DOB October 25, 1948

This week has been another milestone in our lives. Another big O has come our way. The really pretty girl I met over 54 years ago with her big hair and them long legs has turned 70. Met her on Halloween, she had just turned 15. Who could have guessed the trouble (If you look at it one way) we would soon be in. Or if you look at it another way the great love story that was about to take place. The trouble we would be in if you are looking at it that way was so bad in March the coming year “she ask me” to just marry her. She said, “Find a Way to make it happen and make this stop and we did.” Picked her up at school, lied about our age, went to Georgia. We were born and lived in South Carolina and got married and no “we had not had sex” before we married. We were both good kids and sex and having baby’s was not the problem. We just wanted to be together doing things and that seemed to be the problem every one had with us. Was that legal the way we got married every one ask even today. The answer to that is the same it has been from the night we came back to our homes from our little honeymoon to face the music. Pam’s mother was going to have me put in jail and have our so called marriage annulled. Pam as she will sometimes or maybe as she will do most of the time stepped up and said “No that’s not happening.” Remember she was just 15 and (I didn’t see that coming either.) Told her mother and every one in the room “No this is what we are going to do. Tim is only 17 and I don’t think you can put him in jail. We got married to stop all this and all the paper you can get signed won’t change this. We are going home and we will be back tomorrow to check on you and sorry if this hurt anyone but we are married now.” We walked out with every one going nuts. They even had their preacher there chiming in saying that even God was not on our side. March is coming and it will be 55 years this time around. Wonder why I named the boat “we built” after her like the old ship owners did in the old days. I just told you she will always stand up when needed and then again there is always the love story thing. Has life always been great? Maybe or maybe not. It’s all in how you look at it. We have done somethings we wanted to. We built a log cabin down on lake Greenwood. Cut the trees ourselves, raised our only child there. A boy now in Kansas hunting ,fishing and living the way we wanted down on the lake. Flew some nice air planes together. Drove big rigs (tracktor trailer truck )cross country together like I have said in other blogs, few women try that and maybe the not wanting to try is like the first time Pam drove a big rig through a tole both up north. I remember her saying “It won’t fit, it’s too big. She dried up her tears as we came out the other side telling me to stop making fun of her, that was scary. Maybe all we did before we stared going to sea helped with the scary. Maybe all we have ever wanted is being together and a little adventure. I’m glade she didn’t just want lots of money, if she had I would have been a wash out. Maybe today even if we are getting old now and still have very little money the adventure is still going on. If you read our blog you know a few months back we did a marathon trip. Sailing to Guatemala, bus ride across Guatemala to Guatemala city to the airport, flying to New Orleans and then riding our old motor bike to Kansas. 1160 miles one way. Now back on our old home built schooner “Pamela Ann” sailing around the Caribbean we are making plans to be back in the states next August to make the bike run to Sturgis, South Dakota to the big bike rally there with Pam on the back. Still showing her off. Still having the girl of my dreams with me and still going strong.

Pamela Anns at the dock Calypso Marina, Rio Dulce Guatemala

Happy to be aboard

Tim 17, Pam 15

These ships are not so scary in the daylight but it sorter changes at night.

Things in Belize

This is just some of the things going on around us in Belize.

One of the iguanas we see around the marina. (It’s green. It’s a girl)

The streets have been paved in Placencia, Belize now.

The locals like the plantains to be really ripe before they buy them. (Almost black)

Eggs set out in the stores in all of Central America.

You can buy a new bicycle here. This is Belize dollars.
With tax added it is about $300 BZ $150 US
In the US you can buy this same bike for about $50 US.

 

Dug-out Canoes

When Pam and I would dream years ago of going cruising, the thought of dug-out canoes would seen those dreams into orbit. Being down here if you are in the Rio Dulce river you see them all the time. Kids going some where to play with other kids. Old men fishing with just a hand line sometimes in really bad old canoes. Some painted some not. The art of building dug-outs is still used here even today but like everything in life there changing little by little to fiberglass. Some of the dug-outs have been fiberglassed over, some have outboards motors. The motor of choose here is maybe a 15hp they use on locals boats. Too big for a dug-out so even little motors need to be chained to something if your not using them. A friend of our and if you know us you know they like us are most of the time big on adventure but small on cash had his motor go bad and I loaned him one of ours. We have a 2 hp little outboard made up from junk and a 5hp we got the same way. He has an inflatable so we loaded him the bigger 5hp. In a pinch our 5hp will move our sailboat we live on at close to 2 miles per hour in a flat comb. Motor troubles and the wind with you, you can still go in and anchor with the dink strapped to the side.

Our 5HP Honda

Time pasted and I needed our 5hp back, we were leaving. Our friend was having trouble finding a motor he could afford. I was pressing him when he came by saying he had done some work or something and had a 3hp that was almost never used and soon I could have my motor back. Now he could not get his (new to him, used very little ) motor to run so I told him to bring it to me. Remember when I get a motor its always way past broke. Like he said the motor was like new just been setting for a long time. Cleaned everything, motor ran like new looked like new. Got my motor back. Everyone happy. They stole it that same night with it on his inflatable along with the inflatable. Found the inflatable the next morning motor less. We think they cut the inflatable loose from their boat and some how took it quietly away in the dark. They don’t like inflatables they call “deflatables” here because they always leaking air somewhere. Later he found a wore out old motor I got running for them and we left. Another reason they don’t like deflatables is they’re hard to row and worse to paddle. The local people here just can’t row, you can’t teach them, they say it’s stupid to set in a boat backward to the way your going and paddle with two paddles at one time. We even paddle different than them. They paddle most of the time on just one side by twisting their paddle. Sculling a boat here will just give them brain freeze. If you have never seen a person sculls a boat, they just move one oar from side to side out the back of the boat but the trick is in twisting the oar. Sculling takes time to learn and today you will only see it where the old way of boating is still practiced like wooden boat shows. Another reason for the lost art of sculling is the sculling oar is placed out the back where the outboard motor is on a dink today. I guess playing with your dug out is a lot like riding a bike in the US. You see small dug-outs here some times. My granddaddy would say you don’t need training wheels on a bike, never. The bike is simply too big for the kid. Today I agree with him. We have a friend back in the states that bought his little boy a bike small enough so he could stand up from the seat and hold the bike up at age 4 he was going and riding like the rest of the kids on the block. Maybe there is a lesson in that. If you’re going to live in the world of dug-outs don’t make your kids dug-out so big and watch them go.

Dug-out canoe

The locals in Guatemala use the real dug-out canoes everyday