3
Old Hernandez asking me if 'I would go with him' was like asking a man lost in the desert, without any water for three days, if he would like a drink of water, sheesh.
Trying to appear nonchelont, I caught Lupe spying over by the kitchen door and signaled her to bring more coffee and rolls. She momentarily distracted Hernandez and gave me an opportunity to start serious talk.
"Where is the jumping off point"? I asked, 'Sahuaripa" he replied, "from there we head ------ for three days with the animals, to where the trail drops off into the canyon". "Ok then, we need two or three weeks of supplies and animals to carry them. Can we get them in Sahuaripa"?
"Of course, there is a group of our order there that will help us". "Fine, I replied," now for what we will need"------.
We spent the next few days plotting and planning, this kept Lupe running back and forth. I gradually assembled the equipment etc. Rechecked my old Studebaker pickup, bought 6 new 6 ply truck tires for it and rechecked the timing etc. She was ready to go.
As usual on the next to the last day I had some business come up that had to be done first, so I sent Old Hernandez off on the bus to
meet with his friends in Sahuaripa to arrange things at that end. Meanwhile I intended to take a short cut using an old road which was shown on the map of Sonora
Before he left, Hernandez appeared dragging a lanky, kinda unkempt guy, which he introduced as a fellow Hallelujah, saying that he would appreciate it if I took him to Sahuaripa. Of course I had to agree, although the pore truck was already overloaded.
So the big day finally arrived and off we went.
Within a few hours I realized that I had made a big mistake, the map had shown a nice dirt, back road, but in actuality it hadn't been used for a number of years. Yes it was dirt, but overlain with years of sharp rocks from the flooding. About 3 hours late I had the first flat.
Now changing a tire in those days was a bit different from today. First I had to build up a platform for the odd sized jack to lift the truck high enough clear the tire, then remove it from the truck. Next I had to separate the tire from the rim using two large bars, not a very easy task, then pull the inner tube out of the tire casing , patch it, replace it, pound the tire casing back over the rim, then start pumping some 350 times to inflate it. Then of course finally mounting it removing the jack, a matter of between 1/2 and 1 hr.
So off we went for perhaps 20 minutes, sigh, another flat. Fix that, and on for another hr, perhaps. So it went all of the way to Sahuaripa for two days. My passenger each time would retire to the shade of a tall plant or cactus as sit while reading from a pocket sized prayer book, thanking the Lord for sending along this fine young man to repair the tires, not once did he offer to help.
Well after this hop skip form of travel, we finally arrived in Sahuaripa, my lazy guide located our host's house and we finally settled down for the Mexican habitual coffee for guests.
Hernandez very seriously leaned forward and said "I am sorry to give you bad news Don Jose but due to the drought, there are no animals to be had here for any price". Our host interrupted him and said "there might just be a chance, let me talk to the Obispo. Shortly he returned leading a blind man whom he introduced as the Obispo. He carefully explained our situation to the Obispo, who shortly said, "I am sorry my friends, we can only offer you my riding mule, and that for only 3 days. I have to make my rounds again. sigh.
Later I asked Hernandez who took the Obispo on his rounds, He looked at me, then sorta grinned, and said "no one Don Jose, he travels through out this part of the sierras alone, just he and his mule. the mule knows the way and the stops. I asked him how the Obispo had been blinded, he again kinda grinned, and said "He used to be the wildest, drunkenest hellraiser, and womanizer around here, then one day in the Sierras a lightening bolt struck near him leaving him blind. He then became a believer in Dios and joined our order".
About this time my lazy passenger showed up in clean new clothes and showed hat he now had some money. I asked Hernandez abut this, He explained "we believe that whatever we have must shared, if you appear in a torn shirt I must give you one of mine". So it turned out that my passenger was a parasite that lived off of these simple, but good people. Since our trip was cancelled for that year, I volunteered to take him back to Alamos where he was well known to relieve our host of his presence.
Since we could not travel on the paved highway because my tires were soo out of balance from the many patches, we couldn't
go over 30 miles per hr, I was stuck with returning the same way I had come. sigh.
The return trip was the same as the first ugh. I finally had to burn holes in the casing to pass 1/4 20 x1" bolts which I used insert patches to hold the side cuts together. Just before we finally reached a used dirt road, we had our final flat. I had enough and went to where my guest was sitting in the shade with his prayer book and drug him back to the tire lying on it's side and told him to take it apart, then went into the brush for a supposed sanitary mission - well a two finger signal.
About 1/2 hr later when I returned he was just as I had left him, leaning on one of the bars to take the casing off of the rim. When I asked him why he hadn't taken it apart so that I could fix it, he simply whined "I don't know how"? ths after a counted 27 flats in two days? sigh, I gave up.
Fortunately Lupe was still prancing around when I managed to reach home, and without asking, brought me a huge cuppa coffee. sigh 'heaven I thought as I sorta wriggled down comfortably in the chair watching Lupe doing her wriggle.
next try ---->