monday,may3,2004
news
the university daily kansan 54
5A
World traveler stops in Lawrence
Hitchhiker-author shares travel tales with readers
By Matt Rodriguez
mrdriguez@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Bryce Yarborough wanted to get away. He overdosed on painkillers and had recently divorced his wife it was his wake-up call.
— It was his wake up call.
"I was leading down a path o self destruction," Yarborough said
seni section
At 22 he grabbed his guitar,
what little money he had, hopped
into his Dodge Polara and began
his 10-year trip in the '70s and '80s.
his 10-year journey. Yarborough recorded his trip with a tape recorder and by keeping a journal. When he finished traveling in 1989, his friends and family wanted him to turn his memoirs into his book. So he wrote Close Calls: Narrow Escapes Living on the Road.
Yarborough shared stories about his travels and signed copies of his book at Aimee's Café and Coffee House, 1025 Massachusetts
St., and Borders Book, Music & Cafe, 700 New Hampshire St., on Saturday. He said regardless of not selling many books this weekend
he enjoyed telling his stories to his readers.
After getting arrested at the beginning of his trip for marijuana and hash in Canada, Yarborough was broke. He
Yarborough
was broke. He crossed the border and headed toward Oregon where he worked for a short time and then began hitchhiking again. Throughout the next three years he hitched rides or flew, when going to Hawaii, to all 50 states, hopping into any car that would stop.
into any car that would
Yarborough financed his trip
by working odd jobs along the
way. He would wait tables or play
his guitar on the street for money
to get him where he wanted to go.
to get him. While Yarborough said he had more close calls on the road in the United States than in any other
country, he said the one time he felt that his life was threatened in Morocco's Rif Mountains.
He made it to Morocco in 1983 with a friend he met in Spain. The two wanted to see parts of the country that were not popular tourist spots.
A man they met in Morocco took them to his farm. Yarborough had no idea the man grew marjuana and after giving the two a tour of his fields, he led them to a 15-by-15-foot room stacked with kilograms of hash.
Yarborough did the only thing he knew could get him out of the situation.
"I lied," he said.
The farmer mistook the two travelers as drug dealers and expected them to buy his hash. To get out of the situation, Yarborough and his friend promised to return from Spain with $3,500 — money they lied about having. The man gave them a chunk of hash up front for everything they had on them and sent the two on their way, Yarborough said.
While he traveled, his parents had no idea where he was and
they certainly didn't think the journey would last 10 years, Yarborough said. He would occasionally send them postcards, but they never knew where he was going next, he said.
Yarborough settled down at the start of the 1990s after meeting his second wife, Lidia Young. She said he was able to concentrate on his new adventure: family life.
"With his family he could really experience his heart as opposed to on the road, where you meet new people and just move on," she said.
people and join in an activity. Yarborough can agree. He said being able to say you feel one way about a person or a situation, and also being able to trust that feeling can get you out of a difficult situation.
Yarborough said he was happy now. Living in Overland Park, he has a wife, two stepchildren, two cats and a past he will never forget.
cars and a place "After traveling for a number of years. I feel the purpose of life is to enjoy each moment in your life not matter what you are doing," he said.
Edited by Meghan Brune
WESCOE: Alternative snacking options available for students
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
Students who frequent the terrace will have to find other places to eat. Myers said in place of the terrace would be a temporary operation in Wescoe Hall across from the printing center on the first floor. He said the stand would offer snack-bar-type food
would offer snack bar type. The hot dog cart on Wescoe Beach will have expanded hours, as will the food carts in the Art and Design Building and Anschutz Library.
Myers said he hoped to try to accommodate the students who use the area frequently by offering the extended hours and temporary services.
Ligeia Espindola, Quito Ecuador, sophomore, eats at Wescoe Terrace twice a week and said the Union would be her new lunchtime destination.
numeric design Espindola wasn't upset about the area closing before the end of the semester.
the semester.
"I'm excited," she said. "I'm sick of this food."
Jensen Duce, Overland Park senior, said they should have made the changes last year because she is graduating and will not be on campus to enjoy the new terrace.
"Any changes for the students are a good thing." Duce said. "It makes the school more attractive."
TAYLOR: Advocate dies at 89; memorial scheduled for May 16
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
said he visited with Taylor on campus a few times.
He said Taylor was talkative and determined.
"She was always willing to talk your ear off," Thomas said. "In all my conversations with her, I never got the impression that she was going to let old age — in any shape or form — slow her down."
Thomas remembered a time he and a few other students were joking and dancing in the Student Senate office this semester.
He said he turned around and saw Taylor watching them and laughing.
went back to work, but Taylor didn't leave Thomas alone.
"Later she walks by me and said, 'Never stop dancing just because someone is laughing at you,'" he said.
Taylor paved the way for women, but women's issues still weren't solved, said Beverly Smith Billings, member of the Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center Advisory Board and Taylor's friend.
"It's important that we carry on with those issues that she felt were important," Billings said. "And those are big shoes to fill."
A memorial service is scheduled for May 16 at the Lied Center.
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