Since the folks at the Winnebago Service Center don’t work on weekends, we spent the last two days just goofing off, waiting for work to resume on our motorhome today.

Saturday we caught up on some paperwork, visited with our neighbors here at Camp Winnebago, and then went out to dinner with a few folks, at a fantastic restaurant in the tiny town of Thompson, Iowa called the Branding Iron. I had one of the best rib eye steaks I’ve ever eaten there, and Miss Terry had grilled salmon that she absolutely loved. I’m not much of a salmon fan, but I took one bite of hers and resolved to order it if we went back again.

Sunday we went exploring in Clear Lake with our pals Ron and Brenda Speidel. Old time rock and roll fans will know Clear Lake because it was here, on February 3, 1959, that musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson (the Big Bopper) were killed when their chartered Beech Bonanza crashed into a corn field shortly after takeoff, during a winter storm. In addition to the three popular performers, pilot Roger Peterson was also killed in the crash. The tragedy became known as The Day The Music Died.

Ron and Brenda had been to the crash site a couple of years ago, but there was some confusion as to the exact route to get there, and we made a couple of false starts before we finally stopped to ask a lady working in her yard for directions. (Or, as Ron says, “clarification” of what he already knew). She laughed, pointed us in the right direction, and joked with us about men never wanting to ask directions. “If Moses had been a woman, the Israelites wouldn’t have spent 40 years wandering lost in the desert,” she declared.

Finally at the crash site, we parked the car and took a photo of these giant Buddy Holly glasses, and then walked about a 1/2 mile down a dirt path into a cornfield.

A simple stainless steel monument, shaped like a guitar, and topped off with three records, stands where the airplane plunged into the earth. The monument looks like it is surrounded by what at first looks like a pile of trash, but upon closer inspection turns out to be small tributes and gifts left by fans. Everything from photographs and notes, to trinkets, and even a cassette tape of a Buddy Holly concert.

Next to the monument is a separate memorial to the 21 year old pilot of the airplane, Roger Peterson.

Back in Clear Lake, we stopped by the Surf Ballroom, where the musicians played their last concert, the night before they died. The venue still draws big name performers. The marquee said that Ted Nugent had played there just two days ago.   

As we were leaving town, we checked out this neat pyramid shaped house, which has won awards and has been featured in architectural magazines.

Back in Forest City, we dumped our holding tanks and filled up on fresh water, and then went out for a quick dinner at A&W Root Beer. You know the humidity is high in the Midwest when restaurants have signs like this on their doors!

Today we had to be up at the ungodly hour of 5 a.m., because they were scheduled to  take our motorhome back into the shop at 6 a.m. to get going on the rest of the work we have scheduled.

I have no idea why these people don’t work on a more reasonable schedule, starting at maybe 8 a.m., which is still way too early for me, but at least it would be daylight outside. I told Ron not to be surprised if I showed up on his doorstep looking for a place to curl up and snooze during the day!

Thought For The Day – If you can’t change your mind, are you sure you still have one?

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally!

There is an ongoing thread on the Escapees Forum about the fact that Flying J truck stops are now charging RVers $5 to dump their holding tanks. Some of the people who have commented about Flying J’s new policy, as well as some who have written to me about it, are really ticked off, calling it corporate greed and vowing to buy their fuel elsewhere from now on. One fulltime RVer who e-mailed me said “I have bought fuel at Flying J for 8 years, used their dump stations, and spent the night many times. But I’ll go out of my way to avoid them from now on!”

Well, I don’t blame you, brother. The nerve of those guys! After years of giving you free camping and free dumping, now that the economy has changed and businesses are scrambling to cover their costs, let alone make a profit, you deserve to be able to continue to freeload. How dare they start charging you for the same things that commercial campgrounds have been charging for ever since they first opened!

I remember a similar thread last year before the Escapade rally in Sedalia, Missouri, when folks were complaining that barriers in the parking lot of the Sedalia Wal-Mart prevented RVers from entering to dry camp overnight, and there were comments about boycotting the store. 

Where is it written that a business has to give its customers anything for free! Good service, yes; a fair price, absolutely; but free camping and the free use of an RV dump station? I guess I missed that memo.

I served many years on my town’s Planning and Zoning Commission, and I remember codes requiring businesses to jump through a lot of hoops if they wanted to set up shop in our community. But I can’t ever remember demanding that a business give something away to customers.

For the most part, RVers are pretty special people, and I’m proud to count myself among their numbers. But every barrel has a few bad apples,including ours.

My friend Bill Joyce sent me a link to a blog post yesterday about Wild Horse Casino near Chandler, Arizona. It seems that in the past, RVers had abused the casino’s hospitality by setting up housekeeping for weeks, even months on end. That has changed, and now casino security is clamping down on the RV slobs who take unfair advantage of the casino’s free RV parking. I’m sure that there are some who feel this is unfair too. Probably the same jerks who caused the problem in the first place.

I just don’t get this idea that somebody owes us anything and we deserve to get it. I appreciate it when a business gives me a break, whether it be free camping, free dumping, or a discount on a purchase. But I don’t expect it, and I don’t demand it. And if a business has been generous in the past, but things change and they have to start charging me for a service that was free in the past, I certainly don’t feel offended, I don’t boycott them, and I don’t whine and complain. I appreciate the courtesies of the past, pay up and figure I’m still ahead because of prior savings,and continue to support them. It just seems like the right thing to do.

Bad Nick has been busy, by the way, posting a new Bad Nick Blog titled Our Tax Dollars At Work. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – I want to know – therefore I go.

Things are really happening fast around here! The Yuma Fairgrounds is filled with RVs here for the Arizona Good Sam rally, and we have run into several of our friends who are here for that rally, and will be staying over for our Western Gypsy Gathering rally afterward.

Yesterday morning our friends Ed and Stevie Hackenbruch stopped by to drop off three containers of some of the most delicious, fresh, locally grown strawberries we have ever tasted. Yummy!

Unfortunately, before I could even taste one, I had to run up to the front gate of the fairgrounds to meet with the Good Sam folks about a couple of issues to make all of our lives easier.

Then I spent some time talking with some of the vendors, and those folks are our best advertisement, because they have convinced several of the other vendors for the Good Sam rally to stay for ours, too. We always try to make sure our vendors have a good show, and we let them know that we appreciate them for coming.

Our T-shirts came in during the early afternoon, so I picked them up at the fairgrounds office, and by the time I had them loaded into our van, I got a phone call that Greg and Jan White were five minutes out. Because the fairgrounds is not open to the general public and does not have RV parking except for rallies, we had to make special arrangements for a couple of our rigs to come in as part of our advance party. There is no way we could do everything that needs completed for the rally without our faithful volunteers. Greg and Jan will be busy the next few days collecting door prizes from local merchants, which is always a hard task, especially in today’s troubled economy.

Once we had Greg and Jan in and parked, volunteers Mike and Elaine Loscher came over to talk about some rally parking and registration details. Mike is our welcoming committee at every rally, and he does a great job of greeting folks as they arrive, and determining if they need to dump their holding tanks, need handicapped parking, etc. Terry says she could not handle the crowds at registration without Elaine’s calm, steady presence, helping her and the registration crew get everybody taken care of.  

Just about the time Mike and Elaine left, Bill Becker came by to pick up the T-shirts, so he and Mabel can start sorting and folding them. Did I mention how much we appreciate our volunteers?

As Bill was pulling out, Kelly Watkins, the fairgrounds director, showed up to ask if a couple of local organizations who hold evening meetings at the fairgrounds could still hold their regular meetings in the evening during our rally. Sure, why not? Kelly and his crew have gone out of their way to accommodate us. What goes around comes around, right?

The next order of business was to dump our holding tanks. It’s been about eight days since we last dumped, and we could have stretched things out a little longer, but we will only get busier between now and our rally, so we decided to get it done while we could.

With that chore out of the way, I pulled the Winnebago back into our parking area at the back of the fairgrounds, and before I could even finish hooking up water and electric, I got a phone call to come back up front. There was another problem.

Three RVs with folks from Canada had arrived and tried to bluff their way onto the fairgrounds by telling the Good Sam people that they were with our rally. Because other fairgrounds where we have held rallies do allow folks to come in early and stay, we have had some people who were confused and just showed up, expecting to be able to stay.

But this wasn’t the case. In fact, these folks were not even registered for the rally. They had just heard about it from somebody.  I explained to them that this week is the Good Sam rally, and if they wanted to pay to attend that, it was up to Good Sam, and then they could register and pay for our rally. I told them that only our advanced staff was allowed to stay on the fairgrounds. That’s when they assured me that they didn’t have to pay for either rally because the fairgrounds is public property and anyone can stay here.

I can handle confused people, I can handle stubborn people, and I can even handle stupid people. But freeloaders who play games really tick me off! That’s when Bad Nick came out! I told them that I didn’t want them at the rally. Then we discussed their concept of “public property” and my feeling about rude French Canadians (just the rude ones) in general, and them in particular. About then they decided it was in their best interest to leave and not come back.

That hassle finished, I went back to the motorhome, rounded up Miss Terry and our real advance staff, and we hunted down a Chinese buffet for dinner. By the time we had finished eating, I was more than ready to come back home and take my shoes off for the evening.

Today will be just as busy as yesterday was, and I need a favor. For the next two weeks or so, please don’t send me forwarded jokes, whatever the latest internet hoax is, or feel good stories. I just don’t have time to sort through them. If you need to get hold of me, please don’t hesitate to e-mail, and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. But please, no forwards.

Of course, Bad Nick has been busy too. Besides running off freeloaders, he posted a new Bad Nick Blog titled The World’s Biggest Ghost Town. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – “Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.” – Mark Twain

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Readers have been asking me for an update on how we like our new to us Winnebago Ultimate Advantage motorhome, now that we have lived and traveled in it for almost six months, as compared to the MCI bus conversion we built and lived in for over eight years.

Overall, we are both very happy with the Winnebago, though we have had to make a few adjustments. We love having the extra room the bedroom and living room slides give us. However, we actually had more inside storage room in the bus, due to the extensive cabinetry that Miss Terry designed and built for it.

But, even though we had three huge bays underneath the bus, we still have more basement storage in the Winnebago than we did with the bus. The reason for that is that one entire bay of the bus was used for our holding tanks, which do not take up bay space in the Winnebago, and also because half of one bay in the bus held our house battery bank and inverter, and half of the third bay held our twin propane tanks, plus the fuel tank for our Onan gas generator.

We had a huge gray/black waste tank in the rear bay, and when we were parked in a campground with full hookups, we could turn a diverter valve and let the gray water run directly into the sewer, which meant we could go a long time without dumping the waste tank. In the Winnebago we have to dump the black tank about every seven days. We could probably stretch that if we were boondocking and being very careful, but the difference in tank capacity is really noticeable.

After our first night in the Winnebago, we could really tell the difference in insulation between the two rigs. We built a lot of insulation into the bus, and it was both quieter inside, and much warmer (or cooler, depending on the season), than the motorhome. But, the bus had a single rooftop air conditioner that was vented directly inside, which was much nosier when running than the ducted basement air conditioner in the Winnebago.

After driving across the country in the Winnebago, I don’t know how I lived with the tired old Detroit diesel in the bus for so long. These days I think nothing of cruising up long grades at 60 miles per hour, passing eighteen wheelers, instead of crawling along in the right lane with the radiator misters on at fifteen miles per hour, hoping some eighteen wheeler didn’t run over us. The Winnebago definitely has more power and gets better fuel mileage than the bus did, but I find that I don’t have as much confidence in the Winnebago’s exhaust brake as I did the Jake brake in the bus when going down steep grades.

Everything in life is a tradeoff. Terry misses the household style refrigerator, gas range with oven, and separate washer and dryer that we had in the bus. But, the larger kitchen area and the spacious bedroom/bathroom layout of the Winnebago is much more comfortable. She’s learning to live with the Winnebago’s microwave/convection oven, and the Splendide RV washer/dryer combo.

When you add in a lot of creature comforts and handy accessories, such as cruise control, automatic HWH leveling jacks, automatic Winegard rooftop TV dish, two gas furnaces, and a heat pump, for us the Winnebago comes out the winner.

Several readers have asked us if we will be at the Winnebago Grand National Rally in Forest City, Iowa in July, if we’ll be vendors, and if I’ll be presenting any of my seminars at the rally. The answers are yes, probably, and I don’t know. Yes, we plan to attend the rally, we’ll probably be vending (I haven’t registered yet), and I don’t know if I’ll be presenting any seminars. I haven’t been invited to do any, and the inquiry I sent was never answered. But if you are a Winnebago owner and will be at the rally, and would like me to do a seminar or two, why not give the folks in Forest City a shout or an e-mail? They have no idea who I am, since we have not had our coach that long, but if they see there is an interest, they might invite me to do a couple of seminars.

Speaking of RV seminars, while our schedule won’t allow us to be at the RVSEF RV Lifestyle, Education and Safety Conference in Bowling Green, Kentucky, June 3-6, Walter Cannon has come up with an excellent RV education program filled with great seminars. There is a 10% discount for anybody registering for the conference before March 1^st, so if you plan to attend, register now and save yourself some money on this excellent program. 

Thought For The Day – Virtue is the only true nobility.

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Terry and I have been dry camping at Mike and Pam Steffen’s place in Salt Flat, Texas for a couple of days, swapping lies, playing with their herd of dogs, target shooting, and admiring the star filled sky above us at night. In another life, that would be called goofing off, but in the laid back RV lifestyle, it’s called….. okay, I guess it’s still goofing off. But what’s wrong with that?

Mike is a well known and respected RV columnist for Trailblazer magazine, and his work is also familiar to readers of MotorHome magazine, Trailer Life, Woodall’s, and most other RV publications. Mike has been presenting seminars at RV rallies for longer than Terry and I have even been RVers, and I’ve learned a lot from him over the years.

Salt Flat is located on U.S. Highway 180, about 60 miles east of El Paso, and seventeen miles from nowhere. To get to Mike and Pam’s place, you turn north at the cattle guard, drive eleventeen miles down a dirt road, cross a couple of dry washes, take a right at the scorpion crossing, bear left at the pile of cow flop, and then drive for six days and nights. Eventually a wild menagerie of friendly dogs will run out to greet you, and you’re there. Do you get the picture?

This is rustic dry camping. Our Verizon cell phones and air card don’t work way out here, but we arrived with a full tank of fresh water, a full propane tank, empty waste tanks, and our Onan QuietDiesel generator gives us all the power we need. Mike and Pam are so far off the grid that they’re not even in the same galaxy. But, that doesn’t mean that they’re roughing it. When the sun hides behind the clouds and his large array of solar panels doesn’t work, Mike ties a key onto a kite string and pulls power right out of the sky, and if that doesn’t work, all he has to do is harness a couple dozen of his dogs and put them on a treadmill and they’ll crank out some power!

Okay, so it’s not a four star RV resort, but how many of them have a private shooting range where I can play with my toys? Not many! Yesterday I hauled a couple that I had not tried out yet across the yard to Mike’s range and put them through their paces, and after I got a bit familiar with them, I even managed to impress myself.

I love dogs, and this is a great place to get a puppy fix. Mike and Pam have a bunch of lovable mutts, and not a poodle in the lot! I have been licked, nuzzled, and snuggled enough to hold me over for a couple of months, and I’ve scratched behind enough canine ears to send a battalion of fleas across the border into Mexico.

As you can see, we’ve had a great time here, but today we’ll get back on the road and head for the Escapees Dreamcatcher RV Park in Deming, New Mexico. Coming across west Texas on Interstate 10, I fell in love with the big 350 Cummins engine in our Winnebago all over again. It just eats up hills and doesn’t even seem to notice. Today will be its first real test. We’ll avoid all of the traffic in El Paso by taking the 375 Loop through Fort Bliss and over the Franklin Mountains to Interstate 10, just south of the New Mexico state line. Called Transmountain Drive as it crosses through Franklin Mountains State Park, the road has some pretty steep climbs and descents. We came over it in a gas powered motorhome years ago, but we never attempted it in our old bus conversion. I don’t think it’ll be a problem with this rig.

On another note, we have received e-mails from several Gypsy Journal subscribers complaining that pages 7 and 30 of the new issue are unreadable due to a problem with the printing process. If you get a bad paper, please e-mail me, and we’ll send you a replacement.

Thought For The Day – Each of us has our own individual Heaven and Hell.

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