Yucatan Steam Train and Roadways

This old narrow gauge steam train that proudly pulled the products that made Yucatan the richest state in Mexico around the time of the First World War now quietly rusts away on a rail siding in downtown Mérida and is unnoticed by speeding highway traffic.

Not all was lost from those glorious days of Yucatan’s steam train travel.

Back in the early 1970s Walt Disney came to Mérida and purchased the last serviceable narrow gauge steam locomotives and transported them to his new Florida amusement park.  Four of these engines were restored to a state of better than new and two were used for replacement parts in a special machine shop designed exclusively for that purpose.

This photo was taken at Disney World in Florida. The painted and polished Baldwin locomotives spent a very hard life toting cargo and passengers through the jungles of Yucatan and was restored by Disney.  Jane and I had an enjoyable time at the Florida amusement park conversing with the engineer and crew that kept the rail equipment rolling. The engine in the photo is named Mérida. 

The Yucatan is full of many relics of those bygone years from the ancient Maya and the conquistador Spanish. These include sacbe roads, pyramids, and haciendas.

Pictured in this recent photo is a well worn wooden cargo cart with its tire tread wheels, wooden  saddle and henequin harnesses that will keep on pulling when this world runs out of gas.  

YUCATAN’S MAGIC –MÉRIDA SIDE TRIPS, read this fascinating book and discover the roads that evolved over the centuries beginning with the Mayan sacbe infrastructure, and visit the places the tourists miss most.

For more of Yucatan Roadways, click here. 
 

Sailing the Sea Islands, Savannah and the Waving Girl

Waving Girl: This statue on the riverfront in downtown Savannah, Georgia, commemorates the Savannahian Florence Martus, (1869 – 1943). She had lived near the Savannah River Harbor entrance and waved to every ship that passed -- for 44 years!

 

At the eastern end of the old waterfront warehouse district in downtown Savannah is situated the Waving Girl monument that relates one of the saddest stories I can remember. The Waving Girl had more significance to us after being told her heartbreaking story by a personal friend of ours who took her place. 

The Waving Girl story as related to us by Billie Burn from Daufuskie Island, South Carolina: Billie told Jane and I of the young girl, Florence Martus, who became known as the Waving Girl.  As we recalled the story; this young lady, whose brother was the lighthouse keeper, had a love affair with a sea going sailor who promised to return to his love.  Everyday this lady would go out to the lighthouse station and wave to all incoming ships in the hope that her lover would be returning as promised.

The Waving Girl passed her entire life in undying hope, and she faithfully met each ship with a wave looking for her lover who never returned.

Over the years, the ships came to expect the lady’s wave when they passed.    

After the death of the Waving Girl in 1943, the wife of the new light keeper kept the tradition of the Waving Girl alive by waving at each passing ship in the Savannah River. Billie Burn and her husband Lance were substitute light keepers that maintained the lights on the Savannah River and also along the Intracoastal Waterway.  When Billie and Lance were on duty, Billie took the place of the Waving girl and waved at each passing ship.

The Waving Girl was also the name of a riverboat owned by Captain Sam Stevens that docked downtown in the historic district on the Savannah River. Jane and I, in the following years, got to know Captain Sam and his boat when we, along with many of the residents of Daufuskie Island, South Carolina, took the once a month trip to Savannah aboard Captain Sam’s boat the Waving Girl.

I have written more of this fascinating story in Sailing the Sea Islands, Travels of Dursmirg, (Summers at Daufuskie) available in paperback and digital editions worldwide.

Read more. 

Sailing Beyond Lake Superior; A dreamboat becomes reality

In this collage of photos I sit at my drafting table and ponder the plan that will next become an inch-to-a-foot scale model used to loft the lines for the 46-foot finished vessel. 

The next photo is our wedding photo, then our sailing dinghy, and our dreamboat Dursmirg fully rigged and under way. Living out of the sea and off the land: 

Jane displays a flounder she caught and will prepare fresh from the sea. In the next photo I am blowing a conch horn, which is a sign of a seasoned Florida sailor, then our helm wheel, and a toast to a successful launch.

 Bottom photos: Our home designed and built multipurpose dinghy and Dursmirg, our floating home under sail. 

Read the rest of this story in Sailing Beyond Lake Superior: Travels of Dursmirg, available in paperback and digital editions worldwide.

Many a dreamboat has been scuttled by procrastination.