Yesterday I realized that we were having a déjà vu experience, wondering if we would get out of Las Vegas today or not. Exactly five months ago we were in Indiana at Elkhart Campground with Greg and Jan White, watching the weather and wondering if the high winds there would die down so we could hit the road! Now here we are with Greg and Jan in Las Vegas, wondering if the wind will die down so we can hit the road. History does repeat itself! 

Yesterday the wind blew hard all day, and we were glad we were not out on the highway in a high profile vehicle. Today the wind is supposed to be considerably lighter, and if it is, we’ll pull out about mid-morning and head for Kingman, Arizona.

If we take the direct route, over Hoover Dam, it is 106 miles to our destination in Kingman, Arizona.  RVs can cross the dam unless there is a heightened alert status, but traffic can get very congested going down to the dam and back up. The longer route, through Searchlight to Laughlin, Nevada, and then to Kingman, adds an extra 25 miles to the trip, but usually has much less traffic congestion. We’ll probably choose that route.

But again, it all depends on the weather. If the wind is still blowing hard, we’ll just pay the Thousand Trails preserve for an extra day and wait until tomorrow. One of the great things about living in an RV is that you have your house with you, so it doesn’t matter where you are, because you’re at home. So why press our luck driving in hazardous conditions if we don’t have to?

We have had an absolute blast playing tourist here in Las Vegas with Greg and Jan. It has been like going on vacation from our permanent vacation, and all four of us agree that we have seen things and done more than we would have if we had not all been together. But I have to be honest with you, I miss working. I couldn’t do this on a regular basis.

I have been able to get enough information for several stories for the next issue of the Gypsy Journal, but I usually spend several hours a day at my computer researching and writing. We’ve been so busy for the past two weeks that, except for writing my blogs, I haven’t gotten much work done at all. I’m not complaining, it’s been a lot of fun and we have made some incredible memories. I’m just ready to get back to my regular routine.

The last time we were in Kingman, the service on our Verizon air card was terrible, and from what I understand, things have not improved since then. Mohave County, Arizona seems to be stuck in the dark ages of technology, and nobody told the folks in charge that it’s not 1950 anymore. So if the connection is as problematic as it was last year, there may not be as many photos on the blog for the next few days.

Of course, that all depends on if we actually do get out of Las Vegas today.

Thought For The Day – Forgive your enemies…once.

When I called 3Ts RV Service in Lake Havasu City, Arizona late Wednesday afternoon, a nice lady named Tina in their office had promised to have a replacement motor for our jacks and slide rooms to us here in Las Vegas yesterday, and sure enough, it was here by 11:30 a.m. Now, that’s great service!

I had heard good things about 3Ts before, and the RV Service Reviews website has some good customer reviews on their service. I wish that a lot of other RV shops and dealers were as honest and efficient, but it has been our experience that 3Ts is more the exception than the rule. That’s why we developed our RV Good Guys guide to reliable service and repairs on the road. When you’re broken down in a strange town, it’s nice to have somebody you can rely on.

The original electric motor had a label on it that said Made in Slovenia. When I opened the box with the replacement motor, I noticed that the new one has a label that says Made in China. Will outsourcing never stop?

I called Greg White to tell him that the motor had arrived, and a short time later he arrived and spent the next three hours under our motorhome getting the new motor installed, and checking to be sure that the rest of the wiring was in good shape. When Greg finally crawled out from under our coach, we went inside, fired up the engine, and our jacks and slides worked perfectly again! What would I do without my many friends who are always there for me? Well, I’d spend a lot of money, to be honest. Thanks for all of your help, Greg. I owe you (again).

Our Thousand Trails membership gives us 50 nights of camping a year in standard campsites at no charge, and any nights over 50 cost $5 a night. Most of the RV sites here at the Las Vegas Thousand Trails are pretty tight and don’t leave much room for parking cars or doing much outside. Our extended length van made things even tighter.

Having a neighbor sitting outside smoking, with the cigarette smoke coming in our open windows, wasn’t our idea of fun. We’ve had this happen several times before, and the offenders always say they smoke outside so that their RVs do not smell like cigarettes. No, instead, ours does! I used to enjoy an occasional cigar or pipe myself in the past, and I have nothing against smokers, as long as their habit doesn’t impact my life. When it does, that’s a different story.

Right across from our cramped RV site was a large corner site sitting empty, so I went up to the guard shack and asked about it. The ranger on duty said that it was a 50 amp electric site instead of the standard 30 amp sites, and there was an up-charge of $3 a day for it. The site is easily half again as large as the standard 30 amp site we were in, and I jumped on it. Here is a picture of our first site, now occupied by the Medallion fifth wheel in the center.

And here is our new site, which is much larger. We have more power, more space, more privacy, and all for $3 a day! It’s probably the best deal in Las Vegas!

My friend Judy Bayless, who presented two excellent seminars on genealogy at our Yuma rally, contacted me to tell me that Rootstelevision.com was one of the resources she planned to discuss in the seminar. But just days before the rally, she learned that the website was shutting down, so she removed it from the seminar.

Apparently the genealogy community raised such a hue and cry that the website is going to remain open, with commercial advertising now, to make it financially viable.  Judy said that Megan Smolenyak, who runs the site, is the author of the companion book to the Friday night NBC series, Who Do You Think You Are?  Roots Television is a free site with a ton of good genealogy material, including more than 700 videos of lectures, discussions, interviews, etc. I just checked it out and was very impressed! Give it a look, you may learn something about your own family tree!

Bad Nick stays as far away from manual labor as possible, so while Greg was working on the motorhome, he was busy writing a new Bad Nick Blog post titled And You Wonder Why We Have Problems? Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day - You can do anything you want, but you can’t do everything. Especially all at once.