DRAWN LIKE A MAGNATE TO THE MAJESTIC MOUNTAINS

WINDING LOOP ROAD THROUGH THE FOOTHILLS OF THE AJO MOUNTAINS

I think it is the pleasurable memories of places a person has been that beckons them to return again & again. For me, I wouldn't consider going anywhere else for the winter other than the sprawling & adventurous lands of the American Southwest. I am drawn like a magnate to the magic of the mountains. I am at home in the vast quietness of the deserts & I am fascinated with the star studded skies stretching from mountaintop to mountaintop. AND YOU CAN SEE ALL THIS WITHOUT HAVING TO GET OUT OF YOUR VEHICLE

South of Why, Arizona is ORGAN PIPE CACTUS National Monument Park. IT IS A PLACE we have visited on 3 separate occasions each time taking the scenic Ajo loop drive. Number 85 highway runs straight as an arrow right through the park heading south to the Mexican border which marks the southern edge of the park. The Ajo Mountain range runs north/south on the east side of the highway & the 25 mile loop drive winds along the foothills of the mountains. It's a one way road & much of it is paved except for a few gravel sections. The drive takes about 2 hours with walking & hiking spots along the way so it's an easy place to spend the whole day. Take lots of water & peanut butter sandwiches:)) I have put to-gether a condensed photo album of our 3 trips on the AJO MOUNTAIN LOOP DRIVE. Hit the slide show button when you get there.
WITH EVERY FOOTSTEP.....A THOUSAND PICTURES

Still no idea where we're headed after our ranch sitting job near Douglas Arizona this coming November but I do like the scenic quiet drive from Tucson over to Why Arizona on our way west or we might break with tradition & go north up around Superstition Mountain this year & then head west from there. A lot of our plans depend on the weather. Would like to check out some new areas of southern California this winter too. DISTANT MOUNTAINS ARE IN MEXICO & NOTE THE YELLOW DESERT POPPIES IN FOREGROUND

I am instinctively drawn back to places I've been to simply touch base with old memories but could never stay for any length of time again in those spots because the other side of me is yearning to head for areas I have never been before. Always quite a struggle going on underneath my hat you know. I'm sure this kind of traveling would drive a lot of people buggy but we wouldn't have it any other way. No time limits to be anywhere, no reservations, no commitments, no schedules, no events or rallies to attend & no getting bored in one spot for months on end. We just kind of like to keep moving because we do that long boring stretch from April to October here in Ontario & enough is enough is enough!! IT'S KELLY DOING SOME SERIOUS ROCK SCRAMBLING IN ARCH CANYON

I had really been hoping we could get away in early October & head straight for the southwest corner of Colorado where I hear the scenery is absolutely spectacular but with Kelly's on-going Deerpark Lodge work commitments it may now be the middle of October before we get away. Don't want to risk running into any Colorado snow storms in the mountains at that time of year so we just may end up taking our usual route west through Indiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, & New Mexico. Maybe Colorado next year if we can't do it this year. BEEN HERE THREE TIMES & IT'S NOT ENOUGH

Puttered around in the rig for a bit this afternoon thinking....."Come on let's get this show on the road!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

GROANER'S CORNER:)) Young men think old men fools.......but old men know young men to be so.

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/
The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.

HAIRCUTS & TECHNO TALKS

A REFLECTIVE LOOK AT OUR FRONT YARD IN THE EYE OF THE GAZING BALL (Photo taken with 700mm lens from the house waaaaaaay in the background reflection)

Co-incidentally it seems like Thursday was the day for haircuts & head jobs in the RVing blogger community. While JANNA was getting the grey out in Montana, RICK was heading into Victoria BC to get his locks shorn & I was in the chair myself at home with Kelly wielding a creative pair of scissors. I've been very lucky since meeting Kelly back in the summer of 93 because that's the last year I was ever in a barber shop. With 5 kids to raise, Kelly wasn't about to pay for nearly a dozen kid's haircuts every couple of months so took it upon herself to learn the art of haircutting by trial & error. I imagine she had a few little errors running around the house for awhile until she got the hang of it though. She said the kids made good little Guinea pigs:))

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

BEFORE & AFTER THE HAIRCUT....Kelly says I'm still not allowed out of the house regardless!!!!

Came across an informative boondocking blog site yesterday. If there any boondockers out there I think you will find this fellas site very handy with all kinds of tips & pictures. In fact you don't have to be a boondocker to enjoy this site because he's got all kind's of ideas for doing things easier & better in & around his rig. You can find him here...LMIC. (Like Mom I'm Camping)

I'M SURE THIS IS A WOODPECKER OF SOME TYPE...JUST DON'T KNOW WHICH ONE

We lit the pilot light on our little sunroom gas stove yesterday in preparation for the coming cooler temps. Now that we have the computer in the sunroom I'm sure we'll use that a lot more. It still amazes me how we can run that fireplace with just a remote control. Don't have to go crawling around in the bush for firewood. No hauling, stacking, or carrying in of wood either & no bugs & beetles to get into & eat up all my morning cereal before I do. NO MISTAKING THIS BLUE JAY

Here's a fulltiming RV couple with his & hers blogs. When they visit somewhere you can actually end up with both his & hers opinions of what they saw. An engaging concept & no doubt they have some interesting conversations over coffee about their views. Jim & Mary are about to make the move from an older Class A into a brand spanking new one. Check them out here.....RAMBLINMAN JIM & MARY'S RAMBLIN'S. OUR LITTLE GAS STOVE FIREPLACE

Good internet connections while on the road seem to be the number one concern of most RVer's traveling these days. It's almost more important than food itself. Air cards, satellite dish connections, Wifi hotspots, broadband, spaghetti sauce, gigabytes, bandwidth, Skype, routers, roosters, & rutters.....what does it all mean. What does what & which does it best. It's a real minefield of technical decisions out there. Kelly has a better technical mind than I do & has the patience to wade through the reams of information. After reading techno installation instructions for about 30 seconds my head explodes & I have to go take an Aspirin or something. Besides it really messes up my hair when that happens too!! CALA LILY FLOWER

For the past 3 years we have traveled with one computer but this year we're thinking of taking our desktop as well. All the while we are away Kelly takes the forwarded phone calls from Deerpark Lodge here in Bayfield & looks after the bookings & registrations. That means a substantial increase of her time on the computer. I always have a lot of photos to work on plus the blog so at times we are competing heavily for computer time. I am happy to report though that no one has ever been injured in this intense quest for on-line cyber time . Adding a second computer of course adds a few more technical challenges so we've been reading with interest lately about routers. RICK'S POST a couple days ago shed some light on that for us so I think we'll check a little further into this Cradlepoint stuff. We first began hearing of Cradlepoint routers last winter while boondocked down in the Borrego Springs area of California.

COULD THIS BE A FEMALE NORHERN FLICKER??

Three seasons ago we were constantly on the look-out for hotspots & our internet connections were frustratingly spotty at best. Two seasons ago we were wrestling with a technically & physically challenging satellite system. Last year on our way to the southwest that satellite system failed near Silver City, New Mexico & we made the decision then to go with a Verizon air card. We've been happy campers with that service ever since. Nothing like cruising down the highway, being on the internet, & taking care of business at the same time. Try that with a satellite dish or a McDonald's hotspot!! Is all this technological stuff expensive?? What isn't expensive anymore in this day & age!!!! You practically need a full time job just to buy a bag of jube jubes nowadays:(( JEWEL WEED FLOWERS......JUICE FROM STEMS IS GOOD FOR POISON IVY....I KNOW!!!!

I made a mistake in last night's blog when I mis-linked a blog site to the wrong people. I have to figure out now where I saw Rick & Orinda's blog so I can correct that error with the right website address. Unfortunately my short term memory is of no help to me at all!! Ok, just found them with the help of Google's search engine......FULLTIME RVING WITH RICK & ORINDA. ALMOST NIGHT TIME AT OUR HOUSE

We've got a wet gray drizzly day going on here in southwestern Ontario but that's OK. Just a nice time for plunking away on the keyboard & watching all the birds out the windows in front of me. Some days are just somehow kinda more better than others..............:))

GROANER'S CORNER:(( You know your getting old when you wake up looking like your driver's license photo.

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/
The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.

A FEW TRAVEL MEMORIES & ANSWERING SOME QUESTIONS

ALWAYS SOMETHING GOING ON IN OUR FRONT YARD

It was almost cool enough this morning to kick on the furnace but we held off knowing the HUGE cost of electricity in this Province. Would you believe that on every Ontario Hydro customer's monthly bill there is a section called, Debt Retirement Charge!! This is to pay for the huge bungling & blatant fraud at the top management levels years ago where CEO's etc were caught with their hand's in the cookie jar, especially the woman at the top who I am sure is continuing her lavish & spendthrift lifestyle somewhere. Millions & millions of dollars greedily scooped up by money grubbing executives & now the rest of us Ontarians are in chains forever trying to re-pay the unpayable debt!!!!!!!!!!

Well, not the nicest way to start off a blog but it just sort of popped out. I shall now endeavour to lighten up do better:))

A VERY SLEEPY LITTLE MOTORMOUSE TRAVELER IN OUR GMC TRUCK.....PRE-MOTORHOME DAYS

Kelly had the day off so we just kind of puttered around at small stuff. I'm going to start transplanting some things & re-doing flower beds shortly now that summer is winding down. Our jungle outside is growing so well that it is threatening to swallow us up. We may even have Rhinosaucerous's & Hippoplotamooses roaming around out there.
KELLY USING OUR LAPTOP IN THE LOBBY OF A HOTEL IN WHITES CITY NEAR THE CARLBAD CAVERNS....2006

Our computer has been slowly slowing down for a long time so to-day we un-hooked it, took it to Goderich & had 2 Gigs of RAM memory stuffed into the back of it. We were back home up & running in less than an hour. Definitely operating faster now. May even have to install a seatbelt on our computer chair. Computer is 3 years old & would like to get 2 more years out of it at least.
Had a couple boondocking questions from a blog follower to-day. "How long do you stay out there and how do you do with water & electric????" REST STOP PARKING LOT IN THE GUADALUPE MOUNTAINS NEW MEXICO

With our 2 solar panels & 4 batteries we could stay in the desert indefinitely. Solar is basically just like having electricity in your house but there are a few things like air conditioners & micro-wave that we would flip on the generator for if we ever used them. During our winter months it is rare to ever have to use the A/C & we only use the micro-wave briefly while maybe heating up a cold coffee or something. Length of stay in the desert is determined mainly by the black water holding tank. This is your toilet tank:)) The bigger the tank you have on your rig the longer you can stay boondocked. We generally get 10 to 14 days out of our tank then we have to take the rig into town or wherever there is a facility for emptying black water tanks. There are books out & an on-line site I think that will tell you where these facilities can be found across the country. RVing folks usually know where they are. For example, when we left Quartzite Arizona last January heading for Casa Grande we knew there was a dump tank facility in Gila Bend because we've used that one 3 or 4 times in our travels. It's behind the Shell gas station just in case your in the area & needing to make a dump. When you get there just give the water hose a salute, open the drain lid, & tell the underground holding tank, The Bayfield Bunch sent you:))
OUT FOR A WALK IN THE GUADALUPE MOUNTAINS WEST OF THE CARLSBAD CAVERNS

Another question came in about Brantley State Park northwest of Carlsbad. Nice park & very clean. It's not a big park though, sits atop a hill, & can get windy. You can find it here....BRANTLEY SP. We stayed in the Limestone campground. There is also an RV Park at the junction of the 62/180 highway & road (Whites City) that leads up to the Carlsbad Caverns. Obviously a nice park at one time but it had fallen into disrepair & neglect when we were there. The ?? Hotel at the junction looks after it now & we were able to get Wifi in the lobby there. The campground had a great hot water shower though. We just stayed the one night so it was fine for us. We left there early in the morning & did a lot of coasting down the Guadalupe Mountains to the west because we were running with a nearly empty gas tank. We never would have made it to El Paso & luckily we found a little gas station along the darkened pre-dawn road. Parked beside the tanks, went back to bed & waited for the gas station owner to show up & open the gas station later. Whewwww, close call!! WAITING FOR THE LITTLE GAS STATION TO OPEN SOMEWHERE NORTH OF EL PASO, TEXAS

We later went through El Paso Texas & finally ended that long day at Pancho Villa State Park in Columbus, New Mexico. Traffic was heavy as we somehow got swept right through El Paso & out the other side. Only pics I have of El Paso were on our return home a few months later when we ran into snow & slushy roads there. Not nice!!!! HEADING EAST OUT OF EL PASO JUST AFTER A BIG SNOWSTORM

I have come across some fellow RV bloggers websites these past few weeks & will list them here. Some of these folks have signed on as Bayfield Bunch followers, & others I've just kind of stumbled across. I would like to put everybody's site on our "Blogs We Follow" but I'm afraid the list would just be toooooooo long. Here they are & if you have time, stop by & say Hello to these fine people. Also want to thank my fellow bloggers & readers again for all the comments. I do manage to get around to pretty well all of the blogs & leave comments sometimes myself but kind of feel bad when I don't. Oh well.....if a Chinaman falls off his bicycle in Beijing I would probably somehow feel bad about that too....................................:(( THIS IS WHERE I GOT MY BLACK COWBOY HAT

http://chrisscorner-chris.blogspot.com/ Welcome Friends to Chris's Corner
http://adventureswithtassie.blogspot.com/ Adventures With Tassie
http://bruceandmargiesfulltimejourney.blogspot.com/ Bruce & Margie's Fulltime Adventure
http://mtnairetravlers.blogspot.com/MtnAire Travlers CORA'S NOT SURE WHO THIS GUY IS WITH THE FUNNY LOOKING THING IS ON HIS HEAD...."MOM, MOM, WHO IS THIS GUY!!"

GROANER'S CORNER:(( And in the immortal words of Sesame Street's Kermit the Frog........"Time is fun when your having flies:))"

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/
The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.

BOONDOCKING IN THE AJO HIGHLANDS.....2008

DOESN'T GET MUCH BETTER THAN THIS:))

A bit late sitting down at the old keyboard to-night but I did manage to throw a few photos to-gether of a favorite boondocking spot we camped at back in late February of 08. It's just west of Ajo, Arizona in the AJO HIGHLANDS in a place commonly referred to as the Darby Wells Road area.

HOME IS WHEREVER THE RIG IS PARKED:))

Anybody who follows our blog knows we are boondocking folks who avoid RV Parks wherever possible. I've blathered on quite a bit about our dislike of crowded parks in the past so won't re-hash myself here & get all the RV Park folks chasing me around with big sticks again. MY IDEA OF BOONDOCKING

To-day's boondocking photos show what we consider to be just about the perfect setting for people like us who prefer the peace & tranquility of Mother Nature. Only sounds are the coyotes, Gila woodpeckers, a few ravens, & the desert wind. No security lights, trailer lights, or headlights, only the beautiful light of the moon in a clear star studded night sky. Nothing moving past your rig except for the odd rabbit or roadrunner. No big flat sided fiberglass RV's 10 feet away, just endless miles of Saguaro cactus, Cholas, Ocotillos, majestic rock formations, & mountain ranges on all sides for as far as the eye can see. I'll bet this is all sounding pretty boring to a lot of folks out there & the question arises, "what do you do all day?" My answer to that is, "why do we have to do anything!!" We are totally immersed in domestic stuff for 6 months of the year when we are at home in Canada & we consider it a great privilege to step right out of that world once we get down to our desert home in the southwest. And that home is wherever our rig is parked & the quieter the place we can park it the better!! EVERY DAY A CAMPFIRE, EVERY NIGHT A DAY'S MEMORIES

We don't do the same thing day after day though. We do day trips with the car, pop into the nearest town for groceries, & spend large amounts of time relaxing around our rig. If you give it a chance, that relaxing stuff really grows on you. Always a morning hike though. I'm not a television person so couldn't care less if we had a TV or not, except for the news. Nightime is when I enjoy putting the day's blog to-gether. It's a favorite time of mine. Another favorite time is reading. While in Canada I never read a thing but the boondocking lifestyle for me totally lends itself to settling down in a comfy reclining lawn chair in the shade of the rigs awning with a good book. No interruptions, no honking horns, no blaring television, no neighbor's stereos or screaming kids, dirt bikes, ATV's, no social stress & no pesky neighbors. JUST THE WIND, THE THOUGHTS, THE PLANS, THE DREAMS, & THE MEMORIES WAITING FOR THE DESERT MOONRISE

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A diplomat is someone who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you will look forward to the trip.

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/
The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.

TAKE CARE GUYS.......& SOAR WITH THE BALLOONS

WE CAME ACROSS THESE BALLOONS IN THE DESERT ONE MORNING SNAGGED ON A BUSH

Yesterday was a good reminder again of why it's important to try & make these latter years as pleasant as possible with doing things you like to do or have always wanted to do if at all possible within your means. The clock is ticking for all of us & within the past two days that clock has come to a stop for a couple more friends.

Our good backyard neighbor Bert lost his battle with cancer Sunday bringing to an end a 4 year friendship of "over the fence chats", a few coffee's, some mutual gardening projects, & a like minded understanding of all the world's ailments. Bert was a soft spoken & gentle man & I always found it easy talking with him. Even without our joint guidance on the world's problems now Bert I somehow think this tired old earth will somehow continue along on it's own wobbly way. WE UNSNAGGED THEM BUT THEY DRIFTED SLOWLY ALONG THE GROUND

CAMLACHIE MODERN MAN was my good cyber friend Fred's blogger site name. I met Fred on-line about 5 years ago when a mutual friend gave me his email address. We swapped countless hundreds of jokes back & forth & emailed each other about photography & camera ideas. I did finally meet Fred 2 years ago at a friend's 70th birthday party near London Ontario & we remained in email touch with our bantering back & forth right up until a couple weeks ago when Fred's cancer wouldn't let him use his beloved computer anymore. Send me an email when you can Fred & if you come across any good jokes out there wherever you are, send them along because I'll still be watching for you to pop up on my computer screen old Buddy. GAVE THEM A BOOST INTO THE AIR BUT THEY JUST HUNG THERE UNABLE TO GAIN ANY LIFT

We have a perfect weather day going on & that has helped smooth the saddened waters. I am in my usual sunroom spot with birds twittering about in front of me & a Colorado Atlas open on my desk. It's time to put some forward thinking travel plans into gear & begin the map plotting for this winter's trip to the southwest. Can we afford to go again this year?? No, of course not, but we're going anyway while we still can.......while we can still hear that clock ticking.

To-day's photos take us back a couple years to the HICKIWAN TRAILS RV Park in Why, Arizona. We loved our morning desert walks there & one particular morning we came across a bunch of tied to-gether balloons snagged on a shrub. We untangled the ribbons & tried unsuccessfully several times to get the cluster airborne but as a group they didn't have enough lift & the trailing ribbons would become snagged once again. It wasn't until we hit upon the idea of untying the balloons from each other that we were finally able to give the individual balloons their freedom. We launched each balloon into the air & the last we saw of them they were climbing steadily in the warm desert air currents, laughing & giggling, & heading for destinations unknown. There is a connection here with Bert & Fred & if you are quick enough to catch those balloons, maybe, just maybe, they will tell you what it is.........................:)) WASN'T UNTIL WE UNTIED EACH ONE & SET IT FREE THAT THEY ALL SOARED HAPPILY UPWARD & AWAY:))

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Light travels faster than sound. That's why some people seem bright until you hear them speak.

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/
The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.

A CYBER RETURN TO BRYCE CANYON & THE MAJESTIC HOODOOS

SOME OF THE HOODOOS IN BRYCE CANYON, UTAH (click to enlarge)

It was kind of a gloomy cloud covered morning so figured I needed some good old southwest sunshine & scenery to cheer me up....real quick!!. Cracked open my Picasa Web Albums site, put on my hiking boots, & took me for a cyber walk through BRYCE CANYON, Utah. OUR 'BRYCE CANYON PINES' CAMPGROUND WEST OF BRYCE CANYON RUBYS INN

I first hiked the Sunrise/Sunset trail in Bryce back in May of 1992 & what I saw that time has always stayed with me. Kelly had never been there so in November of 2007 we rolled into Utah's Bryce Canyon area with our hiking boots at the ready, our water bottles filled, & our enthusiasm in overdrive. ON THE SUNRISE TRAIL INTO THE CANYON

We had a few touches of snow here & there because of the higher elevation but we found a cozy & quiet little campground about 6 or 7 miles west of Bryce on highway 12 called, The Bryce Canyon Pines & as luck would have it.....we had the whole campground to ourselves for the 2 days & nights we stayed there. THIRD HOODOO ON THE RIGHT IS THOR'S HAMMER

It was breakfast next morning at the well known RUBY'S INN (nice place but expensive!!) & it was off for a few hours hiking in Bryce Canyon just a few miles down the road. There are various trails in Bryce but we chose the Sunrise to Sunset 1.6 mile trail because I remembered how nice it was from back in 92. It's easy walking with wide flat paths as you descend into the canyon but there are some grades & a steep switchback climb out of the canyon at the other end of the trail at Sunset Point. It's one of those walks where you really want to take your time to see everything because the beauty of the hoodoos are all around you. There is an overwhelming sense of peace & serenity here so there is no hurry to finish the walk. ON THE FLOOR OF THE CANYON

Bryce isn't a canyon that you just stand & admire from afar, it is a canyon that you become a part of as you hike right down to the floor of the canyon itself. It's a magical fairyland of cotton candy colors with castles, spires,, hoodoos, & great gargantuan rock creatures lurking all around you every foot of the way. This is a place you have to see to appreciate. Again, a picture is worth a thousand words so come walk with Kelly & I as we take you around the winding magical PATHWAYS OF BRYCE CANYON:)) (you might like to click on the Slideshow feature when you get there) KELLY COMING THROUGH A HOLE IN THE ROCK

GROANER'S CORNER:(( If at first you don't succeed......skydiving is not for you!!

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/
The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.

IT HAPPENED ONE DARK OCTOBER NIGHT

THESE ARE A FEW OF TO-DAY'S PHOTOS

Decided for the sake of variety I'd reach back into my little bag of blogs & pull out one I wrote nearly a year ago. In other words my brain seems to missing on a few cylinders to-night. I was reminded of this blog to-day when I saw what appeared to be a large pink colored bird circling over our front yard frog pond early this morning. It took me back to an event which occurred near where we live, began with a telephone call from Canada's east coast, & had me out silently skulking about on a darkened October night.............. Click on COVERT OPERATION.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( You know your getting old when you sit in a rocking chair and can't get it going.

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/
The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.