THIS POST IS COMING TO YOU FROM BORREGO SPRINGS CALIFORNIA:))

Imagine my surprise Thursday afternoon when Kelly suggested we head off to Borrego Springs California.  I'm usually the one pushing to go somewhere.  I asked her when we should go expecting her to say next week sometime & was again surprised when she said Friday which of course is today.  I think it was the first time ever once a decision was made to go somewhere in the RV that in less than 24 hours we were actually on the road.  We both did feel we were overdue for a much needed change of pace, some warmer air & some changing scenery. ON DA ROAD AGAIN

Not being in any kind of a hurry this morning we leisurely worked away at loading the rig & securing the house.  By 10:20 we were good to go so away we went.  Stopped at the Congress Garage to top up our propane tank & minutes later we were westbound on highway 71 with Borrego Springs California in our sights.  Knew it was only a 5 hour trek so we never hurried.  The drive from Congress to I-10 leading to Quartzsite is one of my favorite drives as the highway rolls, lazily across the desert floor without a lot of curves, serious grades, or mountainous climbs.  And the best part, very little traffic.  Just sat back & enjoyed this mornings sunny Arizona scenery rolling by.  What a great feeling to be on the road again going somewhere.  With each mile traveled the better I felt.   About 11:45 we were in Quartzsite for our customary McDonald's coffee stop.  Picked up some fuel & we were westbound out of Quartzsite heading for the California State line by 12:15. OUR CUSTOMARY QUARTZSITE McDONALDS COFFEE STOP WESTBOUND ON I-10 BETWEEN QUARTZSITE ARIZONA & BLYTHE CALIFORNIA   Interstate 10 seemed busier than usual but it was Friday afternoon & the last week-end before Christmas so maybe there were extra travelers on the road today.  No matter as we peeled off I-10 well east of Indio & took our favorite route through Box Canyon.  We have probably used this route a dozen times over the years coming & going to Borrego Springs or Slab City.  From I-10 it is a gradual but continous descent through the winding Canyon to the floor of California's Coachella Valley ending in the lush green farm lands just east of the town of Mecca at the North end of the Salton Sea.
ROLLING THROUGH BOX CANYON


LAND IS VERY FERTILE HERE AT THE NORTH END OF THE SALTON SEA AROUND THE TOWN OF MECCA


In Mecca we picked up highway 86 & headed south to Salton City.  At the big Arco Truck center we turned right onto S22 & 20 minutes later we descended into the Borrego Valley & our boondocking destination at the Clark Dry Lake Bed about 5 miles east of Borrego Springs.  Happy to say the rig ran flawlessly all the way with no chugging or loss of power.
THE AZURE BLUE OF CALIFORNIA’S SALTON SEA

HEADING WEST ON S22 ONLY MINUTES FROM OUR DESTINATION
After all the bits & bites of info we had been hearing about this favored boondocking site being in trouble we were not sure what awaited us but upon arriving at our favorite Rock House Road area we are happy to say our fears of finding a spot were instantly dispelled.  Although boondocking has been banned for the most part down in the flats east of Coyote Mountain there is still lots of room along Rock House Road & we lucked out to find 'the Oven' site with nobody at it.  We have boondocked at this spot 3 or 4 times over the years & knew we would have a good Verizon signal here.  A number of fellow RV folks well know this site for it's mud oven that was constructed here a number of years ago.  We never met the builders but former RV Bloggers Laurie & Odel knew them.  So if you guys are still reading I can tell you the Oven looks good & has withstood the test of time well.  And best of all it hasn't been vandalized.
THE MUD OVEN ITSELF IS STILL IN GOOD SHAPE

I COUNTED 18 RIGS SCATTERED ABOUT

By the time we got the rig set up & the satellite TV dish in operation the sun was beginning to set.  Managed a few pics of the rig before darkness descended but in the morning I plan to head on up to the roof of the rig & take a few photos showing just where everyone is & is not parking.  In a nutshell I think all our worries & fears about not being allowed to boondock here anymore were much ado about nothing.  And we noticed about half a dozen rigs down at Peg Leg Smith's too.  Anyway, so far so good at the Clark Dry Lake Bed:) Wished I could tell folks how to get through some of the new Open Live Writer bugs but we are still hit & miss here with it ourselves.  We did not have a clean install so are having problems.  We know the OLW people are aware of the bugs & are working on them.  I have no idea if my post will publish tonight or not but we think it has something to do with naming Picasa's Web Albums.  We also ran into a scheduling problem where the blog doesn't publish right away.  I really wished we could help with these bugs but as I said we are not understanding them either.  A few of my posts & test posts have published & some have not.  Have a look at this post from heyduke it might be of some help.  Whether this post will publish tonight or not I have no idea….. GROANER'S CORNER:(( Shortly before Christmas, a business man was anxious to get home. The business trip had been grueling and he was not in a particularly good mood. The airport loudspeakers blared Christmas carols he was sick of hearing. He thought their decorations were tacky. The worst decoration, he thought, was the plastic mistletoe hung over the luggage scale.  Being in a grumpy mood, he said to the woman at the counter, "You know, even if I weren't married, I wouldn't kiss you."  "That's not what it's there for," said the attendant. "It's so you can kiss your luggage goodbye." Q: What was so good about the neurotic doll the girl was given for Christmas?
A: It was wound up already.

Santa goes up and down so many chimneys that he's thinking of getting a yearly flue shot?
A man went to his psychiatrist and said,
"What's wrong with me? I'm afraid of Santa."
The psychiatrist said, "You must be Claustrofobic

OHHHHHHH MY SHATTERED NERVES………..

ANOTHER FINE DESERT DAY, ANOTHER FINE DESERT ROAD

Well where do I begin?  At the beginning I guess.  It's been a real nerve wracking time with all this Live Writer, Open Live Writer, & Blogger stuff these last 24 hours.  Wednesday afternoon after spending another very frustrating period of time fighting to correctly install photos into Blogger I finally just gave up.  Putting my blog together each day has always been an enjoyable experience for me, that is until this past week when many of us lost our beloved Live Writer program.  I walked out into the kitchen Thursday afternoon & said to Kelly if I have to use that miserable Blogger program my blog is finished.  I had had enough & with the amount of hair I was tearing out I would soon be bald.  With that Kelly walked over to her computer & began to work her magic.  Here is a link for the new OPEN LIVE WRITER.

SOMETIMES ONE HAS TO KNOW JUST WHICH ROADS NOT TO FOLLOW WITH THE PARTICULAR VEHICLE ONE HAS

TEDDY BEAR CHOLLA GARDEN IN THE VULTURE MOUNTAINS

VULTURE PEAK IN THE BACKGROUND

<<<<< SAGUARO FINGERS

Using Google Search Kelly typed in 'Open Live Writer' to see if she could find out any progress info on how the new Open Live Writer was progressing, if it was progressing.  The third search item down she noticed the name of one of the fellas working on the new OLW program.  It was his website so Kelly clicked on it & began reading.  She noticed Scott Hanselman had a Twitter account so she promptly Tweeted him simply asking when the new OLW program would be up & running.  Wasn't long & Scott (he actually works for Microsoft) tweeted back saying they were hoping to have the program running that very night.  He sent us a link to try out which I did & that was initially my first short test post which published Thursday night.  I was sooooooooooooooooooo happy:))))))  But my happiness soon turned to frustration again:((

SOME GREAT BOON DOCKING SPOTS OUT HERE IN THE VULTURE MOUNTAINS

LOTS OF ROOM FOR THOSE BIG 40 FOOTERS OUT HERE

LOOKS LIKE SOMEBODY IN YOUR SPOT PETER 

With the success of my first test post I quickly got to work on a full Thursday night post including photos.  Oh now nice it was to again be working with a superior & much easier to use Live Writer format again.  Takes me a fraction of the time to insert photos with OLW than it did with Blogger.  It was akin to having an old best friend back again.  Took me a bit of time but with a big smiley face I comfortably breezed right along & soon as I had my daily post done I hit the Publish button.......& immediately received a #403 error message & my post would not publish.  My elated Spirits immediately went into freefall.  We realized right away we had forgotten to un-install our old Live Writer program & we were stymied as what to do.  By this time my brain was totally fried & not functioning well at all.  It was late, I was tired & frustrated all over again & with that I had myself a mini-meltdown.  Had to shut down my computer & just walk away from it.  Kelly said she would see what she could do in the morning.  I said I never wanted to ever even see a %@!!!& computer ever again!! 

ONE NEVER KNOWS WHAT’S AROUND THE NEXT CORNER ON THESE ROADS

PHEEBS BACKED THE JEEP US SO I COULD TAKE THIS PHOTO

THIS IS THE POINT WHERE WE TURNED AROUND & HEADED BACK TO WICKENBURG

NOT MUCH MORE THAN AN ATV TRAIL IN SOME SPOTS

Woke up feeling just about the same as I did when I went to bed & knew the only way to get me out of the funk I still found myself in was to load up the Pheebs & take us for a nice quietley relaxing drive somewhere.  Didn't even want to look at my computer or think about blogging but curiously enough I tossed my camera into the Jeep just in case & away we went.

JUST ANOTHER GREAT MORNING FOR ENJOYING ALL THIS GREAT ARIZONA SCENERY

 Had a few grocery items written down in my still damp laundrafied note book so figured we'd head to Safeway in Wickenburg.  As the distance increased between me & my computer the better I felt.  With less than a dozen items plus a coffee from Charbucks & 9 freshly baked & packaged Blueberry muffins Pheebs & I headed out of Safeway's parking lot & headed west out Vulture Peak Mine Road.  No we didn't eat all the muffins, just one.  I figured 9 muffins for $5 made more sense than paying $1.59 for one muffin over in the Safeway donut cabinet.  While waiting for my Starbucks coffee (in Safeway) I noticed they had muffins in their display case.  They were about half the size of my just purchased Blueberry muffins & the price of them just about floored me.  $2.85 for a muffin that didn't seem much bigger than a button!!  Yes I exaggerate a bit, but not much.

SPOTTED THIS OLD STONE FOUNDATION FROM A DISTANCE

THE DESERT HOLDS MANY LONG AGO MYSTERIES

Being a bit familiar with a couple Jeep roads near a boondocking spot in the shadow of Vulture Peak Pheebs & I headed off onto Vulture Peak Road bumpily making our way along just east of Vulture Peak itself.  It was a beautiful windless sunny morning & warm enough for us to have both front windows down as long as we kept it under a hundred miles an hour:)) 

A CLOSE UP LOOK AT VULTURE PEAK’S EAST SIDE BELOW

THIS BULLET RIDDLED SIGNPOST SAYS ‘CEMETERY WASH’

Stopped for a leg stretch & walk then headed off in a southerly direction down a twisty winding Jeep Road called Cemetery Wash.  Oh how nice to be surrounded again by some of Mother Natures finest scenery.  Mountains all around, hills of stately Saguaros & gardens of Teddy Bear Chollas.  With hardly a thought about computer program problems we jostled ourselves along about 10 mph in low gear & 4-wheel drive just enjoying all the ruts & bumps, ridges & sandy washes along the way.  Made it to somewhere between the 5 & 6 mile marker before deciding to turn around.  I was hoping the road might turn in the direction of Wickenburg or highway 93 south of Wickenburg but with the road seeming to deteriorate & persist in heading south I just figured heading back to Wickenburg made more sense.  Besides......it was lunch time anyway & hey if we had to go through Wickenburg anyway, well you know where the Pheebs wanted to go. 

JEEPING OUR WAY THROUGH WICKENBURG’S DOWNTOWN MAIN INTERSECTION

HERE’S US GUYS GETTIN WHOPPERED

 It was just after high noon when we made our way through Wickenburg's old western downtown to highway 93 & hung us a right turn around the round-a-bout.  Two minutes later we were in Burger King's drive-thru & gol darnut if we didn't up & Whopper ourselves again.  No fries this time just a Whopper.  Half an hour later we were back in Congress & home again.    Kelly had worked on the Open Live Writer/Blogger problem while Pheebs & I were gone & thought she had it solved.  But alas.........not quite.

PHEEBS IS THINKING “COME ON DAD KNOCK OFF THE PICTURES & LET’S JUST GETTING EATIN THAT WHOPPER”

She had published my half finished Blogger post from Wednesday afternoon & not the  Open Live Writer post I had finished Wednesday night. Here is my updated Wednesday Yahooie Louie post.  When we tried to publish the completed OLW post it again returned the #403 error  A bit more research on the internet & Kelly came up with a final fix & it had to do with Picasa.  She created a new Picasa photo album file & hit the publish button.  We held our breath to see if the #403 error message would appear & it didn't.  My second & first complete Open Live Writer post published successfully about 20 minutes later (we have a slow internet connection here) & that's why you saw 2 similar posts today. (Thursday).  In the second OLW post I had added several more photos & an update paragraph at the beginning.  So GEORGE & KEVIN that's why you don't see your previous comments on the update post.

KELLY WALKS OUT HER BOXED UP LENOVA TO THE UPS DRIVER THIS AFTERNOON

Well, if there's anybody left still reading I would be surprised after what is obviously a confusing post what with all this Blogger/Live Writer/Open Live Writer stuff happening.  I'm even confused writing it but I'm sincerely hopeful I can put all this behind me after tonight's post & we can get on with new things Friday.  And yes there is something new Friday. 

And a word of thanks to all the people who worked together in bringing back Live Writer resurrected now as Open Live Writer.  Whether you folks know it or not you have enabled countless thousands of us out here to continue our creative hobbies whether they be work related or just for pleasure.  Thousands & thousands of thanks from thousands & thousands of happy, happy, happy people.  And of course many, many, thanks to the one person who if it wasn't for her untiring patience, understanding, & encouragement, there simply would be no Bayfield Bunch blog plain & simple.  Oh I can still do the writing & photos Okay but it's Kelly who comes to my rescue when technical problems arise & my brain seizes up & refuses to co-operate with me.  She is the Gal who smooths the troubled waters when I throw my hat on the floor & jump on it.  Thankyou, Thankyou, Thankyou all:))

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Christmas Carols for the Psychiatrically Challenged::
Schizophrenia --- Do You Hear What I Hear?
Multiple Personality Disorder --- We Three Queens Disoriented Are
Dementia --- I Think I'll be Home for Christmas
Narcissistic --- Hark the Herald Angles Sing About Me
Manic --- Deck the Halls and Walls and House and Lawn and Streets and Stores and Office and Town and Cars and Busses and Trucks and trees and Fire Hydrants and......
Paranoid --- Santa Claus is Coming to Get me
Borderline Personality Disorder --- Thoughts of Roasting on an Open Fire
Personality Disorder --- You Better Watch Out, I'm Gonna Cry, I'm Gonna Pout, Maybe I'll tell You Why
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder ---Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells...

THURSDAY TEST POST 2

Trying this post with 1 photo

THURSDAY TEST POST

My post would not publish again tonight due to a #403 error again so we are baffled here.  So discouraging.  Trying this test post with no photos to see what happens……..