The elk are on the move here in the White Mountains of Arizona. Yesterday while Miss Terry was stuffing envelopes with the new issue of the Gypsy Journal, I ran some errands and saw a herd of five or six elk in a field just off State Highway 260 in Lakeside. When I pulled back into Show Low Lake Campground, two more large cow elk were standing in the driveway. Elk are huge animals, and every year unfortunate motorists have collisions with at least one or two of them as they migrate from lower elevations to higher mountain meadows as the weather warms up.

The White Mountains, our former home, is a forest wonderland that contains the world’s largest stand of Ponderosa pine trees, and is dotted with lakes teeming with trout and other freshwater game fish. In fact, the state record walleye was caught right here at Show Low Lake, where we are camping. The lake routinely rewards anglers who know how to catch them with walleye over ten pounds. And you thought Arizona was all deserts and rattlesnakes!

It is always nice to come back to our old hometown, but poor Miss Terry pays a price for it. Her allergies have really kicked up, and she is miserable with itchy eyes and sneezing. A lot of people who never had allergies come to Arizona and find that they do indeed have them. From the deserts to the high country, the folks who sell Zyrtec and other allergy medications do a booming business this time of year.

After I returned to the bus yesterday afternoon, I spent some time working on my websites while Terry made a huge dent in the number of envelopes to be filled. Chris Guld from Geeks on Tour has designed a neat graphic link to my new Honor A Veteran website, and I added it to my Gypsy Journal, Motorcycle Travel Online, and Publishing 4 Profit websites, along with the Todays Hero Blog.

When that was done, I answered several e-mails from readers, and reluctantly had to turn away two vendors who wanted to come to our Ohio Gypsy Gathering rally, because we already have folks signed up with the same products. Both were disappointed, but understanding when I explained that our rallies are small and we want our vendors to have a good show, so we do not allow duplication of products among our vendors. We’ve already got a lot of registrations in for the rally, so be sure you get yours in too!

In the evening we took a break and went to my daughter Tiffany’s house, where son-in-law Jim grilled hamburgers and we had a good time playing with our two granddaughters. Those little ones sure do have a lot of energy! They can wear a fat old grandpa out in no time at all!

We’ll spend the rest of the weekend getting the new issue ready to mail out Monday. A cold front is bringing more wind to the area, and we’re hoping that it will pass on through before we have to drive back to the mail service in Flagstaff Monday morning.  

Once the mailing is finished, we’ll have some time to relax and play before we have to hit the road in mid-May, headed for the Escapees Escapade rally in Sedalia, Missouri.

Thought For The Day – Life not only begins at forty, it also begins to show.

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Okay, what’s with all of this winter weather? We had a dusting of snow on Wednesday night, and I did some sniveling in spite of my best intentions to take it like a man.

But yesterday morning we woke up to about three inches of heavy, wet snow covering the campground here at Show Low Lake! It snowed hard off and on all day long.

I think the weather gods are testing me, and I’ll tell you right now, I’m going to fail. I’m about to throw a screaming, foot stomping tantrum, and it’s not going to be a pretty thing to see!

I have wheels under my house so I don’t have to see that nasty, cold stuff. And as much as I love my daughter Tiffany and my two granddaughters, warm weather better get here soon, or those wheels are going to start rolling, and they’ll be waving bye bye to me.

Actually, we have plans to leave Show Low Wednesday and go to Albuquerque to attend The Rally, Affinity’s big annual event. Then we plan to return here for a couple more weeks before we start toward Sedalia, Missouri for the Escapees Club Escapade rally.

Though we have some concerns about getting out of the campground. The roads are all dirt with gravel over them, and it has not been a problem so far. But right now the ground is so wet that when we drove over to Tiffany’s house yesterday afternoon, our Ford van wanted to sink in, and I could feel the rear tires starting to spin. Our bus weighs a lot more than the van, and the forecast is for more precipitation in the form of rain and snow showers between now and Wednesday. If we don’t get a break in the weather so it can dry up, we may be stuck for the duration.

Between now and Wednesday, I’ll be busy getting the new issue of the Gypsy Journal ready to send to the printer. This is our 10 Year Anniversary Issue, and I’m including some articles about our early days and how this dog and pony show of ours came to be.

Looking back, it amazes me that we have been fulltime RVers for an entire decade. It feels like we have just begun, and there is so much yet that we want to see and do. We cannot ever picture hanging up the keys as long as we can still climb behind the steering wheel and see to aim this old bus down the highway. It’s been a wonderful journey, and we’re just getting started!

Thought For The Day – Happiness is good health and a bad memory.

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally