Thanks to everybody who e-mailed me saying get well. It seems to be working. I was in bed by midnight Saturday night. I just crashed and slept eleven hours. When I woke up yesterday I felt a lot better, and by day’s end I was almost back to normal. I knew I was feeling better when my appetite returned!

While I was so out of it, Terry was working hard, and managed to get all of the envelopes stuffed for the new issue.  I don’t know how that lady does it! Today we’ll drive back to Flagstaff to drop everything off at the mail service, and we’ll hit a few RV parks in Flagstaff and here in Williams, dropping off bundles of sample copies of the paper. Then we can relax and get back to having fun.

I’m afraid to even look at the news right now. In addition to the two forest fires burning around Flagstaff that I wrote about previously, two new fires have started. One burned over 3,000 acres yesterday, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate their homes, and the other, the fourth fire currently burning in the area, was still going strong yesterday evening. Here is the view of the smoke from one of the fires, looking out our RV windshield from our site at Canyon Gateway RV Park.

While Terry was finishing up the mailing yesterday, I uploaded the new digital edition for our online subscribers, and discovered an unexpected benefit of using the new InDesign page layout program. Previous PDF issues of the digital paper averaged about 22 MB in size, and InDesign lets me upload them with the same quality, at just under 6 MB, which means it opens and downloads faster for our subscribers.

Now that we have the paper done, we plan to head toward the California coast. We originally were going to stop in Kingman, Arizona for a day or so to visit my friend Mike Howard, but having just been sick, I don’t want to take any chance of passing anything on to him. So we’ll stop and abuse Mike’s hospitality another time.

That is if the wind dies down a bit. It’s been blowing hard ever since we got here, and I don’t like to drive the motorhome when I have to battle the wind every mile. What fun is that? That’s the great thing about the fulltime RV lifestyle, we don’t have to rush to get anywhere, because  wherever we are, we’re at home!

Bad Nick spent some time at the computer yesterday, posting a new Bad Nick Blog titled This Land Isn’t Our Land. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – If you can’t feed ‘em, don’t breed ‘em.

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally!

As I reported in yesterday’s blog, firefighters were hoping the wind would hold off and not make battling the Eagle Rock forest fire that is burning northeast of Williams, Arizona any more difficult.

But Friday evening, the wind began blowing and it still hasn’t stopped. Yesterday the winds were steady at 35 mph, with gusts over 45, and today doesn’t look any better. And, if that wasn’t bad enough, a 400 acre fire is now burning just south of the Little America Resort, right off of Interstate 40 in Flagstaff. The news says this fire was man-caused, and police are interviewing a person of interest.

Sitting here on top of an open hill at Canyon Gateway RV Park in Williams, we can really feel the wind. We have a view of Interstate 40 down the hill through our windshield, and in spite of the high winds, we saw quite a few big RVs on the road battling the wind. It makes me wonder where they have to be so badly that they’d drive in those conditions.

I want to thank my son-in-law, Jim Robinson, and my granddaughters Hailey and Destiny for the unforgettable Father’s Day gift they gave me. Just before we left Show Low, they all came down with the stomach flu, and Friday night it nailed me big time. I’d have to feel 200% better just to die.

Poor Miss Terry worked hard all day yesterday stuffing envelopes with the new issue, while I napped off and on, drank ginger ale, and sniveled. I feel guilty because she wouldn’t even let me carry the finished plastic bins of envelopes out to the van. Those things are pretty heavy, and I just didn’t have the strength to even lift one.

I had no appetite all day long, but finally about 8 p.m. Terry talked me into eating some Jello. I’m usually up until at least 2 a.m., but as soon as I post this blog entry, I’m headed for bed. I’m sorry there isn’t much of a blog today, my brain is so foggy I can’t even type.

Before I close, I hope you take some time today to call your dad and wish him happy Father’s Day. It’s the best gift you can give him.  And if your father has passed on, take a moment or two to remember him. I think he’ll know. And to my own dad, I think of you often, and miss you every day of my life. If my own kids look back someday and think of me with even half of the love and respect that I do you, I will consider my life a success.

Thought For The Day – Any man can be a Father but it takes someone special to be a dad.

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally!

We pulled out of our RV site at the Show Low Elks campground just before 9:30 a.m. yesterday morning, stopped in the lodge’s large dirt parking lot long enough to hook up our Blue Ox tow bar to our Ford van, did a light check, and put our old hometown in our rear view mirror.

We drove north 50 miles on State Route 77 to Holbrook, and then got onto Interstate 40 headed west. 30 miles later we stopped for fuel at the Flying J in Winslow. We still had just under half a tank of diesel, but I like to run on the top half of my tank whenever I can. It gives me more margin for error for whatever unexpected change in plans may lie ahead.

As it turns out, our fuel stop had an extra benefit; my daughter Tiffany was in Winslow for her job, and met us at Flying J for one last quick visit, a final hug or three, and then she was headed back home to Show Low, while we were back on the highway headed west.

We passed Meteor Crater, then started to see the San Francisco Peaks that tower over Flagstaff off in the distance. There was still snow on the tops of those high mountains.

A few miles past Flagstaff, Miss Terry pointed out a dozen or so cow elk standing in the forest’s edge right alongside the road. A mile or so later we saw a dead elk on the shoulder of the highway, and were glad we weren’t the ones who hit it. Those critters are as big as a horse, and hitting one can really do a lot of damage.

About the time we put the elk behind us, we started to see smoke from the Eagle Rock forest fire, which has burned 3,400 acres of ponderosa pines some eleven miles northeast of Williams. A news report I read later in the evening said that as of nightfall, the fire was 30 percent contained, but that fire crews were concerned that the winds might pick up and expand the wildfire. Sure enough, the wind kicked up, and is expected to be strong for the next two or three days.

Thirty miles west of Flagstaff, we pulled into Canyon Gateway RV Park in Williams, a Passport America affiliate located just off Interstate 40.  This is typical of many Passport America parks, nothing fancy, but clean and friendly, and a good value at $24 a night, tax included, for a level, 50 amp full hookup RV site. Some other RV parks here in Williams charge twice that.

The campground has gravel roads and sites, and small trees at every site. There are a few older rigs that look like they are permanents, but there is nothing wrong with that. Not everybody is made to live in a sticks and bricks house.

Here is our Winnebago, all leveled out and hooked up.

We had covered 175 miles since leaving Show Low, but we weren’t done yet. As soon as we had the RV parked and hooked up, Terry drove us back to Flagstaff in the van, where we stopped at the Arizona Daily Sun newspaper to pick up the new issue of the Gypsy Journal, and then we stopped at Sam’s Club and Office Max for some mailing supplies.

We have been craving a good Chinese buffet for weeks now, and I had always wanted to try the Mandarin Super Buffet in Flagstaff, so we stopped there before heading back to Williams. I had not been feeling well for a couple of hours, so I don’t know if the food wasn’t all that good, or if I just couldn’t appreciate it. But I really did not enjoy the meal, which seldom happens. I drowsed most of the way back to Williams, and once back at the motorhome, I laid down for a while, which seemed to help.

By dark the wind had really picked up, and I’m glad it is blowing from the southwest, which means if it does spread the fire, at least it will be burning in the opposite direction of town. Hopefully the fire crews can knock it down before it gets any larger, or does any more damage.

We’ll be here for the next four days, while we get the new issue of the Gypsy Journal ready to mail out on Monday. We have excellent Verizon service, a  clear aim at the sky for our satellite TV dish, and Williams has a couple of good restaurants if Miss Terry wants to take a break and not cook. It’s good to be on the road again!

Before I close, one last thing. Several blog readers wanted to know if our new Levolor window blinds rattle or make any noise going down the highway. Now that we have actually driven the RV with them, I can report that they don’t make a sound, which is exactly what we expected.

Thought For The Day – I love to give homemade gifts, which one of my kids do you want?

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally!