THINK I MAY HAVE HAMMERED OUT A ROUTE BETWEEN SPENCERPORT NY AND SARASOTA FL

A FEW SPLASHES OF AUTUMN COLOR HERE AND THERE BUT OVERALL OUR FORESTS ARE STILL VERY GREEN
A mixture of Sun and cloud on a mild Sunday morning found Pheebs and I poking along a few area rural roads again.  The thought occurred to me that one month from this morning we will be on the road in the Motorhome and it will be day one of this years southern winter travels.  As usual my excitement is tempered by my usual apprehension and that apprehension will not dissipate until the very morning we get the big wheels rolling and on our way.  From that moment on the adventure becomes real and the mind kicks in and focuses clearly on the travels ahead.

HORSES WATCH ATTENTIVELY AS THIS YOUNG  BOY PLAYFULLY RACES ACROSS A FARM YARD

SPOTTED THIS MOTHER DEER AND YOUNG ONE CROSSING THE ROAD AHEAD OF ME

 
THEY QUICKLY BOUNDED OFF AND HID IN AN ADJOINING BEAN FIELD

REALIZING I COULD STILL SEE THEM THEY QUICKLY HEADED FOR THE FOREST

Couldn’t seem to quite get myself into the swing of things this morning so we didn’t go too far.  But far enough to snag us a Burrito and carrot muffin with a coffee to go in Goderich as we passed through one end of the town and out the other.

NO SIGNS OF AUTUMN ALONG THIS FORESTED ROAD YET

I’M GUESSING THIS IS A FIELD OF RECENTLY PLANTED ‘WINTER WHEAT’

A SLIGHT SPLASH OF COLOR AMIDST TREES OF GREEN
Spent an enjoyable few hours in my recliner this afternoon with my Rand-McNally Atlas and laptop computer on my lap.  Oh, and a magnifying glass to see all the small print, roads and routes on each page. 

 A VERY RELAXING RURAL FARM PROPERTY
I am certainly becoming increasingly familiar with the Eastern side of the United States as I bounce around from page to page in my Atlas and screen to screen with Google’s computer maps.  It is the area between Spencerport New York and Sarasota Florida I am concentrating on.  Between a lot of back and forth and extensive use of my magnifying glass I think I have finally hammered out a basic route which may or may not include Harrisburg Pennsylvania, Asheville North Carolina, Augusta Georgia, and Ocala Florida.

Although very much looking forward to seeing new scenery along the way and getting a feel for possible future RV travels in the area this won't be a leisurely wander for us.  We want to get down to Sarasota and see Aunt Jean as soon as we can and that will be priority for that Spencerport/Sarasota stretch of the trip.  Aunt Jean's health has been slipping. 
LUCKILY PHEEBS AND I WERE ABLE TO HELP THIS LITTLE PAINTED TURTLE ACROSS THE ROAD BEFORE IT GOT RUN OVER
 
HERE’S PHEEBS NOSE TO NOSE WITH THE LITTLE TURTLE AND IT LOOKS LIKE ‘YOU KNOW WHO’ IS GETTING A BIT SLEEPY

YEP, IT’S TIME TO HEAD HOME NOW:))
When we leave Sarasota it will be straight to Congress Arizona for us probably slipping up through Texarkana to Wichita Falls joining I-40 at Amarillo east of Tucumcari and Albuquerque New Mexico.  If we take that route it will bring us to Congress Arizona via our northern route through Flagstaff, Williams, the Chino Valley, Prescott, Iron Springs Road, and Yarnell.  If the house sells chances are we may not use this memorable route again and I would like to drive it just one more time.  The drive from Ash Fork to Congress is one of my fav's just like the one from Tucson to Why Arizona.  Actually I have many favorite drives in the Southwest with those being just two of them:))

GROANER’S CORNER:)) A lawyer walks into a bar and sits down next to a drunk who is closely examining something held in his fingers. The lawyer watches the drunk for a while till he finally gets curious enough to ask what it is.  "Well," said the drunk, "it looks like plastic and feels like rubber."  "Let me have it," said the lawyer. Taking it, he began to roll it between his thumb and forefinger, examining it closely. "Yes," he finally said, "it does look like plastic and feel like rubber, but i don't know what it is. Where did you get it?"  "From my nose," the drunk replied.
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What's round and bad tempered? A vicious circle.
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Driving to work, a gentleman had to swerve to avoid a box that fell out of the truck in front of him. Seconds later, a policeman pulled him over for reckless driving. Fortunately, another office had seen the carton in the road. The policemen stopped traffic and recovered the box. It was found to contain large upholstery tacks.  "I'm sorry, Sir," the first trooper told the driver, "but I am still going to have to write you a ticket." Amazed, the driver demanded to know the reason.  The trooper replied . . . "Tacks evasion."

A RAINY DAY BUT THAT DIDN’T STOP RICHARD AND I FROM MOVING MR. SNAPPING TURTLE DOWN THE ROAD

MANAGED TO GET THIS YOUNG BLUE HEROM LIFTING OFF A ROADSIDE POND

Kelly heard rains pass through in the night but I never heard a thing.  Not raining when Pheebs took Kelly for a walk this morning so as soon as they were back I loaded up the little Spoogers and off we went.  But we didn’t travel too far before Libby’s windshield began gathering up some rain drops.  Turned right around and went home.  Rain stopped so ten minutes later Pheebs and struck out for a second time.  Slipped through Clinton’s Tim Hortons then off over to the Marsh hoping for a leg stretch or possible walk.  Soon as I turned into the Marsh Saturday mornings sky opened up and down came the buckets of water.

A BARN FULL OF BIG STRAW BALES

Not wanting to turn around and go home again we poked along in the rain on a few muddy country roads for awhile managing to find a few slightly blurry photos along the way.  Heavy rain soaked clouds had made for a dark morning not favorable to a long telephoto lens.  We were back home by 10 and that was that for any outside any stuff.

Figured it would be a good time to work on freeing up some much needed space on my Toshiba laptops hard drive so worked away at transferring photo files onto the new WD external hard drive.  I already have 2 other hard drives fully loaded with photos.  Don’t know why but everything went very smoothly and I was totally surprised by that.  I double checked everything as I went along but for me that is no guarantee I am getting it right.  Too many times I have been doing things right while unwittingly moving in the opposite direction I really needed to go with whatever it was I was doing right all along in the first place.  As I age my world does not get any easier for me and I found it very unnerving sitting here watching 25,183 photos files being deleted after they had been transferred from my laptop to the external drive.

POURING RAIN WHEN I TOOK THIS PHOTO FROM THE JEEP

Having a prehistoric looking creature in your driveway trying to get through your gate is definitely not a routine occurrence but it happened to my good friend Richard this afternoon and he needed some back-up.  And that back-up was me.  A big Snapping Turtle had wandered onto his property and was threatening to demolish the cool new gate he had made a couple months ago.  Between the two of us with Richard using a wide mouth snow shovel to tip the turtle and me hanging onto a large blue recycling bin we managed to get Mr. Snapping Turtle into the bin and quickly put a cover on it.  From there we loaded Mr. Turtle into the back of Richard’s van and drove him a short distance down the road where we carried him out and turned him loose in a swampy area.  Don’t know how long it will take Mr. Snapper to make his way back to Richards driveway and fish pond beyond but I’ll be expecting a call from Richard in about two days……………..

THIS IS THE ONLY PHOTO OF FRIDAY NIGHT’S HARVEST MOON I MANAGED TO GET AS IT DISAPPEARED INTO  A CLOUD BANK

THIS WAS MY MOON SHOT LAST YEAR

GROANER’S CORNER:((  A few miscellaneous terms tonight:((

- Arbitrator \\ar'-bi-tray-ter\\: A cook that leaves Arby's to work at McDonald's.
- Avoidable \\uh-voy'-duh-buhl\\: What a bullfighter tries to do.
- Baloney \\buh-lo'-nee\\: Where some hemlines fall.
- Bernadette \\burn'-a-det\\: The act of torching a mortgage.-Burglarize \\bur'-gler-ize\\: What a crook sees with.
- Counterfeiters \\kown-ter-fit-ers\\: Workers who put together kitchen cabinets.
- Eclipse \\e-klips'\\: What an English barber does for a living.
- Eyedropper \\i'-drop-ur\\: A clumsy ophthalmologist.
- Heroes \\hee'-rhos\\: What a guy in a boat does.
- Left Bank \\left' bangk'\\: What the robber did when his bag was full of loot.
- Misty \\mis'-tee\\: How golfers create divots.
- Paradox \\par'-uh-doks\\: Two physicians.
- Parasites \\par'-uh-sites\\: What you see from the top of the Eiffel Tower.
- Pharmacist \\farm'-uh-sist\\: A helper on the farm.
- Polarize \\po'-lur-ize\\: What penguins see with.

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Q: What do you call a blind dinosaur?

A: Do-you-think-he-saur-us.

WE ARE NOT REALLY AS FAR ‘UP HERE’ AS MANY MAY THINK

It was all three of us in the Jeep this morning as we headed off to Goderich with A&W breakfast coupons in hand.  Quick stop at Walmart to pick up a Western Digital 1-Terabyte external hard drive then over to the local Thrift store to outfit Al with some spiffy shirts for the coming winter months.  I was able to get half a dozen shirts for the price of one new shirt so that worked out fine for me.  My current fleet of winter shirts are well over seven or eight years old and have about as many rips, holes and tears in them as Nelson's sails after the Battle of Trafalgar.

SPOTTED US A HERD OF WILD TURKEYS ON SOMEBODY’S LAWN HALF-WAY TO GODERICH

WHAT’S YOUR FIRST CLUE THIS IS THE A&W MANAGERS CAR??

HERE’S A COUPLE BEST PALS OUT FOR BREAKFAST AT A&W THIS MORNING

Finally after about a month's careful research Kelly has finally decided on a new cell phone.  She looked at iPhones and Samsungs but has decided once again to go with a new Blackberry to replace an older version Blackberry her daughter Sabra had given her a few years ago.  Her decision was based on price, phone plans, and what she needed or did not need the cell phone for.  I think the GPS feature may come in handy while a higher end camera in a cell phone was not a necessary option, etc.  Me, well I'm still trying to figure out how to put a message band on the carrier pigeons leg.

A MONTH FROM NOW THERE WILL BE A LOT OF HUSTLE AND BUSTLE GOING ON AROUND THE BIG EEE

A short reminder about my Facebook account again.  Due to being hacked several times a few years ago I no longer accept 'friend requests' and haven't done so for a long time.  If you have sent me a 'friend request' and I have not responded do not take it personally.  I am not a big Facebook person and only use the site to drop my daily posts in each night for those of you who prefer the Facebook feed. 

I’M THINKING THOSE ARE ‘BEAN HEADS’ ON THOSE COMBINES…(NO NOT THE DRIVERS)

MORE AND MORE FARMS ARE TURNING TO SOLAR ENERGY

I know I blather along incessantly about the weather at times but hey I guess that's what makes me a true Canadian.  We do like to talk about the weather up here.  Just another gorgeous warm 71F sunny Autumn day.  Actually for anyone looking at a map you will see we are not really 'up here' as far as many may think.  The Southern most part of Ontario is actually on the same latitude as Northern California and about a quarter if not a third of American States are North of where we live here in Bayfield. 

A SMATTERING OF PHOTOS FROM THIS PAST WEEK’S TRAVELS

  

A NEWER TYPE COUNTRY HOG BARN NEARS COMPLETION

NO COMMENT

“DA BIRDS BOSS, DA BIRDS”!!

DESPITE IT BEING MID SEPTEMBER OUR HOSTAS ARE STILL STAYING VERY GREEN

ON OUR MORNING JEEP RIDES I CAN ALWAYS TELL WHEN LITTLE MISS SLEEPY HEAD IS READY TO GO HOME

Not a lot happening around our place today.  A relaxing afternoon simply enjoying the day before an approaching weather front carrying rain showers with possible thunder boomers and lightning reach us possibly sometime tonight.  Hopefully Pheebs and I can squeak out for a bit first thing in the morning before the storm gets here.

ON GOLDEN WATER UNDER GOLDEN SKIES

GROANER'S CORNER:((  Did you know a man will pay $2 for a $1 item he wants. A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't want.
- A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband. A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.
- A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend. A successful woman is one who can find such a man.
- To be happy with a man you must understand him a lot & love him a little. To be happy with a woman you must love her a lot & not try to understand her at all.
- Married men live longer than single men, but married men are a lot more willing to die.
- Any married man should forget his mistakes-there's no use in two people remembering the same thing.
- Men wake up as good-looking as they went to bed. Women somehow deteriorate during the night.
- A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't. A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change & she does.
- A woman has the last word in any argument. Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.
- There are 2 times when a man doesn't understand a woman: before marriage & after.

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A pastor, known for his lengthy sermons, noticed a man get up and leave during the middle of his message. The man returned just before the conclusion of the service. Afterwards the pastor asked the man where he had gone. "I went to get a haircut," was the reply. "But," said the pastor, "why didn't you do that before the service?" "Because," the gentleman said, "I didn't need one then."

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(And just a short note about Groaner's Corner folks.......if some of the jokes seem familiar it's probably because I have forgot that I used them before.  Hopefully it doesn't happen too often)

OH TO FEEL A YOUNG BOY’S HONESTLY INNOCENT EXCITEMENT AGAIN

SPOTTED THESE AUTUMN CROCUS FLOWERS ALONG ORCHARD LINE ON MY HOME FROM GODERICH EARLIER TODAY

I don’t know if I would call it very cool or slightly cold but I did have to turn around and go back into the house this morning to put on warmer clothes.  Thermometer outside our sunroom said 49F and that was invigorating enough for me to clean a couple windows right off the bat…..but only a couple.  Windows are definitely not my favorite thing to do and I can only take cleaning them in small doses.

ALONG THE SHORES OF LAKE HURON THIS MORNING

My Toshiba Satellite laptop only has 42 Gigabytes left on it’s hard drive and with 252 Gigabytes in just photos alone in the Toshiba I knew I needed to do something before heading off to the Southwest next month so Pheebs and I headed off to Goderich to price some 1-Terabyte external hard drives. (One Terabyte equals1,000 Gigabytes)  I plan to transfer the 252 photo Gigs from the laptop to the external hard drive then delete my laptop photos freeing up a lot of space.  From there it was down around the harbor to the south end of Rotary Cove.  No other people at the dog walking area with their dogs so Pheebs and I headed off for a walk on the heavily dew laden grass.

Lake Huron was calm with wave heights not exceeding half an inch.  A soft faint swish as waves eased in and tickled the sandy pebble laden shore.  Just an absolutely beautiful September day again with the morning sun soon coaxing me out of my warm outer layered flannel shirt.

It was another marathon coffee blow-out for my good Buddy Jim (Lifetime Sentences) and I this afternoon at Clinton’s Time Horton coffee shop.  Bringing it in just under five and a half hours we both agreed that had to be pretty close to one of our all time blow-out records.  We didn’t skip a beat as we sailed through all the things needing to be caught up upon after our last session maybe a month and a half ago.  Always lots in common so always lots to talk about and by the time we meet again next April we will undoubtedly have even more to talk about.  Could very well turn out to even be an 8 hour blockbuster:))

Browsing through TV channels Wednesday night trying desperately to avoid the rough and tumble political minefield of our neighbor to the South on most channels I blundered into a real blast from the past, my boyhood past to be exact.  I had clicked on Turner Classic Movies and there was one of my favorite movies from 60 years ago.  'Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein'.  As a kid the movie was so funny, so scary, and all so real at the same time.  Watching it for awhile last night it was unfortunately not really any of those fun things to me anymore and I felt sad about that knowing my innocent young boys mind had so long ago left me to the harsher realities and logics of an adult mind.  Oh to feel a young boy's honestly innocent excitement again………………………

GROANER’S CORNER:(( A little old lady goes into the store to do some shopping. She is bewildered over the large selection of toilet paper.  "Pardon me, sir," she says to the store manager, "but can you explain the differences in all these toilet papers?"  "Well," he replies pointing out one brand, "this is as soft as a baby's kiss. It's $1.50 per roll."  He grabs another and says, "This is nice and soft like a bunny, strong but gentle, and it's $1.00 a roll."
Pointing to the bottom shelf he tells her, "We call that our No Name brand, and it's 20 cents per roll."  "Give me the No Name," she says.
She comes back about a week later, seeks out the manager and says, "Hey! I've got a name for your No Name toilet paper. I call it John Wayne."
"Why?" he asks.  "Because it's rough, it's tough and it don't take crap off anybody!" 

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A retired man who volunteers to entertain patients in nursing homes and hospitals went to Walton hospital in Liverpool and took his portable keyboard along. He told some jokes and sang some funny songs at patients' bedsides.
When he finished he said, in farewell, "I hope you get better." One elderly gentleman replied, "I hope you get better, too."

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Two attorneys went into a diner and ordered two drinks. Then they produced sandwiches from their briefcases and started to eat. The owner became quite concerned and marched over and told them, "You can't eat your own sandwiches in here!"  The attorneys looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders and then exchanged sandwiches.