Chapter 11

Carla, Maria and I had a good trip back home, but found no other people on the way back.

We got home and discussed the people we found and their request to move near to us with the rest of our group.

Carla swayed our group with her appraisal that with no men that the village would have very hard times.

I had a big discussion with my wives telling them that I didn't want them looking for me any new women. Amy spoke up and said, "We will make that decision after we meet our new village members."

I said, "You are obviously not including me in that 'we'."

"Willie, you are too swayed by how much you love us and are not taking everything into account regarding the needs of these other people," Elaine explained.

I knew they had me outnumbered and decided not to fight, now.

We worked on our usual chores and planned on how to go get the other village and move them here.

One day, George said, "What about using a couple of school buses?"

We all discussed it and decided it was a good idea.

George and Deuce rode over to the bus barn in town the next morning to look around. They came back that afternoon very excited. "There are four buses in very good shape. They have tools and spare parts warehoused for the buses and they have a 2000 gallon tank of stabilized fuel.

I went over to the bus barn with Deuce and George the next morning and we began to work on getting the buses in shape for the trip. They were in very good shape and nearly new. We took out eight of the seats in back of both buses for luggage space. We jump started the bus engines with our truck, leaving them running to let their batteries charge up, we pumped some fuel out of the stabilized fuel tank using the inverter in the pickup. The fuel looked good, so we filled up the buses and the truck. George and Deuce put heavy-duty hitches on both buses the next day and we were ready to make the trip to Mexico.

We had all been practicing our Spanish in preparation for the trip. We hooked up two big stock trailers to the buses, filled up several coolers with ice, food and drinks, and headed out.

Everyone wanted to go except Earnest, and Joseph and their families. Ernie wanted to come with us; they let him. We left Joe to help with the stock and took Cass and Bob, along with the puppies.

These new school buses were very nice and would travel seventy miles per hour easily, even pulling the big trailers. My wives rode in Dad's pickup and led the way. Everyone was armed, since we all thought it was stupid to go anywhere without protection.

We followed our maps and made a cautious trip. We carefully chose our refueling stops and campsites.

After five and a half days of careful travel we came to the village. They remembered us and were glad to see us. Everyone was introduced, and we all met and had a discussion about them moving to our community.