MORNING COFFEE WITH MY BUDDY JIM AND A FEW THOUGHTS ON WHY WE LIKE BEING SNOWBIRDS

Really enjoying these cooler early morning starts.  With temperatures around 61F I was able to comfortably slip outside and do a little yard work puttering first thing.  Kelly headed off to Stratford around 9 to run a few errands and I rolled out about an hour later all by myself.  Pheebe held the fort while I slipped on over to Seaforth Ontario to have a coffee with my good buddy Jim (Lifetime Sentences) at Tim Hortons coffee shop.    Jim's younger brother passed away several weeks ago and Jim has had a hectic few weeks.  It was time to sit down and unwind a bit over a cup or two of coffee.  As it turned out we each stretched out a single cup of coffee over three hours.  But oh those hard plastic bench seats are so torturous to sit on without moving for all those hours.  On the way home I thought I was going to have to get my jack knife out and cut my legs off just to give myself a break.

 

‘HE’S TAKING PICTURES AGAIN BERTHA’……’I THINK YOUR RIGHT ELMER’

Must say the Sun seemed to shine a little brighter today now that we have dealt with our RV travel situation and finally made some decisions.  Indecision is one of those stressful things that just keeps gnawing and gnawing at a person until a decision is finally made.  We now have some forward thinking and planning to do.  A goal if you will.  I like when that happens and one's mind comes alive again with a new project ahead.  With my travel hat once again dusted off and my mind focusing on our pre-travel days ahead I marveled at how my mind immediately set to work clearing out all the old gathered cobwebs making room for new plans, challenges, and organizing things with a lot of attention being paid to refreshingly new thoughts and ideas.  Lots to do in the coming weeks ahead and I am looking forward to that.  Driving to Seaforth this morning all those constraining cobwebs literally blew right out my ears and I had to wind the window down to let out all the resulting dust.

ALTHOUGH LATE THIS YEAR WE DO HAVE A FEW PRICKLY PEAR CACTUS BLOOMING

CLEMATIS

One of the great advantages of being a Snowbird are those two times each year when we excitedly look forward to the immediate lifestyle change that occurs.  Once in the Fall and once in the Spring.  Over most of our past years of RV travels I have always with great anticipation looked forward to leaving for the great American Southwest in Autumn and returning home in the Spring.  It has been those two total changes that has kept me from becoming bored out of my tree.  For the first 6 years of traveling I looked forward more to leaving than coming home but in the last 5 years and especially the last couple years I have to admit we have both looked very much more forward to coming home in the Spring.  As I've said before in previous posts it is the total change of scenery twice a year that I really like and look forward to.  Where we live here in Bayfield and where we travel around in the southwest is like being on two different Planets with each Planet being totally different from the other in it's own beautiful way.  It has always been about the change of homes and lifestyles as well.  Not stuck in a house all year round and not stuck in an RV all year round either. Yes it will be nice to be back on the road going somewhere again and even nicer to be coming home again after another long trip.  As travelers would tell me years ago when transporting them to and from Pearson International Airport in Toronto...….."It's nice to go away but it's even nicer coming home".  Took me a long time to understand that one but I do understand it now.  So in the meantime I'm very much looking forward to our upcoming travels so that I can again look forward to coming home again.  Crazy huh:))

POND HYACINTH I THINK

FROG OF COURSE

Ended up my day without any photos so again had to quickly scramble outside and grab myself a few snaps before the Sun went down.  We’re sure lucky to have a yard with so many photo opportunities when needed.  And by the way if anyone has any tips on things to see, places to go, and things to do in the northwest we would appreciate hearing from you.  Thanks to Tuesday night’s comments we have already started a file for gather up travel information.

I THINK THIS FLOWER IS CALLED A HELENIUM

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Two drunks are driving down the highway, drinking their beer. All of a sudden the driver notices lights flashing in his mirror; the cops are on his tail. His buddy says, "What are we going to do?" The driver says, "Don't worry. Just do exactly what I tell you and everything will work out perfectly. First, peel the labels off our beer bottles and we'll each stick one on our forehead. Then shove the bottles underneath the seat, and let me do the talking." They pull over and the cop walks up to the car. He looks at them kind of funny, but asks to see the guy's driver's license. And he asks him, "Have you been drinking?" "Oh, no, sir," the driver replies. "I noticed you weaving back and forth across the highway. Are you *sure* you haven't been drinking?" the cop asks. "Oh, no, sir," the drunk answers. "We haven't had a thing to drink tonight." "Well, I've got to ask you," says the cop, "What on earth are those things on your forehead?" "That's easy, Officer," says the drunk. "You see, we're both alcoholics, and we're on the patch."

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A woman surgeon was disturbed about the high cost of her car repair."This is ridiculous!" she said, "charging me five hundred dollars to grind the valves and put in new piston rings.""Not really said the garage’s service manager, just think about it. You are a surgeon and should know that an automobile engine is just as complicated as a human body. The mechanic who serviced your car is just as skilled as you are.""Is that so? Well, let me see him grind valves while the engine is running."

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OUR TRAVEL TALKS ARE BACK ON AND WE HAVE BOTH FINALLY AGREED ON A DESTINATION THIS WINTER:))

YES PHEEBS AND I SURE DO ENJOY OUR RURAL COUNTRY ROADS AROUND HERE ALIGHT:))

Without any significantly good rainfalls for a long time now things are drying up.  Some of our lush green ferns have already turned brown and died.  Several of our ground covers are wilted and shrinking up, various leafy plants are droopy, and green lawn grasses are also turning brown and brittle.  No sign of any positive rain in the near future and our days are heating up again.  Our pine forest is very dry and a tinderbox.

LOOKS LIKE HURON COUNTIES WHEAT HARVEST IS BEGINNING

I LIKE WHEN FARMERS GET AWAY FROM THEIR RECTANGLE FIELDS AND THROW A FEW CURVES IN

BEEN NOTICING A LOT OF WHEAT FIELDS THIS YEAR

THIS FARMER IS CUTTING GRASS FOR HAY

AND I WOULD SAY THIS FARMER IS A DEDICATED ALLIS-CHALMERS GUY

With a coffee in hand from Bayfield’s Shop Bike Coffee Roasters and a new box of Graham Crackers from Foodland stashed safely away under my drivers seat Pheebs and I were off out into the countryside.  Our travels took us down around the small town of Zurich this morning.

CORN’S UP ABOUT FOUR FEET

LOOKING WEST ACROSS A BEAN FIELD

LOOKING EAST ACROSS ANOTHER BEAN FIELD

JUST LOOKING

WON’T BE LONG AND THESE AREA CORN STALKS WILL BE SIX AND SEVEN FEET TALL

It was a nice sunny Tuesday morning with a refreshing breeze in off the lake.  Thought we’d take a chance on another forest walk so headed for the Klopp Tract east of Zurich.  With each day getting warmer I wasn’t sure if the Deer Flies and Mosquitoes were back in the air again or not.

THERE ARE ALWAYS A VARIETY OFFLOWERS IN BLOOM AT THIS COMMUNITY REST AREA ALONGSIDE THE ROAD

Parked the Jeep and slipped into the coolness of the forest and noticed the pleasant absence of flying insects right away.  Bonus.  Well it was not long lived and our presence was soon detected by a waiting armada of Mosquitoes.  No Deer flies just mosquitoes.  We could have turned and headed back to the Jeep but decided to to do the whole loop trail anyway.  So with arms swinging like windmill blades in a Typhoon we forged ahead at a brisk clip.  Didn’t take many photos because every time we stopped I got swarmed.  But here’s the upside of our trek through the woods.  Walking as fast as I did it was the best possible exercise for my aging arthritic legs and I was glad we decided to go all way around the loop trail.

ALWAYS NICE TO FIND A BIT OF SHADE TO PARK IN ON THESE HOT SUNNY DAYS

EVERY TIME I SLOWED DOWN ENOUGH TO SNAP A PHOTO THE MOSQUITOES GOT ME

MOSSY SHADOWS

THE BLUE DOTS ARE DAPPLES OF SKYLIGHT PEEKING DOWN THROUGH THE TALL THICK LEAF CANOPY OVERHEAD

NORMALLY THERE WOULD BE WATER IN THIS SWAMPY AREA BUT NOT THIS YEAR

<<< ANOTHER HOBBIT HOUSE IN THE FOREST

Heat and humidity were building so with windows down and the A/C keeping us cool we wandered a half dozen more country roads on our long round about way home.  Just so nice to be out and about in the freedom of our wide open rural countryside here in southwestern Ontario.  So many back road opportunities to go to so many varied places.  We are definitely in the right area for the things we like to do.

SPOTTED THIS FAMILY ENJOYING THEIR MORNING ABOUT HALF A MILE EAST OF OUR PARK AT THE WINDMILL LAKE WAKE AND ECO PARK

Well I had a very pleasant uplifting surprise later in the morning today.  Kelly her very self brought up the subject of this upcoming winter’s travels and I was so glad to hear we had finally landed on the same page.   Oh how nice it was to feel that early twinge of excitement stirring again and that little bit of hitch itch to go right along with it.  How nice to get all that indecision behind us finally.  Been awhile since I’ve felt that.  I have already written numerous times about our same old-same old south-west destinations and although we have not given up on them we have decided to first head for an area we have often talked about, an area we have never been before and where many other RV’ers have travelled and loved it.  We realistically understand we may very well be down to our last few remaining RV years.  We agreed if we don’t make the effort this Autumn to head for the Great American Northwest we are likely never going to see it.  Our aging Motorhome is still in good shape and despite a few medical issues with the occupants we’re not in too bad a shape ourselves, considering.  Yes that could turn on a dime but we’re basing our plans on how we feel right now and hope to feel for the foreseeable future.  We hope to finally dip our toes and paws into the Pacific Ocean somewhere in Oregon.  Now I caution, these 2018-19 travel plans could flip upside down at any time between now and then but if it all holds together we could be looking at a departure date sometime in September to take advantage of the better weather in the northwest States before winter sets in out there.  From the northwest we will probably flip around down through the southwest to many of our old favorite spots before pointing the nose for home possibly for the last time.  If all goes well and we still have a couple dollars left then next year at this time we may very well plan an Autumn trip out to Canada’s east coast.  But wait a minute, I had better not get too far ahead of myself.  First things first…….now where’s my dusty old Atlas for the Northwestern United States…………………….

GROANER'S CORNER:((  This joke may be a bit dated but it's cute and here it is anyway……………….

What If Dr. Seuss was a Technical Writer? Here's an easy game to play.  Here's an easy thing to say:

If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port, and the bus is interrupted as a very last resort, and the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort, then the socket packet pocket has an error to report!

If your cursor finds a menu item followed by a dash, and the double-clicking icon puts your window in the trash, and your data is corrupted 'cause the index doesn't hash, then your situation's hopeless, and your system's gonna crash!

You can't say this?  What a shame sir!  We'll find you another game sir.

If the label on the cable on the table at your house, says the network is connected to the button on your mouse, but your packets want to tunnel on another protocol, that's repeatedly rejected by the printer down the hall.

And your screen is all distorted by the side effects of gauss so your icons in the window are as wavy as a souse, then you may as well reboot and go out with a bang, 'cause as sure as I'm a poet, the sucker's gonna hang!

When the copy of your floppy's getting sloppy on the disk, and the microcode instructions cause unnecessary risk, then you have to flash your memory and you'll want to RAM your ROM. Quickly turn off the computer and be sure to tell your Mom!

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