With the Affinity rally over, yesterday morning we said goodbye to several of our vendor friends and made ready to pull out of Albuquerque. We were both more than ready to be somewhere else.

I don’t like cliques. I didn’t like them in high school, and I find them even more childish in people our age. There were several of them in Albuquerque, including a group who took exception to us dumping before we left, even though we were just one rig in a line of vendors doing so.

I try to be a nice guy about 99% of the time, but when my bullsh#& tolerance level gets exceeded, sometimes I get ugly.

So it was when one particular group gave us grief when we tried to dump in not one, but two different spots where other vendors had just done so. Finally Terry said to forget it, we’d wait until we got back to Arizona to dump, and I told her to pull the van up behind the bus so we could hook it up to our Blue Ox tow bar.

As she was maneuvering the van into position, one clown from this clique stalked up and demanded that I move because the bus was parked parallel in front of his and his friends’ RVs. I asked him if he was getting ready to pull out, since his slides were still out and they were all standing around.

“No,” he said, “but there is plenty of room all around here where you could hook up.”

“You’re right,” I told him. “And this is where I’m doing it.”

I guess he didn’t like the look that accompanied my reply, because he returned to his pals and glared at us while we hooked up, did our light check, and I scrolled through my PressurePro readout to check my tire pressures. Normally I turn off the bus while I do this, so I don’t asphyxiate the neighbors with diesel fumes, and normally the entire process goes much faster, but for some reason Bad Nick insisted on taking charge and things took a little longer.

With all of that done, we hit the road and got onto Interstate 40, where we quickly got tied up in a major roadblock just as we started the long westbound climb out of town. It took us about 30 minutes to go ten miles, but eventually we cleared the construction zone that was delaying things, and got up to speed.

Since we would be climbing most of the trip, and it was a pretty warm day, I was concerned how the bus would do. The needle on the temperature gauge was riding at the upper level of our safe zone all of the way, but with our radiator misters on we did fine, and the bus purred right long.

We passed through beautiful high desert country with mesas on both sides of the highway, and passed Indian communities that date back to long before the first Europeans ever set foot in North America. We may have taken their land, but the Native Americans are getting their revenge with a long string of casinos stretched along I-40 like a necklace sparkling with slot machines and neon signs promising riches untold to the lucky ones who hit it big.  

Somewhere in western New Mexico a pickup truck pulling a fifth wheel passed us and pulled into our lane, and we laughed when we saw his sewer hose trailing out of its bumper storage space. I tried to call him on the CD radio, but didn’t get an answer, and he was moving too fast for us to catch him. But thanks to the zoom lens on her camera, Miss Terry managed to get several pictures.

We eventually crossed into Arizona, and planned to stop at the State Welcome Center for a stretch break and a quick snack, but every parking space was filled with RVs. I wonder how many were also at the Affinity rally.

In Holbrook we got onto State Route 77 and made the 50 mile run to Show Low, pulling into the same campsite at Show Low Lake Campground that we had vacated when we went to Albuquerque. The trip took us five hours, which is a good day of driving.

My daughter Tiffany’s birthday was last week while we were in Albuquerque, so once we had the bus parked and unpacked a bit, we met Tiffany and her family at a restaurant for a belated birthday dinner.

By the time we got back to the bus it was dark and we were pretty well worn out. But we’re not done yet, today we’ll drive the van to Flagstaff to pick up the new issue of the Gypsy Journal from our printer. Then Terry will be busy stuffing envelopes for the next few days to get them ready to mail. Our life is never dull.

Thought For The Day – People who don’t have a life of their own spend a lot of time criticizing those who do.

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The Affinity rally ended yesterday, and while we had a good time visiting with old friends and meeting some new ones, it was a break even event for us financially.

While we’d have loved to come away with buckets full of cash, going in we said that if we could cover our costs and introduce some new readers to the Gypsy Journal, we’d be happy with that, and we accomplished that goal.

So what’s with people and their dogs?

Though we choose not to own a pet while we travel, I love dogs. I love big floppy eared mixed breed mutts. I love AKC dogs with pedigrees that make my own family tree look pretty shabby by comparison. My preference is big dogs, but I’m quite content with the medium size breeds too.

My good friend Ann Pruitt has an adorable medium size service dog named Curlie Sue whom I have a special relationship with. My pal Mike Howard in Kingman, Arizona lives next door to a massive mutt named Skeeter who is taller than me when he stands on his hind legs. They’re both on my Favorite Dog list.

In a pinch I’ll even cozy up to a small dog, unless it’s a yappy little mutt with a big mouth and a bad attitude.

I don’t like French poodles, probably because the only things French I like are toast, fries, and kisses, though not necessarily in that order. Don’t tell Chris and Jim Guld from Geeks on Tour, but I even sneaked a surreptitious scratch behind the ears of their yappy little poodle Odie once when nobody was looking. When you need a dog fix bad enough, I guess any old mutt will do.

My favorite dogs are German shepherds, and I’ll walk a block out of my way to meet and pet every one I see. I don’t trust pit bulls, most of whom deserve their bad reputation, no matter what their fans will tell you. In my many years in the newspaper business, I never covered a story about a collie mauling a kid, but I did have to report on too many sad stories involving pit bull attacks.

So, overall, I’m a dyed in the wool dog lover.

What I don’t like are irresponsible dog owners, and people who think the rules do not apply to their dogs. People who allow their dogs to bark endlessly, or who go off and leave their noisy dogs back in the RV to annoy everybody in the campground in their absence.

I get really ticked off by people at public events where dogs are specifically prohibited, but who insist on bringing their canine companions in anyway. We saw dozens of people doing this at the Affinity rally in Albuquerque. One person after another came wandering through the vendor area with their dogs. One lady even had two little mutts in a twin baby carriage, forcing shoppers to find a way around her as she blocked the aisles.

Besides being against the rules, some people, like Miss Terry, are allergic to dogs, and some are afraid of them. But these inconsiderate pet owners could care less. After all, it’s all about them.

We welcome dog owners to bring their critters to our Gypsy Gathering rallies, but we make it very clear that their pets are not allowed in the buildings or in the vendor area, as mandated by our insurance company and the fairgrounds who rent us the space, and I don’t hesitate to enforce the rule.

Yet we have had people show up at seminars and in the vendor area with their dogs. A couple of years ago at our rally in Casa Grande, Arizona, we even had a woman carrying her dog in to get donuts in the morning, leaning over the open box of pastries with the dog in her arms!

Invariably when I tell someone they are breaking the rules, I get the same reply “But this is my baby!”

No, it’s not your baby. You may consider it your fur kid, but it’s still an animal. I wasn’t a memorable student in high school, but even I learned that much in biology class! Human babies have two legs, and if that thing has four legs and is your baby, you need to sell that freak to a sideshow!

Thought For The Day – The treasure you find is rarely what you thought you were looking for.

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The Rally, Affinity’s annual big blowout RV event ends today, and not a moment too soon for us. While we have really enjoyed being with so many of our RV friends, the rally itself hasn’t been much fun at all, and sales were very poor for so large a gathering.

We may attend another one of these events someday, but it won’t be at the New Mexico State Fairgrounds, or anywhere else where the rally attendees are not parked on the rally grounds. Yesterday the vending buildings closed at 5 p.m., but from about 2 p.m. on I don’t think we had more than one or two people stop by the booth. That makes it darned hard for a vendor who is paying over $1,000 for a rally booth and camping, not to mention the cost of traveling to Albuquerque.

Still, there have been some positive things happen to us while we’ve been here. We’ve made some very good contacts among the other vendors, and we’ve introduced a lot of new people to the Gypsy Journal. Hopefully some of them will turn into subscribers in the future.

One good thing that has happened while we were here, thanks to my good friend Chris Guld from Geeks on Tour recommending me, is that I have been asked to write a blog for the RV.net blog network. This is something I have been interested in for a long time.

It will be a separate blog from this one or my Todays Hero Blog, and I won’t be posting on a daily basis like I do here. I’ll probably be posting a lot of travel stories we have used in the Gypsy Journal in the past, as well as some new RV lifestyle pieces.  

I can hear a lot of you asking why I’d take on another obligation, with so much already on my plate. It all comes down to selfishness on my part. I have found that blogging is an excellent tool to market the Gypsy Journal and the books, camping guides, and CDs we produce. With hundreds of thousands of readers a month, the exposure from being associated with RV.net is tremendous, and hopefully it will bring us a new reader now and then.

On another topic, have you ever heard that old saying that timing is everything? Well, it’s true. As you probably already know, we are looking for a new rig, and wondering how we can make that happen. One problem is that to help pay for a new (to us) RV, we need to sell our MCI bus conversion. Yesterday a couple here at the rally took a tour of the bus and wanted to buy it, for a price we were comfortable with, right now. The only problem is that we’d still have a shortfall between what we’d get from the bus and what we have put away, and the price of an RV to replace it with.

If it were a few months down the road, after we had a few more rallies under our belt and a little more in the bank, we’d have accepted their offer. But they came here to buy a bus, and they (understandably) don’t want to wait to get into one.

As they say, timing is everything, and the timing just was not right.

Thought For The Day – Illegal aliens have always been a problem in this country.  Just ask any Indian.

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At least the weather cleared up here in Albuquerque, and though it wasn’t exactly warm yesterday, it wasn’t snowing either.

We had a busy day helping out in the RV Hall of Fame Museum booth, and managed to pass out a lot of copies of the Gypsy Journal, and to make a sale or two along the way. I think most vendors had a better day yesterday, mainly because the weather was better and more folks were out, and also because after the fiasco Friday with the bus schedules, a lot of people drove their cars to the fairgrounds.

The folks in charge of the rally also brought more buses in yesterday, and we didn’t see the long lines of people waiting for their ride back to the Balloon Fiesta Park.

Some local people who have vintage cars and travel trailers brought them by the fairgrounds to put them on display yesterday, and they drew an admiring crowd. What neat old rigs!

For Terry and I, the opportunity to see so many of our RVing friends makes any rally a special event. I can’t keep track of everybody who came by to visit with us, but there sure were a bunch of folks.

Dick and Gaye La Vigne, who were at our Arizona Gypsy Gathering rally are helping out in a friend’s vendor booth, and have stopped by several times, as have Bob and Clara Lee. Now I have to tell you, Bob is a real character. He’s older than dirt, and his jokes were worn out the first time he heard them on the school playground, but he’s such a nice fellow and Clara is such a sweetheart, that we look forward to seeing them over and over again.

Another good friend who stopped by is Michael Chang, whom we first met when he was a student at several Life on Wheels sessions, and who also joined us for our Ohio Gypsy Gathering rally last September.

We also got to visit with Jeff and Barb Franz. I owe Jeff a big thank you, because while we were at Life on Wheels in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania last year, I started seeing an alarming number of floaters in my left eye. When I reported it in the blog, Jeff, who is an optician, immediately contacted me and urged me to get immediate medical care because he said it was very possibly a torn retina. Based upon his warning, we got it taken care of that very morning, before things got out of hand. 

There were a lot of other people who have taken the time to stop by, and I’m sorry that I can’t remember everybody’s name, but even if I could, I don’t think we’d have room here for a roll call. But we sure enjoyed seeing all of you.

I don’t want to be a complete jerk, but I have to address something here. I upset a few readers when I did not post their replies to my blog about the wacko who felt it was his duty to tell me the current administration is rounding up Vietnam vets for transport to a concentration camp.

The point of that post was to demonstrate how far out in left (or right) field people can get. As I closed that post, I asked people not to start sending me all of their political viewpoints, and joked that I have a delete button. This is supposed to be an RV blog, and overall I try to stay focused on the RV lifestyle, though I may exercise my editorial privilege and wander off track a bit now and then.

Still, some readers sent comments that were getting into the realm of a political debate, and I did not post them. In response, one writer accused me of censorship. Yeah, I guess you can call it that, if you want. It’s my blog, and I reserve the right to moderate the posts and comments.

Another reader demanded I allow him his freedom of the press. No way would I step on that basic American right. But you have to understand something. Freedom of the press is not guaranteed to everybody. Freedom of the press is guaranteed to anyone who owns a press. No newspaper has an obligation to print a reader’s letter or comment that they choose not to. Nor does a blog.

I certainly encourage anyone who wants to express their political (or any other) viewpoints to start their own newspaper, or their own blog. Just log onto www.wordpress.com and have at it. It’s even free, and if you send me a link, I’ll read it at least once.

Thought For The Day – We need each other more than we need stuff.

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Yesterday was the first vending day at The Rally, and while vendors in the past have told me they did gangbuster business at earlier events, so far I don’t think anyone here in Albuquerque is setting any sales records.

That may be partly due to the fact that the rally attendees are parked at the Balloon Fiesta Park, and all of the vendors and seminars are here at the New Mexico State Fairgrounds. Those two locations are thirteen miles apart, so the attendees have to stand in line to ride buses to the fairgrounds and then stand in line again to ride a bus back to their RV at the end of the day.

A lot of people seem to be very unhappy about that. Throw in the fact that yesterday we had a mixture of rain and snow all day and all evening, and the wait for the buses was over an hour, and it wasn’t a recipe for success. I heard several people say they were not buying anything because they didn’t want to carry it around with them all day long, and then have to hold it while they stood in line for the bus, and then try to figure out how to get it on the bus. I guess if you were buying a book or a pocket tool, it wouldn’t be too much of a problem, but it you bought something like a lawn chair or a TV dish, you’d really have a transportation problem. I told Terry a guy with a van could make a few bucks just delivering things from the vendors out to the buyers’ RVs at the Balloon Park.

I’m sure glad we’re parked here on the grounds. When the vendor area closed at 5 p.m. yesterday, the line waiting in the cold rain for the bus was over two blocks long! We had considered going to the Neil Sedaka concert last night, until we discovered that it was at the Balloon Park, and was being held in a tent! No way were we going to drive that far in the rain to sit in a tent in this weather! Instead we had dinner with Jim and Chris Guld from Geeks on Tour and Al Hesselbart from the RV Hall of Fame Museum, returned to the bus, and spent the evening returning e-mail and listening to music from the iPod, played thorough our Bose SoundDock.

Even though we didn’t do much business yesterday, it was nice to be able to help out Al Hesselbart at the RV Hall of Fame Museum’s booth. Al did his seminar on The History of RVs during the morning, and we knew when he was finished, because we got slammed with people coming by the booth to pick up a museum brochure or for more information.

It was also nice to take a break from the booth and wander around checking out the vendors. I finally had the opportunity to met Alex from the 3G Store, where I purchased our Cradlepoint wireless router, Wilson antenna and Wilson amplifier for our internet connection back when we switched to a Verizon air card from our old HughesNet internet dish. Alex and I have exchanged e-mails for a long time, and he really helped me out when I had some technical problems a while back, so it was nice to put a face with a name. I also got to meet the president of 3G Store, Michael Ginsberg, and we spent quite a bit of time visiting. He showed me some new stuff coming down the technological highway that I think are really going to excite RVers once they hit the market.

Another person I was happy to finally meet was Lance Kropf, from Guaranty RV Super Center in Junction City, Oregon. Quite a few RVers I know have had good purchasing experiences when dealing with Lance and his company, and he’s a good buddy of my pal Mac McCoy, which gives him several extra stars next to his name in my book.

Speaking of Mac McCoy, somebody asked if I wasn’t afraid that Mac would be offended by the way I picked on him in yesterday’s blog. Heck no, Mac has a great sense of humor and loves to have fun, and anybody who is going to hang around me knows that they’re fair game. (Besides, if I don’t put pictures in a blog post, Mac doesn’t look at it anyway. Anything more than a two syllable word gives him a migraine.)

Thought For The Day – How is it that one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?

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