PLEASANTLY SURPRISED BY SOME BLOG FOLLOWERS

TUESDAY MORNING SUNRISE

Another fine morning in America's southwest. We don't have the best television reception here but we were able to pull in CBS on a Yuma station & that's what we watched the Obama inauguration on this morning. It will be one of those moments in history when people will remember where they were & what they were doing. For us it was a beautiful desert morning south of Quartzite, Arizona. Door & windows open with a nice breeze blowing through the rig. Kelly was finishing up some dishes & I was sitting in one of the Poang chairs taking a few photos. Yes, it will be a nice morning for us to remember.
LOOKS LIKE KELLY'S REALLY ENJOYING OBAMA'S INAUGAURATION

I don't think Obama had even made it off the podium before Kelly was out the door, into the car, & heading back into the Quartzite moshpit. I happily continued with a bunch of puttering around the place secure in the knowledge that my Quartzite ordeal was behind me!! Kelly later told me that to-day & Sunday were not nearly as busy as Monday when I came along. Why is that!!!!

I was stretched out in the lounger soaking up some warm sun when the thought occurred to me that I hadn't put our Canadian flag up yet. Last year we got ourselves into trouble a few times for flying our Canadian flag on American soil so this year I hadn't put it up. Kelly had picked up an American flag & pole kit at the Frugal Coyote store in Borrego Springs a few weeks ago & I had put that one up on the rig yesterday. Etiquette seems to dictate it's alright to fly our Canadian flag if the American flag is above it. The flag pole was too short for two flags but I remembered an old sawed off hockey stick I had in one of the bins for propping up the bin doors. So, with some metal C clamps, a bit of rope, & a whole lot of duct tape I began re-constructing a longer flag pole.

AL WASN'T THE ONLY ONE SOAKING UP A LITTLE WARM SUNSHINE TO-DAY

I was sitting in the chair in the process of fastening the metal flag pole to the old hockey stick when I was aware of sound & movement out on the Old Yuma road off to my right. Two ATV's had slowed & the lead ATV made a direct turn right into our campsite. I immediately figured I was in trouble for something. I grew up under the heavy eye of criticism so whenever anything unusual happens I always figure I've done something wrong. But, that was not to be the case to-day. This was about to be the first of two feeling good events for me. Pete introduced himself & his buddy Ed as they both climbed off their machines. Pete lives nearby & has been following our blog for about a year now. He knew we were in the area & from my vague description a few days ago of where we were, was able to track us down. They had been cruising the area looking for our flag set up that I just posted a picture of in yesterday's blog. Problem was, I had just taken the flag down 10 minutes before to begin working on my flagpole extension idea. However, coming down Old Yuma road they spotted the rig & me sitting in a chair with the flags stretched across my lap. These desert dwellers have sharp eyes. We spent the best part of an hour talking about all sorts of things that RV'ers generally talk about & Ed really liked the color of our adobe painted walls. The fellas were just about ready to leave when Kelly rolled in from Q. I was glad she got to meet them & it was a good feeling knowing someone had taken time out of their day to actually track us down & tell us how much they enjoy reading the blog & seeing the pictures. It was especially nice for me because I'm geared more for negative remarks & not compliments. The boys rode off into the desert & I resumed my flagpole project. Thanks guys:)) ED & PETEPETE WAVES GOOD-BYE AS THE BOYS HEAD WEST TO-WARDS THE MOUNTAINS

Kelly had picked up a computer fan a couple of days ago because I figured it might be a good way to circulate some of the warm blue flame air from the upper half of the coach to the lower half. Pete had given me an idea on how to hook it up so I was sitting on the floor working at splicing some wires when the dogs suddenly let out a bark just as a knock came to our open door. Oh oh, I must be in trouble for something. The big fellow standing at the door said, "Hello, my name's John Brown & I was in the area, I read your blog & just wanted to meet you." Well, to say I was totally befuzzled would be putting it mildly. And just as with the other two fellows ,I felt a certain unease for a few minutes until I realized they were not here to bash me for something I had said in the blogs. I do get a little opinionated at times you know. But two blog followers in one day.........who would have ever thunk it. About 15 minutes into the conversation with John he mentioned he has a website as well & as soon as he said John & Brenda's Incredible Adventure, I knew who he was. Their blog is one of the links on our main page...
http://johnbrendasincredibleadventure.blogspot.com/
We had ourselves quite a chin wag for an hour or so & as so often happens, we seemed to know a lot of the same RV blog people. Always lots of things to talk about & lots of things in common in the RV world. RV folks are never at a loss for words. John's wife had to fly back to Calgary for a bit so John figured he'd take a drive down here south of Quartzite to see if he could find us. He's camped north of Q. Nice fellow. The sun was down over the mountains when John headed back to his rig.

FINALLY GOT OUR CANADIAN FLAG UP JOHN, FROM JOHN & BRENDA'S INCREDIBLE ADVENTURE

So, all & all, it was quite a pleasantly unexpected day for me. Made 3 new friends & that ain't too bad for a guy who is not exactly people oriented anymore. John touched on that subject to-day when we were talking about spending quality time with oneself. I have felt that for many years now but it's not a subject that is easily discussed with many people. In the RV world a lot of emphasis is placed on the social contact element with people always being to-gether for an unending array of constant club & social events. It is easy for me to understand that lifestyle because I have been there & done that but it is difficult for a lot of those people to understand my/our desire to be off by ourselves boondocking & not wanting to participate in the happy hours, the pot lucks, the line dancing classes, the fire rings, the wheelbarrow races, or the 3 legged grasshopper tickle. Just some quiet quality time playing with the dogs, doing some puttering, soothing music on the satellite radio, soaking up some sunshine, listening to the wind in the trees & watching the magic cloud shadows play across the distant mountain tops. Thanks John, it was nice to hear someone else touch on that subject. MAX SAYING GOOD-BYE TO BIG JOHN

And thanks to Pete & Ed. All you blog follower guys made my day:)))))))

No photos for the web album to-day.

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