NICE DAY SO WASHED THE RIG & THE BIKE

FORSYTHIA

Our recent rains sure have gone a long way to greening things up in the last 48 hours.  Early spring here always looks pretty bleak & barren after the long winter but once things begin to warm up in late April & May the vegetation literally explodes into life & by June we are in full blown almost tropical mode.  I've always felt June is the month most plants, shrubs, trees, & flowers are at their absolute best before the heavy heat of July & August take their toll.  As much as we love our southwest desert in the winter we sure love our summer greens here in the northern latitudes while at home.  We truly do have the best of both worlds.

ALWAYS A BIG JOB GETTING THE RIG LOOKING CIVILIZED AGAIN AFTER A LONG TRIP

Our little 2003 Santa Fe car had developed some strange vibrations in the front end lately so Kelly took it to a local tire shop this morning suspecting we were in for some new tires.  Well, we do need tires all the way around but it was determined the ball joints are totally shot & at the dangerous point.  The car is 7 years old & we have had it for 3 of those years.  It's been a totally great little car with very few problems so I guess we have to expect some repairs now & again.  Four new tires, new ball joints plus labor & tax is going to carry us way over the thousand dollar mark for sure.  Also priced out 6 new tires for the Motorhome & as expected that's going to run us up close to $3,000.00.  We'll wait until September before having tires installed on the rig because who knows what could happen between now & then.  Let me see now, so far this month AL has made a grand total of $78.  Yep, everything seems pretty normal so far.

POPLAR LEAVES

The temps came up enough today to finally take the motorcycle for a run.  Stopped at Bayfield's car wash & hosed off the winter's storage of dust & cob webs.  Took er out & blowed er dry on the highway & it was great to feel that wind ripping away at my aging face again.  Kind of like a road dirt- sand blast make-over.  A bit warmer tomorrow so I will try to get some wax on it.  (the motorcycle, not my face)

ON THE BEACH AT GRAND BEND

Washed the Motorhome today as well so that should be good now until the fall when I will do it again before we leave.  Sure was a lot of road grime on it and is now looking so good we could fit ourselves right into shiny rig row with no problem at all.

HERE'S THE BAYFIELD BUNCH ON SHINY RIG ROW WHEN WE HAD THE FIVER....BEAUDRY RV PARK, TUCSON AZ.

And, earlier this morning it was determined I could hold out no longer on a decision I had been mulling over for a couple weeks now.   Subsequently, my wild wooly west look ended up on the kitchen floor again.  Kelly shortened up my curly gray locks with a scissors & I in turn trimmed up my shaggy white beard with an old electric shaver.   I am now back to my neat little namby pamby school boy look for the summer.

<<<< THIS YEAR'S HAIRCUT WAS A REPEAT PERFORMANCE OF LAST YEAR'S HAIRCUT

JUSTRAVELIN is in Arizona's Dead Horse State Park at the moment & that brought back memories of our stay there 3 winter's  ago.  You can see a few photos here.......  SEDONA, JEROME, DEAD HORSE STATE PARK.

A FLOCK OF MORNING GEESE WING THEIR WAY TOWARDS COTTONWOOD, ARIZONA

GROANER'S CORNER:((  Brain cells come and brain cells go, but fat cells live forever.

Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.

BLOGGER WEBSITE http://thebayfieldbunch.com/

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

The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...... AL.

NEVER SET FOOT OUT OF THE HOUSE TODAY:((

CHECKERS

A gentle rain came in the night & stayed most of the morning. I could hear a lot of giggling going on in the gardens as the flowers soaked up the much needed moisture.  A cooling breeze off the lake made the 52F temps feel much cooler & that pretty well kept both of us house bound for the entire day................................

TIS THE SEASON FOR TRILLIUMS

I would have to say it was probably one of the least physically days I have had in any kind of recent memory.  My whole day was spent parked in front of computers wrestling with 4 separate hard drives loaded with photos, photos, & more photos.  I normally would not have become this disorganized with all the pictures but with the 5 Gig Verizon cap we struggled with all winter I couldn't upload each days photos into their proper Picasa Web Albums or Smug Mug account.  As it was, we blew threw our 5 Gig limit every single month.

Deciding to sort pictures into my Smug Mug account further complicates things because I really haven't used it much before so I am basically starting from scratch with 4 or 5 years of pictures.  The thought did occur to me that I may never get this project finished.  The uploads are slow & the files are many. I am going to need an awful lot of rainy days on my side, but already sun filled summer days are fast approaching.  And, the question did enter my mind.....why am I doing all this anyway!! 

GROANER'S CORNER:((  I signed up for an exercise class and was told to wear loose-fitting clothing. If I HAD any loose-fitting clothing, I wouldn't have signed up in the first place!

Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.

BLOGGER WEBSITE http://thebayfieldbunch.com/

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

The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...... AL.

THE EXCITEMENT OF STARTING OUT

BOONDOCKED IN THE AJO HIGHLANDS, ARIZONA

It is always nice to come across new RV folks just starting out because it brings back great feelings of excitement & anticipation of our own early RV days.  Check out Janie & John's FLAMINGO ON A STICK .

BOONDOCKED NEAR WHY, ARIZONA

Looking back I would say those early days of shopping for an RV both online & on RV lots were some of the most exciting new days we have had as RV'ers.  Comparing notes with other RV folks & faithfully reading everything we could find in the RV NET FORUM.  Travel trailers, Class C's, truck campers, 5th wheels, Class B's & Motorhomes.  So much to choose from & so many questions to be asked & answered.  So many decisions to make.  Throw in a healthy serving of tension, stress, plus anxiety, and you have a really great mix of genuine apprehensive excitement.   It's a unique kind of excitement & I remember that stomach turning stuff well.  We didn't always make the right decisions & I'm sure we probably have a few more wrong decisions ahead of us but we have managed to get ourselves on the road every winter for the last 5 out of 6 years & with a bit of luck we'll be back on the road this coming September or October again.

BOONDOCKED IN SLAB CITY, CALIFORNIA

Cloudy cool day so most of my time was spent inside getting my little used SMUG MUG photo account organized.  A long, long, way to go but I did get a good start on it today.  Have had this account for about 3 years so it's about time I used it's great photo galleries.  Sure is nice sorting photos on a nice big new 20" monitor.  Great colors & great detail.

BOONDOCKED AT THE CLARK DRY LAKE BED ALONGSIDE ROCK HOUSE ROAD IN BORREGO SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA (no, we didn't build that earth oven)

MOTTY & PATTI got themselves a bigger & better truck plus a newer & smaller dog & I'm assuming RICK & RICK & PAULETTE arrived safely home today in Cowichan Bay on British Columbia's Vancouver Island.  Just two more examples of excited RV folks.  Different degrees of excitement maybe but excitement just the same. 

BOONDOCKED NEAR TOMBSTONE, ARIZONA

I had run the generator in the motorhome a couple of days ago & after a few minutes it quit.  A quick look at the gas guage in the motorhome showed the needle on a quarter tank so knew that's why the genny quit.  Off to Goderich yesterday for $75 worth of gas.  Yep, that was good enough to get the generator up & running again.

BOONDOCKED IN QUARTZSITE, ARIZONA

GROANER'S CORNER:(( 

GAMES FOR WHEN WE ARE OLDER

1. Sag, you're It. 
2 . 20 questions shouted into your good ear.
3. Kick the bucket
4. Musical recliners.
5. Simon says something incoherent.
6. Pin the Toupee on the bald guy.

And another sign of getting old is when you don't care where your spouse goes, just as long as you don't have to go along.

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Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.

BLOGGER WEBSITE http://thebayfieldbunch.com/

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

The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...... AL.

ANSWERING A FEW QUESTIONS

OUR ANNUAL RESIDENT CARPORT ROBIN IS BACK NESTING IN HER USUAL SPOT AGAIN

There is an old saying that goes something like, "it is better to have loved & lost than to have never loved at all."  In re-applying that to the RV world, "is it better to have traveled & quit than to have never traveled at all."  I suppose only the folks who once traveled could rightfully answer that question.  Some days I  think to myself, if I hadn't experienced a lot of travels in my life maybe I wouldn't know what's out there & would be much more content just sitting around the house all the time..................Just a thought.

Now, to answer a few questions that have come in.  No, we never did get our hydraulic jacks fixed & if it was just me I probably never would.  Just more mechanical stuff prone to malfunction.  However, Kelly likes to be on the straight & level so at some point I guess we'll have to haul the rig into some big expensive repair place down in the States & get the jacks working......again!!!!

 

Had a question about RSS Feeds.  I have read about this RSS stuff but totally do not understand what it is or how it works.  Something to do with the blogs & photos allowing direct access or something.  For whatever reason my brain seems to have trouble understanding some of those particular kinds of technologies.  RSS, tags, feed burners, aggregators, etc. etc. ??

Questions about my cameras & lens set up so I'll put in some previous blog links that may answer some of these questions plus a few photos.  You may have to scroll through a bit of blog fluff to find the camera info but it's there.....................

http://thebayfieldbunch.com/2009/07/productive-camera-and-telescope-day.html

http://thebayfieldbunch.com/2009/11/exciting-day-for-gramma-kelly.html

http://thebayfieldbunch.com/2009/11/good-news-from-vancouver.html

As far as where did I learn my camera skills....that's a tough one.  I think it is the word 'skill's that trips me up because I hardly think of myself as a skilled person.  Bought my first 35mm camera back in 1965.  In the mid 80's I attended a 2 day seminar in Toronto put on by Nikon but can barely remember if I learned anything.  Also in the early 80's I took a couple night time camera courses at a local college in Kitchener Ontario.  Picked up a 'darkroom' course as well & went on to set up my own black & white darkroom which I operated for about 10 years.  Worked in the One Hour Photo Lab business for 4 years managing a store in Stratford Ontario for two of those years. (hated that retail management stuff!!) Enrolled in a professional camera program at Fanshaw College in London Ontario back in 91 but only lasted two months & dropped out.  Way too technical for me & way over my head.  But, I did learn some good stuff in the two months I was there.  Did do a little bit of newspaper stuff in the early 90's but it was very limited.  A good friend of mine was district editor of the Stratford Beacon Herald at the time so he used some of my stuff in the rural section of the paper now & again.  Was a member of the Stratford Camera Club for awhile too.

BAYFIELD'S BOATS WILL SOON BE IN THE WATER

I have some great camera equipment (Nikon) & that goes a long way.  The technical side of photography is very difficult for me & hard to  understand.  As soon as someone starts talking technically I am out of the conversation.  I have also met people very camera savvy & could tell you anything about their camera you wanted to know but couldn't shoot their way out of a wet paper bag.  They know all about their equipment but just don't know how to use it effectively.

DEER PARK LODGE

Composition & creativity come naturally to me & add to that a love of photography along with the knack of spotting good photos & I guess that's maybe where the 'skill' word might apply.  I have blogged about this before but just can't remember the exact blog dates for those posts.  I think I did one just a couple of weeks ago maybe. 

Anyway, I have once again become very long winded about all this photography stuff so had better get myself out of here & off to bed!!          zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

LAKE HURON AT DEER PARK LODGE

GROANER'S CORNER:((  I've been told I'm slower than a two flippered turtle crawling through a 49 gallon barrel of crunchy peanut butter!!

Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.

BLOGGER WEBSITE http://thebayfieldbunch.com/

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

The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...... AL.

TEMPORARILY STUCK AT HOME FOR A FEW MONTHS:((

HAD THE FEELING I WAS BEING WATCHED IN THE GARDEN THIS MORNING...(Garter Snake)

Lubricated the rails under the rig's main slide this morning, cleaned the battery terminals, ran the rig's engine & generator up to temperature & then discovered we have a nasty leak in our kitchen faucet.  I have the feeling a cold snap we had awhile back may have cracked the plastic fitting in the faucet assembly so we are going to have to get that replaced.  Also wrote down the rig's tire size today because for sure we are going to need new tires all the way around before we hit the road again in the fall.  The Goodyear G670 tires look fine but I checked the tire dates & they were made in May of 2002 so their safety expiry date is long overdo.

  WITH A BIT OF WOOD & SOME GOOD OLD COUNTRY IMAGINATION

I threw the 3D Pipe photos in last night's blog for no other reason than to just break up the usual pictures of birds & flowers just in case folks might be getting bored with that stuff.  It's a real challenge to refrain from being repetitive with the blog when not out traveling to new destinations on a regular basis.  I try to vary the topics as much as I can as well but when your sitting in the same location month after month that can be a real challenge.  Blog repetition can be a rut that is hard to get out of.  Our daily reader numbers continue to drop but that is to be expected because after all, this is first & foremost a travel blog.  It's a travel blog that is just temporarily stuck at home for a few months right now:((

Some people might suggest only doing the blog while traveling & of course that makes a whole lot of darn good sense.  Some fellow travelers do that & it works well for them but they are not a blabber fingers like I am.  Blogging & the photos that go along with it have become a very enjoyable hobby for me whether we are on the road or not.  Gives me an opportunity everyday to vent the thought process.  Why be selfish & keep my life all to myself locked up tightly in my head.  That's where headaches come from you know!!

GROANER'S CORNER:((  Did you know the secret to success is knowing who to blame for your failures.

Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.

BLOGGER WEBSITE http://thebayfieldbunch.com/

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

The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...... AL.

3D PIPES:))

3D Pipes have always been one of my favorite Microsoft screen savers.  It is a mesmerizing display of movement & color that can have one sitting in front of the monitor for long lengths of time staring in wonderment at how quickly the pipes are constructed.  We have the pipes on both computers running XP.  But, do we have the pipes on our new laptop running Windows 7?  No we do not!!  Along with some other neat-o things I like about XP, Microsoft has seen fit to eliminate most of their screen saver programs & that included 3D Pipes:((  I am a firm believer that newer is not always better!!

Aside from a short mobility van run this afternoon it has been a quiet day.  Dropped off yesterday's load of trash in a nearby dumpster & have another load in the works to take to the local 'Good Will' drop off tomorrow.  I will keep plugging away at the big clean up until we are finally clear of all the debris!!

Finally had a look at the gas log from our last trip to the southwest & see that we travelled for a total of 6,925 miles for $2,209.  I have no idea about how many miles to the gallon we got because I don't bother myself with that kind of stress.  Once a decision is made to go from point A to point B then whatever it costs to do that is what it costs & there's no point in stewing about it at each gas stop.  Our computerized speedometer can be set to tell us how many miles we are getting to the gallon but after watching those numbers while going down the road a couple years ago I decided that was information that was depressing & I had no control over anyway.  So that was that.  I now have the speedo set to show how many miles are left before our next fill up.

And gas fill ups for me are always a royal pain in the asparagus.  Gas pumps are all computerized now & with their faded displays & 243 different ways to enter your info I generally lose patience & end up trying to physically strangle the gas pump.  I hate gas pumps!!!!  Some places take a credit card OK while others demand zip codes, rip codes, or the second to last letter in Abraham Lincoln's most favorite nickname of his wife's sister's brother-in-law.  A lot of pumps only give you $75 worth of gas & then you have to start the madness all over again.  Some places you have to go inside & pay first.  Works fine if your a Swami with a Crystal Ball in your pocket & know how much gas your rig is going to take.  Surly pumps with attitude really fry me.  As a rule it generally takes two of us to fill up the rig's gas tank.  Kelly has to come out & act as referee & generally ends up doing the paperwork at the pump while I stand at the rig waiting for a, 'lift the nozzle' sign to show up.  If I can see it.  More than once we have stormed out of a gas station without gas only to do battle down the street with another miserable pump with attitude!!  At least with the motorhome our gas stops have been cut in half or more because of the larger tank.  I'm thinking maybe we should replace the gray, black, & fresh water tanks in the coach with gas tanks to further cut down our time doing battle with the #^*)!!%+/** gas pumps!!!!

 

And one more little statistic I've noticed here on the computer.  We have a program called Feedjit which shows us in real time the number of people visiting our site & where they are from.  About 70% of the hits come from the United States while maybe 28% are from Canada with maybe 2% or so from other countries.  America's population is much bigger than Canadas so that makes sense but I think it has more to do with the fact that probably 99% of our travels are done in the States.  Of those 6,925 miles traveled this past winter, only 134 miles were traveled in Canada.

 

GROANER'S CORNER:((  And did you know that those of you who think you know it all are damn annoying to those of us who do know it all!!

LOOK CLOSELY, I TOO AM IN THE MONITOR

Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.

BLOGGER WEBSITE http://thebayfieldbunch.com/

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

The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...... AL.