Sunday, July 8, 2012

The end of The Long slow Hard,My Buddy Gary, and departure from La Paz

Well looking back at my last blog entry I see I have a fair bit o catching up to do. Please note that I sometimes have some space of time between internet connection. Not always a bad thing. OK the last 10 days on the hard were well lets just say hard! As you recall my buddy Gary Favor had had a trip to the hospital and after being back just 4 days indeed did have a massive heart attack. I was still up on the hard and his neighbors Stephan and Fred called me about 1230 on Saturday night saying that Gary was calling for me and to come quick as the ambulance was there and they needed help getting him out of the cockpit and down the dock. I threw on my long pants and nice shirt with closed toed shoes as is the custom when visiting the hospital. I got over there in time to carry the oxygen bottle and make sure we went to the hospital Gary wanted. I want to tell you a ride on Saturday night in an ambulance in La Paz Mexico is one to remember. 0-70 and back to 0 so many times I wasn't sure we were going to make it. Cars full of drunk 1st generation drivers pulling out in front or almost into the side of and about everything you could think of other than pull off the road and let the ambulance go by. I don't think there is any ill intent its just primitive 1st generation drivers. Many without drivers license,insurance, and very very few with any drivers Ed. All the way to the hospital the EMT was telling the driver to andele as Gary's vitals were thready and weak. The ambulance was equipped with all the equipment you could ask for and the paramedics were well trained and professional. We got there and they rushed him in to the emergency room and I just followed them in. I just naturally hung in to answer any questions I could when needed. We weren't there 2 minutes before Gary's hands went slack and he was gone. One of the doctors jumped right up on his chest and started doing CPR and after 6 minutes got him going again. That is with drugs and machines doing his breathing. About this time one of the nurses started giving me the eye and pretty soon they made me go to a waiting room.
Four days earlier I had made Gary give me the contact info for his older brother Al. So armed with this I started making the late night call from Hell. All I had was a land line number in Goodyear Arizona which didn't answer all thru the night. Finally at about 0730 I had a brain flash to call the cops in Goodyear and have them go to the house, which after explaining the situation they did. Turned out Al and Ann Favor were on the road at Eugene Oregon but thankfully a neighbor who had their cell number talked to the police and they got right back to me. Because I was the person who was with Gary the administrators came to me each time there was a medical decision to be made. I just kept telling them to do anything they could to help him and I was trying to get a hold of his next of kin. Al and Ann arrived the next day and did all they could including a angioplasty but to no avail. Gary passed on the third day in the ICU.

Meanwhile while all this is going on I am not staying on top of the last few days of the bottom job and shortcuts are being taken. I had to make the yard redo some things but in the end got a very good job for a very reasonable price.
Turned out that Al and Ann Favor were really nice people and so appreciated all I had done. Stephan on Veriazon had done a lot too including putting the first emergency room and such on his credit card.
They had Gary cremated and since Gary always wanted to go up in the Sea of Cortez I am taking him there. Gary's drink of choice was Early Times whiskey and water so I stocked up and headed out of La Paz with Gary aboard on his last voyage. Every time I go in somewhere nice I put a little bit of Gary there.
I am presently here in This cute little mining town Santa Rosalia. There was a big Copper Mine operating until the late 50's. It was french owned and operated and there is some definite french influence in the local architecture here. Eiffel built a prefab galvanized church and was the designer of most of the tall smoke stacks around Baja mining industry of the era.
I was up at the very good Hot Dog cart with some friends last night when I struck up a conversation with a young mining engineer from Tijuana whom answered several questions about a new mine being constructed near the old. This one is targeting predominately copper as well as I think molybdenum, gold and something else. A couple interesting points are the mine is 30% owned by Koreans and 70% Canadian.  Most of the mining engineers are American, the workers are mostly from elsewhere in Mexico and the quarters,commissary,entertainment centers are all built underground near the mine. They even serve alcohol on weekends. I think I might go up to the office here in town and see if there are tours.
I am planning to be here until Tue morning at 0400 as the wind is forecast to come back out of the south and I have 78 miles to go to San Fransiscito the first leg until I catch up with the rest of my friends on Ted and Brenda Firefly,  Tom and Jeanne on Eagle and others. Life is good and I don't miss work even a little bit.......
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