‘Acres and Acres of Marijuana’ - Sept. 1973

Part 2 of 3

We pick up the story where TB went to go check out the area surrounding the jeep, so the boys could make a safe smooth exit. He wanted David to stay quietly behind for safety reasons while he made sure there wasn’t an ambush waiting for them. He was mentally and physically prepared to clear the way. David now will continue;

Minutes went by and then TB quietly approached my area and signaled me with my name being spoken softly, but clearly. He did the right re-entry approach so as not to freak me out and I told him later I appreciated that.
‘Let’s pack up and move out’, is what I clearly remember T calmly saying after he was just a few feet from me. So we began our all business like movements and that meant I was watching his back with the .38 still in the grip of my hand. It was like I went into another gear of protecting us, doing slow 360 degree moves, watching and listening for anything while TB quietly stowed the stuffed duffel bag full of the weed into one of those special welded steel compartments he created under the jeep.
This design blended neatly into the deep hollowed out framework of the jeeps under carriage, which practically came up into the back-storage area. Then he put all the picnic items into the back sunken well of the vehicle and then covered that up with the grassy and light dirt filled blanket we sat on. He didn’t bother to shake all the dirt out because of the noise factor but also because this blanket served like a duffel bag in its own designed way. He had taken the time months earlier to sew the total top edge from corner to corner with a thin rope inside, so to tie everything securely together inside it and then use it as a secure carry bag. Later on while driving I joked with him that he should market that pre-sown blanket for families to use for good wholesome reasons. He laughed and told me he liked my sense of humor but I told him I was serious, and I also said that I appreciated how he had everything so prepared and organized. .

Right from the get go I was impressed with the way he paid attention to all the details in everything he was involved in, and those actions would all come into positive play for our long future tightknit bond.
Now last to securely stow away, was the cut off shotgun. .
That bad boy had its own very secret compartment just like all the knives, except for one Bowie knife and the .38 revolver he carefully camouflaged and carried with him during the drive. TB explained quite simply later when we were on the road, ‘JUST IN CASE.’
That’s all he had to say on that matter, and I understood!

Now there was one last detail to take care of before we took off, and that was using the two fresh water canteens my adventurous good friend left behind in the jeep to wash off the greenish black camouflage on our faces and neck areas. T also came prepared with two fresh black good size towels that would easily soak and eat up all the camo colored goop we were washing off. Like I said, he was big time well organized!
About an hour into our drive back down the mountain, we passed this little cantina that had this outside well lit up pop machine, full of everything including something new to us, called Yoo Hoo.
It was too good to pass up and so as if nothing was out of the ordinary in our late evening drive up in the mountains above Acapulco, we acted like two crazy tourists who just stopped on bye to have us a couple of these Yoo Hoo’s, and let me tell ya, they were quite chocolatee and perfectly refreshing. You want to talk about hitting the magical taste bud sweet spot, well this first ever experience with this new drink called Yoo Hoo hit the mark that night for both of us.
Moving on, from there we continued our journey back down into town and just before entering the city dividing outskirts entrance kind of line, TB pulled the jeep deep into a thicket of a carved-out dirt and messed up rocky road, camouflaged by thick tropical trees with their long hanging wild spindly and bushy branches. You couldn’t see that jeep unless it was five feet right in front of you and only then if you were on the path, and make that fifteen feet if it was in the daytime. .

Exiting it, my buddy crawled down under the raised jeeps undercarriage and undid one of the metal hidden compartments, then grabbed the cut off shotgun and then his big arm came up from under the jeep and handed it to me, and then after that, he went for the weed filled duffel bag. The next thing I remember instinctively doing after all that was done was stretching my body, even with the slightly heavy weight of the shotgun in my right hand. Crazy to say but I was well aware of the shotgun and in full control of it while stretching out, but being straight up here, that was a big-time first for me, period.
I was so tight from all the physical and stressful hours of driving and other activity we undertook, that that reflex stretching action almost came as natural as you see your typical house cat stretch and do after they wake up from a long nap or deep sleep.
All the while, TB saw what I was doing and started to do a bit of the same motions as me, because I’m sure he was wound up and tight like a knot too.

Well so I digress a bit but I have to say we both needed that body stretching action and I know for a fact it really helped me out. After taking care of that physical maintenance, TB then took the hand gun from his back-side and said to me let’s switch, so he handed it over and I passed the shotgun to him. Then we walked single file, he leading the way with the duffel bag in one hand and the shotgun in the other. I was right behind him, watching his back and totally focused on the unknown that could be behind and all around us. I have to admit, it was a weird and scary feeling as we made our way to his hidden cabin, but it felt a whole lot saver having those weapons in our hands.

As we moved on, we walked through that entire dark jungle area about a fifth of a mile to get to his little abandoned shack. Once inside the place TB with his amazing eye sight and familiarity of the room went right over to a shelf across from the door and reached up and grabbed an old flashlight. He quickly turned it on and then handed it to me and told me where to point it. Once we had our bearings we hung the fresh cut weed on the thin ropes that he had used obviously before and he explained to me that the weed would need about four days to dry and cure and then would be ready to test. .

Somewhere along the line of finishing up stuffing the bag at the growing site in the mountain valley, he placed that razor-sharp cutting tool first into that special sheath he originally had it in, then put it in the bag before we went up the hill. I never saw that move at all but it was just another point of not making a mistake and leaving anything behind, or of a long shot chance happening of cutting ourselves badly on it. Obviously, we weren’t doing the right thing snatching weed in the first place, but TB was right on point in every check and double check safe move he orchestrated for us to constantly do. .
After hanging up all the branches that were full of some very delicious smelling buds, he took the short shot gun and wrapped some thick burlap camouflage cloth around it and then placed it locked and loaded in a very safe hidden location. .
We were in lockstep just like the night began, this time each double checking for little things before we left the cabin. It was now time to leave and I went first and TB followed up and without getting into too much detail, he set a special cleverly camouflaged booby trap trip wire. This was a serious delicate operation and once it was rigged, if anyone tried entering his front door and didn’t release the tricky trip wire mechanism exactly right, well the best I can say is, they’d wish they didn’t drop by for a unwelcomed visit. .

Anyway, Nuff Said, so that being that, the next move we made was to head back to the jeep and quietly exit out of there through the thick jungle like terrain. We were watching and listening like hawks for any human activity or anything suspicious from front to back, to the sides and every angle you can imagine. T was weaponed up with the .38 in one hand and a super sharp machete in the other, and I too had a machete, but everything went smooth and once we were driving on the main road, I felt inward a big sigh of relieve, and I’m sure the big guy felt likewise. .

Somewhere along our drive back, I mentioned to TB that if we were ever to go back to that field again, I saw another optionable area to possibly enter that huge area. He knew exactly where the point of entry I was talking about and he liked the fact I was not just along for the ride, but he also taught me something I had no idea about, and that was, we wouldn’t be going back to that field because it was at its peak time and the harvest was going to go down very soon. .
I’ll tell ya what and admit something too, and that is before that day started I had no technical or growing ideas about Marijuana, so I guess you can say I learned something pretty important by the end of that night.

TO BE CONTINUED