Wowee...

I've been gone a long time. I am not traveling anywhere this summer except to Branson to work at The Shepherd of the Hills. Jacob is going to college in the fall and I thought I best stay in the US and save $$$. Plus because of the murder in Pakistan, the US has issued a world wide travel alert...brilliant. I'm getting out my maple leaf... More on the series "back to the Ozarks" later.

Burning Man 2010!

Well, I'm in panic mode as we leave for Burning Man at 2am Sunday morning. This is the latest picture from the blog post. I have been weepy for 2 days now...in a good way. I am so looking forward to being "home," but also a little nervous about the "getting there" part. I'm taking 2 students who I believe will really appreciate the trip. More when we get back...that is...IF I come back...

in Texas...I don't want to be an archivist...OK, wait

maybe I do. So for the last 4 days I have been going through moldy photos, receipts, and letters of a Tex/Mex tent show called Carpa Cubana, much like the Toby shows that I study. My Spanish is much better and I can almost read some of the letters. The cataloging (entering stuff into a data base) is very tedious, but the digging and thinking about the stuff and the making connections and assumptions is very fun. I'm not sure that this helped me necessarily, maybe it did. However, I think it will really help other scholars that have a better command of Spanish than I do. It's important stuff and now it is easier for them to find and work with, thank me very much.

My couchsurfing experiences have been great so far. I'm currently staying with a family in San Antonio that plays together in a band. They are such nice people. I'm glad to have met them. Tomorrow I'm off to Austin to see my friend, Jennifer, that I met couchsurfing last year. We are going to spend the 4th together. Big fun. Then I'll be heading back to MO. More later....

Couchsurfing is fabulous...

Last year I met such great people during my travels, through CouchSurfing.com that I plan to stay with some of them again. I just finished having big fun with a couple in Houston that I stayed with last year. This year I got to hang with them for more than 24 hours and we had a great time! Indian food, a fun drive through Houston. I didn't know Houston was so cosmopolitan. I am off to San Antonio tomorrow and will stay with another couple that I stayed with last year.

El Barba...

I had to post about this. There was a guy that was the assistant to the bus driver on the trip out there. Look at his beard...we called him, "El Barba..." I know beard is feminine. His job was to fan the door to the bus so that we could get some fresh air. We had 2 other Barba sightings during our vacation. We decided that El Barba was like Zorro. When he struck, all the surrounding body hair would be in a pattern. Jacob said that he wears 2 masks, one over his eyes and another over his beard....I guess you had to be there....

Guatemala to Texas..

Guatemala was really an adventure! I am so glad we did it, dysentery and all. I am glad Jacob got to meet new friends and see how other people that are so much less fortunate than us, live. The Guatemalan people were very friendly. Jacob told the mother of our family that the trip had changed his life...well, that was the point, so mission accomplished. The other mission was to interest him in travel. I hope he now takes a backpack and sees the world! He became really close to the family. We all cried when we left.

Guatemala City was not fun. The woman we stayed with was not nice. And we paid here twice what we paid the good family. I am going to write the school.

We got home at midnight on June 21, stayed there 36 hours (washed clothes and packed the car), then took off for Tennessee. I dropped Jacob off at the airport where he was going to fly to Florida (don't even ask me why that happened...), then I spent the night with my friend, Ginny. I got up at 5:30am and drove to Missouri yesterday for about 36 hours, in time to repack. I am sitting in the Branson airport waiting on my plane for Houston. Sheesh....

My car is FABULOUS!!! So comfortable to drive. I put my new kayak rack on my car and took my boat. It is SO nice to have an actual rack on my car. I don't have to worry about the boat falling off now. Since the Pacific took my ipod, I called XM radio because my car has a built in one, and asked them if they would do a deal for me since I had been a customer. They are doing 5 months for $20. Good deal, so I will have XM for 5 months. So, the car is really great and I LOVE it. There is so much room inside. I had 2 guitars, luggage, camping gear, all kinds of stuff in there.

My agenda in TX is Houston for 2 nights. I am staying with the couchsurfing hosts that I stayed with last year. We are ushering 2 plays so we can see some theatre. Then off to San Antonio to stay with a couple that I stayed with last year for 2 nights. Then I will move to a new couchsurfing place with a family. The mother is a high school theatre teacher and she travels with her 17 year old daughter. Should have a lot to talk about. I'll stay with them for 4 nights. Then I'm off to see my friend, Jennifer that I stayed with in Austin last year. She is having a big party for the 4th. Weeee!!!! the 4th in Austin!!! I come back to MO on the 6th. More adventures after that!

Hasta luego!

PS: note that I have on my "achiever" shirt on from The Big Lebowski!

Mi classe ultimo...

Last class today! This has been such an adventure. I have so many stories and so many new friends. We are leaving Xela on Sunday and they fly to SC on Monday. I will not have email or internet on the days that I am traveling. The blog will continue. I still have Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Missouri left to go. Hasta luego!!!!

The picture is of the family and Jacob in their kitchen.