QUIET DAY BUT TOMORROW I'M OFF TO GHOST MOUNTAIN......AGAIN:))

SEEN AT THE VISITOR'S CENTER TODAY

Thin high cloud cover early this morning made for a cool start to the day but by 9 the sun had vaporized the clouds & we were up & running with a very warm day.  I like when that happens.

Quick trip into Borrego Springs this morning to drop off some garbage, a few things at the grocery store, filled a couple jugs of water, & stopped into the Anza Borrego State Park Visitor's Center.  If you come to Borrego do not miss this place.  It is built into the side of a hill & the roof is actually a desert garden with pathways meandering among the many species of desert plant life here.  I didn't take a lot of pics because I did that last year & the year before.  We arrived just in time for an informative 15 minute show on Anza Borrego State Park.  Grabbed ourselves a schedule of upcoming events for the month of March & headed back to the rig with short stop at the library & local Coyote thrift store.

By the way, Borrego Springs has some very ritzy sections to it & here is one of them.  RITZY  Took these photos last year when we were here.

                      

PHOTO ON LEFT IS ACTUALLY THE ROOF OF THE ANZA STATE PARK'S VISITOR CENTER

A reader inquired about our flag pole set up so I took some pics this morning.  First thing, there are two kinds of poles.  A flag pole & a windsock pole.  Two different things.  In the pictures it is the green pole that is for the windsock.  That's the one I will end up stepping on & breaking at some point requiring another trip to Quartzsite next year.  That 16' pole is made of light fiberglass & just telescopes down into itself & is maybe 3' long.  The photos show the simple 2 piece plastic holders for that clamped to the ladder with band-it clamps.  Seconds to set the pole in or take out.  Can't tell you too much about professional flag poles because I made ours with an old broken hockey stick, some rope, & a whole lotta duct tape, plus a busted aluminum pole.  It's holder just simply bolts on to the rear ladder as well.  Got all that stuff in Quartzsite last year. 

                                               

WIND SOCK POLE HAS TWO ATTACHMENTS (click to enlarge)

Gotta be real careful about where & how you fly your flags though.  It's a touchy subject to a lot of folks here in the States.  We used to just fly our Canadian flag but twice I was hastily approached by 2 separate irate RV'ers telling me I could not do that.  It was an insult to their country.  Not wanting to be the sole reason for having our 2 great countries go to war over a flag issue I did a little research on etiquette.  Well, that opens up a whole new can of worms as people on the RV NET FORUM well know.  Anyway, to make a long flag story short & keep the peace we now fly our Canadian flag underneath the American flag.  So far so good.  And, if anybody asks, our windsock is just simply a red & white windsock with a red leaf design on it......10-4:))

                                        

HOCKEY STICK FLAG POLE HAS IT'S OWN HOLDER

In RICK'S BLOG this morning he blogged about putting together a Picasa talk for a group of people at his RV Park.  That got me to thinking a bit.  I've been using Picasa for quite awhile now & sort of have an idea about how it all works.  Maybe I'll start throwing in a few things I've learned & what I do to my photos to help them out.  I will start off today with the cropping tool.  This can be your most bestest friend in the whole Picasa program.  I see a lot of good photos that could be better with just a few clicks here & a few snips there.  I have salvaged many poorly composed photos by simply looking for another photo within the photo.  You may have to take a big chunk of sky or foreground out or eliminate parts of the sides.  Common mistake folks make with photos is to include way too much blank blue sky.  I've seen photos where blue eats up half to two thirds of the whole photograph.  Learn to use your cropping tool & get the majority of that sky out of your picture.  If the sky has big fluffy clouds, that's a different story & I'll talk about that later in, 'composition.'   If you made the mistake of centering your subject right smack dab in the middle of the picture then use your cropping tool to crop off one or the other side, or top or bottom thus, moving your subject off center.  Trust me, it's probably going to look a lot better than what you have.  I use this tool a lot & even when composing a shot I'm thinking ahead to how I may have to crop it later.  Remember, if you messed up the photo in the first place, chances are probably good that you can still salvage it in your Picasa program simply by re-composing it using your cropping tool.

SOCKY GEEPERS TAKES THE DESERT STONE TURTLE FOR A SPIN THIS MORNING

I found Ken & Nanette's blog OUR ADVENTURE CHRONICLES interesting this morning when Ken fielded some questions from one of his readers about the RV lifestyle.  He has some good answers there & of course I have to throw my two cents worth into the mix as well.  First, yes it is one of many forms of lifestyles.  Fulltiming is a lifestyle of it's own just as snowbirding is.  People who do not have RV's have a different type of lifestyle just as Eskimo people live differently than traveling Bedouins in the Kalahari desert or wherever traveling Bedoins happen to travel.  I have blogged about this before several times saying our winters in the southwest & our summers in the northeast are two different lifestyles, which they are.  Neither one is a vacation & there are very few similarities between the two different lifestyles.  I have also blogged about the minor difficulties transitioning between the two lifestyles twice a year as well.

Before we got into RVing we dreamed about a wonderful world of travel & adventure just like most folks out there right now thinking along the same lines.  We couldn't wait to get ourselves out onto the open roads for the fun & excitement.  Nothing wrong with that way of optimistic thinking & it's what dreams are made of.  But, you have to remember one important thing.  Along with those dreams comes the very realistic side of........problems!!  Regardless of who or what you are, you will never ever be without problems.  You may have quit your job, retired, sold your house, downsized to a cottage or condo, or whatever.  No matter, you still got your problems.  And when you get yourself away from all that stuff & out onto the road you are still going to have....... your problems. 

 

Here's the way I see it.  Through life we are constantly burdened with ever changing sacks of problems.  Some bigger & heavier than others.  Whether you know it or not every human being on the planet is a constant customer at the 'problem store.'  It's probably the busiest store in the world.  When you tire of a set of problems, you take that sack to the problem store & get rid of it.  In other words you deal with that specific set of problems.  However, you do not walk out of that store problem free.  You only trade in that sack of old problems for a sack of new ones.  A sack of new problems is generally more exciting than that old sack you just traded in though.  I often tire of old ones & regularly trade them in for brand spanking new ones.

Ok, here's what I'm getting at & I'll direct this one more to the fulltiming folks even though it also applies to the rest of us in varying degrees.  You have a dream, you have a vision & you sell your house & all your stuff.  You have just been to the problem store & got rid of that whole sack of sticks & bricks lifestyle problems .   At last, what a relief:))  But, wait a minute, remember the rule.  It's only a trade in & now you must pick up your new set of problems.  It's mandatory & there is no getting out of it!!  You now exit the 'problem store with a complete new sack of problems.

Your new sack is going to contain some surprises for you.  Yes, there are still all the old stand-by favs like leaky plumbing, electrical headaches, leaking doors & window, carpet spills & stains, plugged toilets, hot water shortages, blackouts, leaky roofs, & furnace failures, etc. etc.  Some of the new surprises may come in the form of rooms (slides) becoming stuck & leaving you boondocked out in the middle of nowhere with no way to go anywhere.  Or how about one of your hydraulic jacks not retracting & leaving you in the same position as above.  Don't laugh, both those things have happened to us.  Other surprises hiding in your little sack of new problems might have to do with things like a sudden & messy break in a sewer line at a dumping station, wind gusts while driving or boondocking that are trying to totally eliminate you from the face of the planet, crowded campgrounds that require you to grease the sides of your unit to fit it into a space, hauling 50 or 60 feet or more through unfamiliar large cities, breakdowns, accidents, soaring fuel costs, shaky security, sudden or long term health issues with no immediate health services around, no personal physician,  no Tim Hortons for a thousand miles in any direction, blow outs on the interstates, & the endless list just goes on & on & on.  The fact of living in small box about 8 feet wide by 33 feet long for weeks, months, & years at a time generates it's own set of problems.  Throw in a cranky old Cursmudgeon & 3 aging dogs & the sack of problems just gets heavier for all concerned.

DESERT LILY

Anyway, I think you get my drift when I say the RV dream lifestyle has to looked at through totally realistic eyes.  However, don't look too hard or you just might be forced to abandon your dream focus.  You just may resolve yourself to hanging onto your old sack of problems.  You may convince yourelf that at least with them you know what to expect in their boring humdrum routine. 

But, you know what, gimme a new set of problems any day & let me go live & play where I wanna be.  Give me the cold nights, the big winds, the broken water pump, & the flat tires.  Just don't make me grind along any longer with the same heavy old sack of boring problems. 

Ya know what........I think I'm long overdue for a good old trip to the 'problem store'.....10-4!!

Welcome to new blog follower WILD BLUE YONDER  You have an under water turtle on your blogsite & we have a stone turtle here in the desert where we are boondocking.

GROANER'S CORNER:((   If a man is alone in the garden and speaks, and there is no woman to hear him,
is he still wrong?

   

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.

WE MOVED OUR HOUSE AGAIN THIS MORNING:))

THIS MORNING'S SETTING MOON OVER THE SAN YSIDRO MOUNTAINS

Made sure we were up early this morning.  Didn't want Wandering Willy squeaking out on us & we knew he would be packing up his satellite gear about 6:30.  Nice sunrise & no wind so looked like a good travel day for him & I think he was hoping to make it up the other side of Bakersfield.  I think he'll probably be back in British Columbia & home by the week-end for sure.

                                                                 

WANDERING WILLY PACKS UP  (click pics to enlarge)

Took a few pics as WW packed up his stuff, did a lights, turn signals, & brake lights check on the trailer, said our good-byes & Wandering Willy was cheerily off into the sunrise.  And I think cheerily is a fitting description for Bill.  He just has that about him.  He also wanted me to let folks know that he would maybe try to get a blog out on the way home somewhere.   But, if we don't hear from him he is probably fine.  Like he said, his blog is for traveling & when he's home it's hard for him to think of anything to blog about.  When he pops up on our blog list I will let folks know.

HEADING OFF INTO THE SUNRISE......'SEE YA LATER WILLY:))'

Thought we would have us a look for a better spot this morning & it wasn't long before we found one.  We came across the site where a couple of fellows had their Airstream trailers parked when we were here in January 09.  Drove the computer over to the site & was surprised we could get 3 out of 4 bars on our Verizon  internet signal.  That was the clincher so we packed up all our stuff yet again & headed the quarter mile to the new location.  It's further back from the highway & now we can see the greening Clark Dry Lake Bed all the way back up into the canyon.  Really a nice spot & thanks to the Airstream trailer guys, Michael & Paul we have a nicely laid out & stone bordered spot.

In the last couple of years here at the Clark Dry Lake Bed site we met a fellow by the name of Butch & it was he who first took us up into the Palm & Borrego Slot Canyons.  First thing we did when we pulled in a couple weeks ago was look for Butch but he was not to be found.  Hauled my binoculars out back then & scanned all the rigs in the area we knew he would be but didn't spot his rig. This morning when we found this site & recognized it as the Airstream site we emailed one of the guys who had been here just to say 'hi, we're on your old site.'  Minutes later an email came back from Paul saying they were all over in Slab City including Butch.  Said they were heading up into Joshua State Park later in the month so we may see them there.  It's a small but hugely internetted world we live in out here in the RV community.

    

Noticed we have some new blog followers so a big welcome goes out to  Cyndi, & jld52405, plus Gail & TC's travels. 

Noticed in Facebook that MOTTY had inquired if we made it all the way up to the palms in Palm Canyon here in Borrego Springs.  The answer to that is yes, & you can see the pics from the day our desert friend Butch led us up there on Dec 21/07...BORREGO SPRINGS PALM CANYON HIKE

Well, I think I will uncharacteristically keep this blog short tonight, throw in a few pics & call it a day.........

GROANER'S CORNER:((    Q: What can a husband do when his wife is going through menopause?

A: Keep busy. If he's handy with tools he can finish the basement & when he's finished he'll have a place to live!!

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.

I'M PROBABLY THE ONLY PERSON WHO VOLUNTARILY NEVER WATCHED THE HOCKEY GAME TODAY

DESERT LILY (200mm)

We did battle with the wind all night again.  It came like a thief in the night robbing me of a good night's sleep. (if there is such a thing anymore) Woke me up at 1:30 & had me out of bed by 3:20.  Turned on the computer at 3:25 & the wind quit at 3:30.  Banged around on the keyboard until 5:10 & was back in bed by 5:15.  The winds waited 20 minutes to make sure I was fully asleep & then pounced at 5:35.  I was madly on my feet again by 5:40 & mentally, my day was over by 5:45 A.M.

                        

WHAT THE HECK IS KELLY DOING.......SMELLING A DESERT LILY OF COURSE

Sunny but cool this morning as we saw Wandering Willy speed by on his 40 minute morning walk.  Tried to get a picture of him but there was just a trail of desert dust as he speeded up & over Coyote Mountain to our west.  I did catch the red jacketed road runner on his way back though.

SEE THE RED DOT AT BOTTOM RIGHT

                  

IT'S THE HAPPY WANDERER HIMSELF.....WANDERING WILLY:))

Wandering Willy (Bill) & I sat outside in lawn chairs for the whole morning discussing the price of tea in China, the economic downturn in outer Mongolia, & the flamboyant life of the South African Tse Tse fly.  Between those subjects we touched on satellite dishes, blogs, fellow bloggers, RVing in general, travel routes, & favorite places to stay.  About noon Kelly said something about a hockey game & I noticed the whole world seemed to stop.  It was like the planet's population disappeared into their television sets.  I wondered if maybe they were playing a rerun of the last hockey game I watched when Johnny Bower was in the net for the Toronto Maple Leafs & Jacques Plante was in goal for the Montreal Canadians at the other end.  Now them's was the days of good hockey!!

  200 mm

SNOW ON THE MOUNTAIN TOPS THIS MORNING

Sometimes on our hikes we get into some rock scrambly areas where footing is not the best & it's easy to take a tumble.  I have noticed some folks using walking sticks to help them along with their steady balance.  I'm usually carrying camera gear so for me a stick just gets in the way.  Kelly sometimes has some balancing problems & has been considering getting a walking stick.  I just thought a stick was just a stick until I read BARNEY'S post a few months back.  I saved it & had intended to include it in the blog but kept forgetting to put it in.  I thought of it last night & today so here it is.  An informative post about the importance of having a proper WALKING STICK.

MISTY MOUNTAIN RAIN (200mm)

For the most part I really like our new Toshiba laptops but there are a couple things I wished they would have left alone.  Our old Toshy has an easily accessible wheel to turn for volume control.  The new one has a + & - sign to press for doing that but I prefer the wheel.  Because of the number pad on the right the keyboard is shifted to the left so I've always got my arm placement & fingers wrong.  I liked the bigger & solider start button on the old one too.  And this new Toshiba has such a smooth shiny finish that not even a fly could land on it without skidding right off the end of the runway.  It shows every fingerprint from here to Swahili land.  Says it has harman/kardon speakers but it still spells tin can sound in my books.  Other than those few little gripes, I really like it.  And besides, it wouldn't be right if I didn't have a gripe about something would it.

Kelly finally jumped through & over all the hoops & barrels re-installing Winamp.  She then successfully transferred all the music files for the second time between the two laptops so now I have all my music files again.  Transferring all our Outlook Express address's to Windows Live Mail has proved to be a separate monster all of itself!!  I had a big accomplishment day as well.  I picked up some small stones around the rig & combed my hair.

 

MOUNTAINS IN THE MIST (700mm)

Will check tomorrow at the Anza Borrego visitor's center for their March brochure of events.  Would really like to take one of their guided tours of Ghost Mountain if they are having any more.  Really wanted to get in on some of the Astronomy night classes but I think they may be over until the fall.

INSIDE THE SAN YSIDRO MOUNTAINS (200mm)

Had my Atlas out again this afternoon trying to decide where we are going once we leave here whenever that is.  Borrego Springs will probably be our furthest point west this trip so when we leave here it will be the start of our long slow trek northeast towards home.  I imagine we will be somewhere in eastern California or northeastern Arizona next month about this time.  All depends on weather up in that neck of the woods.

                                   

I was sitting outside in a lawn chair with the computer on my lap this afternoon when I heard the simultaneous "Yaaaaay" from both WW's rig & ours.  The hockey game was over & Canada had won:))  Bill (WW) & I sat outside chatting for the rest of the afternoon & I'm sure that is the longest I have talked to one single person in many many months.  Truly a nice fellow & we will miss him when he rolls out early in the morning.

I did upload 2 new Picasa Web Albums today with more photos from the last couple of days.

EARLY MORNING PHOTO SHOOT & WW

CHRISTMAS CIRCLE PLUS THE OREGON GUYS VISIT THE MOTORMOUSE

GROANER'S CORNER:((  As migration approached, two elderly vultures doubted they could make the trip south, so they decided to go by airplane.
When they checked their baggage, the attendant noticed that they were carrying two dead raccoons. "Do you wish to check the raccoons through as luggage?" she asked.
"No, thanks," replied the vultures. "They're carrion."

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.