Water Everywhere

For Pam and I it has always been the adventure in life not how much money we can make. We are getting old now and as everyone has always said it would be we are old with nothing to show for our life but memories. Always just getting by but the adventure is still going on. I blame politics on inflation and everything is going up so are plane tickets so we took the cheapest flight we could find back here to our boat here in Guatemala. A far reach form first class. First driving 5 hours to Missouri to the airport. Having to pay extra for a heavy bag. Taking more tools back to our boat this time always working on our boat. First part of the flight no problem. Plane not crowded. Waiting in Orlando a mad house. Next plane to Guatemala begging for people to give up there seats. Over booked. Slow loading. A women left the plan like she left something. Now it was as they were waiting for her to get back or waiting on something as she came back and just as she got to the aisle she grabbed her heart and feel backward to the floor. Now they’re asking for a Doctor on board. Now it was an ambulance maybe but taking her off with a stretcher ether way. Now to get her bags. Finely underway. Late but moving. As we were climbing out the pilot said welcome aboard we may have a bumpy ride with the hurricane now going on into the Pacific side of Guatemala and a few disturbances ahead between here and there. It was a two hours and 32 minutes carnival ride. Going into the airport there in Guatemala City breaking through the clouds at times it was raining. As we came in on final in the rain with the plane being thrown around some we finally touched down a little farther down the runway than I thought we would and it was everything the pilot had he could use to slow the plane down and as he finely got the plane in a roll out most of all the passengers on board stared clapping hard and cheering. Remember I said most maybe all. Pam was looking at me as I did a little cheering myself. I would have stood up and cheered but with the cramped seats and my bad leg I knew better. Good plane. Good pilot. Good to be on the ground in Guatemala and going home to our boat in the Rio Dulce river. Bus not running on schedule after hurricane and high water. We were worried but on Tuesday the buses got back on schedule. We were happy going alone it was running again. Six hours riding on roads that were closed the day before with mud slide and wash outs. All bridges seemed to have trouble with the bus stopping before going over going very slow across all bridges. Makes you wonder. “What’s happening?” In Morals the bus had to back up and go another way. The road covered with water. Finely in Fronteras, now a cab ride to the marina. Cab got stuck going in the road before getting to marina. Now had to walk in with heavy bag in the mud. There water over walk ways and the dock just above water. No way to get to the dock with out wedding in need deep water and still have heavy bag. The palapa we rent to work in the floor was under water. Home at last. The adventure of life goes on. Inside the boat every thing just like we left it. In a mess with the work and stuff we were working on stacked up in the floor in the dry so we could go when we did. No water inside the boat anywhere and battery topped off and everything fine. Now to get back to work. We may be old but we have to work to live the way we have lived on these adventures for years. Now where we going to work with the palapa floor covered with water.

Day one of being back. Floor covered in water.

Have to walk in water off the dock.

Water needs to drop maybe just one inch so we built a temporary bridge from our dock to the palapa and now Pam can sew on the table doing customers sails standing in water one inch deep.

Today the water has dropped enough for the floor to be dry except when a boat goes by and water splashes up on the floor. We still have to use our little bridge we built,

Not a sailor’s dream working on sails standing in water but it is a way to get it done an adventure. We have worked on sails with people helping holding a tarp over Pam while she sews to get there boat going on a trip. As long as we can laugh it’s just another adventure aboard the old schooner Pamela Ann. Never a rerun day. Now it’s a cruising sailor’s pray. “Please let us get something done today. Just one little thing.” Life is good if you have a since of humor and a little crazy helps I guess.

 

Traveling to Guatemala

We are headed home back to our boat in Guatemala glad the hurricane is going to miss us there. We have been in a lot of Hurricanes. We have been in blizzards. Floods, dust storms, tornadoes even an earthquake in our life. We hope the weather is going to be good there. The weather is always a factor in traveling. We made a trip out here to Kansas years ago where we have a small little house out on the prairie from New Orleans and planned it well. Not too hot that time of year in May on our antique motor bike. Coldest year on record riding a motor bike 1200 miles. It’s all in the adventure. Coming here during the summer we hoped to get out of the Caribbean heat. It has been hot and dry here most days. One side or the other of a 100F. We came to get a knee replacement. Didn’t happen. I finally gave up. Every one has been saying it’s easy. Not in my case. Just asking two question seems to mess up my chances of getting this done. How long will I not be able to work. We can not make it on Social Security and what drugs will I need to take. Both question seem to bother them. The way this is set up you only see the Doctor the day before the operation. All the way you just see assistance. On the day we were to finally see the doctor we sat there for 3 hours waiting and when Pam ask if something was wrong the women said she was not there to see a Doctor when she tried to explain it was me the women rudely ask me if I wanted to cancel my appointment. We drove 50 miles to get there and was on time. Anything I said she would say sir, sir sir you what to cancel your appointment. Anyone that knows me knows if you threaten me I may react. I was reasonable in the way I spoke to her but I told her to cancel all of it and walked out. I will deal with it on my on for now. I can still walk and work. When I realize I’m giving to my leg I stand up straight and stop giving to it. Now we have all these bill for crap we went through to just get to see a doctor we never seen. Blood test. Chest x-rays. Test with just initials like E.K,G. Days of going to be tested for something. I have a birth day coming up in a few weeks and will be 76 and I work every day so we can live the way we do. Old but know you don’t always win. Here is one of the jobs we took on putting a headliner in a tractor. How big are tractors going to get? Notice Pam inside the wheel, taking a break.

Break Time

We love farm life and Pam loves feeding a calf rejected by it’s mother.

VERY GOOD

Notice the pet goat that climbed up on some lumber to look in and see what she was doing.

Fatso the spoiled goat

Peaches are in out here are local and good as you can get.

YUM< YUM

Shipped peaches even from the deep south are no match for these peaches. We will be in the air today and on a bus tomorrow trying to get to our old sail boat Pamela Ann.

                                    The Adventure goes on. Life is good.