I LIKE TO HEAR THE PITTER PATTER OF LITTLE PAWS IN THE MORNING

MOODY MOUNTAINS OF BORREGO SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA

I have heard it said that older folks require less sleep.  I wonder why that is & I certainly do not agree with that.  Seems like it should be the other way around.  Lack of sleep is directly related to crankiness & it's rare to hear of young people being cranky.  Definitely an older folks affliction.  It's been about 4 years now since I last had a full night's sleep so you can see it's been awhile that I have been 'cranked!!'  Sometimes I sleep in my bed & sometimes in my recliner but it's usually a combination of both.  Back & forth, back & forth!!  I usually go to bed somewhere around 11 & am generally back up around 4 with a couple of stops in between.  This makes for some very long tiresome days.  Low energy levels & lack of motivation are the nasty side affects but I would rather deal with these than the addictive side affects of sleeping pills.  Just the way it is I guess so I had just better get used it!!

Had a good day yesterday........only did 2 dumb things.  The key to the door of our carport storage area has always been missing so yesterday I decided to round up all our errant keys laying around & go try them all in the door.  Of course while doing this I accidentally locked the door & you know that none of the keys ever ended up working.  There were things inside that I needed so with no other choice I was forced to put a well aimed single kick to the side of the doorknob which of course popped the door right open.......with of course the normal amount of damage.  So, now that's gotta be fixed!!  Second Einstein thing I did was to fire up the rig's generator & then of course get busy with some other things, head off into the house & forget the generator running outside.  Don't even ask how long the generator ran!!!!  Alright, while I'm at it I might as well mention that I forgot my laundry in the dryer so it laid in there all night & now I have another week of walking around looking like a big wrinkled up mess.  There was something else too but fortunately I've already forgot what it was.  Geeeezzzz, hope I didn't leave something running somewhere again!!!!!

RELAXING IN THE DESERT

I have always been kind of a news hound.  Years ago I subscribed to the daily newspaper while living in Stratford, Ontario & liked to stay current with all the local happenings.  We don't have a daily paper in Bayfield so over the past 7 years I've gotten away from local news & more into the habit of worldly television news.  CNN has been my channel of choice & yes, I guess you could say I had become addicted to that as well.  It has always been a love/hate thing with CNN but I am now working on a parting of ways strategy with them.  In fact I am turning the volume down on all my news interests.  I have just simply become tired of all the negative reporting, the repetitive re-hashing, the schlocky announcers, the ever increasing loud & stupid commercials, & just news in general.  I'm beginning to believe in that old saying, 'no news is good news!!'  Instead of cracking on CNN now when I get up around 4 a.m.  I simply put on my favorite soothing ambient music channel, & either just relax in my recliner or pull out the laptop, click it on, & see what the rest of you fellow blogger schmoggers are up to:))   Just seems a nicer & more realistic way to start the day......10-4!!

I love hearing the pitter patter of little paws in the morning.  The rest of the Bayfield Bunch doesn't usually begin to stir until around 6 a.m. & little Cora (Motormouse) is generally the first one up.  She always sleeps on my bed so I can hear her jump down & listen for the patter of little paws coming down the hall as she heads out to where I am in the living room.   She jumps up on my lap & I have to move the laptop off to one side so she can get snuggled in to her little spot.  Next it is Checkers coming down the hall heading for her favorite spot right next to my chair where she knows I will give her a big snuggle a pet her with one hand while trying to type with the other.  Sometimes, like this morning, I pet her in between sentences as I am typing this.  Max stays on his couch across the room until he's ready to go out but stops by my chair first for his big first snuggle of the day too.  Somewhere amidst all this petting & snuggling stuff Kelly gets up, puts the coffee on, & heads for the computer in the sunroom.  It's usually around 7 when the Motormouse starts up with the first game of toys for the day & playtime with the gang just gets more crazy from there.  Barking dogs, flying rubber chickens, bouncing colored balls, & squeaking pink bananas fill the air as we're all racing around in the living room driving Mom bonkers.  And this is only the very first 'toys time' of the day.  It's the same scenario while we're traveling only we have a lot less space for our morning shenanigans & Mom gets a whole lot more madder at us guys.

D'YA NEED SOME HELP THERE DAD??

Just noticed we have some new blog followers so I'd like to welcome Jenni, Mary Ann, William & Karen.  And thanks to all you other followers for tagging along with us as well.  Much appreciated:))

STORMY SKYS WHILE BOONDOCKING NEAR BORREGO SPRINGS, CA.

Had an email from my long time best friend Jim in Stratford last week suggesting we meet for our semi-annual coffee blow-out of the year so we met at a Tim Hortons coffee shop in Mitchell Ontario at 10 this morning.  We left at 1:30 in the afternoon so that was an average blow-out for us.  I have blogged about Jim & our coffee routines years ago in a previous blog.  Jim actually gave up coffee quite a few years ago so I guess we could call it a coffee/orange juice blow out.  But more than one coffee or orange juice??  Nope, we both just have one & make it last for 3 or 4 hours.  That's OK for orange juice but cold coffee sure doesn't do a whole lot for me after a couple of hours!!  Our friendship goes back many years.  Another fellow dropped in but I will blog about the co-incidental significance the 3 of us had sitting there in a later October 19th blog.  Don't know if either one of them thought of it to-day but I sure did.  These two guys & a bunch of other good folks were instrumental in changing the course of my life 30 years ago this month..................!!

GROANER'S CORNER:((  Get a new car for your spouse. It'll be a great trade!!

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The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.

MARSHAL SOUTH, GHOST MOUNTAIN, THE JULIAN CEMETERY, AND DIRECTOR JOHN McDONALD

Not sure why the MARSHAL SOUTH & Ghost Mountain story captivated me so much, but it did.  We were boondocked outside of Borrego Springs in the heart of California's ANZA-BORREGO DESERT STATE PARK back in January of 2008 when we drove to the Park's nature center in Borrego Springs to check on day trip adventures in the area.    A ranger behind the information desk told us of many sites to see & mentioned something about a family that had lived atop a mountain back in the 30's & 40's.  Said the site was over in Blair valley, there were a few ruins of the old cabin left, & it was a wee bit of hike to get up to the homestead.  That thought stuck with me & a week later we were on our way to Blair valley in search of Yaquitepec on GHOST MOUNTAIN.

THE LONG ROCK STREWN NARROW PATH LEADS UP THE SIDE OF GHOST MOUNTAIN FROM  BLAIR VALLEY BEHIND ME

 BLAIR valley is about a 40 minute scenic drive west of BORREGO SPRINGS through the Yaqui Pass. You can read about our first trip to Ghost Mountain HERE & see our photos HERE.  A few days after that visit Kelly picked up the book, MARSHAL SOUTH & THE CHRONICLES OF GHOST MOUNTAIN.  I immediately set about reading the book & finished it a few weeks later while we were boondocked over in Quartzite Arizona.  I knew at that time I wanted to not only return to Ghost Mountain again but also wanted to see if I could find where Marshal South was buried.  The book said his final resting place was in the little mountain town of JULIAN not far from Blair Valley.   We also found out a documentary had been made by director John McDonald & a second more detailed documentary DVD by the same director was due to be released shortly but not until after we had already headed back to Canada.  I definitely wanted to get a copy of that DVD somehow.   Little did I know that less than a year later director John McDonald himself would actually contact us, meet us at the foot of Ghost Mountain, & give us a signed copy of his DVD documentary, ‘The Ghost Mountain Experiment.’

OUR FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE MARSHAL SOUTH HOMESTEAD AS WE ROUNDED A CORNER ON THE TRAIL

In January of this year we once again found ourselves boondocked near the CLARK DRY LAKE BED close to Borrego Springs at the foot of the Santa Rosa & San Ysidro mountains.  I mentioned in a couple of my daily blogs that we were going to head over to  BLAIR VALLEY for a second trek up to the Marshal South site on Ghost Mountain.  And I also blogged about our day trip to the little mountain town of JULIAN in search of Marshal South's final resting place.  That day's blog is HERE & the photos of our visit to Julian & the cemetery are HERE.

MARSHAL SOUTH’S STONE IS THE FLAT ONE IN CENTER FOREGROUND BELOW, WITH THE TOWN OF JULIAN IN THE BACKGROUND

IT WAS A COLD RAINY DAY FOR MY SEARCH IN JULIAN’S CEMETERY

About this time we received a surprise email from the documentary's director JOHN McDONALD.  Said him & his wife Lydia were camping in the area & could meet us at Ghost Mountain if we liked.  He said our BAYFIELD BUNCH site kept coming up on his computer & he had known of my interest in the Marshal South story for quite awhile.  He has a program on his computer that alerts him whenever Marshal South or Ghost Mountain are entered into a search engine, so people clicking on our site kept bringing up the Bayfield Bunch on his computer.  He began to wonder who this Bayfield Bunch was & decided to email us.  Assuming that is how that search program works you may be reading this blog right now John, so a big 'Hello to you & Lydia from the Bayfield Bunch up here in Canada:))'

JOHN & LYDIA McDONALD WITH GHOST MOUNTAIN IN THE BACKGROUND.  YAQUITEPEC IS JUST ATOP THAT RIDGE ABOVE THEIR HEADS

The blog for our second visit to Ghost Mountain & meeting John & Lydia McDonald can be found HERE & the photos from that day are HERE.  We did pick up an autographed DOCUMENTARY DVD  from John that day as well.

 

JOHN AUTOGRAPHS THE DVD JACKET

We will probably be back in the Borrego Springs area sometime in January of 2010 & if we are you can be assured I will once again strap on my hiking boots, throw a camera over my shoulder, & head on up the mile high old rocky trail leading to Marshal South's Yaquitepec atop Ghost Mountain.  As I mentioned at the beginning of the blog, I don't know what it is that captivates me about this spot but it's as if I sense something special when I am there.  Being the totally logical person I am I certainly am at odds with my feelings about all that...........but, in a nice sort of way.

REST IN PEACE YAQUITEPEC

GROANER'S CORNER:((  If you don't have a sense of humor, you probably don't have any sense at all.

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS  http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.

A HARROWING MOTORHOME DRIVE OVER MINGUS MOUNTAIN IN NOVEMBER OF 2007

A WINDY STORM TOSSED LAKE HURON ALONG BAYFIELD ONTARIO’S SHORELINE

RV NET is our favorite website for keeping tabs on the pulse of the traveling RV public & it's the place to go with all your RV questions, curiosities, & comments regarding the lifestyle.  Many topics in the forums & any RV problems you have can be answered here by fellow RV folks.  Always people ready to lend a helping hand.  There is no cost to join the site, just register & away you go.  We've been members since 2002. 

ALL THESE BAYFIELD HARBOR BOATS WILL SOON HAVE TO COME OUT OF THE WATER FOR THE WINTER

It was while I was perusing through some of the topics yesterday morning that I came across a post from some folks thinking of buying their first RV. They were trying to decide on what length of an RV to buy.  The fellow mentioned that he didn't want an RV that was too long or it might limit them to certain parks & he didn't want to get into towns or places that were too small to get his RV out of.  He mentioned the MINGUS MOUNTAIN  town of Jerome, Arizona as an example & that immediately reminded me of an accidental wrong turn & harrowing ride we had over Mingus Mountain right smack dab into the narrowed streets of Jerome on November 26th of 2007 with our 33 foot motorhome.  Our blog for that day is HERE & the photos I took while trying to squeeze through the streets of Jerome & still leave some paint on the rig are HERE.  Additional pictures of Jerome, Arizona are HERE.

SQUEEZING THE MOTORHOME THROUGH THE STREETS OF JEROME, ARIZONA

When we think of Autumn we generally thing of falling Autuman leaves, & that's a common thought.........unless you live in a pine forest!!  Before moving here we never thought of pine trees dropping their needles in the fall.  Not all of them of course, but a lot of them.  Always a big huge pine needle clean-up in the sping.  It is windy here to-day & it almost looks like a lite snowfall with all the pine needles falling from the trees.

THE YELLOW PINE NEEDLE  ROAD IN FRONT OF OUR HOUSE

Had a few questions about yesterday's Ikea blog & the furniture we bought there for the motorhome.  A resounding 'yes' to the question about whether the furniture has worked out well & do we still like it. 

POANG CHAIR….2008	VERY HAPPY WITH EVERYTHING
THE PAINTING BEGINS	BORREGO SPRINGS 09

ONE PICTURE SHOWS MAX RESTING ON A BIG CHAIR IN THE CORNER….THAT CHAIR FOLDS OUT INTO THE  COMFORTABLE SINGLE BED LITTLE CORA IS SITTING ON

While boondocking east of Sierra Vista last winter we met a fellow on RV Net who worked on the army base at Fort Huachuca.  We called him Sergeant John.   The ‘Sarge’  & his wife Jackie live in the little town of Elfrida.  They are an RV couple & the Sarge’s hobby is his 2 Hudson Hornet cars.  They have traveled to many car rallies over the years & I think John may have been President of the Hudson Hornet Car Club at one time.  The photo album below shows the Sarge’s cars in storage at his home.

View Full Album

It has turned out to be a very windy & gray rainy day but I did manage to slip over to the lake earlier & grab a few photos before the rains returned.

THE FISHING BOATS EVEN STAYED IN HARBOR TO-DAY

A VIEWPOINT AT BAYFIELD’S PIONEER PARK OVERLOOKING LAKE HURON & THE BEACH BELOW

GROANER’S CORNER:((  The nicest thing about the future is that it always starts tomorrow.

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS  http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.

A FEW THOUGHTS ON BLOGGING.....AND SOME OKLAHOMA CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

EUFAULA STATE PARK, OKLAHOMA...... CHRISTMAS LIGHT EXHIBITION-DECEMBER 2006

Rick, a fellow RV blogger out on Vancouver Island accidentally deleted 155 treasured photos a few days ago. I think we all have had those heart stopping moments of sheer terror at one time or another but Rick got right on the problem & went chasing after those deleted photos. He hopped on the web & searched out a program for recovering lost files, documents, & photos etc. Wasn't long & he had replaced that terror with joy at getting things back on track again. Hop on over to RICK'S blog & see how he did it because he lays everything out in detail plus he has the website program site he used to recover his lost photos. HAD A NICE RV SITE RIGHT BESIDE EUFAULA LAKE & WE WERE THE ONLY ONE'S IN THE WHOLE PARK:))

While on the topic of blogs I'd like to comment on a few things I've noticed over the past couple of blogging years. It took me awhile to understand what this blogging thing was all about & how it worked. Just couldn't get the concept in my head but finally one day while toiling over the BLOGGER website, a few pieces of the puzzle finally fell into place & I began to put to-gether a blog page. Discovered there were many widgets & gadgets that could be added on the site to jazz it up & really make it sparkle so I quickly added music & a slide show right off the bat & it wasn't long I had a cute little black cat wandering around all over the site as well. Probably had some fireworks & sparklers thrown in for good measure too. Lots of neat-O things to add. Or, so I thought!! Being new to blogging I had overlooked a few things & it took some kindly fellow bloggers to suggest to me some do's & don'ts. All those add-ons take time to load so the more flirting flamingos, pooping pelicans, or bouncing bears you have on your site the harder it is going to be for many people to access it. Many folks out there are still stuck with dial-up connections & if you have a lot of warm fuzzies on your site those people are not going to be able to access your blog. Some bloggers add music to their sites & that really bogs things down for slow connection people. Couple that with a slide show & all the dial-up folks are toast. Music, slide shows, & videos really kill bandwidth for the air card people as well. When we were traveling last winter we switched from a satellite dish connection over to a 5GB Verizon air card so we had to quickly learn how to conserve our precious bandwidth. I upload a lot of photos everyday so we have to be careful not to go over the 5GigaBite limit. Whenever I came across anybody's web or blogger site that had music playing I automatically canceled it right away which was unfortunate because there were some bloggers out there that I never did get to read. And personally, I am very picky about the kind of music I listen to so when I click on a site & have my eardrums shredded by the likes of Whitney Houston, Maria Carey, or Metallica, I don't take too kindly to that. Some bloggers totally load their sites with advertising & you really have to search for the actual blog itself. I don't spend time searching anymore & as soon as I see pop up ads, flashing banners, or big ads for this or that I immediately hit the little red X button & I'm out of there with not much probability of returning. I understand the logic of generating some revenue for the site & see nothing wrong with that if it's done with common sense & good taste. The priority of your site should be the quality of your blog & not the size of your wallet. If I could figure out a sure fire way of adding a little advertising about something I believed in I would consider it, but so far, advertising on blogs just leaves me a little on the cold side!! Noticed yesterday on our Sitemeter stat counter that we have surpassed 50,000 hits on our blogsite. Who would have ever thunk it....eh:)) Our heat wave has blown out of the area & I've already switched from my short sleeve shirt to my long sleeve one. My absolute favorite time of the year is approaching. Won't be long & the big box stores will be replacing all the back to school stuff on the shelves with some Halloween paraphernalia & then it will be right into the full blown retail Christmas Season. And just to get you started on that track I have a few photos I took back in December of 06 in an Oklahoma State Park called EUFAULA formally known as Fountainhead. It was a long day & I had earlier managed to get ourselves lost in the Ozark Mountains over in nearby Arkansas. Had one of my instant brain waves that morning while approaching Joplin Missouri that I would take a short cut down highway 59 thus avoiding having to go through Oklahoma City later. After many twisty up & down curvy roads it was mid afternoon before we finally found our way out of the forest & headed across the State Line into Oklahoma. Kelly located a State Park on the map that looked like it was in the general area of where we were headed so by late afternoon, tired & totally worn out, we pulled into Eufaula State Park.
WE EVEN MANAGED TO SCROUNGE UP A FEW COLORED LIGHTS OURSELVES

As is so often the case at this time of year, we were the only ones there. That is always sooooo great when that happens. Reason being of course is because it's December & really cold out. This day was no exception!! It was immediately apparent that we had stumbled into something special here though because all around a large circular roadway about the size of a football field stood all these frameworks of various Christmas theme decorations. We were told by a fellow out for a walk that at night all these Christmas lights were lit up & people came from far & wide to drive through the park & view the spectacle. So, as soon as it got dark I grabbed my camera & we went out for a quiet winter's night walk in a wonderland of Christmas lights. Didn't have a tri-pod with me so some of the pics are a bit wobbly......................:)) GROANER'S CORNER:(( George Bernard Shaw once said to Winston Churchill:"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play, bring a friend.... if you have one. " Winston Churchill, in response said, "Cannot attend first night, will attend second... if there is one."

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The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.

32 MONTHS AGO TO-DAY WE WERE DEEP UNDERGROUND

THE CAVERNS ARE TRULY CAVERNOUS AND THE WALKING IS REASONABLY EASY

Figured by now everyone must be getting pretty tired of flowers, birds, & sunroom pictures so decided to reach back in our little bag of travel goodies & come up with something completely different. Enough of green shrubs, colorful birds, & cozy sunroons & lets get ourselves deep down below earth into the darkened caves of the CARLSBAD CAVERNS NATIONAL PARK in New Mexico.

THIS PLACE JUST BOGGLES THE MIND

It was December of 2006 when we left our cozy little home in Bayfield Ontario early one morning on ice covered roads & blowing snow. Destination was the American Southwest.....somewhere. Aside from a quick trip to Big Bend National Park in Texas back in 2004 this was our first big adventure. We had a spiffy 2004 GMC Sierra truck pulling a nice 2005 Rockwood 5th wheel & the Bayfield Bunch was ready to rumble. LIGHTS ARE STRATEGICALLY PLACED TO HIGHLIGHT THE COUNTLESS ROCK FORMATIONS

Somewhere between here & there I decided I would like to see Roswell New Mexico because I've always had an interest in that alien stuff. We were making our way west across highway 380 when the weather began to turn sour. We were hearing reports of snow ahead & to the north a bit. Had ourselves a close call on some black ice early one morning so decided we had better get ourselves a little further south. Carlsbad Caverns had always been a place of interest to me so we heaved the nose of the truck over into the southwest wind & set sail for Carlsbad.
PEOPLE ON THE WALKWAY GIVE THE CAVERNS SOME PERSPECTIVE

We made the town of Carlsbad in late afternoon & spent the night at Brantley Lake State Park northwest of there. Cold, cold, cold!! We were up early because we wanted to make the 10 A.M. Cavern tour south of Carlsbad and wouldn't you know it....when we went to retract the slide it wouldn't budge no way no how. Finally had to get out the instruction manual & figure out how to get it in manually. Found the iron slide bar, crawled under the slide, inserted the bar into a whatchyamacallit & cranked the slide in by hand. I was surprised at how easily it went in. With all that done we headed for the Carlsbad Caverns just making it with minutes to spare for the 10 o'clock tour. THESE CEMENT WALKWAYS LINK THE MANY CAVERNOUS ROOMS

Boarded a crowded elevator & descended into what seemed like the bowels of the earth itself. A lot of people on this tour but it was just the way it had to be....darn it!! I know the word 'awesome' is way over used these days & it's a word I stay away from but it's the only word that describes what we saw, walked through, & experienced, over the next 4 or 5 hours. This is truly a great place & a must see for any traveler. I won't try to describe the Caverns in words because I don't have a vocabulary large enough to do that. The photos I took that day don't do it justice either but like they say, a picture is worth a thousand words so click on OUR CARLSBAD CAVERNS ALBUM which will take you to our photo album. Try clicking on "Slideshow" when you get there because it will enlarge the photos & make the tour a better experience. First 4 pictures are of us getting ready to leave Brantley Lake & the rest are of the Carlsbad Caverns. We have also been to the Kartchner Caverns in Arizona but we liked Carlsbad better . It's much, much, bigger & after the tour you are allowed to wander the caverns on your own for as long as you want. In Carlsbad one price covers all but at Kartcher you have to pay for each room you go to see. You can take as many photos as you want at Carlsbad but at Kartchner cameras are forbidden:(( Kartchner is a must see as well but if I had to choose just one.... it would be Carlsbad. LONG DESCENT INTO THE BAT CAVE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO TAKE THE ELEVATOR DOWN......WE DID BOTH

We walked for miles underground that day & by the time we got our tired legs back to the trailer we decided to stay at a dumpy little RV Park a few miles east of the Caverns at White City which of course is not a city, just a collection of half a dozen small tumble down buildings. At least we were only 1 of 3 rigs in the whole place so that was a nice bonus at the end of a very awesome underground sightseeing day. THIS MIGHT BE A REAL DARN GOOD PLACE JUST TO UP & GET LOST FOREVER!!

It was the following morning when we left there that we stopped at the Apache Canyon Trading Post nearby & I bought my black cowboy hat that I wear while traveling in the southwest...............:)) BE SURE TO SEE THE REST OF THE PICS IN OUR PHOTO ALBUM

GROANER'S CORNER:(( I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me.

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/
The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.