Yesterday morning, after dropping the last of the new issue off at the post office, we drove 110 miles south to Tucson to visit my cousin Beverly McKiddy. My parents and all of my siblings passed away years ago, and except for my two kids and my two granddaughters, the only blood relatives that I have left are a few cousins scattered around the country, and some nephews I lost track of years ago.

My cousins are all nice people, but I’m really only close to three or four them, because I seldom get to spend much time with the others. Beverly and I have been very close since we were little kids, and we never miss an opportunity to visit with her when we’re in Arizona. She is one of my favorite people in the whole world.

The fastest route between Mesa and Tucson is down Interstate 10, but what fun is that? Whenever we can, we choose the two lane roads, which in this case is State Route 79, also known as the Pinal Pioneer Parkway, south from Florence Junction to connect with State Route 77 at Oracle Junction, and then south on SR 77 to Tucson. It takes a few minutes longer, but it is a much nicer, more relaxing trip.

Traffic was light most of the way, and as we skirted the edge of the old community of Florence, we passed the imposing gun towers and razor wire fences of the Arizona State Prison, glad we were on the right side of the fence and the law, and free to travel when and where we want to.

South of Florence we passed the memorial to old time cowboy film star Tom Mix, who was killed here in a one car accident in1940, when he drove his convertible into a dry wash, and a heavy suitcase in the back seat slammed into him and broke his neck.

We spent the day visiting with Beverly, and took her out to dinner at Luke’s Italian Beef on Fort Lowell Road, which is one of our favorite restaurants in the country. The lack of ambience is more than made up for by their huge, delicious sandwiches, and the best French fries we have found anywhere in our travels. We had a wonderful time with Beverly, and all too soon it was time to head back to our home on wheels.

We left Tucson a little after 7 p.m., and got home about 9:30. Since my night vision is poor, Terry drove back, and we enjoyed the ride, listening to good music on the radio and talking about how lucky we are to have the life and the relationship that we share.

Before I close this blog post, I need to clear up something about the Yuma Fairgrounds, to hopefully save folks some problems. At our previous rallies, the different fairgrounds had RV hookups that they rent to the general public, and have allowed RVers to come in several days ahead of the time and stay until the rally began.

But in Yuma, the fairgrounds does not have RV sites open to the general public. They have so many events going on that they just do not have room for RVs to stay there unless they are part of an activity. The fairgrounds manager has also told us that part of that policy is because they do not want to get into any hassles with the many RV parks in Yuma. They are allowing Terry and me, and a couple of assistants, to come in early and park in a far corner, so we can handle last minute rally details, but I’m afraid that folks arriving in the area a few days early will have to find other parking options.    

Fortunately, there are some good alternatives. In addition to the RV parks in town, there are many places to dry camp nearby, including north of Yuma along U.S. Highway 95, and west of town, across the state line in California. We apologize to anybody who didn’t understand this and assumed that they could arrive a few days early, but unfortunately, we have no control over the fairgrounds’ policy.

Thought For The Day – How often do you apply the knowledge you spent so much time and effort seeking?

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We had a long day yesterday. We left Apache Junction about 9 a.m. and drove to the fairgrounds in Yuma to check out the buildings we’ll be using for our RV rally in March.

Instead of taking Interstate 10 south all the way to Interstate 8, and than taking I-8 west to Yuma, we usually take State Route 347 through the small but growing community of Maricopa, hook up with State Route 84 for a couple of miles, and then hit Interstate 8 at Exit 151. This saves about 30 miles of driving, and except for a few miles of divided four lane roadway, the rest is a nice two lane road without much traffic.

We have noticed another possible route, State Route 238, which goes west from Maricopa to connect with Interstate 8 at Gila Bend, but we had never taken it before. Since we were in the van yesterday, we decided to give it a try. The first half of the two lane road was pretty bumpy, and the second half was a series of dips and sharp curves. We shaved ten miles off our trip, but because the road isn’t nearly as nice, it took us almost exactly as long as going our regular way. If you like drives in the country and have a smaller RV, it would probably be okay, but I don’t think I’d take my 40 foot motorhome through some of those dips.

We stopped at Augies Quail Trail RV Park in Gila Bend to drop off a sample bundle of papers. The Escapees had their Boot Camp for newbie RVers there earlier in the week, and we were hoping to run into anybody we knew, but in driving through the campground, we didn’t see any rigs that looked familiar. We know a lot of folks that stay at Augie’s when passing through this area, and it looked like a nice, clean little park.

When we pulled into the fairgrounds in Yuma, Gypsy Journal subscribers Ed and Stevi Hackenbruch greeted us. We met this nice couple several years ago, and have seen them a few times since then. They winter in Yuma, and were at the fairgrounds getting their table set up for a craft show this weekend. Running into them was a nice surprise.

We spent a couple of hours at the fairgrounds, making notes on the buildings, looking over the areas where we’ll be parking RVs, and going over some final rally details with the fairgrounds staff.

Then we stopped at the local Domino’s Pizza to talk to them about ordering over 100 pizzas for our traditional Wednesday evening pizza party. The price they quoted us was about 60% more than the Domino’s in Casa Grande or Celina, Ohio have charged us at previous rallies, and they’ll have to sharpen their pencil if they want to earn our business.

With all of that done, we drove around dropping off bundles of sample newspapers at some of the RV parks in Yuma. As we were pulling into one RV park, I told Terry that our friends Smokey and Pam Ridgely are workamping in Yuma this winter, and the name of this park sounded familiar. Just then Terry spotted Smokey’s beautiful Peterbilt truck coming out of the park. I stopped, jumped out, and waved Smokey down. He turned around and led us back to their fifth wheel, where we spent an hour or so visiting with Smokey and Pam. We have not seen them since they made a brief stop at our rally in Ohio in October, and we were glad we had the chance to visit for a while.

By then it was getting late and the sun was sinking low. We drove back eastward on Interstate 8, stopping to take a couple of pictures of the mountains near Wellton glowing in the last of the sun’s rays. That is not a natural lake you see in the foreground, just evidence of the how much water came down in last week’s storms.

On our way home, we passed by the Harrah’s Ak-Chin Casino near Maricopa, spotting 15 or 20 RVs dry camping in the parking lot, and made a mental note for future use if we’re nearby and need a safe, level place to park overnight.

It was chilly and sprinkling when we left our motorhome in the morning, but the weather was beautiful while we were in Yuma. Coming back, we ran in a downpour about five miles from home, and from the amount of standing water on the roads, I suspect it rained most of the day.

We got home about 10:30 p.m., having covered about 450 miles, and I sure was ready to get out of that van and back in our motorhome!

Thought For The Day – Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.

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We said a reluctant goodbye to Mike Steffen and left his place in Salt Flat, Texas a little after 9 a.m. yesterday morning, headed west on U.S. Highway 180. It’s always good to see our friends, and always hard to leave. But, the good thing about the RV lifestyle is that we can always go back and see them again. 

We made a brief stop at Cornudas, a wide spot in the road that has an interesting history. Cornudas started life as a stagecoach station, and today the “town” is owned by May Carson, a feisty lady who is the mayor, heads the water department, and owns the entire town.

May will serve you a great hamburger, and a piece of pecan pie to  die for, but if you give her any grief, she’ll show you the baseball bat she keeps behind the counter and let you know she means business. May is a character, as are most of her customers.

A while back May sold the town on eBay, but the deal went sour and she had to take it back, which made her many fans very happy. Cornudas is one of those places you have to stop at, just to say you’ve been there.

An hour after leaving Salt Flat, we got on the Loop 375, which took us through Fort Bliss and across the Franklin Mountains, past the National Border Patrol Museum. We did a story on the museum years ago, and I recommend it to anyone traveling through El Paso.

Loop 375, also called Transmountain Road, is a divided four lane road up an 8% grade over the mountains, and the Winnebago did fine. We were not setting any speed records, but we went up as fast as I wanted to, and I left our Allison transmission in fourth gear and let the exhaust brake carry us down to the other side safely.

Well, almost safely. As we were approaching Interstate 10, a jerk in an eighteen wheeler pulled out of a business on the left side and across the highway directly in front of us. I slammed on the brakes and managed to stop before we hit him, but it was darned close! I got on the CB radio and told him what a jerk he was, and that I hoped that when he got home, his mother ran out from under the porch and bit him, but he ignored me. He was a typical OPOP, which is a term I stole from one of our readers a few years back. It stands for Only Person On Planet, because idiots like that seem to think that nobody exists except them, and they’ll kill you to prove it.

After our blood pressure dropped back down to a reasonable level, we got on Interstate 10 only six miles from the New Mexico state line. The loop was a steep climb and descent, but a good road, and it sure beats the heck out of driving through El Paso on the interstate. There was about a mile long stretch where it was on surface streets after we left the military reservation, but it was an easy drive.

Except for slowing down for the Border Patrol checkpoint west of Las Cruces, we made good time, and arrived at the Escapees Dreamcatcher RV Park in Deming about 12:45. This is a regular stop for us when we travel west, because it’s right off the interstate, with easy access in and out.

We got parked and hooked up, and then ran to the post office to send out some orders that had come in over the weekend. Our good friend Deb Peters lives in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, about 90 miles away, and we had not seen her in a couple of years. Deb drove down to Deming and we had a nice dinner together, catching up on our lives since the last time we were together. It was a real treat to see her again.

We had thought about staying here a couple of nights, but for some reason we only have the slower National Access signal on our Verizon air card, even though our cell phones both show high speed EVDO signals. I took the air card out of our Cradlepoint router and put it in my computer and updated it, but it did not help our speed at all. We have a lot of online work to get done, and it’s frustrating to keep getting knocked offline, so we’ll see how the day goes. We may hang around, or we may get fed up and say the heck with it and hit the road. Tune in tomorrow to see what we decide.

Thought For The Day – Laughter is the medicine of life.

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Terry and I have been dry camping at Mike and Pam Steffen’s place in Salt Flat, Texas for a couple of days, swapping lies, playing with their herd of dogs, target shooting, and admiring the star filled sky above us at night. In another life, that would be called goofing off, but in the laid back RV lifestyle, it’s called….. okay, I guess it’s still goofing off. But what’s wrong with that?

Mike is a well known and respected RV columnist for Trailblazer magazine, and his work is also familiar to readers of MotorHome magazine, Trailer Life, Woodall’s, and most other RV publications. Mike has been presenting seminars at RV rallies for longer than Terry and I have even been RVers, and I’ve learned a lot from him over the years.

Salt Flat is located on U.S. Highway 180, about 60 miles east of El Paso, and seventeen miles from nowhere. To get to Mike and Pam’s place, you turn north at the cattle guard, drive eleventeen miles down a dirt road, cross a couple of dry washes, take a right at the scorpion crossing, bear left at the pile of cow flop, and then drive for six days and nights. Eventually a wild menagerie of friendly dogs will run out to greet you, and you’re there. Do you get the picture?

This is rustic dry camping. Our Verizon cell phones and air card don’t work way out here, but we arrived with a full tank of fresh water, a full propane tank, empty waste tanks, and our Onan QuietDiesel generator gives us all the power we need. Mike and Pam are so far off the grid that they’re not even in the same galaxy. But, that doesn’t mean that they’re roughing it. When the sun hides behind the clouds and his large array of solar panels doesn’t work, Mike ties a key onto a kite string and pulls power right out of the sky, and if that doesn’t work, all he has to do is harness a couple dozen of his dogs and put them on a treadmill and they’ll crank out some power!

Okay, so it’s not a four star RV resort, but how many of them have a private shooting range where I can play with my toys? Not many! Yesterday I hauled a couple that I had not tried out yet across the yard to Mike’s range and put them through their paces, and after I got a bit familiar with them, I even managed to impress myself.

I love dogs, and this is a great place to get a puppy fix. Mike and Pam have a bunch of lovable mutts, and not a poodle in the lot! I have been licked, nuzzled, and snuggled enough to hold me over for a couple of months, and I’ve scratched behind enough canine ears to send a battalion of fleas across the border into Mexico.

As you can see, we’ve had a great time here, but today we’ll get back on the road and head for the Escapees Dreamcatcher RV Park in Deming, New Mexico. Coming across west Texas on Interstate 10, I fell in love with the big 350 Cummins engine in our Winnebago all over again. It just eats up hills and doesn’t even seem to notice. Today will be its first real test. We’ll avoid all of the traffic in El Paso by taking the 375 Loop through Fort Bliss and over the Franklin Mountains to Interstate 10, just south of the New Mexico state line. Called Transmountain Drive as it crosses through Franklin Mountains State Park, the road has some pretty steep climbs and descents. We came over it in a gas powered motorhome years ago, but we never attempted it in our old bus conversion. I don’t think it’ll be a problem with this rig.

On another note, we have received e-mails from several Gypsy Journal subscribers complaining that pages 7 and 30 of the new issue are unreadable due to a problem with the printing process. If you get a bad paper, please e-mail me, and we’ll send you a replacement.

Thought For The Day – Each of us has our own individual Heaven and Hell.

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We wanted to be on the road by about 9 a.m. yesterday, but that didn’t happen. We were up early, and Miss Terry got the inside of our Winnebago ready for the road, while I made a stop at the dumpster, and then went up to the office at the Thousand Trails campground to tell them we were checking out a couple of days early. Our case of hitch itch just needed scratched.

Back at our RV site, I unhooked the utilities, and then Terry ran in our slides. The bedroom slide went fine, but when the living room slide started coming in, big chunks of ice started falling down from the top, along with cold water. The slide suddenly came to a stop about eight inches away from being all the way in.

I was outside, and had Terry run it back out, and then try to bring it back in again. It came another inch or so more than the first time, then stopped again. The problem was that the rain we had a few days ago had frozen and formed thick chunks of ice on the slide topper, which were jamming the slide. Terry went up the ladder on the back of our motorhome, I handed her up a broom, and she swept the top of the slide topper clean, dislodging chunks of ice about ¾ of an inch thick and up to six inches across.

With that chore done and Miss Terry safely back on terra firma, we retracted our leveling jacks, and then Terry noticed that our automatic Carefree patio awning was out about four inches. We had not used the awning since we arrived at the Thousand Trails, and I suspected that water had also accumulated inside and frozen, pushing the awning out. Sure enough, we extended the awning and more water and ice fell out. Did I ever mention that cold weather RVing sucks?

With everything finally buttoned up, I scrolled through the display on our PressurePro tire monitoring system, and then pulled out of our RV site and made a stop at the propane station to fill our tank, then Terry drove the van back up to the office to pay for the propane, came back, and we hooked the van to our tow bar. With all of the delays, it was 10:30 by the time we finally got on the road.

I really don’t like driving through San Antonio, so this trip we tried the Loop 1604 around the east side of the city. The first five miles or so were regular two lane road, with a couple of traffic signals, then the loop became a divided highway two to three lanes wide. There was still a lot of traffic, but we rolled along fine, and eventually rejoined Interstate 10 on the north side of San Antonio. I think the loop was better than driving through town on I-10, but I’d still rather avoid the city altogether.

Once we were out of the metropolitan area, the rest of our day was just a lot of long, boring miles counting the road kill. We pulled into a couple of rest areas for potty stops and to do a walk around the motorhome and van, checking our tow bar connection, tires, etc. Late in the afternoon, with the sun sinking slowly into the western sky (sorry, I couldn’t resist that one), we pulled into the WalMart in Fort Stockton, hoping to dry camp for the night.

Terry had called ahead and asked permission, and the lady she spoke to said we were welcome to park overnight, and to please park at the western end of the parking lot. This is a small WalMart, not a SuperCenter, and when we arrived, there were a half dozen or so motorhomes and fifth wheels, and there was no way we could park without the rear end of the van sticking out into a lane of the parking lot. We decided they had enough RVs at Camp WalMart that evening, so we got back onto the highway and drove another 45 miles to Saddleback Mountain RV Park, a Passport America park a few miles west of Balmorhea. We had covered 485 miles in a little over eight hours of driving, which is a long day on the road.

This is a small campground with nothing much to recommend it, except for price and convenience. It is just off the highway, and has long pull through full hookup sites with 30/50 amp electric, for $10 a night with the Passport America discount. It’s not a place we’d spend any time, but for a safe overnight stay, it was a good deal.

Today we’ll go on to Salt Flat, where we’ll spend a day or two visiting our friends Mike and Pam Steffen, before we continue our westward trek.

Thought For The Day – I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it.

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