We are fast running out of time here in Apache Junction, and we still have a lot to get done before we head to Yuma for our Arizona Gypsy Gathering rally in March. We still need to replace the tires on or motorhome, replace the house batteries, I’m working on the new issue of the Gypsy Journal, and once it is printed, we need to get it mailed out. And, of course, there are still a few dozen rally details and chores that need completed too.

Aside from work related tasks, we still have some folks who want to get together for lunch or dinner, I want to get down to Tucson to visit my cousin Beverly, and I’d like to spend a few hours at the Family History Center of the LDS Church in Mesa. I’m not a Mormon, but their genealogy research facilities are open to anyone, and I’m running into a brick wall on my father’s side of my family tree.

A couple of weeks ago I bought Miss Terry a new Bernina Bernette sewing machine, and while I was working on the new issue of the paper yesterday, she went to a class at Quilter’s Ranch in Tempe to learn about all of the new machine’s bells and whistles. What, you say? A class to learn how to operate a sewing machine? No, Terry has been sewing since she was a youngster, this class was just to learn all about the features of her new machine and its many capabilities.

What the heck, when I got my Blackberry Storm last summer, Verizon had a free class to learn to use it! Of course, I still can’t do much more than make a call or answer e-mails on it.

Yesterday, my friend Sharon Del Rosario sent me an e-mail to tell me about a great country singer and yodeler named David Bradley that she and hubby Don met in Quartzsite, and she suggested that I contact David and talk to him about performing at our Yuma rally. Since I value Sharon’s opinion, I called David and we worked out an arrangement for him to come to the rally and perform a concert on Monday evening.

David is the son of world champion yodeler Gene Bradley, and has been performing since he was five years old. He performed with the famous Sons of the Pioneers for five years, and was a featured solo artist at the popular Country Tonite Theatre in Branson, Missouri, where he won the Featured Entertainer of the Year award. You can hear some sound bites of David’s music on his Born To Yodel website. Check it out, and make plans now to attend his concert at the rally. Between David and the Michael Hargis’ concert, we’ll have plenty of reasons to tap our toes at the rally, won’t we?

Besides great entertainment and a full line of seminars at the rally, you will also have the opportunity to take advantage of some extra activities, including getting your RV weighed by Rick and Joyce Lang from RVSEF; taking behind the wheel RV driving classes from the RV School, and taking a class to obtain a non-resident Utah or Florida concealed weapons permit from Traveling CCW.

There is a separate fee for any of these valuable extras, and you should make arrangements before the rally if you can, because they all fill up fast. For RV weighing, contact Rick Lang at ricklang46@hotmail.com; for the RV School, contact Dennis Hill at rvschool@wizwire.com; and for the CCW classes, visit the Traveling CCW website.

News out of Elkhart, Indiana is that Heartland Recreational Vehicles LLC., builders of what I consider some of the finest fifth wheel trailers on the market, has purchased the rights to the brand names Prowler, Mallard, Pioneer, Wilderness, and other Fleetwood towable products, and will begin to build their own line of trailer models under those names. A company press release says they plan to begin manufacturing RVs under the acquired names in the next year. Given my personal opinion of Fleetwood products, I’m not sure this is a move I would have made, but if anyone can build something worthwhile under those brand names, I think it would be Heartland.

As busy as we are, Bad Nick still found time to write a new Bad Nick Blog post titled Dying With Dignity. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Don’t believe all you hear, spend all you have, or sleep all you want.

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A cold front dipping south brought very strong winds to Apache Junction, Arizona yesterday afternoon and evening. At our spot here in Pacific Manor, we are on an end site, with a six foot high block wall on one side and the rear, but even with that our old bus was rocking on its air bags so much it would have made a landlubber seasick! I told Miss Terry I wondered how much more we would have felt without the wall blocking the wind. I’m sure glad we weren’t out on the highway someplace.

We’ve been in some nasty winds while traveling, and the best thing to do is just find a safe place to get off the road and wait it out. We’ve done that many times, not only in high winds, but in other storms as well, and we’ve always been amazed at how many RVs we see still going down the highway.

We’ve also been in RV parks when the weather was dangerous, and seen RVs pulling out first thing in the morning. Why? Where do they have to get in such a hurry? I guess if you’re still working and have to get back to the job, it might be a reason. But I’ve seen fulltimers doing it too, and I just don’t understand it. I’m a dyed in the wool coward, and I avoid putting myself in dangerous situations any time I can. Life has enough hazards as it is, without driving into them.

Which reminds me – do you have a weather radio? If not, why not? They only cost a few bucks, and can save your life. Our CB radio has a weather channel feature on it also, and whenever we’re on the road and things start to look ugly, I turn it on to see what we’re heading into. I also monitor the CB to hear what the truckers say about the weather, and more than once we’ve heard about a bad situation up ahead and found a place to pull over and wait for things to clear up.

Our time here in Apache Junction is almost over, but we’ve enjoyed spending time with Terry’s family. Here is a photo I took earlier in the week of Terry sitting on the right, her sister Dani in the center and sister Lisa on the left, with her dad and mom, Pete and Bess Weber, standing behind them. That Weber family sure turns out some good looking women, doesn’t it?

A while back, my pal Judy Bayless discovered that I had about seventeen minutes a week that I was just wasting by doing things like sleeping and eating, so she turned me on to genealogy. Since then I’ve been playing around on the Ancestry.com website, and have found quite a few relatives, even a few that didn’t serve time in prison, much to my surprise.

The Mormon Church operates over 4,500 Family History Centers worldwide, with a tremendous amount of information on genealogy. You don’t have to be a member of the Mormon Church to research your family tree at these Centers, they are open to anybody free of charge. The staff at the Centers are happy to assist both new and experienced genealogists, and they do not promote church membership to visitors.

There is a large Family History Center in Mesa, and yesterday while Terry and her mom were out running some errands, I stopped by to see what they had to offer. Unfortunately, their computer system was down and I couldn’t get much done. But I can see that it is a great resource for anyone wanting to explore their roots. If you’re into genealogy and are spending some time in the Phoenix area, check it out.

Every week people ask me how Sandy Baleria is doing. Miss Terry and Sandy keep in contact by e-mail, and though it is a long and lonely journey she is on, she has managed to turn her grief over Dave’s loss into a positive thing to reach out to others who are suffering. You can read about it in my post on Sandy on my Todays Hero Blog.

Thought For The Day - Talk slowly but think quickly.

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