TRAVEL WITH THE BAYFIELD BUNCH:))

Thursday, November 01, 2018

OH DEAR….MY POST TONIGHT IS A MUDDLE OF CONFLICTING THOUGHTS

It was an effort to get myself motivated this morning. Seems the gray dismal looking day outside our window matched the mood I woke up with this morning. And try as I did today I just couldn’t shake it.

WE HAVE LITTLE RED SQUIRRELS IN OUR FRONT YARD

WOODPECKERS…… DOWNIE ON LEFT AND HAIRY ON RIGHT

NUTHATCH AND CHICADEE

Pheebs and I did make it out for a Jeep ride southeast of Bayfield but my mind wouldn’t leave me alone and kept chasing itself round and round on a twirling merry-go-round of thoughts. Tried my best to dig out all those positive reasons for not traveling south this winter. In my head just days and weeks before I had all the answers lined up perfectly and they were all logically well thought out too. Still are, but when I went looking for those solid well thought out ‘staying home’ reasons again this morning they weren’t there and I stumbled backwards. Do I really want to just sit here all winter looking out the window from our cozy comfy little house upon a snowy frozen landscape but at least be free of traveling stress? Yes I do, no I don’t, yes I do, no I don’t. And so that is how my day went and knowing my mind as well as I do I suspect today was a harbinger of long cold winter days to come.

MANAGED TO GET OURSELVES A WEE WALK IN THIS MORNING

For me this past dozen years I have had two big things I always looked forward to. Heading south in the Fall and heading home in the Spring. It was this great change of lifestyles I loved best. We weren’t stuck in a stationery house for 6 months of the year and we weren’t stuck in a confining RV for 6 months of the year either. We had the best of both worlds as we tweaked those time periods around a bit these last few years ending up with maybe two thirds of our time spent at home and one third of our time on the road.

Guess I’m just venting my feelings here folks while trying to adjust to a change I do not seem to be adjusting too very well some days. Maybe in the morning when I wake up my mind will have re-set itself and I can make some sense out of my feelings again. A few readers over the years have described my blog as kind of a ‘fireside chat’ and I suppose my post tonight is just that as I sit here by the fire chatting once again about my confusing thoughts and feelings.

WATCHING AND WAITING FOR KELLY TO COME HOME FROM GROCERY SHOPPING TODAY

GROANER’S CORNER:(( Occasionally, airline attendants make an effort to make the "in-flight safety lecture" and their other announcements a bit more entertaining. Here are some real examples that have been heard or reported:"There may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but there are only 4 ways out of this airplane..."

Pilot - "Folks, we have reached our cruising altitude now, so I am going to switch the seat belt sign off. Feel free to move about as you wish, but please stay inside the plane till we land ... it's a bit cold outside, and if you walk on the wings it affects the flight pattern."

And, after landing: "Thank you for flying Delta Business Express. We hope you enjoyed giving us the business as much as we enjoyed taking you for a ride."

As the plane landed and was coming to a stop at Washington National, a lone voice comes over the loudspeaker: "Whoa, big fella. WHOA!"

After a particularly rough landing during thunderstorms in Memphis, a flight attendant on a Northwest flight announced: "Please take care when opening the overhead compartments because, after a landing like that, sure as Hell everything is going to fall out."

From a Southwest Airlines employee.... "Welcome aboard Southwest Flight XXX to YYY. To operate your seatbelt, insert the metal tab into the buckle, and pull tight. It works just like every other seatbelt, and if you don't know how to operate one, you probably shouldn't be out in public unsupervised. In the event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, oxygen masks will descend from the ceiling. Stop screaming, grab the mask, and pull it over your face. If you have a small child traveling with you, secure your mask before assisting with theirs. If you are traveling with two small children, decide now which one you love more.

Weather at our destination is 50 degrees with some broken clouds, but they'll try to have them fixed before we arrive.

Thank you, and remember, nobody loves you, or your money, more than Southwest Airlines."

"As you exit the plane, please make sure to gather all of your belongings. Anything left behind will be distributed evenly among the flight attendants. Please do not leave children or spouses." "Last one off the plane must clean it."

And from the pilot during his welcome message: "We are pleased to have some of the best flight attendants in the industry. Unfortunately none of them are on this flight!!

Heard on Southwest Airlines just after a very hard landing in Salt Lake City: The flight attendant came on the intercom and said, "That was quite a bump and I know what ya'll are thinking. I'm here to tell you it wasn't the airline's fault, it wasn't the pilot's fault, it wasn't the flight attendants' fault.....it was the asphalt!"

Another flight Attendant's comment on a less than perfect landing: "We ask you to please remain seated as Captain Kangaroo bounces us to the terminal."

After a real crusher of a landing in Phoenix, the Flight Attendant came on with, "Ladies and Gentlemen, please remain in your seats until Captain Crash and the Crew have brought the aircraft to a screeching halt up against the gate. And, once the tire smoke has cleared and the warning bells are silenced, we'll open the door and you can pick your way through the wreckage to the terminal.

Part of a Flight Attendant's arrival announcement: "We'd like to thank you folks for flying with us today. And, the next time you get the insane urge to go blasting through the skies in a pressurized metal tube, we hope you'll think of us here at US Airways."

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“If crop circles are real, does this mean that aliens have designs for our planet?”

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Wednesday, October 31, 2018

LOTS OF RAIN AND A FEW THOUGHTS ABOUT SNOW BIRDING AND FULL TIMING

STOPPING BY THE OLD WATERING HOLE

Heavy rains came in the night dragging behind them a temporary but welcome short lived warm front. Pheebs and I almost needed a canoe to reach the Jeep and the rain just kept coming. right up to about 10 o’clock this morning

SCARED US UP A HERD OF WILD TURKEYS ON OUR WAY TO GODERICH EARLIER TODAY

A WET DAY FOR HARVESTING CORN

THESE HURON COUNTY LONGHORNS DIDN’T SEEM TO MIND THE WET WEATHER

IF THERE ARE VEHICLES OR PEOPLE IN ROTARY COVES’S DOG WALKING AREA THIS IS OUR SECONDARY OPTION FOR A LEG STRETCH NEAR THE BEACH STREET STATION RESTAURANT SEEN TO THE RIGHT

SPOTTED IN GODERICH’S SOUTH END THIS MORNING

Again knowing country roads would be a muddy mess we stuck to pavement and made a routine Jeep run up to Goderich and down around the harbor. Spotted a large ship at the Goderich Elevators which i had never seen before. I’m assuming the cargo vessel Adriaticborg was in port taking on a load of grain.

MILD ENOUGH THIS MORNING TO LEAVE THE BRIDGE DOOR OPEN

THE ADRIATICBORG’S ESCAPE POD

No vehicles at the dog walking area and with a slight drizzle in the air I didn’t figure anyone would show up with their dogs so Pheebs and I hit the trail walking a quarter mile to the far end and back. The trail follows along the top of a bluff overlooking Lake Huron.

WITH MY WINTER COAT ON IT WAS NICE TO HAVE THE WINDOWS DOWN

Heading back out of the harbor I noticed the Adriaticborg was underway and in the process of backing up through the narrow channel alongside the Sifto Salt Mine. I had often wondered how big freighters that had come in bow first made their way back out to the lake and I was soon to find out how a tugboat assists in doing that.

BACKING UP VERY CAREFULLY

WONDER IF THAT’S THE CAPTAINS WIFE OUT THERE ON THE WING BRIDGE TELLING HIM ‘LOUD AND CLEAR’ HOW TO BACK UP THE BOAT:))

SO FAR SO GOOD

From the harbor area we drove up on top the bluff which was a short distance to the harbor lighthouse overlooking the harbor. From that vantage point I watched how the big freighter was able, with the help of a tug, to swing itself around in the outer harbor and point it’s bows for open water. Interesting and first time I saw that. Photos below may look a little misty and that’s because a drizzling fog had rolled ashore forcing me into the Jeep to take the photos.

GODERICH LIGHTHOUSE TOP RIGHT AND THE ADRIATICBORG BACKING OUT OF THE HARBOR CENTER LEFT

NOTICE HOW THE TUG IS PUSHING WITH IT’S STERN IN TURN SWINGING THE FREIGHTER’S STERN AROUNDA FOGGY RAIN QUICKLY MOVES IN OFF THE LAKE

WITH IT’S STERN SWUNG AROUND AND BOW NOW FACING THE OPEN WATERS OF THE LAKE THE TUG SWINGS AROUND TO NOW PUSH ON THE BOW

TUG BACKS INTO PLACE ALONGSIDE THE BOW

MOW LINED UP WITH IT’S BOW BETWEEN THE TWO BREAKWATERS IT’S' ALL AHEAD FULL AS THE ADRIATIC HEADS OUT INTO LAKE HURON

THE BIG FREIGHTER SOON DISAPPEARS INTO THE MISTS

BECAUSE THIS TUGBOAT REVERSED ALL THE WAY BACK INTO THE HARBOR IT MAKES ME WONDER IT IT MAY HAVE A FORWARD GEAR PROBLEM

Wasn’t much else going on so we decided to head for home. Somewhere along the way rains stopped and that was the end of them for the rest of the day. Not a lot of traffic on the roads so people must have stayed in this morning. After we got home I never went out of the house again. Felt cold and damp outside to me.

I HAD A FEW PHOTOS LEFT OVER FROM TUESDAY MORNING’S JEEP RIDE SO HERE THEY ARE

FOOLED YA WITH THAT UPSIDE DOWN REFLECTION PHOTO EH:))

ALWAYS A BUSY TIME OF YEAR FOR FARMERS

I think one of the advantages for RV Fulltimers is that when you make that commitment to sell your house and maybe all your stuff there basically is no turning around and going back. Your on your way and even if self doubt about what your doing creeps into your mind you push that aside and focus on the new lifestyle at hand. You pull out all the good thoughts, all the positives, and discard those bad negative thoughts. If the going gets rough you deal with it, you live with it, and you learn to cope and make the best of what you are doing. I often wonder where we would be now had we sold our house back in 2008 when we actually nearly did. There is no way of knowing of course but I think we probably would have made out Okay as Full Timers simply because after awhile we would have had nothing to compare it to and I think that is one of the problems of Snow Birding. If your RV is all you have then you have no choice but to adapt to your situation. A daily mobile life can quickly become very normal for many folks. If you have a house like we do or even a second house for a few years like we did in Arizona then comparing the creature comforts a house to an RV can easily lead to a conflicted mind. Here’s an example, we always thought having a base in Arizona would be perfect for us and for the most part it was. Our house in Congress Arizona was centrally located for lots of side trips in the winter all around the southwest. Well that was the plan but here’s what really happened. As any Snowbird knows the loading up and packing of an RV for a trip can be a real pain. And it always was. Normally this only happened twice a year with a long stretch in between loading and unloading. Loading and unloading for shorter trips were easier but turned out to be much more often. In short it required an effort we weren’t always ready to give. It was easier to not go anywhere. We got lazy I guess. Then when we did go somewhere like Sedona Arizona, California’s Mojave Desert, Borrego Springs or Yuma……we didn’t stay long. And why didn’t we stay long?? Because if it was too windy, too rainy, too hot, too cold, or whatever other paltry excuse we could come up with we knew we could be home to our Arizona digs in just a matter of hours. And that’s what happened. I remember going to Borrego Springs one time in our Class C Chevy Sunseeker just after we bought it. I think we were only there one or two nights at the most with the desert winds knocking us about. ‘That’s enough of this’ we said and toodily scoot off we went home. No not to Canada 6 days away but Congress Arizona 6 hours away. Went to Sedona one time and after four or five days said ‘the heck with this let’s go home where we have all our creature comforts and don’t have to be kept awake by flapping awnings and howling winds. Yes, we spoiled ourselves alright. Same thing with our house here near Bayfield. Had we not had this house to come home to each year we would have adapted to the Fulltiming lifestyle like so many others but knowing we had a home to come home to and especially the last 4 or 5 years we just couldn’t wait to get here each Spring. Not like in the first few years when I didn’t want to come home in the Spring at all and spent many hours thinking how we could stay in the Southwest forever. Yes there has been a lot of mind changes in these past dozen years alright but you know what…….if we hadn’t decided to adopt the RV Snow Birding lifestyle back in 2006 I just shudder to think of all the things we would have missed and I can’t even begin to imagine where we would even be now if we would have had to sit here in one location 365 days a year enduring all those horribly boring winter months. We had an opportunity presented to us in 06 and we grabbed onto the coattails of the RV Snow Bird lifestyle and ran with it. No regrets except to say I wished we could have started out at least 10 or 20 years before we did……………….