Safford, Morenci and Rock-n-Horse Saloon

Well it has been quite busy these past two weeks. Last weekend we all of the interns got to go on some mine tours to Safford and Morenci. The fun starts before that though. It starts on Thursday June 12 that is when we got off work and got a ride to Safford. The ride wasn't that bad only a little two hour drive and riding with the other interns made it go a little faster. Well anyway we drove to Safford where we were all staying and it is a pretty cool little town. There isn't much there but a lot more than what Silver City has to offer, like a bigger movie theater and more places to go and do things, but that isn't the point of this blog. Once in Safford we went to the Quality Inn where I was going to be staying with somebody I didn't know. I planned on taking a big dump and fumigating the room to get my own room for the night. That didn't happen because I wasn't on the list for a room, apparently the Quality Inn didn't get my information, so I had to stand around the lobby like a dumb ass waiting for them to figure out what they were going to do with me. Ha lucky me I got my own little casita and it was awesome I didn't even have to worry no damn room mate anymore. Now that I had my room the real fun started, I went with some other interns to the Rock-n-Horse Saloon. We went to get dinner but it turned into something else. I decided that I was going to order a burrito and double rum and coke. The double rum and coke there was pretty weak considering that when I went to the Watering Hole Lounge in Silver City the single rum and coke was really only rum with a dash of coke for color. The RHS had doubles that were okay, so I ended up ordering four of those while we were at dinner I got a buzz off of them but I figured what the hell that wasn't enough.

After paying for dinner and the drink at the RHS we, interns, decided that we were going to go and walk to liquor store. That didn't happen because we couldn't find it so we ended up at a gas station and bought a 30 rack of Bud Light. I know this isn't the best stuff, like I enjoy, but we were trying to be cheap. Once it was purchased I said I would carry it back to the hotel. The walk wasn't too bad and I wasn't going back to my hotel with the beer. We ended up at Isaac's room, he got a suite with our other room mate, I had to get everybody to get into the drinking mode. So what is the best way to do it? Shotgun the beers, great idea by me, the five of us that were there shotgunned one each and then went back in. We waited about five minutes and then I said okay it's time to do it again. One of the girl interns wouldn't do it but the other ones did. I won this round of shotgunning as well. Same thing went back in and sat around for a bit no real accomplishments. Isaac then decided to challenge me to shotgunning a beer each with him having a one second head start, in shotgunning that's a lifetime, so we go out and I give it to him. Then I start I finished it a good two seconds before him. So I end up as the shotgun king for the night.

After the shotgunning I decided to call Dave, the other roommate, it was his birthday and I said I would get him a drink. He answered and was at the RHS, where else right? So I go over and meet up with him and I buy myself a Corona and go over and talk to him and some of his friends from Safford. Then I ask him what do you want to drink? He responds Johnny Walker Red Label shot, I agree. I decide to get myself one as well and we throw them back it wasn't too bad I don't usually drink Scotch. Then I tell Dave I will see him in the morning and I take off back to the hotel.

Night still isn't over I call another intern from another mine his name is Andrew and he tells me to come up to his room because they have a bottle of whiskey, I agree to show up. I go up to the room and I make myself a drink whiskey and Sierra Mist in a bottle, classy? Yes! it is. We end up leaving their room because Andrew's room mate was a guy from BYU and he said he was going to "bed" I bet he wanted some special alone time with his computer. Anyway back to the story the new group go and meet up with Isaac and the other interns in their room and we drink our whiskey mix but then we ended up in another hotel room where we were able to be a little louder and it got a bit loud. After drinking there for awhile some of the other people decide it's time to go the bar again. This is where I checked out for the night. I do know what happened though but that comes into play in the morning. So I go back to my room and brush my teeth and then lay down and go to sleep. A lot of the night I kept waking up and looking at my door, didn't really know why. When I woke up in the morning I found out why I kept looking at it. I had left it open quite a bit while I was sleeping. It didn't bother me though I just woke up got dressed and went to breakfast.

At breakfast the stories of the night before filled the room like when Do Juan lays down some Sulfur in a small room. The people that went to the bar really late were there. One of those people was a girl, that was a hotel mate with Caitlyn, who is an intern that lives behind us. Well anyway that girl brought a guy home from the bar and Caitlyn said they went in the bathroom and there was a lot banging on the walls. This can be left open to interpretation, but I will help you so you can understand what happened. I think that they went in the bathroom and started some sort of a cage fight. This cage fight must have been epic because first it was done in a bathroom, it was a girl and a guy and there was pounding all over the wall. Usually in a normal cage fight it's a quick choke out move but not this one. There were heads being pounded into the wall and faces being pushed into toilet water. I then heard that the guy came out without pants on and she came out without a shirt on. So this only leads me to believe that they tore them off of each other while trying to win this fight. The other thing that leads me to believe this was a cage fight was because she kept saying my boyfriend isn't going to like this. Her boy must cage fight her at home as well, hmmm... interesting. Well Caitlyn left her room and went and pounded on Isaac's door at about two or three in the morning and slept on the couch in his room. Now this was just breakfast.

I actually sat next to the guy who cage fought with her. Here is the other reason it was epic the guy couldn't find his shoes, pants, phone or his keys to his car. They were all destroyed in the wake of the fight. Well anyway we went on a tour to the Central Analytical Service Center (CASC), the Safford Mine, The Process Technology Center (PTC), and the Morenci mine. The stops were all very similar so there really isn't much to talk about for them. Although I did hear that when the Environmental interns were in Morenci one of the interns got pretty plastered the night before and threw up on a girl while on a tour bus. I laughed on the outside and on the inside. Once we were done with the tour we had a dinner that we had to go to that was paid for by Freeport. They gave us tickets for two free drinks at the bar, the drinks got to be top shelf and whatever you wanted. Some people got Double Long Island Iced Teas, I don't really like them so I stuck with my usual, double rum and coke. Well we ate dinner and then we left back for the hotel, only problem was that tonight the alcohol was "banned" from being in the hotel rooms because some dumb asses were causing trouble the night before.

So I went with Dave and his friend to where they were staying and we started in on a 30 rack of Tecate. But his friend wasn't feeling well so we ended up going back to the hotel from the apartments we were at and had to smuggle the beer in. We didn't drink any more once we got back to the hotel, so Dave and Isaac packed it up to take back with us to Silver City, the next morning. I went to bed at a normal time that night so I could be good to go in the morning. The drive back didn't take too long either.

Once back at our apartments in Silver City I had a great idea to make a beer pong table and I had it all planned out in my mind. We went to the hardware store, little did we know that they don't sell wood. So after some thinking we went across town to the Ace Hardware store where wood is sold. Dave bought the OSB (plywood), I bought one saw horse, Carrie bought another saw horse. Then to Wal-Mart. Here Caitlyn and Isaac bought the beer and other supplies needed, a 30 rack of Keystone, not the best beer, but good beer pong beer.

Now back at the apartment we set up the beer pong table outside of our front door, it's not really a front yard. We played a few games and the neighbors kept watching us, they wanted to smoke their weed but didn't want us out there. So we moved the table inside once it got dark, hard to play in the dark. Anyway once inside every body got really trashed except for me I wanted to sit back and see how every body was when drunk. Tensions were extremely high once everybody got drunk. So then the party ended and Dave, Isaac and me were left. We decided to stab knives into the table and we did it. First it started out with a little four inch or so blade. Then Dave went out to his truck and got the big knife. This thing is probably a foot long maybe a little less. We stabbed the table with that for a while and I was stabbing beer cans with it, they were empty don't accuse me of alcohol abuse. Then our other roommate came out and bitched to us that were being to noisy, we didn't care because that's what he is good at is bitching. So we put the table up and then Dave and I watched some tv and Dave left once again. What did he come back with this time? He came back with his .45, I asked if we should set the table back up and start shooting it. That idea went out the window pretty quick and we just watched tv. I then decided that I was going to bed and that ended the crazy weekend because we didn't do anything on Sunday except a BBQ but nothing interestin.

Some minor details I forgot, not for the weak of heart.

Here is the post to tell you what I left out. Well last Thursday when we were leaving in the motel we went to the bar. The motel had two bars very close to it. One of the guys went there at about 3:30 pm this is right after we got home from safety training. I went and joined him at about 4:00 pm I figured I would have a few drinks then go get some dinner and go to bed. Little did I know things wouldn't work out like that. When I got there John, the guy I work with, was on his second coke and rum. I ordered a beer and we began talking. I asked him what he was drinking and he told me coke and rum so what do I do after I finish my beer? I order a coke and rum as well. If you drink them in Utah you can't taste the rum just the coke. Well in New Mexico it's a free pour state so all you can really taste is the rum, I think the coke is to just color it. Well we get to drinking them and then a guy walks into the bar and sits next to John, he has tattoos all over so I thought he worked at the mine because he looked like all of the other guys working there. He comes into the story a little later. John and me get to talking about current events you know the presidential race, oil prices and copper prices since we work at the mine. Well I saw the guy looking at us as we were talking but didn't really think any thing of it. I had to pee real bad so I went and took a real long one.

When I came back I noticed that John was talking to him now. So I figured I would talk to him as well. Don't quite remember what we talked about because I was quite inebriated at the time. The night went on and he told us that he had just gotten out of prison. He had just served 12 years in a Southern California prison I don't remember which one. He told me why he got thrown in the slammer. It was for drugs or sexual assault nothing like that, it happened in a bar a guy came and hit him in the back and it slammed his head into the bar and split it open. After he quit seeing stars he said he jumped up and hit the guy in the chest right near the armpit and broke two ribs and one of them punctured that guy's lung. Turns out the guy he hit was an off duty Orange County Police Officer. The off duty officer nearly died so I think he went to jail for attempted murder maybe? Well his name is Talen and we just got to talking and he knew that some of the people at the bar were watching him so he didn't try anything.

As the night went on we got to talking to him more and then he ordered a shot called “Hot Damn!” it’s a cinnamon schnapps that you put Tabasco sauce into. I will have to say it was very good and I would have another one in the future. Well near 9:30 PM Talen said he was going to go the bar across the street and play some pool and it would be closer to the motel he was staying at. John and I decided we would go with him to play some pool. So we asked for our tab the final verdict was Preston: 7 coke and rums and two beers, John: 11 coke and rums. These drinks were bought at The Watering Hole Lounge and Talen bought the guys who were watching him all night each a beer and the look on their faces was that you could say of surprise. Once we got to the drifter we went in the back where the pool tables were. The bar tender was a lady who was probably in her 60’s and she was one crazy broad. Well anyway Talen had told us that he wanted to go and meet his son in Las Cruces, NM but he needed $25 to get a bus ticket to go there or else he would just walk but he didn’t have enough money and was going to see if anybody would let him work so that he could earn that money he needed to get the bus ticket. John was going back to Las Cruces the next day after work and kept asking Talen if he wanted a ride and Talen kept saying no, he didn’t want a ride and he would figure it out.

At the Drifter we got to playing pool and John kept asking Talen if he could buy him a beer. Talen kept telling him no to that as well. So John bet him that if I lost to him in pool he would buy him a beer. By this time of the night Dave, the guy I was sharing a room with, was over with us now. Dave was wondering what John was doing and I said I didn’t really know what he was doing. Well Talen and I began playing pool and he said he hadn’t played since he went into the slammer but that is what he used to do all the time before he went in. Needless to say he was very good at pool still and though he did beat me, he did teach me quite a bit on how to play and make nearly every shot. So after I lost John had to buy him a beer and he did. Next John decided that he was going to bet him in another game in which he played Talen, it was if John lost then he would buy Talen two beers. Well he lost so he had to buy him two beers, but it didn’t work out like that Talen said to buy the two beers but split them between Talen and I, so I ended up with three more beers at the Drifter. Then Talen told us he had to go back to his room to get to sleep so that he could leave in the morning. This is where John made his last attempt to give him a ride to Las Cruces. Talen had told us he could draw and this is how John got him to accept the ride. He told Talen that when he was little he was in foster care and that his older brother could draw and that was the only way he could be comforted. Talen bought the story and accepted the ride and told him he would wait at the Taco Bell till 5:00 PM. Before he left Talen told John that he talked way too much and that he was scared of me because I sat back and listened to what was being said before just talking, I guess it was a prison thing.

Now we left the drifter at almost 11:00 PM and went back to the Copper Manor, John almost got ran over crossing the street. I was walking back with Dave and talking to him about what John was doing the next day, Dave didn’t know what to think about it either I didn’t really worry about anything. Once we got back to the room I decided that I was just going to lay down to try and get some sleep. Well it was kind of hard to get some sleep that night because John kept coming in and asking us if we had any weapons that he could take with him so that he would be safe. Our two rooms were joined by a door in the middle so he was able to come in when he wanted. Well I decided to go to sleep and I did but Isaac the other intern, who was sharing a room with John, told me that John called his girlfriend that night and she wouldn’t answer but he kept leaving her messages that she needed to wake up because it was a life or death situation. Apparently she did talk to him and was going to call the police, which I don’t see how that would work since Talen didn’t do anything wrong.

Now we got up to go to our last day of MSHA training and 6:00 AM came quite early that day. I wasn’t drunk when I woke up but my stomach sure wasn’t feeling that great. Dave drove him and I to training this morning, I just didn’t feel good enough for that. On the way we stopped and got some Gatorade and gum just in case we still did smell a little. All the day through training John kept asking us all if he should worry about giving him a ride, we all kept saying that he shouldn’t really be too worried because all Talen wanted to do was see his kid. The training went on and we had to give safety presentations and take the final test so that we could be MSHA certified. We all passed with perfect scores on the test and then got to go the Tyrone mine, we had done training near the Chino mine, and get our pit driving licenses. The pit driving licenses were just stickers that go on your hard hat. Then we got to go home a little early. John, Isaac and me went to Taco Bell after we got done working because were hungry, we got food there and Talen wasn’t there waiting for John. After we at we went back to the motel and I started watching TV and John decided it was time to go. He didn’t end up taking Talen to Las Cruces with him because he wasn’t at the Taco Bell.

There wasn’t really much more excitement for the rest of the weekend we just hung out and slept for the weekend. I didn’t have to work Memorial Day so I didn’t really do anything all weekend which was fine with me. Well I did go see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The movie was okay I was never really much of an Indiana Jones fan, but I did kind of like this one.

Busy week

Well I finally got to move into the dorms at Western New Mexico University. Last week we stayed in a little hotel called The Copper Manor Motel. I don't really recommend it to anybody, there must have been a few drug busts there because you could see that after the doors were kicked in they got bandaged up. I didn't have internet access that week so I haven't been able to update this thing, but I actually got to do some real work this week, well kind of. My first real day was on Tuesday but it only ended up being a half day because we moved all morning and that sucked too. The rooms we live in aren't that great there isn't air conditioning and as of right now there is still no smoke detectors in any of the rooms just wires where they are supposed to be. I thought this would be a step up from the The Copper Manor but boy was I wrong. At least The Copper Manor had air conditioning, fridge and TV. The dorms have nothing in them but a bed, dresser, desk and some internet access. Well getting away from the living situation and getting to the work side of things, work is pretty sweet. I already have about 7 projects that I get to do. Three of them are pretty big projects the rest of them are just things I can do in my spare time.

The biggest project I have is one with a feed pond that will lead into the SX for separation. What I understood from the description was that the turbidity of the feed pond is quite high so they can't keep much pregnant leach solution (PLS) in it. This is a problem because the stockpile that is being leached is a good ore and with copper selling for near four dollars a pound this is a good project to be put on.

Besides the projects I haven't got to do much yet. I did get two free lunches this week which I thought was really great. The first one was my first day at the SX it was steak, corn on the cob, shrimp and other foods. It was really good too and a lot more than I expected for a free lunch. The other free lunch was on Thursday and it was at a Mexican food restaurant called Jalisco's and it was very good too. I also got to take a trip into the mine and see some of the stuff in it. The haul trucks are enormous and so are the bulldozers and other tractors in there. In a big truck it makes you feel like just a little car.

Today I got to learn a new program that is the most time consuming thing I have ever done. The rocks in our stockpiles are supposed to have a P80 of 10 inches. This just means that 80% of the rocks on the stockpiles need to 10" or less. To use the program you have to get two scaling balls and put them on your stock pile and take a picture but the picture needs to be on a flat surface, hard to do when it is on the side of a hill. Well anyway once the pictures are taken you load one of them into this program called split image and it can actually use the scaling balls to tell you the size of the rocks. There is an automatic setting that will outline them for you but the picture conditions have to be low light and hardly any shadows. Not really going to happen in the mine so I had to outline every rock on the computer with the program. Took about two hours but I did get good data and they liked it. So we are going to start using the program in the SX so the mine will begin to blast differently and get smaller pieces of rock to try and leach.

Well as for me its Friday and I will probably just go to sleep early, well after going out to dinner for the I don't know what time since I left home. I never thought I would miss a fridge and microwave so much but all will be better once this weekend is over. Some of the room mates who don't live 12 hours away more like two are going to go and get some fridges from home and a microwave. This means we can save some money by not having to keep going out to eat.

First Day of Work

Today was the first day of work. This was probably one of the most boring days of my life there was absolutely nothing to do. I don't know how many forms I had to sign but there were quite a few and there is still training for the rest of the week. I will have to see how it goes I guess I'm not supposed to wear contacts to work but I can't really do anything about it since I don't have any glasses. Although they did send me to get some prescription safety glasses which is pretty nice since they paid for them but I won't be getting them for 7-10 days so I don't know when I will be getting them for sure. Hopefully it's seven days and not the 10. Well I am going to figure out what to do for the rest of the night. Early morning tomorrow for training at seven.

Last night in Utah/New Mexico Beginnings

Well last night was my last night in Utah for the next few months. I went with Kate to dinner and then we went to The Tavernacle. That was where the night really got started. We met up with Sean, Kyle, Adam, Jamey, Al, Matt and Taylor. Sean just got back from Australia so it was real awesome to be able to hang out with him before I left. Well anyway we got to drinking and talking and having a great time. The bills weren't too high but having to pay to get in is pretty damn ridiculous.

After drinking two or three beers I quit because I knew I had to be up early in the morning in for my drive to New Mexico. So everybody kept drinking but I still had a really good time especially when the pianists played some cool songs. After we left I took Matt and Taylor back home to Matt's house and then the panic started. Kate had lost her camera at the bar, so went back and we couldn't find it anywhere nobody had turned it in. So I took her home and then I had to get home so I could get some sleep for the drive.

I finally went to sleep at about three in the morning and got up at seven thirty and we left near eight thirty. The drive started out okay. Once we got to the Navajo Indian Reservation things were a lot different. I will refer to it as the "Res". While driving through the Res I never had seen so much graffiti. It was on everything the speed limit signs, the mile markers, hell somebody even spray painted something on the yellow lines on the road. The next thing that I noticed was there were beer bottles everywhere. They were just all over the side of the road. I didn't get any pictures but just imagine driving down the road and seeing beer bottles about every ten feet on the side of the road.

Well once out of the Res we finally got down to the Apache and Gila National Forests these were the final stretches to getting into Silver City, where I am staying. We got to the town at about nine fifteen at night. So the whole drive was almost 13 damn hours. I have never driven that long before in my life and I don't want to do that again.