REMEMBERING CB RADIOS

THAT RAINBOW CAME DOWN & LIT UP A DISTANT ELECTRICAL TOWER (Click to enlarge)

Last night was one of those blogs that rolled off my keyboard & ended up later giving me a hard time about the thoughts I had put into it. When I re-read it this morning I didn't feel right about what I said regarding fellow RVers traveling lifestyles & inferring that doing the same old thing all the time was boring or unexciting. I'm sure there are many types of adventurers out there who would find our type of travel not to their preference either. We are all different people traveling the road of life with many varied destinations & stops along the way. Wherever we are on that road & whatever stage we are at we generally feel it is the best place for us at the time. Interests change, eras come & go, new challenges are met & old ones are left by the roadside. It's a good thing we are all different or we would be a planet of robotic drones without spark, fire, or that special kind of thunder that individually makes us who we are. To-day Kelly & I embrace the adventurous spirit within us for as long as we can make it last. There fast approaches a time when interests & circumstances will change & we'll move on to a new era of forced winters in Canada again or maybe just taking the shorter route to Florida & happily lazing the days away in an RV Park remembering the good old days & waiting for the early bird specials. One thing is certain though, despite me repeatedly using the phrase 'same old' in last night's blog, nothing ever remains the 'same' & the word 'old' only applies to dinosaurs, left over pizzas & aging hippies!! Interesting post on the RV NET this morning about the use & abuse of CB (Civilian Band) radios. Many RVers have them in their rigs including us. I remember getting my first CB radio in 1975 when most of the channels were alive with all kinds of colorful chatter. The CB craze was in full swing & it seemed like everyone & their dog had a CB. A lot of guys on CB's were trying to sound like truckers with lots of phony southern drawls, big 10-4's at the ends of sentences, loads of swearing & tall tales. Remember C.W. McCall's popular trucker song, Convoy. And did you know that was not his real NAME. Anyway, fast forward 32 years to when I decided to put a CB radio in our motorhome. I honestly felt I had a defective radio because all the channels were silent. The non stop chatter from the mid 70's was gone & there was not much of anything left but dead air. Times have sure changed in CB-Ville. I leave the radio on channel 19 now while traveling & the only other people on there seem to be the truckers. Sometimes their conversations are interesting & sometimes they are just plain rude. In the 3 years I have had the radio I have never had occasion to use it. Idle chatter isn't my thing but I do like to have the radio present for traffic congestion & emergencies, etc. And who knows, maybe someday I'll just grab that old mike & let loose with a big, Hey little Buddy how's it goin........10-4:)) MOTORMOUSE IN THE LAUNDRY BASKET

It's now July & we have entered the dog days of summer. If your wondering where that phrase came from just hop on over to JENNY'S blog & she'll tell ya all about it. RICK, on the other hand blogged about his favorite RV accessories he wouldn't leave home without. I, in turn left a comment on Rick's blog about something Max, Checkers, me, & the Motormouse wouldn't leave home without either:)) WORKING ON A LITTLE WALLPAPER TRIM IN THE BATHROOM.....YES, WE DO LIKE TO MAKE THINGS COLORFUL IN KEEPING WITH OUR SOUTHWEST THEME:))

Did a Twitter Tweetdeck update to-day & it really messed around with my Facebook account & website. Took me awhile to get things straightened out but everything appears to be back as it was & no Tweetfaces were harmed in the process. Sun is shining, computer stereo is rocking with ambient tunes, I'm in the same chair at the same time of day with the same coffee cup typing on the same keys using the same cranium I work with every night. I have on the same track pants, flannel shirt, & brown socks, I had on last night. Same, same, same, so everything is somewhat basically the same as usual. Now if that isn't routine excitement for an aging RV hippy type guy........then what the heck is huh........:)) Adios Amigos A TOUCH OF DUTCH JUST DOWN THE ROAD FROM OUR PLACE ABOUT HALF A MILE

TO-DAY'S HUMOR: A blind man with a guide dog enters a Wal-mart & begins swinging the dog around over his head by it's collar. The store manager rushes up yelling, "stop, what are doing!!!! The blind man answers, "just looking around."

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JUST BLOWING ALONG WITH THE WIND:))

NEAR SEDONA ARIZONA

ANOTHER cold, gray, overcast day in the neighborhood. T-shirt, long sleeve flannel shirt & my lined Mexican jean jacket was the order of the day. Oh well if it wasn't for the weather what else could I complain about anyway. And speaking of weather I noticed a good weather site posted on RV NET this morning. You can find out about yearly weather in many cities & towns all over the U.S. Average temps, precipitation, snowfall, etc. WEATHER ATOP GROSVENOR'S ARCH IN UTAH

While driving over to London to-day I got to thinking about how we end up in places while we're RVing. A lot of folks know precisely where they are going when they leave home, exactly how many hours it will take them to reach their destination, cost of fuel & how many gallons will be used to get there. They know where they will be stopping & what they will be eating while stopped there. A strict schedule will be adhered to & their destination will probably be the exact same spot in the very same RV Park they have been to for the last umpteen same years. Same friends, same BBQ, same tree beside the cement pad, & the same view out their window as last year because the very same neighbor will be in his very same spot again as well. Boy, sure sounds exciting huh!! HIKING IN THE AJO MOUNTAIN RANGE....ORGAN PIPE NATIONAL MONUMENT, ARIZONA

I feel soooooo fortunate that neither Kelly or I are into that structured kind of traveling. Not saying there is anything wrong with that, it's just simply different strokes for different folks. Here's an example of how a typical RV trip goes for us. We leave home knowing the area of country we are headed for which in our case is The American Southwest. We start our traveling part of the journey each day not knowing where we will end that night. Some people would find that stressful....and so do we sometimes when it's mid to late afternoon & we've got the map out trying to track down a nearby State Park. Nerves can become a little frayed until we've settled in somewhere but at least it's not boring, routine, or predictable. We don't usually dilly-dally along too much while heading for the southwest so we generally scoot across the country lickity split & in about 5 or 6 days we've reached the eastern edge of what we consider to be our southwest winter stomping grounds. Coming across flat Texas into New Mexico my eyes begin to strain for the first glimpse of our beloved mountains & once we've put Roswell NM behind us & begin to climb into those mountains through the Apache Pass to Alamogordo I feel we have reached our second home & our adventurous snowbird lifestyle begins. PARK AVENUE IN ARCHES NATIONAL PARK, UTAH

We kind of blow along in the wind like a tumbling Tumbleweed sometimes & the least little crosswind can blow us off into an entirely different direction. Two seasons ago after talking to some RV boondocker folks in Why Arizona we decided to have solar panels installed on our motorhome because we knew we did not want anything more to do with RV Parks. We had heard of a fellow in Slab City California who did quality solar panel installations so that's where we headed. Spent about 3 days at the Slabs & didn't have a clue where we were going next until a 5th wheel RV couple rolled in to Solar Mike's to have some work done on their solar batteries. Said they were camped in a great spot west of the Salton Sea at a place called Peg Leg Smiths just outside of Boreggo Springs. Well, the name Peg Leg Smith is enough to perk anybody's interest so as soon as our installation was complete we put a big California sunrise behind us early one morning & headed west for a place called Boreggo Springs. SOLAR INSTALLATION DAY IN SLAB CITY, CALIFORNIA

Swung down around the southern edge of the Salton Sea, north to Salton City & then hung a big left turn heading for the looming San Bernardino Mountains & Boreggo Springs. No problem finding the Peg Leg place out in the desert but as we drove up & had us a look we knew it was not for us. Way too many RV's clustered in a tiny area just off the highway but just a mile back from there we had spotted a smattering of RV's scattered about in a larger area of desert floor. We ended up staying there for 2 or 3 weeks before heading off again letting the wind blow us to wherever it felt we should go.SLOT CANYON HIKE NEAR BOREGGO SPRINGS CALIFORNIA...BUTCH, KELLY, & AL.

Hope to be at our 3 week ranch sitting job near Douglas Arizona by November this year & if we can get an early start in October I would like to head down into the southwest corner of Colorado to an area known as the 4 Corners. The Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, & Colorado State Lines all meet there & we hear the area is second to none for awesome & spectacular scenery.

Well, that's some of the very early thoughts in my head & maybe with a little help & a nudge from that old westerly wind we just might end up somewhere in the mountains again this winter without ever knowing how or why we got there. For us...........it's the only way to go..........................now that's what I call exciting:))

TO-DAY'S HUMOR: What do you call a cow with no legs?...........................Ground Beef

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PUTTING ON WOOD TRIM WITH RAILWAY SPIKES!!!!

A WILDFLOWER ALONG THE TRAIL

My Monday morning weigh-in was a good example of the old saying, "is the glass half full or half empty?" I have to be optimistic & say the glass is half full as I weighed in the same as last week.....209 pounds. Although I didn't lose any weight.....I didn't gain any either!! IN OUR FRONT YARD BUT DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS

For the first 3 or 4 years we lived here at the 5 Seasons Estates I did a lot of gardening & landscaping around our place. Our unit hadn't been lived in for 3 years & the outside grounds were pretty barren & shabby looking. Quite a change from then to now as I have basically created a jungle like monster all around us. It's a never ending job of maintenance but I'm not complaining. I made my big green monster & now I must keep it's voracious appetite for gobbling up space under control. This morning I headed over to a neighbor's house & spent over 3 hours wrestling her front yard back from Mother Nature's wild & weedy side into something resembling a suggestion of order & control. The first 3 or 4 years we lived here I used to do a bit of gardening & landscaping for the park & some of the residents,but the last few years I have scaled all that back to mainly dealing with our own jolly green jungle monster. STELLADORO LILY WITH HEAVY DEW

Noticed a post in RV NET this morning that caught my attention. In one of the forums the topic was, Inconsiderate RV'ers, & that reminded me of a time back in January of 2008 when we were boondocked in Quartzite, Arizona. In the space of a few hours we were forced to move not only once..........but TWICE!! GETTING MY WALLPAPER MEASUREMENTS RIGHT

Did a little more painting in the motorhome last week around the stove area. Tried my hand at putting on some vinyl wallpaper plus wood trim. I amazed myself by not screwing it up too bad. Didn't even make any measuring mistakes for a change & I actually got the wallpaper right side up. But.......not to be outdone by my perfection I went ahead & nailed the wood trim on with the wrong kind of nails. Should have been small finishing nails but I used something akin to railway spikes. What was I thinking!!!!!! THE AREA TO BE PAINTED

I scrambled out of the park last night pretty quick when a fast moving tropical downpour like storm blew in across the lake complete with thunder & lightning. I'm always on the hunt for storm photos but only managed a few last night & they were not anything spectacular. I remember one enjoyable night years ago just northeast of Stratford when I set up my cameras during a very nasty night storm & got some great lightning photos. Unfortunately that was the old pre-digital era & those photos were on slide film. LAST NIGHT'S DARK STORM CLOUDS

To-morrow I'm off to London with the mobility van so at least that will get me out of the park again, dust me off, & give me something to look forward to. I always enjoy the ever changing rural scenery....................................
PAINTED & PAPERED........BEFORE I PUT THE RAILWAY SPIKES IN:((

TO-DAY'S HUMOR: Why do cows wear bells? They wear bells because their horns don't work.

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