We are into our annual slowdown in our printing schedule.

We try to have each issue of the Gypsy Journal printed and mailed by the middle of the month preceding the issue date, and five issues a year, we are usually able to meet that deadline. But every year, when it’s time to print the January-February issue, that schedule goes out the window. No matter where we are in the country or which newspaper we are using to do the printing, and no matter how far we plan ahead, we run into scheduling problems.

This is caused by several factors, including heavier than usual printing schedules, as stores are printing and mailing out special holiday advertising inserts, at the same time that press rooms are shorthanded as employees take vacation days. Because we are not a weekly or even monthly job on their schedule, we get shoved to the bottom of the pile while they take care of their regular customers’ needs. We understand it, we expect it, but it’s still frustrating.

So, like every year, the newest issue of the paper is going out later than we want it to. It’s at the printer now, and hopefully they’ll have it back to us early next week so we can get it mailed out. In the meantime, we appreciate everybody’s patience.

We have made a change to the way we do our printing, starting with this issue. Until now, we have used different printers in different locations around the country, wherever we happened to be when it was time to go to press. This has been problematic at times, and with the changes in the industry, it has only gotten worse. We never know what kind of quality we’re going to get with a new printer.

Another major problem is that the size of most newspaper pages is getting smaller and smaller, and we have resisted going to the newest size reduction. But, it has been increasingly hard to find newspapers that continue to print on our size paper at times. Last year we had to leave Alabama earlier than we had planned and drive all the way to south Texas to get printed, after last minute changes at the printer we had used in this region in the past. This year we thought that we’d have to go all the way back to Indiana from Washington, DC to get printed, when the newspaper we had planned to use switched paper sizes on us. Fortunately, we found a printer in Virginia at the last minute, but it was stressful.

So we have contracted with one of the newspapers who prints us in Michigan when we are in the Midwest to do all of our printing in the future. They have recently upgraded their systems and added the ability to allow us to upload our files to them via the internet, and once each issue is printed, they will ship it to us by truck.  They could actually handle our mailing too, but in addition to the papers we mail out, we also have several thousand extra printed of each issue, which we distribute as samples at RV rallies and RV parks we visit in our travels.

This will add quite a bit to our cost for each issue, but it will give us consistent quality from a printer we are comfortable with, and who understands our unique needs.  I’m sure we’ll have a glitch or two along the way, but we’re confident that in the long run, it will all work out.

I’m still adding new seminars to the schedule for our Arizona Gypsy Gathering rally, March 7-11 in Yuma. I still have quite a few time slots to fill in, but it’s coming together. I have posted a very preliminary seminar schedule on our rally registration page to give you an idea some of the offerings we will have. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and check it out. We’ll have over 60 different seminars by the time we’re done, so there’s sure to be plenty to meet everybody’s interest. As I said, this is just a preliminary schedule, and there will be lots of changes and additions by the time the rally starts. Be sure to register early, we’re looking forward to seeing you there!

Thought For The Day – We can’t go back in time and have a different beginning, but we can start today to make a new ending for ourselves.

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Yesterday Miss Terry finished installing the last of the new Levolor window blinds in our motorhome, and this last one came out just as beautifully as the others did! I am so lucky to be married to such a talented woman.

A few readers have written to ask if the blinds rattle going down the road. Since we haven’t been anywhere since Terry installed them, I can’t tell you for sure. But since they have attachments that are screwed to the wall that the bottom of the blinds slide into, they can’t move, so I don’t anticipate any noise from them.

It has gotten very warm here in Show Low, with temperatures in the low 90s predicted for the next few days. It’s even hotter down in the desert, where Phoenix is supposed to hit 110 on Sunday. Now that’s hot! People who live in the desert always say, “Yes, but it’s a dry heat.” Hey, it’s dry inside of an oven too, but I don’t want to live there either! I am a wimp when it comes to weather. I don’t like it too hot or too cold. Somewhere about 72 to 75 degrees is perfect for me.

We can tell its getting hot down in the desert, because the Elks campground is starting to fill up. There are a few RV sites left, and I hope there  is at least one still available when our friends Greg and Jan White come through early next week. Greg called to tell me they want to stop and see us as they head south to Texas for their daughter’s wedding later in the month, and we’re really looking forward to seeing them again.

I have been studying my mapping programs, trying to decide which route we will take from the Thousand Trails preserve in Morgan Hill, California to Vail, Colorado in mid-July for Terry’s son’s wedding. Morgan Hill is just south of San Jose, and I don’t see any good direct route to Colorado. It looks like we will either have to go north to Interstate 80 and take it east to Utah, then drop down to Interstate 70, or else south to Interstate 15, by way of Bakersfield and Barstow, and then Interstate 15 northeast through Nevada and Utah to pick up Interstate 70. This won’t be a sightseeing trip, we just need to get from Point A to Point B, so if anybody is familiar with that part of the country, I’m open to suggestions.

I got a lot of positive responses to Thursday’s blog on Canyon de Chelly, and I wanted to share one more photo from our trip to the canyon. I showed you a close up view of Spider Rock in that blog, but here is a wide shot of that part of the canyon, with Spider Rock near the center. This place took my breath away.

Terry’s folks, Pete and Bess Weber, are going to be up here spending the weekend in their motorhome at the Hon-Dah RV Park, so between visiting with them and working on the new issue of the Gypsy Journal, I’ll be pretty busy. We only have a little over a week left here in Show Low before we hit the road, and a lot to get done before we leave.

Thought For The Day -  Stop living in the past, it was not perfect either.

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In our nearly eleven years as fulltime RVers, we have stayed at many of the Escapees RV club campgrounds, from Washington state to Florida, Texas, Missouri, Tennessee, and Arizona, to name just a few. One we had never visited was the Escapees Pair-A-Dice co-op in Pahrump, Nevada.

Pahrump is about 50 miles west of Las Vegas, via State Route 160, a good, mostly two lane road that passes through the Toiyabe National Forest, climbing from 2300 feet in Las Vegas to 5500 feet at Mountain Springs Summit, before dropping down to about 2300 feet in Pahrump. Locals call this drive “going over the hump.

Yesterday, after an excellent brunch at Blueberry Hill Restaurant, one of a small chain here in Las Vegas, we took the trip “over the hump” to Pahrump. I’m sure glad we never tried to make this trip in our old MCI bus conversion! The V-8 engine in Greg White’s Dodge pickup was getting a workout as we made the climb.

We know a lot of folks who really like Pahrump because it is quieter and much more laid back than busy Las Vegas. But I have to be honest and say that we were just not impressed. There is little, if anything aesthetically pleasing in the community, just a lot of businesses stretched out along the main highway, a casino or two, a scattering of RV parks, and lots of subdivisions springing up out of the desert.

The office was already closed for the day, but we drove through the Escapees RV park, which was pretty full. But the few people we saw out and about didn’t seem too welcoming as we drove past and waved. Basically, the campground is all gravel and dirt, with some desert landscaping. It’s just not our cup of tea.

We did stop to check out another RV park that had been recommended to us, Terrible’s Lakeside Casino RV Park, a short drive off the main highway, and not far from the Escapees park.

This place was was pretty impressive. Many of the RV sites are situated around a small man made lake, there was plenty of grass, and lots of trees to provide shade. The view of the snowcapped mountains in the distance added to the ambience. The only drawback some people would find is that is that there were a lot of kids running around, though they all seemed to be well behaved.

Pahrump is in Nye County, where prostitution is legal, and Pahrump is home to two legal brothels, the Chicken Ranch and Sheri’s Ranch, which are located next door to each other.  Well, who can go to Pahrump and not at least drive by to check something like that out?  Not us, obviously.

We stopped to take pictures of both houses of ill repute, and noted that both offered free tours, and that ladies are welcome. Terry and Jan decided that seeing the places from the road was probably just fine, thank you very much!

Business seemed to be rather slow, there were just a few cars in the parking lot at either place, and I don’t know how many were there just to shop the souvenir stores that both businesses have. But if you saw me there, that’s all I was doing, shopping for souvenirs! That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!

Actually Miss Terry is pretty open minded, and said I could go in and take the tour. But then she said something about me having to go into quarantine for 30 days afterwards, so I decided to pass.

Terry has the sharpest eyes of anybody I have ever known, and she constantly amazes me by pointing out wildlife I would never have seen as we zip down the highway. She spotted this hawk in a tree at the Chicken Ranch, and I told Greg it was probably a chicken hawk.  Hey, I have to get my material where I find it!

All too soon, or not soon enough, depending on whom of us you ask, it was time to get on down the road. So we waved goodbye to the brothels and headed back to Las Vegas. Judging by their signs, they’re friendly folks, aren’t they? They welcomed us to uhhh… return.

Bad Nick Doesn’t have time for such nonsense, so while we were out exploring the seamier side of life, he was home writing a new Bad Nick Blog titled Dumb A$$ Report, Vol. 2. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – When everything’s coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane.

Every RVer is different. Some of us like motorhomes, and some like trailers. Some of us like to move around from place to place, seldom staying longer than a week in any location, while others like to “put down roots,” and often stay several months at a time in one place. There are those of us who always want to see new places and hate traveling the same routes, or going back to the same RV parks. Others find comfort in the familiar, and have favorite places where they go every winter or summer. Some appreciate upscale RV resorts with every amenity, while there are those of us who prefer the small mom and pop campgrounds.

I say viva la différence! Wouldn’t it be a boring world if we all enjoyed the same things and went to the same places all the time? Not to mention crowded!

Even among fulltiming couples, preferences can vary. I love to be on the go, and if we stay more than a week or two in most places, I start getting hitch itch. Miss Terry, on the other hand, likes to find a nice place to nest once in a while. She enjoys having time to bake, crochet, read, and just relax. So we compromise, which is the secret to success for any snowbird or fulltiming couple. 

In Saturday’s blog, Ten Least Favorite Places, I wrote about some of the places we have visited and didn’t care for. I expected to get comments from readers who agreed with me, as well as from those who didn’t. I wasn’t disappointed.

Several readers agreed that they also don’t like the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, and I heard from those who love it.

I was surprised to see that my friend Mike McFall agreed with me in his Mike and Pat’s Travels blog post yesterday, since they have a beautiful lot at Retama Village in Mission, Texas. But Mike said he’s no fan of the Valley, outside of Retama. Having visited Mike and Pat and seeing how nice Retama Village is, I have to agree that it’s the best thing we saw in the Rio Grande Valley.

The great thing about the RV lifestyle is that there is no “one size fits all.” Barring health or financial issues that might put a cramp in our traveling style, most of us are free to do it our way.

If we want to bounce around like pin balls from one corner of the country to the next, we can do it. If we like to find a comfortable place and hunker down for a season, there are plenty of RV parks offering monthly rates. If we enjoy watching the sun set over the ocean, or sunrises over the Great Lakes; if we are desert rats, or find comfort in the high mountains, we can go there. If we are history buffs, we can actually go to the places where our forefathers struggled to build this nation. If we love playing golf, what better way to enjoy our hobby than by following the sun all year long, playing in shirtsleeves from Connecticut to California?  

Don’t you love being a part of our great lifestyle, where one size does not fit all?

Heck, some of us even have alternate personalities. My alter-ego, Bad Nick, was at work yesterday putting together a Bad Nick Blog post titled Charity Begins At Home. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Never confuse a street address for where you actually live.

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All fulltime RVers have experienced it. We will be talking to somebody about our life on the road, and invariably they will ask us where our favorite place in the country is. We always reply that just as we could not choose which one of our children is our favorite, it would be just as impossible to choose just one favorite location. But, we sure can tell you some our least favorite places!

While this list reflects just our impression, and we know RVers that love some of the same places we dislike, here are our Top (or actually Bottom) Ten, in no particular order.

1. The Rio Grande Valley in Texas – Most RVers just refer to it as “The Valley,” a stretch of land that begins down in southwest Texas at Brownsville, and stretches north past Mission. This is a popular snowbird roost, where you can find RV parks in every price range, and with every kind (or lack of) amenity. A lot of people love it, but to us it was just crowded, lacking in scenic beauty, and unappealing in every way. What grass there is was full of thorns that stab your feet, and the general RVer population is so old that people joke that “every time you hear an ambulance siren, another RV site just became available.”  

2. West Texas – Just because you drove north out of the Rio Grande Valley doesn’t mean you’ve entered the land of milk and honey. West Texas is endless miles of boring scenery, road kill, and not much else.

3. Chicago, Illinois – We’ll drive 75 miles out of our way to avoid Interstates 80 and 90 through Chicago, and have, many times. The traffic is always hectic, and it has some of the most aggressive drivers in the world.

4. Utah – How can I dislike an entire state? Well, easy… it is Utah, after all! Yes, there are some beautiful places, such as Zion National Park, but overall, my impression of the Beehive State is pretty negative. I remember a trip to Saint George years ago, when Miss Terry cut her arm on a broken rack in a supermarket. When she went up to the Customer Service counter to get something to contain the bleeding, the manager and his staff were more worried about who was going to pay for the paper towels than they were about the woman bleeding all over their store. Things like that leave a permanent bad taste in my mouth.

5. Southern California – With the possible exception of the coastline at La Jolla, I’d have no problem if we gave the rest of California, south of Pismo Beach, back to Mexico. It truly is the land of quakes and flakes.

6. Montgomery, Alabama – When we visited Montgomery a few years ago to gather some stories for the Gypsy Journal, we were amazed at how consistently rude so many people were. At the Rosa Parks Museum and Dr. Martin Luther King’s house, now a memorial to the Civil Rights movement, the people on duty absolutely refused to allow us to even take the standard tour of their facilities once we told them that we were there to do a feature story for our publication. We managed to get a few stories in Montgomery, but we would have loved to hang around longer and cover all that the city has to offer. But, we kept hitting brick walls at too many of the places we wanted to write about.

7. El Paso, Texas – I lived in El Paso for a short time as a kid, and I didn’t like it then. Time has done nothing to change my mind. Traffic is always terrible, the city has no aesthetic charm, and I would not be comfortable staying anywherin the city overnight. However, if you like truck stops, fast food restaurants, strip clubs, and rundown strip malls, your opinion may be different than mine.

8. Billings, Montana – Even before a local campground owner convinced the city to ban overnight RV parking (a move that was quickly rescinded when RVers from across the nation let the city fathers know that we would all boycott their town), I have not liked Billings. We have stopped there several times, and received anywhere from poor to rude service in restaurants, shops, and even motels when we were traveling without our motorhome.

9. Houston, Texas – This is another big city with nothing to offer except heavy traffic and rude drivers. It’s always a pleasure to be driving away from Houston, instead of toward it, and it’s even better when we can avoid the city all together.     

10. Lewiston, Idaho – While the surrounding area is beautiful, with some of the most impressive scenery in the West, we found Lewiston to be a dumpy little town, with the nauseating smell of the local paper mill permeating the air.

Okay, that’s my list of my 10 Least Favorite Places. What about you? What are some of the places you have visited and are in no hurry to get back to, and why?

While I was working on this list, which I admit some may find to be a bit negative, Bad Nick was on a roll, putting together a fun little Bad Nick Blog post titled I Need Therapy. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Worrying works! 90 percent of the things I worry about never happen.

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