MY SOCK CAME HOME TO ROOST WITH IT’S FELLOW SOCKS TODAY

OVEN WARM FROM YARNELL’S CORNERSTONE BAKERY THIS MORNING

I love the smell of the desert when it rains and our desert rains did begin Sunday afternoon around 3 o’clock much to the happy giggling of all the chuckling green plants everywhere including the hardy cactus.  Unlike Africa’s bone dry Saharan desert the green Sonoran desert of the Southwest does need it’s yearly rainfalls to survive.  That Sunday rain finally backed off early Monday afternoon but not before we had us a little blast of hail.

Feeling better about a few things this morning Pheebs and I headed off up the big Yarnell Hill again heading for Yarnell’s Cornerstone Bakery and luckily this time we struck it rich.  Waiting in line for a couple donuts and a small coffee I saw a lady emerge from the kitchen carrying a tray with 3 gorgeous looking loaves of home made bread on it.  It was evident the bread had just come out of the oven because she had oven mitts on.  Knowing I could score a lot of Brownie points by snagging one of those loaves for Kelly I quickly did so as well as some Maple and Cinnamon donuts for her.  Okay and one donut for Pheebs and I.  Cutting our morning drive short and pulling a U-turn in front of the bakery we quickly raced back down the Yarnell Hill for home while the bread was still oven warm and smelling heavenly:))

Busied myself with some yardwork and how nice to have cooler air for working around outside.  When I think of what this property looked like nearly 5 years ago when we first stumbled upon it and what it looks like now I feel good inside about all the work both Kelly and I put into all this to have things looking like the way it does today.  We both really enjoyed those first couple years fixing everything up.

Figured with nice cooler temperatures upon us it would be a good morning to work away at getting a lot of those East coast bugs off the front of the Motorhome.  I sure had to rub and scrub with a lot of water to get that big mess of tough gooey bug guts off.  What kind of hardened bugstables do they build over there on that side of the country anyway.  Even a small ding in the drivers side windshield to boot!!

I wasn’t even aware I was missing a sock until talking to Aunt Jean last week.  Said she found one of my socks in her dryer and yes I had done a couple loads of laundry while there.  Said she had already put it in the mail and today my sock finally came home to roost with all it’s mismatched threadbare fellow socks.  Not too many days I am ever able to walk myself around sporting matching socks.

SOCK MAIL

Other than the aforementioned stuff there was not much else going on.  Since the American election I have basically stopped watching any and all network news channels and a big part of my time now is spent with my Kindle quietly sitting in my room or on the front porch reading.  I am finding it much easier on my peace of mind:))

GROANER’S CORNER:(( Jesus and Moses were teeing off on a 149 yd par 3, with water hazard.  Jesus pulled out his wedge and hit his first ball into the water;  "I don't understand", he said, "I saw Arnold Palmer hit a wedge to the green on this same hole yesterday!"  Again he dropped a ball on the ground and repeated the shot with the same results....  Moses said,"Get a longer iron or you'll never make it across"  Jesus dropped another ball to the ground and repeated the swing dropping the third ball in the water short of the green.  "That was my last ball!" Jesus remarked as he walked across the water fishing for the lost balls.  A foursome approached the green and one man replied, "Who does he think he is, Jesus Christ?"  Moses replied, "No he thinks he’s Arnold Palmer"

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Ever wonder why the IRS calls it, "Form 1040?" Because for every $50 you earn, you get 10 and they get 40.

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A tour bus driver is driving with a bus load of seniors down a highway when he is tapped on his shoulder by a little old lady. She offers him a handful of peanuts, which he gratefully munches up. After about 15 minutes, she taps him on his shoulder again and she hands him another handful of peanuts. She repeats this gesture about five more times. When she is about to hand him another batch again he asks the little old lady, " Why then don't you eat the peanuts yourself?".  "We can't chew them because we've no teeth," she replied.  The puzzled driver asks, "Why do you buy them then?"  The old lady replied, "We just love the chocolate around them."

WE ARE JUST SO READY TO MOVE ON AND BEGIN A NEW CHAPTER, BUT……………………

Despite it being overcast Sunday morning I knew both Pheebs and I were needing a change of scenery and something different to do.  Brewed myself up a coffee, heated up one of our Safeway blueberry muffins, tossed the cameras in the Jeep and off we went.  Without all the abundant roads of Bayfield’s Huron County back home it’s always a challenge where to go here.  Picked a route we had done just a few days ago but only we did it in the opposite direction.  Congress to Stanton, picked up the Old Staged Coach Road and slowly chugged our way up the Weaver Mountains to Yarnell and back to Congress.  Not a lot of anything new to see but it was just nice to be out putt-putting along on some quiet old dusty roads just like we so often do back home during the summer months in Bayfield………..

HEADING NORTH UP OLD STAGECOACH ROAD

LOOKING BACK SOUTHWARD TO THE ROAD WE HAVE JUST TRAVELED

WOULD LIKE TO STAND HERE DURING A HEAVY MONSOON RAIN TO WATCH THE WATER CASCADING DOWN THAT DRY WASH ON THE LEFT

PHEEBS WANTED TO STOP AND SEE HER COW PALS SO THAT’S WHAT WE DID

ONE JUST NEVER KNOWS JUST WHAT’S AROUND THE NEXT BEND IN ONE’S LIFE

WHERE WE’RE GOING

WHERE WE’VE BEEN

ENJOYING SOME AUTUMN SCENERY ALONG THE WAY

STOPPED AT A SCENIC OUTLOOK WE WATCH A COUPLE RV’S CAREFULLY DESCENDING DOWN THE LONG WINDING YARNELL HILL

FROM THE SAME SCENIC LOOKOUT WE WATCHED A FEW CARS ASCENDING UP THE 2 LANED YARNELL HILL

We’re doing Okay but this whole ‘house sale’ thing is turning out to be very stressful for us.  We are so ready to move on and begin a new chapter in the life and times of The Bayfield Bunch but until our house sells we have to patiently bide our time…………………..

GROANER’S CORNER:))  Joe sets up Michael to go on a blind date with a friend of his. But Michael is a little worried about going out with someone he's never seen before.  "What do I do if she's ugly?" says Mike, "I'll be stuck with her all night."  "Don't worry." Joe says, "just go up to her door and meet her first. If you like what you see, then everything goes as planned.   If you don't, just shout Aaaaaauuuggghhh! and fake an asthma attack."  So that night, Mike knocks at the girl's door and when she comes out he is awe-struck at how beautiful and sexy she is.   He's about to speak when the girl suddenly shouts, "Aaaaaauuuggghhh!"

SUNDAY

GROANER’S CORNER:(( What do you call a lazy baby kangaroo?  A pouch potato.

WE MET US SOME NICE FOLKS TODAY

How nice to meet a couple fellow Canadian RV Bloggers this morning.  Bill and Pat Richards and their little dog Clemson are new full time RV Bloggers from Ontario not too far from where we live in Bayfield.  Home for them during the summer months is spent between Durham and Priceville. This is their first year traveling to the Southwest having only been on the road about 3 weeks so far.  Traveling from Huachuca City in Southeastern Arizona to Bull Head City up along the Colorado River they found time to stop in and see us today.  Again, really nice down to earth folks who both Kelly and I felt very comfortable with.  Kelly said later Bill reminded her of my good friend Richard back home and I had to agree with her.  You can find Clemson, Pat and Bill at Bill’s On Our Way blog and you can also find Pat’s side of the travels here at  Chillin' With Patsy.  Nice folks these people:))

GROANER’S CORNER:)) A minister had all of his remaining teeth pulled out. New dentures were being made.  The first Sunday, he only preached 10 minutes. The second Sunday, he preached only 20 minutes. On the third Sunday, he preached 1 hour 25 minutes.  When asked about this by some of the congregation, he responded this way:  “The first Sunday, my gums were so sore it hurt to talk. The second Sunday, my new dentures were hurting me a lot. The third Sunday, I accidentally grabbed my wife's dentures...and I couldn't shut up.”

ANOTHER LITTLE MYSTERY IN THE DESERT

MANAGED TO GRAB MYSELF A FEW BIRD PHOTOS THIS AFTERNOON

The night’s cloud patterns were dark with high long openings off to the East letting through wandering shafts of pale Moonlight.  A few faint stars in their stillness twinkled through thinner layers of cloud cover.  Against this backdrop of ethereal light moved several small bright perfectly timed oscillating lights.  They traveled steadily in long curving arcs in the space between earth and the overcast.  Sometimes they would converge and sometimes they would appear to flee from one another, sometimes silent and sometimes with great roaring sounds.  I had seen and heard this patterned behavior before in the desert night sky and knew right away what it was.  The boys from Luke Air Force base south of us were piloting their F16 fighter jets among the stars in mock combat high over the darkened floor of the Sonoran desert.

CURVE BILL THRASHER

I wrote the above opening paragraph Thursday morning regarding Wednesday nights outing with Pheebs.  And that was as far as I got with Thursday’s post.  With no photos and little interest in putting a post together I just never bothered trying to make something interesting out of a totally uninteresting day.  And that was that.

I AT FIRST THOUGHT AN ALIEN CREATURE HAD LANDED IN OUR BACKYARD OVERNIGHT

IT APPEARED TO BE HIDING AND CLINGING TO ONE OF OUR MESQUITE TREES

 

COULD THIS BE THE SPACE POD IT CAME IN??

AND OH MY ARE THESE IT’S TENTACLES

 

 

WELL NO SUCH LUCK, IT’S ONLY SOME SAP DRIPPING OUT OF A MESQUITE TREE

By chance I noticed it was November 18th today and that meant it was one month ago this morning we rolled out of Bayfield Ontario heading for Spencerport New York, Sarasota Florida, and Congress Arizona.  Little did we know how sick I was going to get and just how much that long journey was eventually going to knock the absolute stuffings out of us……And by the way if anyone missed the Update on Retired Rod just click the yellow link.  Not the outcome we were all hoping for.

Took Pheebs for a drive and a walk in the desert behind our house earlier today.  A much nicer morning than the previous days cloudy cold and very windy conditions.   Over the past 10 winters wondering around the Southwest we have come across lots of interesting and sometimes mysterious things in the desert.  This morning I parked the Jeep and Pheebs and I headed off for a walk.  A short distance away I noticed vehicle tracks going off the road into a soft sandy wash. (dry river bed)  Thought it odd and noticed the vehicle only went maybe forty feet.  Out of curiosity I walked up the wash and noticed where two tires had slightly dug in a wee bit and a blackening of the sand between the tire digs.  Another 15 feet I noticed many foot prints circling a fair sized pile of sand mounded up in a circle.  On that mound lay 2 scattered beer cans.  Took me a few minutes to come up with a theory about what may have happened here.  First, I figured the vehicle had backed into the wash because of the way the sand was pushed up behind the 2 rear tire tracks.  Next I deduced the vehicle was left running for a bit and the black mark on the sand was from an exhaust.  The mounded up circle of sand could only mean one thing.  Somebody buried something here.  I know of no Irish Leprechauns in the area so it was doubtful it was a pot of gold.  I have a feeling someone’s large dog may have died and it’s owner brought it out into the desert for burial.  Just a theory of course but I base it on the fact that just a few hundred yards from this spot is another spot I came across 2 years ago where I feel for sure someone’s pet was buried.  I walked over and took a photo of that spot as well.

SPOTTED THESE VEHICLE TRACKS GOING OFF THE ROAD INTO A SANDY WASH

I FIGURE THAT BLACK MARK IN THE SAND IS FROM A VEHICLE ENGINES IDLING EXHAUST

MANY FOOTPRINTS SURROUND THAT MOUND OF SAND AHEAD

A VEHICLE BACKED IN FROM TOP RIGHT AND I FIGURE THE OCCUPANT/S OF THAT VEHICLE BURIED ‘SOMETHING’ IN THE FOREGROUND….NOTE THE TWO CRUSHED BEER CANS AND ANOTHER BEER CAN WAS STUCK IN A MESQUITE TREE OUT BY THE ROAD TO MARK WHERE THIS SPOT IS

A SHORT DISTANCE AWAY IT WAS THIS SPOT WHERE I AM CONVINCED SOMEONE BURIED A PET TWO WINTERS AGO….I REMEMBER A NAME ON THAT LARGE CENTER STONE

THIS IS A TYPICAL DRY DESERT WASH….IN THE SUMMER MONSOON SEASON THESE WASHES RUN FULL TILT CHANNELING ALL THE WATER RUN-OFF FROM SURROUNDING MOUNTAINS….ONE DOES NOT WANT TO GET CAUGHT IN ONE OF THESE FAST FLOWING WATER RUN-OFFS

Looks like we have rain on the way for Monday which will be a good thing.  Several neighbors have told us the annual summer Monsoons did not bring the heavy soaking rains this past summer and I guess that is why our grasses didn’t do as well as I thought they would.

We have been in Congress just over a week now and this morning I was able to get myself together enough to finally accomplish a few more things.  Dumped the Motorhome’s gray and black tanks, checked the four coach batteries water levels, ran up the generator and trimmed a bunch of low hanging sucker branches around the properties Palo Verde and Mesquite trees.  Erected our long polled wind speed indicator on our front gate plus took care of half a dozen other little things while I was at it as well.

Kelly slipped into Wickenburg for a few groceries and some browsing.  She stopped into the Congress Depot to see the owners Judy and Jerry there on her way back and of course lots of changes since we left last March.  They sold their business, buildings, and property and are in the process of moving to Limon Colorado.  Judy said they are still making yummy pizzas there though so might have to get one shortly while they can still be got.  When Judy mentioned Limon Colorado Kelly thought it sounded familiar and yes it was familiar alright.  Here’s our link to Limon Colorado back in early November 2007…….Al Ends Up In The Hospital

Pyrrhuloxia 

GROANER’S CORNER:(( There's this guy who had been lost and walking in the desert for about 2 weeks. One hot day, he sees the home of a missionary. Tired and weak, he crawls up to the house and collapses on the doorstep. The missionary finds him and nurses him back to health. Feeling better, the man asks the missionary for directions to the nearest town. On his way out the backdoor, he sees this horse. He goes back into the house and asks the missionary, "Could I borrow your horse and give it back when I reach the town?"   The missionary says, "Sure but there is a special thing about this horse. You have to say 'Thank God' to make it go and 'Amen' to make it stop."   Not paying much attetion, the man says, "Sure, ok."   So he gets on the horse and says, "Thank God" and the horse starts walking. Then he says, "Thank God, thank God," and the horse starts trotting. Feeling really brave, the man says, "Thank God, thank God, thank God, thank God, thank God" and the horse just takes off. Pretty soon he sees this cliff coming up and he's doing everything he can to make the horse stop.   "Whoa, stop, hold on!!!!"
Finally he remembers, "Amen!!"   The horse stops 4 inches from the cliff. Then the man leans back in the saddle and says, "Thank God."

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A tough old cowboy once counseled his grandson that if he wanted to live a long life, the secret was to sprinkle a little gunpowder on his oatmeal every morning.  The grandson did this religiously and he lived to the age of 93.  When he died, he left 14 children, 28 grandchildren, 35 great grandchildren and a fifteen foot hole in the wall of the crematorium.