CONFINED TO THE BOX:((

MOUNTAIN RAINS IN THE DESERT

Traveling east & west across the continent always involves time changes. If it's done slow enough, the mind & body adjust accordingly.....sort of!! About 15 miles east of us is the Arizona/California State line & that marks our third time change since leaving home. We finally remembered to adjust our clocks ahead one more hour yesterday, so early this morning our slow adjusting body clocks told us it was the usual 5:30 a.m. getting up time. One glance at our recently adjusted time pieces slammed us with the reality that it was, in effect....4:30 A.M. !!!!!!! To add insult to misery, rain was beating against the windows & the rig was being rocked by heavy wind gusts. Awwwwww nuts...........it was going to be a loooooooooooooooooooooong day confined to the box:(((((((

Two tired adults & 3 bored dogs in an 8x33 foot motorhome on a cold, windy, & rainy day somewhere out in the sandy & rock strewn Sonoran desert in the month of December has been quite a test of tolerance to-day..........for Kelly & the dogs of course!! Temps only got up into the low 50's & the wind chill factor drove them back down into the 40's. However, all we had to do was click on to our laptop's Canadian weathermap to put things into perspective & make us realize how truly fortunate we really were to be where we are. They are having an absolutely dreadful winter back home.

ARE WE GOING HOME SOON DAD??

The Yuma weather station called this cold wet weather here a very rare weather disturbance. I think the weather Gods somehow knew the Bayfield Bunch was in the area.

Several things got us through the day. We are soooooo glad we went with the Verizon Air Card in Silver City NM when we did. We have had an internet connection ever since arriving in this area Monday afternoon & being on-line to-day was a real lifesaver. With this heavy cloud cover our previous satellite system may not have worked at all & the gusting winds would have been playing havoc with the dish. We are very happy campers with our Verizon set up as we both alternated on the computer all day. I spent a couple hours on the website making some changes. Took me about 5 minutes to totally screw things up & the next hour & fifty five minutes having to re-do the whole thing again.

The clarity of our flat screen television has been another positive thing. We are picking up 10 clear stations with just our antennae. Too bad 7 of those channels are in Spanish!! Our Sirius/XM satellite radio was another good decision a few years ago. We can pick up news channels as well as non stop favorite music channels & all of the above make a tough & cooped up day in the motorhome much more bearable. However, Kelly just informed me that if it's raining in the morning when we get up she is going to need the shovel to dig a 3x6 foot hole about 6 feet deep. Hmmmmm, wonder what my wonderful dear wife has in mind for me.................. I'm sure it will be something nice:)))) I just uploaded the past 3 days photos to a new album.

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

LOTSA CHOPPERS, SOME RAIN, & A SHORT BLOG

A COBRA ATTACK HELICOPTER

The heavy cloud cover & periodic light rain showers made for a milder morning than is usually the case in the desert. No wind so it didn't feel too bad as we took the guys for a walk between drizzles. MAYBE A BLACKHAWK, BUT A READER THINKS IT COULD BE A HUEY 205 OR 212

Headed the 15 miles or so back down I-8 to Yuma looking for a large mall we had seen from the Interstate a couple days ago. The Yuma Palms is at the city's west end has just about every kind of store there. We popped into a Pet Smart, Verizon, Best Buy, Circuit City, & Cracker Barrel. I liked the Cracker Barrel one best:)) Slipped further into town & checked out a Radio Shack & an Alltel antennae store. Needed some groceries so headed into an IGA. Sure was glad to get out of that store though. Really LOUD Mexican music with accordions & stuff. Arrrrrggghhh!!!!! Fingernails on a chalkboard would have sounded better than that!! DON'T KNOW WHAT THESE CHOPPERS ARE

We were back to the rig by 1:30 & that was just about it for the day. Didn't do much of anything for the rest of the afternoon. The cloud cover hung in there with bits of rain now & again. We had a lot of helicopters coming & going from the Marine base in Yuma. Saw 4 different types of helicopters traveling in various groups. Cobra Attack choppers, Blackhawks, & Sea Knights I think. Don't know what the 4th kind was. Anyway, gave me something to do...........run outside when I heard the choppers coming, snap a few pics & run back inside again. Pretty exciting day huh............and maybe the shortest blog of ever for AL:)) A COBRA & A BLACKHAWK TRAVELING TO-GETHER

No photos for the album to-day

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

WORRIED ABOUT THE CAR WHEELS ALL NIGHT

CALIFORNIA SUNRISE WEST OF YUMA

I worried all night about the car's front wheels. When we rolled into the Pilot Knob area on Sunday we were aware that we had to be careful about where to drive on the hard packed sand. RV tracks were visible where rigs stuck to main roads & we could also see ruts where people had become stuck. Picked an area that looked solid & made a wide sweeping left turn with car in tow. I could feel the sand getting a little soft & as I checked my driver's mirror I was shocked to see the car's wheels were not tracking straight like they usually do. Instead, the front wheels were being pulled sideways through the soft sand. I quickly straightened out the motorhome & noticed the car's front wheels then came into line & appeared ok. Shut everything down & that's where we stayed for the night. Wheels looked ok but decided not to unhook the car until this morning. Why have a good night's sleep when I can lay awake & worry about the wheels all night eh!!

Windy this morning & cold. We stayed inside doing a bunch of computer stuff & free Verizon/Skype phone calls. Had to leave our blue flame heater running until we were ready to pull out. Un-hooked the car, started it up, put it into gear & eased out the clutch expecting nasty metal grinding sounds from the wheels, but it was ok. Moved the car around to the front of the motorhome waiting for the steering wheel to start jerking or a wheel to come off, but nothing happened. Could it be we had dodged another bullet. Kelly then hopped into the car as I followed her out of the desert sand to the small paved road & away we went. Kept waiting for her to pull over with wheel problems but we made it to the Interstate & away we went to our next camping location about 8 miles away. She said it drove perfectly, with no problems. Only thing I can figure is that the shallow ruts the motorhome's wheels made in the sand were enough to somehow cause the front wheels on the car to become dis-oriented in the ruts & get themselves out of line. In retrospect, we should probably have un-hooked the car before motoring through that sandy area. Lesson learned!!

Our new location is on Ogilby Road just a short 8 miles or so from Pilot's Knob. It's another free area & much better than where we were. It's a hard packed rocky gravel surface so no problems with tricky sand. We have trees & shrubs here with mountains close by. Only about 5 other rigs visible so we've got lots of room again for the doggy guys. Gathered up some firewood & built a firepit but the wind picked up & we retreated inside to stay warm. Finally saw some sun around 3 but the wind still made going out too cold.

BUILDING A FIRE PIT AT OUR NEW OGILBY ROAD SITE

We have Verizon coverage here with 3 green bars. Not quite as good as the 4 bars we had over at Pilot's Knob. Everything still works pretty good, but slower, except for our Skpe phone which just doesn't have a strong enough Verizon signal to work well. Television signal is really clear & we get about 7 channels with 4 of them being Spanish. As long as we have an internet connection we are happy campers.

Will probably take the car & head back into Yuma to-morrow morning for groceries & a little browsing.....

And a word to fellow RV'ers about RV.NET while I'm thinking about it......We belong to an RV site on the web called, RV.NET http://www.rv.net/forum/ RV.NET is a super great website & has been beneficial for us time & time again. It is made up of countless RV'ers from all over the continent with a wealth of RV information that is priceless. No matter what RV related problem you have there are people out there willing to help. Kelly reads the forum most everyday & whenever we have a problem she posts it on the website & literally within minutes sometimes people are on-line trying to help. These people are the experts, they are the ones living in their rigs, driving the highways, using the campgrounds, visiting the attractions, & living the RV life first hand. Prime example of people not only talking the talk, but walking the walk. We highly recommend other RV'ers get themselves onto these forums, not only to receive help when they need it, but to give help as well.CLICK ON THE PICS TO MAKE THEM BIGGER

No photo album to-day but the few pics I did take I will add to the next photo upload maybe to-morrow.

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/