Travelers and Pioneers

Pam and I were both born in South Carolina. There on the farm I was born on the barn was full of the relics of the past. Mostly what was needed in earlier times to service and maybe prosper. Even and old wagon that had rotted down and fell apart. It was for sure a simpler time back then but was it better than now. Maybe some pressure of life were not there as much as now with the media in your face like it is now but there were pressure there. Most people today don’t realize what part of people lives religion had in the past. When I stared driving a truck as a young man and making trips to other states seeing stores open on Sunday was different, people cutting there grass on Sunday. That did not happen in the deep south. There a lot of politics was based on religion. It’s changed now but thinking how it has changed how different it was in early times and the pressure it caused. People won’t talk about religion how it was at times in the passed because it’s a lot like racism and what they think people might think of them. It’s like most people won’t talk about racist’s root cause. I myself have lived as an old man now in my late 70s with Pam always by my side in lots of different places. Remember I said lived not just been there passing through. Had to deal with lots of people and lots of different races with where we were born and traveling like we have on our old sailboat. Prejudice a little now maybe but still open minded. People are in deep denial if they really do believe we are all the same, think the same and the big thing live the same. Being off our boat we left in the Caribbean and spending the summer out here in our little house out on the prairie this is where people were coming in the late 1800 to make a better life for themselves with maybe the way they were thinking back then. Listening to the spin we hear every day what did people think back then and why did they come here with the hard ships it took to get here. Was it religion in some way? Going to or getting away from it, or was it pressure from family and people always pushing, You have to be rich to have a good life. Pam and I have dealt with that our whole life living the way we love to live with people saying. “We live hard.” Living some what off the grid when we were younger raising our only child on a large lake in a log cabin Pam called a house and it was more house than a cabin we designed and built ourselves cutting the trees and going at it. The adventure was definitely there with that. Later living on our old home built sailboat we built people said we would never finish and we didn’t know what we were doing and we would never go sailing the pressure was always there.

Heading West

This is the out side rim for a large wooden spoked wheel. Maybe off  a prairie schooner. Prairie schooners got their name from the white canvas cover which gave the apperance from a distance of a sailing ship known as a schooner.

Here is and old rim off of of someone’s prairie schooner that could have made the trip out here. What stories it could tell if it could talk. Watching TV or movies is not history and history is written by people that can and in some cases do put a hard spin to it for political reasons. Control the mind, control the masses. Me trying to cut through all that I’m sure there was a lot of different stories with what really happen and over looking the hardships I’m sure was there. Just think about the adventure it was coming out here to the unknown in a wagon. Better life or not I would bet the adventure was there. Living for the adventure always we are getting older now but what we are working on out here could be an adventure. Explain more later.

                                        The Adventure of Life Goes On

Below is some items we found that the pioneers might have used:

This is called a single tree. They were used to hang up a larage animal, when someone was butchering a large animal.

This is a tool known to be used for installing  frowed wood shingles or shakes. It would have had a handle in it when used.

Summer on the Prairie

Still here in Kansas and not on our boat that we left in the Caribbean. Summers in the Caribbean are brutal and they are not set up to handle the heat like we are here in the US. Here where we are at our little house on the prairie for the summer the living is easy. In our blogs people say they like to to hear what it is like to go places we go. I heard a man one time say he had been to Texas and he was not impressed. He went on to say he flew into Huston and had a layover for a few hours so he and a fellow passenger went away from the airport and had lunch. That was it for him and he had seen Texas. Any one that has traveled much knows if your driving through a small town and you see a drunk on the street it does not mean it’s a town of just drunks. As far as Texas and how different it can be it will take a lot of traveling to see all of Texas. Pam and I spent some time when we were young crossing Texas pushing big rigs together as a team. Running from coast to coast just getting across Texas took some time. Texas changes more I think than any other state in the US as you travel around. So how could you say you seen Texas only being there for a few hour near the airport. Being here in Kansas is some what like what I was saying about what some places are like. It changes as you move around. I’m not fond of cities anywhere and here in Kansas the bigger towns all seem alike to me. Busy with lots of crazy people to deal with. We enjoy being out in the country when we’re here. This is one thing I like being here is small towns and what they’re like. Last weekend we went to a rodeo in a small town 40 miles from here. On the way we were laughing about the heavy traffic. Saturday evening and we met 2 cars driving 40 miles on the way on a state road.

Open country on a state road. Not a back road.

Cowboys getting ready to rope some steers.

Sunset at the rodeo. Everyone waiting for the bull rides. Nine attemps. No go. The bulls won.

This rodeo is typical of how it goes out here. Maybe 300 people there at least showing up for a rodeo in town where maybe 20 people live full time. Not a big crowd but it was a good rodeo. Some really bad ass bulls. There is something about rodeo and dirt track car racing every where but here in farm and ranch country, it brings out a different crowd. Boys with there Saturday night dates and lots of pretty girls. Girls dressed and looking so nice with well dressed clean cut men in western wear. It feels wholesome to me seeing this. Remember I said it changes as you move around. This is not like going to Walmart. So much has changed from when I was young. Even today Pam would not be seen out in public on a bet in what some people wear here or in these big town or cities. Living this far out is great for us. When Pam and I were dating 60 plus years ago not 50 but 60 years. She would be dressed up if her mother let us go for a short car ride.

Full Moon

Pam is a moon watcher. The full moon can be something to see out here with low humility and little light clutter. Full moon over the weekend so we went for a short truck ride out in the country side to watch it come up. Life is good and the living is easy.

                                        The Adventure of Life Goes On

 

Different Sounds

Along with the wildlife out here in Kansas there are other animals out here where we hope to spend the summer away from our sailboat that we left safe we hope in the Caribbean. Summers are really hot down there so we came out here where it’s easier to stay cool and we hope to go back to our boat in the fall when it cools off some down there. It’s never even close to being cold down there. As I was saying with the wildlife out here this is where the wild west happen in its day right here and just a few miles from our little house is some long-horns cattle on a farm we go by going to town. Long-horn cattle were a big part of the massive cattle drives that made cowboys famous in the days of the Wild West.

Long Horn Cattle

Another animal that is a problem out here but we find interesting is the coyote and they’re every where out here. The other night our son that can come up with some crazy deals he can make ask us to go help him bring a farm dump truck to its new home he just got in a deal. A 1966 Dodge dump truck. When we got it stared it ran terrible. It had been setting for years. Remember we are out on the prairie where very few people live. After dark there is very little traffic on most of the roads out here and most of the land is farm and ranch land. We had to take three different roads getting the truck home. The first stop sign we came to the truck cut off and the brake booster stop working and when he got it stopped it was in the middle of the crossroad. I was thinking about trying to pull it back a little but being out here we just went to work on it with flash lights. We found the problem after a few minutes and we were off again with it trying to quit running at times but as we were there working on it with it in the middle of the road in the dark. We could hear coyotes close by barking are howling or what ever it is they do and in away I was enjoying hearing them so close out there with us working on that truck and I was thinking about all the years cowboys were bedded down for the night listening to their serenade. I know coyotes won’t come in and harm humans but in a way it sounds scary the way they sound out there as I said, in the dark.

1966 Dodge, farm dump truck

Coyote

Most people, now live where they are never where lights can’t be seen. Out here half the roads are still dirt. For any reason you are out in the county at night out here, maybe on the side of the road for some reason it feels good being here with all this openest but in another way it feels lonely. That is another thing I think cowboys felt a lot on long cattle drives. Long trips out in the ocean makes me feel that way some-how sometimes. I hope I don’t shatter someones dreams about sailing out to sea that has never been out there but with any common since you know you are on your on out there. If something happens and that in it’s self if people are being honest adds to feeling of being more lonely than scared the way I see it. When I get my first glimpse of land after a long trip I do feel better and if it’s Pam on watch she will wake me up if I’m sleeping below smiling and talking. If you think it’s deadly quite out in the ocean it seldom is but things that makes sounds can get your attention quick when they come near our boat. One night off the Florida coast we, could not, see land but a flock of sea gulls stared catching small fish that were swimming in the light off the stern light as we were moving slowly along in the dark. That will get your attention with them coming in out of the dark catching fish and making all that racket. Dolphins coming to the surface close to our boat to breath anytime will startle you. I have already said I don’t ever want to mess with someones dreams but for those that have dreams of sailing into the sun set, being some where in the early morning or evening just before dark the call of wild monkeys in the jungles with you there on your boat will make you believe that dreams do come true. For the dreamer that dreams keep on dreaming. For the dreamers that dream and make it happen. The adventure of life is what we have always lived for. Building a real log cabin ourselves cutting every log on a lake and living there, raising our kid so he could experience living that way. Later driving big rigs cross country together as a team. Working nuclear power plants as a team and designing our sailboat and then building it and with people saying we would never do it. But we went sailing. In there some where was a lot of camping, fishing and hunting. Haven’t flown a plane lately, got a pilot licenses when I was 19 and we both love flying what we call rages, tube and fabric. We still ride our old motorcycle almost daily out here.

                                       The Adventure of Life Goes On

 

July 4th Kansas USA

It took ten years of our lives to raises the money and build our sailboat we been traveling and living on for the last 25 years and it hard not to miss it when we are not there on our old home made sailboat we designed and built ourselves the “Schooner Pamela Ann” we left in the Caribbean up a river in Guatemala to come our here to Kansas. Guess where the name came from?

Summer in Kansas

We are out here for the summer in our little house out on the prairie, in a place they call a town just about in the center of Kansas. Town of 35 people they say. A town that still has dirt streets. There is only one business left here. Its a grain silo for storing grain during the different grain harvests. It has history here with this little town once thriving. There was a Bank here, a Barber shop, a famous restaurant, a mechanic shop and a grocery store. All the things you would find in a trying small town. All gone now. The railroad once came through here and some of the trestles are still here but no railroad tracks left. They built silos along the tracks to pick up grain the farmers out here had for sale and you can see the silos still here if you’re anywhere close as you now have a road beside the silos that runs for miles through these little town out here. They are big and now you can see maybe three are more in a line before they disappear over the horizon as you travel along where they were built in the day of steam trains. Trains would haul the grain to market in the old days. The old hand dug well is still here for the steam trains that took a lot of water to run and belongs to the grain COOP and they sell water to farmers out here where their ponds dry up. Right now it’s dry out here and it seems to be weather patterns for now that change from year to year. We have been here when things change and it rains a lot and the main roads here have very deep ditches along the roads to handle the run-off water. If you run in a ditch our here and you will need help getting your vehicle out. How did we find this place and end up out here so far from our boat. Our son lives out here now after he was out here working and bought a place near here. Three miles from our little house and that’s close for out here. We road our old motor bike we still have out here to see him from New Orleans nine years ago. A rich farmer wanted to get rid of this house some way and we bought and we now tell people we bought it by accident. Truth is it was so cheap and so nice we thought it was a deal of a life time. Maybe in some ways it still is.

Changing Times

Things change in all people lives and Pam and I have had a wonderful life together 60 plus years married and things did change in our life from time to time in our life from us running away to get married with her just fifteen. I was a lot older at seventeen. Working in a cotton mill and had my own car. Her parents stopped us from seeing each other and when I finally saw her for maybe ten minutes after two weeks apart she said, “Let’s get married I’m ready. Make it happen.” And some-how we did. That day two thing still go through my mind sometime. I don’t think I have ever been that scared in life my on the way to pick her up from school before school stared with us running away and to make it worse we were not able to see are talk to each other for a whole week before we could go so all we could do was stay with the plan we made the last time I could talk to her and no one know what we were doing. When I saw her coming to my car smiling I was still scared but I could breath again and that I’m sure to this day, it is still the best day of my life and maybe the happiest, I have ever been. We been working the things we can’t control, ever since with us together. Maybe this house out here is a change in our life coming we can’t stop. We are getting older now I’m 77 and that somethings that brings changes in all people lives. But for now we’re keeping our boat our motorcycle and have no plans for a big change in our lives but maybe we will come out here when to is so hot where our boat is.

In Kansas July 4th

It is nice out here from other places we have spent the forth of July. Went to the parade here in Russell, Kansas a town near by, thirty miles away and it was over in maybe twenty minutes and maybe 200 people were there to see it. It felt wholesome in a way being in a small town like this watching the parade. Below are some of the pictures we made of small town USA at its finest.

                                                    The Adventure of Life Goes On

Even the horses get decked out for July 4th.

One of the floats. All parade particiants threw candy and toys on the streets.

The fire truck was at the end of the parade. The firemen handed out froze red, white and blue pop rockets. 

All decked out for the July 4th eating the pop rockets.

One little boy’s stash. His plastic bag blew away.

 

More Life on the Prairie

Rooter and rattle snakes. Sounds crazy but it part of life out here at our little house on the prairie. We came here off our boat we designed and built ourselves and have lived and traveled on for years. We left our sailboat Pamela Ann in the Western Caribbean to spend our summer out here to get out of the heat. We bought this little house years ago we thought we could flip and make some money. It’s near our son’s house and we gave very little for it but it needed some work. Remember it’s in a little town population of 35? The town has dried up over the years out on the Kansas prairie. Now that we are getting older we want to keep it. Most things are cheap out here, electricity, water,taxes and even food but in our long life of Pam an I traveling we have never found a place we could truly call paradise. Most young people don’t want to live out here. Miles to the nearest store. No pizza delivery out here. No good jobs near by. You want a soft drink you will drive 30 miles to get one from here. Then there is the weather. It can get hot and cold out here but this little house was built in 1953 for it. Our son doses heat and air so we have that covered. The biggest weather problem out here with very few trees is the wind. Most houses out here have trees planted around them as a wind brake. The wind can and will blow sometimes for days near 50MPH. Sounds like fun living out here.

Snakes

With all of this, Rattles snakes, lurking around out here where you least expect them to be. We had a thunder storm one night no rain just a lot of wind and lightening. We had just talked to our son to make sure everything was okay at his house and we were getting ready to go to sleep for the night. We got a phone call that night just after 11 o’clock. Our son was in panic saying, he was on his way to the vets office. One of his dogs had just got bit by a rattle snake. The vet is a friend of his. Our son said, he walked outside to take in some cool night air for a few minutes when his dog Suzy jumped the snake and it was now stuck to the side of her face. He got it off, Killed it. Called us and headed to the vets offices. She had a few bad days but is fine now. I think she liked the pampering she got but she gets plenty of love. She is an older dog now, she knows lots of words. She minds well, loves to ride and loves coming to our house the spend time with Pam. If our son is working and she is outside in the dog pen and it’s hot if we go over to put the other dogs in the house where it’s cool and she don’t want to go inside. If you say get in the house she will look away and lower her head. Say it again she will drop her head lower. Say, okay get in the truck then and she is at the gate jumping up and down ready to go. Open the gate and she is at the truck ready to get in. Sometimes when the weather is right we go by and get her and take her to town with us. She is never any trouble. In defense of the snake I have lived in the wild at times and love living near wild things. I know of no snake that will come hunting you to bite you. It’s their defense to try to get away. The dog jumped the snake. Our son could have easily stepped on the snake or got to close but most of the time if you leave wild things alone they won’t bother you. A few days after that there was bull snake in the dog pen with Suzy. Our son saw it and killed it. Bull snakes are not poisonous.

Bull snake

There was a huge hornets nest on the side of a old building where we built our boat, no more that 50 feet from the boat and when people came out to see the progress. When, they saw it they all wanted to help me get rid of it some-how. I would tell them to leave it alone that I put it there myself to protect the marijuana plants I was growing behind the building to stop people from going over there. I don’t grow or smoke marijuana or tobacco. I know a lot about nature but I have no idea how you can create a place where hornets will build a nest. I did have people say I was crazy enough to know how to get hornets to build there. Pam’s Dad was a beekeeper, I believe from being around bees they can smell you and get used to you being there and they will get uneasy if a stranger walks up to the hive. I never bothered the hornets and let them live out their lives. They never bothered me.

Rooster

As far as the rooster out here. It’s at our son’s house. Pam loves to gather eggs. He sell eggs. The rooster is just protecting his hens but Pam and the rooster can go at it sometimes. Her defense is a snow shovel she keeps near by.

Pam fending off the rooster.

Why do we love our time out here? It’s the new and different things we see and hear while he

                                             The Adventure of Live Goes On

The wheat harvest is still going on here in Kansas.