Sr.vienes - 8-20-2017 at 01:36 PM
David K mentioned the Jimmy Smith mine story which I had read some years ago, well everyone has a Jimmy Smith story. Mine is the first time I met him
at Rancho Leonero's bar where he was trying to get a large wrench of his back from John Ireland, along with a few cold beers. We got introduced and I
told him where I was from and he replied that he had tried to get my father to hire as bush pilot to fly for the guano mine in the Grand Canyon and
dad had told him he would like to know who was starting all the rumors about pilot jobs. Jimmy then told me that he used to fly into Kingman for fuel
when he was flying pipeline patrol for ElPaso Natural Gas. I studied that unforgettable face (no matter how hard you tried) for a minute and asked him
if was flying a yellow Super Cub with chrome valve covers back then, he said he was. I told him I used to help fuel his plane when I was ten or twelve
years old. Baja was a delightfully small world then.
David K - 8-20-2017 at 02:27 PM
Wonderful. Keep the stories coming! The Grinning Gargoyle was quite a guy!
Sr.vienes - 8-20-2017 at 02:34 PM
Yep, keep his book right in our office bathroom. No matter what happens you will come out feeling better.😜
tiotomasbcs - 8-20-2017 at 05:11 PM
Where you been, Amigo? We love history and old stories... I bought in with your Eclipe recollection. Any stories about past events at Rancho La
Trinidad? Bless his heart. I'm such a newbie compared to the real exploradores! Thanks. Tio
Sr.vienes - 8-20-2017 at 07:06 PM
Sorry can't really claim to be a real long time Baja explorer. Have been going to Mexico for fifty years, started in mainland and my first Baja trip
was South to North in 1975. Like a whole lot of people I had a place in mind to get to and everything in between didn't matter. We were flying our
Cherokee 6 in th late 1980's and had a minor crash (there is no such thing) and decided to go back to driving. Started planning our trips with a day
or two extra to the East Cape and making side trips to places I had seen on a map or read about on a David K story and it has been the best thing we
ever did. We have been to little villages where people were living like they did a 150 years ago, with tears in my eyes I would beg my then young boys
to look around because this would all change soon, they recently have got it. Take a few days extra nobody has seen all of it.
David K - 8-21-2017 at 12:54 AM
