It’s entertaining just to look around you in Las Vegas. Not just for the fancy casinos, but some of the people you see on the sidewalks and in the restaurants seem to be from some other world. And not one I’d want to visit!

I’m not sure which it was, but I saw either a six foot tall peacock strolling down the Strip the other day, or the best reason to outlaw the Mohawk hairdo that ever existed.

Okay, I know that I’m a fat guy.  I’m not proud of that, but I have reached that stage in my life where I accept myself as I am. So I don’t wear clothing like wife beater T-shirts, or go around without a shirt on at all. I just can’t subject the general public to that kind of visual abuse.

But here in Vegas I’ve seen both men and women who make me look anorexic wearing less clothing than you’ll see on college kids on Spring Break! There should be a rule that if you have more square inches of skin showing than you do square inches of fabric covering it, said skin should be able to defy the laws of gravity! If you have more belly hanging out under your shirt than what the shirt covers, just stay inside, okay?

Maybe just as interesting are the women we’ve seen here who are on the far side of middle age, but who run around in slinky clothes, wearing enough makeup to camouflage a Winnebago, trying to compete with their granddaughters for attention. Ladies, take a hint – if your varicose veins clash with your fishnet stockings, it’s time to reevaluate your wardrobe.

People aren’t the only things that will make you take a second glance around here. Yesterday we spotted this truck at a Lowes store. Now there’s a guy who can probably fix your leaky faucet!

When we went to brunch yesterday, we spotted this pickup and camper that have seen better days, but the owner obviously has a good sense of humor. Check out the sign in the windshield.

Another sign, which I missed, but my friend Joe Long sent me from a recent visit he made to Las Vegas, is the kind of place where I’d like to hang out.

Even the names of some of the businesses here are memorable. Greg White found this ad in a tourist guide he picked up somewhere while we were running around.   I guess there are some serious pet lovers in Las Vegas!

Some folks come to Las Vegas to gamble, some come to see the shows, some come to people watch,  and some come to get married. My pal Greg White, on the other hand, apparently came to Las Vegas just to work on my vehicles!

After spending hours changing out the motor for our jacks and slide rooms a couple of days ago, yesterday Greg was back at it. The original 40 amp fuse for the slide motor had burned out when the motor started failing, and since I couldn’t find a replacement fuse, we stuck a 30 amp in as a temporary fix. Since then I got the proper fuse, and Greg crawled under the Winnebago to put it in.

Then he swapped out the air chuck for the air compressor under the front end of the motorhome for one that will work with a tow truck if we ever need to release the air brakes to be towed.

We have had a problem several times with the battery in our van going dead while we were towing it behind the RV. Greg installed a plug-in charge line from the motorhome’s batteries to the van’s battery, which will alleviate that issue.

Another thing that has been a constant irritation is that before we bought our van, the previous owner had installed a cheap security system that never worked right, and we didn’t have the remote control for it. After two years of trying to find a replacement remote control at several Ford dealers and aftermarket shops, we gave up. The doors lock automatically when we start the engine, and unlock when we turn the engine off. That’s fine when Terry and I are both in the van, but if there was just one of us, we were constantly laying across the passenger seat reaching to lock or unlock the door. Greg tracked down the wire that powers the passenger door lock and disabled it, which will make life a lot easier for us in the future. 

I hope Greg never discovers the slot machines and buffet dinners here in town, or he’ll disappear and I’ll never get anything else done! 

Bad Nick didn’t want anything to do with all of that work, so he stayed inside and posted a new Bad Nick Blog titled The Happy Pauper. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich – Napoleon

We had 221 RVs at the rally, and nearly 300 people who are staying in local RV parks here in Yuma came in on day passes. That’s a pretty good turnout, and we were very pleased with the numbers.

In looking over the feedback forms and the e-mails we have received about the rally, we see a common theme in them. The biggest complaints we had were about a lack of power. A lot of people said that they expected 30 amp hookups, but we seldom find that at fairgrounds or RV rallies. The 20 amp power more commonly available is enough to keep your batteries charged, but as soon as people start using coffee pots, microwave ovens, and curling irons, circuit breakers start tripping.

The noise caused by aircraft from the Marine Air Station was also a problem for some people, but there really isn’t anything we can do about that. But, a lot of people said that while the noise was somewhat bothersome, it was no big deal, and that they would rather put up with that than wading through the mud at the Pinal County Fairgrounds in Casa Grande, or the noxious smell from the nearby dairy there.

There were some other issues raised and suggestions made for future rallies at this venue, and in a meeting yesterday with the fairgrounds management, I think we resolved most of them. Unlike the people running the fairgrounds in Casa Grande, the management here in Yuma is eager to earn our continued business, they listen to our needs, and they try to address them.

The fairgrounds is going to increase the electrical power available for RV hookups, as well as the number of “spider boxes” used to supply temporary hookups during rallies. They hope to increase the amount of electric available in the north parking area (Lot B), as well as bringing power to a new area where we should be able to park 30 or more RVs. 

Next year the rally will be March 7-11, right here at the Yuma Fairgrounds. We plan to have a food vendor on site, we will rent a couple of six passenger golf carts to shuttle people around, and we have arranged for the use of an extra building for vendor seminars, which will solve the problem of noise in the large vendor building interfering with seminars. Another complaint was low water pressure in the north lot, which has been resolved already. Apparently there was an underground leak, which they fixed Monday.

This rally was a learning experience, and we are putting those lessons to use.  I also obtained permission for our parking crew to come in a day early and dry camp next year, which will speed things up on Early Bird parking day.

This year’s rally was a lot of hard work, and a lot of fun. We’re already looking forward to next year!

Our Winnebago Ultimate Advantage really needed a bath, and Greg and Jan White’s American Eagle was just about as bad. So yesterday we had a mobile crew come in from Road Runner RV Wash, and they washed and hand waxed both rigs from the roof down. There are several companies that provide this service to the snowbirds here in Yuma, and they keep pretty busy. The cost for our 40 foot motorhome, including hand waxing, was $100.

Our van was coated in mud from parking RVs in the rain last week, and when I asked how much it would be to do it too, I was told $10. It costs me more than that  do the job at a car wash myself!

Today we are going to leave Yuma and caravan north with Greg and Jan. They have never been to Lake Havasu City or seen the London Bridge, so we’ll make a stop there to play tourist, and then we’ll go on to Laughlin, Nevada for a night.

We have reservations at the Thousand Trails in Las Vegas on Wednesday, where we plan to just relax and unwind for a week or two, while we wait for the weather to warm up in our old hometown of Show Low, in northern Arizona. Once we’re sure winter really is over in the high country,. we’re headed there for a much needed grandkid fix.

Thought For The Day – ‘Normal’ is just a setting on the dryer.

We had forgotten from our previous visits to Yuma just how bad the local tap water is. Most folks here buy water at “water stations” like this one, which can be found all over town. You bring your plastic jugs, put a quarter or two into a vending machine, and fill them up with filtered water. I don’t think we have seen water stations anyplace else that we have traveled. If you are coming in for our Gypsy Gathering rally, please try to arrive with a full fresh water tank if you can, for your own good.

We spent most of yesterday running around getting the pizzas for our Wednesday night pizza party arranged, and trying to find somebody at the WalMart bakery who could understand that we need to order 25 to 35 dozen donuts every morning during the rally. We need to go back, because everybody we talked to was just a little bit dimmer than your average donut. I think some people work at WalMart only because they’re not smart enough to get jobs that require them to memorize lines like “Do you want fries with that?”

Back at the fairgrounds, we spent some time checking out the location of the electric outlets scattered around the property. We will only have a few 30 and 50 amp electric hookups, but we need to reserve those for people with special needs. But we should be able to hook everybody up with 20 amp service, which is enough to keep batteries charged. That’s all we’re using here next to the stables, and we’re getting along just fine. Think of it as upscale boondocking!

Several people have asked if there will be WiFi available at the rally. The fairgrounds does not have WiFi, but we have found at past rallies that there are usually a few people with internet connections who leave them open to allow others to get online. These days, with air cards so cheap and the service available almost everywhere, I don’t know why anybody would depend on hit or miss WiFi for internet access.

The fairgrounds is right across the street from the Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, and most of the day Northrop F5 and AV-8B Harrier jets are flying overhead. It is amazing to see how closely those pilots fly in formation.

I had never seen a Harrier land or take off before, and it is pretty interesting. When they come in to land, they hover and then set down slowly, instead of making a high speed landing like other aircraft. It gets a little loud sometimes as they roar past, but that’s the sound of freedom, baby!

I need to clear up some confusion on the RVSEF RV Lifestyle, Education & Safety Conference to be held in Bowling Green, Kentucky June 3-6. They have me listed as an instructor on their website because we have agreed to be at future conferences, but we will not be at the June event. We have been promising ourselves for years that we are going to slow down, and this is the summer for that to finally happen. We just want to piddle around and just let the wind and whimsy blow us where they may. But, not to worry, RVSEF honcho Walter Cannon has put together an excellent program, and you’ll find plenty of top notch instructors at the conference. Whether you’re a new RVer, a veteran road warrior, or a wannabe, you’ll learn a lot at the conference.

Thought For The Day – I want to move to theory; everything works in theory.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

We woke up to wind and pouring rain yesterday morning, and it didn’t look like it was going to let up anytime soon. But we had an appointment at the Camping World in Mesa at 11:30 a.m., so I went outside and slogged through puddles of water to empty and flush our black tank, top off our fresh water tank, and disconnect our utility hookups. By the time I was finished, I was soaked.

With everything ready to go, I fired up our Cummins diesel engine, retracted our slide rooms and HWH leveling jacks, and we were ready to go. Well, almost ready to go. The indicator light and warning beeper said the right rear jack had not fully retracted. Sure enough, it was down about two inches. I hit the automatic leveling button to deploy the jacks again, and this time when I retracted them, they all came up fine.

It was only twelve miles to Camping World from Patio Gardens, so Terry drove the van behind me. After six weeks of sitting still, it was good to be back behind the wheel of our motorhome. 

I don’t think I have ever seen any Camping World as busy as the one in Mesa was yesterday. The entire parking lot was jammed, and Terry could not even find a place to park the van, let alone me the motorhome. I finally left it double parked and went inside to check in with the service department, and they pulled it right into one of the work bays.

I have been shopping for tires and batteries for our Winnebago Ultimate Advantage, and had narrowed the tire choices down to the Michelin X7A3 and the Goodyear G670 RV. In my opinion, there really isn’t any real difference in quality between the two, and I have had a lot of RVers recommend both tires.

In the end, I chose the Goodyear tires, even though the price for all six, mounted, balanced, and out the door, was $200 more. My reasons may not make sense to a lot of people, but I have hated the Michelin Company ever since Vietnam, and Goodyear is an American company, as opposed to Michelin, a French outfit.

The only French things I like are fries, toast, and kisses. My not buying their tires will not affect Michelin’s bottom line one iota, but it was worth the extra money to me not to give them my business.

We also needed new house batteries, because the previous owner of our motorhome had installed regular starting batteries instead of deep cycle RV batteries. We went with Interstate batteries, which many RVers use and seem to be happy with. Since we don’t plan to do as much dry camping as we once did, we could not justify the price of absorbed glass matt (AGM) batteries like we had in our bus conversion. 

It had rained hard off and on all day long, but it finally started to clear up about 2 p.m., and there was quite a bit of blue sky showing. Of course, by the time they were finished working on the motorhome about 3:30, it had started pouring again. That lasted until we got the van hooked up to our Blue Ox tow bar, did our light check, and were ready to take off. Then the rain stopped. Go figure.

We had planned to boondock in the Camping World parking lot if it was getting close to rush hour when they were finished with our work, but the lot was still packed, and there wasn’t anyplace to park. So we drove 86 miles to Gila Bend, where we spent the night dry camping in the huge gravel parking lot at the Elks lodge. It was a windy trip, but we made good time, and at last the rain had stopped.

There were half a dozen other RVs at the Elks lodge, and when I went inside to register, we ran into longtime readers Bob Parker and Donna Huffer, who are also on their way to Yuma for our rally.

We will continue on to the fairgrounds in Yuma today, and get settled in so we can start working on the final details for the rally. It won’t be long now, folks!

Thought For The Day – I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be. – Douglas Adams  

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

There is a phenomenon that takes place this time of year that has mystified me ever since we became fulltime RVers over ten years ago, and that is getting income taxes filed.

No, I understand the process. What confuses me is why people would leave a place like sunny Arizona and return to cold states in the Midwest just to file their taxes. Don’t they know that they have mailboxes in Arizona too?

Yesterday I talked to two different people who are here in Arizona, one in Yuma and another in Tucson, who both said they really wanted to come to our Gypsy Gathering rally next month, but the timing was wrong because they had to go back to Iowa and Minnesota, respectively, to file their income taxes. We have heard people say this ever since we got on the road, and I just don’t understand it.

I guess if you are a snowbird and all of your records are back home, it might make sense, though not as much sense as taking the records with you when you leave for the winter. But I know fulltimers who still go back to wherever they came from to file their taxes. Why? Even the IRS doesn’t have enough clout to make me go where it is snowing!

Besides tires and house batteries, another thing we need to replace on our Winnebago are the slide toppers, which show their age and have several small tears and holes in them.

When Russ Maxwell from Carefree Awnings was visiting the other day, he took a look at them and agreed that they needed replaced, and said he’d have a fellow named Darrell Vliem from a company called Awning Man stop by and give us an estimate. Darrell came by yesterday and did some measuring, and said he would order two new slide toppers, and have them installed before we have to leave for the rally in Yuma.

Yesterday afternoon, Jim and Nancy Tidball stopped in for a visit and to pick up a copy of our RVers Guide To Fairgrounds Camping. We last saw Jim and Nancy last year when we were in Aransas Pass, Texas and they came by so Jim could test paddle the kayak I had for sale. It was nice to see them again, and we had a good visit before they had to run.

Besides all of her regular chores, and proofing the stories as I write them for the new issue of the Gypsy Journal, Miss Terry has been busy helping her mom get things prepared for her dad’s birthday party this weekend. It will be a small family gathering, just Pete’s daughters, grandkids, and their respective spouses, but a lot of time and effort still goes into getting everything arranged.

One final note before I close this blog post. I was told that Mail Call USA, a mail forwarding service in Cleveland, Tennessee has apparently gone out of business without giving their clients any notice. There is a thread about it on the Escapees forum. That can sure create a lot of problems for RVers who depend on their mail service to get their snail mail to them. 

Thought For The Day – Some marriages are made in heaven, but they all have to be maintained on earth.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally