COOL CLOUDY DAYS DON’T INSPIRE ME MUCH

DIDN’T TAKE ANY PHOTOS TODAY SO TONIGHT’S PHOTOS ARE FROM MY FILES A YEAR AGO RIGHT NOW

Couldn’t see any stars early this morning so knew we were probably in for a cool cloudy day & that is what we got.  Cool cloudy days don’t inspire me much so my day was spent inside with my Kindle reading & watching TV.  Mainly reading.  An unexpected short shower around 2 did have us out for a quick scramble though closing Libby’s windows & the Big EEE’s side door.

ALL PHOTOS WERE TAKEN IN THE DESERT HALF A BLOCK BEHIND OUR HOUSE

OUR HOUSE IS ‘ALMOST’ VISIBLE ABOVE DEAD CENTER

I was encouraged to read this comment about Borrego Springs, “Al, I have read in your posts about maybe Borrego Springs area might be closed. We belong to the boondocker group of the Escapees and one of our members is out there now by the old tower. He said that the area is open but you cant take the Mile Post road to get to it you have to go around another way. The boondockers are gathering there for Thanksgiving. I will post more when I find out more info”. Doug & Barb Hinman………..

JUST GOTTA LOVE JEEPING AROUND ON THESE DESERT TRAILS

In our Shout Box a Guest asks, “If b springs (Borrego Springs) closes is Ocotillo Wells an option? Have you ever stayed there and if not why not”?………..We have been through Ocotillo Wells several times & our impression of the area is that it is dominated by young folks with their ATV’s, dune buggies, & dirt bikes etc.  Often from Clark Dry Lake Bed we could look south towards Ocotillo Wells some 15 miles away & see great clouds of dust in the desert air from literally thousands of ‘off-roaders’ racing around.  The area just didn’t appeal to us & we have seen the massive miles long week-end traffic convoys coming from California’s large coastal cities through the Yaqui Pass hauling trailer laden off-road vehicles into or out of the Ocotillo Wells area.  We have no interest in being a part of the dust, the noise, or the lifestyle.

 

Several readers have suggested places to go with one being Joshua Tree National Monument.  We have been there & with it’s higher elevation than Borrego we have heard it can get cold up that-a-way during the winter season.  Another suggestion was Bisbee, a place we have been to many times & that whole familiar area of South-eastern Arizona is on the drawing board but we’re just not sure when…………………

 

A CANDID PHOTO OF PHEEBS & KELLY FROM ONE OUR DESERT WALKS A YEAR AGO THIS WEEK

GROANER’S CORNER:((  A man died and went to The Judgment, they told him , “Before you meet with God,  I should tell you — we’ve looked over your life, and to be honest you really didn’t do anything particularly good or bad. We’re not really sure what to do with you. Can you tell us anything you did that can help us make a decision?”  The newly arrived soul thought for a moment and replied, “Yeah, once I was driving along and came upon a person who was being harassed by a group of thugs. So I pulled over, got out a bat, and went up to the leader of the thugs. He was a big, muscular guy with a ring pierced through his lip. Well, I tore the  ring out of his lip, and told him he and his gang had better stop bothering this guy or they would have to deal with me!”  “Wow that’s impressive, “When did this happen?”  “About three minutes ago,” came the reply.

THREE WEEKS AGO TODAY WE LEFT ONTARIO & ALREADY IT SEEMS SO VERY LONG AGO………….

I always know when our temperatures are coming up by the number of Crickets chirping & Friday night we had quite a serenade of Crickets coming from a well vegetated area on a neighbor’s property across the road.  So nice to hear that.

Kelly headed off to Wickenburg’s Safeway store for some groceries & needed cooking supplies.  It was a good opportunity for me to get a few Motorhome chores done like dumping tanks & cleaning the front cab area as well as some windows. 

Here’s a good post for all you folks contemplating your RV dreams & future travels.  Maybe your thinking of going Full Time & if you are I suggest you read this post by the folks over at On The Road Of Retirement entitled ‘So You Want To Be A Full Timer....Some Advice’.  Helpful & informative points for wannabe or soon to be Full Timers here.

Haven’t even been here at the house 2 weeks & already today I had my head buried in my Atlas thinking about when & where we can go for our first RV side trip.  All the old familiar spots immediately come to mind like the Kofa Mountains, Borrego Springs, Ogilbe Road west of Yuma, Quartzsite, Sedona, California’s Mojave desert, etc. but nothing is really jumping out & grabbing me.  All great places of course but I’m kinda feeling the need to experience & see some new scenery.

Three weeks ago tonight we we had supper at a Cracker Barrel in Benton Harbor Michigan & spent a quiet night in their parking lot.  Turns out it was the only Cracker Barrel we stopped at all the way to the South-West.  Already our first day on the road back then seems so very long ago…………..

GROANER’S CORNER:((  Did you ever wonder why there are no dead penguins on the ice in Antarctica?  Where do they go?  It is a known fact that the penguin is a very ritualistic bird which lives an extremely ordered and complex life. The penguin is very committed to its family and will mate for life, as well as maintain a form of compassionate contact with its offspring throughout its life. If a penguin is found dead on the ice surface, other members of the family and social circle have been known to dig holes in the nearby snow, using their vestigial wings and beaks, until the hole is deep enough for the dead bird to be rolled into, and buried.  The male penguins then gather in a circle around the fresh grave and sing:
"Freeze a jolly good fellow. Freeze a jolly good fellow."

KELLY CRAWLS UNDER THE RIG’S DASH THIS MORNING

A MALE CARDINAL TAKES OFF FROM OUR BIRD FEEDER

Kelly busied herself with a Motorhome clean-up this morning while I continued with our yard clean-up.  Still raking up & burning Mesquite beans. 

We decided to see if we could locate the dead 4-way flasher & turn signal plug somewhere under the Motorhome’s dash to the left of the steering column.  I remember how much trouble the Slab City fella had finding it a year ago when he replaced it.  It’s a small space to squish oneself in between the driver’s seat, the doghouse, plus the steering column & Kelly figured she was the only one skinny enough to get in there.  My worry was if I wedged myself under the dash we might have to call Coachnet to send a tow truck with a long winch to hook onto my belt & pull me out.  Also I did not want to take a chance on setting off my Vertigo by lying twisted on my back under the dash.  In the end despite our best efforts we could not find the flasher unit amid a maze of wires & everything else that is commonly found under a vehicle dash.  Later on her way to the Library & Post Office she stopped at the Congress garage, explained our problem & they said bring the rig in next Wednesday so that is what we’ll do.

KELLY WEDGES HERSELF BETWEEN THE DRIVERS SEAT & THE DASH UNDER THE STEERING COLUMN

KINDA HARD TO MAKE OUT BUT KELLY’S DOWN THERE SOMEWHERE

ONE LAST ATTEMPT BUT NO COULD FIND

Our day warmed up quickly & by mid morning I could feel the Sun’s heat digging through my early morning layer of warm clothes.  That ended my yard work except for a few things in shaded areas where of course it was almost too cool.  Rest of the day was simply doing some reading, watching a bit of TV & having a few short dozes here & there.

NOTICE ALL THE BIRDS IN THIS PHOTO…..IF I SAID WE HAVE 40, 50, OR 60 BIRDS COMING INTO THE FEEDER I WOULD NOT BE EXAGGERATING WITH THE AIR SPACE AROUND THE FEEDER JUST FILLED WITH WHIRRING WINGS….MOSTLY SPARROWS

Some of us may know how our parents decided on our first names when we were born but I’m thinking probably most of us do not.  What would you think if your Father on the spur of the moment picked your name off an old flour sack with a dead Squirrel inside it.  Yep, that’s what happened to JENNY J alright & if you slip on over to the Tennessee area of the country she will tell you just how that all came about a bunch of years ago:))

 

Well I’m back to carrying 2 cameras again & using both my favorite Nikkor lenses despite my telephoto lens having some rattling & shaking problems.   It still auto-focuses sharply & that’s all that matters.  My newer Sigma lens is a reasonably good lens but it’s just not as sharp as the Nikkors & I find that ‘lens creep’ factor really annoying.  If the lens lock is not on & the camera is pointed down the lens creeps out to it’s full telephoto length.  Many of my photos are shot on the spur of the moment & I do not like fumbling for that lens lock all the time.  The Sigma lens is convenient though & I do like the Macro feature.  At the moment my newer Sigma lens is teamed with my oldest D-40 Nikon.  My best D-90 is teamed with my sharp 18-55mm lens & my newest D-3100 Nikon is teamed up with my favorite 70-300 mm telephoto lens which of course has about a 2 second lens shake problem before auto focusing most times.  Well at least those are my camera & lens combinations for the moment.  All subject to change of course…………….

Many of us will be glad when someone can get some tires on the ground over there at the Clark Dry Lakebed near Borrego Springs & give the rest of us a first hand report on what’s really going on there.  Nan had asked if I knew any other boondocking sites around Borrego & unfortunately I don’t with the exception of a few places on highway S22 between Salton City & the Clark Dry Lakebed.  Not sure what’s happening at Peg Leg or the area directly across from Peg Leg that a lot of ATV’ers use.  If it wasn’t so far Pheebs & I would just hop in the Jeep & take a drive on over there to see for ourselves but it’s 287 miles from Congress & that’s just a bit much for us guys.

GROANER’S CORNER:((

 

- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails -William Arthur Ward
- The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.
- It is not so much having nothing to do as it is not having the interest to do something....AL.

PHEEBS & I TAKE LIBBY OUT FOR HER FIRST DESERT RUN

PHEEBS & I MADE IT OUT FOR A CRUISE IN LIBBY THE LIBERATOR THIS MORNING

Running low on cranberry juice, oatmeal, & milk plus greatly needing a change of pace & scenery Pheebs & I were out the door & into the Jeep before 9 this morning taking a slight circuitous route to Wickenburg.  Took highway 71 to 93 & slipped into the Burg of Wicken that-a-away.

SPOTTED THIS ARMY TANK BEING TRANSPORTED NEAR THE JUNCTIONS OF HIGHWAYS 71 & 93

Grabbed up all my stuff in short order & was back out to the Jeep in less than 10 minutes.  Don’t know what I was thinking when I decided to get myself a Starbucks coffee on the way out of Safeway.  I’ve never liked their coffee & this morning was no exception.  I asked for the mildest coffee they had.  Ya right!!  It still tasted burnt to me.  No wonder they call it ‘Charbucks’.  And would you believe Pheebs had again turned on the Jeep’s 4-way flashers.  Yep she did & Libby was sitting their flashing again!!  When Pheebs stands in either front seat looking out the side windows I figure her powerful wagging tale whaps right into the dash where that flasher button is resulting in her turning the flashers on.  Luckily it only happens when she sees us/me coming & begins to wag her tail furiously.

TOOK A DRIVE THROUGH A WICKENBURG NEIGHBORHOOD JUST TO LOOK AT THE HOUSES

HAVE ALWAYS LIKED SOUTH-WEST ARCHITECTURE & LANDSCAPING

I LIKE ALL THESE ONE LEVEL RANCH STYLE HOMES WITH THEIR TILE ROOFS

WICKENBURG’S AIRPORT TERMINAL

From the Safeway store we rolled west out of Wickenburg along highway 60 in the direction of a dusty little town called Aquila.  Rolled through one of Wickenburg’s suburbs to look at the houses & also drove in to Wickenburg’s airport to have a look at that as well.  From there we just kept heading west while I kept an eye out for some desert roads heading off in the direction of Congress.  We did find one & decided to take it in hopes it might link up with highway 71 somewhere.  It didn’t.

GREAT TO HAVE OUR TIRES BACK ON SOME DUSTY DESERT ROADS AGAIN

FOLLOWED THIS ROAD ALONG A FENCE LINE BUT IT DIDN’T REALLY GO ANYWHERE SO WE TURNED AROUND

RAILROAD TRACKS IN THE DESERT DAD??  REALLY!!

THIS IS PRETTY WIDE FOR A DESERT ROAD BUT IT EVENTUALLY NARROWED INTO A MAZE OF SCRUB MESQUITE

It was Libby’s first drive in the desert & she did just fine on the moderately bumpy road.  Noticed right away the Liberty handled the ruts & bumps much smoother than the Wrangler did & I suspect the slightly longer wheelbase & probably different suspension had something to do with that.  The dusty road finally led us to a ranch or something about a couple miles in & just kind of wandered off into the Mesquite from there so we turned around & bounced our way back to the highway & continued on to Aguila.  Hadn’t driven this piece of road before except the section immediately west of Wickenburg when a couple seasons ago Kelly, Pheebs & I traveled out to find a Jeep road leading to the Wickenburg Massacre site………………. THE MORNING WE SEARCHED FOR & FOUND THE WICKENBURG MASSACRE SITE 

FIRST OF A COUPLE LEG STRETCHING PIT STOPS

THIS DRY WASH IS A GOOD EXAMPLE OF THE POWER WATER HAS WHEN IT CUTS THROUGH THE DESERT

LIBBY’S FIRST TASTE OF SOME GOOD OLD DRY DESERT DUST

At Aguila we hung a right turn back onto highway 71 & leisurely drove ourselves back to Congress with windows down just enjoying the flat desert floor & surrounding mountains & tall hills along the way.  So nice for Pheebs & I to be out on another exploring Jeep ride again just like we so often do back in Ontario.  Next time out I think we’ll head back to Aguila & have us a closer look around that Eagles Eye area.  Seems to me I read somebody’s blog about driving or hiking up to that spot a year or two ago.

THE EAGLES EYE JUST SOUTH OF AGUILA

A LOT OF AGRICULTURAL LAND AROUND AQUILA

AGUILA IS ALSO KNOWN FOR IT’S HONEY FROM THESE MANY BEE HIVES

NO IDEA WHAT KIND OF MACHINERY THESE THINGS ARE

This morning’s drive with Pheebs told me this is something we are going to have to do more of & just like at home in Bayfield it breaks up my week from having too many days together doing too much of the same thing all the time.  I thought maybe as I aged this restlessness within would tone down a bit but it seems the older I get the more restless I become.  Restlessness can be a good thing if one can find a constructive or creative outlet for it.  If not it can make for long bouts of seemingly unceasing uneasiness.

THIS JUST CAME IN FROM NAN TALLEY REGARDING BORREGO SPRINGS…… Al, really bad news ! All land around Borrego Springs is now not available for boondocking! Do you have any suggestions ????

<<<<< PHEEBS KEEPS A CLOSE EYE ON THE TURKEY SANDWICH WE ARE SHARING

GROANER’S CORNER:(( A mother was anxiously awaiting her daughter's plane. The daughter had just come back from a tropical island where she was trying to find love and adventure.  As the daughter was exiting the plane, the mother noticed a man directly behind her. He was dressed in feathers with exotic markings all over his body and was carrying a shrunken head.  The daughter introduced this man as her new husband.  The mother gasped in disbelief and disappointment and screamed, "I said for you to marry a RICH doctor not a WITCH doctor!!!!"

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This guy has been working as a bag boy in a supermarket for five years. One day the supermarket gets new orange juice machines, and the bag boy is really excited and asks the manager if he can work the juice machines. The manager says no. The bagger says, "But I've been working here for five years. Why can't I run the juice machines?" The manager answers, "I'm sorry, son, but baggers can't be juicers."