For the most part, fulltime RVers are pretty darned patriotic people. But a lot of us still dread the Independence Day holiday every year. Not because we don’t like small town parades and fireworks, but because we know that everybody with a tent, trailer, bus or motorhome will be filling up RV parks from coast to coast.

We learned during our first summer on the road that if we are not comfortably ensconced in an RV park by at least Wednesday of the weeks of the Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day holidays, chances are that we might not find a place to stay, and would be celebrating the holiday at Camp Wal-Mart.

So we’ve been comfortably parked at the Morgan Hill Thousand Trails preserve since Monday, and the place is really starting to fill up with holiday campers. In case you don’t know it yet, there is a difference between campers and RVers.

We spent most of yesterday just watching what I call the Holiday Hula. What? You’ve never heard of the Holiday Hula? That’s the dance weekend campers do as they drive through a campground looking for just the right campsite.

All day long there was an endless parade of RVs, mostly small travel trailers and fifth wheels, cruising up and down the campground’s roads, stopping here and there to scope out an RV site, and then driving on, searching for one just a little bit better.

Of course, here the sites are all basically about the same. You have two choices – in the trees or out in the open. And since it looks like all of the shaded sites have already been taken, that leaves just the sites out in the open, in the area where we are parked.

Still, we see one rig after another stopping while they check out a site, and then driving on. Sometimes they decide that what they have already seen is better than what they found next, for whatever reason, and they come back. If they’re lucky, somebody else hasn’t snatched the site already, and it’s still available.

But the fun isn’t over yet. If I had a camcorder, I could put together an entire segment of America’s Funniest Videos just filming people trying to park and hook up to the campground utilities. Oh, the things we have seen!

One guy took six or seven tries to get his trailer into a pull-through site, another tried to back in, rather than going around to pull through, and ended up almost sideways in the camp site. Where is Dennis Hill from the RV Driving School when we need him?

I walked down to the trash dumpster, and along the way I saw one travel trailer that had a spare tire under the hitch instead of a jack or stabilizer; another fellow was hooking up a green garden hose to the water bib; and another was on his roof,  with a tripod mounted portable TV dish anchored down by bungee cords, trying to find a satellite. I was tempted to ask him why he didn’t just put it on the ground like everybody else, but I was afraid he’d try to explain it to me.

And what’s a holiday at a campground without kids? LOTS of kids! Kids of every size. Small kids, big kids, loud kids, and louder kids. And even some pretty nice kids too. Or a least I thought so when a couple of boys were playing ball and stopped as I walked past, until I heard one tell the other “Hold on so you don’t hit that old guy.” Smart alec kids!

At least we shouldn’t have any smoky campfires to contend with, due the the area’s high fire danger.

But what the heck, it’s a holiday weekend. Campers have to have fun too. And by Monday night most of them will be gone, and life can return to normal.

Bad Nick wants nothing to do with the holiday crowds, so he stayed inside yesterday, writing a new Bad Nick Blog titled Justice Isn’t Just Blind, She’s Stupid Too! Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – If we quit voting, will they go away?

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Isn’t it wonderful to be living in the greatest country in the world? We may have our recessions and our corrupt politicians, and our inept lawmakers, but compared to the rest of the world, we’re pretty darned fortunate. If you don’t believe me, ask yourself how many people are trying to slip into Brazil, or France, or Mexico, or Japan to live! No, they all want to come here, because this really is the land of the free and the home of the brave.

If you have never traveled outside of this great land of ours, you really don’t have any idea what life is like for the great majority of people in the world. We are free to come and go as we want without requiring special permission, we can work at whatever career we choose, and we can voice our opinion, right or wrong, without fear of retribution from the government.

Every day I get e-mails from people telling me how terrible President Obama is, how he is going to turn our country into a giant cesspool, and on and on, ad nauseum. I find these messages foolish and boring and I delete 99% of them without opening them. Not because I am a Democrat (I’m not) or because I’m a Liberal (I’m not), but because I grew up in the country, and I can recognize the smell of bulls%#$ no matter what political flavor it carries.

But no matter what your politics are, think about this for a moment. We live in a nation where you can send out messages criticizing the government and the President, and not have to worry that storm troopers are going to kick in your door tonight. That’s pretty cool, isn’t it?

I said above that I am not a Democrat or a Liberal, but neither am I a Republican or a Conservative. I don’t blindly follow any political party, because that is not what this country is all about. It is about each of us being able to make our own decisions, not having somebody make them for us.

I am an American, and a patriot, and I don’t and won’t apologize for either. I stop what I’m doing and hold my hand over my heart when the National Anthem is played. I still get choked up when I see Old Glory snapping proudly in the breeze. My eyes tear up when I see news stories about our brave military men and women being welcomed home after a tour of duty overseas, and I say a silent prayer for those still in harm’s way.

I come from a long line of men who fought for America, and I respect the sacrifices generations of Americans have made to keep us free. I love my country, even if I don’t always agree with the direction our leaders sometimes take.

Happy Birthday, America. For 233 years, we have set the standard that the rest of the world aspires to be.

Thought For The Day – Talk is cheap because supply exceeds demand.

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