AWWWWW NUTS I'M ALREADY MISSIN MY STUFF:((

We haven't even left yet & here I am already missing my big cushy recliner chair, 42" flat screen TV with big stereo mega bass sound, our toasty warm computer room with more stereo sound & a whole host of other nice things that make life way too comfortable & spoil us totally. But here's what I'm going to miss most.....those long hot showers every morning with that unlimited supply of water in a nice spacious shower/tub configuration. RV folks will understand what I'm talking about here. Water is always a limited & top priority item for anyone traveling & if your accustomed to boondocking it becomes a real challenge to conserve & wisely use every last drop of water. Showers are limited & they have to be quick. Showers in most RV's are small, so if you can imagine having a shower in your clothes closet, that will give you some idea. It can be quite a performance!! We have a total 1,122 sq. ft. of living space in our house but when we move to the motorhome that drops to 264 sq. ft. Ouch!! I won't get into all the things we won't miss!!

Here's an observation I've made over the past few RVing years about transitioning from the house to the motorhome. A dramatic change takes place in mere seconds when one drops into the driver's seat, turns the ignition, & pulls that gear shift lever down into into drive. It's like two different worlds suddenly changing places in an instant & all those cushy home perks are soon left behind.

Our house world immediately begins to slip into memory & with each passing mile that lifestyle drifts ever farther away. It is a huge sense of relief to finally be underway. No more waiting & worrying. No more packing & running around taking care of last minute details. No more lists to be checked & no more schedules to be attended to. No second thoughts or doubts. Time to replace that over all apprehension & let in a big smack of excitement. Time to switch into RV travel mode. Traffic to deal with, weather to watch, destinations to consider, motorhome systems to monitor, dogs to keep an eye on for pit stops, & Cracker Barrels to watch for:)) I'm on a diet so I'll just have to sit & watch Kelly stuff herself:(( Setting out in an RV is almost like putting to sea in a small boat. For certain there will be clear & sunny sailing days ahead, but you know the rough stormy seas are awaiting as well & you can't seem to have one without appreciating the other.

Aw yes, like Willy Nelson sings, "On the Road Again:))" And just in case your wondering........."YES, I AM FINALLY A HAPPY CAMPER:))))))))))))))))))"

Don't know when I will post the next blog because it may be a few days before we stop along enough to find a Wifi site to check for & send some emails. But, as soon as I can, I will be back banging on the keyboard...............................:)) Photos.....Now, if I can just remember how to tie the car on the back of the motorhome again before we leave.....Hmmmmmmm:((
Rain, rain, go away will ya!!!!!!!!!!!
OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

LOOKING BACK TO BRYCE CANYON, UTAH

By the looks of the approaching weather fronts we are going to get out of here just in the nick of time. Colder temps, rain & snow heading into our area starting Sunday. A year ago to-day on November 13th we were at Bryce Canyon, Utah. Click on our photo album for that day & take a walk with us on one of the many beautiful trails. This place is a true fairyland of natural wonderment. When you open the photo album, try clicking on "Slideshow." A control menu should pop up at the bottom if you want to adjust the slide timing. Move your mouse pointer around down there if it doesn't. Yes, I know I've included waaaaaaay to many photos here, but.............the beauty is overpowering:)) Click on the link below.........
http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/ALBUM10ABEAUTIFULDAYINBRYCECANYON

A BIG THANKS TO OUR BLOG FOLLOWERS BEFORE WE LEAVE

Well, we are down to our final few days before heading southwest. Looks like we are going to have a full house traveling along with us this winter according to the Sitemeter & Feedjit stats on the website. Our Sitemeter tells us that up till to-day we've had 15,921 hits on our site since Sept of 07 but Sitemeter doesn't log every visit for some unknown reason. Our Feedjit site is more accurate but doesn't give us a final total each day like Sitemeter. However, from watching the live feeds coming in I would estimate we've probably had in access of 40,000 people click on our website this past year. Without these kinds of meters on a blog site the blogger has no way of knowing if anyone out there is even looking at the site, so after awhile it would be easy to just become discouraged & just drop the whole idea. When I look at the numbers each day it always gives me a good feeling knowing people are out there.

Just want to say thanks to the folks in places like Fulton NY, Mountain View California, Imperial Missouri, Walnut Creek California, Brandon Manitoba, Ottawa Ontario, & Kitchener Ontario, to just mention a very few, who have been faithfully following our blog for this past year to see what the Bayfield Bunch is up to. Don't know who most of you folks are but many thanks for giving me the inspiration to get out there with my camera & snap a few pictures again. I had totally lost all interest in photography from 1993 up until a few years ago. I'm happy people are enjoying the photos & the albums.

And thanks to the blog readers who have given me a reason to sit down with the computer most days, put my thinking cap on, & try to come up with something sort of interesting for people to read. And thanks to the fellow down there in New Mexico somewhere for emailing me a few days ago & suggesting I break the blog down into shorter paragraphs to make it more readable. Thanks my friend, every little bit helps.

An easy way to follow our blog or anyone else's blog, or for that matter, any website is to simply put an icon on your desktop. To do that, just open up any website in your browser & look up to the top left of the page & find the word, File. Click that & a menu drops out. Scroll down to the word Send. Another menu with 3 options pops out the side. If you want to send that website's address to anyone, just click on, Link by Email & it will automatically format an email for you to send. If you want to put an icon on the desktop for that website just click on, Shortcut to Desktop. In our case the icon will probably appear as an orange square with a white capital letter B in the center. Now, anytime you want to go to that website just click on that icon & it takes you directly to the site. No more rummaging around looking for the website address:))

I hope to do one or two more posts before we leave this coming Saturday.

To-day's photos are on the beach at Deerpark Lodge along the sullen & sandy shores of Lake Huron about a half mile north of Bayfield Ontario, Canada. Taken Nov. 9th.
OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

MORNING WALKS AND TRAVEL TALKS

I've noticed over the years that we sometimes have our best little talks while taking relaxing morning walks. Our serene pine forest trail lends itself to quiet conversations as we hike along with our 3 dogs most every day around 7 or 8 in the a.m. Sometimes it's a 3 dog day & sometimes it's only a 1 one dog day depending on who feels like walking that particular morning. The furry guys are getting a little older & some mornings they just aren't up to walking. Three dog days are best though and it's nice to have the whole gang to-gether. As departure time approaches, our thoughts are more on our upcoming travels these mornings. Have we forgotten to pack something, how far do you think we should drive the first day, will we be stopped at the border for an agriculture check again, should we consider just going to Texas because it would be cheaper, can we really afford to be going this year, should we try & make it to California again, will the tires on the motorhome be ok for one more year, where will we be & what will we be doing a year from now, we lost "how much" on the stock markets yesterday again, do we have enough blankets for the cold desert nights, is Checkers aging hip going to be a problem for getting in & out of the motorhome, is our satellite-internet-TV system going to work once we get down there, because of the poor economy will this be our last winter of traveling south, are we really enjoying our morning walk if we're worrying about all this stuff?? Hmmmmmm!!
Different walks have different squawks. Years ago when I belonged to the Stratford Field Naturalist Club the group walks were very informative. Each person brought along they're own expertise in various fields of interests & hobbies. The bird watchers pointed out & identified the many birds along the way. Other folks drew attention to the abundant wild plants & flowers alongside the trail while others were astute at tree or animal identification. Always an exchange of information & points of interest. I also belonged to the Avon Trail Hiking Club for awhile where the focus was on exercise, wellness, & speed. We would traverse the trails in single file, moving swiftly, keeping the conversations low, & not stopping to look at too much. When I was with the Stratford Camera Club we focused our attentive walks on things like composition, color, shadows & lighting. The eye became trained to look photographically at our surroundings. Conversations revolved around shutter speeds, f-stops, camera brands & lenses. Every outing was an adventure in seeing. All these clubs taught me things that I still remember & use to-day. Many walks & talks with people years ago. Many things learned & many things applied.
And so it is now with our morning walks & travel talks...........................:))
OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

THE PERILS OF PINE SAP!!

Weather has been unbelievably nice these past few days so figured it was a good time to work on getting the pine sap off the motorhome roof. It's one of the few disadvantages of living in a pine forest. Pine pollen in June, pine sap all summer long & pine needles in the fall. Pine sap is by far the worst. Our motorhome sits beneath pine trees & up till now there has been no way of getting away from the sap, but that will be remedied shortly after we leave for the south this year when the local tree cutter stops by!! In the meantime we've had enough sap drippings on top of the motorhome to start our own Pine-Sol factory. There are products on the market for dealing with this miserable stuff but I noticed that if you work on the sap in cooler temperatures it comes off much easier. Fortunately the roof of our rig is not a paint finish like a car so using a putty scraper on the rubber roof in cool temps basically lifts about 90% of the sap off on the first light scrape. Even so, you still end up with pine sap stuck to your shoes, your pants, your hands, or any other part of you that comes in contact with the icky sticky stuff. Just over a week before departure so we've been scurrying around like little pack rats loading the rig with last minute things for 5 months on the road. With each year the packing smarts get a little better but I'm sure we've probably already got some stuff on board we'll never use. Just seems to be the norm.Nasty weather coming in for the week-end so that will just heighten my impatience for getting this show on the road!!!!
OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

THUNDER IN THE NOVEMBER SKY

Rained all night bringing in warmer temps & a light fog this morning. Thunder rolled in over the lake around 5 a.m. & stayed long enough to scare Checkers & the little Motormouse so no morning walk for those two critters. But Max was raring to go so off we went. Managed to take a few photos between raindrops while heading around the pond near our house. It's deer hunting season here so the sporadic gun shots out in the forest scared the guys as well. Good thing for the deer there is no snow on the ground making it much harder for the hunter's to track them. I would bring all the deer home & hide them under my bed if I could. Received a few comments on my blog earlier about not being the brightest crayon in the box & that got me thinking of another dumb thing I did two winters ago down in Arizona. Worst part about this dumb thing was that I did it twice within a couple days. We were at the Hickiwan Trails RV Park near Why in the southwest part of Arizona. This is the blog I posted on January 8th, 2007. We had a truck & fifth wheel at the time............................. JANUARY 8TH, 2007 HICKIWAN TRAILS RV PARK, WHY, AZ.
Boy oh boy oh boy, did I ever do something dumb yesterday. I had been re-organizing my wallet in the afternoon & had laid it on a table outside. Max bumped the table & my wallet fell off into the dog's water dish. No problem as I quickly lifted it out, but then I made the first part of a big mistake. Laid the contents of my wallet on the tonneau cover of the pick-up truck to dry. All my credit cards, driver's license, CAA card, etc. The tonneau cover is black & felt warm from the sun so figured everything would dry quick. Well, you probably know what's coming, Yep, a couple of hours later just after supper I decided to head down the road to update the website so out I went, jumped in the truck, & took off out of the park & down the highway. When I reached the wi-fi site at Coyote Howls I stopped, got out of the truck, walked around to the passenger side to move the computer, glanced at the back of the truck & "OH OH!!" I remembered my wallet & cards and..........they were all gone. Raced back to the trailer, rushed in & told Kelly what had happened. I knew the only hope I had of ever finding anything lying on the ground was to get an expert ground scanning person involved & with Kelly's recent rock hounding interest I knew she was the right person for the job. She quickly headed out the driveway to the highway in full scan mode. I took the truck & started driving the highway shoulder & immediately found my Scotia debit card lying in the middle of the road. Continued up the road aways & turned around. By the time I got back to the area where I found the debit card I saw Kelly busily scooping things off the highway & alongside the road. Oblivious to traffic, she was on the job!! By the time I got the truck stopped she had already retrieved my wallet which had been lying open upside down in the westbound lane. She had also found what was left of my driver's license. It was the only thing damaged. In my panic to find things, I later realized I had driven over my own stuff 3 times!! I found one more card on the southbound shoulder & that completed everything. We were only moments away from complete nightfall but the eagle eyed rock hound had saved the day once again. Nothing missing from inside the wallet either. Both American & Canadian money were intact. It sure would have put an unfavorable dent in our vacation plans if all had been lost. Now, you would think that a normal person under these circumstances would have learned their lesson. Key word there was "normal." Well, would you believe a couple of days later I practically did the same thing all over again. I was cleaning the truck cab & found my black cowboy hat getting in the way so reached up, took it off & tossed it around the corner onto the tonneau cover of the truck. For me, as soon as something is out of sight it's ancient history. Finished the cleaning & came inside the trailer & started working on the blog. Kelly said, "I'm going in to Ajo to get some groceries so won't be long." "Ok," I said & off she went. About 10 minutes later I decided to head back outside. Now, where the heck is my hat!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaghhhhhh!!!!!
My most favorite hat of all time was gone & I instantly realized the huge mistake I had made. Raced across the parking lot, out the driveway & onto the highway desperately looking for some tell tale sign of my hat on the road or in the ditch. Walked about a quarter mile up the road & back down the other side again but no hat. I was just about jumping out of my skin because of the anger & frustration with myself. How could I have made the same mistake twice in a row. Over the next hour or so I beat myself up pretty bad as I sat dejectedly in the trailer mourning the loss of my favorite hat. I was convinced it was gone forever & probably perched on top of somebody else's head by now.

I heard the truck pull in beside the trailer but I didn't even feel like going outside to help bring the groceries in. I was in a total funk. The screen door opened, I heard the rustle of plastic grocery bags & Kelly stepped through the door..............and there it was, my black cowboy hat perched atop her head. Yaaaaaaaaay Kelly:))))) Almost enough to make a grown man cry I'd say. She said she hadn't noticed the hat when she left but after she had pulled out onto the highway she glanced in the rear view mirror & saw my had dancing across the tonneau cover about to take flight into Arizona's wild blue yonder. She slowed the truck down & the hat aborted it's take off roll. Pulling off to the side of the road, Kelly retrieved the hat & proceeded on her way. She had once again saved the day:)) As for me, well the only thing I was able to save, was the memory of an old saying........... "sometimes we get too soon old & too late smart:(("

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

ONE YEAR AGO TO-DAY ON NOV. 2nd, 2007

I'm a little short on blogging ideas at the moment but here's where we were & what was happening to us one year ago to-day on Nov. 2, 2007.

FRIDAY NOV. 2/07....LIMON, COLORADO
It was about 3 a.m. Friday morning when the first stirrings of pain in my lower abdomen woke me. It radiated from my lower back around my right side to the front. I had a similar pain a few days back but it wasn't as bad as this & only lasted about an hour & it was gone so figured it was something I ate & would go away shortly, but, it didn't go away. It got worse!! About 8 a.m. the pain was too much to take anymore so Kelly got on the computer & looked up the nearest hospital. Fortunately there was one nearby in the little town of Hugo about 15 miles southwest of Limon. I was able to un-hook the car, (did I mention the high winds & totally freezing temperatures) climbed inside, & Kelly drove me quickly to the hospital. The pain by now was extreme & I figured it was my appendix for sure....it wasn't. Also thought more about food poisoning....but nope, it wasn't that either. My Dad died of a large abdominal cancerous tumor in his late 60's so I had that on my mind as well as we rolled up to the emergency room. I was quite a looking sight as I hobbled, doubled over, into the emergency entrance. Hair all over the place, old clothes, jacket hanging over my shoulders & looking like I had just crawled out of a dumpster. I was well aware of how gruesome I looked so the first words out of my mouth to the attendant was, "no, I'm not a drunk & I am not on drugs!!" They had me on the table right away. No forms to fill out, no silly questions & no delays. What a relief it was when they put the IV in (ouch!!) & got some morphine started. Wasn't long & the pain was gone & I floated off briefly to some nice green valley far away. A complete blood work-up later showed elevated white blood cell counts. Blood in the urine as well. The Doctor (nice fellow) was stumped though at the total absence of pain all of a sudden even after the morphine wore off. The only thing they could figure was that I had a kidney stone & it had passed at the hospital. I sure hope so because I wouldn't want to have to go through that pain again. The Doctor prescribed some meds & we headed back to the motorhome around noon. The rest of the day I spent resting. We'll see how things are in the morning & then make a decision whether to head off for Denver & the Rocky mountains or wait for a bit. (we headed west first thing next morning & I've been fine ever since)

Too complicate all this, I had discovered Thursday afternoon that I had a tick imbedded in my left leg behind my knee. Figure I picked it up back in Benton Harbor, Michigan a few days before. Leg had been really sore in that area for a couple of days & Thursday while rubbing the back of my leg I felt something & we spotted the tick. He was alive because I saw his legs wiggling. He had his jaws into me pretty good because I had to really pull hard to detach him. Grabbed my camera & took a picture of the tick & also the wound it left just in case someone out there runs across the same thing sometime. Doctor said to keep an eye on the bite & watch for symptoms of Lime disease...... Geeezzzz, it's been quite a trip so far!! (UPDATE....It's a year later now & the last Lyme disease test I had done a couple of months ago showed everything still clear) Remember, the above blog was a year ago in 2007.