Chapter 6

There were times when I wondered if it would ever happen, but finally we were off for San Juan to pick up Sra. Hernandez. Juan had already sent her a message explaining that we were coming and why. That way, she would not be surprised when we showed up.

We were also taking with us the four experts who had come to Los Angeles to try to upgrade the Osteen beer. I was amazed at how much progress they had made, and the beer produced in the Osteen brewery was the best quality locally brewed beer to be found in California. Their first improvement was to go to a new source of water. It was now possible to drive wells 200 feet or more into the ground and hit artesian water that was so pure that it sparkled like diamonds. There was an immediate improvement in the quality of the beer just from that change.

The beer steadily improved as the other changes were phased in, and the only thing left to do was to find better source of the grains used to brew the beer. That was an on-going proposition and could be done without the experts now that Jake Osteen could see what an improvement that had made in his beer. Therefore, the experts were on their way home, and were very happy for it.

They had been treated well in Los Angeles once Jake made it plain to his employees that they were to treat the visitors with courtesy. Three of those employees refused to get the message, so they were fired. It was interesting that the whole atmosphere of the brewery improved after those men were gone. The experts were going home with a nice bonus on top of their regular salary. The result was that everybody was happy. Juan was one of those people who worked at having all of his endeavors turn out that way.

The result was that Osteen and Mexicali Delight were the two most popular beers in Los Angeles, and Juan was negotiating with Jake to form a joint operation to export their beer to other nearby towns. I began to think that both men were soon going to be making so much money that they would be giving it away just to make room for the new money that was sure to come in!

We left the estate with peace reining in Los Angeles, and that was a pleasant thought as we headed south to San Juan.

The first two days of the trip were spent in getting things shook down and ironing out the few problems that we had missed before leaving Los Angeles. We had seven wagons carrying nothing but provisions for the humans and the animals. Of course, the chefs were unhappy to have lost their fine kitchen appliances, but they were learning to cope. They realized that, like everybody else, they were going to have to make some sacrifices during the trip, but since it was something that Sr. Juan wanted, they would just find ways to make it work. I hoped that before long they would feel that way about me.

We had three occupied carriages and two spares in case there happened to be a serious accident with one of the three occupied carriages. We were only traveling approximately 12 miles per day, so the pace was easy on both the vehicles and the horses. If we had to, I was going to push us up to 15 miles per day, but I was going to stop if it looked like we needed to go faster than that.

The three sleeping vans were also holding up well with no difficulties showing up with them. We had an eight-horse team to pull each van when it was in motion, and, of course, it was not in motion when it was occupied at night when the people were sleeping. I was surprised that none of the servants were put out one bit because they had to sleep in tents. They just assumed that was the natural course of things, and they went along with it.

We replaced our provisions as we passed through a community. Never did we take so much that it left a hardship with any of the communities. That left a good taste in everybody’s mouth, and they were looking forward to dealing with us when we returned in a few months. Oh, a couple of times, somebody tried to cheat us, but all I had to do to fix that was to wave in a couple of lancers to look threatening, and the cheater realized the error of his ways in an amazingly short time. I swear, those lances would intimidate me, even with my repeating rifle, so I could readily understand what was going on.

We ran into real trouble only once, and that was when we were south of San Diego. We were forced to stop when one of the provision wagons broke a wheel and it had to be replaced from our spares. We had almost finished the repairs when we were subjected to a shower of arrows. Thank God, a gust of wind came up and blew that first volley of arrows askew.

Nobody was hurt, and the women were ushered into the vans which were fully enclosed with a solid roof in case of rain. The women servants were sent into the vans, too, so that only men were left to fight. All of the men had clubs which they had been trained by Papa to use, so I figured that any Indian that got that close to us was in real trouble.

I took the six lancers with me, I had my rifle, to approach the Indians from the rear. I did not want to kill anybody, I just wanted to convince the Indians to leave us alone. Therefore, when the Indians heard the lancers charging at them with couched lances, the attack suddenly broke up, and the Indians rushed to previous appointments. As nearly as I could tell, every Indian dropped his bow and extra arrows to gain a little bit of running speed.

The lancers had been told just to scare the Indians. So they had a lot of fun with the charge. It was effective, and we were able to get the broken wheel replaced and to be on our way with remarkably little wasted time. A lot of the men were disappointed that they had not been able to fight, and I was happy with their spirit, but I was even more happy that nobody got hurt.

This was the dry time of year, so we had little trouble crossing rivers, even those that had water left in them. A crew of men with shovels could quickly construct the ramps needed to get us across any river or arroyo. That, by the way, was why I was limiting us to about 12 miles per day. That way, we did not have to rush unduly to get across rivers, and we had no accidents. We planned to come back this way, so we hoped our river bank ramps would still be useable when we came back. If not, we would just dig again.

The journey was a bit tedious at times, especially for the women who had no real jobs. The women servants were actually better off in this respect because they rarely had time to become bored. Rosita and Sra. Ortiz rode in the same carriage so that I had an opportunity to talk to Rosita whenever I had a spare minute. Sra. Ortiz was there to maintain the social decorum required, and she even took part in the discussion on occasion.

I do not know that I can say that I enjoyed the journey, but I can say that it was very educational. By this time, the servants had accepted me and no longer feared me as an unknown, so that part of my job was made easy. Every order that I gave was obeyed immediately, and the person doing the job could see the reason for the order and generally agreed with it. However, I tried to follow Juan’s practice of suggesting things to his subordinates and letting them give the orders. That generally made for a happy chain of command.

It was a happy day when we finally reached San Juan. Our caravan moved through the main street headed for the estate. Sra. Hernandez was on the porch to greet us, and Rosita ran to her for a very meaningful embrace, no, make that hug.

I, too, was greeted with more than social courtesy demanded. It was as if Sra. Hernandez had expected this all along and was celebrating the first stage of the completion of her plan.

That night, a great celebration of arrival was held, and the Mexicali Delight almost flowed like water. Other than taking care of the animals, the next day was to be a holiday for the travelers, and they would be catered to by the residents of San Juan. Everybody in town knew who I was, as the future husband of Rosita, so I was treated with the utmost respect and good will. I really had to work to keep all of this from going to my head!