A FEW TRAVEL MEMORIES & ANSWERING SOME QUESTIONS

ALWAYS SOMETHING GOING ON IN OUR FRONT YARD

It was almost cool enough this morning to kick on the furnace but we held off knowing the HUGE cost of electricity in this Province. Would you believe that on every Ontario Hydro customer's monthly bill there is a section called, Debt Retirement Charge!! This is to pay for the huge bungling & blatant fraud at the top management levels years ago where CEO's etc were caught with their hand's in the cookie jar, especially the woman at the top who I am sure is continuing her lavish & spendthrift lifestyle somewhere. Millions & millions of dollars greedily scooped up by money grubbing executives & now the rest of us Ontarians are in chains forever trying to re-pay the unpayable debt!!!!!!!!!!

Well, not the nicest way to start off a blog but it just sort of popped out. I shall now endeavour to lighten up do better:))

A VERY SLEEPY LITTLE MOTORMOUSE TRAVELER IN OUR GMC TRUCK.....PRE-MOTORHOME DAYS

Kelly had the day off so we just kind of puttered around at small stuff. I'm going to start transplanting some things & re-doing flower beds shortly now that summer is winding down. Our jungle outside is growing so well that it is threatening to swallow us up. We may even have Rhinosaucerous's & Hippoplotamooses roaming around out there.
KELLY USING OUR LAPTOP IN THE LOBBY OF A HOTEL IN WHITES CITY NEAR THE CARLBAD CAVERNS....2006

Our computer has been slowly slowing down for a long time so to-day we un-hooked it, took it to Goderich & had 2 Gigs of RAM memory stuffed into the back of it. We were back home up & running in less than an hour. Definitely operating faster now. May even have to install a seatbelt on our computer chair. Computer is 3 years old & would like to get 2 more years out of it at least.
Had a couple boondocking questions from a blog follower to-day. "How long do you stay out there and how do you do with water & electric????" REST STOP PARKING LOT IN THE GUADALUPE MOUNTAINS NEW MEXICO

With our 2 solar panels & 4 batteries we could stay in the desert indefinitely. Solar is basically just like having electricity in your house but there are a few things like air conditioners & micro-wave that we would flip on the generator for if we ever used them. During our winter months it is rare to ever have to use the A/C & we only use the micro-wave briefly while maybe heating up a cold coffee or something. Length of stay in the desert is determined mainly by the black water holding tank. This is your toilet tank:)) The bigger the tank you have on your rig the longer you can stay boondocked. We generally get 10 to 14 days out of our tank then we have to take the rig into town or wherever there is a facility for emptying black water tanks. There are books out & an on-line site I think that will tell you where these facilities can be found across the country. RVing folks usually know where they are. For example, when we left Quartzite Arizona last January heading for Casa Grande we knew there was a dump tank facility in Gila Bend because we've used that one 3 or 4 times in our travels. It's behind the Shell gas station just in case your in the area & needing to make a dump. When you get there just give the water hose a salute, open the drain lid, & tell the underground holding tank, The Bayfield Bunch sent you:))
OUT FOR A WALK IN THE GUADALUPE MOUNTAINS WEST OF THE CARLSBAD CAVERNS

Another question came in about Brantley State Park northwest of Carlsbad. Nice park & very clean. It's not a big park though, sits atop a hill, & can get windy. You can find it here....BRANTLEY SP. We stayed in the Limestone campground. There is also an RV Park at the junction of the 62/180 highway & road (Whites City) that leads up to the Carlsbad Caverns. Obviously a nice park at one time but it had fallen into disrepair & neglect when we were there. The ?? Hotel at the junction looks after it now & we were able to get Wifi in the lobby there. The campground had a great hot water shower though. We just stayed the one night so it was fine for us. We left there early in the morning & did a lot of coasting down the Guadalupe Mountains to the west because we were running with a nearly empty gas tank. We never would have made it to El Paso & luckily we found a little gas station along the darkened pre-dawn road. Parked beside the tanks, went back to bed & waited for the gas station owner to show up & open the gas station later. Whewwww, close call!! WAITING FOR THE LITTLE GAS STATION TO OPEN SOMEWHERE NORTH OF EL PASO, TEXAS

We later went through El Paso Texas & finally ended that long day at Pancho Villa State Park in Columbus, New Mexico. Traffic was heavy as we somehow got swept right through El Paso & out the other side. Only pics I have of El Paso were on our return home a few months later when we ran into snow & slushy roads there. Not nice!!!! HEADING EAST OUT OF EL PASO JUST AFTER A BIG SNOWSTORM

I have come across some fellow RV bloggers websites these past few weeks & will list them here. Some of these folks have signed on as Bayfield Bunch followers, & others I've just kind of stumbled across. I would like to put everybody's site on our "Blogs We Follow" but I'm afraid the list would just be toooooooo long. Here they are & if you have time, stop by & say Hello to these fine people. Also want to thank my fellow bloggers & readers again for all the comments. I do manage to get around to pretty well all of the blogs & leave comments sometimes myself but kind of feel bad when I don't. Oh well.....if a Chinaman falls off his bicycle in Beijing I would probably somehow feel bad about that too....................................:(( THIS IS WHERE I GOT MY BLACK COWBOY HAT

http://chrisscorner-chris.blogspot.com/ Welcome Friends to Chris's Corner
http://adventureswithtassie.blogspot.com/ Adventures With Tassie
http://bruceandmargiesfulltimejourney.blogspot.com/ Bruce & Margie's Fulltime Adventure
http://mtnairetravlers.blogspot.com/MtnAire Travlers CORA'S NOT SURE WHO THIS GUY IS WITH THE FUNNY LOOKING THING IS ON HIS HEAD...."MOM, MOM, WHO IS THIS GUY!!"

GROANER'S CORNER:(( And in the immortal words of Sesame Street's Kermit the Frog........"Time is fun when your having flies:))"

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/
The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.

BOONDOCKING IN THE AJO HIGHLANDS.....2008

DOESN'T GET MUCH BETTER THAN THIS:))

A bit late sitting down at the old keyboard to-night but I did manage to throw a few photos to-gether of a favorite boondocking spot we camped at back in late February of 08. It's just west of Ajo, Arizona in the AJO HIGHLANDS in a place commonly referred to as the Darby Wells Road area.

HOME IS WHEREVER THE RIG IS PARKED:))

Anybody who follows our blog knows we are boondocking folks who avoid RV Parks wherever possible. I've blathered on quite a bit about our dislike of crowded parks in the past so won't re-hash myself here & get all the RV Park folks chasing me around with big sticks again. MY IDEA OF BOONDOCKING

To-day's boondocking photos show what we consider to be just about the perfect setting for people like us who prefer the peace & tranquility of Mother Nature. Only sounds are the coyotes, Gila woodpeckers, a few ravens, & the desert wind. No security lights, trailer lights, or headlights, only the beautiful light of the moon in a clear star studded night sky. Nothing moving past your rig except for the odd rabbit or roadrunner. No big flat sided fiberglass RV's 10 feet away, just endless miles of Saguaro cactus, Cholas, Ocotillos, majestic rock formations, & mountain ranges on all sides for as far as the eye can see. I'll bet this is all sounding pretty boring to a lot of folks out there & the question arises, "what do you do all day?" My answer to that is, "why do we have to do anything!!" We are totally immersed in domestic stuff for 6 months of the year when we are at home in Canada & we consider it a great privilege to step right out of that world once we get down to our desert home in the southwest. And that home is wherever our rig is parked & the quieter the place we can park it the better!! EVERY DAY A CAMPFIRE, EVERY NIGHT A DAY'S MEMORIES

We don't do the same thing day after day though. We do day trips with the car, pop into the nearest town for groceries, & spend large amounts of time relaxing around our rig. If you give it a chance, that relaxing stuff really grows on you. Always a morning hike though. I'm not a television person so couldn't care less if we had a TV or not, except for the news. Nightime is when I enjoy putting the day's blog to-gether. It's a favorite time of mine. Another favorite time is reading. While in Canada I never read a thing but the boondocking lifestyle for me totally lends itself to settling down in a comfy reclining lawn chair in the shade of the rigs awning with a good book. No interruptions, no honking horns, no blaring television, no neighbor's stereos or screaming kids, dirt bikes, ATV's, no social stress & no pesky neighbors. JUST THE WIND, THE THOUGHTS, THE PLANS, THE DREAMS, & THE MEMORIES WAITING FOR THE DESERT MOONRISE

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A diplomat is someone who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you will look forward to the trip.

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/
The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.

TAKE CARE GUYS.......& SOAR WITH THE BALLOONS

WE CAME ACROSS THESE BALLOONS IN THE DESERT ONE MORNING SNAGGED ON A BUSH

Yesterday was a good reminder again of why it's important to try & make these latter years as pleasant as possible with doing things you like to do or have always wanted to do if at all possible within your means. The clock is ticking for all of us & within the past two days that clock has come to a stop for a couple more friends.

Our good backyard neighbor Bert lost his battle with cancer Sunday bringing to an end a 4 year friendship of "over the fence chats", a few coffee's, some mutual gardening projects, & a like minded understanding of all the world's ailments. Bert was a soft spoken & gentle man & I always found it easy talking with him. Even without our joint guidance on the world's problems now Bert I somehow think this tired old earth will somehow continue along on it's own wobbly way. WE UNSNAGGED THEM BUT THEY DRIFTED SLOWLY ALONG THE GROUND

CAMLACHIE MODERN MAN was my good cyber friend Fred's blogger site name. I met Fred on-line about 5 years ago when a mutual friend gave me his email address. We swapped countless hundreds of jokes back & forth & emailed each other about photography & camera ideas. I did finally meet Fred 2 years ago at a friend's 70th birthday party near London Ontario & we remained in email touch with our bantering back & forth right up until a couple weeks ago when Fred's cancer wouldn't let him use his beloved computer anymore. Send me an email when you can Fred & if you come across any good jokes out there wherever you are, send them along because I'll still be watching for you to pop up on my computer screen old Buddy. GAVE THEM A BOOST INTO THE AIR BUT THEY JUST HUNG THERE UNABLE TO GAIN ANY LIFT

We have a perfect weather day going on & that has helped smooth the saddened waters. I am in my usual sunroom spot with birds twittering about in front of me & a Colorado Atlas open on my desk. It's time to put some forward thinking travel plans into gear & begin the map plotting for this winter's trip to the southwest. Can we afford to go again this year?? No, of course not, but we're going anyway while we still can.......while we can still hear that clock ticking.

To-day's photos take us back a couple years to the HICKIWAN TRAILS RV Park in Why, Arizona. We loved our morning desert walks there & one particular morning we came across a bunch of tied to-gether balloons snagged on a shrub. We untangled the ribbons & tried unsuccessfully several times to get the cluster airborne but as a group they didn't have enough lift & the trailing ribbons would become snagged once again. It wasn't until we hit upon the idea of untying the balloons from each other that we were finally able to give the individual balloons their freedom. We launched each balloon into the air & the last we saw of them they were climbing steadily in the warm desert air currents, laughing & giggling, & heading for destinations unknown. There is a connection here with Bert & Fred & if you are quick enough to catch those balloons, maybe, just maybe, they will tell you what it is.........................:)) WASN'T UNTIL WE UNTIED EACH ONE & SET IT FREE THAT THEY ALL SOARED HAPPILY UPWARD & AWAY:))

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Light travels faster than sound. That's why some people seem bright until you hear them speak.

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/
The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.

A CYBER RETURN TO BRYCE CANYON & THE MAJESTIC HOODOOS

SOME OF THE HOODOOS IN BRYCE CANYON, UTAH (click to enlarge)

It was kind of a gloomy cloud covered morning so figured I needed some good old southwest sunshine & scenery to cheer me up....real quick!!. Cracked open my Picasa Web Albums site, put on my hiking boots, & took me for a cyber walk through BRYCE CANYON, Utah. OUR 'BRYCE CANYON PINES' CAMPGROUND WEST OF BRYCE CANYON RUBYS INN

I first hiked the Sunrise/Sunset trail in Bryce back in May of 1992 & what I saw that time has always stayed with me. Kelly had never been there so in November of 2007 we rolled into Utah's Bryce Canyon area with our hiking boots at the ready, our water bottles filled, & our enthusiasm in overdrive. ON THE SUNRISE TRAIL INTO THE CANYON

We had a few touches of snow here & there because of the higher elevation but we found a cozy & quiet little campground about 6 or 7 miles west of Bryce on highway 12 called, The Bryce Canyon Pines & as luck would have it.....we had the whole campground to ourselves for the 2 days & nights we stayed there. THIRD HOODOO ON THE RIGHT IS THOR'S HAMMER

It was breakfast next morning at the well known RUBY'S INN (nice place but expensive!!) & it was off for a few hours hiking in Bryce Canyon just a few miles down the road. There are various trails in Bryce but we chose the Sunrise to Sunset 1.6 mile trail because I remembered how nice it was from back in 92. It's easy walking with wide flat paths as you descend into the canyon but there are some grades & a steep switchback climb out of the canyon at the other end of the trail at Sunset Point. It's one of those walks where you really want to take your time to see everything because the beauty of the hoodoos are all around you. There is an overwhelming sense of peace & serenity here so there is no hurry to finish the walk. ON THE FLOOR OF THE CANYON

Bryce isn't a canyon that you just stand & admire from afar, it is a canyon that you become a part of as you hike right down to the floor of the canyon itself. It's a magical fairyland of cotton candy colors with castles, spires,, hoodoos, & great gargantuan rock creatures lurking all around you every foot of the way. This is a place you have to see to appreciate. Again, a picture is worth a thousand words so come walk with Kelly & I as we take you around the winding magical PATHWAYS OF BRYCE CANYON:)) (you might like to click on the Slideshow feature when you get there) KELLY COMING THROUGH A HOLE IN THE ROCK

GROANER'S CORNER:(( If at first you don't succeed......skydiving is not for you!!

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 HAPPENED ONE DARK OCTOBER NIGHT

THESE ARE A FEW OF TO-DAY'S PHOTOS

Decided for the sake of variety I'd reach back into my little bag of blogs & pull out one I wrote nearly a year ago. In other words my brain seems to missing on a few cylinders to-night. I was reminded of this blog to-day when I saw what appeared to be a large pink colored bird circling over our front yard frog pond early this morning. It took me back to an event which occurred near where we live, began with a telephone call from Canada's east coast, & had me out silently skulking about on a darkened October night.............. Click on COVERT OPERATION.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( You know your getting old when you sit in a rocking chair and can't get it going.

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/
The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.

A FEW THOUGHTS ON BLOGGING.....AND SOME OKLAHOMA CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

EUFAULA STATE PARK, OKLAHOMA...... CHRISTMAS LIGHT EXHIBITION-DECEMBER 2006

Rick, a fellow RV blogger out on Vancouver Island accidentally deleted 155 treasured photos a few days ago. I think we all have had those heart stopping moments of sheer terror at one time or another but Rick got right on the problem & went chasing after those deleted photos. He hopped on the web & searched out a program for recovering lost files, documents, & photos etc. Wasn't long & he had replaced that terror with joy at getting things back on track again. Hop on over to RICK'S blog & see how he did it because he lays everything out in detail plus he has the website program site he used to recover his lost photos. HAD A NICE RV SITE RIGHT BESIDE EUFAULA LAKE & WE WERE THE ONLY ONE'S IN THE WHOLE PARK:))

While on the topic of blogs I'd like to comment on a few things I've noticed over the past couple of blogging years. It took me awhile to understand what this blogging thing was all about & how it worked. Just couldn't get the concept in my head but finally one day while toiling over the BLOGGER website, a few pieces of the puzzle finally fell into place & I began to put to-gether a blog page. Discovered there were many widgets & gadgets that could be added on the site to jazz it up & really make it sparkle so I quickly added music & a slide show right off the bat & it wasn't long I had a cute little black cat wandering around all over the site as well. Probably had some fireworks & sparklers thrown in for good measure too. Lots of neat-O things to add. Or, so I thought!! Being new to blogging I had overlooked a few things & it took some kindly fellow bloggers to suggest to me some do's & don'ts. All those add-ons take time to load so the more flirting flamingos, pooping pelicans, or bouncing bears you have on your site the harder it is going to be for many people to access it. Many folks out there are still stuck with dial-up connections & if you have a lot of warm fuzzies on your site those people are not going to be able to access your blog. Some bloggers add music to their sites & that really bogs things down for slow connection people. Couple that with a slide show & all the dial-up folks are toast. Music, slide shows, & videos really kill bandwidth for the air card people as well. When we were traveling last winter we switched from a satellite dish connection over to a 5GB Verizon air card so we had to quickly learn how to conserve our precious bandwidth. I upload a lot of photos everyday so we have to be careful not to go over the 5GigaBite limit. Whenever I came across anybody's web or blogger site that had music playing I automatically canceled it right away which was unfortunate because there were some bloggers out there that I never did get to read. And personally, I am very picky about the kind of music I listen to so when I click on a site & have my eardrums shredded by the likes of Whitney Houston, Maria Carey, or Metallica, I don't take too kindly to that. Some bloggers totally load their sites with advertising & you really have to search for the actual blog itself. I don't spend time searching anymore & as soon as I see pop up ads, flashing banners, or big ads for this or that I immediately hit the little red X button & I'm out of there with not much probability of returning. I understand the logic of generating some revenue for the site & see nothing wrong with that if it's done with common sense & good taste. The priority of your site should be the quality of your blog & not the size of your wallet. If I could figure out a sure fire way of adding a little advertising about something I believed in I would consider it, but so far, advertising on blogs just leaves me a little on the cold side!! Noticed yesterday on our Sitemeter stat counter that we have surpassed 50,000 hits on our blogsite. Who would have ever thunk it....eh:)) Our heat wave has blown out of the area & I've already switched from my short sleeve shirt to my long sleeve one. My absolute favorite time of the year is approaching. Won't be long & the big box stores will be replacing all the back to school stuff on the shelves with some Halloween paraphernalia & then it will be right into the full blown retail Christmas Season. And just to get you started on that track I have a few photos I took back in December of 06 in an Oklahoma State Park called EUFAULA formally known as Fountainhead. It was a long day & I had earlier managed to get ourselves lost in the Ozark Mountains over in nearby Arkansas. Had one of my instant brain waves that morning while approaching Joplin Missouri that I would take a short cut down highway 59 thus avoiding having to go through Oklahoma City later. After many twisty up & down curvy roads it was mid afternoon before we finally found our way out of the forest & headed across the State Line into Oklahoma. Kelly located a State Park on the map that looked like it was in the general area of where we were headed so by late afternoon, tired & totally worn out, we pulled into Eufaula State Park.
WE EVEN MANAGED TO SCROUNGE UP A FEW COLORED LIGHTS OURSELVES

As is so often the case at this time of year, we were the only ones there. That is always sooooo great when that happens. Reason being of course is because it's December & really cold out. This day was no exception!! It was immediately apparent that we had stumbled into something special here though because all around a large circular roadway about the size of a football field stood all these frameworks of various Christmas theme decorations. We were told by a fellow out for a walk that at night all these Christmas lights were lit up & people came from far & wide to drive through the park & view the spectacle. So, as soon as it got dark I grabbed my camera & we went out for a quiet winter's night walk in a wonderland of Christmas lights. Didn't have a tri-pod with me so some of the pics are a bit wobbly......................:)) GROANER'S CORNER:(( George Bernard Shaw once said to Winston Churchill:"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play, bring a friend.... if you have one. " Winston Churchill, in response said, "Cannot attend first night, will attend second... if there is one."

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/
The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.

32 MONTHS AGO TO-DAY WE WERE DEEP UNDERGROUND

THE CAVERNS ARE TRULY CAVERNOUS AND THE WALKING IS REASONABLY EASY

Figured by now everyone must be getting pretty tired of flowers, birds, & sunroom pictures so decided to reach back in our little bag of travel goodies & come up with something completely different. Enough of green shrubs, colorful birds, & cozy sunroons & lets get ourselves deep down below earth into the darkened caves of the CARLSBAD CAVERNS NATIONAL PARK in New Mexico.

THIS PLACE JUST BOGGLES THE MIND

It was December of 2006 when we left our cozy little home in Bayfield Ontario early one morning on ice covered roads & blowing snow. Destination was the American Southwest.....somewhere. Aside from a quick trip to Big Bend National Park in Texas back in 2004 this was our first big adventure. We had a spiffy 2004 GMC Sierra truck pulling a nice 2005 Rockwood 5th wheel & the Bayfield Bunch was ready to rumble. LIGHTS ARE STRATEGICALLY PLACED TO HIGHLIGHT THE COUNTLESS ROCK FORMATIONS

Somewhere between here & there I decided I would like to see Roswell New Mexico because I've always had an interest in that alien stuff. We were making our way west across highway 380 when the weather began to turn sour. We were hearing reports of snow ahead & to the north a bit. Had ourselves a close call on some black ice early one morning so decided we had better get ourselves a little further south. Carlsbad Caverns had always been a place of interest to me so we heaved the nose of the truck over into the southwest wind & set sail for Carlsbad.
PEOPLE ON THE WALKWAY GIVE THE CAVERNS SOME PERSPECTIVE

We made the town of Carlsbad in late afternoon & spent the night at Brantley Lake State Park northwest of there. Cold, cold, cold!! We were up early because we wanted to make the 10 A.M. Cavern tour south of Carlsbad and wouldn't you know it....when we went to retract the slide it wouldn't budge no way no how. Finally had to get out the instruction manual & figure out how to get it in manually. Found the iron slide bar, crawled under the slide, inserted the bar into a whatchyamacallit & cranked the slide in by hand. I was surprised at how easily it went in. With all that done we headed for the Carlsbad Caverns just making it with minutes to spare for the 10 o'clock tour. THESE CEMENT WALKWAYS LINK THE MANY CAVERNOUS ROOMS

Boarded a crowded elevator & descended into what seemed like the bowels of the earth itself. A lot of people on this tour but it was just the way it had to be....darn it!! I know the word 'awesome' is way over used these days & it's a word I stay away from but it's the only word that describes what we saw, walked through, & experienced, over the next 4 or 5 hours. This is truly a great place & a must see for any traveler. I won't try to describe the Caverns in words because I don't have a vocabulary large enough to do that. The photos I took that day don't do it justice either but like they say, a picture is worth a thousand words so click on OUR CARLSBAD CAVERNS ALBUM which will take you to our photo album. Try clicking on "Slideshow" when you get there because it will enlarge the photos & make the tour a better experience. First 4 pictures are of us getting ready to leave Brantley Lake & the rest are of the Carlsbad Caverns. We have also been to the Kartchner Caverns in Arizona but we liked Carlsbad better . It's much, much, bigger & after the tour you are allowed to wander the caverns on your own for as long as you want. In Carlsbad one price covers all but at Kartcher you have to pay for each room you go to see. You can take as many photos as you want at Carlsbad but at Kartchner cameras are forbidden:(( Kartchner is a must see as well but if I had to choose just one.... it would be Carlsbad. LONG DESCENT INTO THE BAT CAVE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO TAKE THE ELEVATOR DOWN......WE DID BOTH

We walked for miles underground that day & by the time we got our tired legs back to the trailer we decided to stay at a dumpy little RV Park a few miles east of the Caverns at White City which of course is not a city, just a collection of half a dozen small tumble down buildings. At least we were only 1 of 3 rigs in the whole place so that was a nice bonus at the end of a very awesome underground sightseeing day. THIS MIGHT BE A REAL DARN GOOD PLACE JUST TO UP & GET LOST FOREVER!!

It was the following morning when we left there that we stopped at the Apache Canyon Trading Post nearby & I bought my black cowboy hat that I wear while traveling in the southwest...............:)) BE SURE TO SEE THE REST OF THE PICS IN OUR PHOTO ALBUM

GROANER'S CORNER:(( I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me.

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/
The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.