DEALING WITH THE REALITIES OF AGING IN REGARDS TO OUR RV TRAVELS

NOT TOO MANY AUTUMN COLORS IN OUR FOREST LEAVES YET

It was under clear blue skies with a biting cold north wind that Pheebs and I headed off over to the Hullett Marsh this morning.  Had intended on a walk until we stopped and I heard the shotguns going off.  Unfortunately for Pheebs and I plus all the pheasants in the Marsh it was hunting season for those types of people who seem to like that sort of thing.

TOO MANY SHOTGUNS GOING OFF OUT THERE FOR US

We ambled around the back roads for a couple hours stopping here and there for a few leg stretches.  Bush lines are still green so I think our Autumn colors are going to be late this year. 

AM SEEING MORE OF THESE RURAL PRODUCE STANDS AT THE ENDS OF FARM LANES

Back home by 11:30 and totally energized by this much healthier cooler air I wasn’t long in setting to work on my long ‘to do’ list.  Our second shed is now cleaned up, weeds took another whacking, Jeep is vacuumed, took Pheebs for a walk, and continued working away at organizing the Motorhome’s storage bins.  If this energy inducing weather stays like this I think I might just slip on over there to Tibet and jog myself up Mount Everest:))

I was asked if my Nikon D5000 would be my main camera now and the answer to that is ‘no’.  My main carry camera is my D7200 with a Nikon 18-300mm lens.  The D5000 will be my back-up camera and I currently have a 35mm standard lens strapped to it.  By the way both photos of Kelly and Pheebs Friday at the Groomers were taken with my Sony RX100-3.  Today’s photos are from my D7200.

 

Holy Smokes here we are at the last day of September already.  Normally by this time we would be starting to carry things out to the Motorhome in preparation for leaving for the Southwest usually about the third Sunday in October.  But not so much this year.  We’ll see how things go next week before we start making any plans.  Monday Kelly goes to London’s University Hospital for her scan.  Tuesday morning she goes to the Goderich Hospital for a ‘stress test’ on her heart.  Tuesday morning at the same time I will be across the street at the Maitland Medical Center for an appointment with my Nurse Practitioner then on the 10th I see my Specialist Doctor.  If we clear all those hurdles we will then put our heads together and figure out when we want to leave. 

A BIG OLD GNARLY TREE KNOT

For the past 5 years we had our house in Congress to head for and we really enjoyed the first three years of doing that but for the remaining two years we found ourselves getting restless and tired of just basically ‘sitting around the house’ too much.  We have no regrets about selling the house last December 19th and we did enjoy getting back on the road again but have to admit we were sure glad to get back to our house again here in Bayfield last March.

SAW THIS BUMPER STICKER ON A FARMER’S TRUCK

So now here is our dilemma.  Snow Birding can be much harder on folks than Full-Timing and I think we have become good examples of why that is.  It is much easier to live a single lifestyle rather than two.  For Full-Timers their rig and their travels are their sole way of life.  It’s what they do every day and they are well experienced in their routines.  What makes it work so well for them is the fact they don’t move into more comfy, convenient, and spacious stationary quarters every 6 months or so.  In other words they don’t flip their lifestyles.  Snow Birds on the other hand go through this lifestyle change twice a year and although I still to some degree look forward to that change it gets harder each time as we get spoiled with all our sticks and bricks conveniences each time.  And although I hate to keep bringing up the age thing I have to because for us it is a simple reality.  And that reality is exactly what Kelly and I are experiencing these past few years.  We get too cozily settled in to our comfy spacious lifestyle here at home.  Full-timers don’t have that option so basically they don’t miss it but Snow Birders do and that is what spoils the heck out of many of us over the summer months.  And that definitely includes Kelly and I now……dammit anyway:((

ONE OF OUR SCENIC LEG STRETCH STOPS THIS MORNING

The first years of RVing I never wanted to come home in the Spring and these last few years I couldn’t seem to wait to get home.  For the most part Kelly has felt that way as well and I have to admit we are not looking forward to spending 5 or 6 months in the RV as we once did.  And if we still had our Congress house we would not be looking forward to going there as much as we did the first few years either.  So you can see we have a bit of a dilemma going on now in our 11th RVing year.  Still want to go to the Southwest but for not as long as other years.  So how are we going to do that?   Do we leave later or do we come home earlier??  Coming home earlier is seldom a good idea simply because of the freezing cold weather and treacherous road conditions one may well encounter.  Ideally the best time to arrive back home is early to mid April so it looks like it may not be until November sometime before we leave this year.  Of course I would like to leave next week and head straight away for Utah to catch the last of the good weather and all the magnificent scenery we haven’t seen out there yet but of course that’s not gonna happen.  So the bottom line is I don’t know when we are going to head out this year but one thing is always for certain, I will want to leave sooner and Kelly will want to leave later.  And that’s the way it always is……………..

GROANER’S CORNER:(( A  fire fighter is working on the engine outside the station when he notices a little boy next door in a little red wagon with a tiny ladders hung off the side and a garden hose tightly coiled in the middle. The boy is wearing a fire fighter's helmet and has the wagon tied to a dog and a cat. The fire fighter walks over to take a closer look. "That sure is a nice fire truck," the fire fighter says with admiration.  "Thanks," says the little boy. As the fire fighter looks a little closer, he notices the boy has tied the wagon to the dog's collar and to the cat's testicles.  "Little partner," the fire fighter says, "I don't want to tell you how to run your fire truck, but if you were to tie that rope around the cat's collar, I think you could go faster."  The little boy says, "You're probably right, but then I wouldn't have a siren."

----------------------------------

Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Canoe.
Canoe who?
Canoe help me with my homework?

============================