Heat wave

I just looked at the local 10-day forecast and we will be having a 5 day streak of triple digit temps, as high as 106.  But the weather service says that a heat wave is coming to the southwest with temps topping 120 in Death Valley, and watch out for Bullhead City, AZ and Palm Springs, CA.  There is even a chance that the thermometer will climb to 130 in some spots, so I would definitely stay away from Death Valley!

That is enough to make me cry for winter, or higher elevations, or cool dark forests!  All three would be just fine.

I poured my late afternoon glass of wine and there was only half a glass left in the bottle.  I guess that means I can open another bottle, and the half glass doesn't count!  I will have to sample a full glass from the new bottle.

I was going to go out today but decided to save the fuel and get all my errands done on Friday when I have an appointment to get my hair trimmed.  I hope I can keep the hairdresser from fooling with the top half at all - I just want the bottom evened out.  It is getting so long, but I still have several layers of the original cut that have to catch up.  By the time I get to where I want it to be, I'll be sick of long hair and get it cut short!

For some reason my printer quit squeaking, but I do need to order a new toner cartridge.  The print is getting so light.  I've been printing itinerary sections, campground information, national forest and America's scenic byways information, and am starting to assemble it in a binder.  The binder is too small for the round trip, so I need to start a second one for the return.

I would like to get to some National Parks I've never been in before, although it's tempting to return to the ones I love such as Lassen, Crater Lake, etc.  I'm definitely wanting to see Theodore Roosevelt NP, and I hope to spend at least one night each in the North and South units.  I've even printed out campground maps for both.

I keep looking at the calendar and trying to estimate where I'll be on weekends, which could be a problem in August especially as I get into the eastern part of the country.  Michigan worries me as everyone from Ohio goes to Michigan in the summer - at least most of them did when I lived in Ohio.  While I might find it a problem getting a campsite I don't think I should have trouble with motels, especially since I stop pretty early in the day.

A comment from Jo to yesterday's blog regarding my aol page layout, and a subsequent email from her enabled me to fiddle with settings and now AOL looks like it did before.  I'm not sure what happened to the ads, but knock on wood, they are gone for good.  I understand that free sites need  advertising revenue, but they shouldn't take up a third of the screen for that purpose.

There must be something in the air, or maybe the water, or UFO's are spreading fairy dust on the earth, but I'm noticing EVERYONE is trying to change their websites.  The National Park Service had a great site that was intuitive and easy to use.  Now they've updated it with a new look and nothing works right.  I keep getting error messages when I try to access some parks, but it's always random, not the same park.  I saw a little blurb on their site that it is powered or designed (?, can't remember which) by Bing.  For all Bing's advertising I'm not impressed with it, and they should stick to being a search engine, not a web designer!

Time to go pour the new wine!