Monthly Archives: June 2008

baja designs and last great road trip
In the News

For Immediate Release June 17, 2008

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Baja Designs Lights Up the Last Great Road Trip
By Last Great Road Trip
Dated: Jun 17, 2008

Last Great Road Trip receives support from Baja Designs. The folks at Baja Designs assist with the team’s need for off-road lights that will illuminate Last Great Road Trip’s drive down the Baja 1000 course trail.

Off-road adventures require a significant amount of support and planning, along with a little luck to be successful. A big part of planning goes into selecting the right equipment. The demands of driving off-road requires a clear view of the trail ahead regardless of the conditions. To achieve that clear view, means investing in a lighting system that can handle what ever mother nature throws your way including moonless nights, foul weather, pea soup fog and dust storms. In other words a lighting system capable of turning night into day.  Last Great Road Trip is please to announce it has selected Baja Designs’ LaPaz and Fuego lighting components to illuminate their way as they explore the Baja Peninsula.

According to Paul Thompson, the teams project manager and driver, Last Great Road Trip wanted to select a lighting system that could be counted on, no matter what. Paul said, “We looked for a lighting system with high quality electronics, crystal clear optics and a reputation for dependability. We found Baja Designs’ components met all our requirements, and their team has a real love for what they do and what we are attempting.”

At Baja Designs, Chris Chapman said, “When Paul contacted me and explained that his team planned to explore Baja following the 2007 SCORE Baja 1000 course coordinates I knew that we had just what they needed. Covering the 1300 miles of treacherous terrain would require driving deep into the night. Baja Designs Inc. president/owner Alan Roach and Baja Designs engineer Tex Mitchell have competed in the prestigious Baja 1000 over 20 times between the two of them. They are meticulous in their work and spend countless hours testing all of our products at night to get the optimal pattern and output. Being located in San Marcos, CA we are also able to test with some of the biggest names in off-road racing. After discussing the vehicle and the team’s needs with Paul we suggested a combination of our Soltek Lighting Systems Fuego 4” HID and LaPaz 8” HID products which would easily perform just as Paul needed.

Here at Baja Designs we love the people in Baja and their passion for off-road racing that is obvious even in the most remote corners where stickers, posters and photos cover walls in place of wallpaper. There is nothing more rewarding than swapping stories with the locals over a hot meal after a long day on the trail. We wish Paul a most enjoyable off-road adventure and are glad that he chose Baja Designs to light the way!”

Last Great Road Trip continues to shine a light on the need to dismantle bigotry and replace it with a celebration of our diversity. Thanks to the support of Baja Designs we will all see the way a little more clearly.

Making all these adventures possible, the Last Great Road Trip is supported by friends, family and sponsors along the way including:

Baja Designs – www.bajadesigns.com
Metal Tech – Protection… Evolved www.metaltech4×4.com
Metagyre, Inc – Project Management Experts www.metagyre.com
Taylor Made Graphics www.taylormadetshirts.com
Hula Betty Fans – WhereIsHulaBetty.com
Working Web Solutions Portland Web Design & Portland SEO Search Engine Optimization www.workingwebsolutions.com

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Last Great Road Trip is a series of off-road adventures taken by a team of explorers and shared with others over the Internet. The website, a social experiment in web 2.0 and a celebration of diversity, describes the off-road adventures, friendships, rants and raves on the road of life. Explore hidden trails, back roads and the diverse cultures that enrich this shared experience while adding your own comments to the adventure.
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How To Modification Info

Not Your Mother’s Headlights

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baja designs off-road lightsWhen we started planning for the Baja off road adventure we know we would need some serious lighting if we were going to explore the desert at night. Not wanting to take any chances we looked at a lot of manufactures’ lighting systems. After months of painstaking analysis and research, reading through magazines (looking at pictures), going through forums, stopping at 4×4 shops and talking to anyone who would listen, we decided to go with Baja Designs’ Soltek setup.

We choose these lights for their crystal clear optics, high quality electronic components, no-tool adjustments and a mounting system that isolates vibration. They also weep testosterone on the pages of Hula Betty’s magazine.

Need more information… How about our PDF write-up over on ISSUU on installing off-road lights to go along with the video.

Even more information… Must read, step by step Toyota Bulletins:

Relay DiagramAnother little tidbit that is handy to refer to is a relay diagram when you’re trying to remember all the different wires going from here to there. This is a nice reference:

If you still need MORE… drop us a comment with your question and let us know if you like the format and what we can add to help others when it comes to off road light selection and installation.

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everything else

Brilliance Is Just Staying One Step Ahead

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Every once in a while an idea comes a long that is brilliant. The idea is usually not revolutionary… but evolutionary, simple and elegant. The brilliance is in seeing what we take for granted everyday and raise it to a new level. Issuu.com is one of these brilliant ideas. Take a simple PDF which is already a good thing and a staple in document sharing. NOW… make it feel like a real magazine that you can hold in your hands, hear the pages turn and see the reflection of overhead lights bounce off the pages… Now you have something.

If you are looking for the obscure, hard to find or foreign rag try Issuu. These guys have made Internet publication very good and so simple. Look for Hula Betty to start publishing articles about Last Great Road Trip in Issuu.com soon. In the mean time check out a few of these.

white prayer flags
Celebrate Our Differences and Diversity

Road Trip For The Soul

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There are many derogatory and hurtful words in our language. I’m sure any number of them come to mind. If you need help starting this list, let me refer you to my sister-in-law who can start you off in a couple of different languages.

Now look through your mental Rolodex for words that embrace the ideas and skills needed to live together peacefully. This list takes some time. Even Google is not much help. Try “celebrate diversity” and you may find the Internet leaves you wanting. What is a socially conscious web surfer to do…

First relax, take a big cleansing breath and count to ten. Now type www. tolerance.org. What you find is a site dedicated to fighting hate and promoting tolerance. As a major portal for people interested in dismantling bigotry and creating communities that value diversity, tolerance.org offers you a seemingly endless set of resources. Some of these resources include:

  • 10 ways to fight hate
  • 101 Tools for Tolerance
  • Kits and handbooks

There is even a section that teaches writing without bias.

If you’re feeling very secure in your dedication to tolerance follow their link to Project Implicit. Scientific studies have demonstrated that even when people consciously commit to diversity, “mental residue” in our subconscious may still harbor negative prejudices that need to be stomped out. Project Implicit is a Harvard research project that is designed to expose the hidden biases so you can over come these unconscious hurdles. The Harvard study allows you to use the test in demonstration mode or commit to participating in the study and furthering their research program.

As we travel our road of life, all of us need to find words that express our individual celebration of diversity. Join the Speak Up! campaign and begin your own road trip to take a stand against everyday bigotry. A road trip for the soul goes beyond any marked road to where all forms of bigotry and discrimination are left behind, replace by peace and understanding.