Today is the first day of our Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally, but by the end of the day yesterday, we already had 104 RVs on the fairgrounds! This included our advance staff, the parking crew, quite a few vendors, the Escapes class reunion group, the attendees at the Geeks on Tour Computer Boot Camp, and the folks who paid for early bird arrival. And today we have even more rigs scheduled to arrive!

Mike Loscher is a veteran member of our hardworking parking crew, and the first person people talk to when they arrive. Mike determines if they need to take on fresh water or dump their holding tanks, if they need handicapped parking, and then sends them on to the designated parkers.

Mike is retired military, then retired from a second career in nursing. I think he does this to prepare for a third gig as a Wal-Mart greeter!

Once everybody was parked, they headed over to the Registration Building, where Terry and the dedicated ladies who help her got them signed in, gave them goodie bags, sold them tickets for our pizza party and rally T-shirts, and answered lots of questions.

This is our first year to have our vendors inside, and they are in the same building where we hold registration and serve morning coffee and donuts.

We have a nice variety of vendors, selling everything from RV cleaning supplies to automatic rooftop satellite television dishes, and anything else you could want. Russ and Debbie Davis are back for a second year, selling magnetic jewelry and Eniva health supplements. Since we saw them last, they have purchased a truck conversion, and I can’t wait to get over and check it out!

Red and Beth, from Too Crazy Ladies, are outside vendors, and by mid-day they were already doing a brisk business, as people lined up to order name badges and other custom engraved items. They have vended at our Arizona Gypsy Gathering rallies, but this will be their first Eastern rally with us.

Meanwhile, back in the driveway, we had a long line of RVs pulling in, and the parking crew worked long hours getting everybody in and parked in record time. Everybody I talked to was very happy with how smoothly they got in and parked in their designated sites. Well known RV authors and speakers Joe and Vicki Kieva have decided to retire from presenting seminars at RV rallies and shows, but they honored us by making our rally their last event. They arrived with their beautiful and lovable young Golden Retriever, Molly, whom I instantly fell in love with. What a magnificent animal!

We were first introduced to Joe and Vicki through their columns and books, and then we got to know what a nice couple they are in person when we all taught at Life on Wheels. Be sure to check out their RV Notebook blog.

Chris and Jim Guld from Geeks on Tour were busy presenting their Computer Boot Camp, and from the look on the faces of Henry and Kathy Gartner, they were both learning and having fun at the same time. That’s what the Geeks are all about!

On the other side of the fairgrounds, Rick Lang from Recreational Vehicle Safety Education Foundation (RVSEF) was weighing motorhomes and fifth wheel trailers, and from the happy smiles on this couple’s faces, Rick must have given them a good report on their motorhome.

While all this was happening, Dick Snider was spiffing up the veggie powered Country Coach he is displaying for sale. That’s right, veggie powered! The coach runs on biodiesel and waste cooking oil! If you want to travel for just pennies day, stop by and see Dick’s motorhome here at the rally, or check it out online here.

Terry and I could not make these rallies happen without all of the hard work from so many volunteers, from the folks who collect door prizes, to those who help with parking and registration, door prize runners at our evening drawings, those who help serve at the pizza party and clean up afterwards, our seminar room hosts, and all of the many other chores that need doing. We appreciate every one of them more than we can ever say!

Thought For The Day – The advantage of exercising every day is that you die healthier.

After a month at the Pinal County Fairgrounds in Casa Grande, we left yesterday and drove an hour south to Tra-Tel RV Park in Tucson, our home for the next month. Tra-Tel is a small, comfortable park which has been a regular stop for us ever since we hit the road.

We were more than ready to put the fairgrounds behind us. I wrote earlier about how filthy the restrooms were at the fairgrounds. If you would have been there this past weekend, you would know why. There was a kids’ rabbit and livestock show at the fairgrounds, and the participants were washing their sheep and pigs in the restroom showers! Doesn’t that just make you want to strip off and soap up?

I asked one mother why she was allowing her kids to do this when there were plenty of water outlets all over the fairgrounds, and she responded by saying that this was the only place that wasn’t muddy. It sure was by the time those morons were finished!  

Terry and I have been doing a lot of talking about our needs in a fulltiming rig. We have been comfortable in our MCI bus conversion, and it has served us well for eight years now. However, we have come to realize that the time is coming when we will need to replace it.

The bus has a lot of life left in it, and would be a comfortable home on wheels for someone who does not put on the amount of miles we do every year. But we travel much more than most RVers and have outgrown it.

Now what to do? We have considered several options, from buying a newer bus shell and converting it, to building a truck conversion, to (gasp) buying a used production model diesel pusher. Each has its pros and cons.

As far as I’m concerned, nothing beats a bus conversion for safety and cargo carrying capacity. We could buy a newer shell, with a bigger engine and more power, but it would still have at least half a million miles on it. And then we still have to convert it, and that is a lot of work. We’re both 56 years old, and we wonder if we really want to start another major project like that again.

I’m enamored with truck conversions, and these days we could buy a fairly late model semi with a modern engine for around $20,000. But then we’d need to have the frame stretched, build the box, and build the conversion. Again, a lot of work.

The third option, finding a used diesel pusher, may well be the best for us at this stage in our lives. I’ve seen a lot of nice rigs at attractive prices lately. I’m no huge fan of many production model RVs, but if we could find a well built diesel coach by a reputable company, we think we could be very happy in it.

But we would need to sell our bus conversion to buy something else, unless we could trade it in and arrange some short term “creative” financing. Right now there are a lot of RVs for sale, so who knows? We are in the looking stage, and keeping our options and our minds open to what may come along.  

Thought For The Day - A man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder.