I’M STILL DEALING WITH FATIGUE FROM OUR LONG JOURNEY

ONLY PHOTOS I MANAGED TODAY WERE A FEW OUTSIDE PICS AROUND THE HOUSE LATE THIS AFTERNOON

Nice morning and I did a bit of raking around the yard.  My energy levels are still exceptionally low hovering around the bottom of the barrel so I wouldn’t call it a productive day.  I’ve been reading, watching some TV, and dozing in my recliner for much of the day.  Guess I am going to have to be more patient with myself and let my body slowly get itself back up to speed on it’s own.

THE BIG EEE’S WINTER PARKING SPOT AT THE SOUTH END OF OUR HOUSE

I did manage to move the Motorhome into it’s winter spot at the south end of our house and that was about the extent of my physical exertion today.  Kelly on the other hand was a ball of fire as she cleaned the whole Motorhome and probably half a dozen other things.  Her energy levels sometimes know no limits.  Of course I always feel bad when Kelly’s busily accomplishing things and I’m crawling around like a big old Slug accomplishing nothing.

Tried sleeping in my bed Saturday night for the first time in a very long time.  It did not go well.  No Vertigo problems as feared but again it was the nerves between my neck and shoulders that were painful enough to finally get me up around midnight and back into my recliner for the rest of the night. 

OUR BACK YARD PATIO

THAT’S MY ‘BIRD CHAIR’ WAY OVER THERE FOR PHOTOGRAPHING BIRDS IN THAT MESQUITE TREE

MY FRONT YARD CACTUS GARDEN

Wished I had some exciting upbeat things to write about tonight folks but I don’t so think I’ll just pull the plug and see what happens tomorrow.  I’m hoping for better days ahead…….

TONIGHT’S SUPER MOON

GROANER’S CORNER:(( A lawyer died and arrived at the Pearly Gates. Saint Peter asked him, "What have you done to merit entrance into Heaven?"  The lawyer thought a moment, then said, "A week ago, I gave a quarter to a homeless person on the street."  Saint Peter asked Gabriel to check this out in the records, and after a moment Gabriel affirmed that it was true.
Saint Peter said, "Well , that's fine, but it's not really quite enough to get you into Heaven."
The Lawyer said, "Wait, wait! There's more! Three years ago, I also gave a homeless person a quarter."  Saint Peter nodded to Gabriel, who, after a moment, nodded back to affirm that it was true. Saint Peter then whispered to Gabriel, "Well, what do you suggest we do with this fellow?"  Gabriel gave the lawyer a sidelong glance, then said to Saint Peter,"Let's give him back his 50 cents and tell him to go to Hell."

-------------------

John: I got this great new hearing aid the other day. Mary: Are you wearing it now?  John: Yup. Cost me four thousand dollars, though. But it's top of the line. Mary: What kind is it?   John: Twelve-thirty.

PHEEBS AND I GRAB A COFFEE AND DONUT IN YARNELL THEN HIT THE OLD STAGE COACH ROAD FOR STANTON AND BEYOND

THE OLD STAGE COACH ROAD LEADING TO STANTON ARIZONA

Our day dawned clear and bright and again warmed up nicely.  Had a number of things on my ‘to-do’ list this morning and after filling up the bird bath I walked around the corner of the house thinking about what I should tackle next.  Noticed Pheebs lying beside the Jeep’s driver door and when she looked my way with her sad little face our eyes met and I knew instantly what was absolutely next on my list.  Jeep Ride’:))))))With a sad little face turned quickly into a happy little face I grabbed my  cameras and loaded up the Spoogers.  It was 8:30 as we headed out our gate and headed south down Ghost Town Road.

PHEEBS AND I MADE FAST TRACKS RIGHT AWAY FOR THE WEAVER MOUNTAINS AND THE COFFEE AND DONUTS WE KNEW WE COULD FIND AT THE TOP

Closest place for a coffee and donut (no muffins) was the little bakery up in Yarnell about 10 minutes away.  Kelly had made a list of what kind of donuts to get so with that burning a hole in my shirt pocket Pheebs and I didn’t waste any time rocketing ourselves up the Yarnell Hill.  Four donuts to go and one coffee.  Made a U-turn in front of the bakery and headed the short distance back to the south side of Yarnell and hung a left turn onto Old Stage Coach Road.  It was time to break our new ‘off road’ tires in.

YARNELL’S CORNERSTONE BAKERY

Old Stage Coach Road was just as bumpy and grumbly as ever, and just as scenic too as we jostled our innards around on the long descent down through the Weaver Mountains.

FIGURED THIS WAS A GOOD ROAD TO TRY OUT OUR NEW TIRES

ON THE OLD STAGE COACH ROAD MAKING OUR WAY DOWN THROUGH THE WEAVER MOUNTAINS TO STANTON

THE COTTONWOOD TREES ARE SO PRETTY THIS TIME OF YEAR

WE HAVE A FAVORITE STOPPING PLACE ALONG OLD STAGE COACH ROAD AND THIS MORNING WE PULLED IN TO SAY HELLO TO SOME COWS………BUT THEY ALL RAN AWAY

Not many if any changes did we notice along our way and the old mining ghost town of Stanton still looked the same.  Due to the West’s slower laid back pace change can be a long time coming to anything anywhere out here and especially our dusty neck of the woods one hour south of Prescott and 20 minutes North of Wickenburg Arizona.  Congress is kinda out here all on it’s own.

QUITE AN OLD WEST HISTORY HERE WITH ONE FELLER SHOT DEAD IN THIS OLD GENERAL STORE BACK IN THE 1800’S

GOLDMINERS RV CHECK-IN OFFICE

A LOT OF GOLD MINERS IN STANTON WITH SOME IN TENTS BUT MOST IN RV’S

It was shortly after 10 when Pheebs and I finally found our way back home despite the clouds of desert dust we kicked up coming in along the washboard road from Stanton.  It was nice to touch base with some old familiar spots along the way this morning but I was also aware that despite being happy to be here I seemed to be lacking somewhere in my usual bright eyed enthusiasm.  This is the beginning of our 5th year coming to the same neighborhood.  Could I be in need of new scenery, new ideas and new adventures.  No doubt that is all part of it but here I think is the main reason.  I think I am still recovering from being so sick a couple weeks ago and coupled with our long journey from Florida plus an increasing number of nights with poor sleep I am just too plum tired to be enthusiastically excited about darned well anything.  This afternoon Kelly suggested I try something I hadn’t done in well over a year and a half.  She said why not go lie down on your bed and see if you can fall asleep.  All my sleeps since the summer of 2015 have been in my recliners so I trotted off to my room and did what I was told.  I was probably asleep within about 2 minutes and the next thing I knew Pheebs was barking like crazy and somebody was hollering ‘Hello, Hello’.  I had left our front gate open and some guy was at the door wanting to sell us some frozen food.  Arrrrrgggghh!!!!!!!!!

MY TRUSTY NAVIGATOR KEEPS A SHARP LOOK-OUT FOR ANY BIG ROCKS ON THE ROAD

OUR HOUSE IS ALMOST VISIBLE TO THE LEFT OF THOSE 2 HILLSIDE WATER TANKS

THOSE ARE THE DATE CREEK MOUNTAINS IN THE BACKGROUND

Called Aunt Jean this afternoon and she’s doing fine.  It’s just so unfortunate the distances between us are so far.  Flying down to Florida is not an option for us because we would never consider leaving Pheebe behind and the thoughts of her in a cage in the cargo hold of an airplane is not something we would ever even remotely consider.

BIG WAVE FROM A WATER TRUCK DRIVER HAULING WATER UP TO STANTON

That short little snooze I had on my bed earlier was a big help so tonight I may even try sleeping in my bed for a change.  As long as my Vertigo doesn’t return and my arms don’t to to sleep I just might be alright.  Guess it’s worth a try………

SOMEBODY WAS PRETTY DARN TIRED BY THE TIME WE GOT HOME

GROANER’S CORNER:(( The Local sheriff was looking for a new deputy. When a blonde walks in to try for the job, he asks her "Okay, what is 1 and 1?" "Eleven", she replies. The sheriff thinks to himself, "That's not what I wanted, but I guess she's right!" "What two days of the week begin with the letter T?" he asks. "Today and Tomorrow", the blonde answers. The sheriff is again surprised that the blonde has supplied a correct answer that had not even occurred to him.
"Now listen carefully, who killed Abe Lincoln?" he asks her.  The blonde looks a little surprised. She thinks really hard for a minute and finally admits, "I don't know."  "Well, why don't you go home and work on that one for a while?"
So, the blonde wanders over to the beauty parlor, where her pals are waiting to hear the results of the interview.  The blonde was exultant. "The interview went great!" she says. "First day on the job and I'm already working on a murder case!"

---------------------

A mother took her little boy to church. While in church the little boy said, "Mommy, I have to pee."  The mother said to the little boy, "It's not appropriate to say the word 'pee' in church. From now on when you have to 'pee' just tell me that you have to whisper'."  The following Sunday, the little boy went to church with his Father and during the service said to his father, "Daddy, I have to whisper."  The Father looked at him and said, "Okay, why don't you whisper in my ear."

WE TRIED NOT TO DO TOO MUCH OF ANYTHING TODAY

A FEW OF MY SOUTHWEST PALS

First off a big thanks to Kelly for working on and figuring out my blog publishing issue with Thursday night’s post.  So many times Kelly has stepped in with her smarts, determination and patience to save my blog from technical issues way beyond my understanding.  We are like a racing car team in that I drive the race car and Kelly is the all-in-one pit crew keeping the car tuned and running smoothly.

Stepping out of the coach Thursday night with Pheebs I was pleasantly surprised to hear Crickets chirping near by.  Looking up I saw a big half Moon high overhead with it’s pale light flooding down across our desert landscape here at the house.  Early this morning in the pre-dawn hours I once again stood in awe gazing at all the bright twinkling stars from horizon to horizon.  The thought occurred to me that it had been over 7 months since I had seen the starry night so clear and it was from the exact same spot I was standing in this morning.  Some things are just more extra special than others and I was pleasantly reminded of that this morning.

Didn’t exactly get myself off on the right foot this morning because of the blog publishing problem so I had to step away from the computer and busy myself the tasks at hand for today.   Our day dawned sunny and clear warming up nicely.  While Kelly worked on the blog problem I set up our satellite dish, hauled out the porch and patio furniture, got myself a load of laundry going and began transferring things from the coach to the house.  When Kelly told me she was able to get the blog to publish my Spirits soared and I managed to get myself back on an even keel.  I don’t seem to handle stress nearly as well as I once did.

We set up our television and managed to grab our satellite signal without too much difficulty.  Internet Verizon coverage was always spotty here in Congress so we had to buy a special antennae which I installed on the roof a couple years ago.  Took that down when we left in the Spring but brought it back to re-install again but here’s the good news.  Verizon has obviously updated their signal towers for this area and our computers are working just fine on the Jet Pack we carry in the rig.  No need to put the antennae up again or use our Wilson Sleek booster.  So nice when things work out fine like that.  But a bit unusual of course.               

We worked away at transitioning from our Motorhome to the house this morning but careful not to push ourselves like we usually do.  No matter though, we were both still feeling a bit zapped by noon.  How nice to be off the road from those long hard driving travel days.  As much as I love to drive it gets even a bit much for me after awhile.  We did a lot of talking over the past 5 days about future travel plans.  Where to go, when to go and how to go.  After 10 great Snow Birding years where are our priorities now??  What has changed and what do we want to change.  Are we still feeling as good about this RV lifestyle as we once did??  I believe in that great saying, ‘don’t go there until you get there’ but I also believe in before you get there you had better understand where it was you were and why.

We are looking forward to the next bunch of days of doing basically the square root of nothing.  We need to let the dust from our long journey settle before we can even think about anything ahead.  Just quiet times with the birds in the trees and the winds in the cactus.

Walking around this morning looking at all the Cactus I have planted I’d say most everything has survived reasonably well.  Not like the first couple years when the rabbits and goats ate most of my hard working efforts.  Three of my planted Joshua Trees survived the summer and are looking well.  Some grasses I planted didn’t do as well as I expected but most of the potted cactus plants survived.  I do have lots of Palo Verde and Mesquite tree sucker branches to clip off but I enjoy that kind of work so it’s Okay.  Both Libby and the Big EEE are in need of a big clean-up but again, I’m in no hurry to do that.

And talk about a clean-up’.  We have the biggest and best shower in our rig that we have ever had in all our rigs but I don’t care what anybody says you just can’t beat a real sticks and bricks long hot shower.  Lots of water pressure, lots of elbow room and unlimited hot water.  I stayed in my house shower so long Thursday afternoon I noticed protrusions in my neck beginning to form.  I was growing a set of gills!!

Anyway that’s enough out of me for tonight and again a big thanks to all our readers for following along and wishing us well in our travels.  It is all you folks out there who keep me focused.  Oh, and happy 50th wedding anniversary to Dianne and Harry Mero way up there in that Seaforth Ontario place.  Thought I’d forget eh……….:)) 

GROANER’S CORNER:((  Brenda O'Malley is home making dinner, as usual, when Tim Finnegan arrives at her door.  "Brenda, may I come in?" he asks. "I've somethin' to tell ya".
"Of course you can come in, you're always welcome, Tim. But where's my husband?"
"That's what I'm here to be telling ya, Brenda. There was an accident down at the Guinness brewery..." "Oh, no!" cries Brenda. "Please don't tell me." "I must, Brenda. Your husband Shamus is dead and gone. I'm sorry." Finally, she looked up at Tim. "How did it happen, Tim?"  "It was terrible, Brenda. He fell into a vat of Guinness Stout and drowned."  "Oh my dear! But you must tell me truth, Tim. Did he at least go quickly?"
"Well, Brenda... no. In fact, he got out of the vat three times to pee."

------------------

During a visit to the mental asylum, a visitor asked the Director how do you determine whether or not a patient should be institutionalized.  Well, said the Director, we fill up a bathtub, then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the patient and ask him or her to empty the bathtub.  Oh, I understand, said the visitor.  A normal person would use the bucket because it's bigger than the spoon or the teacup.
No said the Director, A normal person would pull the plug out.  Do you want a bed near the window?