A SUNNY DAY AND DRY ROADS PROMPTED PHEEBS AND I TAKE THE MOTORHOME FOR A SPIN

Maybe it’s the Vitamin D I’ve been taking lately, maybe it’s the second sunny day out of the past three days, maybe it’s knowing we could be in the warm sunny Southwest in a few weeks, maybe it’s none of the above but I somehow felt better about things this morning.  Not easy for me with all the gray days we’ve had this past month and a half so if gray days don’t bother you consider yourself a very fortunate person.  Well at least in my book anyway.

I WAS DEFINITELY THINKING BLUE  TODAY

We never got above freezing today but no matter, we at least had sunshine and blue skies and that more than made up for the 27F cold air.

SOAKING UP SOME MORNING SUNSHINE

Pheebs and I wandered around the back roads for a couple hours and managed to get ourselves a walk in at Kerr's Campground.  With 95% of our snow gone not having to wear winter boots is a plus and one doesn’t appreciate walking on grass until after one hasn’t walked on grass for awhile.  We always notice that in the Southwest and look forward each year to reaching California’s Borrego Springs to walk on the grass at Christmas Circle. 

HIBERNATING FOR THE WINTER

Pheebs and I were back home about 10:30 whereupon I busied myself loading a few more things into the Motorhome.  Can’t load any liquids because of below freezing temperatures every night and any battery operated devices are best left to the end as well.  I expect we’ll be quite busy next week at this time.

 

Under sunny skies I decided to take the Motorhome for a run while roads were bare and dry.  With my furry little Navigator in place off we went over to Holmesville and back with the rig purring along like a kitten.  What a nice difference those two new front tires have made. 

TAKING THE COACH OUT FOR AN EXERCISE RUN

MY TRUSTY NAVIGATOR

‘HEY DAD YOU MISSED THAT TURN BACK THERE I TOLD YOU TO TAKE’

OH-OH I THINK MY NAVIGATOR IS GOING TO THROW A SERIOUS TALK INTO ME HERE

‘YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE TO PAY MORE ATTENTION TO MY DIRECTIONS DAD!!

‘YA RIGHT PHEEBS IT LOOKS LIKE YOU ARE ASLEEP AT THE SWITCH OVER THERE AGAIN’

Still trying to get a handle on where exactly we can go in the Southwest this year.  Because of winter weather we of course are restricted to the southern ends of New Mexico, Arizona, and California from the Mexican border north a couple hundred miles to where it becomes too cold.  Still racking my brain trying to think of a quiet area where we haven’t been before that isn’t crowded with tons of other RV’ers.

 

I was surprised a few days ago when looking at my blog’s Google Statistics again to see Russia had replaced Canada for the number two slot in overall page views.  Here are some interesting numbers and locations I have copied and pasted in regards to who has been looking at the blog.  I don’t know what time frame these numbers cover.

United State—10,379

Russia --- 4,944 (and no there hasn’t been any collusion between me a Russia)

Canada  --- 2,801

Netherlands --- 1,999

Unknown Region --- 612

Turkey --- 432

Ukraine --- 105

Germany --- 97

United Arab Emirates --- 77

Romania --- 72

Pageviews yesterday --- 3,457

Pageviews last month --- 107,411

Pageviews all time history --- 7,172,213

And here’s a curious thing, our numbers always go up soon as we hit the road each year heading for the Southwest.  They drop back down in the Spring when we get home again…………….

ENJOYING TODAY’S SUNSHINE WITH A COFFEE FROM BAYFIELD’S SHOPBIKE COFFEE ROASTERS

GROANER’S CORNER:(( There was a competition to cross the English channel doing only the breaststroke, and the three women who entered the race were a brunette, a redhead and a blonde. After approximately 14 hours, the brunette staggered up on the shore and was declared the fastest. About 40 minutes later, the redhead crawled up on the shore and was declared the second place finisher. Nearly 4 hours after that, the blonde finally came ashore and promptly collapsed in front of the worried onlookers. When the reporters asked why it took her so long to complete the race, she replied, "I don't want to sound like I'm a sore loser, but I think those two other girls were using their arms".

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A mafioso's son sits at his desk writing a Christmas list to Jesus. He first writes, "Dear baby Jesus, I have been a good boy the whole year, so I want a new..." He looks at it, then crumples it up into a ball and throws it away. He gets out a new piece of paper and writes again, "Dear baby Jesus, I have been a good boy for most of the year, so I want a new..." He again looks at it and throws it away. He then gets an idea. He goes into his mother's room, takes a statue of the Virgin Mary, puts it in the closet and locks the door. He takes another piece of paper and writes, "Dear baby Jesus, if you ever want to see your Mother again..."

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STRAPPED TO AN ARM SQUEEZING MACHINE

It was 9:35 a.m. Monday morning and I found myself seated in a chair with a device firmly wrapped around my upper left arm trying it’s best to squeeze my appendage to the point where it would indeed separate from my body.  I was at Goderich’s Maitland Valley Medical Center of course having my blood pressure checked again.  With my last two tests showing high numbers I was relieved this morning to see I was back to my normal self after the average of 3 squeezings being 136 over 80.  Lady said I was good to go so go I did went.  I have an appointment Wednesday morning with my Nurse Practitioner and expect everything to be A-Ok. 

ROUGH WATER ON LAKE HURON TODAY BUT BY OCEAN STANDARDS THIS MIGHT BE CONSIDERED A CALM DAY

Following the Medical Clinic Pheebs and I made a bee-line for a coffee to go at McD’s then it was down to the harbor with us.  Had hoped to get a walk in but with strong on-shore winds driving a fine sleet onshore it was just out of the Jeep for about a minute then back inside again.

‘IT’S TOO COLD OUT HERE DAD LET’S GET BACK IN THE WARM JEEP’

Didn’t bother taking too many photos today but luckily had a few left over from Sunday mornings walk in the Hullett Marsh.

 

Heavy overcast with strong winds this morning.  A smattering of rain and small snowy ice pellets which luckily didn’t freeze on the roads which could have turned them into skating rinks.  Not a nice morning and we were soon home again.

THIS IS A GOOD EXAMPLE OF WHAT ROAD SALT DOES TO OUR VEHICLES HERE AND THIS WAS ONLY SOME OF THE RUST ON THIS PARTICULAR VEHICLE

No walk this afternoon because I don’t like being outside anymore when it’s too cold or too hot.  With winters always cold and summer’s getting hotter and hotter it really makes me wonder if there would be a better place to live year round.

TWO PHOTOS OF THE SAME WATER PUDDLE TAKEN ABOUT TWENTY MINUTES APART SHOWING IT FROZEN THEN NEARLY THAWED

GROANER’S CORNER:(( A man died and arrived at the Pearly Gates. St. Peter greets him and says, "Welcome. Come walk with me and I'll show you where you'll be staying."As they're walking along the path he notices clocks on the Golden Fence of Heaven. He asks St. Peter, "What are all those clocks for?"St. Peter replies, "They’re clocks for every person in the world. They click once for each time you lie."By the time they reach where the man is staying, he asks out of curiosity, "I didn't see any politicians’ clocks. Where are they kept?"St. Peter calmly replies, "People here use them as fans."

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In a small Southern town there was a "Nativity Scene" that showed great skill and talent had gone into creating it. One small feature bothered me. The three wise men were wearing firemen's helmets. Totally unable to come up with a reason or explanation, I left. At a "Quick Stop" on the edge of town, I asked the lady behind the counter about the helmets. She exploded into a rage, yelling at me, "You Yankees never do read the Bible!" I assured her that I did, but simply couldn't recall anything about firemen in the Bible. She jerked her Bible from behind the counter and ruffled through some pages, and finally jabbed her finger at a passage. Sticking it in my face she said, "See, it says right here, 'The three wise man came from afar.'"

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