoulder (at all). The highway is built up about 3-5 feet above the desert floor to protect it from flash flooding. The ride took additional concentration because most vehicles would straddle the center line as the road dropped off steeply just beyond the white fog line. It was like riding an endless hog's back. The ride was never boring with the landscape constantly changing. I rode through a cactus forest with Saguaro and Mexican Giant Cactus towering over 30 feet high and stretching out as far as I could see. Baja is much greener than I imagined. I rode to the Pacific Coast to see the ocean and then back to the gulf coast. This required me to cross the mountains twice. The narrow highway at times was flat and straight and at other times plunged steeply into canyons and arced sharply around mountain vistas. I stopped for lunch in Guerrera Negro. I was really hungry after skipping breakfast trying to escape Hurricane Beach. I had a very patient waiter at the roadside restaurant. He ask if I spoke Spanish and I said a little. He said he only spoke a little English so we agreed “Nosotros trabajaremos juntos” (we would work together). And we did. It was fun. At about 3:30 I was rolling into Santa Rosalia (which was a colonial mining town). The wind, though not as forceful as it had been yesterday was still 20+mph. I opted for a hotel so that I could get better sleep tonight. I'm staying at the Hotel Del Real which is a historic hotel adjacent to the central square. It's basic but quaint and I had some very delicious roast chicken with pumpkin soup for dinner.