We were in no hurry yesterday, and that was a good thing. It was cold in Gila Bend overnight, and I was too lazy to get up and turn on the furnace, so instead I shivered half the night. Finally, about 7 a.m., I got up for a bathroom trip, and when I came back to bed I snuggled up to Miss Terry and dropped into a deep sleep. So deep that finally somewhere around 10:40 a.m. Terry woke me up and asked if I ever planned to get out of bed. There were several RVs at the Elks lodge overnight, but by the time we opened the curtain over our windshield, there was only one travel trailer parked back at the far edge of the lot, and I think he’s staying there long term.

We puttered around for an hour or so, checking e-mail and returning a couple of phone calls, and finally got on the road about noon. But we only had about 120 miles to go, so there was no pressure.

It was a beautiful day, and the storm from the day before had blown itself out. We cruised west on Interstate 8, stopping only long enough to pull into a rest area for a quick walk around the motorhome and van, making sure everything was still in one piece. It’s always a good idea to stop every hundred miles or so do a walk around and stretch your legs. It gives you an opportunity to check your tires, be sure your tow bar and safety cables are still secure, and look for anything that might need attention. We had friends who once drove 400 miles nonstop, and when they arrived at their destination, they discovered that the side window of their SUV had been shattered. They had no idea when or how that had happened, and it remains a mystery today.

I like comparing how our Winnebago motorhome compares to our MCI bus conversion on steep grades. There is a small mountain range just east of Yuma on Interstate 8, and in the past, if I had a good running start at it, we’d top out in the bus at about 15 to 18 miles per hour. We had stopped at the rest area just before the uphill climb began, so there was no running start, and I had to slow down for a big truck, but in the Winnebago, we still hit the top at about 50 miles per hour. What a difference! However, I still much prefer the Jake brake in the old bus to the exhaust brake on the Winnebago. I just felt more secure with it on steep downgrades.  

After a stop for fuel at the Flying J on the east side of town, we arrived at the fairgrounds and stopped to check in at the office. They have several other events going on between now and our rally, so we found a quiet spot away from the main area, parked next to the stables. We have 20 amp electric and water, which is plenty to sustain us indefinitely.

Once we were settled in, we called our friends Mike and Elaine Loscher and arranged to meet them for dinner at the Golden Corral. Mike and Elaine are sweet people, and very dedicated supporters of our efforts. They have been to every one of our rallies, always volunteering to help. We could never afford to pay them for all that they do, from helping with parking and registration, and a hundred other chores that come up. We feel very honored to have such wonderful friends. 

I noticed in Gila Bend, and again here in Yuma, that our Verizon air card is working much faster than it was in the Apache Junction/Mesa area. Some snowbirds had told me that they were experiencing slow service here in Yuma too, but so far, so good. We’ll be busy getting all of the last minute rally chores done in the next few days. The clock is ticking down!

Thought For The Day – Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

For a week or so now, we have been up early every morning, and that’s a habit we really need to break. It’s ruining my bad reputation. 

We left the Escapees Dreamcatcher RV Park in Deming, New Mexico a little after 9 a.m. and drove west on Interstate 10 to Lordsburg, where we stopped at the Flying J for fuel, and then took U.S. Highway 70, the Old West Highay,  northwest into Arizona. We had never traveled this route before, and it is a nice two lane road that is a more direct route to central Arizona that taking Interstate 10, which dips south first before going north toward Tucson and Phoenix.

There were a few hills, but nothing serious, and we had to slow down through small towns like Safford and Thatcher, but we made good time. When we entered the San Carlos Apache Reservation, it was like going into a Third World country. The small Indian communities we passed through were depressing places where the yards of the houses were littered with trash, and the people we passed didn’t look very friendly.

We had planned to stay at the RV park at the Apache Gold Casino, a few miles east of Globe, which would put us within about a 90 minute drive north to our daughter’s home in Show Low, perfect for a day trip. But when we arrived, the convenience store that is also the office for the RV park was closed for several days, and when I went inside the casino to inquire about an RV site, nobody seemed to know anything, or offer much help.

This attitude of indifference reminded me of what I had come to know as the norm on the White Mountain Apache Reservation, which is the neighbor to our old hometown of Show Low. The Apaches are never rude, they just let you know that you’re welcome to come to their casino and spend your money, or pay to fish in their lakes, but don’t expect much in the way of hospitality.

I finally found a security guard who told me that they were “probably” full, and even if we could find an open site, he had no idea if we could stay or not, or how much it would cost us. He did say we could dry camp a night or two for free out by the highway in several long spaces reserved for eighteen wheelers, but when I asked him about security in the area, he just shrugged. We just did not feel comfortable leaving the motorhome unattended there while we went to Show Low. I guess that’s a holdover from our burglary last month. We have no fear dry camping anywhere within reason, but leaving the rig like that, with no RV neighbors nearby, just didn’t feel good.

We were only about 70 miles from Apache Junction, where Terry’s parents live, and our ultimate destination, so we decided to just drive the rest of the way in and find an RV park where we can get a monthly space, and then drive the van to Show Low in a day or three.

There was a lot of road construction on U.S. Highway 60 between Globe to Miami that was pretty much stop and go  traffic, but once we got through that it was an easy drive the rest of the way. The Winnebago performed well coming through the mountains, and the 7% climbs and the trip back down into the Valley of the Sun was no problem with our Cummins diesel engine and exhaust brake. We arrived at the Elks lodge in Apache Junction and took a dry camping spot with several other RVs, and a beautiful  view out our windshield of the Superstition Mountains. 

Once we were settled in, we drove over to Terry’s parents’ house and had a nice reunion with them, and I  know they were sure happy to see her. It had been a long day, so when we left them, we stopped for a quick dinner and got back to the RV tired and ready for bed. Before we began our fulltime RV adventure, Arizona was our home, and it’s good to be back.

We have a lot of friends and subscribers who want to get together, and by the time we got back to the Elks lodge, I had eight e-mails from people wanting to get together today or tomorrow. We’ll try to do some visting once we get caught up a bit. But the next few days will be devoted to finding an RV park, washing a couple thousand miles of road grime off our Winnebago and van, and then family time. We’ll be in the Apache Junction area for over a month, and we’re looking forward to some down time.

Thought For The Day – Live in the possibility rather than the probability.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

We said a reluctant goodbye to Mike Steffen and left his place in Salt Flat, Texas a little after 9 a.m. yesterday morning, headed west on U.S. Highway 180. It’s always good to see our friends, and always hard to leave. But, the good thing about the RV lifestyle is that we can always go back and see them again. 

We made a brief stop at Cornudas, a wide spot in the road that has an interesting history. Cornudas started life as a stagecoach station, and today the “town” is owned by May Carson, a feisty lady who is the mayor, heads the water department, and owns the entire town.

May will serve you a great hamburger, and a piece of pecan pie to  die for, but if you give her any grief, she’ll show you the baseball bat she keeps behind the counter and let you know she means business. May is a character, as are most of her customers.

A while back May sold the town on eBay, but the deal went sour and she had to take it back, which made her many fans very happy. Cornudas is one of those places you have to stop at, just to say you’ve been there.

An hour after leaving Salt Flat, we got on the Loop 375, which took us through Fort Bliss and across the Franklin Mountains, past the National Border Patrol Museum. We did a story on the museum years ago, and I recommend it to anyone traveling through El Paso.

Loop 375, also called Transmountain Road, is a divided four lane road up an 8% grade over the mountains, and the Winnebago did fine. We were not setting any speed records, but we went up as fast as I wanted to, and I left our Allison transmission in fourth gear and let the exhaust brake carry us down to the other side safely.

Well, almost safely. As we were approaching Interstate 10, a jerk in an eighteen wheeler pulled out of a business on the left side and across the highway directly in front of us. I slammed on the brakes and managed to stop before we hit him, but it was darned close! I got on the CB radio and told him what a jerk he was, and that I hoped that when he got home, his mother ran out from under the porch and bit him, but he ignored me. He was a typical OPOP, which is a term I stole from one of our readers a few years back. It stands for Only Person On Planet, because idiots like that seem to think that nobody exists except them, and they’ll kill you to prove it.

After our blood pressure dropped back down to a reasonable level, we got on Interstate 10 only six miles from the New Mexico state line. The loop was a steep climb and descent, but a good road, and it sure beats the heck out of driving through El Paso on the interstate. There was about a mile long stretch where it was on surface streets after we left the military reservation, but it was an easy drive.

Except for slowing down for the Border Patrol checkpoint west of Las Cruces, we made good time, and arrived at the Escapees Dreamcatcher RV Park in Deming about 12:45. This is a regular stop for us when we travel west, because it’s right off the interstate, with easy access in and out.

We got parked and hooked up, and then ran to the post office to send out some orders that had come in over the weekend. Our good friend Deb Peters lives in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, about 90 miles away, and we had not seen her in a couple of years. Deb drove down to Deming and we had a nice dinner together, catching up on our lives since the last time we were together. It was a real treat to see her again.

We had thought about staying here a couple of nights, but for some reason we only have the slower National Access signal on our Verizon air card, even though our cell phones both show high speed EVDO signals. I took the air card out of our Cradlepoint router and put it in my computer and updated it, but it did not help our speed at all. We have a lot of online work to get done, and it’s frustrating to keep getting knocked offline, so we’ll see how the day goes. We may hang around, or we may get fed up and say the heck with it and hit the road. Tune in tomorrow to see what we decide.

Thought For The Day – Laughter is the medicine of life.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally