Please be careful where you walk, because my butt’s dragging and I don’t want you to step on it! And our Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally doesn’t even officially start until today!

Yesterday was the early vendor set-up day, and my friend Mike Loscher and myself were over in the big building a little after 9 a.m., getting a couple of final details wrapped up, before we opened the doors and let the vendors in to start getting their booths ready for the rally.

It’s great to see so many of our vendor friends here for the rally. We’ve worked alongside many of them for years while operating our own vendor booth at RV rallies coast to coast, so we understand what vendors need, and try very hard to provide it for them at our events.

Here is our pal Daryl Lawrence from Lawrence RV Accessories. Daryl has a brand new item, the Tire Traker Tire Pressure Monitoring System, as well as the excellent Progressive Industries Electrical Management Systems, which we have used for years, both in our MCI bus conversion, and now in our Winnebago diesel pusher.

You can see all kinds of goodies at an RV rally, from safety items like the automatic engine bay fire suppression systems that my pal Mac McCoy sells, to camping chairs and other goodies to make your RV travels more fun and more comfortable.

Flags Galore is offering every kind of flag you could ever want to find, in every size imaginable.

Dwane and Janet Trannum from Almost Heaven Micro Fibre spent most of the day hauling their inventory in and stocking their booth. I sure hope they sell a lot, because I don’t want to have to help them carry it back out to their van!

John and Karen Knoll stopped by the RVSEF weighing site here at Elkhart Campground to have Rick Lang weigh their truck and fifth wheel before they parked on their assigned RV site for the rally.

By the end of the day, everybody had worked hard, and most of the vendors were set up and ready to go. I locked the building up about 5 p.m., and then Dennis Haddix from Makarios RV and his pretty wife (whose name escapes me, I’m afraid) pulled in. They had the bed of their Itasca motorhome covered with inventory for their booth, so I opened the building back up long enough for them to unload enough that they could get through the night. Dennis is also the founder of ChatRV.com, a relatively new online forum for the RV community.

Of course, no RV rally has officially started until Red and Beth from Too Crazy Ladies have their booth set up and open for business!

Today is the official registration day, and Miss Terry and her crew of hardworking volunteers will be busy getting everybody checked in, passing out name badges, and answering questions.

One nice thing about having the rally at a campground instead of a fairgrounds is that we don’t have to have a parking crew. The folks just stop at the RV park office and check in, and Bob and Gita send them to their RV site.

When we were visiting with campground owners Bob and Gita Patel late yesterday afternoon, I think they were feeling a bit overwhelmed, but also delighted. They said that this rally will be the first time in all of the years that they have owned Elkhart Campground that they will be completely full! That should help their bottom line a little bit!

Thought For The Day – Count your life by smiles, not tears. Count your age by friends, not years.

As I wrote in yesterday’s blog, I was a bit apprehensive about tackling the steep downgrades along Interstate 70 as we headed toward Denver. The exhaust brake on our Winnebago diesel pusher just doesn’t have the same effect as the Jake brake did on our MCI bus conversion.

Dennis Hill from the RV Driving School e-mailed me to say “Keep the RPM’s high, no matter what gear you are in. The exhaust brake works best at high RPM’s. Shift down often – the transmission won’t let you go into too low of a gear.  Apply the brakes very firmly and slow down at least 5 MPH when you use them.”

I followed Dennis’ advice, and we had no trouble at all. The mistake I was making in the past was expecting the exhaust brake to give me good braking power at about 1500 to 1600 RPMs. By downshifting and keeping the RPMs up to about 2200 – 2300, I saw a tremendous difference in efficiency. Thanks, Dennis! Even an old dog can learn a new trick now and then!

We pulled out of River Dance RV Resort in Gypsum, Colorado a little after 9 a.m. and headed east, passing lots more beautiful Rocky Mountain scenery all the way.

How would you like to have this for a view every day?

By the time we reached the summit of Vail Pass, at over 10,600 feet, our Cummins turbo diesel was working hard, and about all I could get out of it was 40 miles per hour.

Then we began the downhill run.

Some sections weren’t too bad, but others really made the exhaust brake work.

All too soon we were climbing up again, to Eisenhower Tunnel, at 11,158 feet high. The tunnel was long, but well lit and easy driving.

We passed more great scenery, including these old mining buildings.

The worst of the downhill run was between Eisenhower Tunnel and Denver, and the closer we got to the big city, the steeper the downgrades got. They have lots of signs warning truckers not to get careless.

We even passed through another tunnel somewhere along the way!

There are not a lot of places to get diesel along Interstate 70 in Colorado, especially when you are driving a 40 foot motorhome, towing an extended length cargo van. By the time we got to Downieville, at Exit 234, we were getting really low, and when I saw a small truck stop on the north side of the highway, I stopped and filled the tank.

We passed Lookout Mountain and Buffalo Bill’s grave, which we covered in one of our earliest issues of the Gypsy Journal, and soon we were hitting a lot of traffic as we entered the Denver metropolitan area. We got onto Interstate 76 and scooted around the northeast side of the city, and soon came out into agricultural fields.

It is amazing, that coming into Denver from the west, we were crawling down steep mountain grades, and less than 30 miles east of the city, we were out on the open plains, with few trees, and mostly flat terrain.

Interstate 76 had some rough patches, but we rolled along, making good time, and eventually crossed into Nebraska, where the highway ended at Interstate 80. Another 75 miles or so east brought us to North Platte, where we pulled into the Flying J about 5:30 local time.

We topped off our tank, had a less then mediocre meal at the restaurant, and  parked for the night. We covered 391 miles, and we still have about 560 miles to go, to get to Forest City, Iowa. We’ll make that easily by sometime Thursday, so we can get our name on the list for a service spot at the Winnebago factory. It’s worth pushing to get there, and then be able to get our work done, before we continue on to Michigan for Terry’s annual medical appointments.

Thought For The Day – Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day. Teach a person to use the Internet, and they’ll forward junk e-mail to you forever.

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We thought about making the drive back to Glenwood Springs yesterday, just so we could drive through Glenwood Canyon in the van, but it was very windy for much of the day.  We had such a backlog of paperwork and e-mails to wade through because we have been busy with the wedding the last few days, that we decided to act like grownups and stay home and work instead. I don’t like being a grownup!

But just because we had to work doesn’t mean you can’t do some virtual sightseeing. Colorado is a colorful place, and here are a few pictures we took the other day that I’ll share with you.

Between Eagle and Vail, Interstate 70 passes through some awesome red rock formations. U.S. Highway 6 parallels the interstate through here, and we took the slower route just so we could pull over and take in the dramatic scenery.

When the sun is setting, the cliff faces just seem to glow. It’s really something to see.

We even saw a covered bridge, though it is not as old, or has the character, as the ones we have seen in Indiana, Iowa, and New England.

Sunday night we were treated to a beautiful sunset, and Miss Terry managed to capture a couple of good shots of it.

I mentioned the other day that Terry’s son, Cody, is the accountant for one of the major developers in the region. Besides allowing him to live in this outdoor sports wonderland, his job comes with some pretty neat perks, including these gondolas that he can ride right from an upper floor of his office building to the top of the ski slopes! How cool is that?

As promised, yesterday I posted a preliminary schedule for our upcoming Gypsy Gathering rally on our Rally Registration Page. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see the seminar lineup. I will be making some changes and adding more seminars as we go, but we have over 50 listed now, so there is sure to be something for everyone!

Today we will be heading east on Interstate 70, through the Eisenhower Tunnel and down into Denver. I’m a bit apprehensive about this stretch of highway, which tops out at 10,666 feet at Vail Pass, and then follows a lot of steep downgrades as we descend the Rocky Mountains.

As I’ve said before, while our Winnebago diesel pusher climbs the mountains much better than our old MCI bus conversion did, the exhaust brake on the motorhome is not nearly as effective as the Jake brake was in the bus. My Mountain Directory shows that there are several places on the eastern descent where the speed limit for heavy semi-trucks is 32 miles per hour. I plan to be in the right hand lane poking along with them all the way down!

For those of you who get concerned when I write about doing long days on the road, here’s fair warning that we’re about to do it again. We want to stop at the Winnebago factory in Forest City, Iowa and have some work done on our coach.

Since the Winnebago Grand National Rally is in Forest City, Iowa this week, I wasn’t sure about the chances of getting in for service. I  called Winnebago to ask about an appointment, and was told that they do not make them during rally week or right after, but if we arrive by Friday at 3 p.m., we can put our name on a list to get service, and we should be able to get in by Tuesday or Wednesday. But, we have to actually be there to sign up, they won’t take our name by telephone.

It’s 940 miles, so we can do it easily, and we’ll scoot right along, so we can hopefully catch up with some of our friends who are in Forest City for the rally, before they hit the road.

While we were out taking pictures and attending weddings, Bad Nick was home posting a new Bad Nick Blog titled Who’s The Racist. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.

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We were up by 7 a.m. yesterday, which is way too early for us, but we had a lot of miles to travel. We pulled out of Pony Express RV Resort in North Salt Lake, took Interstate 215 around the west side of Salt Lake City to where it joined Interstate 15 on the south side of town. I-215 was a nice road, but as soon as we hit I-15, we ran into heavy traffic and road construction that lasted all the way south to Spanish Fork. By the time we left the interstate there and got onto U.S. Highway 6, I was sure glad to get off the superslab.

It was 133 miles to Interstate 70 at Green River, and a lot of it was two lane road. U.S. 6 is a good road, but not one where you’ll go very fast. In some places it is narrow, there are no shoulders, and it does some climbing.

It also has a couple of steep downgrades, but they are relatively short.

Did I mention it has a lot of twists and turns, especially as it goes through Price Canyon? Note the road sign. It didn’t exaggerate!

Price Canyon was pretty impressive, in spite of the bug on the windshield.

We also had several stretches of road construction to deal with. At one point, the road was down to one lane, and we passed a long line of cars and trucks headed the other way who were waiting for their turn to go.

We also saw a wind farm. Nothing strange about that, except most of them that we have seen are on top of ridges to get the most wind. But these were down low.

Miss Terry ran down the batteries in both of our Olympus digital cameras, but she got some great pictures. There were quite a few railroads tunnels through the mountains.

Once we passed the little town of Price, about halfway along U.S. 6, the road became wider and the countryside flatter. We even had some four lane stretches of roadway.

It was hot! When we got onto Interstate 70, my dashboard thermometer said it was 104 degrees, and later on, as we crossed into Colorado, it was 106! But, our Winnebago performed well and climbed up the steepest grades without hesitation.

We saw some gorgeous scenery in western Colorado, including lots of impressive rock formations.

The scenery was absolutely spectacular, and the highway had lots of curves and, of course, more construction zones.

The highway follows the river, and we saw lots of rafters and fly fishermen.

Did I mention the road construction?

The battery in the second camera died just as we got to Glenwood Canyon, which was disappointing, because it was breathtaking.  I want to go back and drive this stretch of road in the van, and see it again.

We arrived at River Dance RV Resort in Gypsum just after 4 p.m., covering 397 miles in one day. That’s a lot of driving, and we much prefer 250-300 mile days. But sometimes you just do what you have to do.

Rusty and Rebecca at River Dance are super friendly people and really made us feel welcome. There was a little snafu, because the full hookup site they had reserved for us was still occupied by the previous person, and he was off sightseeing somewhere.  Rusty had us pull into another site, with water and electric, so we could plug in and have our air conditioner on while we waited. They were both very apologetic, but what the heck, things happen. It was no big deal.

Once we got into our site, we had a great view out of our windshield. You can’t see the Eagle River in this picture, but it runs right alongside the campground, and if we had time, I’d launch our kayaks.

Here is the view behind us. I don’t think there is ten feet in flat land in all of the western half of Colorado!

By the time we were settled into our site and hooked up, we were famished. Terry drove the 7 miles to Pazzo’s Pizza, in Eagle, where we had one of the best pizzas we have had in years.

Between getting up earlier than usual, the long drive, and the elevation, we were really worn out by the time we finished dinner and got back to the campground. The mosquitoes here are about as big as sparrows, and as aggressive as hawks, so we made a mad dash for the RV. But I still got bitten two or three times before I could get the door unlocked and we could get inside.

Today we plan to sleep late, and then do a whole lot of nothing. We had a busy week in Salt Lake City, and we have a busy weekend ahead of us, so we need to take advantage of every quiet moment we can.

Thought For The Day – The most important trip you may take in life is meeting people halfway.

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The bad weather that had been predicted rolled into central Arizona right on schedule, with cold, a gloomy sky, and rain. Monday was a gray day in more ways than one for me.

I got an e-mail first thing in the morning that one of my oldest and dearest childhood friends, Dan Connell, had passed away Friday in our old hometown of Toledo, Ohio. I’ve known Dan since I was thirteen, and could not begin to count all of the adventures and misadventures we had together. The news took me by surprise and really broke my heart. Dan went through a bout of colon cancer a few years ago, and seemed to come through it okay. But a few weeks ago his cancer came back, and he went fast.

Terry and I stopped to visit Dan and his special lady, Patty, while we were in Ohio for the Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA) rally in Bowling Green, in July At that time he said the doctors had told him he was completely cancer free, and he felt great. We had a good time sitting on his back porch swapping stories of all the silliness we got into as youngsters, and reliving those carefree days from so long ago, when we were ten feet tall and bulletproof.

I’ve lost a lot of friends in my life, and it always hurts, but Dan’s passing has really hit me hard. When you lose friends that you meet as adults, you miss them, but you don’t have that long history of growing up together that you do with childhood friends. And it reminds you that you, too, have to make that final last journey someday. It also reaffirmed for me that life holds no guarantees, and if you love somebody, you should not allow one day to go by without telling them so. Don’t let petty spats, words said in anger, or just the everyday pace of life keep you from doing that. Tomorrow may be too late.

About mid-day yesterday, longtime readers John and Karen Knoll stopped by to visit, and to pay for their registration to our Arizona Gypsy Gathering rally in Yuma. John and Karen are spending the winter at Meridian RV Resort, and they keep telling us how nice it is. We’ll have to stop in and check it out one of these days.

All afternoon the sky got darker, and the temperature continued to drop. It sprinkled off and on, and during the evening it started to rain steadily. It looks like we’re in store for the same all week long. Like I said, a gray start to a gray week.

Thought For The Day – Do it now, there might not be a later.

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