IT'S A LIFESTYLE, NOT A VACATION.....PART 2

HIKING THE WILLIS SLOT CANYON NEAR CANNONVILLE, UTAH
Woke up to rain again this morning & on checking the on-line weather map could see it was a large system stretching all the way back down into Kansas City. Lots of rain but not even a whisper of wind. All this moisture sure is good for all the plants & trees I have been planting & moving around these past few weeks. 

 
HICKIWAN TRAILS IN WHY ARIZONA 
In regards to last night’s post about the time it takes me to put a post together let me quickly say that the time I spend on my blog is all enjoyable time for me. If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t do it. As said before, I like writing & photography. I also happen to like typing & it’s always an enjoyable challenge for me to put things together whether it be editing photos or pulling thoughts together in a meaningful way. I see my blog as an enjoyable hobby so I don’t mind spending the time on a hobby I enjoy.  It gives my day purpose & it gives me something to do at night while Kelly watches her television shows.  Same applies when we are traveling.
 
GRAND CANYON, SOUTH RIM.....ARIZONA 
In keeping with my Southwest ‘It’s Not A Vacation…..It’s A Lifestyle’ theme a couple days ago I have a few additional thoughts on the diversity of culture between our Ontario home & our Southwest home. I will focus my thoughts on Arizona because that is where we have spent most of our time these past few years. Let me first direct you to my post on February 1rst of this year entitled, DON'T LET POLITICS STOP YOU FROM COMING TO ARIZONA. This post address’s my thoughts on guns & attitudes & goes hand in hand with tonight's post.

HELL HOLE CANYON NEAR BORREGO SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA
Before I go any further let me emphasize that the following thoughts & opinions are mine alone. It is my lightly humorous & slightly exaggerated take on why I like the Southwest culture. (but, only slightly exaggerated:))

GILA CLIFF DWELLING, NEW MEXICO 
The old wild west history of the American Southwest has intrigued me all my life & is one of the many attractions that draws me to the West each winter. That history is still alive & well to this very day in various parts of Arizona & can be experienced by anyone traveling there. Now, just as I mentioned a couple days ago, I am not talking about the big cities here. Big cities are big cities no matter where you go. I am talking about the small towns & rural populations. This is where the true feeling of the old west is still alive & well. This is where you can see horses on the main streets of dusty little western towns. Clumps of sagebrush can be found resting in doorways on their tumbling way through town. You can walk into small stores & restaurants that haven’t changed for decades. They are not restored & fancy versions of their former selves, they are the buildings & interiors that in some cases have been there from the beginning. You can still see old wooden barns, sheds & houses being held up by nothing more than a stiff southern breeze.

SPLASHING ACROSS THE SAN PEDRO RIVER IN SEARCH OF A LONG FORGOTTEN GHOST TOWN.........CHARLESTON, ARIZONA 
Most folks in these here parts live their whole lives underneath their cowboy hats with button up shirts, blue jeans & dusty desert boots to match. Guns & holsters are occasionally seen as well & gun racks in pick trucks may carry old Winchester rifles. It’s a part of the old west that is still very much alive to this very day. It’s a place where the day's dust that settles on a feller, stays on a feller.

BOON DOCKING BETWEEN SIERRA VISTA & TOMBSTONE, ARIZONA
  
GAZING AT THE HUACHUCA MOUNTAINS & SIERRA VISTA, ARIZONA & LISTENING TO 'THE SONS OF THE PIONEERS.' 
Free range cattle in the fields, sometimes on the road. Old broken down pick up trucks & new SUV’s loaded to the axles with bales of hay. A big bag of feed over an old timers stooped shoulder coming out of the town’s general store is not an uncommon sight. No fancy manicured malls or glittering Big Box stores in the towns. No fashionably trendy shops in the outback either. Houses, barns & old wooden fences may look as well weathered as the locals themselves. Personalities are neighborly, downright homespun & friendly. And, every town & rural area has it’s own unique cast of ‘colorful characters.’ Some of them right out of the wild west days themselves. It is this very kind of setting that draws us, year after year to the Southwest because it is sooooo different from our area & culture here in southwest Ontario Canada.
 
  
EAST OF CANNONVILLE UTAH   
By comparison, Ontario is very ruled & regulated. A place for everything & everything in it’s place, very proper like. Wear a cowboy hat here & somebody is liable to call the police saying there is a nut bar loose. And, if you can find a horse to ride into town you are probably going to get yourself arrested. Not that you would ever find a horse nearby!!   And if your shirt happens to be ripped up in a few places you might want to put on a different one before going into town.
 
MEETING FELLOW HIKERS ON THE COCHISE TRAIL IN THE DRAGOON MOUNTAINS, ARIZONA
No, no, no, I am not running down our beautiful area of southern Ontario. We happen to have a very nice place here in a great area that we like very much. I am just drawing some slightly exaggerated comparisons as to why I find the southwest more to my liking because of the type of person I am & the type of lifestyle I prefer.
  
HIKING IN THE CHIRICAHUA MONUMENT, ARIZONA  
I understand very well society’s need for rules & regulations. We support & live that lifestyle very well here in Ontario but it is the less constraining lifestyle & feeling of freedom that we so much love about the Southwest. People don’t seem to take their lives as seriously there as we do here. Just seems to be less hassles, less fuss & muss,  with less emphasis on prim & proper. A far greater laid back lifestyle in Arizona & that appeals to me in a very, very big way. 
 
A SCENIC RAINY DAY DRIVE UP THE MOUNTAIN TO JULIAN CALIFORNIA FROM BORREGO SPRINGS   
If I had hair down to my ankles, a beard down to my knees & wore a big 10 gallon cowboy hat, rumpled plaid button up shirt with dusty jeans, a shootin iron & muddy cowboy boots I would be arrested by the local constabulary here right quick. But, in small town Arizona I would fit right in.  And that, is one of the main reasons I love Arizona so much. I feel the freedom to just be me. I feel the freedom of the 1800’s & I feel the freedom of the people to be themselves. No fancy schmanzy, no keeping up with the Jones’s & no feeling of having to keep up fashionable appearances. And, if at the end of the day I end up with more dust & dirt on me than my Jeep does then that’s a bonus & something to feel good about. It is the way of the West, And, I love it to bits……..10-4:))

CHRISTMAS DAY DINNER AT THE SENIOR CENTER IN COLUMBUS NEW MEXICO....2006
 
HANGING OUT AT THE 'PINK STORE' IN PALOMAS MEXICO & THE KIND OF SOUTHWEST COLORFUL DECOR IN COLUMBUS NEW MEXICO THAT WE LIKE SO MUCH....2007

A NEW MEXICAN SUNSET FROM PANCHO VILLA  STATE PARK IN COLUMBUS NEW MEXICO
GROANER’S CORNER:(( More than anything, Bob wanted to be a cowpoke. Taking pity on him, a rancher decided to hire the lad and give him a chance. "This," he said, showing him a rope, "is a lariat. We use it to catch cows." "I see," said Bob, trying to seem knowledgeable as he examined the lariat. "And what do you use for bait?"
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EMAIL THE BAYFIELD BUNCH:))
stargeezerguy@gmail.com
OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/
The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right
now...... AL.

AND YEP, WE BOTH WATCHED OPRAH'S LAST SHOW TODAY:))

I WONDER WHY OUR MOTOR HOME CAN'T LOOK THIS GOOD AFTER WE'VE BEEN LIVING IN IT FOR 5 MONTHS!!
Thermometer said it was just 10 degrees above freezing this morning around 6 a.m. as our furnace came on for about the third time. We are so fortunate to even have a furnace compared to the countless poor folks who now have nothing down in those Tornado ravaged sections of the United States.

Noticed Blogger was having a few problems with itself again earlier today. Still seems to be in regards to the comment section where glitches are still happening.

YES TOTO, WE DO HAVE WHITE SQUIRRELS HERE IN ONTARIO....TOOK THIS PHOTO IN THE TOWN OF EXETER  NEARBY WHERE THEY HAVE A LOT OF THE LITTLE WHITE CRITTERS
Kelly hasn’t been working quite as many hours at Deer Park Lodge so far this year so we have had some time together getting things done around the house. Had planned on heading to London this morning to have a look at some new carpet for our front porch. A last minute check of our live weather feed told us…..we would not be going to London today. We could see rain cells heading our way from the southwest so knew we would not be driving home from London in a downpour with a long carpet sticking out the back of the Santa Fe. Our carpet trip will have to wait for a totally dry day.

AND THIS IS DEER PARK LODGE WHERE KELLY WORKS & THAT LITTLE CABIN OVERLOOKING LAKE HURON IS CALLED, 'THE HUTCH.'  KELLY'S MOM & DAD LIKED TO STAY THERE WHEN THEY CAME TO VISIT US......
Back on May 11th, Eve from the Grapevine Canyon Ranch near Pearce Arizona wrote her final post from her beloved ranch. Kelly & I were so fortunate this past winter to have Eve take the time out of her busy day to show us around the Grapevine Canyon Ranch. OUR TOUR OF GRAPEVINE CANYON RANCH.
OregonMike & CARLOS 'CHARLIE' REVERA join us as our latest Blog Followers. Maybe one day we will get ourselves on out to Oregon Mike but not too likely we’ll make it down to the warm Caribbean, Charlie. Thanks for climbing aboard guys:))

I remember a time when I was able to sit down & write my day's post complete with a few photos in about 30 minutes.  Nowadays it takes me hours to put it all together each day. I used to start & finish my posts after supper & often just before going to bed. Now, I generally start the day’s post early in the morning on my Windows 7 laptop in my recliner, just after I get up. That is, if I happen to think of anything. I generally add to it again in the late afternoon around 5 p.m. After supper around 7 I copy & paste what I have written on the laptop so far & email it to our desktop computer in the Sunroom. There, I copy & paste my post into Live Writer & unload my day’s photos from the cameras to Picasa. I edit the photos & then place them into the blog. I have an external hard drive standing by in case I have to use any file photos. (like tonight) All & all, the blog takes me about 2 to 4 hours from the first keystroke to the last keystroke when I hit the 'Publish' button.
   
AND HERE'S A CABOOSE FOR SAM OUR FELLOW RV BLOGGER TRAIN GUY DOWN THERE IN Dardenne Prairie, MO.
My typing hasn’t slowed down any but I do take more photos than I used to. I don’t think my ‘thinking’ has slowed down either but I sure seem to have become a bit long winded over the past few years. I never plan or write anything ahead of time or save anything for the next day.  Each morning my thought process starts anew making my daily posts rather spontaneous.  (maybe that's why I get myself into trouble sometimes) I generally have no idea what I am going to write about for that day unless something occurs to me sitting in my recliner.  If that happens it generally ends up as my post’s first paragraph. Sometimes a post idea will come to me as I am reading other blogs in the morning.  Occasionally I still walk into the Sunroom after supper with an empty head & nothing on my mind to write about.  Somehow, I write a post anyway. Now, how does that happen!!
 
If I was a professional writer I would do it differently.  If I wrote an article on something I would let it sit & 'cook' for awhile.  Maybe a few days or maybe a few weeks.  I would keep coming back to it, making changes, re-writing this, restructuring that & adding or subtracting thoughts I deemed relevant.  I would work on it until it was the best I could make it be.  But, it's just a silly little personal blog each day & the challenge & fun of it is just that......fun & challenging.  Oh, & sometimes a little bit silly too..................10-4:))

BAYFIELD'S SUNSET PARK OVERLOOKING LAKE HURON.....FOLKS GATHER HERE NIGHTLY TO WATCH THE SUN GO DOWN OVER LAKE HURON 
GROANER’S CORNER:(( The stockbroker received notice from the IRS that he was being audited. He showed up at the appointed time and place with all his financial records, and then sat for what seemed like hours as the accountant pored over them. Finally the IRS agent looked up and commented, “You must have been a tremendous fan of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle” “why would you say that?” wondered the broker. “Because you’ve made more brilliant deductions on your last three tax returns than Sherlock Holmes made in his entire career.”
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EMAIL THE BAYFIELD BUNCH:))
stargeezerguy@gmail.com
OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/
The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right
now...... AL.

IT'S NOT A VACATION....IT'S A LIFESTYLE

ATOP CORONADO PEAK NEAR SIERRA VISTA, ARIZONA 

Yesterday's late afternoon storm swept in a cold front so today we are shivering under cloudy skies & a noon hour high of 48F.  My internal engine does not start or run well on cold cloudy days anymore so I had myself a rather physically unproductive day:((

BRYCE CANYON, UTAH 

Seems to have been more 'Blogger' problems today with folks including myself not being able to leave or publish comments off & on.

THE GRAND CANYON'S NORTH RIM 

When I started this post today I figured my thoughts on comparing Ontario & the Southwest would maybe be a paragraph or two in tonight's blog.  I soon realized it was going to take more than a couple paragraphs to describe our two kinds of lifestyles so I will break it into two parts.  I will write about the cultural differences in a later post.

CITY OF ROCKS STATE PARK, NEW MEXICO 

I have never considered our Snow Birding 5 winter months in the Southwest as a vacation or a holiday & there are reasons for that.  Our main home of course is Ontario Canada but we consider all of the Southwest as our second home.  There is a big difference in landscapes & climate between Ontario & the States of New Mexico, Arizona & California & therein lies one of the lifestyles greatest attractions.

ARIZONA'S MITRY LAKE NEAR YUMA 

Our home near Bayfield is located in a fine area of Southwestern Ontario, Canada.  Rolling farmlands & green forests.  Our house is surrounded by both Maple & Pine trees & the Park we live in is like no other we have ever seen.  We have more room between neighbors than most urban homes do.  No crowding here & we can even keep our Motor Home right on the property.  We could easily park half a dozen cars in our driveway & we have a hundred acre forest of hiking trails at our door.  No kids or families in our Adult community & how nice is that:))  Our Park is located in the country so no urban development anywhere near us until we reach Bayfield about 2 miles away.  Malls & Big Box stores are 20 minutes up the road to Goderich.  Three minutes west of is the never ending sandy beaches of beautiful Lake Huron.

ZION CANYON, UTAH 

By sheer contrast, the areas of the Southwest we love so much are totally opposite to our Ontario home environment & therein lies one of the greatest attractions for us.   Compared to our Bayfield area there is little greenery & quite often very few, if any trees on the desert floor.  Visibility for the most part is unrestricted with sweeping panoramic views all around us for as far as the eye can see.  The crystal clear starry night sky stretches for as far as the eye can see.   Mountains ring the horizons & we see sunrises & sunsets of untold beauty.  We prefer areas of as few people as possible so the roads & highways we travel on are quiet & free from traffic.  It is not uncommon to look either ahead or behind & not see another vehicle in sight.  We can be on the hotter desert floor walking among Saguaro Cactus & a short time later be in a forested Alpine meadow sitting in the cooling shade of a large Oak or Pine tree beside a babbling creek.  I am never bored by the fascinating diversity of scenery.  It is the great differences between Ontario & the Southwest that I find so appealing & it is the main reason we prefer the Southwest over the Southeast.

HIKING IN THE AJO MOUNTAINS....ORGAN PIPE  NATIONAL MONUMENT, ARIZONA

BORREGO SPRINGS CALIFORNIA....THE BADLANDS  

The Sonoran Desert of the Southwest has a hauntingly appealing magic all it's own.  The desert beauty may not be everybody's cup of tea but for people who have spent any time in the deserts & mountains we know the true beauty & magic it posses.  

RELAXING ALONG THE COCHISE STRONGHOLD TRAIL IN ARIZONA'S DRAGOON MOUNTAINS

I will later write about the laid back lifestyle we love so much.  To us, the American Southwest has it all.....in Spades:))  And, I should mention that we have the same feelings for the Northwest as well but it's just with our short 5 winter month traveling time we can't get to the other great States in those months because of the harsh winter conditions.  I have been to most of the Northwestern States many years ago & I have to say they are every bit as wondrous & beautiful as their southern neighbors:))  And let's not forget western Alberta & British Columbia in Canada.  Here is where we get into some really fine majestic beauty.

THE WHITE SANDS OF ALAMOGORDO, NEW MEXICO 

Anyway, to sum up.....it is the complete change of lifestyle & scenery that fires my imagination & excitement as we alternate between our stationary home in Ontario & our home on wheels in the Southwest.  Yes, you could say we have the best of both worlds alright.  I just wish we could tip the scales a bit & spend a little more of our time in the traveling world.  But, that's just me......10-4:))

SUNSET OVER NEW MEXICO 

GROANER'S CORNER:((  Taxiing down the tarmac, the jetliner abruptly stopped, turned around and returned to the gate. After a hour-long wait, it finally took off. A concerned passenger asked the flight attendant: “What was the problem?”
“The pilot was bothered by a noise he heard in the engine,” explained the flight attendant,” and it took us a while to find a new pilot.”

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EMAIL THE BAYFIELD BUNCH:))
stargeezerguy@gmail.com
OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/
The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right
now...... AL.