January 2022

This photo was taken from the side window of the coach looking east as the sun rose on a January morning

January 2022 finds us enjoying sunny Arizona, while giving back. We are volunteering at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum in Superior Arizona, the arboretum is a 501c3 non profit, and is now trying to find it’s own way again after operating under Arizona State Park and the University of Arizona umbrellas for a number of decades, which maybe have provided some benefit to the arboretum at times the relationship also appears to have been more of an anchor to the the arboretums continuing progress. There is a board of directors here at the arboretum that seem to be following most of the founder (William Boyce Thompson) ideals, which were research and the integration of arid plant life from around the globe to see if it could help stop erosion as well as the normal damage done during the mining process. And while much of the research failed to accomplish the original task, much was put to good use protecting some natural species from common diseases such as root rot, very common issue in Texas.

And while this ninety-eight year old arboretum is presently suffering some growing pains, we are happy to be able to help out and do our part do promote this amazing piece of paradise. We have been calling this arboretum “Arizona’s best kept secret,” and as people discover the park, they leave amazed by its natural beauty. And as a reward for donating out time, we get to stay onsite, and are allowed to enjoy the park daily,

We are also happy to be in an area with so much to do, we have friends only half an hour away, we are close enough to almost every possible shopping required, minuets from water and kayaking, mountains in every direction, a photographers paradise, excellent bird watching throughout the canyon, hiking of all levels of difficulty, multiple restaurants within a few miles, it has been an excellent choice for us.

As I look back on the past year, the pandemic is still not under control, and as the death toll continues to rise both sides of the border, it becomes very apparent to most of us that the “right to choose” has came at a very steep price for some people, and while some might feel bad, I just remember they had a choice as was their right, and because they didn’t know what was in the vaccine, no different that we don’t know what is in KFC’s secret receipt, the real difference is while too much KFC might kill you, just two little vaccine shots could have saved their lives … sad to say the least.

On a lighter note I’m going to add a few of our favorite photos from our January at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum in Arizona. Most of these photos were taken by Miss Laurie ♥️📸♥️😀

January 2021 found us still in Canada unable to get across the American border because of the Corona Virus lockdown. It should have seen us back in the Arizona dessert, our plan was to get an LTVA (Long Term Visitor Area) pass for the winter which would have cost us $US180 to use the BLM land till the 15th of April it is a six month permit that ends in April, there are a number of different areas, four in total in the Quartzsite area that you can chose between, it allows use of the dump station, the fresh water supply and the garbage bins for the full six month. We had hoped to attend the Beaver Rally, the Big Tent, play a little golf in Blyth California, Explore some of the wildlife preserves along the Colorado river, and prepare for our Mexican Baja caravan in February. But this Pandemic has changed our world as it has for so many.

So what have we been up to this month? Well Miss Laurie has a full time job at the blue sign store, she says its her way of paying back for the use of those overnight stops when we are traveling. I on the other hand have taken on the task of a full time snow shoveller, like seriously enough with the damn snow already! I have also been working at learning how to operate our new drone, as well as the action video camera, proving again you can teach an old dog new tricks. and while the results seem to be improving, it brought on a whole new group of problems such as editing the video clips and then finding a way for people to actually view them, so we have launched a YouTube channel which at the time of putting this blog together has a whole two subscribers, and I know one is Miss Laurie…lol. But I have been playing at it and have four videos up, a couple of drone shots, one dashcam of a wrong turn in Newfoundland in the summer of 2018 and a fun video of snow removal this year.

I have been reading, most likely too much, we have been working our way through lots of shows on Amazon Video, and Apple TV, along with lots of National Geographic and History channel to compliment HGTV and the Food channel. Hiking, kayaking, and bird watching not so much this year. Although we are making use of the full size oven at the house, and as Goderich has pretty much shut down for the winter, and the province is under a stay “at home” order with covid cases reaching stupid heights because so many people didn’t adhere to the recommendations when asked. This will be a January for the books if we survive it!

January 2020 again found us in the Arizona desert in the Quartzsite area, after our week @ the Lake Havasu Balloon festival we went to our first rally for our Beaver coach, we moved around the area a lot more spending time at four different BLM (bureau of Land Management) boon-docking areas. Our coach was now equipped with 600 amp hours of lithium battery power and over 1.2 kilowatts of solar panels, and a 3000 watt pure sine invertor, a drastic change from our first venture into the desert two years earlier. Now it would take at least two cloudy days in a row to tempt me to fire up the generator, we now had power all night long and in many cases would have been up and had breakfast before the solar panels had even started to pull in any power. So our artinery for January was, time in Yuma AZ, the balloon festival in Lake Havasu AZ, the Beaver Rally in Roadrunner BLM, the big tent RV show in La Posa West BLM, and side trip to Joshua Tree national monument in California.

January 2019 had us settled into Oak Grove RV Park in LaBelle FL for a four month stay, full hook ups, lots of park amenities and activities. Our second winter in the warmth that the southern United States offers a huge snowbird population from the northern states as well as Canadians. to say it was a little different that Arizona would be an understatement. Truly different in so many ways besides the obvious, Arizona mid January temperature in Quartzsite average daily high 19ºC (66ºF) low of 4ºC (40ºF) and days of rain only 1, while LaBelle average daily high 24ºC (75°F) low of 10ºC (50ºF) with days of rain 3. What it doesn’t tell about is the high humidity, and the never ending insects that Florida offers, the air conditioner usage is huge in Florida compared to Arizona in January and not because of the heat, just because of the humidity. Laundry was a daily event in Florida while every couple of weeks in the desert. And the traffic was ok in January but got crazier as the time went on. Miss Laurie loves the beaches of Florida and we will return but it won’t be a go to area because of pricing and the crowds.

January 2018 found us in the Arizona desert at the big Q (Quartzsite), our first trip to the desert, our first trip west, our first winter away from Canada and our first time boon-docking. And we really didn’t know sh!t about anything, we were so green it was truly scary. We (I) did not understand our coach, our power usage, our battery capabilities, our generator none of that, we were just out in the desert struggling through every night to try to make it to the morning generator time (7:00 am) after running the generator till quiet time the night before (10:00 pm). In fact looking back we most likely never had our house batteries fully charged more that a half a dozen times in those first nine months of owning the coach. But we persevered and I can tell you I learned a lot about a lot of different things in that first month of boon-docking, a few were expensive lessons but they all made us stronger and wiser (I think).

As always, stay safe, be well, protect yourself!

Sunday January 30th 2022

Sunday morning at around 9:30 and I’m back from my walk through the Arboretum, I had walked over to the Visitors Centre with Miss Laurie as she was helping out in the store this morning, and I think we need to start walking in the park a little more often, and at that time of the day it is so serine and there is so much more wildlife around. Here are a few photos of this Sunday mornings walk in the arboretum.

As you can see being the first human on the arboretum trail in the morning has some advantages, because no one has had a chance to disturb the residents of the park, and some of the views at sunrise are stunning to say the least.

As the NFL football playoffs are underway I’m hoping to watch the Bill’s take on the Chiefs this afternoon after the Rams hopefully beat out the Buccaneers. But with NFL football you never know what will happen as this year even the Bengals are still playing football this late in January, and who would have foreseen that?

Miss Laurie thought we should go for a hike today after she was done work, she was looking to explore Arnett Canyon, which is located just one ridge over, but she wanted to try to get there from the arboretum, let’s just say it was well and good, but a somewhat strenuous hike for this old fart, three hours later we made it back to the coach.

We seemed to spend a lot of time on the hike back, walking up the Queen Creek, as Miss Laurie found a couple of pieces of River glass, which is very similar to Beach glass but apparently different.

On the good side of today’s football game outcomes, both Brady and Rogers are on the playoff sidelines, so I’m thinking this could be absolutely any teams Super Bowl to win this year, from here in, I’m cheering for the underdog. We spent a couple of hours at Tom & Kathleen’s site having a couple of adult beverages and some snacks, it was another sunny day but the temperatures drop off quick, so as the sunset we headed to the coach to watch, the Bills take on the Chiefs, and get some dinner.

Ok now let’s have a moment of silence for the failure of the The Bills, this was a great season, lost by an overtime coin flip, as some might say. But the reality is that Buffalo lost the game in the last 13 seconds of regular time, maybe difficult for fans to hear but true. But what a game to watch, certainly one of the best NFL games that I have watched in many years, so once again congratulations Buffalo on a great year!

Monday, we started this morning with a walk in the arboretum, before the gates opened, and while we didn’t see as much wildlife today, the sunrise was beautiful, and the arboretum was quiet until the people landed, but Miss Laurie had a cardinal and a rabbit pose for photos. One of the things we hear a lot from visitors is “I didn’t see or hear any birds” and after sitting while a couple of groups walked by, I can explain why, your all too darn noisy, and the other issue is the quantity of dogs. I’m not a dog lover or hater, but well behaved dogs seem to be few and far between. I don’t blame the dog, I blame the dog owner, please just teach your dog, to sit, to heel, and then control your dog as you enjoy the arboretum. We watch a steady stream of dogs dragging their owners around the arboretum, just like we do at most campgrounds, Miss Laurie would tell you there are no bad dogs, but there’s lots of bad dog owners!

This afternoon we are going to kayak the lower Salt River in the Tonto National Forest with Ray & Karen, this is a down river adventure, about 4.5 miles (7 kilometers), but there needs to be a certain water level to make this trek possible. It also requires two vehicles, one at the exit point and one at the entrance point. The entry and exit point from the river are also very important, being not too steep, not too many rocks, not too much mud, and of course not too far to carry the kayaks in or out, this adventure was quite acceptable. There was a little fast moving water, with lots of gentle floating, with a little bit of paddling at the exit point, part of the lure to this area is the opportunity to see the wild horses which frequent the area, and are often seen near the river. And today was no exception, ahead of us eleven horses came out to the river, but before we could get near enough to them for good pictures something spooked them and they ran off before we could get any real good photos.

We made it back to the arboretum before the gate was locked, and settled in for some dinner, and to catch up on some YouTube videos, the “Big Tent” is up in Quartzsite and the “Tampa RV Show” are both happening this month so lots of YouTubers are getting their content from the shows, some good, some not so much. I have been to both events and neither one was what I had hoped it would be. They both bill themselves as RV shows, but there is a lot of crap at both of them, I have purchased items at both, there are deals to be had, but you have to to your homework and know both your prices and the exact product your purchasing, and in some cases it’s just easier to buy it at the show and carry it out rather than having it shipped, because of weight, size, or simply fear of it being damaged. But the shows are as different as night and day, Tampa midpoint on the gulf coast of Florida in a metro area held at the State fairgrounds, Quartzsite in the Arizona desert, in a tiny town on Interstate 10, it is held in a tent larger than two football fields. Quartzsite offers free parking and you can park within a hundred feet of the tent, while the Tampa show was $20 to park and you better have your comfortable walking shoes with you.

People have asked who we watch on YouTube? And the answer is not nearly as many people as we once did. We started watching when we were deciding to make this lifestyle change, so any one that was full-timing was of interest to us, and there seemed like a long list at the time, but as time has moved along we now realize how many full-timers there are out here, and a number of the people we were watching has changed, for a number of reasons. Here is a list (in no particular order) of YouTubers that we originally started watching, the list is much shorter today, but each one of these served a purpose at some point in our journey.

• Nomadic Fanatic
• The Motorhome Experiment
• KYD (Keep Your Daydream)
• Gone with the Wynn’s
• Less Junk More Journey
• Love your RV
• RVer TV
• RV Love
• CheapRVliving
• Outliers Overlander
• We’re the Russos
• Camping With The Kelly’s
• Rufus and Dufus
• Drivin’ and Vivin’
• Long Long Honeymoon
• Morton’s on the move
• Paddy Wagon
• RV Geeks
• The Deprey’s
• Tiny Home Tours

Many have had channel name changes, a few have passed away, some have just quit producing content, and a few have taken their channel off into directions that we have little or no interest in. Many YouTuber’s are making a living producing content, they are paid by how many subscribers, how many views a video gets, how long viewers watch the video, how many ads their viewers watch, as well as many have Patreon or Membership accounts, where viewers donate set amount of money each month to help support the YouTuber, and in return they may receive some extra or some early content, or special YouTube live events, or maybe even actual met and greet events. Some of the YouTube channels we watch have around a half a million subscribers, but it seems that once they reach over a hundred thousand subscribers they seem to fall into a different return rate on their content. As many YouTubers are making a very nice living from their channels. So I totally understand them changing their channels to best capitalize their channel viewers, and if that direction is not of interest to me than I unsubscribe and move on.

Tuesday, and it is brrrr out this morning it is darn chilly, 39°F (4°C), the price we pay for those big blue skies with warm sunshine. The cute part of this story is as Laurie gets up a 7am, and the first word were “we aren’t walking this morning, it’s too cold for that”, and maybe she was right, because until that sun pops up it is cold, so no early walk through the arboretum today.

We are still looking for a work-camping position on Vancouver Island for the summer, and we sent out another resume this morning. I will get into more details as the process unfolds but, some of the responses we get could best be described as weird, but we received a phone message from one yesterday while we were kayaking that we are going to call them back this morning. Today I’m working on video taken on the Salt River kayaking adventure from yesterday, these projects take a lot of time to edit, GoPro, Drone, and iPhone video plus photos and a map, an intro and an ending and a little voice over, so far I’m still getting everything gathered up, next is the editing.

My editing got cut short, as we have some visitors stopping by for a cold beverage, we spend a lot of time outside of the coach, so many people just stop by, its great but it makes working on videos or writing blogs a little difficult, at least that’s my excuse. After our visitors left the decision was make to go to Porters for a beverage or two, this is a bar and grill in Superior just three miles up the road. There was a live music, the beer was cold, we ordered some snacks, actually an order of nachos that were excellent, and made for a good appetizer, we got back to the arboretum after the gate was locked, Miss Laurie made dinner and we settled in for the night with some television before turning in.

Wednesday, 1:15 this morning the smoke detector / carbon monoxide sensor decided to go into alarm mode … it is located in the ceiling over my side of the bed. Let’s just say it is one hell of a wake up call, and from a dead sleep to fully awake enough to remember how to silence it seemed like hours … and then to try to get back to sleep after walking the coach to check all the controls to confirm it was just a false alarm … let’s just say it wasn’t my most restful night.

Ok it’s now 5:50, and I’m up again, no the alarm never triggered again, this was more of a nature call, and now I’m watching Mars rise on the eastern horizon, it has been popping up ahead of the sun for the last few days, gaining a few moments each day, it shows up as a bright star and with one of my iPad apps I have I’m able to identify planets, constellations, and most satellites even the space station.

Today we are meeting up with Ray & Karen, for a little shopping adventure, on todays list of stores is the “Pork Shop”, Costco, Trader Joes, and Total Wine, throw in a little lunch at a Mexican restaurant and all of a sudden the days gone. So let’s talk about the ”Pork Shop” just a little shop on the outskirts of town, but what it lacked in size, it made up for with choice and variety, I will let you know on the flavour a little latter, but I’m thinking this may become a new regular stop.

A quick stop for a couple of beverages with Ray & Karen in Gold Canyon before returning to the arboretum just at dusk, a little dinner, and some television before turning in for the night, seems like it has been a long day, and we found out today that our shifts have changed, so no work tomorrow!

Thursday, morning after an uneventful evening, at least no alarms, but we woke this morning to a chilly 36°F (2°C) under clear skies, Mars is well above the the skyline and we are still almost an hour until sunrise. Normally we would be preparing to go to work today, but they have changed our work schedule, so this week we start Friday at 8am till 4pm, then Saturday 8am till 4pm and finish with Sunday 8am till noon.

We are here to volunteer, and will work whenever and wherever we are needed, we do what we are asked to do, and if we don’t think we are busy enough, we will look for things that need to be done, or ways to make the visitors experience the best it can be. So I guess we are being shuffled to cover some different times, and working the weekends is ok with us, we would rather explore and shop during the week, when crowds are lighter. Although this will mess with my scheduled publication time, so no more Sunday morning last minute cramming, and that’s likely a good thing, but it could mean a few late Saturday evenings.

I know the cold weather is gripping the east coast of the continent, and to be honest I occasionally post a photo to emphasize the weather of the desert, but because of the recent rain, and the warm weather, we are truly seeing spring in the desert, the photos below are a few of those photos

With this unexpected day off, I’m going to try to work on a few videos, as well as sorting through thousands of photos as I try to improve my editing skills, I’m working to get to a place where we can view different photo or video selections on a television. So I start by gathering all the photos and videos in one file then I find it easier to rename each video or picture, then it is easier to keep everything in the right order. Now the difficult part is taking the videos and trimming them to all fit into thirty minutes or less, then add enough information that anyone watching gets enough commentary to appreciate the views.

I believe that an upgraded editing program would help a lot, but I don’t want to spend a fortune either, but right now I’m thinking that a twenty minute video has between ten and twenty hours of work involved to produce. I know that there are some YouTubers that do a lot of one take videos but they are difficult as well if you are doing on the fly commentary, one slip up and it’s all ruined. The next problem is where to do the editing and then the final step is the voice over or music to make it complete … stay tuned.

Friday, morning which is now our Monday morning, and it is another sunny morning in Arizona, we have a wind advisory and are only expecting temperatures in the low 60’s (teens) but if it’s sunny it’s all good. Miss Laurie is helping out in the store first thing this morning and I’m manning the admissions booth.

On these early morning starts, we normally only have a bowl of cereal, a cup of coffee maybe with a little blessing, and of course a few (old fart) vitamins to try to keep us healthy. Today we have two bus loads of students at the arboretum, these were high school student and some of the best behaved students we have ever seen. No screaming, or shouting, just ninety well mannered young people, a rare commodity in this world today.

Today was a slower day, possibly because of the wind, but admissions were down today, and when your not busy it can make the days drag on a bit, so I watered the sale plants in the morning, then Laurie weeded the sale plants, then later in the afternoon when the volunteers in the store went home, Miss Laurie helped Chris in the store, until our shift ended at four o’clock. There was a little excitement later as there was a vehicle left in the parking lot, so the staff suspected that someone was in the arboretum after closing time, the staff had been through the park and couldn’t find them. Which most likely means they were not on the trails, there are close to 5 miles (8 kilometres) of trails in the arboretum, there are also paths and roads for staff use, so I suspect they were somewhere that they shouldn’t have been.

After an eight hour day there was not a lot happening in our world, I watched some golf, some dinner, the news, shark tank, some 20/20 then off to bed with the wind now gusting strong enough to rock the coach a little.

Saturday, morning and it’s a much warmer start to the day, with temperatures near 50°F (10°C), at six o’clock, a little morning television, some breakfast, a coffee and off to work, with the hope for a busier day than yesterday. The weather forecast is showing nothing but sunshine for the day, and there should be some cleanup after the winds yesterday.

The arboretum was busy today, by noon we had doubled yesterday’s admissions, the days just are so much better when we are busy. And today we processed over 800 visitors, so not a lot of down time today, after our shift a beverage with Tom & Kathleen, some leftovers for dinner and a couple of movies from Prime and Miss Laurie is off to bed.

I on the other hand am trying to finish this blog for its scheduled publication time, and I most likely have an hour or so to finish then if I’m not falling asleep a quick proof read to make sure it flows reasonably well. Because I’m adding to the blog continually it can some times gaps that need to be filled or occasionally some duplication that needs to be trimmed.

Sunday, well if everything happed to plan this blog published at one o’clock mountain time this morning, before I have even dragged my sorry butt out of bed, have a great day and Go Bengals Go, and those are words that I never expected to ever say!

Take only Pictures, Leave only Footprints – Good words to live by I think!

Day 1580

Blog 402