Yesterday we were running around in short sleeve shirts, but that didn’t last long! By evening it had turned downright chilly here in Albuquerque, and today’s high is only supposed to be 53 degrees!

We spent most of yesterday printing off copies of our various RV guides and making CDs to sell during the rally. This is our first Affinity rally, and while we have been to some big RV events over the years, I don’t think we’ve ever been to one single venue with so many vendors.

If you were looking for anything from a Fantastic Fan for your ceiling or a rooftop satellite TV dome, all the way down to wheel covers and tire pressure monitors; from headlights and auxiliary running lights to mud flaps and ladders for the back of your RV, they’ve got you covered from top to bottom and back to front. A shopaholic would be in heaven here.

The rally has some excellent seminars on all aspects of RVing, as well as some top notch entertainment lined up. Tonight legendary singer/songwriter Neil Sedaka will be performing, and tomorrow night Rita Coolidge will be the star attraction. On Sunday evening the Osmonds take the stage. I think it’s going to be a fun rally.

I try to stay out of politics and such, because I really just am not at all interested. I prefer to just live my life, roll with the flow, and try to stay under the radar. I have several people who constantly send me forwarded e-mails that would have you believe that President Obama is the devil incarnate, and just as many people forwarding me stuff about how those darned Republicans are the scourge of the earth, and I just delete them all without opening them. I think they all need bumper stickers on their cars that say “My Conspiracy Theory Can Beat Up Your Conspiracy Theory.”

In my little world, it’s all about me, and it really doesn’t matter who is in the White House, because none of them yet have offered to buy me a new bus or give me a cushy political appointment.

Extremists turn me off. My definition of an extremist is anybody who insists on sharing with me his views on religion or politics once I’ve politely said I’m not interested. Usually when people start spouting off about their political or religious opinions, I just nod my head, tune them out, and take a mental trip to Margaritaville with Jimmy Buffet.

That being said, I just had to respond to a guy yesterday. We had a couple of orders to mail out, and the fellow in line in front of me at the post office looked me over and said “You look old enough to be a Vietnam vet. Are you?”

I allowed as to how my Uncle Sam had given me an extended jungle camping trip as my high school graduation present.

“Did you hear what Obama just did?” he asked.

Now, it’s bad enough when my friends start sharing their agendas with me, but when it’s a complete stranger, I immediately start hearing Jimmy singing about shrimp boiling as we waste away in Margaritaville. So I didn’t answer him, just looked toward the counter, in the hope that the line would move quicker.

But he continued by saying “Today Obama and the Department of Homeland Security declared that all white Vietnam veterans are a national threat and he has ordered that they all be rounded up and put into concentration camps by the end of the month, along with their families.”

I tried, but even I couldn’t ignore this! Jimmy was stroking his six string and hit a sour note, and I said “What the hell are you talking about?”

“It’s true.” He insisted, “The mainstream media is keeping it a secret, but it’s all over the internet if you know where to look!”

I know I should have ignored him, but sometimes I just have to say something.

“Are you really stupid enough to believe that?” I asked him. “Do you really think that could happen? And that not one radio or television station or newspaper would report the fact that millions of Americans are headed for a concentration camp? And do you really think we’d all just go along quietly? Have you even considered the logistics of it? How could they make it happen in less than two weeks?”

“It happened to the Jews in World War II,” he insisted. “You just wait and see! I’ll be waving to you from outside the fence when they take you to the gas chamber!”

Now, I’m not going to lose any sleep over his dire predictions. I’ve ridden in Mac McCoy’s van with the windows rolled up on the drive home from the Golden Corral buffet, so I know all about gas chambers. But what really concerns me is that people that dumb are allowed to drive cars and procreate!

(And please, don’t start replying with your political viewpoints, okay? Remember, I have a delete button, and I’m not afraid to use it!)

Thought For The Day – I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes.

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In yesterday’s blog I wrote that visiting the Four Corners area, Monument Valley, and Canyon de Chelly, all in Arizona, are on my personal Bucket List. You know what a Bucket List is, right? It’s all of those things you want to do before you kick the bucket, as in the great movie by the same name starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman.

All a bucket list is is a set of goals you want to accomplish in your life. Things you want to do and places you want to see. And hopefully, as you cross some things off your personal list, you’ll find some new things to add to it. That way you never get bored.

I’ve been lucky in that I’ve crossed a lot of stuff off my bucket list already, including jumping out of an airplane (and surviving), driving in a stock car race (I won my one and only race and retired a winner), overcoming my terrible fear of public speaking, traveling fulltime in an RV, making my living as a writer, visiting Washington, D.C., visiting Key West, starting my own business (done that several times), buying a classic Corvette and driving it on old Route 66, and finding my soul mate, to name a few.

There are still plenty of things I have left on my list, including visiting (in no particular order) Cape Cod, the Outer Banks of North Carolina, Mystic Seaport, Santa Fe, Yellowstone National Park, Valley Forge, and Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area.

I also want to drive to Alaska, take a cruise ship vacation, follow the Great River Road from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico, kayak in Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp, spend a few nights camping on the beach on the Texas Gulf Coast, learn to draw, learn to play the saxophone, and see a live Jimmy Buffet concert.

I’m sure if I gave it some thought, I could come up with a couple dozen more to tell you about, but instead, why don’t you tell me what’s on your bucket list? What places do you still want to see, and what things do you want to accomplish before you give that bucket its final kick?

Thought For The Day – If you can’t combine business with pleasure, you’re in the wrong business.

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