KELLY TAKES THE PHOTOS TODAY:))

Kelly took all the photos in tonight’s post.  In Congress right along the west side of highway 89 there sits a very interesting group of rather unique western buildings containing several businesses.  The largest 2 story wooden buildings is home to the Congress Junction. (formally the Congress Depot)  This is where we get our yummy Pizzas & it is here where we bought some of our lamps, tables, & southwestern fare for our house these past couple years. 

 

KELLY CAME HOME WITH THE DARKER OUTFIT IN THE TOP LEFT PHOTO:))

This afternoon at 2 p.m. the Congress Junction put on a Christmas Fashion show & afternoon tea urging folks attending to dress in their colorful best.  Kelly spent a couple hours there & said the show was a big success with far more people attending than what had been expected.  Instead of a runway models mingled with the crowd wearing an assortment of fashionable western clothing.  This is a really cozy store inside with mainly new & artfully re-finished merchandise.  A great place to drop in if one is looking for something uniquely different.  Artsy, antiques, collectables, fashions, & southwest flavors.  Furniture, clothing, paintings, etc.  Just a nice place to browse around & take in the western architecture & ambience.  Owners Judy & Jerry have their small restaurant nearly complete as well.  Also a good place to pick up things for the garden like cactus, flowering shrubs, trees, & much more.  Just an all round nice place to drop in & look around at all the neat stuff.   

 

IVAN has his latest post up & in it he has a 10 second video clip of him & I in the Jeep last Sunday.  Notice how he uses a broom handle to extend his new GoPro camera outside of the Jeep while we’re moving.  He also has some pretty cute pictures of Hailey up a tree as well.   

 

DIANNE, KNOWN AS THE ‘ARIZONA GYPSY’ IS ONE OF THE VENDORS IN THE CONGRESS JUNCTION

And many thanks to Leslie over there in that Webster New York town for posting this article, 16 Habits Of Highly Sensitive People.  It is always re-assuring for people like me to read articles like this.  I can readily identify pretty well with most if not all 16 points in one way or another.  Sometimes when reading articles like this I think to myself, ‘now how could somebody I’ve never met know me well enough to write an article like this’.  Guess I’m not the only one after all eh…………………:))

GROANER’S CORNER:(( I recently ran into the woman who used to clean our house, and was surprised to hear that she was still at it, despite her advanced age.
"How do you manage it?" I asked.  She explained her secret: "I only have clients who can't see the dirt any better than I can."

SUN’S OUT, BIRDS ARE SINGING, & AL’S ON THE END OF HIS SHOVEL AGAIN:))

How nice it was to hear our happy neighborhood birds in song again this morning.  No sooner was the welcome Sun over the horizon & the Cactus Wrens were happily singing in the Mesquite trees.  Noticed about a dozen Mourning Doves lined up on a nearby power line warming themselves in the Sun’s rays.  Hauled my gravity lawn chair out of the shed & set it up near our birdfeeder. Stretched myself out for a relaxing half hour of bird photos.  Sometimes I don’t take any photos at all & just enjoy all the humorous activity around the bird feeder.

MOURNING DOVE >>>

Folks at the optometrist place in Wickenburg where I had my left eye checked Thursday morning recommended a few drops of Joy dish soap mixed with water in a spritzer bottle for cleaning glasses.  Said for people with oily skin & that would be me to add a few drops of alcohol.  Tried that using a soft cloth this morning on my glasses & it worked like a charm.  Also worked well on one of my smeary camera lens filters cleaning it up crystal clear.

One of Kelly’s favorite browsing stores in Wickenburg was closed Thursday when we were in town so she headed herself back to Wickenburg this morning to see what she could find.  And needless to say she found some things. 

<<< MALE GAMBLES QUAIL ON OUR BIRD FEEDER

Our skies remained mainly sunny today & despite 37F first thing this morning we were soon up into the 40’s & 50’s with predictions hitting 70F next week.  It was time to get outside & get a happy on which for me meant planting myself on the end of my shovel & cutting in a couple more small cactus beds.  Rule of thumb for me when figuring out where to put a flowerbed is to first see where natural trees & plants are growing then go from there.  Rather than trying to move shrubs into flowerbeds I generally always dig the flower beds in & around existing plants which automatically places them in beds without moving them.  Nature doesn’t normally work in squares or right angle corners so I generally try to keep my flowerbed lines flowing in curves & avoid that squared off look.  By creating a number of flower beds in the same vicinity hard ground random paths naturally occur between them.  Been using that method for years & it seems to work out just fine.  

YOU CAN SEE HOW PATHS ARE NATURALLY FORMED BY DIGGING IN DIFFERENT BEDS

 

MY DRAGGED SHOVEL MARKS FOR ANOTHER CACTUS BED CIRCLE A MESQUITE SHRUB, A PLANTED JOSHUA TREE & ANOTHER SMALL FLOWERING SHRUB

THIS BED ENCLOSES A PALO VERDE TREE, A MESQUITE TREE & A 1 MESQUITE SHRUB

 

BEFORE & AFTER DIGGING IN A SMALL BED AROUND THAT SHRUB IN ABOUT THE MIDDLE

Called Aunt Jean in Sarasota Florida Thursday night to see how she’s doing.  Despite a trip to a pain clinic a few days ago for injections regarding a chronic degenerating lower back disk problem she did manage to make it out to the golf course this past Tuesday & play 18 holes with friends.  Maybe not driving the ball from one end of the golf course to the other anymore but she does the best she can & that’s all that matters.  She has had to shorten her morning walks but still gets out there & gives it her best.  With a severely curved spine pressing on a lung she becomes winded easy now so has had to slow down some & catch her breath frequently.  But like she said, she’s not giving up & will just keep on pushing herself every day to do as much as she can.  That’s my strong willed good old Aunt Jean alright:))

AUNT JEAN, PHEEBS, & KELLY ON FEBRUARY 15TH 2013 WHEN JEAN WAS HERE VISITING

Ever thought about volunteering some of your skills to help others.  That’s just what John is doing over at Just Finding Our Way.  Working with Rebuilding Together John led a team of volunteers building benches for placement around the campus at Unlimited Potential.  We have met John & he truly is a craftsman.

CURVE BILL THRASHER OR ‘CURVY BILL’ AS I CALL HIM >>>

Tossing out old photos or deleting digitals on my computer is a tough thing for me to do.  Always has been but I take heart in the fact that yes it can be done if one can discipline & organize themselves well enough to do it.  Jodee over at On the Road Abode: Trading a zip code for a toad has a well written post entitled, The Power Of Photos in which she writes about her current photo project.  I could pretty much identify with every one of her her thoughts & feelings regarding her old photos & photo albums.  Jodee & husband Bill are working their way forward to becoming full time RV’ers in 2015.

GROANER’S CORNER:(( The doctor in a small western town medical clinic asked the weather-beaten mountaineer how he was feeling.  "Well ... it's like this," drawled the man. "I'm still a-kickin', but I ain't a-raisin' no dust anymore."

IF YOU FIND THE FELLA WITH A DOT ON HIS HELMET………………

Watched the CORNER GAS movie last night on CTV & was not disappointed.  Aside from some weight gain in the characters the old Corner Gas gang looked pretty much the same.  And thankfully the writers stuck to the same type of hokey homespun humor that made the show so humorously popular in the first place.  A truly Canadian made production all the way.  A big thank-you to the whole Corner Gas crew for all the hours of relaxing entertainment they have brought & continue to bring through re-runs into my life over the past 5 years or so.  Much appreciated by one of Corner Gas’s biggest fans:))

Was so happy to see a star studded night sky when I took Pheebs out Wednesday night.  Imagine my disappointment Thursday morning when I took Pheebs out again not to see a single solitary star visible anywhere.  Dressed warm & stuck pretty close to our heaters for most of the morning.  Happy to say our day slowly began to clear & warm up as the day wore on.

PHEEBS WATCHING & WAITING FOR SUNNY DAYS TO RETURN

We were in the Jeep & off to Wickenburg for my blurry left eye appointment shortly after 11.  Dr. J Schrolucke tested both my eyes & his numbers for my left eye were slightly different than the numbers on my eye test in Canada about 4 months ago.  Anyway they have sent my new glasses back to make the correction to the left lens.  Won’t have the glasses back until after New Years.  Meanwhile I have my old scratched up clunkers back on.

YAAAAY SUNNY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN

We did end the day under sunny skies & our spirits were once again lifted.  Maybe we will get lucky with some warmer temperatures Friday:))  And ‘Oh Dear’ I’m afraid I have not been keeping a close eye on our Blog Follower/Friend Connect box in the sidebar.  Not sure when you made it through the Google maze & found your way to our Blog Follower list Betty Tucker but welcome aboard & glad to have you along on our Snow Bird travels.  

On my sidebar I have a program running called Feedjit.  It shows in ‘real-time’ people visiting this blog.  Another thing Feedjit does that is not visible to the public is show me which of the photos in my posts people click on to enlarge & have a closer look at.  This always gives me an idea of which photos people like.  Wednesday night I noticed someone from Memphis Tennessee clicked on a photo I had in a post a few years ago called, 'OH-OH' THERE'S SOME NUDE GUYS IN THIS POST.  No they did not click on the nude guys but they did click on the photo of myself & 63 of my boot camp Buddies after we had just run an obstacle course in the snow near Digby Nova Scotia.  Sitting here last night looking at that photo I remember that obstacle course ordeal reasonably well & remembered a lot of the faces & almost a third of the names of the guys in my Fraser 65 Naval Division.  Couldn’t help but wonder to myself how many of those fellows are still alive.  I can still hear some of their voices & in my mind’s eye I can still see many of the antics we got ourselves into nearly 50 years ago.  At 21 I was the second oldest guy in the division & I turned 21 while I was there in Boot Camp.  Did I tell anyone about my Birthday?  No Sireeeee not a chance, I knew better than to do that for sure.  If you find the fella with a dot on his helmet then that fella would be me……….:))  By the way, out of the 2,463 posts I have published my ‘Oh-Oh Nude Guys’ post has received the most number of hits of any post I have written.

Liked Merikay’s post recently in which she talks about Living In The Now.  I remember the doubts & fears Merikay & Craig had before taking the big step of selling their house in California, buying a Class A Motorhome & hitting the road full time.  Now content with their new lifestyle Merikay concludes her post by saying, ‘I waited a long time to be here. Now is the best time’.

A KOFA MOUNTAIN SUNRISE

GROANER’S CORNER:(( My favorite spot at our local zoo is the House of Night, where nocturnal creatures crawl and fly about.  One very bright day, I stepped into the exhibit and was plunged into total darkness. Almost immediately, a small hand grabbed mine.  "And who do you belong to?" I asked.  The answer came swiftly: "I'm yours until the lights come on."

---

Hypochondriac that I am, I constantly log on to the Internet to self-diagnose my latest ailment. But even I knew it was time to lighten up the day I typed in the keywords "liver disorders." That led me to a medical site. With growing alarm I realized I had each of the first seven symptoms. Then I came to No.8 and suddenly felt much better: "Feelings of lethargy, no longer enjoys romping and wagging tail."

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR PHOTOS APPEARING ON-LINE WITHOUT YOUR PERMISSION??

Had to dig deep into my sometimes elusive bag of interests, ideas, & writing topics today.  Not always an easy feat for me on cool cloudy rainy days.  Our intermittent rains began about 7:30 this morning & continued for most of the day.

<<< WE ALREADY HAVE SPARROWS WORKING ON NESTS IN OUR FRONT YARD SAGUAROS

How do you feel about your photos appearing on the internet without your express permission?  Thought about this a couple days ago when I read Cheryl Ann’s post over at DEEP CANYON.   The permission thing kind of bugged me at first but after pouring more thought into it after recently finding a lot of my Bayfield Bunch photos on GOOGLE IMAGES I have adjusted my thinking.  Not being a professional photographer earning a living with my photography I am not opposed to my photos being used in a format such as Google Images.  They are in fact using some of my photos for the same reason I post them in my blog in the first place.  One of the main reasons I take my photos is to share them with others through my blog.  If Google decides to re-share them with the public on their Google Image site then that’s fine with me.  Typing ‘Kofa Mountains’ into Google Images I actually found a bunch of my photos & even 3 from just a couple days ago when Ivan & I were hiking around the ‘Horse Tank’ area.  I also found photos of mine on the PANORAMIO program which is fine with me as well because in our first few years of RVing I would often pin-point the location of my travel photos & submit them to Panoramio to be used on Google Maps.  I kinda got out of the habit of doing that when we ran into so many internet connection problems & bandwidth limits for uploading photos to Panoramio.  Also while browsing through Google Image photos I saw a couple that could be mine but when I clicked on them they actually belonged to RV SUE.  And I did see some photos taken by Joe over at the RVING BEACH BUMS as well.  The Beach Bums are actually on our sidebar.  I do wonder how Google Images choses their photos though.  Is it actually a person or persons or does a search Bot just pick them off the web randomly.

THIS IS ONE OF MY KOFA MOUNTAIN PHOTOS I FOUND ON ‘GOOGLE IMAGES’ SHOWING OUR WINNEBAGO LAST DECEMBER 

Kelly was off to Wickenburg this morning but it was a browsing/shopping expedition & I didn’t have any interest in sitting around in parking lots while Kelly browsed her favorite shops.  Pheebs & I held down the fort & kept the TV busy.  Basically the only times I went out was to feed the birds & bring the garbage can back in from the road.  She did say when she returned there was a big difference in Wickenburg’s weather from Congress.  No rain there & it was warmer.  We never got out of the low 40’s:((  Oh, & in the back of the Jeep was a huge used brown recliner to replace her recliner which she has never liked much anyway.

GINGERLY TOUCHING DOWN ON ONE OF 3 PRICKLY SAGUARO CACTUS IN OUR FRONT YARD

THESE THORNY OCOTILLO BARBS DON’T SEEM TO POSE A CONCERN TO THIS LITTLE FELLOW

A good day to clean some camera gear including the sensor in my Nikon D40.  Second time I’ve had to do that in the past 3 years.  Using the swab method from a company called VISIBLE DUST I again had success on cleaning that sensor.  When one cleans the sensor it is not the sensor itself which is cleaned but actually the low pass filter covering it.  The sensor is hermetically sealed.

<<< HEY COULD YOU GUYS TONE IT DOWN UP THERE

Posting the blog early because the CORNER GAS movie is on CTV tonight at 6 o’clock Arizona time & I don’t want to miss it.  And hey Ivan, Monday on CTV they are having a Corner Gas marathon with episodes playing back to back all day long starting at 6 a.m in the morning Ontario time & culminating with the Corner Gas movie Monday night again.

GROANER’S CORNER:(( "Cold" is a relative term. Use the handy list below to overcome the confusion. Degrees in F.

-*65 Hawaiians declare a two-blanket night

-* 60 Californians put on sweaters (if they can find one)

-* 50 Miami residents turn on the heat

-* 45 Vermont residents go to outdoor concerts

-* 40 You can see your breath

-* Californians shiver uncontrollably

-* Minnesotans go swimming

-* 35 Italian cars don't start

-* 32 Water freezes

-* 30 You plan your vacation to Australia

-* 25 Ohio water freezes.  Californians weep pitiably. Minnesotans eat ice cream.  Canadians go swimming.

-* 20 Politicians begin to talk about the homeless.  New York City water freezes.  Miami residents plan vacation further South.

-* 15 French cars don't start.  Cat insists on sleeping in your bed with you

-* 10 You need jumper cables to get the car going

-* 5 American cars don't start

-* 0 Alaskans put on T-shirts

-* 10 German cars don't start.  Eyes freeze shut when you blink

*- 15 You can cut your breath and use it to build an igloo. Arkansans stick tongue on metal objects.  Miami residents cease to exist.

*- 20 Cat insists on sleeping in pajamas with you. Politicians actually do something about the homeless. Minnesotans shovel snow off roof.  Japanese cars don't start.

*- 25 Too cold to think.  You need jumper cables to get the driver going

*- 30 You plan a two week hot bath

*- 40 Californians disappear.  Minnesotans button top button.  Canadians put on sweaters.  Your car helps you plan your trip South.

*- 50 Congressional hot air freezes.  Alaskans close the bathroom window.

*- 80 Hell freezes over.  Polar bears move South.  Viking Fans order hot cocoa at the game.

*- 90 Lawyers put their hands in their own pockets.

ONLY WAY TO STAY WARM TODAY WAS TO WASH THE MOTORHOME & JEEP

Brrrrrrr!!  And that pretty much sums up our early morning.  We stuck pretty close to our heaters until around 9 when today’s cloud cover broke up a bit & we managed to gather up some heat from the sun.  Figured the best way to crank up our body temps was to crank up our bodies so Kelly spent a while vacuuming & cleaning the rig’s interior.  When she finished that I tackled the outside & washed the entire Motorhome plus the Jeep.  It was a productive way to generate some body heat.

If anything else of interest would have happened today I would have wrote about.  But……………………..

GROANER’S CORNER:((  Once upon a time the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert. Congress said, "Someone may steal from it at night." So they created a night watchman position and hired a person for the job.
Then Congress said, "How does the watchman do his job without instruction?" So they created a planning department and hired two people: one person to write the instructions, and one person to do time studies.
Then Congress said, "How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?" So they created a Quality Control department and hired two people: one to do the studies and one to write the reports.
Then Congress said, "How are these people going to get paid?" So they created the following positions: a time keeper, and a payroll officer, then hired two people.
Then Congress said, "Who will be accountable for all of these people?" So they created an administrative section and hired three people: an Administrative Officer, Assistant Administrative Officer, and a Legal Secretary.
Then Congress said, "We have had this operating for one year and we are $38,000 over budget. We must cutback overall cost."
So they laid off the night watchman.

ALWAYS GREAT GOING AWAY & ALWAYS GREAT COMING HOME….YES WE’RE HOME BUT MAYBE NOT FOR LONG:))

AN ICE CRYSTAL HALO FROM MOUNTAIN TOP TO MOUNTAIN TOP BENDS AROUND THE SUN THIS MORNING AS SEEN FROM OUR CAMPSITE ON KING ROAD ABOUT 27 MILES SOUTH OF QUARTZSITE ARIZONA

Our day dawned with a high cloud cover rolling in over the area.  Checking weather for the next few days we saw rain forecast for both Quartzsite & Congress Wednesday if not sooner.  Didn’t want to be packing up in Quartzsite or unpacking back in Congress in the rain.  Here in the desert rain = mud!!  Forecast also called for cloudy skies today & Tuesday.  No sun means colder temperatures this time of year in these parts.  The combination of cooler temps & no sun pretty much take out the mystic & mystery of the surrounding mountains for me.  Without old Sol’s rays digging deep into the shadowed canyons & dancing out Mother Natures colors & sparkles it’s just not the same magic Kingdom we always so much enjoy exploring.  By the way for anyone interested here are the exact Google Earth co-ordinates for where we were boondocking.  33*15’15.32”N by 114*13’24.12”W  The Google Earth photo of this spot was taken March 3rd of 2013 & it shows what appears to maybe be a truck & 5th wheel parked in the same spot we were.  ‘Checkers Hill’ is just across the wash.

 

Sitting around this morning we weighed our options.  We had originally hoped to slip on down to the Imperial Dam area & look up JUDY & EMMA but after reading Judy’s post this morning I saw she was working at the Visitor’s Center today & Tuesday.  Dropping in to see someone at work is not my idea of a nice relaxing visit.  We hope to be back in the area during February or March so we’ll try & catch Judy & Emma at that time.  Another option we had was to just have us an inside day today but that did not appeal to either one of us.  About 10:15 we made the decision to make the short hour & a half drive back to Congress.  If we’re just going to sit around anyway we might as well just sit around at home.  Twenty minutes later we had the big wheels rolling & within the hour we were hatching new travel plans:))

FROM SUNDAY’S HIKE WITH IVAN

Of course we made our customary stop at McDonald’s in Quartzsite for coffee & wraps.  I have really taken a liking to the crispy chicken wraps with lettuce, tomatoes, & cucumbers I think.  Plus a good sauce.

APPROACHING QUARTZSITE’S MAIN INTERSECTION FROM THE SOUTH THIS MORNING

It was east of Quartzsite after turning off I-10 that I ventured a suggestion which met with a response I hadn’t expected.  Just off the cuff I said to Kelly, ‘wouldn’t it be nice to be on the road again in a couple weeks heading off for someplace new’.  And here’s where Kelly made my day when she said ‘yes, let’s go.’  I knew right then & there Kelly was feeling much, much, better:))  I suggested a place Sue from THE MOHO & OTHER TRAVELING TALES had emailed us about late last March.  Kelly agreed & also suggested a 2nd trip as well back to one of our favorite Arizona areas of all time.  No not Borrego Springs, Sedona, or the Kofas.

I THOUGHT THIS PHOTO HAD A LOT OF INTERESTING ANGLES TO IT…KOFA MOUNTAINS IN THE BACKGROUND

Within minutes of discussing our travel plans Kelly had her laptop open checking weather for the Mojave National Preserve in California just over the western edge of the Arizona border.  This is the place Sue had suggested. If the temperatures are acceptable for late December & early January we plan to head on up there in a couple weeks & see what we can see.

NEITHER IVAN OR I KNEW WHAT THIS CRITTER WAS SO WE QUIETLY TIPPY TOED BY…UPDATE FROM BILL & ANN SAYING IT’S A TARANTULA HAWK

Our 2nd set of possible travel plans for this winter would take us on a 2 or 3 week journey through past Arizona memories.  Memories we so enjoyed between the years 2006 & 2012.  Of course I’m talking Ajo, Why, Sierra Vista, Bisbee, Tombstone, McNeal, Elfrida, & up & over the Chiricahua Mountains through Rucker Canyon to Portal near New Mexico’s State line.  What a wonderful trip down memory lane this southeastern Arizona trip would be for us.  I’m already excited just thinking about getting the big wheels rolling for this one:))       

DO YOU SEE A BIG PUPPY DOG HEAD ON THE LEFT LOOKING OVER TO THE KOFA MOUNTAINS ACROSS THE VALLEY

And some more feedback from readers on our possible UFO sighting.   Be sure to read P Dugway’s 3 comments on my Sunday post about our possible UFO/UAO sighting this past Friday night over the Salton Sea in California.  Maybe it was a genuine sighting we had after all.  P Dugway makes some very interesting & also logical points as to what we did or did not see.  Interesting thoughts indeed.  And Daniel sent us an email with some photos wondering if any of the photos reminded us of what we saw.  I picked the one below.

 

ONLY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THIS PHOTO & WHAT WE SAW IS THE TAPERING OFF END…IF A LINE WAS DRAWN STRAIGHT ACROSS ABOUT WHERE THE LOWER BRIGHT SPOT CAN BE SEEN IT WOULD LOOK MORE LIKE WHAT WE SAW…YOU COULD THEN SEE WHAT I MEANT BY THE LETTER ‘C’

Ivan sent us a 10 second GoPro cam video he took Sunday afternoon of he & I flying along in the Jeep but I’m not able to include it in my post.  Maybe in his next blog he will include it in his.  It’s kinda cool & what a clever idea he had attaching his new GoPro cam to the end of a broom pole.  The video was taken from outside the Jeep while we were moving.  I want a GoPro cam!!!! 

JUST A BUNCH OF TUMBLE DOWN ROCKS

We still receive Real Estate ads from a Florida Realtor.  Few years back when I had the kidney stone problem in Tucson we began re-assessing our future RV travels & for a brief time turned our attention turned to northern Florida around the area of Old Town.  A much shorter travel distance for us from Ontario was number 1 on the pro side of things.  We also couldn’t believe how cheap Real Estate was in that area.  Another listing arrived this morning with a nice one story house on an acre of land for only $32,000.  Sure gets the wheels a turnin in one’s head alright.

A CLOUD COVER BEGAN MOVING IN ON US THIS MORNING DARKENING DOWN THE DAY

Yousers has it turned colder or what.  Kelly’s in the living room watching TV in front of a big heater.  Thermometer says it’s 60F in the house but if feels more like 40.  I’m in my bedroom with a heater blasting away right under my Ikea chair & it’s about 110 in my shorts:))

YEP IT’S COLD IN OUR HOUSE TONIGHT ALRIGHT

<<< SUNRISE OUTSIDE OUR WINDOW THIS MORNING

GROANER’S CORNER:(( A distraught patient phoned her doctor's office. Was it true, the woman wanted to know, that the medication the doctor had prescribed was for the rest of her life? She was told that it was.  There was a moment of silence before the woman continued, "I'm wondering, then, just how serious my condition is. This prescription is marked "NO REFILLS."