Kansas Happenings

We have been back in Kansas two weeks now and here there is something going on all summer. Farmers markets, rodeos, dirt track car races, art shows. Most little towns have some street thing where they do something in the afternoon in the street. We went last week to Hays to a street art show. After the Civil War, Hays was a rough cowboy town. Here is some of being out here and for our friends back where our boat is, back in Guatemala. It was 54 degrees at night last week.

Here is a little girl playing the cello in the street.

There are statues every where of old cowboys. 

This is suppose to be a statue of Wild Bill Hickock?     Pam and Tim Jr

The town most of the time have places to relax.

This is suppose to be a statue of Wild Bill Cody?

 Old churches every where there is a town even if it a very small town.

There are more old cars and truck out here than I have ever seen any where we have been.

It’s harvest time out here now and it a sea of wheat in any direction you look.

Open Roads

We are still in Kansas. It’s 6 o’clock AM as I am writing this and it’s 63 degrees outside. This is a far cry from being in the Caribbean where we left our beloved old sail boat just a little over a week ago. There at 6 o’clock in the morning it was 83 degrees and almost 100 percent humidity. The humility out here is very low. There in Guatemala as we got on the bus to start our adventure north headed to the airport we were wet with sweat. Here a shirt feels good in the morning. There in Guatemala the wild life is a welcome sound in the morning. Here it’s morning doves and an array of other birds. There is very few people out here. Most are connected to farming or the oil industry. It’s almost strange to hear big trucks on the highway out here. They are so quite. You never hear a Jake-brake. Back in Guatemala they go to the US and buy old tractor trailer trucks and bring them south. Very seldom do they paint over the company name of the the old trucks they buy but as soon as they get them to Guatemala they cover them with lights and take the mufflers off and replace them with straight pipes. I have never seen a woman truck driver in any truck even pick up trucks in the Caribbean. Pam and I pushed rigs together for years when we were younger. Maybe all that noises they make with their trucks in the Caribbean has to do with their culture. Using a Jake-brake on level ground in the middle of town with a truck with no muffler I guess makes some men feel strong and covering your truck with an array of UN-necessary lights. I have no clew what that brings. It’s so quite out here.

Miles of farm land

 

We can see a grain silo in the far distance.

This Silo is on our way back to the house.

Driving it’s easy to get lost out here with so much open space so I navigate by watching for grain silos. Most were built along railroads tracks and are in straight lines. We ride our old motor bike a lot and most bike riders ride watching trying to not be hit by a car or truck but out here it’s the wild life that will get you. Deer are in herds out here and even a pheasant flying can be hard to dodge. As we have put in several of our blogs we had a mountain lion run down the road in front of us and us on our bike one time out here. With all we have happening we miss our boat but not the UN-necessary noise of the trucks there and the heat of the Caribbean. We will be going back in a few months and hopefully it will be cooler. As for the noises maybe we all would be better off setting off fire works at day light or maybe the quite of the morning is great. Either way when we are here it’s quite and there someone setting off a long roll of fire crackers is fun or at lest it makes Pam laugh.

Back In USA

We made it back to Kansas but these trips are some what tiring. We said we were going to blog each day so every one would know what it’s like to travel poor like us but this didn’t work out so maybe now we can give a little report of what happen now. We got up at 5am in the morning still in Guatemala and went back to work trying to make sure our boat would be okay for 2 months before we plan to go back. At 7 the guard at the marina carried us down the river in his boat to town to catch the bus. An old but modern bus with air condition for the ride to Guatemala City. There it’s already really hot at day light. After riding 3 hours we stopped for 20 minutes at a bus stop half way. They have real bath rooms there and food. The food is a gamble but this time we won and got something we could eat for our money. Fried chicken legs and fried potato chunks with hot salsa. Fresh fried pig skins to eat on the bus. 3 more hours with the bus climbing up to Guatemala City where it’s a little cooler. Cab ride to hotel. Got in big argument with cab driver that ripped us off and charged us 2 US dollars more than what he said. Supper was what we came to the Caribbean for. The food was simple but third world. Little slices of meat with rice and some kind of vegetable with the owner setting with us practicing his English. After supper it was walking back to our room . A clean room with a bath for $50 US. Most rooms are behind a locked gate. At night ever one sleeps behind bars locked up in Central America. The next day at 1:00 we were shuttled to the airport. There enough people speak English to get help if you need help but it’s challenging if you don’t speak some Spanish. We always feel better after getting through security where all you have to do is get on the plane. You can buy food in the airport but you pay the price. Now you wait. Loading the plane they put you in zones and load you when your zone is called. I have a pilot license to fly little four place air planes and this is useless being in the back with the rest of the cats they’re herding so all I can do is “time and distance” with my old pocket watch I still carry. I get the time from what the pilot says our in flight time is going to be and use the little map on the back on the advertisement of where they fly. I use this to guess where we are in flight. I listen for the step that is when they start their decent with the plane. To save fuel they climb slowly to start the trip and they glide slowly down on the other end. Pilot’s call this step when you are slowly losing altitude and keeping your speed up with the power pulled back. We flew into Orlando FL and sat there in the airport for 10 hours and the worst part was we had to set with our bags. Most of the time they keep our bags on connecting flight but not this time. One of our bags had and old home built tool box I built and shipped to Guatemala and now I was taking it back to Kansas with some tools they didn’t steel when we were robbed when we had to go for help leaving the boat on a sand bar in Belize. A wood handle blue grass hammer a very good hammer but really old, a saw set and a hand cranked scroll saw but the prize in the box was a real ship’s compass. The owner of the marina gave it to us before he left when he sold the marina. Our flight on to Kansas City, Missouri was full and the flight attendants were the rudest I have ever seen. On the ground now it was to just get our bags and leave. Found the tool box was breaking apart but the tools and the compass were okay. Now a 3 hour ride in the car to our little house out on the prairie in Kansas. There is a great airport in Hays, Kansas but so few people in Kansas there are no flights from Florida to Kansas. If you make the summers in the Caribbean you need to learn to sleep in your own sweat. Out here last night it was 54 degrees and a lot was happening. We will tell you about that in our next blog but for now I wonder how many people out here have a real ship compass in their living room.

Let’s Ride

Getting Ready TO Travel

Here is a side street in town with chickens and where kid play here in Fronteras Guatemala just off the main street.

We will be on a bus Wednesday headed to Guatemala City and fly out on Thursday to the US. We will be going back to a little house we bought in Kansas out on the prairie. We are getting old and having some where in the US to base our lives now is like insurance and to tell the truth it’s a big change to go out there from living on our boat down here and that makes it fun. Yesterday they brought in a dug-out canoe with crabs they had caught here.

Didn’t give us any but it’s interesting to see people still living in the old ways. We are very busy trying to get ready to leave. Here our old home made boat we built and live on sets at the dock.

We hope she will be safe here until we get back. If you read our blog maybe this time when we leave we are planning to do a blog ever day as we travel and let every one know what each day is like.