Yesterday was our last day in Apache Junction, and as much as we enjoy visiting with Terry’s parents, Pete and Bess Weber, we’re ready to get back up to Show Low, where it is a little cooler, and we can get another grandkid fix.

I spent part of yesterday doing some bookwork and maintenance on our subscriber mailing lists, and logging in several vendor registrations for our Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally in Elkhart, Indiana.

As of now, we have less than 20 of the 50 amp full hookup sites left, and twelve 30 amp full hookup sites. We still have quite a few 30 amp water and electric sites, and lots of 20 amp water and electric sites, but the folks who wait too long to register, and then expect full hookups, may be disappointed.

While I was doing that, Miss Terry installed another set of the Levolor window blinds that I mentioned in yesterday’s blog. These went on the small window in our bedroom, and I think they look pretty good.

A few people asked me if the blinds would rattle going down the highway. I don’t think so, since they come with metal brackets that attach to the wall or inside the window frame, depending on your installation. The bottom of the blinds slide into these brackets, which holds them securely and prevents any movement or rattling. At least that’s the game plan, we’ll know for sure after we actually do any traveling.  Plus, there is room for the blinds to pull up snugly in the header at the top of the window, where it is unlikely they can rattle.

Today we have an 8 a.m. appointment at Camping World in Mesa to get the problems with our inside dual wheels corrected, and hopefully we’ll be out of there in a couple of hours. Then we’ll head back up the hill, as local folks call it, to Show Low.

We have our choice of two routes, either U.S. Highway 60 east to Globe, and then the same road north through the Salt River Canyon to Show Low; or we can take State Route 87, the Beeline Highway, north to Payson, and then State Route 260 east to Show Low. The first route is the more scenic, with the dramatic drop down into the Salt River Canyon and the climb back up, but the route through Payson is a little easier and the road is better most of the way.

Since we came down through the Salt River Canyon, I’m leaning toward the Beeline Highway going back up, just for a change of scenery if nothing else. But I never know for sure which way I’ll go until I get there. That freedom is one of the advantages of the RV lifestyle. We usually don’t have to travel by any certain route, or be any certain place, unless we want to.

We have met a few fulltimers who are so rigidly locked into schedules that they never leave themselves any room to explore whatever comes up along the way, or even  to have a buffer in case bad weather or mechanical difficulties interrupt their trip. Most folks like this either loosen up and learn to roll with the punches, or they realize that fulltiming isn’t for them and they eventually find themselves settled down, either in a long term RV park setting, or back in a sticks and bricks house.

Thought For The Day – Everything worth knowing leaves bruises.

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally!

We’re getting down to the wire on our Western Gypsy Gathering rally, and I need to be twins, maybe even triplets, to get everything done! Most of yesterday was spent answering e-mails and phone calls from folks registering for the rally.

We have over 200 RVs registered now, and more coming in all the time. I just hope we can find a parking place with electricity for everybody! We have lots of room for dry camping, but we hope to have 20 amp electricity for everybody too.

There are no full hookups for RVs at the fairgrounds, but there are water bibs and a dump station. We have very few 30 and 50 amp electric hookups, but those have to be reserved for people with special needs. And no, wanting to use your microwave or curling iron is not a special need! Sorry.

Hey, Terry and I have been here all week, and we’re getting by just fine on 20 amp electric in our Winnebago diesel coach. Just because we have a 50 amp plug doesn’t mean we have to have 50 amps to live comfortably.

Bill Becker stopped by to say hello yesterday afternoon. Bill and his wife Mabel handle T-shirt sales at our western rallies, and they are hanging out around Yuma until it’s time to come in for the rally. Bill is a retired Marine, and he has arranged for a spokesman from the Marine Air Station here in Yuma to come to the opening of the rally and tell us all a little about their mission to train pilots and crews.

About 3 p.m., Tom and Barbara Westerfield arrived at the fairgrounds. They are part of our advance staff, and boy, do we have a lot of work for them to do! They handle a lot of our technical things, making sure the seminar speakers have the audio-visual equipment they need and that it is working properly, as well as 1001 other tasks. We sure do appreciate all of our volunteer helpers!

Once they were settled in, the four of us took a tour of the fairgrounds, and I showed them where the two main RV parking areas will be, as well as other spots where we can park a rig or two. Unlike the fairgrounds in Casa Grande, where we have held our past rallies, here we won’t have everybody parked in long back to back lines of RVs. Some folks will be parked that way, but others will be put in spots next to buildings where we can get them plugged into electric.

If you don’t have or want to use your rooftop TV dish during the rally, we have several 20 amp electric hookups with water that are under a large covered canopy.

With so little time left before the rally starts, there isn’t time to send rally confirmations by snail mail, but we can do so by e-mail if you register online. You can also register and pay when you arrive at the fairgrounds, either on Sunday, the 7^th from noon to 5 p.m., or Monday, the 8^th from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. If you are staying in the local area and don’t want to bring your RV to the fairgrounds, you can come in on day passes, for $5/person per day, which entitles you to all rally activities. Come join in all the fun!

Thought For The Day – I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

The weather forecast has been for rain all week, though it seemed to come in spurts, with periods of blue sky in between. But Wednesday night it began to rain in earnest, and it hasn’t stopped yet.

The rain was accompanied with high winds that whipped the palm trees in our park, and about 4:30 p.m., the National Weather Service issued tornado watches for southwest Arizona, including Yuma, Quartzsite, and Phoenix! That almost never happens. Up in the high country, heavy snow was falling, with accumulations measured in feet.

There were flash flood warnings for the entire state, and weather reports said that Oak Creek, near Sedona, could crest at 20 feet above normal. Yuma got its normal entire year’s rain accumulation in just one day! It was not a good time to be traveling, and while I was glad we were safely parked with full hookups, I was worried about the many friends we have who are boondocking in the desert at Quartzsite.

Since we get the east and west coast network feeds out of New York and San Francisco, I cranked up the rooftop Winegard batwing antenna, and was grateful to Mark Didelot for setting up our converter box so we could tune in the local channels and get more direct weather reports.

Unexpected bad weather is why we always keep our fresh water tank at least half full, and have enough fuel on board to run our generator, even when we are going to be parked for an extended period of time with full hookups. In fact, when we are going to be sitting still for a while, I always fill our fuel tank. I’m not sure about more modern rigs like our Winnebago, but in our old MCI bus conversion, condensation could accumulate in our diesel fuel tank if it was low and we were parked for several weeks. Having had to deal with that once, I don’t want it to happen again.

Because we lived in snow country in northern Arizona (yes, it snows in Arizona), Terry and I always kept enough provisions on hand to last us for a few days if we got snowed in. As RVers, we can’t carry a fully stocked pantry, but we always have food and fresh water on hand, just in case. There are times when living in a self-contained RV can be very nice.

Bad weather is not the only reason to be prepared. A few summers ago we were at the Thousand Trails preserve near Hershey, Pennsylvania for two weeks. During that time it was pretty hot, and they were having power problems. A transformer had to be replaced twice, leaving the campground without electricity.

No problem, we just opened our windows and ran our Fantastic roof vents to create an air flow, and if it got too hot, we buttoned the bus up and fired up our generator to run the rooftop air conditioner. Several of our neighbors came in with nearly empty tanks, and ran so low on fuel that their generators would not work. Most RV generators are set up so that they will stop drawing fuel from the RV’s tank when it drops below a certain level, to prevent you from running out and being stuck somewhere.

It’s been a long time since I was a Boy Scout, but that motto “Be prepared” still comes in handy.

Thought For The Day – If you don’t pick up the bat, you’ll never hit the ball.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally