Monday, August 31, 2026

OH YA, I FORGOT:((

With rain still pounding on the roof in the night, I woke up thinking, 'I've got a lot of odd pieces of lumber stored away here, and maybe it would be a good idea for me to quickly throw some kind of an Ark together, and load up all the chipmunks, birds, frogs, and bunnies I can.  Of course, with my carpentry skills, we would soon all be up to our necks in deep water, clinging to scraps of wood and floating debris. Luckily, the rain finally stopped, and I saw the first slivers of sunshine touch down on the living room floor shortly after 8 a.m.:))  But, oh dear, my in-house weather station said we had 99% humidity.  And then the sun went bye-bye and the rain returned with a big 'Hello'!!

 BETWEEN RAIN SHOWERS I SLIPPED OUT TO THE FRONT YARD LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND SNAPPED OFF A FEW QUICK PICS
A week or so ago, I think I made an incorrect assumption.  I thought the Park owners were maybe (heavy on the maybe) extending White Cedar Drive to Bayfield River Road, giving the Park a third entrance.  With Park owner Adam still digging up the area around the previous owner's house, I think something else is going on, but I am not about to make another assumption about what it is until I know for sure what's happening.  The house had been 'For Sale,' but the for sale sign is gone now.

I know that sometimes in my blog, I probably go on too much about our past RVing days, and I think these past few rainy days have brought on another one of my laments, so bear with me here. Because of my love for the Great American Southwest and the fact that we spent 13 wonderful winters there (four of those years owning a house and property) and mostly boondocking our way around New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Utah, the ache in my heart and my desire to return someday is still with me.  I am reminded daily of our travels when Facebook sends me sites and memories of so many places we had visited in the Southwest, and especially of our time spent in Arizona.  It is uncanny how so many of those sites that Facebook sends, Kelly and I have been to. The memories of our time in those places tug at my heartstrings.  With these rapidly aging days upon me now, I know it is unlikely I will ever see all of our old familiar and favorite beloved places again, but maybe that's best, because without Kelly, Pheebs, Max, Checkers, and little Cora, it just wouldn't be the same, and I think the sadness for me might be too overwhelming.  And yet, I still long to return some day, to see the mountains and the desert landscape with its tall, stately Saguaros.  The clear, starry night sky with its zillions of stars from mountaintop to mountaintop.  The sunrises, the sunsets, the desert campfires.  I long to see the dusty little desert towns we once knew so well.  The camaraderie of fellow RV Bloggers, the friends we made, the twisting and jostling Jeep roads winding their way through the cactus, canyons, and scrub. We spent so many bumpity miles exploring old mine sites, ghost towns, and anything of interest we could find.  And I so much miss our daily morning walks and rock scrambles.  Every morning with the dogs, we were out walking. At our house in Congress, I would listen for the neighbor's roosters in the morning, the sharp calls of the Curvebilled Thrashers and Cactus Wrens outside the door, and the weebling  Gambel's Quails along the fence line.  And although not in Arizona, I do miss our many treks up California's Ghost Mountain in the Blair Valley to the Marshall South homestead.  Always a special feeling place for me.  Today, Facebook tossed me this site... 10 Walkable Towns In Arizona, and when I went down the list, Kelly and I had been to nine out of ten and the tenth one 'Williams' Arizona, we had driven by on I-40 probably half a dozen times while either coming from or going to other parts of Arizona, and especially our house in Congress.  So many stories and so many memories of all these places overwhelm my mind. By the way, you can access all my posts from the 'Blog Archive' gadget on my right-hand sidebar.  90% of our 13 years of RV travels are there, almost from start to definite finish.  Okay, I will try to hold off on any more Southwest laments for a while.  Maybe till the snow flies, when I'm sure at some point I'll not be able to help myself again.

Well, here it is, the last day of August already.  It's unofficially the last day of summer.  Next week, the kids will be back to school. The first few touches of Autumn may begin to appear along the tree lines; nights are already cooler, and on my walk between rain showers this morning I was accompanied by tiny grasshoppers and serenaded by crickets along the roadside and in the fields.  The days are already noticeably shorter, and night skies are gradually becoming a touch clearer in the cooler air.  It will soon be time to get my list out for loading up the RV and...................Oh ya, I forgot:(( 

 TURNING ONTO MY WALKING ROAD THIS MORNING, I SPOTTED THIS FAMILY OF 12 WILD TURKEYS
 WHEN THEY SAW ME THEY HEADED FOR THE SAFETY OF A FOREST ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROAD AND I PATIENTLY WAITED UNTIL ALL THE GUYS SAFELY MADE IT ACROSS
Al's Music Box:: Cry Me A River by Julie London.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A man was driving to work when a truck ran a stop sign, hit his car broadside, and knocked him out cold. A passerby pulled him from the wreckage and revived him.  He began a terrific struggle and had to be tranquilized by the medics. Later, when he had calmed down, they asked him why he had struggled so. He said, a bit sheepishly, "I remember the impact, then nothing. I woke up on a concrete slab in front of this huge, flashing sign. Turns out somebody was standing in front of the 'S' on the 'Shell' sign."

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I went skydiving today for the first time.
This guy strapped himself to me, we jumped out of the plane. As we plummeted, he said, "So how long have you been an instructor?"
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Just remember: when you go to court, you are trusting your fate to twelve people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty!!
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If you hold the soul of your foot up to your ear, you can hear the sound of your hip dislocating.
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A lumberjack told me he'd cut down 27,352 trees.  "How do you know you cut down so many"? I inquired.  "Easy, I keep a log".

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At the height of a political corruption trial, the prosecuting attorney attacked a witness. "Isn't it true," he bellowed, "that you accepted five thousand dollars to compromise this case?"
The witness stared out the window, as though he hadn't heard the question. "Isn't it true that you accepted five thousand dollars to compromise this case?" the lawyer repeated. The witness still did not respond. Finally, the judge leaned over and said, "Sir, please answer the question."  "Oh," the startled witness said, "I thought he was talking to you."

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Sunday, August 30, 2026

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU

THIS IS ONE OF ONLY TWO PHOTOS I TOOK TODAY WITH MY iPHONE
Rain came in the night and continued its wetness throughout the whole entire day, casting a gloomy pall over everything outside.  Not my kind of day, so I had to dig deep and be thankful it wasn't snow.  Never set foot out the door except to toss a few peanuts out for the poor little rain-soaked chipmunks. I hauled my exercise bike (it has wheels) out of the sunroom to the living room where I had access to my YouTube channel on the large screen TV.  I climbed aboard the bike and pedaled my way through a number of interesting YouTube things, with the main one being a two-hour documentary/interview with Bill Medley, who many will remember as the tall bass singer from the singing duo, The Righteous Brothers.  It was a difficult life, and especially so after his long-time singing partner, Bobby Hatfield, passed away in 2003.  I always find documentaries on musicians entertaining, and I enjoy hearing all the backstories of how everything came about in their musical careers.  And Bill Medley has a lot of backstories.  The interviewer is Mike Moreno, and the interview is a two-parter, with the second part being an interview with Bill's new singing partner for the past eleven years or so.  His name is Bucky Heard, and his story is equally fascinating and filled with more entertaining and amusing backstories. The documentary wraps up with both Bill and Bucky together talking about their lives, their future, their friendship, and their professional admiration for each other.  Bill Medley is eighty-six now and shows no signs of slowing down.  The Righteous Brothers are still performing for sold-out audiences.  And did you know that The Righteous Brothers opened for The Beatles on the Beatles' very first United States tour way back in February of 1964. 
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It has been a while since I last expressed my gratitude to all my Bayfield Bunch readers, who have stuck with me over the years, and the newer folks who have recently stumbled across my blog.  As I've said over and over through the years, if it wasn't for all of you readers supporting my musings, moods, silliness, and daily weather grumbles, there would be no blog.  When occasionally looking at my Blogger Statistics, it is beyond my understanding how and why my blog's viewership has grown the way it has.  Of course, like an aging old dinosaur, it has been up and running for two decades now, but I have particularly noticed the number of 'hits' on the blog has been substantially increasing over this past year.  I don't know who all you inquisitively good people are, but from my heart I say thank you for enabling me to continue my beloved hobbies of writing, photography, and travel, although my travels over the past seven years or so have been greatly curtailed since our previously adventurous RV days. So, before I go off on a long ramble, let me wrap this post up by simply saying, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you:))

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In regard to my Saturday post about not seeing my blog's sidebar on cell phones, several readers left comments and instructions on how to do that.  From Arrowhead Gramma...' On my iPhone 17Pro, when I go to the Bayfield Bunch, it doesn't show the sidebar. However, if I scroll to the bottom of the post in the "fine print" it shows "View web version." By clicking on that, it brings up the blog again with the side bar. Take care'.  From   From Anonymous...'About not seeing the sidebar on your phone, at the bottom of the blog after the comments there is a box that says home under it says VIEW Web Version click on it should show blog with the sidebar'.  Cactus Flower said,  Just scroll to bottom, click "view web version", change settings to "Landscape" & I can see sidebar. My  thanks to these fine folks tor their instructional help:))

Al's Music Box::  Scarborough Fair by Simon and Garfunkel.

 AND THIS IS MY SLIGHTLY WELL DONE TWO EGG AFTERNOON OMELETE
GROANER'S CORNER:(( "How was your game, dear?" asked Jack's wife Tracy.  "Well, I was hitting pretty well, but my eyesight's gotten so bad I couldn't see where the ball went," he answered.  "But you're 75 years old, Jack!" admonished his wife. "Why don't you take my brother Scott along?"  "But he's 85 and doesn't play golf anymore," protested Jack. "Well, he's got perfect eyesight. He would watch the ball for you," Tracy pointed out.  The next day Jack teed off with Scott looking on. Jack swung, and the ball disappeared down the middle of the fairway. "Do you see it?" asked Jack.  "Yup," Scott answered.  "Well, where is it?" yelled Jack, peering off into the distance. "I forgot."

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There was a very gracious lady who was mailing an old family Bible to her brother in another part of the country. "Is there anything breakable in here?" asked the postal clerk. "Only the Ten Commandments," answered the lady.

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- Why can't a bankrupt farmer complain?
He's got no beef.
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A long two-engine train was crossing America. After they had gone some distance, one of the two engines broke down. "No problem," the engineer thought, and carried on at half power. Farther down the line, the other engine broke down, and the train came to a standstill. The engineer decided he should inform the passengers about why the train had stopped, and made the following announcement: "Ladies and gentlemen, I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that both engines have failed, and we will be stuck here for some time. The good news is that you decided to take the train and not fly."

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