DO NOT ROLL DOWN THE JEEP WINDOWS!!!!

THIS LITTLE GOLDFINCH IS HAVING HIMSELF QUITE A SPLASHY BATH

Now, before I get any further into today's post let me just quickly say this.  "Will somebody please be kind enough to email me a good swift kick in the ASSparagus if I blog about this 'blogging thing' one more time!!"  Thank you in advance:))

PUTTING THE FINAL FEW SPLOOTCHES OF PAINT ON THE UTILITY TRAILER

Over at Deer Park Lodge where Kelly works, people often have a habit of leaving things in the cabins after they check out & go home.  Guess one of the kids left his big super soaker water canon there a few days ago so Kelly brought it home for me to play with because she knew it would amuse & keep me busy for a few hours.  Well, of course she was right & I found it mighty handy for hunting down pesky varmints in the flower garden. (now you really didn't think I would harm a pesky varmint did you)

COME OUT, COME OUT, WHEREVER YOU ARE

I came across a line on Facebook this morning that jumped off the screen at me because of it's simple logic.  'It's not God I have a problem with...it's his fan club!!'  Ohhhhhhhh, ain't that the truth!!  (Thanks Red:))

             

THIS IS WHAT THE UTILITY TRAILER LOOKED LIKE BEFORE

Carol over at CAROL K's JOURNEY has just started using the Picasa Photo Editing program & is already making noticeable improvements to her photos.  You might want to drop by & see how she is making good photos......better:))  And, while on the subject of Picasa, stop by RICK'S BLOG & check out his handy use of the Picasa 'Retouch' tool with additional help from the Microsoft Paint program.

A DOWNY WOODPECKER DINES ON SOME TASTY GRUBS (ya ya, how do I know they are tasty)

Helloooooo JESSICA & HARRY from upstate New York.  My wife Kelly is an American girl from Spencerport near Rochester.  Thanks for hopping aboard our Follower's List guys, much appreciated indeed & keep those RV dreams alive for 2013:))

KELLY IS THE BOOKWORM IN THE FAMILY

So nice to have our satellite radio in the Jeep now & the channel I always listen to whether in the Jeep or the Motor Home is 073 'The Spa.' (Hey DI:))  It's all Instrumental easy listening music with many of my favorite artists like, Michael Hedges, Will Ackerman, George Winston, Andreas Vollenweider, etc.  If I feel the need for speed there are many other channels to choose from with the likes of  Black Sabbath, Hank Williams, Benny Goodman, Beatles, Santana, Marty Robbins or Metallica.  All kinds of channels to choose from plus news channels like CNN etc.

Soooo glad to be rid of the repetitive 'generic sappy singer' radio stations that nauseatingly dominate the commercial airwaves these days.  Best thing I like about the music channels is no blabbering announcers, no stupid commercials & just no human voice interference whatsoever.  I like dat part da most best:)) Oh ya & Howard Stern is even on there but I wish somebody would hold his big mouth underwater for about half an hour sometime!!

 

YEP, KELLY SAYS, 'WINDOWS ARE DARK ENOUGH NOW FOR ME TO NOT SCARE PEDESTRIANS ANYMORE.'

              

FIRST BIG MOSSMAGATOR LOAD OF YARD WASTE TO THE PARK'S RE-CYCLE AREA WITH THE REFURBISHED TRAILER THIS MORNING............

The fellow who tinted our Jeep windows yesterday said not to roll the windows down for at least 3 days.  Kelly knew I would have trouble remembering that so I before I headed out with the Jeep this morning she wrote out & taped a note to my hat!!  Luckily I remembered to remove it when I got to Wal-Mart or else I might have ended up in one of those 'Wal-Mart Photos' you see going around on the internet these days.  Actually, by the looks of my old running shoes, sleeves ripped off my shirt, grubby old baseball cap & pants with half a dozen & a half holes & paint stains on them I'm liable to find myself in those files anyway.  Seems the older I'm getting, the more I'm starting to look like one of them there Redneck characters which of course reminded me of................GROANERS CORNER:(( 

             

NO WONDER I THOUGHT IT WAS FOGGY OUT THIS MORNING!!

"You know you're a redneck when......
1. You take your dog for a walk and you both use the same tree.
2. You can entertain yourself for more than 15 minutes with a fly swatter.
3. Your boat has not left the driveway in 15 years.
4. You burn your yard rather than mow it.
5. You think "The Nutcracker" is a vice on the work bench
6. The Salvation Army declines your furniture.
7. You offer to give someone the shirt off your back and they don't want it.
8. You have the local taxidermist on speed dial.
9. You come back from the dump with more than you took.
10. You keep a can of Raid on the kitchen table.
11. Your wife can climb a tree faster than your cat.
12. Your grandmother has "ammo" on her Christmas list.
13. You keep flea and tick soap in the shower.
14. You've been involved in a custody fight over a hunting dog.
15. You go to the stock car races and don't need a program.
16. You know how many bales of hay your car will hold.
17. You have a rag for a gas cap.
18. Your house doesn't have curtains, but your truck does.
19. You wonder how service stations keep their restrooms so clean ?
20. You can spit without opening your mouth.
21. You consider your license plate personalized because your father made it.
22. Your lifetime goal is to own a fireworks stand.
23. You have a complete set of salad bowls and they all say "Cool Whip" on the side.
24. The biggest city you've ever been to is Wal*Mart.
25. Your working TV sits on top of your non-working TV
26. You've used your ironing board as a buffet table.
27. A tornado hits your neighborhood and does $100,000 worth of improvements.
28. You've used a toilet brush to scratch your back.
29. You missed your 5th grade graduation because you were on jury duty.
30. You think fast food is hitting a deer at 65 MPH.

And did you know that Kelly told the 'window tint' guy yesterday the real reason for getting our Jeep windows darkened was to prevent her husband from scaring people. 

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Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.

"UNTIL ONE HAS LOVED AN ANIMAL, PART OF THEIR SOUL REMAINS UN-AWAKENED"

OUR BLOGGER WEBSITE http://thebayfieldbunch.com/

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

AL'S SMUG MUG PHOTO GALLERY http://stargeezer.smugmug.com/ (a work in progress)

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

MAYBE WE'LL MEET AROUND A DESERT CAMPFIRE ONE DAY

SWISS HELM MOUNTAINS EAST OF US

We had another hot & humid steam bath of a day going on & by noon I was in my recliner with a direct intravenous line hooked up straight into the air conditioner.  75% of my allotted energy units for the day were already used up & I still had about 11 hours to, 'hang in there!!'  Waited for awhile this afternoon for a 'window tint' guy to come & do the driver's & passenger side windows in the Jeep.  He did the Santa Fe for us back in late 08.  We don't have A/C in the Jeep so tinted windows help a bit with the sun's heated rays.  Sure didn't take this young fellow long to do the job.  Said he's being doing it for 12 years.  I can't remember ever doing anything that long, let alone a job!!

  

NOTICE THE 'TWIN KELLY'S' SUPERVISING THE TINT JOB:))

Because of the hot weather I figured it might be a good opportunity to cool things down in the blog with a few snowy mountain photos.  The ranch we have spent time on the past couple of winter's near Douglas Arizona is surrounded by mountains.  We have had snow on the ground a couple times while there but this particular morning the snow stayed at the higher elevations & didn't make it to the valley floor.  Quite often the clouds will come & sit on the mountain tops all around us.  When they lift, a bright white deposit of snow can be seen from miles around.

DRAGOON MOUNTAINS TO OUR NORTHWEST

In last night's blog photo of the stormy Arizona sky, SUE & DOUG  wondered about the little Motormouse outside the rig.  Well, the camera guy (me) was right behind her heading for the rig & the 2 big furry guys were, in turn, right behind me:))

MULE MOUNTAINS TO OUR WEST

And thank you to John & Carol who have just joined us on our Follower's list.  It's folks like you who give blogger folks like myself & others that great inspirational feeling to keep our travels, adventures, & blogging styles going:)) 

A LOOK SOUTH TOWARDS  & INTO MEXICO

While on the road traveling, Sirius satellite radio is our # 1 music source whether we are driving or boondocked somewhere.  We have had Sirius since the summer of 06 & we just love it.  When home for the summer our main music source comes from our cable TV music package & our Sirius radio sits silently in the Motor Home for months on end.  For whatever reason it always had static on it when I tried it in the Mini Van so gave up using it for the past few summers.  Today I took the Sirius radio out of the rig & hooked it up in the Jeep......& it work's great:)))))))  That immediately solved a crowding problem because anything more than 3 music CD,s in the Jeep at one time constitutes a severe overcrowding situation.

 

TOMBSTONE ARIZONA IS WAY OVER THERE

A few blogs ago I mentioned about how much nicer it would be if a person had something other than their mouse for drawing graphics in Microsoft's Paint program or other applications.  A long time reader in the graphic's business sent in this website with a product that does just that.  Just in case anyone is interested.    PEN TABLET

 

THE GLEASON HILLS TO OUR NORTHWEST

I have received a few more 'constructive criticisms' on my post a few day's ago entitled, 'Blogging....Just My Opinion.'  Seems I stepped on most toes when I suggested keeping posts relevant to the topic of RVing.  Feedback coming in basically said, "It's my blog & I will say what I want!!"  Well, I agree & if you have read my blog you will see that I am rather all over the place on blog topics myself, but you will also notice I try to keep my blog within not only my own interests but within the interests of people reading my blog.  There is a reason people come here.  They are interested in my interests.  There is a reason I read other people's blogs & that is simply because I am interested in what they are interested in.  That little piece of double edged logic just makes sense to me. 

THE SWISS HELMS

If I am to be faulted it is probably in the way I worded my post in the manner I did because I obviously did not do well in getting my point across.   Of course you can write about whatever you want to write about, I'm just saying that if your readership numbers are not there & nobody is commenting on your posts, maybe it is your content that needs a bit of tweaking.  (Ohhhhh, here we go again) My post only meant to suggest some thoughts & opinions on how to do that.  The majority of folks understood & took the post as I hoped they would, a few folks disagreed on some things which I'm glad they did, & an even fewer folks were really upset with me for....stepping on their toes. 

IF THE SNOW REACHES THE VALLEY FLOOR IT CAN MAKE FOR SOME MIGHTY MUDDY MORNING WALKS

I was glad RICK & RANDY climbed into the bear pit with me (Rick calls it a bear pit:)) & expressed their honest opinions as well.  They didn't agree with everything I said of course but they understood what my intentions were.  Help, not hinder!!  One commenter suggested that I crossed a line on 'subject matter' & my short answer to that is...........I absolutely did not!!!!

SNOW??  WE DON'T NEED NO DARN SNOW!!

Maybe one day out there on the long dusty road we will meet some of these fine folks & have us a sit down around a quiet desert campfire over hot coffee throwing nothing more at each other than yummy tasting smorr's........& in the process, become good friends.  Hey, it has happened before.  Anyone remember the dust-up Rick & I had last winter??  Don't ask.....I'm still reeling from that one....................10-4:))

GROANER'S CORNER:((  Ok, wrap your tongue around this one.....

Betty Botter bought some butter, but she said "this butter's bitter! But a bit
of better butter will but make my butter better" So she bought some better
butter, better than the bitter butter, and it made her butter better so 'twas
better Betty Botter bought a bit of better butter! 

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Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.

"UNTIL ONE HAS LOVED AN ANIMAL, PART OF THEIR SOUL REMAINS UN-AWAKENED"

OUR BLOGGER WEBSITE http://thebayfieldbunch.com/

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

AL'S SMUG MUG PHOTO GALLERY http://stargeezer.smugmug.com/ (a work in progress)

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

ENERGIZED MORNINGS

I have always been a morning person & regardless of things I have to do, places I have to be, or appointment's I have to be at, I prefer to get everything taken care of in the morning.  I think this becomes more important as we age because our internal battery does not retain it's overnight charge as well as it did when newer many years ago.  The fullest charge that battery will ever have in a 24 hour period is in those precious morning hours.  Cooler weather extends the charge & hotter humid weather depletes the charge.  Therefore, in my little world of logic & reason it is imperative that I get as much done in the morning hours as possible before the battery drain begins it's afternoon spiral into a state that does not have enough juice left at the end of the day to even light a plastic candle!!

NO, THIS IS NOT THE TOAD WE TOW BEHIND THE MOTOR HOME

I think the most common mistake I see people making with their photos happens to be the easiest one to correct.  It is the same mistake I continually make just about every time I pick up the camera & one which I am forever having to correct in the Picasa photo editing program.  'Tilted Horizons!!'  There doesn't even have to be a horizon for me to still tilt the photo down at the left side.  It's my biggest photo bugaboo!!  Fortunately Picasa has a 'Straighten' tool & a photo can be straightened up in mere seconds.  Because I have the 'tilt' problem I always notice tilted horizons in people's photos right away.  The fix is as easy as sliding a little horizontal bar left or right.  I suggest taking an extra few seconds of time to make sure your pics are straight before uploading them to your blog....I do:))

MAPLE LEAF BEGONIA ... This is a good example of 'backlighting.'  The light source shines through your subject instead of on it.

Randy over at THE ROAD RUNNER CHRONICLES blogged about his reflections on blogging today & I think a few fellow bloggers might pick up some more helpful tips there.  Between Randy, Rick & myself we sure have managed to open up a nice pleasant can of worms to keep the blogging circles a-buzz for a bit:))  By the way, check out RICK'S NEW INFORMATION CARD.  Cool:))

BLUE JAY

Hey Vic, thanks for helping restart our Blog Follower's list & welcome aboard our blogsite.  I hope 'Travels With The Bayfield Bunch will keep you interested & entertained from time to time.

For about 5 months of the year our 3 dogs eat, live & sleep in a 12 x 33 foot box & they are nice enough to share that box space with 2 humanoids which of course would be Kelly & I.  We are in & out of this box dozens & dozens of times a day 7 days a week for months at a time.  It is the heart & hub of our lifestyle on the road & whenever this big box heart moves, it takes us with it.  Keeps us warm on cold days & cool on the scorchers.  Protects us from the walloping southwest winds & keeps us dry on rainy days.   We are off the ground & safe from predators including the two legged type.  This large rectangular fiberglass Mossmagator delivers us in relative safety & comfort between points of travel & is large & strong enough to carry the whole Bayfield Bunch & all their mobile possessions.  It even tows our car & can gather several types of satellite signals plus radio waves, cell phone signals & towered internet connections.  And it can do all this whether we are moving or not.  With it's roof top solar panels & 4 bank battery system it delivers power for all our boondocking needs without having to be tethered to one of those electrical box thingys.  It handles our drinking water, showers, bathroom facilities & cooking needs with little effort.  Our rig is like a large Mother Hen tending to her flock & it seems the busier she is, the happier she is.

 

PROVIDING SHELTER ON A STORMY ARIZONA DAY

So, if we love our Motor Home so much, how can we just abandon her each spring & pay little or no attention to her all summer long.  How can we be so heartless in our abandonment because there she sits in our driveway now all sad, forlorn, & downright depressed!!  Oh Dear:((

WELL OK, MAYBE SHE'S NOT THAT DEPRESSED (File photo from last October)

I took the tri-poded header photo (Moon) picture from our front yard through the pine trees.  Nikon D40 with my 700MM Telescope lens. 1/100th of a second shutter speed & ISO 800.  With the help of Picasa I gave the moon a cheesy orange look:)) 

GROANER'S CORNER:(( 

A newly retired couple from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, Mildred and Art Stutmeyer, were wrapping up their third month of full-time RVing, driving down a lonely two-lane back road near Yuba City, California. But it wasn't a happy day, because they were steaming mad at each other. Their nerves were really on edge, probably because they had opted for a 24-foot fifth wheel trailer instead of one with more space, and the close quarters were driving them both batty! For example, Art kept getting mad at Mildred for leaving her socks on the dresser. And Mildred was equally bothered by Art's constant belching and the fact that he never even apologized for being so disgusting.

The silence in their Ford pickup truck was deafening. It seemed they had argued for an hour. But now, only silence. "It wasn't supposed to be like this," Mildred said to herself, holding back tears. Art, frowning, was also deep in thought, thinking, "If only we had bought that 38-footer." Yes, it was a very tense time.
As they drove past a huge barnyard packed fence-to-fence with big, fat, ugly pigs includiing one with tucks, Mildred, who was now about to pop with pent up frustration, just couldn't resist making a sarcastic comment .Pointing to the pigs, she said slyly, "Relatives of yours?"

Art, equally frustrated, stared back at her. "Yeh, they're relatives," he said, "In-laws!"

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Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.

"UNTIL ONE HAS LOVED AN ANIMAL, PART OF THEIR SOUL REMAINS UN-AWAKENED"

OUR BLOGGER WEBSITE http://thebayfieldbunch.com/

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

AL'S SMUG MUG PHOTO GALLERY http://stargeezer.smugmug.com/ (a work in progress)

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