JEEPIN WITH THE PHEEBS TODAY

IT’S A BIRD, IT’S A PLANE, NO….IT’S SUPER PHEEBS:))
It was a hat, winter jacket and hands in your pockets kind of morning walk with a slight breeze bringing cooler temperatures to the area.  Could be in for some cold and cloudy days now until next week sometime.

OUR THURSDAY MORNING SUNRISE
Wind gusts always sound way worse than they really are when your in an RV. Seems every little nook and cranny on the outside of the rig sets up it’s own howling and whooshing. The winds weren’t that bad in the night but of course they had me up at 1 a.m. sitting in my chair with the computer on my lap. Yep, still having my usual sleeping problems:((

IT WAS A COLD ‘HANDS IN YOUR POCKETS’ KIND OF MORNING
The Pheebs has taken to this desert living like a fish to water and loves racing up and down the washes through the Mesquite trees and Saguaros.  Only one pesky sticker so far and she seems to have learned quickly to avoid them.  With the rocky surface here her paws are toughening up right quick.  She is just the happiest little girl bounding over hill and dale.

PHEEBS LOOKS BACK IN THE DIRECTION OF OUR MOTOR HOME TOP LEFT
The skies were alive with roaring thunder this morning as the A-10 Warthog fly boys out of the Davis Monthan Air Base in Tuscon criss crossed our area in low level passes.  They had their deadly air to ground twin turbine jets just a whining.  I love watching these guys in their aerial ballets.  Unseen and much higher in the sky were the F-16’s, F-18’s and probably the new F-22 Raptor fighter jets.  They could be heard pulling their roaring and erratic high speed G turns in mock combat with each other.  Rare for them to ever come down to the deck where they can be seen but I did see one pulling a high speed low level turn near Hickiwan Trails a few years ago.  Got a picture of him too.  This whole southern end of Arizona is a huge aerial training ground for the American Air Force.  Being an airplane kind of guy I don’t mind the roaring thunder in the skies and I especially like watching their aerial combat maneuvers at night as their blinking lights dart among the stars. 

SOMETIMES THE LITTLE MOTORMOUSE RUNS OUT OF GAS ON OUR MORNING WALKS
Our Verizon signal has been better since putting the modem on the roof and we are not having the problems we first did when arriving here. Our speeds are a bit better.  I would say for anyone new to boondocking, this Darby Wells area is a great place to get your feet wet because it’s a short drive into Ajo for supplies and you will be hard pressed to find a more scenic example of the Sonoran desert in a natural peace and quiet setting.  Nearest major shopping centers are either Casa Grande or Buckeye with Casa Grande being 103 miles and Buckeye being 77 miles.  Buckeye is the easier drive straight north up through Gila Bend.  Ajo to Gila Bend is 43 miles with another 118 miles to Yuma.  And, that’s our little geography lesson for today:))

LOTS OF NICE JEEP ROADS IN THE DARBY WELLS AREA
We did fight with the satellite stuff again this morning and re-instituted our new receiver.  Kelly spent a lot of time on Skype again talking to the Shaw Direct satellite TV people.  Ever since beginning our RV days back in 06 I wished we had a dollar for every minute we have spent on this satellite stuff because for sure we could probably go out and buy us a brand spanking new snappity-doo 40’ Diesel banger:))  We did manage to finally achieve TV satellite success around noon today.  About time too because I was about ready to just load the whole thing up, drive it into Ajo and throw the whole kitnkabootle into a dumpster!!

THIS IS NOT MY IDEA OF A SECURE OR EASY TO USE SATELLITE DISH SET-UP
Mike from MIKE AND PAT'S TRAVELS  sent us a link to the place where he bought a logical leg adjusting tripod a few years back and after checking the tri-pod out on line we are going to order the medium heavy duty pod.  Don, from Manitoba also sent us the same site so that confirms the quality of the adjustable leg tripod.  Our previous tri-pod was leg adjusting and if your out boon docking in places like we are where the ground can be very un-level or rocky it is important to be able to adjust the legs.  Flat based tripods are fine for flat ground in RV Parks but not so good out here in the boonies.

By 11 a.m. the cloud cover overhead was solid and the temps had dropped to 59F.  At 1:25 it began to rain.  Not nice!! Couldn’t get myself warm no how for the whole day.  Due to a small problem I’m having with my left leg I stayed in my Poang chair most of the day under a warm blanket.

STAYED INSIDE TODAY KEEPING WARM
The Bayfield Bunch welcomes new blog follower Johnna today.  Don’t know where you are Johnna but could you send us a little warm air over here to southern Arizona.  Thanks for dropping by.

Close call for our Verizon modem this afternoon.  We had put it on the roof of the rig a few days ago in an attempt to improve our weak signal.  Remember me mentioning earlier about it raining today…..yep we forgot the modem was up on the roof.  About 6 tonight we were rather suddenly and totally ‘off line’.  Kelly remembered the modem and I scrambled up on the roof, unplugged it and brought it in.  The two lights on it appeared normal so Kelly plugged it in and we were once again back on line…..barely.  Climbed back up on the roof, flashlight in hand this time, plugged the modem back in and put a plastic container over the modem.  And a rock on the container to keep it from blowing away.   Kelly hollered up that we were on line again so it looks like we dodged a nasty modem melt down.  Oh these forgetful Senior moments.

OUR INDOOR VERIZON MODEM…..OUTSIDE ON THE ROOF
I have been taking the Pheebs out for a walk before supper most nights but with today’s rainy drizzle Kelly suggested Pheebs and I go Jeeping instead.  Great idea. 

HI-HO HI-HO IT’S OFF A JEEPIN WE GO
There are some great Jeep roads running through the Darby Wells area so Pheebs and I headed out in full four wheel drive mode to see what trouble we could get ourselves into.  Pretty hard to get into trouble with the sure footedness of a Jeep though.  We had a great time, mainly in first gear, making our way slowly over the ruts, boulders, dry washes and rugged ridges.  Picked up some cool new desert pin striping as well. 

PHEEBS HELD HER PAW ON THE BRAKE WHILE I HOPPED OUT TO TAKE THIS PHOTO
 
We were bouncing around so much inside the Jeep that sometimes Pheebs was in the driver’s seat and I was upside down in the back.  But, we made it and had ourselves a great time covering maybe 5 miles way back in the middle of nowhere. 
 
Pheebs loved the ride but by the time we got back I think Pheebs was a little ‘green’ from all the rocking and rolling. 
PHEEBS WAS FEELING A LITTLE ‘GREEN’ BY THE TIME WE GOT BACK TO THE RIG
I did just delete a comment from Mr. Anonymous again regarding my Wednesday post.  Somebody obviously still has a very big chip on their shoulder.  Thank you Rick and Elaine for your response to Mr. Anonymous before I deleted it.

SUNSET AT OUR HOUSE
GROANER’S CORNER:((  A police officer stops a woman for speeding and asks her very nicely if he could see her license.
She replied in a huff, "I wish you guys would get your act together. Just yesterday you take away my license and then today you expect me to show it to you."
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SHOPPING TRIP TO CASA GRANDE, AZ.

STORMY SAGUARO SKY

The pitter patter of raindrops on the rig's roof about 5:30 this morning took me back many years ago as a kid to the days of tenting. That cozy feeling as you huddled inside your sleeping bag listening to that tap, tap, tap on the canvas. And always the thought of leaks, being careful not to touch the inside walls because somebody told you for sure that would cause the tent to leak. And as it rained ever harder you waited for that inevitable first wet feeling underneath you somewhere as the water somehow found it's way inside & began to pool right where you were!! And it was always your sleeping bag that got the wettest......first:))

Our little shower didn't last long but the sky was full of water as the large dark ominous clouds slowly tried to jostle for position right over our rig. Looked like it was probably going to be a good morning to drive into Casa Grande & do a little mall crawling. Didn't take us long to make up our minds & we were on our way.

OUR PARK ENTRANCE

Casa Grande is about a 20 minute drive east of the campground & because we had been there 3 times before, we knew our way around the area. Last year when we drove into the Promenade mall, a lot of the big box stores were still under construction. This is one very large multi-million dollar mall complex & one needs a road map just to get around to all the stores. It was about 11 a.m. & it was a Friday, but we couldn't help notice how empty the stores were. Acres of parking lot but few cars. Is it a sign of the times & what is to come? Busiest place in there was the "In & Out" hamburger place where the parking lot was full & cars were lined up in the take-out line. Another sign of the times perhaps. Our first stop was Marshall's where Kelly went in for a browse & I waited in the car listening to some tunes. Luckily she came out empty handed. Next was Best Buy where we picked up a set of Sony headphones. At home our television & located about 55 feet away from the computer. In the motorhome the television is about 2 feet above the computer & this creates a problem when Kelly wants to watch her "night time" shows & I'm stuck underneath the television having to listen to the darn things. Now, with the noise reducing headphones I can plug into the computer & float away with my many hours of downloaded music as I work away at whatever it is I'm working away at. No more wailing police sirens, gunfire, soap opera acting, or gory operating rooms with anatomically great graphic gobs of blood & gore brought on by some manic psychopath running amuck murdering whomever!!!! What ever happened to Jackie Gleason & The Honeymooners. Where's I Love Lucy when you need her & how about a little lite hearted whistling from Andy & Opie. Geeeeezzzzzz what kind of blood thirst & violence oriented society have we turned into anyway!!!!

Found a Staples store where we got one of those plastic things for under our office chair here at the computer. Castors & carpets do not work to-gether well. Popped into the "In & Out" hamburger joint for a couple yummy burgs & coffee. Asked a few questions at the Verizon store & Kelly slipped into a Sporting Goods place but once again came out empty handed. She said there wasn't one person in that whole store. Next it was down the street to Wal-Mart for some groceries. By this time I was starting to drag pretty bad & my shopping tolerance was running out real fast. Had to get Kelly to crack on some speed while we weaved our way through the heavy traffic aisles. Time to wrap this trip up, get out of town, & head back out into the solitude of the desert. Enough was enough!!

The rains came back just as we were unloading the loot back at the rig & we ended up having a nice 20 minute shower. Wondered who owned the gray car outside because the one we've been driving around has been brown. I was sure we left Ontario with a gray car. Yep, the southwest sure has a lot more dust than it really needs alright!! To-morrow we're going to do a little day trip around the immediate area & see what we can see. We may roll out of here Sunday but we're not sure yet. I like the idea of Sunday because of less traffic going through the road construction nightmare known as Tucson. We'll see how the current travel negotiations unravel to-morrow.........................

No Photos for the web album to-day.

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