There was only a steady breeze blowing in Las Vegas when we got up yesterday morning, and the high winds forecast the night before were no longer in the picture. So we decided to go ahead and leave the Thousand Trails campground and go on to Kingman, Arizona.

It didn’t take us long to get ready to travel. While I unhooked our water, electric and sewer connections from the campground’s utilities, Miss Terry was busy inside getting things stowed away in our motorhome. Then we ran in our slide rooms, pulled up our stabilizing jacks, and hooked our van to our Blow Ox tow bar.

A quick scan of my PressurePro tire monitoring system showed that both of our inside dual wheels were at 22 pounds. I got out my tire pressure gauge and checked both wheels, and they were right at 100 pounds. Ever since we had our new tires installed at Camping World a month ago, we have had continued false readings on both inside duals. I talked to PressurePro dealer Mike McFall at our rally in Yuma, and he suggested that I remove both sensors, let them set for a few minutes, and then screw them back on, but that has not solved the problem, so I need to call Mike again. I think the problem lies with the type of valve stems Camping World used. I have heard from other RVers who had to switch their valve stems out because of the same problem.

We had a little bit of wind coming out of Las Vegas, and a couple of gusts hit us on U.S. Highway 95 somewhere around Searchlight, but by the time we turned onto State Route 163 for the seventeen mile long, steep downhill trip to Laughlin, the wind had died.

The Winnebago’s exhaust brake handled the downhill run easily, and once we crossed the Colorado River into Arizona, we began another long uphill climb on State Route 68. The big Cummins diesel engine had to work a bit on this one, and we got down to 39 miles per hour for a short stretch, but since it was a nice divided four lane highway, we just got in the right hand lane and chugged right along.

We were going to need fuel before we left Kingman, and the Flying J there has some of the tightest RV fuel islands we’ve ever seen, so I decided to stop at the TA Truck Stop just as we came into town, where access was easier. Big mistake.

Since the cash/debit card price was 28 cents a gallon less then the credit card price, Terry took my debit card inside to have them activate the fuel pump. The clerk told her they would pre-charge us $300, and then correct the amount once I had finished filling our tank. The fuel came to $234.42, and when I went inside to pay, I confirmed with the clerk that this was how much I was being debited. Later that evening I discovered that in addition to the fuel I purchased, TA had also dinged my account for $500, which they were holding as a “security fee.”

I’ve had this happen before, but never for so much money, and I was pissed. I called the truck stop, told them that the charge for the fuel had already cleared my bank account, and I wanted my $500 back. The snotty clerk told me that it would take up to 30 days for them to process the refund. I demanded to talk to his boss, and got some other clown who would not give me his name, but assured me that yes, they would “eventually” return the money to my account. He told me that this was “company policy” to protect me from fraud. Huh? You take $500 of my money and put it in your account, where you draw interest on it for up to a month, to protect me? Such a deal! How much money do places like this make every month on their customers’ money?

I should have just used a credit card instead, since they also charged me the full credit card price anyway. You can bet that I will drive a long way out of my way to avoid TA truck stops in the future.

We arrived at my friend Mike Howard’s home here in Kingman, where we’ll be hanging out for a few days, before we continue on to Show Low, Arizona to visit my daughter and her family. In spite of having five bars of slower National Access service, our internet connection here is beyond terrible, and I don’t even know if I will be able to post my blog. Using our Verizon air card, we get knocked off line every minute or two, if we can even get online. Even my Blackberry Storm is giving me problems receiving and sending e-mail. So please don’t send me any jokes or forwards for a while. I can’t read them, anyway, and they just fill up my inbox.

Bad Nick fought a slow internet connection to post a new Bad Nick Blog titled It’s Time To Take Back Our Border. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.

Well, did your computer crash from the Conficker worm April Fool’s virus yesterday? Obviously not, because you’re reading this. But dire predictions filled the news for the last few days of March about how bad it was going to mess up our computers. It makes me wonder how real the threat was, and how inflated the news media made it.

Bad news sells, and if you were to believe all of the talking heads on your television, we are drowning in a sea of doom and gloom. But somehow things never turn out quite as bad as they tell us it’s going to.

I still remember New Year ‘s Eve, 1999. We were at the Escapees Rainbows End RV Park in Livingston, Texas, and people were walking around telling each other that airplanes were going to fall out of the sky, electrical systems would fail, and modern life as we knew it was all going to come to an end at the stroke of midnight. Guess what? It didn’t happen. It never seems to happen! But who would watch a news program that said “Nothing bad’s happening today, but it rained in Florida.” People thrive on predictions of disaster and news of mayhem.

I’m reminded of a story a friend told me yesterday about an uncle who was a farmer during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Prior to the fall of Wall Street, the man fed his family by raising his crops, and selling whatever excess he had at a roadside stand he had built in front of his farmhouse.

That was before the days of television and computer news. He was illiterate, so he never read a newspaper, and he was stone deaf, so he could not hear a word that was said to him. He just didn’t get the news that there was a depression going on. And all through those dark days, he just kept on doing what he had been doing all along, and he managed just fine. I think we could all take a lesson from that.

Terry and I are trying to decide what we’re going to do today. Kingman does not have high speed EVDO wireless service, so our Verizon air card is working on the town’s terribly slow Extended Network service, which makes it very hard for me to get any work done. To give you an idea of how slow it is, last week in Apache Junction, and before that in Tucson, our EVDO download speeds were averaging 1500 to 2200 kbps. Here our download speed is 12 to 13. Not 12 to 13 hundred, just 12 to 13!

When I tried to post yesterday’s blog, a process that normally takes less than a minute, the task took me three hours! Every time I clicked the Publish button, the system just sat there until finally it knocked me offline. Then I would have to log onto the Internet again, which took several minutes, and then spend several more minutes connecting to the blogging website, only to repeat the Publish process and get knocked offline again. 

We’re having a good time visiting with our friend Mike, but we really want to get over to Show Low and see those grandkids of ours. However, according to the weather reports on those same news broadcasts mentioned above, from Friday on, very strong winds are predicted for this region, as well as very cold temperatures in the Show Low area. So do we sit here and wait it out, being frustrated by our internet service, or do we make the run to Show Low and be cold?

By the time you read this, we will have made a decision. Tune in tomorrow for the next installment of What Would Nick Do?

Thought For The Day – The trouble with bucket seats is that not everybody has the same size bucket.

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Arizona is an amazingly diverse state. Those unfamiliar with the Grand Canyon state might think that is it all cactus and sand, and there is certainly no shortage of desert here, but there are also towering mountains that are covered with dense forests, and snow capped much of the year. This explains Arizona’s climate, where you can build a snowman in the morning in the high country, then drive a few hours and have a cookout wearing shorts and T-shirts in the desert that afternoon.

We had temperatures in the 80s in Apache Junction just a couple of days ago, here in Kingman I dug our Olympian catalytic heater out of one of the bus bays to keep us warm last night, and our daughter called yesterday to report snow at her home in Show Low. I told her that had better end soon, because we want to get over there and spoil those grandkids, and Grandpa doesn’t approve of being in the snow.

A while back I listed some of my favorite RV blogs and websites, and readers keep asking me for more. There are so darned many that I could spend hours a day just trying keep up with them all, but for your reading enjoyment, here are a few more that I check in on often:

White Truck Blog – Bob and Jan have converted a vintage 1965 White semi truck and a moving trailer into a beautiful home on wheels, and share the stories of their travel adventures.

Hitch Itch - A great collection of RV blogs and information can be found on this site. Give yourself plenty of time to explore it, because it has a lot of good information and links.

Backroad Chronicles - Our friends Joy and Phil have been faithful Gypsy Journal supporters for years, and their blog is always fun to read.

Traveling USA – Bob and Donna have wandered America from coast to coast, and I enjoy seeing the country through their eyes.

Moon River And We – Bob and Molly are wonderful people, and I always enjoy checking in with their blog to see what they are up to.

So what are we up to? Terry and I are going to take a day trip up to Nevada today to touch base with Aunt Bee’s Mail, the mail service that handles our business mail, and to check out an RV that we are interested in. I always enjoy the trip up to Lake Mead and across Hoover Dam. It has some of the most dramatic scenery in this part of the West. One of these days we want to camp at Lake Mead and do some kayaking on its awesome blue water.

We have a terrible internet connection here in Kingman. It’s one of the few places we have been where our Verizon air card is darned near useless. About half the time we get knocked offline when we try to open a website or even an e-mail, and it’s incredibly slow all of the time. So I’m going to close this post and try to get it online before we lose our connection yet again.

Thought For The Day - The successful person will learn from their mistakes and try again in a different way.

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We pulled out of Pacific Manor in Apache Junction just before 10 a.m. yesterday, got on the 202 Loop and followed it west to Interstate 10. Even though it was a Sunday morning, traffic was fairly heavy and we were grateful that we had decided not to wait until today to leave for Kingman.

We left the interstate at the 303 Loop, a nice two lane road with light traffic, and followed it north a few miles to U.S. Highway 60, which took us into Wickenburg.

Whenever we set out on a trip, even a relatively short 225 mile journey like this, I always try to have two or three alternative stopping points in case we need them. You never know when weather or mechanical problems can put you off your intended schedule.

The weather forecast had predicted strong winds later in the day, and we figured if the wind became a problem we’d stop at the Escapees North Ranch RV Park, a few miles from Wickenburg, for the night. But there was just a slight breeze, and it was coming from behind us, so we hooked up with U.S. Highway 93 in Wickenburg and kept on rolling. It’s not often we get a tailwind, even a slight one, and I didn’t want to waste it.       

We were a little concerned about how our bus would perform on the trip, because we’d be doing some climbing, and the temperature was in the mid-80s. On a couple of hills we slowed down quite a bit, and I had to downshift into second gear and run the radiator misters, but we managed okay.

About 110 miles north of Wickenburg, we hooked up with Interstate 40, and just as we got onto the highway and turned west, the wind really started blowing hard, slamming us broadside. It was another 18 miles into Kingman, and I fought the wind every inch of the way. If we would have been much further from our destination, I’d have found a place to pull over and wait until the wind died down.

But we made it fine, and arrived at our friend Mike’s house just after 2 p.m. We got parked and hooked up in his driveway, and about the time I completed those chores the wind really got serious. All afternoon and evening it rocked the bus viciously, and we said a silent thank you prayer that it held off until we were safely off the road.

It’s good to be here with Mike, we always enjoy our time together. He and I go back more years than the two of us have fingers and toes to count, and there have been some adventures neither of us is willing to admit to, back when we were young and foolish. Now that we’re old and foolish, we’ve toned it down quite a bit, though. We’ve not gotten any wiser with age; we just don’t have the energy any more to pull some of the stunts we used to.

Thought For The Day - It’s terribly unfair that youth is wasted on the young.

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