A TOUGH FINAL DECISION TODAY BUT WE FEEL THE TIME IS RIGHT

HAD IT NOT BEEN FOR A LITTLE CHIPMUNK & A HUMMINGBIRD STOPPING BY OUR SUNROOM WINDOW TO SAY HELLO TONIGHT I WOULDN’T HAVE HAD MUCH IN THE WAY OF PHOTOS FOR TONIGHT’S POST
We bought our Congress Arizona house in March of 2012.  We didn't buy it to flip it & make a few dollars, we bought it because we liked it.  Spent a lot of enjoyable hours fixing it up especially that first winter.  We liked the whole Congress/Wickenburg area with it’s surrounding mountains & desert scapes that go on forever.  Our house is located at the northern edge of the Sonoran desert just minutes from the higher & cooler elevation of the Weaver Mountains leading onto the Colorado Plateau.  Perfect central location for many of our favorite destinations.  With endless miles of desert trails just a short block from our door we have thoroughly enjoyed 3 great winter seasons at our house on a nice acre of land.
 

For nearly a year now we have been wrestling with the decision of selling our little adobe ranch style house & now with the exchange on the dollar we feel the time is right to let it go.  We also feel with the uncertain economy & an unknown shaky future shaping up across the land it is time to pool our resources back here in Canada.  We do not want to get stuck owning a house south of the border & for whatever reason not be able to return to it.  Do we want to sell??  Well not really but we feel this is a better time to sell rather than wait.  And due to the fact we will be in Congress by early November it was important we make our decision now.   We will be in touch with a Realtor shortly to get the ball rolling.  Makes me sad but we know the time has finally come & it is something we have to do.

So what will selling our Congress house mean for us?  Well, it means we'll return to our old traveling & boondocking ways just the way we did it for our first 6 Snow Birding years.  We will become wandering Nomads once more for half a year at a time.  We will again have the freedom to wander wherever we like & possibly branch out to New Mexico, Texas, & maybe even Florida & Georgia.  We will also be free of the stress involved in owning a house in a different country many miles away in uncertain times.  We have the largest, nicest, & best equipped Motorhome we've ever had & although we know our Congress house has spoiled us rotten we feel we can adapt back to our previous lifestyle.  As much as I will miss our Arizona house I will again look forward to new travels, new places, & new adventures.  We're not under the illusion it will be easy but we know we can do it.  And it has always been my experience when one door closes, other doors open…………………

As for my day...........well I cleaned all our Sunfire’s windows in the cooler morning air then sparkled up my motorcycle with some Turtle Wax.  Later this afternoon I took myself for a nice toot around the countryside.  Best way to cool off from our day's heat & humidity.  And they say Tuesday could be a record breaker in the old heat & humidity department.  I’ll probably just curl up inside our air conditioner for the day & have me a big snooze until this heat wave blows itself out of here.


BEFORE & AFTER THE CLEAN-UP

Kelly phoned for a quote on our upcoming winter travel insurance this morning & do you know it’s going to cost us just under $3000.00 this year.  Our ages are steadily working against us now plus rates have gone up again.  Can you imagine what one little medical set-back could cost us for future insurance.  I’m guessing high travel insurance costs are probably one of the leading reasons many Canadian RV’ers are grudgingly forced to hang up their keys at some point.  Definitely not something to look forward to……………………..


I IMAGINE A MONTH FROM NOW WE WILL BE SCURRYING IN & OUT OF THIS DOOR LOADING UP THE RIG

I’M HAPPY OUR NEW GRASS IS COMING ALONG SO WELL

AND KELLY’S HAPPY HER POTTED TOMATO PLANTS ARE DOING WELL IN THE LEFT FOREGROUND
GROANER'S CORNER:(( The room was full of pregnant women with their husbands.The instructor said, "Ladies, remember that exercise is good for you.  Walking is especially beneficial. It strengthens the pelvic muscles and will make delivery that much easier.   Just pace yourself, make plenty of stops and try to stay on a soft surface like grass or a path." "Gentlemen, remember -- you're in this together. It wouldn't hurt you to go walking with her. In fact, that shared experience would be good for you both." The room was suddenly quiet as the men absorbed this information.  After a few moments a man, name unknown, at the back of the room, slowly raised his hand. "Yes?" said the Instructor. "I was just wondering if it would be all right if she carries a golf bag while we walk?"

I RANG THE OLD CHURCH BELL BUT I RANG IT SOFTLY

AREA BEAN FIELDS ARE RIPENING

Needing some new blog photos & with a few tickles of sunlight trickling their way through the Pines little Boogzy & I were out the door & on our way.  Destination was the Hullett Marsh where I had hoped we could so us some walking but squadrons of Kamikaze Mosquitos immediately swarmed us driving us back into the safety of the Jeep.  There would be no walking in the Marsh this morning.

PHEEBS ALWAYS LIKES TO STOP & SAY HELLO TO HER COW PALS

 

NOTICED THIS WIND TURBINES REAR FLAP OPEN & SUSPECT A WORKER WAS UP IN THERE DOING SOME MAINTENANCE…..BLADES WERE STOPPED & I COULD SEE WHAT APPEARED TO BE A NEON  LIGHT INSIDE

With all windows down & some good old yesteryear Crooners on Sirius Satellite radio we slowly gravel roaded our way along heading east for awhile then turning south.  Another couple dozen barn photos along the way as well as a Mosquito-less walk in a nice open air & well maintained countryside cemetery just a mile South-west of St. Columban near Dublin Ontario.  With late morning temperatures rising & humidity building we headed for & arrived home shortly after noon.   Rest of my day was spent in the comfortable coolness of our house.

NICE WALK IN THE ST. COLUMBAN CEMETERY THIS MORNING

THIS CEMETERY IS VERY WELL MAINTAINED

THE CHURCH IN ST. COLUMBAN THIS BELL ONCE HUNG IN WAS TORN DOWN ABOUT 5 YEARS AGO

THIS CHURCH BELL CAN BE WRUNG BY PULLING DOWN ON THAT IRON LEVER AT THE LEFT BRINGING UP THE OTHER END TO STRIKE THE BELL…..DID I RING THE BELL??  YES I DID, SEVERAL TIMES BUT I RANG IT SOFTLY

THERE’S A DOGGIE IN THIS PHOTO

  <<< Y0U MAY NOTICE SOME FUZZY BLURRING MARKS ON SOME OF TODAY’S PHOTOS & THAT IS BECAUSE UNBEKNOWNST TO ME A CERTAIN LITTLE DOGGY AT SOME POINT PUT A BIG WET SLURRPY ON THE FRONT OF MY CAMERA LENS

Back in the mid 80's I went through a period of working several jobs at a time & for a short while had 4 part time jobs on the go.  This series of part time jobs came after I managed a 'one hour photo store' for about 2 years in Stratford Ontario.  When I burnt out & quit that stressful position all I wanted to do was to go back to what I enjoyed doing best.  Driving.  Just give me a little truck & let me go deliver parcels, maybe a driving job just transporting folks from Point A to Point B, how about a fast paced newspaper route delivering newspapers to several hundred rural subscribers 5 days a week.  How about working for a mobile sign company in a totally different city delivering & setting up mobile signs.  Well, I did all of those things plus ran a small photo business on the side re-doing old black & white photos in my own darkroom.  But I see I am off track already here........What I wanted to say was how nice it was Sunday evening when one of my old Boss's with his daughter dropped around our house to say Hello.  Mel Leasa & his late wife Phyllis (she was just one happy bubble of personality plus) were owners & operators of a transportation company called, 'Airports Anywhere in Stratford.'  They hired me in that period of time I was talking about (think it was the summer of 86) as a part time driver transporting people to & from Pearson International Airport in Toronto.  I later drove full time for Mel & Phyl right up until the time they sold the company at which time I continued driving for the new owners up until August of 2000.  Mel & Phyllis, part time RV'ers at the time themselves were great people to work for & it was nice to see & reminisce with Mel Sunday night.  Last time I saw him was 3 years ago when he & his Brother dropped around.  And Sunday night was the first time I met Mel & Phyl’s daughter Sherry.  When Mel & Phyllis would head off on their winter boondocking breaks in the South-west I would occasionally email them with humorus takes on what all was happening around Stratford & area at the time.  This was the early beginnings of my interest in travelling & boondocking around the South-western United States & it was Mel & Phyllis who first put the bug in my ear:))  

 

MEL ON THE RIGHT, SHERRY IN THE CENTER & ME & MY EVER PRESENT GRUMPY OLD FACE ON THE LEFT

A Guest in our Shout Box inquired about my use of Google Earth to check out planned roads & routes.  I think a lot of folks are doing this now & it's a great way to scout out an area just about anywhere one can think of.  To do this one just has to simply download 'GOOGLE EARTH' to their computer, familiarize themselves with how it works & the controls used to fly around the country.  Where 'Street View' is applicable they can even come right down to the ground & land on roads & streets.  And from there they can again use Google Earth’s ‘Street View’ controls & drive along those very streets even casting glances left or right to look at buildings or house numbers as they go.  Google Earth is a remarkable piece of free technology available to anyone with a computer & a good internet connection.

HEY MO, RECOGNIZE THIS PLACE??

At one point today Pheebs & I had just pulled over on a gravel road alongside a cornfield for a leg stretch when I noticed a dark colored pick-up truck emerge from a laneway a couple hundred yards up the road.  Started to turn right but spotted me & wheeled around left & slowly came towards us.  My natural response whenever approached by a strange vehicle or person is ‘OH-OH’.  I called Pheebs up out of the grassy ditch to hold her collar while the vehicle hopefully went on by.  It didn’t.  Driver’s window was down as it pulled up alongside us & stopped.  Could see right away it was an elderly farm fellow……& he had a big smile on his face.  Well we  had ourselves quite a chat.  His Son’s run the farms now & he was just out checking the fields.  Married for 65 years his wife had just passed away a few months ago.  Been a farmer all his life & grew up on the very land we were chatting on.  Said he liked my Mojave hat & wondered where I got it.  Told him California & he said it wasn’t too likely he’d get himself down there to get one.  Thought later if I knew which farm he lived at I’d pick him up a hat this winter & drop it off in his mailbox next Spring.  I like it when conversations go well………………….

A SAMPLING OF TODAY’S BARNS

 

 

  

COULD THIS BE A BIG LAKE FREIGHTER LEAVING THE GODERICH HARBOR IN AN EARLY MORNING MIST??  NOPE, IT’S A BIG GRAIN ELEVATOR IN CLINTON ONTARIO THIS MORNING

After posting Sunday night’s post Pheebs & I headed on over to the lake to check out the sunset.  I was hoping to then slip out into the countryside & watch the Moon come up but with humidity in the air things looked a little hazy & I was feeling a bit tired anyway so we just ambled on home.

A LAKE HURON SUNSET ON DEER PARK LODGE’S BEACH JUST NORTH OF BAYFIELD ONTARIO

GROANER’S CORNER:)) As a new Ensign, I was assigned duty at the Naval Observatory in Washington, DC, and carpooled to work with a veteran Marine sergeant. One afternoon, I showed him a pair of brown shoes I had purchased to go with my khaki uniform. He examined the leather carefully. "Let me take these home," he said, "and I'll show you a real Marine Corps shine."  The next day I wore my old shoes, expecting to switch them with the ones the sergeant was polishing. From a grocery bag, Sarge pulled out the right shoe, shining like glass. "This is the way a Marine shines a shoe," he said. "Now all you have to do is polish the left one to look like it."

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The shipwrecked mariner had spent a number of years on a deserted island. Then one morning he was thrilled to see a ship offshore and a smaller vessel pulling out toward him. When the boat grounded on the beach, the officer in charge handed the marooned sailor a bundle of newspapers and told him, "With the captain's compliments. He said to read through these and let us know if you still want to be rescued."  (rather timely I’d say)

JUST NOT A WHOLE LOT GOING ON TODAY

Our gloomy overcast morning left me kinda flat lined in the enthusiasm department.  Scratched around in the carport for awhile peering into boxes we had stored up in the rafters & had no memory of what was in them.  Yes a few surprises.  Looked around at a couple projects & could have done this or that but even this or that wasn't grabbing my attention.  Luckily skies began clearing by early afternoon & my internal batteries began to recharge.  Back on track:))

Hoping to be on the road by now heading for the South-west via Canada's west coast George & Suzie from OUR AWESOME TRAVELS have had a mechanical problem with their Motorhome & are still grounded in Plattsvillle Ontario.  They are hopeful of a fix to a possible fuel pump problem when they arrive at SICARDS RV in Hamilton on Tuesday.  George has been having trouble pumping gas out of the gas tank where the fuel pump is located & my suggestion would be to conduct about 56 scenic tours around Plattsville for the locals.  That oughta get some gas out of er by Tuesday George:))   

BAYFIELD BEACH

I left a comment on GYPSY'S recent post about cars that went something like this......"Those were the days when at a distance one could tell a Ford from Chev, a Plymouth from a Desoto or a Rambler.  And is that Studebaker coming or going.  The days when cars had style with flowing lines & sweeping curves.  Each model had it's own distinctive look & colors were imaginative in their eye catching two tone paint jobs.  And we could tell the cars by their engine sounds as well.  A flat head V8 going by certainly sounded different than in inline 6 cylinder job going by.  And hey what about those car interiors with their big overstuffed spring bouncy seats.  And those big steering wheels & dimly lit old radios pumping out those magical tunes of the day.  Ahhhh yes, I remember that era very well".

And I did add another 25 barns or so to my 'OLD BARNS' album Saturday as well.  One just never seems to run out of barns on these endless miles of country roads here in South-western Ontario.  It's a fun project & has attuned my eyes even more to our picturesque rural surroundings.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Arnold and his wife were cleaning out the attic one day when he came across a ticket from the local shoe repair shop. The date stamped on the ticket showed that it was over eleven years old. They both laughed and tried to remember which of them might have forgotten to pick up a pair of shoes over a decade ago.  "Do you think the shoes will still be in the shop?" Arnold asked.  "Not very likely," his wife said.  "It's worth a try," Arnold said, pocketing the ticket. He went downstairs, hopped into the car, and drove to the store.  With a straight face, he handed the ticket to the man behind the counter. With a face just as straight, the man said, "Just a minute. I'll have to look for these." He disappeared into a dark corner at the back of the shop.  Two minutes later, the man called out, "Here they are!"  "No kidding?" Arnold called back. "That's terrific! Who would have thought they'd still be here after all this time."  The man came back to the counter, empty-handed. "They'll be ready Thursday," he said calmly.

KELLY SUCCESSFULLY DOWNLOADS WINDOWS 10 TO A 4TH COMPUTER THEN HELPS HER 90 YEAR OLD MOTHER 236 MILES AWAY WITH HER COMPUTER:))

Woke up to rain this morning & that kind of set the pace for the day.  Kelly busied herself installing Windows 10 on neighbor Monica's computer & fortunately the install went off without a hitch.  It's the 4th Win 10 install Kelly has done.  After that she linked our computer with her Mother's computer over in Spencerport New York & helped her Mother out with some computer stuff as well.  Closing in on 91 years of age her Mother is a bit of a Wiz on the computer in her own right:))

 

Having only 32 Gigabytes left on my Toshiba laptop I decided to delete about 60 GB's of photos from my 'RV Travels' folder before we head south in October.  Already have them backed up on 2 separate external hard drives & there's no need to have them all sitting in my Toshiba taking up space.  Still have 177 GB's of travel photos left & if I need to delete more I already have all those files backed up as well.  My Toshiba laptop is my main computer when we travel & our desktop computer is our main computer when we are home in Bayfield.

LAKE WAWANOSH

 

We have a large screen for a desktop computer & my aging Toshiba Satellite has a large screen for a laptop as well.  In this rapidly changing techy world where the trend seems to be to see who can build the tiniest miniscule reading screens as possible I still like my ‘bigger is better’ attitude.  I do a lot of photo editing on our desktop during the summer months & the same type of photo editing on my Toshiba when we are in the south for the winter so it’s important for me to see as large a screen as I can.  These aging eyes of mine are not getting any younger……………………  

I know a number of our fellow RV'ers are into their own RV maintenance & renovations.  Some of those renovations are small & easy like taking out a few pieces of furniture & adding a few like we did a week ago.  Other RV renovations can be quite extensive comprising of a complete make-over inside & out.  Whether done by oneself or by professionals it is always amazing to see how RV’s can drastically change with just a bit of imagination & good planning.  Oh & a lot of money in some cases too.  Bus conversions & renovations are of particular interest to many like minded bus enthusiasts & if there are any bus folks out here be sure to catch up on what the folks over at TECHNOMADIA have been up to lately.  We met Chris & Cherie along with their bus named Zephyr last winter in Borrego Springs.  They invited a bunch of fellow RV'ers over for a get together & a tour of their bus one night.  And that was before they started their 'latest' renovation which is going on right now.  And this includes a complete new exterior paint job for their vintage 1961 GM 4106 original regional charter passenger coach which was first based out of Nogales Arizona.  They just put together their third reno ‘video’ update & if you click on their site you can click back & catch up with them on Zephyr’s progress.  And may I add these two folks are your 'go to' people when it comes to all the new & latest mobile techno stuff going on out here in the RV world as well.  In their words this is how they describe what they do……"We work remotely as technology & strategy advisors, app developers and authors.  Nice folks these two & you might want to add them to your RV favorites list for sure:)) BUS RENOVATION PART 1, BUS RENOVATION PART 2, BUS RENOVATION PART 3.

A PURPLE HOSTA BLOOM

Hard to believe next week-end is Labor Day already.  Hard to comprehend how fast time has been flying as of late.  A burst of sunlight through this morning's heavy cloud cover made it’s way through our living room window splashing itself down our hall.  Sunlight in our hallway only happens twice a year for a short time as the earth rotates on it's axis giving the illusion it is the Sun which is moving.  The sun appears to travel northward in the Spring & southward in the Fall passing our eastward facing window casting it’s rays down our hall in a slightly different manner each morning.  We are quickly leaving summer behind for another year as we now swing into Fall.  It is time to begin making lists & organizing ourselves for taking care of the many things Snow Birders have to take care of before their annual migration to the sunny south.  Jeep needs a new tire, Motorhome needs an engine light checked plus an oil change & general check over.  License stickers for all our vehicles have to be taken care of, Jeep needs a protective bra for the front end, travel insurance to be arranged, Coach-Net roadside service to be re-newed......& the $list$ just keeps growing & growing.  

A CHEESY LOOKING MUSHROOM GROWING OUT OF A PINE STUMP BESIDE OUR DRIVEWAY

GROANER’S CORNER:(( In the frozen foods department of our local grocery store, I noticed a man shopping with his son. As I walked by, he checked something off his list, and I heard him whisper conspiratorially to the child, "You know, if we really mess this up, we'll never have to do it again."

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My mother-in-law recently moved to a seniors' residence where they ask everyone to double-bag their garbage so it doesn't spill or break on the way down the garbage chute.
Since she does little shopping herself, she's asked us to bring her our used bags.  Living fifteen miles out of town, however, it isn't always convenient for us to boost her supply. So the next time we took her shopping, I explained the situation to the cashier, who kindly gave us a handful of extra bags.  The next day, my mother-in-law called. "Robert, can you please bring over some plastic shopping bags?"  "But, Mother," I said, puzzled, "you got 30 extra bags yesterday."  "Oh, no, dear," she replied. "I can't use those for garbage. They're brand new!"