When I decided to start this blog and open the associated social media accounts, I obviously needed a name that was available on all channels. The first names that came to mind were already taken, be it in the .com domain or on one or more of the social media platforms.
After checking about a dozen names and not finding anything available, I started making a list. Every time a name idea would pop into my head, I would write it down. I ended up with a list of about 200 names, but a lot of those weren’t very good or were already taken.
After checking availability and choosing my favorites I was able to narrow it down to about 5 names. Once I had those, I asked friends and family to take a look at them and pick their favorite one.
The results were unanimous – everybody liked “Baja Moose” the best. It’s a name that sums up what this blog is all about really well.
Baja, as in Baja California, is associated with adventure travel, off-road racing, and motorcycles, among many other things. What does that have to do with me?
For starters, I grew up in Mexico and have lived there for most of my life, but on the mainland, in Guadalajara. My first trips to Baja were in the early 80’s, in my 1966 VW van. A number of years later my Dad bought a place in San Felipe that we would use as home base when going to the Baja 1000 and years later for family reunions.
Even though I have been into off-road buggies since the late 1970’s, my first Baja 1000 wasn’t until 1993, as a spectator. That race was a blast! Seeing as I was already racing in local races in Guadalajara, I figured that the next step was to race the Baja 1000, so the following year I returned to race it in my Class 9 buggy. Since then I have raced in Baja many times, winning now and then and even winning a pair of championships.
Besides racing Baja, I have also worked there, as a tour guide in race buggies and as part of the SCORE International Tech team, checking the race cars and trucks both before the race as well as at the finish line. After all these years going to Baja and being involved in off-road racing, I have met lots of amazing people there, Mexicans and Americans alike.
Because of all of the above, the Baja part of “Baja Moose” seemed like a good fit. As for the Moose part, here’s the story behind that.
My nickname has been Moose all of my life. Most guys that are called Moose are big dudes. I am fairly tall (6 ft) but not particularly robust, so I often get asked about where the nickname came from. It turns out that my older brother decided to call me Moose since I was a baby and it stuck. He was only 3 years old at the time.
When we moved to Mexico, Moose morphed into Mus because that is the phonetic spelling in Spanish. On my race cars I usually have a sticker that says “El Mus” which is “The Moose” in English – it’s easy to spot in the photo at the top of this article.
Anyway, that’s the story behind “Baja Moose” and the reason that everyone thought that it was the most appropriate name for this blog.
