We spent yesterday playing tour guide, showing our pals Greg and Jan White around our former home, here in Arizona’s White Mountains. It was fun seeing some favorite old places we have not seen since we hit the road eleven years ago through their eyes.

A lot of people think of Arizona as all sand and cactus, but the White Mountains rise over 10,000 feet, and this is a land of thick Ponderosa pine forests, sparkling lakes, and one of the best known snow skiing areas in the Southwest.

We started our day with a stop at Anasazi Trading Post in Lakeside, where Jan and Miss Terry did some browsing while Greg and I sat outside in the truck and solved most of the problems in the world. Then we stopped at Pinetop Sporting Goods to introduce Greg and Jan to my good friend Lyle Worman, and Terry popped into the locksmith shop next door to get an extra set of door keys to our motorhome made, so we will not find ourselves locked out again, as described in yesterday’s blog. 

Then we stopped at Pinetop Book Exchange, owned by another longtime friend, Jim Lewis. Greg and Jan bought a few books, and we had a nice visit, even though it was short. By then it was early afternoon, so we stopped for a late lunch/early dinner at Red Devil, which is a small restaurant that serves excellent Italian food and pizza.

About halfway through our meal, I realized that I did not have my Blackberry with me, though I knew I had it earlier in the day. I used Greg’s phone to call my own number, and it rang twice before Jim answered. Just as I had suspected, I had left it at the bookstore. Fortunately, we were only a 1/4 mile or so away, so we went back and I ran in to fetch it.

We drove out through the White Mountain Apache Reservation, where Greg and Jan admired the beautiful forests and lakes we passed by. We took a side trip off of State Route 260 onto State Route 373, for the short drive to the little mountain hamlet of Greer, known as “The Town at the End of the Road,” because the road literally ends five miles from the main highway. 

We were amazed at how much Greer has grown since we were there last. For years the only things there were a few scattered summer cabins, a couple of gift shops, and the historic Molly Butler Lodge. Now there are several huge lodges, beautiful log homes that serve as “summer cabins” for flatlanders, and the place was packed. Greer is no longer the sleepy little community we once loved. It has grown up.

From Greer, we drove to Springerville, where we stopped at Western Drug, one of my favorite stores. Western Drug is kind of like an old time general store. You can buy cooking utensils, fabric and yarn, fishing supplies, guns and ammo, medicine, clothes, boots, and just about anything else your heart desires.

Standing on the corner near Western Drug is this Madonna of the Trail statue, one of 12 identical monuments located from Bethesda, Maryland to Upland, California, along the route of the National Old Trails Road, established in 1912.

We returned to Show Low by way of US Highway 60, completing a circular route of about a 115 mile loop, including the detour to Greer and back. While State Route 260 traverses pine forests most of the way from Show Low to Springerville, US 60 travels through open high plains and scattered juniper, where we saw a lot of antelope standing a hundred yards or so off the highway.

Back at our motorhome at the Elks lodge campground, Greg fiddled with some settings on my RV blog and website to try to resolve some problems people are having trying to subscribe, and then we polished off the last of Miss Terry’s wonderful cinnamon rolls before we called it a night.

In yesterday’s blog I told you about WalMart Bingo, and in response, my friend Joyce Space sent me this link to a fun little You Tube video about RVers and WalMart. 

The video may be fun, but Bad Nick has some not so funny things to tell you in his latest Bad Nick Blog post titled Our Tax Dollars At Work. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – It is never too late, unless you’re dead. If you’re not, go ahead and try for your dream.

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally!

I got an e-mail yesterday from a couple who bought a new motorhome last year and have been unhappy with it ever since. They said that both the dealer from whom they bought the coach and the manufacturer have both refused to address their complaints. This is not uncommon, and it is part of the reason why I have said for years that the worst part of the RV lifestyle is the poor quality of so many RVs on the market, and the total lack of support from so many dealers and manufacturers after the sale.

However, there is a flip side to this coin, and in this case, after reading the detailed e-mail the couple sent me, my first response was “huh?” Their first complaint is that the motorhome only has a 75 gallon fresh water tank and a 50 gallon black tank. They do not feel that this is adequate for their needs and they want the manufacturer to put in larger tanks.

Huh? Didn’t they read the specs on the rig before they bought it? That’s about average for most motorhomes, and about what we have in our Winnebago Ultimate Advantage. We get along just fine. Assuming that there is even room to do so, why in the world would they expect the manufacturer to change out their standard tanks for larger custom tanks, and absorb the cost?

Another complaint is that the rooftop air conditioners did not keep the motorhome sufficiently cool during a trip through Arizona, Nevada, and southern California last summer. The fact is that RVs are not terribly energy efficient, they have poor insulation, and on a very hot day, their air conditioners will typically only lower the ambient temperature about 20 degrees. So on a 100 degree day, which is not at all uncommon in the Southwest during the summertime, the best they can expect is about 80 degrees inside the RV.

Their third complaint is that the motorhome is only rated to tow 5,000 pounds and they want to tow their full size pickup behind them, with a full size Honda Goldwing motorcycle in the bed. The combination far exceeds their towing capacity. Their e-mail says that they were aware of the towing capacity when they bought the motorhome but “any motorhome sold today should be able to pull at least as much as we want to.”

I wrote back and told this couple that they really needed to be realistic. I think they are expecting way too much, and if I were running the dealership that sold them the RV, or the company that built it, I would not be able to help them either. I think they bought the wrong coach to start with, based on what they want to tow, and I wonder how much experience they have with RVs and how much research they did before they bought it.

They reminded me of two other unhappy RV owners I have come across in the past; one was a guy whose cats clawed up his sofa, and he wanted the factory to give him new one under warranty; and the other was a fellow who made several modifications to his rig himself, and butchered the job, then wanted the manufacturer to make it right under warranty.

I think one of the good things that will come about from the downturn in the RV industry is that several companies who made shoddy products and ignored customers’ valid complaints have fallen by the wayside, while the companies that made quality products and stood behind them have survived. But there are some customers that no company will ever be able to satisfy, no matter how hard they try.

Before I close, I want to tell you about an interesting new program that I just learned about called Harvest Hosts, which is developing a network of RV friendly farms and wineries that invite RVers in self-contained rigs to visit and stay overnight (no more than 24 hours) for free. The farms and wineries don’t provide any services, just a safe and unique setting where you can park overnight, shop for local products, and experience what the local farm or winery has to offer.

It sounds like it would be an interesting change of pace from typical RV parks and campgrounds. As I said, they’re new and have some growing to do, but check out their website at www.harvesthosts.com and let me know what you think. I like the idea.

Thought For The Day – When you go into court, your fate is in the hands of twelve people who aren’t smart enough to get out of jury duty.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

I’ve been traveling America’s highways and byways all of my life, first as a little kid riding in the back seat of my Dad’s old Hudson, as we moved from one place to another or made our annual pilgrimage back to Ohio to visit family.

Later on, as a teenager I remember hitchhiking through several states, back in the days when hitchhiking was a safe and even accepted mode of travel. As a young soldier without any money, I “rode my thumb” across dozens of states to get to wherever I wanted to go.

Over the years I have traveled from coast to coast and border to border, on and in everything from motorcycles to automobiles, and now in a motorhome. There’s a reason I named our publication the Gypsy Journal; I know if I had been born 200 years ago, I’d have been a pioneer coming through the Cumberland Gap, in search of whatever lay over the next hill and across the next valley.

So I’ve covered a lot of miles in my time, and I’ve seen a lot of tourist traps along the way. You know what I mean, those hokey places offering “Real Indian Jewelry” and the opportunity to see “Live Rattlesnakes” or, in the case of the famous Wall Drug in South Dakota, just “Free Ice Water.”

Who knew you could build a business recognized around the world by giving away water? The folks at Wall Drug knew, and they did it! I don’t think you can drive any highway west of the Mississippi and north of Oklahoma and not see a sign for Wall Drug.

I have a love-hate relationship with tourist traps. I know that whatever they’re advertising to draw me in is probably not nearly as good as they promise, but who can drive past The Thing in southern Arizona, or the Jack Rabbit Trading Post up on Route 66 in the northern part of the state and not want to stop?

For those of you who have always wondered, but never stopped, the Thing is a mummified Indian found in a cave somewhere in the Southwest. But for the low admission price, you also get to see some other oddball things, including strange sculptures, and a Rolls Royce that supposedly once belonged to Adolf Hitler.

Of course, roadside tourist traps are not just a Western phenomenon. There are plenty to explore in the eastern half of the country, from the massive South of the Border on Interstate 95 in Dillon, South Carolina, where you can find trinkets and trash, along with some decent food and even a South of the Border theme park called Pedroland. How politically un-correct is that? I love it!

Just down the road from us here in Titusville, Florida is another famous tourist trap, called Jungle Adventures, which boasts the World’s Largest Alligator. As it turns out, that would be Swampy, a 200 foot long alligator shaped building that houses the ticket counter and gift shop. Not exactly what I wanted to see if I’m expecting the real world’s largest alligator. Still, Swampy’s toothy grin was quite inviting. I’d hate to have to pay his orthodontist bill!

Thought For The Day – Everyone thinks his own goose is a swan.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally