HaynMade hits the states Day 7/8...Part 2...TRAGEDY

*Due to the semi graphic nature of this post, please feel free to omit reading the following below if it is too heavy for you.  I was actually hesitant to post this, but I felt it was necessary to tell this story on behalf of my brother and for those who face tragedy in their lives.

After saying goodbye to my goddaughter,

My friend, her folks and my godson headed on our way to Colorado Airport.  While we were on the road there, I opened up my backpack and grabbed my phone.  To my surprise, there was a bunch of missed calls from my sister in law and my mom, and I was thinking to myself what was going on.  I also received a text message from one of my cousins, "I hope everything turns out okay with your brother."

In full panic mode I called my mom.  When she answered the phone she was full of tears and she could barely speak.  I told her, "Mom, what's wrong?"  And she barely uttered the words, "Your brother got into a car accident."  It was probably one of the worst feelings I could ever feel, getting news that something serious happened to one of my relatives and me being thousands of miles away from it all.  In my fam bam too, I'm the one who pretty much takes care of everything that goes on.  It was a really shitty hopeless feeling.

I pretty much broke down in the car and while I was talking to my mom, my friend put her hand on my shoulder and asked over and over "What happened, what happened?"  And like my mom, I too could barely mention, "My brother got into an accident." Because the news at the time was so fresh, to add more to the tension at hand, I didn't know what had exactly happened.  Man, that totally sucked.

I called my sister up and she too broke down, but I told her to gather herself and get to the hospital.  For me it was important to know what had happened and to get the report on my brother's condition.

Bless the powers that be that I was with the people I was with when I got this news.  My friend immediately jumped on the phone to see if there were any flights I could get on to take me straight home.  Uncle put his hand on my lap and prayed for me that everything would turn out okay.  Aunty who was sitting in the back continuously rubbed my shoulder, while my godson sitting next to her kept silent and respectful of the situation.

Back and forth calls continued between myself, my sis and my mom to gather the story of what had happened.  My brother was on his way into town to take care of business, and while he was on his way, a car heading in the opposite direction crossed the center line, hit my brother head on and two other vehicles in back of him.  To add insult to injury, literally, the guy who hit my brother fled the scene in another car who picked him up.  Witnesses said that they saw drugs in his ride.  Man, that's just @#$!'n messed up.

This is a pic of the fool who hit my brother.

According to witnesses, my brother coughed up blood and was knocked out.  The fire rescue team pried my brother out of his car and the ambulance quickly hauled him away.  There were also a couple of my brother's lifeguard friends who helped as first responders.  As they wheeled him away, our family got word from the ambulance team that my brother asked if everyone was okay before blacking out.

A pic of my brother's ride.

Meanwhile back in Colorado, I threw it out there to the powers that be to look after my brother.  Believe in what you want to when it comes to spirituality.  I called upon my ancestors to guard, protect and continue life  for my brother.  When I had done so, a hawk flew next to our car and followed us for quite some time.  It was a sign for me that things were going to be okay.

We arrived at Colorado Airport and after checking in, I told my friend that I'd meet her and her family at the departure gate, I just needed some alone time to gather myself.  She totally understood and let me know that she was going to continue to try n get me a flight back home from California.

I met them at the departure gate from Colorado to California surprisingly calm and collected.  We all took a breath and got a bite to eat, and while waiting for our flight I kept in touch with my sis who gave me a play by play update on the condition of my brother.

Our flight was ready for departure.  My last conversation with my sis before taking off was her letting me know that my brother had a broken left arm, a broken left leg, a broken finger on his right hand and a torn aorta to his heart.  He was on his way to surgery to mend the tear.  It was quite a serious operation and much thanks to the emergency team for taking my brother straight to ICU, if they had not responded as such, my brother would have bled to death internally from his heart.

We landed in California.  My friend jumped on her phone again working hard to get me an immediate flight home.  I too called my connections to see what was possible.  It became obvious for whatever reason that I was meant to stay back in California.  A lot of the flights back home were overbooked or would have costed an arm and a leg.  I told my friend and her family that not to worry, everything would be okay.

By then it was late Monday evening so we went got some grub from good ole In n Out Burger...mmm comfort food.  Also around that time, my sis let me know that my brother made it out of surgery okay.

The following morning to lighten my spirits, my friend's mom came over and brought some old skool figs of her son's old Star Wars figs for me to snap away at.  Her kind gesture got my mind off of stuff.  That night we all got some much needed peaceful and guarded rest.

We finished packing and then headed to The Crab Cooker for some lunch.

After our nice hearty meal, my friend's folks dropped us off at the LAX to return home.

Several hours later I was happy to be home.

Immediately after landing back in the 808, my friend's husband dropped me off at the hospital and I hurried over to my brother's room to see how he was doing.  Despite his serious accident and injuries, it felt hella good to give my lil bro a hug.  

**Update to my brother's accident: My lil bro is still recovering from his ordeal, but I'm especially happy that he's still alive with us.  He is home on a slow recovery and is still healing from his broken arm, broken leg, broken finger and mended heart.  

The guy who hit my brother to date has not been arrested nor has he been charged.  I've thrown it out there to the powers that be that the man who caused my brother's (and others involved in the accident) injuries will take responsibility for his negligent action.  

Trust...he's gonna get what's coming to him.

HaynMade hits the states Day 7...Part 1

The next morning,

I barely woke up, lol, and we headed on over to my goddaughter's apartment to say goodbye before she headed to class.  Unbeknownst to her, good ole Uncle HaynMade decided to throw some creativity and arranged for a special surprise.  I had her go on a scavenger hunt (a lot of people who know me know that I'm infamous for this stuff, lol) in her crib, haha and texted her some clues that lead her to a lil spending cash.  So here's the verbage to the scavenger hunt, along with the photos my goddaughter took upon finding everything, haha, hilarious.

"Uncle HaynMade, the creative one, ya that's his name.  My dear goddaughter are you ready to play a game?  5 little clues will be told so you'll need to use your mind, but by following them nice n carefully around your home 5 little rewards you'll also find.  The reward to your first prize should be easy to handle, go to the dining area and look under the tall pillar candle."

"Prize #2 to the bathroom you must go n be on it like a fox, your reward can be found there under the cornstarch box."

"To the kitchen you gotta head to for clue #3 you must look, glance at the counter there in one of the little books."

"I hope you're having fun with all of my clues, for prize #4 to your bedroom you must go n look for one of my favorite authors Dr. Seuss."

"I hope this has been fun for you from the very start, for your final reward to the living room you must go and look under this console home of Call of Duty and Kingdom of Hearts."

Needless to say, the goddaughter had a nice time with her lil surprise.

HaynMade hits the states Day 6...

After a nice rest,

We all woke up and headed to the hotel's restaurant (like the day before) for some buffet goodness, mmm, damn it was good stuff.

With my stomach nice n full n ready to explode I felt the need to go walking around and while doing so, I snapped a bunch of pics around the hotel's lounge n lobby area.

This eagle carving was jus' hella unreal, it's about 4 feet tall.

Photos above from the lounge/bar area...

And back to the restaurant I went n fiddled around at the table, lol...

After breakfast was done, we all went cruising in the area to check out where my friend's mom grew up in Colorado.  It's hard to describe, but the air is so crisp there.  And you gotta jus' love the landscape.

We arrived in a little town called Georgetown, an area super close to where my friend's mom grew up.  I was jus' amazed at the artistry in the architecture of many of the old skool homes and buildings.

One particular spot we toured to in Georgetown was the Hotel de Paris, now a historical museum in the heart of the area.  It was once owned from a Frenchman Louis Dupuy who ran this 5 star back in the day hotel.  Many of the hotel's furnishings from that time are still in the Hotel de Paris.  One pretty cool n trippy thing was that my friend's grandmother was once a docent for the Hotel de Paris, and when we went to check in, there was a bunch of stuff you could purchase in the lobby area.  One of the things we came across was a book on the history of the Hotel de Paris.  How's this, my friend's mom opened the book and to her surprise the page that she opened the book on was a photo of her mom.  How's dem friggen apples?!

After the tour was done we cruised around the little town, and there was such cool stuff to check out. There was an old hardware store, antique shops, little art shops, restaurants, etc. etc.

One shop that caught our attention was the Georgetown Valley Candy Company.  Man, it was almost like stepping into one of Willy Wonka's franchise stores.  There was jus' goodies everywhere

After visiting Georgetown, we checked out of our hotel and made the trek back to Fort Collins to continue our adventure.  On our way, we made a quick stop to where my friend's folks got married some 50 years ago, unreal...

We then stopped for some dinner at Panera, oh man, good stuff.

We then dropped off my friend's folks at the hotel in Fort Collins and by then it was pretty late.  Was the adventure over?  Hellllllll no, lol.  My friend, my godson and I headed to Walmart to get our shopping on for my goddaughter who needed a few food items for her apartment.  In true fashion of how my friend operates the word "few" is not in her dictionary, lol.  She totally hooked her daughter up with some major grub, haha.  Man, I was sooooo tired, I was leaning against the shopping cart in Walmart and fallin' asleep.  Haha, but I forced myself to stay awake jus' to make the most out of my trip.

After that was all packed away at my goddaughter's place n done nearly 3 or 4 in the morning, I totally crashed out, good times.