THE WINDS ARE FINALLY AT REST

"SSSSHHHHHH"......THIS IS A LIBRARY:))

The air is still at last.  No swirling dust, no rocking coach, & no noisy flapping of awnings.  The winds are finally dormant.

                        

BORREGO SPRINGS LIBRARY......KELLY WORKS AT INSTALLING SKYPE ON THE NEW LAPTOP

Our nearest neighbors Rue & Don pulled out this morning in their travel trailer heading for Yuma.  A Canadian Class A has moved into the neighborhood & the folks are from Ottawa.  They hadn't been here for 5 years & said it was surprising at how few rigs are here.  Said even Peg Leg Smith's has thinned out considerably compared to what it was.

CREOSOTE BUSH

We loaded up the new computer this morning & headed for the Library in town.  I wanted to download a photo program called, Gimp & didn't want to do that using our limited Verizon plan.  Kelly also installed Skype on the new Toshiba.  Filled up some water jugs in the north end of town & drove through the Anza Borrego State Park to check out their dump & water facilities.  This is a very scenic SP set right under the massive San Ysidro mountains & this is where Palm Canyon begins.  We did that hike 2 years ago & you can see the photos from that day here. PALM CANYON Saw about a dozen big horn sheep high up on a canyon face that time too.

  

THE ROAD TO ANZA BORREGO STATE PARK

We were back to the rig shortly after noon & spent the rest of the day lazing around just enjoying being outside again without the wind blowing us across the desert floor like a couple of tumbleweeds.

                 

RELAXING AFTERNOON IN THE SONORAN DESERT

It seems each day the surrounding hillsides are just a tad greener & we are beginning to see a few isolated flowers blooming here & there.  No big color yet.....but it's coming:))

  

DESERT LILY

GYPSY http://gypsy97.blogspot.com/ had a comment question about yesterday's blog wondering how many 'Sons of the Pioneers' tunes we had.  That peeked my interest so this morning I had  me a look at our 1,312 music files & discovered 53 of those were Pioneer songs.  73 are from the 1940's Big Band era.  28 from the 50's, 133 from the 60's, 53 from the 70's, 64 from the 80's, & 42 from the 90's.    Ninety one tunes in our Country & Western file. (not including the Pioneers) Kelly has well over a hundred of her favorites in a file as well.  The rest of the music library is made up mainly of ambient music.  I have a file entitled Al's Favs with 348 instrumental pieces.    Some of my favorite artists are, Will Ackerman, Andreas Vollenweider, Michael Hedges,  & George Winston, just to name a few.

BROWN EYED EVENING PRIMROSE - ?? - CREOSOTE (click pics to enlarge)

Had an amusing thing happen awhile back when I nearly set myself on fire.  Was sitting outside on a bright sunny day looking at one of our big road Atlas's.  I find everything so small & hard to read on maps now so I had my big magnifying glass with me.  I had the Atlas open looking at a page without the magnifier but was holding it upright in my right hand.  Kelly was sitting in the chair beside me reading a book.  I thought I detected the smell of smoke so looked out across the desert to the nearest rig figuring they had a campfire going.  Couldn't see any smoke anywhere.......except about 3 inches in front of my face.  Looked down & my shirt was smoking.  Said to Kelly, "hey, look at this!!"  The sun shining through the magnifying glass had focused to a hot point on my shirt & was in the process of igniting it.  I moved the glass & the threat was over but you can see how accidents can happen.  Probably most of us guys can remember frying ants on a sidewalk like that years ago when we were kids.  Oh boy, I sure am going to have a lot to answer for some day:((

DESERT LILY'S

Blogs can be many things to many people & one of the things I enjoy about writing a daily blog is the fact it is not only a fun hobby but it is also an accurate record of one's activities.  I was reminded of that when I decided to have a look back to see exactly where we were & what we were doing one year ago today.  Turns out it was the day we did our grueling hike up to the Cochise Stronghold in the Dragoon Mountains of Arizona.  Two years ago today was our last boondocking day in the Ajo highlands just off Darby Wells Road west of Ajo, Az.  Said good-bye to our London friends Mike & Maureen that morning & drove to HICKIWAN TRAILS RV PARK http://hickiwantrailsrvpark.com/ for our last night in the southwest before beginning our long journey home on Feb 24.  And 3 years ago today we had already been home 3 weeks after battling snow storms coming through Michigan with our truck & fifth wheel at the end of January.  Kinda fun looking back through old blogs & kinda scary too if your me!!

             

?? - CREOSOTE BUSH - ??

GROANER'S CORNER:((  Why are husbands like lawn mowers? 
They are difficult to get started, emit foul smells,
and don't work half the time.

BLOGGER WEBSITE http://thebayfieldbunch.com/

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

The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...... AL.

GROUNDED BY THE WIND

KELLY MAKES HER WAY ACROSS A ROCKY SECTION OF COYOTE MOUNTAIN....BORREGO SPRINGS IN THE DISTANCE (Don't know why Blogger distorted the above picture so bad)

The wind remained in the rigging all night & had me up from 3 to 5 a.m. Noticed RICK over on the other side of the mountain must have been up early as well because I saw his new post publish somewhere in that time frame. I think we are into about our 4th consecutive day of high winds. Our hike this morning on Coyote Mountain was fine going up the southeast slope but when we reached a high ridge we were nearly blown right into the middle of next week. Late morning saw the west end of the canyon suddenly cloud over with darkening clouds right down onto the deck & minutes later we were being buffeted with wind driven rain. Meanwhile we could look out the south windows of the rig & see Borrego Springs & the entire valley in sunshine. After 20 minutes of wind & rain.....all was calm & sunny. Crazy mountain weather but that's OK because at least it isn't the same old boring weather day after day after day. Weatherman is calling for warmer temps & diminished winds for the rest of the week. Yaaay team:))

Now that we are becoming a bit more familiar with our GPS system & have also acquired a little sock monkey at the Thrift store we have hit upon a silly idea. In our travels we come across many interesting places & great scenic views. The Inukshuk I found the other day on Coyote mountain was one of those Neat-O places. We are going to start carrying Socky Von Geepers (soft G) with us & placing him in selected photos from that 'Geo Photo site' with the GPS coordinates. Thought maybe that might work along the lines of this Geo cache thing that seems to be so popular & which of course we still don't understand. We will probably begin leaving one of our Bayfield Bunch cards at these Geo Photo sites as well. I thought of the name 'Socky Von Geepers' this morning on our walk. You will notice Geepers (soft G) has the letters GPS. The eee letters stand for the 'eeek' sound a monkey makes with Geep Geep also being a monkey sound. (soft G) The letter 'r' stands for the rig he lives in, our motorhome, & the S at the end also stands for his first name......Socky. Therefore..................Socky Von Geepers:))

<<<< AND, THIS IS SOCKY VON GEEPERS RESTING UP AT THE RIG BEFORE STARTING HIS NEW GEO PHOTO CAREER

Have been having a few Live Writer problems in the new Win 7 computer so today we worked on that plus transferring over a thousand music files from the old laptop to the new one via an external hard drive. I have never cared for Windows Media Player & always use WINAMP so we both had quite a time with the transfer. I did all that stuff a few years back but Winamp has had many upgrades since then & my mind stumbles with all the new methods & newer ways of doing things now.

A GIANT BAT LIKE MANTA RAY CLOUD CRAB BEGINS IT'S SLOW ASCENT UP THE MOUNTAIN SIDE WHILE A SMALL BLUE SNUB NOSE SUNFISH CLOUD GLIDES SILENTLY ACROSS A CANYON WALL

And I do not agree with the idea that, 'newer is always better.' That's a pile of baloney. I remember the good old days when you could walk up to a stereo system, reach out with your hand & by turning a round knob, increase or decrease the volume. But can we do that now with the new stuff?? No, because volume, bass, treble etc is now all internalized so you have to press some goofy button to go to this or that menu & that menu may lead you to another series of menus & slider bars which in turn may require you to enter the color of your socks & the last three numbers of your Great Uncles dog tags from the first world war. Why can't we just simply turn a knob to to do all those functions. Why the brain drain every time I want to simply change a setting or radio station on the vehicle radio. Remember the good old days when you could just turn a knob right or left to change stations. Turn a knob to increase the treble etc. Whatever happened to those good old simple ways of doing things!!!!

HIKING THE MORNING TRAIL (click to enlarge pics)

Ok, & while I'm at it.....texting schmexting!! I've never sent nor am I ever likely to send a text mail thingy or whatever. Haven't even got a cell phone!! Heck, that might mean I'd have to get myself stuck talking to someone on the other end of the darned fangled thing. I have enough trouble keeping a conversation going at the best of times let alone trying to do it with something I can barely see to read anyway. And besides, the person at the other end is likely to ask me to do something I don't want to do & I would meekly agree to do it anyway!!!! Phones schmones........whatever happened to carrier pigeons!! Ya ya, I know, the birdseed got too expensive......sheeeeeesh!!

MAX AT BOTTOM RIGHT HEADS DOWN A LONG COYOTE MOUNTAIN PATH

Computers & email are my favorite form of communication. Why, because it gives me time to think about what I'm saying. (doesn't always work though because that 'send' button sure has got me into trouble sometimes) Another thing I like about email is I don't run the risk of being put on the spot. It buys me time to fabricate a soft white fib in order to extricate myself from any messy situation. And, I don't have to see the other person & make wrong decisions based on the nasty stare I think they are giving me nor may I be intimidated by the large baseball bat they may be holding in their hand while putting that very same stare on me.

PUPPY DOG POODLE FLOATS BY ON HIS BACK WHILE A CLOUD TURTLE EATS A SLICE OF PIZZA

And, as I am feeling a little extra opinionated on this boring stuck in the rig wind infested Monday I will include the following statement that I ran across on the internet a few years ago. I like to include it in the blog every once & awhile just to keep things in what I feel are their proper perspective in my world or reality.

"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.

"Astrology dis-empowers 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."

And welcome to our latest blog followers Charlie & Peggy with their blog site THE ROLLING CONDO. And welcome to new blog follower Eileen for climbing aboard, Travels With The Bayfield Bunch:))

And to answer FRED & WILMA'S comment question in last night's blog....Yes, Rick & I do speak the same dialect lingo despite being from different parts of Canada. If one of us lived in Quebec & the other in Newfoundland we would probably have ended up communicating with wild jestering hand signals.

TURNED OUT TO BE A GOOD DAY FOR CATCHING UP SOME READING

For whatever reason Live Writer would not publish the blog tonight & kept putting up an Error 400 message.  Had to go back & re-do the blog in Blogger.     zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Why do cowboys always die with their boots on? So they won't stub their toes when they kick the bucket.

BLOGGER WEBSITE http://thebayfieldbunch.com/

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

The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now....AL.

ANZA-BORREGO'S MIGHTY MOUSE PILOT & SURPRISE VISITORS IN THE AFTERNOON

KELLY McCAGUE.... HER AIRPLANE & HER HANGAR
After today's 'Tailgate Tour' at the Borrego Airport with California's only State Park pilot, Kelly McCague, I felt I had just met a real life 'Mighty Mouse!!'  This little lady is a prime example of a sure fire modern day multi-tasker.   Kelly is a full blown State Park ranger complete with a gun, nightstick, & a bullet proof vest she sometimes has to sit on. (more about that later)  And, she carries whatever else peace officers may need in the line of duty.   I think what makes Kelly special is her pilot's license, her 5 foot something frame, her big friendly personality, & the fact she truly loves her job.    
We went to bed last night with the wind  & we woke up with the wind this morning.  Again, the sky was a mottle of huge iceberg clouds hanging over the valley casting long dark shadows on the mountains & canyon walls.  Our walk up the footpath on Coyote Mountain was short but Max & I did manage to get a little further along than the other guys.  His leg was bothering him so we turned back.

PEG LEG SMITH BOONDOCKERS ON RIGHT.... HIGHWAY LEADING TO BORREGO SPRINGS ON LEFT WITH AN ATV AREA LEFT OF THE CURVE & BORREGO SPRINGS ITSELF IS VISIBLE AT TOP CENTER OF PHOTO MOVING BACK TOWARDS THE SAN YSIDRO MOUNTAINS.  PHOTO TAKEN FROM COYOTE MOUNTAIN

FIRECRACKER NEIGHBORS ARE BOTTOM BUNCH OF VEHICLES, WE ARE ABOVE LEFT & NEIGHBORS RUE & DON ARE IN THE TRUCK TRAILER COMBO AT RIGHT
Our 'firecracker' neighbors pulled out about 11 this morning so things should be a bit quieter now.  They set off fireworks last night around 9 which really spooked Checkers & little Cora but other than that they were surprisingly quieter than either Kelly or I had expected.

MY BOY MAX ON THE MORNING TRAIL
Headed for the small Borrego Airport about 11:45 & joined a group of about a dozen people for the the noon Tailgate Tour.  Ranger pilot Kelly McCague met everyone in the terminal office & walked us all down the tarmac to a long hanger building.   Because of the heavy wind gusts & dust in the air this morning Kelly did not put the plane outside.  At about 2,000 pounds the 180 horsepower Aviat Husky A-1 is light by aircraft standards.
 
KELLY McCAGUE MEETS US IN THE OFFICE & TAKES EVERYBODY OUTSIDE TO THE HANGER
Anza-Borrego State Park is the largest SP in California covering over a thousand acres so Kelly is a very busy Ranger with many duties.  She prefers to fly her patrols in the quieter morning air but developing situations never play by the rules.  She has had times where it took her 3 attempts in the 30mph crosswinds to finally get the plane down onto the runway in one piece.  She has flown the canyons with headphones on listening to the tell tale signal from tagged Bighorn Sheep.  Other times she's had to fly Park & civilian personnel in the tiny back seat to check out property markers & future Park real estate.  She said that idea never really worked well because the back seat passengers often became sick in the light bouncy aircraft.  She just ended up photographing the various properties herself & filling out the reports.  Much easier & less messy that way.  She also flies the Park's boundaries checking for encroachment.
      
IT'S A SMALL COCKPIT IN THERE PACKED WITH ALL KINDS OF INSTRUMENTS
Kelly flies searches for missing & injured hikers, stolen cars, & vehicle accidents of all kinds.  She has to co-ordinate all the ground personel in directing Rangers up canyons & mountain sides to locations only visible from the air.   Gun calls always make her nervous.  Whenever a call comes in about firearms being fired somewhere in the Park she takes to the air in search of the location.  She said she has never been shot at that she knows of but did have a gun pointed up at her one time & that is why she sits on her bullet proof vest rather than wares it.  Most of the airplane is made of fabric so it is no deterrent to a bullet coming up from the ground.  But, there is another danger in the air that she has no control over even though it could easily be prevented.  She doesn't always see them until they rocket by her & at times underneath her even when she herself is under a thousand feet off the ground.
 
FIELDING QUESTIONS
Fast flying American fighter jets train in this area & it is not unusual for those jets to be in the canyons flying only 50 feet off the ground.  About 6 weeks ago a boy scout fell high up in one of the canyons & was badly injured.  Two helicopters were brought in as the rescue began.  Ground units & Rangers on foot made their way to the boy's site.  Kelly was above flying a circle pattern round & round the scene co-ordinating the helicopters, the ground Rangers, & relaying messages between several radios back & forth to various departments on the ground.  Her radio suddenly crackled with a Ranger's voice several miles away down the canyon telling her to watch out, two fighter jets had flown into the canyon.  No sooner than that when she saw the first jet flash by beneath her followed closely by the second one.  The California State Park officials have spoken to the military about the dangerous air space problem but the military's answer is, "There is a war on!!"  So, basically speaking, the military fly's where it wants, when it wants, as fast as it wants, & as low as it wants.......period!!
 
HANDY DEVICE ENABLES KELLY TO MOVE HER OWN PLANE AROUND.....WING MOUNTED DIRECTIONAL ANTENNEAS FOR DETECTING TAGGED BIGHORN SHEEP.....AND A LITTLE BIT OF HOME AT THE HANGAR
It's a dangerous job she has but in her own words, "l love it."  So, if you are in the Borrego Springs area be sure to drop into the Desert Nature Store on main street & pick up a monthly brochure of events & don't miss coming out to meet a dynamic little Mighty Mouse with a big personality, a big job, & a little airplane:))
I was back to the rig about 1:15 & headed inside because of the big winds going on & that reminded me of something Kelly had mentioned in her talk earlier that I didn't like.  She said her hardest flying times are from mid February to mid June because of the bad winds.  So, let me see now, we are only one week past mid February so I guess we can expect big winds for the duration of the time we are here.

BIG WINDS WERE KICKING UP THE DESERT DUST THIS AFTERNOON...THAT IS TOM'S RIG OVER THERE &  HE IS THE ULTRA LITE GLIDER PILOT WE MET A COUPLE DAYS AGO. (not the one who had the wind gust problem)
It was about 2:45 this afternoon when our dog alarm went off.   I was sitting in my chair with our new laptop on my (where else) lap & was somewhere between dozeville & typing when there came upon our door.......a knock!!  Kelly opened the door & I heard, "Hellooooo, are you the Bayfield Bunch!!"   It was RICK & PAULETTE http://rickpaulettervjournal.blogspot.com/ who had driven over via Julian from Desert  Hot Springs on the other side of the mountains.  Needless to say it was quite a pleasant surprise as we scrambled to set up some lawn chairs.  I had just laid them all on the ground plus taken the flags down an hour before because of the heavy winds.   Our motorhome is basically set up for 2 people & 3 dogs so whenever we get company (which isn't too often) we generally sit outside. ( in hindsight we should have all come inside out of the wind)   It was great to finally meet Rick after all this time of blogging & emailing back & forth.  We had us a good chuckle about some of our blog followers maybe being concerned about our different views of the RVing lifestyle when we kind of locked horns in a couple recent blogs.

HEY, THIS OLD DUSTY DESERT DOG GOT HIS ARM AROUND ME!!!!
 
The cool winds did not let up as we all chatted back & forth.  Rick was wanting to catch the afternoons Olympic hockey game back home between Canada & the U.S. so they didn't stay too long.  Rick & I grabbed our cameras & had us real quick shoot out & it wasn't until after Rick & Paulette left that I realized I had left my camera set on manual focus so was disappointed my pics were probably not going to be good.    However, all may not yet be lost because WANDERING WILLY http://wanderingwillystravels.blogspot.com/ is probably heading for Borrego Springs next week & Rick said he would like to come back & meet WW so we may be having us another dust up in the desert very soon. 
    

SANTA ROSA MOUNTAINS AT SUNSET
Oh ya, & we had to scramble our F16 Furry fighter squadron late this afternoon when an unknown truck & fifth wheel approached almost unseen very close from the southeast.  The guys did their job well again & bounced the bogey in focused short bursts of battlefield barking.  Last we saw of the intruder he was lost in a trail of dust heading back out to the road:))
GROANER'S CORNER:((  Did you know a shotgun wedding is sometimes thought of as a case of wife or death.
BLOGGER WEBSITE http://thebayfieldbunch.com/
OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/
The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...... AL.