UPDATE ON OUR TELEVISION PROJECT

It's been awhile since I updated any of our minor RV renovations but I'm happy to report that our little TV project is actually going a bit better than expected. I was able to remove the clunky old television cabinet from the top center of the windshield without too much injury to myself or the motorhome. A carpenter friend of ours is going to finish that hole off with a cupboard. Got the flat screen mounted ok & it appears to be solidly anchored. The only other place in the coach it could go was on the end of the kitchen cabinet so that is where I mounted it. I've included some pictures & you can see how it swivels around making it viewable from all angles. Picked up a couple of 52 inch men's leather belts at Wal-Mart & they go around the television & loop through those door handles you can see above the TV at the ceiling line, making the television snug & secure for travel. Television is also now much easier to see from the computer chair below the screen. No more 90 degree neck cramps. It's also much easier to see when the slide is out because we sit across from it instead of having to lean forward & turn our heads sharp left all the time. TV is also more accessible for hooking up additional cables because we can swing it out & pivot it around quite a ways to get at the back. It all looks & sounds good in theory but the real test will come once we're on the road again. If I can sit here & post a note next spring & tell everyone that the television never even fell down once in our travels I will then (& only then) consider this little adventure a humble success..........:)) You can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

Nice to see the fuel prices coming down a bit but I'm sure it's only temporary before the next big gas hammer drops on us. I actually had my maps & atlas's out the other night along with MapQuest & Google Earth checking the area between Silver City, New Mexico & Phoenix, Arizona. We haven't been to that part of Arizona yet & I'd like to have a look at the Superstition Mountain area. In the meantime we're remaining as optimistic as we can under the current shaky economic & worldly situations............

Last photo shows Kelly talking to her daughter & husband in Spain using Skype. Kelly is pointing our Microsoft web cam at the screen so Rebecca & Ricardo can see themselves. Works great:))

http://www.skype.com/

A TOUCH OF WINTER IN JULY:))

It's nearly mid July & with all the hot weather going on I thought I'd throw in a little slide show to cool everyone off:))
Be sure to click on the word, SLIDESHOW when the site opens.
A TOUCH OF WINTER
http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/ATOUCHOFWINTER

"AN EXTRAORDINARY MOMENT"

Awhile back I came across a website entitled, "An Extraordinary Moment." It may take a minute to load & about 5 or 6 minutes to play. It's well done & makes a lot of practical sense to me. How refreshing it is to see a truly realistic thought process & approach towards the beginning of mankind instead of the usual warring & fanatical religious beliefs. www.globalcommunity.org/flash/ex.shtml And, while I'm at it I would like to add some thought to another controversial argument. I have had an interest in Astronomy for quite awhile now & have found people often get Astronomy mixed up with Astrology. One deals with fact & the other deals with fiction. I came across the following explanation & comparisons a few years ago & thought it was explained very well.

ASTRONOMY vs ASTROLOGY
"People sometimes confuse Astronomy with Astrology. Although related in ancient myth they are literally light years apart in the realm of fact & fantasy. Here is a brief explanation of the difference....

"Astronomy is a science that compels us to seek beyond ourselves and our small world, a science of discovery that enriches our lives by exercising our brain and our intellect. It empowers you to think clearly and rationally. It improves and sharpens critical thinking skills." It may even encourage you to free up your mind to think beyond conventional religious beliefs. (to think beyond religious beliefs is the key phrase here....AL.)

"Astrology disempowers you. By placing your future in the accidental configuration of planets and stars, you avoid taking responsibility for your actions, you fail to make decisions based on your own best self interest, and you give up the power to control your own destiny. Belief in astrology results in a degradation of critical thinking skills, which, combined with the loss of power to control your own destiny, can only serve to degrade your life, not enrich it."

"Be in charge of your life. Experience the mystery, awe, and excitement of observational astronomy."

(The photos are of fireworks that I took on the beach at Deerpark Lodge)

SHORT VIDEO CAM RIDE ON THE MOTORCYCLE

Thought I would take the new mini video camera for a trial run on the motorcycle Wednesday afternoon. Curious to see how it would turn out. Video only lasts about 60 seconds & isn't very exciting despite what looks & sounds like a mishap seconds after turning the camera on. I should have shifted up into 5th gear before firing up the camera so what you see is my clumsy attempt to shift gears with the same hand the camera was in. Not too smart I'd say. However I did manage the shift & even got the cam turned around for a brief mugshot. Well, that probably wasn't too smart either because I could have easily broke the camera right there!!!! Stay tuned & next time I'll see if I can jump over a hundred & five end to end school buses. Any volunteers to sit on the back seat & hold the camera? :))

IF I WANT IT DONE RIGHT........

Many times over the years I've heard lots of men make the statement, "when I want something done right I have to do it myself." For me it is the total opposite, so that's why I usually have to have somebody else do the carpentry, plumbing, car repairs, roofing projects, or whatever things those mighty manly types do. My motto is, "if I want something done right I had better get somebody else to do it." And so it goes with some minor motorhome renovations lately. Decided to add some shelving in the kitchen area & enlisted the help of a good woodworking friend. Bruce is one of those guys that kinda drives guys like me nuts. He simply takes his time & does things right. He has the patience to work away at a piece of wood, sanding & staining forever. Over & over & everytime you think he's done he's back going over it again with an even finer piece of sandpaper or something. In my world, sandpaper is something you read on the beach. Bruce has these tools that puts those fancy swirls & curls in the wood too. Beveling I think he called it. Beveling was something I thought you did with the motorhome to make it level on a rough surface. Oh well:((
But, sometimes ya just gotta do some of the stuff yourself. A couple of weeks ago we decided to haul the big old heavy & soon to be outdated television out of it's cabinet in the center of the windshield at the top. The fact that I even got it out without dropping the whole thing through the windshield is nothing short of amazing. I never did like that television up there anyway. Now we have a big clunky square cabinet with nothing in it & we don't intend on putting another television back up in there either, so, here's Al's plan. Oh no!! I am attempting (and attempting is the key word here) to put some shelves in there for the satellite TV receiver & CD player to sit on because I've never liked those narrow crammed little inaccessible cabinets up along the windshield where that stuff usually goes. We intend to get a 19 or 26" flat screen LCD-HD (whatever all that means) television that will easily sit right on top the dash. It will travel on the bed & when we stop somewhere we'll just bring it up, set it on the dash & plug in the wires. I figure we could even set the television outside if we wanted to simply by adding some extra lengths of cables. Sounds good in theory huh. Well, you know what usually happens to theories so I won't get my hopes up. In the meantime I've got myself quite a mosh of wires, hunks of old wood for shelves, screws, brackets, & whatever else I can find, all jammed up there in that old television space. Cables & wires everywhere & I haven't a clue as to what cable goes to what machine or why. I know the outcome probably isn't going to be nice but afterall, I'm doing it myself, right!!. I stand there & look over to the woodwork Bruce has done & then look back at what I'm about to do & it's almost enough to make a grown man cry. Maybe I could trade Bruce some of my hair for some of his smarts. Hmmmmm, I do not think he would see that as a good trade!!

WAITING QUIETLY IN A THICK FOG OF APPREHENSION

I came across another bloggers website in the RV Net Forum last week which I found interesting because of his take on the gas situation & how to maybe adjust accordingly. It is an encouraging concept in the face of all the gasoline related RV gloom & doom these days.

RV Net Forum......http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm

The second article, also found in the RV Net Forum, is by author Garrison Keillor & I'm afraid his predictions for the future are probably correct. Somewhere between these two viewpoints many of us are standing quietly beside the road, waiting in a thick fog of apprehension, wondering which way to go..............

First, the article by, "See Ya Down The Road"

Their Website is....http://www.seeya-downtheroad.com/

The High Price Of Fuel
Recently I have received many questions about the high price of fuel and the questions fall into two categories. 1) Will the price of fuel curtail your travels? 2) I am thinking about going fulltime and now I'm changing my mind because of the price of fuel - what should I do?
First, fulltiming and even part-timing is a lifestyle and not a vacation. If you think traveling in a RV is cheaper than living in a house you are wrong, but RVers can dictate how their money is spent and still enjoy the RV lifestyle.
The best way to save money is to travel slowly and stay in an area long enough to see everything before moving down the road. Drive the RV 100 miles and stay a week, then drive 100 miles and stay another week. In the winter stay in one place in the sunny south three months and during the summer pick a place in the north and stay two months.
Doing the above you will be moving the RV seven months a year and averaging 400 miles during those month for a total of 2,800 miles a year. If your RV gets 8 miles per gallon and fuel costs $5.00 a gallon you will need 350 gallons of fuel during the year and spend $1,750 or an average of $146 a month. Surely you can afford $146 a month for fuel for your RV.
You say driving 400 miles a month is crazy because you want to see this beautiful country. Lets look at one trip. You have just spent the winter in Orlando, Florida and you want to spend two months in Michigan in the summer. Leaving Florida you travel 100 miles a week and tour the states of Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and Michigan. The trip is 1,227 miles and after your stay in Michigan you decide to spent the winter in Corpus Christi, Texas. So on you trip south you tour Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas and Texas. The trip south is 1,567 miles so your RV mileage for the year is 2,794 miles - just under the targeted 2,800 miles per year written above and your RV fuel cost is $146 a month.
The same type of annual trip can be taken from southern California to the Canadian border and back to Arizona or most anywhere in the USA going north and south. Of course you will need fuel for driving to the grocery and sightseeing, but those trips should not cost too much.
Another advantage of staying a week or months in one place is many campgrounds offer a discount for longer stays. We have stayed in campgrounds that have a daily rate of $30, a weekly rate of $175 and a monthly rate of $400.
There are many other ways to save money as you enjoy your RV lifestyle and I will name just a few. Drive slower to save fuel, use discount campgrounds such as Passport America, eat in more than eating out, when you eat in restaurants get the daily specials which are usually good until 3:00 or 4:00 p.m., use coupons (often found on the internet), do some of your own maintenance and repairs, go sightseeing with another couple so four people can ride in one car, and if you have a craft make gifts instead of buying them.
So don't get too concerned about the price of fuel because there is nothing you or I can do about it. But there are many ways to control the cost of fulltiming or part-timing so get out on the road and enjoy this beautiful country and the RVing lifestyle.
Their Website is....http://www.seeya-downtheroad.com/

Eulogy for the Winnebago
Garrison Keillor
June 18, 2008

Eighty-six percent of the American people believe the price of gasoline will climb to five bucks a gallon this year, a big shift in public opinion from a year ago when most people felt that oil prices were spiking high and would soon return to normal—which is 35 cents a gallon, same as a pack of smokes—and we'd be able to head west in our Winnebagos for a nice summer vacation.This does not appear to be in the cards and Winnebago stock has fallen about 50 percent in the past year. If you are selling a big box on a truck chassis for as much as a quarter-million dollars when gas is at $4 and rising, you are aiming at a rather select clientele indeed, folks who might rather buy a beach house in Costa Rica than go cruising the Interstate.Nonetheless it's sad to see the motor home fade into the sunset. I used to despise them when I was a canoeist, of course. You paddle up to a campground at the end of a hard day and see a few RVs parked there, the air conditioners rumbling, the flickering blue light of the TVs in the windows, and as you set up your tent as far from them as possible, you feel a moral grandeur purer than you will ever feel again. A holy Christian pilgrim among the piggish heathen.The fantasy of comfortable vagabondage lies deep within each one of us, though, and once, 30 years ago, driving a GMC motor home around western Minnesota, I fell under the spell. To have the freedom of the road and the comforts of home—your own books on the shelf, your clothes in a drawer, your brand of beer in the fridge—is an aristocratic privilege and I was happy to give up moral grandeur for a couple of weeks and enjoy it.
Five-dollar gasoline is pushing that fantasy to the wall, and it's also showing most of us that we live in communities whose design is based on the assumption of cheap gasoline—big lots with backyard privacy make for a long drive to the grocery store. In the big old-fashioned city neighborhood, if you're bored in the evening you just stroll out the door and there, within five or 10 minutes, are a newsstand, a diner, a movie theater, a palm reader, a tavern with a bartender named Joe, whatever you're looking for.But in the sort of neighborhood most Americans prefer, there are only a lot of houses like yours and residents who give evening pedestrians the hairy eyeball. The mall is a long hike away and it's an amalgam of chain outlets, with a vast parking lot around it. To a person approaching on foot, it feels like an enemy fortress.So we will need to amuse ourselves in new ways. I predict that banjo sales will pick up. The screened porch will come back in style. And the art of storytelling will burgeon along with it. Stories are common currency in life but only to people on foot. Nobody ever told a story to a clerk at a drive-up window, but you can walk up to the lady at the check-out counter and make small talk and she might tell you, as a woman told me the other day as she rang up my groceries, that she had gotten a puppy that day to replace the old dog who had to be put down a month ago, and right there was a little exchange of humanity. Her willingness to tell me that made her real to me. People who aren't real to each other are dangerous to each other. Stories give us the simple empathy that is the basis of the Golden Rule, which is the basis of civilized society.So when gas passes $5 and heads for $8 and $10, we will learn to sit in dim light with our loved ones and talk about hunting and fishing adventures, about war and romance and times of consummate foolishness when we threw caution to the wind and flung ourselves over the Cliffs of Desire and did not land on the Sharp Rocks of Regret.I'll tell you about the motor home trip and how lovely it was, cruising the prairie at night and drinking beer, stopping by a little creek and grilling fish on a Coleman stove, listening to coyotes. The vanishing of the RV only makes your story more interesting. One thing lost, something else gained. Life is like that. Garrison Keillor is a radio host and author.

ANESTHETIZED BY THE SODDEN ROUTINES OF A NORMAL LIFESTYLE

I sometimes think that people who have never traveled & have not been bitten by the travel bug are the fortunate ones. Simple lives & routines. Contented to live from day to day with all their interests close by. No urge to look over the fence to see what's on the other side, no desire to climb the nearest hill to see what's over the horizon. Happy with the nightly schedule of television, spending time with nearby grandchildren, the weekly club meetings, church, & card games. Backyard BBQs & just sitting on the front porch watching the world go by. Nothing wrong with all that & I am somewhat envious of those people. But, they don't have the itch!! RV people refer to it as "hitch itch." It's that gnawing urge many of us have that just never leaves us alone. That urge to hitch up the car or trailer & head out onto that open road again in search of new adventures. That compelling urge to look over the fence & climb that next hill. That urge to drive those extra miles, slip around the next bend in the road to see what's around the corner. It is because of those urges that I sometimes envy the stay at home people who have no interest in the traveling lifestyle & it is that conflict within that makes for these anxious days. We have been fortunate enough to have traveled 3 out of the last 4 winters & with each sojourn we have become increasingly enamored with the RV lifestyle. We now have the knowledge of comparisons. Comparisons are a tricky thing & one has to be careful in stacking one lifestyle against another. Seems to me that there are 3 elements at work here. I'll call the first one, Suburban life. It's simply life at home in a stick house forever & it is the norm. Second is a cross between Suburban & what RVers call Fulltiming so I'll call it, Suburban Vacations. Suburban Vacations is living in the stick house for 6 or 7 months of the year & living in the RV for the remainder of the year. We moved into the second category a few years ago after spending the past 60 years or so in the first category. I think many people are happy & content to stay here in number 2 but it is here that many others begin to feel the itch growing, which brings me to number 3.......... Fulltiming!! And it is here where things really begin to take on a whole different meaning & concern because it has to do with some big lifestyle altering decisions. Sort of like having one foot on the dock & the other one in the canoe. Bit of a precarious position. What to do, which way to go. Will it be the security of the dock or the risky adventure of the canoe on open water.

I like the way a fellow blogger puts it below. He has dispensed with the stick house & is on the road full time & I like his attitude as he travels about the country never liking to stay in any one spot too long. My feelings exactly:))

RV Boondocker Explorer http://rv-boondocker-explorer.blogharbor.com/

(Quote) Consider camping in one place all season long, which I've done a couple times, in the winter and summer. It's comfortable, you meet people, and find out where to buy or fix this or that. But one day follows the next. After the season is over you look back and realize that you don't have many lasting memories. It was too uniform and uneventful. It is the misadventures that get remembered. An entire season has dissolved into the anonymity of comfort and routine. In contrast, the fresh sights and experiences of travel are like insoluble fluids that float on the landscape's surface. They retain their identity. They stand out from the surroundings.After watching a whole season disappear you experience a recrudescence of the rage that caused you to become a full time RVer in the first place. You remember that "Life is Short" was more than a platitude to you--it was an action item. Maybe hot-headedness makes some of us become full time RVers. Others might agree that normal life is dreary nonsense, but they are calm and mild about it, and don't want to rock the boat. Off we go to find the next misadventure. At least we travelers will be sensitive and alive to what happens next, instead of being anesthetized by the sodden routines of a normal lifestyle......(unquote)

SOME OF OUR RIGS

I realized after the last post about RVing that I hadn't included any pictures so after digging through some old photo albums the last couple of days I've come up with some memories. These two photos show our 1979 Dodge Centurion which we bought in August of 1998. Pictures were taken in September of 98. You can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.

In October of 2001 we bought a 24' Prowler Travel Trailer & towed it with a 1997 Dodge Ram p/u truck.

October 2003 saw another change when we purchased a 1992 Ford Gulf Stream 22' Conquest Class C. Took this one down to Big Bend National Park in Texas but the Class C turned out to be too small. I've included a few pics from that trip.In September of 2006 we decided on a truck & fifth wheel combo so purchased a 2005 28' Rockwood 5th wheel & a 2000 Chevy Silverado half ton 1500 p/u truck. They came as a combo & were fine to-gether under normal flat driving conditions but after driving it for a bit I just didn't have the confidence in the lighter 5.3 engined truck to do the job in the heavy mountains I knew we would be going through later. It was a really well kept & sharp looking truck, but...........

November of 2006 saw us trade in the Chevy Silverado on a heavier 2004 GMC 2500 Sierra heavy duty truck. Bigger engine & a stronger truck for towing. This p/u was totally loaded & I found it a bit overwhelming with all the gizmos. Traveled around the American Southwest in 06 & 07 but realized that the truck & 5th wheel just were not suited for us. Remember, we have 3 dogs & they had to ride in the small back seat of the truck. Oooooo, about 4,000 miles of continuous dog breath. Not nice!!!! This is the GMC & Rockwood. In April 2007 we traded the truck & trailer in on a 2003 Damon 33' Motorhome & that is what we have at the present time. No plans for any more changes at this point:))

HOW DID YOU END UP WITH A CLASS A??

Recently while reading one of our favorite RV forums here on the internet, RV NET http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm I came across the topic, "How Did You End Up With A Class A Motorhome?" There were quite a few responses & I found them all interesting so decided to throw my 2 cents worth in as well. Well, you know what my 2 cents worth ends up being. On & on & on I go. How do people keep things so short & concise?? Well anyway, figured I may as well copy & paste it into the blog here in case it gets booted out of the RV forum...............................

Guess it started with an old beat up Volkswagon hippy van back in the late 60's. It was pink & white & somebody had painted "Van-go on the front. Next was an orange Volkswagon camper van in which I took myself out to the east coast of Canada & back in 86. That was followed by a full size Dodge conversion van which I took a real beating on. A few years after meeting Kelly in the early 90's we bought an old 79 Dodge 17' Centurion Class C. It was a bit of a beater but we did manage a few local trips with it & that little rig was instrumental in putting us on the one way RV path of thinking, forever. Next came a 24 Prowler TT. Nice clean rig but I wasn't crazy about the hooking up arrangement. We became busy around that time & didn't use the trailer a lot so finally sold it. But, the RV bug never leaves you alone. Not ever, not never. A year or so later we bought another Class C but by the time we got down into Texas for a quick holiday in December of 05 we new it's 21 foot length wasn't big enough. It was a Ford Gulf Stream & we sold it a few months after returning home. It had some issues. Then in August of 2006 came the opportunity to finally move up the ladder a bit. But, what to get. Our choice was narrowed down to either a used fifth wheel or a Class A. We had tried all the rest so it was time to have a go at something different. Back & forth & back & forth we went weighing out all the pros & cons & comparisons. Read all the RV forums, talked to RV owners, & read the RV mags trying to make sure we made the right decision. Class A motorhome or a truck & fifth wheel combo. No room for error this time!! After many discussions we finally made our choice...........Truck & fifth wheel it was. (GMC truck & Rockwood trailer) Off we headed for the American southwest for a couple months. I don't know just where or when it was that we both began to realize it, but maybe it was the look on our faces after awhile somewhere between Texas & Arizona that told us.....oooops. You know that kind of look. It comes over your face when you finally come to the realization that you have just made a very big mistake. I won't go into all the details of why we knew we had made a mistake because I don't want to get pounded out by a lot of fifth wheel drivers out there. It's a great way to go but it just wasn't for us. We returned home around the end of January 07 & a short 3 & half months later we traded that truck & fifth wheel in on a 2003 33' Class A motorhome. This past winter we spent over 4 months in the southwest again & have never once regretted our decision to move to a Class A. It's been a long expensive road from the pink & white hippy van to our Damon Challenger but we are finally happy campers.............well, maybe if we had a little more length:)) Awwww nuts!!

COMMUNICATING WITH THE RIG & A STORY ABOUT MY OLD DUSTY HAT

No, that's not dirt on my hat, it's just good old wild west Arizona desert dust!!

From where I sit in my big cushy recliner in the living room watching television I can glance out the window to the right & see the motorhome sitting in the driveway staring back at me. Sometimes we just kind of blankly look at each other & sometimes we sorta kinda communicate. It's the same questions on both our minds. If & when we get rolling again, where are we going & how much is the gas going to cost to get there!! What if we get 3,000 miles from home & the gas prices double or triple in the 5 months we are away. Would it be cheaper to put the rig into storage in New Mexico for 7 months & bring the car home until returning back in the fall. If we could return at all. Some folks in the neighborhood have already sold their rigs & bought or rented mobiles in the south for the winter months. Some have downsized their units, some have given up & put the "for sale" sign in the windshield. Others have resigned themselves to spending the coming snowy cold winter at home in hopes things will turn around for the following year. And others have shortened their travel routes & restricted themselves to the Georgia/Florida corridor instead of the long haul to Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, or California. I guess it all boils down to preferences, gas prices, & how much change you got in your pocket when October & November roll around. For now, all we can do is play it one day at a time...................

I've had some humorous comments from other RV folks about my mishap with the motorhome's bin door & the pine tree & that reminded me of some other really dumb things I've done. It takes me back to December of 06 & Jan of 07 when we had a truck & fifth wheel while touring around in the southwest. We were camped at Hickiwan Trails RV Park in Arizona (our first time there) for a few days. I kept a blog at that time as well & here is what I wrote, dated January 8 2007:

Boy oh boy oh boy, did I ever do something dumb last night. I had been re-organizing my wallet after cleaning sand out of it in the afternoon & laid it on a small wood table beside my lawn chair. Max, in his quest to get a game of sticks going, bumped the table & knocked my wallet over the edge into the doggy guys water dish. No problem I thought as I lifted it out, but noticed it was already pretty wet inside. In order to dry everything out I made the first part of a big mistake. I laid my wallet on the tonneau cover of the pick-up truck to dry. Laid out some 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. A couple of hours later just after supper I decided to head down the road to update the website at a remote wifi spot near another campground. Out I went, jumped in the truck, & took off out of the park & down the highway. When I reached the wi-fi site I stopped, got out of the truck, walked around to the passenger side to access the computer, glanced at the back of the truck & "OH OH!!" In a sickening flash I remembered my wallet & cards that I had laid out there earlier, and..........they were all gone. Jumped in the truck & raced back to the trailer, rushed in & told Professor Rockhound (Kelly was collecting a lot of rocks at that time) 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. 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 right in the middle of the highway. Continued up the road aways & turned around. By the time I got back to the area where I found the debit card I saw the Professor 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 eastbound lane. I probably drove over it myself in my rush to get back to the trailer a few minutes before. She had also found what was left of my driver's license. It was the only thing damaged. I found one more card on the southbound shoulder & that completed everything. We were only moments away from complete nightfall but the eagle eyed Professor had saved the day. 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. Thanks to our superb ground scanning Professor Rockhound, we were spared to travel another day. It was a close call & I had to promise that I would not be so dumb in the future. Well, that didn't work because here's what I did just a few days later.
Decided to clean up the cab of the truck so opened the passenger door to pull the floor mat out. I was wearing my black cowboy hat which I had just purchased near Carlsbad New Mexico a few weeks before. As I bent over I knocked my hat off so just reached down, picked it up & casually tossed it around the corner onto the tonneau cover behind the cab. Sound familiar!! Finished the clean up & went inside the trailer. Kelly said she was heading into Ajo for some groceries & would be back in an hour or so. I had some stuff to catch up on with the computer so said, "ok, see ya later." It was probably about 10 minutes later when the hair on my head almost stood straight up as I suddenly realized............my hat was on the back of the truck!!!! Oh noooooooo!!!! I rushed out of the trailer, down the road, around the corner & up to the highway vainly looking off in the direction Kelly had traveled with the truck. No black object on the road or shoulder resembling a cowboy hat. Walked a short distance along the road but knew it was futile. My hat was gone forever & that's all there was to it. I'm not a hat person & this cowboy hat was the only one I had ever stuck on my head that I thought didn't make me look like a total nerd. I was like a little boy who had just lost his most prized possession of ever. And I was sooooooooo mad at myself because of the wallet incident just a short time before. Why didn't I learn my lesson that time about setting things on the back of the truck. I beat myself up so bad for the next hour that I was barely human by the time Kelly got back. I was in the trailer slumped in a chair when I heard the truck pull in. How was I going to explain to her that she had probably married the dumbest creature on the planet. The thought did occur to me that she was most likely quite aware of that already:(( The screen door opened & Kelly came in with a couple bags of groceries and there perched atop her beautiful blonde head was............................ my cowboy hat:)))))) At that moment I was the happiest little cowboy kid west of the Pecos.

It was a movement in the rear view mirror that caused her to look as she was accelerating down the highway after leaving the park. That movement was my cowboy beginning it's take-off roll across the tonneau cover runway in preparation for lift off into the big blue Arizona sky. She quickly backed off the gas, slowly braked & pulled over to the side of the road & retrieved my precious hat. Now she was faced with a decision. She could turn around & bring the hat back before I probably even knew it was missing or she could keep on going & let me stew about my missing hat until she got back. She made the right decision. She cranked up the burner, continued on her way, & let me stew for an hour real darn good!! Do you think I learned my lesson?? Say, did I tell you about the time I.................................................:((

This was our truck & fifth wheel before we had the motorhome....................

BANKRUPTCY OF PURSE OR BANKRUPTCY OF LIFE!!

Let me start off this blog with a quote that Kelly found on the internet this morning. It is from actor and adventurer Sterling Hayden's book, Wanderer:
"We are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, and playthings that divert our attention from the sheer idiocy of the charade. The years thunder by. The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed.Where, then, lies the answer?
IN CHOICE!!.Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?" (end of quote)

With our economy (& lately our weather) seemingly headed into the dumpster of disaster I once again turn away from CNN's daily reports & consider the fate of the proverbial Ostrich. There he stands, head buried in the sand, oblivious to the world's troubles around him. Is his head in a state of bliss & serenity under that sand? Has he discovered a new & wonderful world down there? Does that Ostrich truly understand something the rest of us do not? His reaction to his environment is not considered the norm which in turn leads me to something else someone said on the internet lately under the title, "Advice For People Who Don't Want the Normal." It applies to us at the moment & probably to a lot of other RV type people in the same boat facing the same decisions about their future......... "Go today, not tomorrow. The hardest part is untying the dock lines. If you wait a few more years for the stock market to come back...your Social Security to kick in...your retirement to vest at a better rate...or to finish a few more projects to make the RV perfect, you might be waiting too long. Health issues for one spouse or the other can potentially put your dreams back on the shelf in a heartbeat. Nike said in their commercials, "Just Do It".

"Just do it!!" Oh, if only it were that easy, but for all we know, maybe it is. I've been doing a lot of reading on the RV forums of late http://www.rv.net/ & people are in various states of lifestyle changes right now mainly because of the rising price of fuel. For RV owners it's a difficult time & puts new meaning into the saying, between a rock & a hard place. Can't afford the price of fuel but can't sell the RV either because they have basically all turned into big white elephants sitting in driveways across the land. Good time to buy an RV if you got some extra gas money in your pocket but not a good time to try & sell one, even at give-away prices. Therefore, it's the rock & a hard place syndrome, but I can tell you, we have no intentions of trying to sell our motorhome. We have a very big deterrent up here in the north for about 5 months of the year & it's called, WINTER!!!! With the price of fuel constantly rising it's beginning to make the long trek to the southwest in November seem like an improbable if not impossible venture, or as in the quoted words above, we "just do it!!" For us at this point it may seem improbable at times but it definitely is not impossible, so we are thinking forward & continuing to do more small renovations & improvements on the rig. I have already re-organized about a third of the basement storage space for this coming winter's journey to wherever that might be. The rig is due for some maintenance work so that has to be done yet as well. We want to keep our big white elephant in tip top shape. Afterall, it carries a big trunk & may become our future home someday.........................:)) (now if only we could just feed it peanuts instead of gasoline) The photo is from atop our rig in the driveway. I had to shrink wrap the solar panels because of sap dripping from pine trees close by & gumming them up.........

POOL SHARK, SNEAKY PINE TREE, WRONG PAINT & 3 OPTIONS

We played 8 games of pool a few weeks ago & I lost every one again. In fact we've probably had 60 games of pool in the last 4 years & I've lost 50 of them. Guess that makes me a pretty poor pool player, right!! Well, not exactly. It's just that my nearly 92 year old Uncle Harry in Woodstock has a few more years on the end of a pool cue than I do. He's quite a hustler:))

Have you ever had a pine tree sneak up on you when you weren't looking. Happened to me last Saturday morning. I had walked out to the motorhome to unplug the electric cord because I intended to move the rig ahead about 20 feet to wash it. Opened the bin door, unplugged the cord, turned around & laid it on ground. Did you just catch my mistake!! I turned my back on an open bin door therefore making it a non existent open bin door. Kelly came out of the house with the dogs for our morning walk & off I went.
Upon returning I hopped into the motorhome, started it up, took a quick glance in the mirrors (no such thing as a quick glance!!) slapped it in drive & motored ahead. There is something about the sound of crunching & tearing metal that just kind of takes your stomach out on ya. You know you have just done something bad alright & by the sound of it there is probably going to be a costly repair somewhere. I knew there was no need to panic because whatever it was I screwed up would be out there waiting for me. I hazarded a look in my drivers side mirror & yup, there it was alright. A pine tree had sneaked up alongside the motorhome when I wasn't looking & all but tore off my (open) bin door. Trees will do that to motorhomes sometimes. But, I never thought a tree was smart enough to open the bin door first before attempting to wrench it right off the coach. Afterall, I had closed it...right??
Took my sick feeling stomach & exited the coach, walked around behind the motorhome to the drivers side. The bin door was twisted at an upward angle with the apparent & appropriate damage of course. Took it in my hands to try & twist it down but the whole door just came right off leaving an open & gaping electrical bin hole. The whole upper hinge mechanism was all torn to ratsheep. Torsion bar hanging askew, body flange bent, etc. etc. Amazingly enough the bin door itself was still intact. Wasn't twisted or bent, & no paint missing but that still didn't alleviate that awful feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you've just screwed up by not seeing a pine tree sneak up on you. I remember my Dad having a brand new Honda generator years ago at his cottage, leaving it behind the car, & then promptly backing over it. The look on his face that day was the same look I had on my face last Saturday morning!!
No point in me trying to fix it because I'm still attending my 4th year night school class on how to change a light bulb. We have an auto body repair shop near us so Monday morning I took the rig over there & left it with the professionals. Picked it up Tuesday afternoon all fixed up but I'm too embarrassed to tell you how much that tree cost me. Let's just say it took a huge bite out of our income tax return this year.
Kelly was quick to point out to me that things like that don't happen to her. I was quick to point out to her that's because she never drives the motorhome or moves it around. She quickly pointed out to me that maybe it was about time she did!! Case closed:((
The photo shows the repaired bin door back on the motorhome & the rascally pine tree that not only took a bite out of the bin door, but also our income tax refund:((
You can see a nick in the tree where it had it's way with the bin door & & beside that I sprayed a mark on the tree for future removal!!

It was a good week for painting so decided to finish the motorhome interior slide section that I had started back in Casa Grande, Arizona a few months ago. Back then I bought a quart of paint at Wal-Mart figuring to only paint the wall the mirror is on but since getting back I figured it would look nicer if I carried that paint theme through & did the whole slide. Slipped up to Wal-Mart in Goderich with a paint sample on the American can lid. No problem, right. Wrong!! The lady said the label was different on the paint can here in Canada but figured it would be alright. The American paint had a Satin finish. I failed to notice after she mixed up the new quart that she did it with a flat finish so off I merrily go & proceed to paint the rest of the slide. Not sure exactly when I noticed the difference, but there it was. Flat vs Satin & guess what, the new quart was a tad lighter. Awwwwww nuts!! Now, if you walked into our motorhome you probably wouldn't know the difference so I've decided not to tell anyone.........ok!!

The daily merry-go-round of discussions regarding our future continues. I think the most up front debilitating problem is the daily rising price of gas. It is pushing our trip to the southwest later this year farther & farther out to sea. As we see it right now, we are facing 3 options. 1.Stay home. 2.Travel half the distance to Georgia or Florida. 3.Bite the bullet & head for the southwest anyway.
First & foremost number 1 is not a consideration. "Stay home" are two dirty words that we will not allow in the house & besides, we didn't buy a motorhome a year ago just to have sit in the driveway like some big oversized flower planter!!!! Now, # 2. I am very reluctant to head down to Georgia or Florida for a number of reasons. I don't care for the topography at all & Florida is so flat it's probably going to slide into the Gulf of Mexico this winter because of the number of people scrambling around on it's surface. Just toooooo many people, traffic congestion, etc. etc. I don't think they have the boondocking areas like out west either & the thoughts of languishing in some boring, crowded, noisy & way over priced RV park with not a mountain in view is totally unacceptable to us. And for sure it's going to get a lot worse with the high gas prices because a lot of people who would normally head for the southwest will now be forced to do the Georgia-Florida thing. I can just see the whole retail industry down there right now with big grins on their faces as they get ready to pump up their prices on everything & nail those "snow birds" right smack in their pocket books when they get there.
Number 3 of course is the most illogical choice because of the soaring gas prices but compared to numbers 1 & 2 it's probably just going to have to be a bullet biter for us. The southwest just has soooooo much more to offer in every way imaginable & we just do not want to miss out on it's beauty. We'll just have to cut down on expenses to compensate for the gas. Let me see now, hmmmmm, 10 cases of Kraft dinners just might get us there, sustain us, & get us home again. Yes, I think that's it:))

WE'VE BEEN HOME OVER 5 WEEKS, BUT..............

We have been home in Bayfield now for over 5 weeks & for the first time in five & half years the spark of living in our little pine forest has dimmed. I suppose we were first aware of something amiss about 4 months ago while we were traveling in the southwest. The thoughts of returning home in March just didn't have the positive impact it used to have. It was our 4th trip to the southwest in 5 years & this winter with the installation of our solar panels, we were able to boondock for the first time & that made a big difference for us. We loved the freedom it gave us. We were no longer dependent on overpriced & overcrowded noisy RV parks. It brought the whole RVing experience into perspective for us. And it showed us we could do things how we wanted to do them. To watch the sunrise over a distant mountain range, to step out of the RV with only Mother Nature to greet you in the morning, to hear the birds welcoming in a new day, to sit quietly by a crackling fire listening to the coyotes in the distance & to be free of people stress for long stretches of time has worked it's magic on us to a point where we are seriously considering some long term changes over the next year or two. It's a conversation we have been having on & off for the past couple of years but since returning home this time that conversation is beginning to form the basis of a plan.

Back in September of last year when first beginning this blog I wrote a piece called, "Why An RV??" and I will re-print a segment of it here. It gives an idea of our thoughts at the time & how those thoughts have carried through & grown..............

WHY AN RV??
From the first day Kelly & I met, it was apparent that we had a lot of things in common. Over the years we talked more & more of someday owning a motorhome & traveling around this big beautiful land of ours & in 1997 the dream began to take shape. We bought our first rig, an old 17 foot 1979 Dodge Centurion Class C. It was kinda beat up but it was a start. Next came a 24 foot Prowler travel trailer in 1999. Nice trailer & our first towing experience. From there, we shifted back to a 23 foot 19?? Gulf Stream Class C . Went all the way down to Big Bend in Texas during the winter of 2003 with the Gulf Stream but sold it when we got back because it was too small & had some problems. Somewhere between then & 2006 we acquired a couple of extra doggy pals so when we decided to get another RV we had to think bigger. After waffling back & forth between a Motorhome or truck & 5th wheel we decided on the truck & 5ver combination & headed off for New Mexico & Arizona in the winter of 06/07. The 2004 GMC Sierra 6.0 & the 2005 Rockwood fifth wheel worked well to-gether but it didn't take us long to realize we should have decided on the Motorhome!! Nothing against trucks & fifth wheels but it just wasn't the right set up for us, especially traveling with 3 dogs. When we arrived home in the spring we traded the truck & fifth wheel in on a 33' 2003 Damon Challenger 329 motorhome. And, that's where we're at to-day. And we love the motorhome:))Now. what does all this have to do with, "Why an RV!!" (they don't call me Mr. Blabberfingers for nothing you know:))For a number of years I drove an Airports transportation van based in Stratford Ontario taking people to & from Pearson International Airport in Toronto. I would quite often hear conversations between passengers & the one common thread I picked up over the years from people heading off, or coming home from vacations, was........... "I wished we had done this when we were younger & still had our health." Women travelers outnumbered men travelers almost two to one because the husbands had died & now the ladies had to travel on their own. I saw this over & over again. In the last 3 years I have been driving a mobility van part time in our area & the people I transport are all in wheelchairs & mostly elderly. I am frequently in & out of various nursing home facilities so I see first hand what the latter years of a person's life can unfortunately be like. Not good!!!!Kelly & I made the decision a long time ago that if we were ever in a financial position to get out & see the country, hike the canyons & trails, walk the desert floors, travel the mountain passes & enjoy the outdoors we love so much, we had better get at it while we were both still in reasonably good health. The financial opportunity presented itself in the late summer of 2006 & we set our plans in motion.We know it's a big gamble & a risk but we've seen tooooooooo many people who have waited toooooooo long to live their dreams only to end up sick, incapacitated, in a care facility, or deceased too early............. and, THAT is WHY we made our decision to travel now while we can!! We may one day regret our decision or we may not. Only time will tell, so stay tuned, wish us luck, & ride along with The Bayfield Bunch as we chase our dream around the next bend, over the next hill & into the sunrises & sunsets of this beautiful land of ours ...................
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That was written over 7 & a half months ago & we still feel the same way, only much more so. It's too expensive for us to maintain a home year round plus travel 6 months of the year & with the age clock ticking now we are having to seriously consider our options. Many pros & cons & most full timing RVers have at one time or another been in this very same position. To stay or to go, & as they all have realized, it's no small decision!!

Soooooo, stay tuned to The Bayfield Bunch as we move slowly ahead with the ups & downs of our decision making over the next little while. To stay or to go, or maybe consider a move to western Canada where the drive to the southwest wouldn't be so long each winter. I will post our thoughts & ideas & if anyone has some good advice for us, we would love to hear from you. You can contact us via email by clicking on "Contact The Bayfield Bunch" which you will find at the top of the right hand column just above, "Our Rig & Tow Car." Yes, we're on another journey......a journey of decision making:))

"WHY CAN'T YOU CANADIANS STAY ON YOUR SIDE OF THE BORDER!!"

Well, I guess it's inevitable when your writing a blog & expressing opinions. Received the following "comment" in response to my little attempted humorous article entitled, "Alas, It's The Last Travel Blog," dated March 13/08.

"Why can't you Canadians stay on your side of the border and quit complaining about the USA in your blogs?"

I suppose the reader is right to a certain extent but just to be sure, I went back & re-read what I had written. I made 26 comments & here is what I'm assuming the reader is mad about. But first let me re-print what I said before making my comments at that time:

Below are a few thoughts, opinions, ideas, observations & basic musings I have concluded about our trip. Some are greatly exaggerated, some are slightly humorous, some are angry, some have no basis in fact whatsoever, some are biased, some are off the wall, some are pure speculation & some I have no idea where the thought process came from in the first place. However, they all have one thing in common. There is an element of truth in each one. Even the ones with no basis in fact whatsoever.

- Why does the American southwest have to have sooooo much wind!!
>>Just a curious question on my part. Probably has something to do with the mountains to the west & the flat plains to the east & the fact that most prevailing winds come from the west. Complaining?? I think not!!

- There are more McDonald's restaurants than there are grains of sand!!
>>Complaining?? No sireeee!! I happen to like McDonalds & we've got lots of em here too:))

- There are more shards of broken glass along the roadsides in the southwest than there are stars in the sky. This is particularly true in the Indian Reservations. Why is that!!
>>Unfortunately, this one is fact. And it's a sad fact too. I have respect for Indian people & their culture but I just don't understand why they have let their roadsides become such a mess. We have similar problems here in Canada as well. Is it a complaint?? Yes, but it applies here as well.

- Why can't convicted drunk drivers & alcohol related driving offences people be made to crawl on their hands & knees along the countless thousands of miles of roadway picking up all the broken glass & booze bottles they have obviously thrown out there!!!!
>>This applies to any country, anywhere, & not just in the USA.

-What are all those American military planes doing in the sky every night over southern Arizona. >>Pilot training is the obvious answer here. This was not a complaint, just an observation.

- What ever happened to simple gas pumps. Nowadays you need a degree in engineering just to figure out all the different types of pumps & how they operate. I hate those things!!
>>This one's about gas pumps. ALL GAS PUMPS EVERYWHERE!! Complaint, yes. Specifically about America...no!! Gas pumps are gas pumps wherever they are.

- Why can't we just do away with the border between Canada & the U.S. & cut down on those long border waits & silly customs questions. And stop those stupid agriculture checks. The customs officials make enough money to buy their own food!!
>>Well, this one is self explanatory & works both ways. Canadian or American customs practices coming or going no matter which side of the border your on. Anti-American?? No, not at all.

- And if I fly my Canadian flag it doesn't mean I'm there to claim I have just defeated the United States of America in some big huge war or something. It's just a silly little flag to say, hey, we're from Canada guys. Your friendly & helpful neighbors to the north, remember. Geeeeezzzzzzzz!!
>>OK, I've seen the light on this one & I'll leave my Canadian flag at home next time. But, Anti-American?? Definitely not!!

- How come the United States hasn't smartened up to Tim Horton's coffee yet. That Charbucks stuff you got is awful.
>>Well, I could get me in big trouble over this one but I'll have to defend myself by saying it's a personal choice I guess. However, they don't call Starbuck's, Charbucks for nothing you know. Anti-American, Anti-caffeine, or anti-anything?? Nope, just happen to think Tim's brews a better coffee:))

- Why can't some places put butter on the toast.... I'm talking to you Cracker Barrel!! And while I'm at it, why can't you people include the price of coffee in the breakfast price. Coffee is separate??...what is that!!
>>I'm squawking about toast not being buttered here. Not exactly earth shattering & probably something I shouldn't have squawked about in the first place but somedays you just got to complain about something & for me that morning it was unbuttered toast. I don't know if we have Cracker Barrels here in Canada, but if we do.........I hope they butter the toast or I'm gonna be ticked!!

- How come so many towns have so many wrecked & tumble down buildings in them.
>>I think this is a legitimate question & I'm assuming the southwest has a different set of by-laws & building codes about derelict old buildings. I think most places to the east tear the buildings down for safety reasons. However, on the flip side of that question........Everytime you tear down an old building, your destroying a part of history forever. And afterall, isn't that what the American West is all about..........history of the old west. So, I'm on the fence here. But complaining........... no, just wondering.

- Why can't you Americans put some color in your money so us dumb ass Canadians can tell a one dollar bill from a hundred dollar bill.
>>Alright, you got me on this one............maybe we should stay on our side of the border before we all go broke!!

By the way, I didn't include the favorable comments about America I've made because for sure I'll have some Canadian with his nose out of joint emailing me to say, "well, if ya like it down there so much, why the hell don't ya just stay there!!

And, in closing I'd like to thank the person for their comment because you gave me something to think & write about on an otherwise boring Sunday night & if you have the time to read the blog about our recent trip to the southwest you will see that we love the USA:)) My positive comments about your country probably outweigh the negative comments by about 500 to 1. Have yourself a good day & welcome to our Canadian blog......on both sides of the border!!
P.S. My American wife is from Spencerport, New York. Toodles:))

THE HAPPY FACE OF....... "SURPRISE"

(Click on the images to make them bigger)

Last October just before we headed for the southwest I was over doing some yardwork at Deerpark Lodge where Kelly works when Kirsten, the owner, came over to talk to me & wondered if I was planning on doing anything special for Kelly's birthday on March 30/08. I said I had been thinking about that & she said she had an idea.

Kirsten has been so appreciative of all that Kelly has done for her these past 4 years at Deerpark Lodge & said she would like to do something special for Kelly on her(60th)birthday. Said she would pay for Kelly's 2 daughters to fly from Vancouver & Spain to be here for her birthday & also to have Kelly's entire family come from Rochester NY & Cambridge, Ontario. They could all spend the entire week-end at Deerpark. I thought, "WOW" what a great idea, so in that brief 10 minute conversation we hatched a plan to spring a surprise birthday party for the end of March the following year of 2008. It would be another 5 long months before Kirsten & I would meet again on the grounds of Deerpark for another quick conversation only days before the party.

But, going back to October of 07. Immediately following our conversation that day I sent out an email to all of Kelly's family members laying out Kirsten's idea & that started the ball rolling. However, just days later we headed off in the motorhome for the American southwest thousands of miles away. Problem now was......how could I communicate with anyone back in Canada. It was difficult at first trying to figure it out because I couldn't email Kirsten at Deerpark in case Kelly checked the work email account there. We had an old email account that we seldom used so I tapped into that & emailed Kelly's daughter Sabra in Cambridge. We established a link & I had Sabra only send emails between the hours of 10 & 10:30 at night after Kelly had gone to bed. And that's how we worked on the birthday plans for the next four & a half months while we were on the road in the American southwest. Biggest challenge for me was remembering to delete all traces of any emails I had sent or received. No easy task for this aging memory:((

Now, we'll fast forward to the end of March 08. It was clear that Kelly didn't have a clue about the surprise. I was shoveling some snow at Deerpark last week when Kirsten came over for a quick chat. We were able to firm up a few last minute details. It was the first time I had talked to her since our first conversation 5 months earlier.

So, here's how we sprung the surprise. Kirsten made sure Kelly left work at Deerpark early Friday afternoon because all the family members were due to arrive at the Lodge about 3. Around 5:15 Kirsten phoned our house saying a large newly installed window in one of the recently renovated cabins had just blown out, she's worried about it, & she needs me to come over to take pictures of it for her insurance adjuster as soon as possible.

I had already mentioned to Kelly that we should go out for supper Friday night & then a movie in Goderich so I said to her, "well lets go over now & I'll take those pictures before we head for Goderich."

As we drove into Deerpark I noticed all the family cars were parked at the far end of the park & some were hidden behind cabins. I knew everyone would be in the big lodge room right behind the office so when we pulled in I said to Kelly that we might as well go into the office first & take some additional pictures of that newly renovated area while I had the camera with me. We parked the car & went in. Kirsten was in there & said to Kelly, "good thing your here because I need you to light the furnace pilot light in the next room." (adjacent to the office) So without hesitation, Kelly opened the door & walked into the big lodge room..........

"SURPRISE"

There was Kelly's whole family (almost:)) standing there. She was sooooooo shocked & it took her about 10 seconds to grasp the reality of the situation. Her mind just couldn't put to-gether what she was seeing. And then her daughter Sabra said, "and here comes another surprise Mom." With that, her 2 other daughters from Vancouver & Spain came walking out of another room:)) It had been a couple of years since she had seen them. Poor Kelly was just dumbfounded at what was happening & totally overwhelmed. The surprise was a complete success & a good time was had by all for the whole rest of the week-end:))))))))