Terry and I have been busy working on all of the details of our upcoming Arizona Gypsy Gathering rally. Yesterday we arranged for the pizzas for our Wednesday night pizza party, which is always a big hit at our rallies. It’s a chance for everybody to get together, enjoy some good food, socialize, and get to know one another. If you want to see the eyes of a small town pizza shop manager get real big, walk in someday and order 100+ pizzas! They’ll think it’s Super Bowl Sunday all over again!

We also ordered the rally T-shirts. At our Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally in Ohio last September we sold out, so be sure to stop by the shirt sales table when you register and get yours while supplies last.

We are getting in new rally registrations every day, along with new vendors signing up. I think our overall numbers may be a bit less than last year, although Miss Terry thinks it will be real close. No matter if we have more people or less, we know it’s going to be a lot of fun. I hope you join us!

While we were out dealing with rally things yesterday, we also took a few minutes to check out the Moose Lodge in Arizona City, about 10 miles from Casa Grande, along with the Casa Grande Elks lodge. RVing Members of both organizations have a lot of overnight parking opportunities. Some lodges around the country allow visiting members to dry camp in their parking lots overnight, and others have dedicated RV hookups. We have stayed in some lodges around the country that rival any RV park you’ll find anywhere, with full hookups, swimming pools, and even golf courses! I wanted to see what the local lodges had to offer.

The Moose lodge in Arizona City has three back-in RV  sites large enough to handle any size RV, with water and 30 amp electric hookups. A sign posted at the lodge said the requested donation was $5 a night, and there was a three night limit. A member of the lodge posted on one of the online forums that the stay limit is never enforced.

In Casa Grande, the Elks lodge has eight back-in RV sites, with water only. The donation there was also $5 a night, with no stay limit.

My good friend Don Hankins has arranged a special Moose membership signup at our Arizona Gypsy Gathering rally next month. Members will be inducted into the Arizona City lodge, and it is a simple, inexpensive, and easy procedure. So if you’re planning on coming to the rally, let me know and I’ll put you together with Don for the signup.

Thought For The Day – One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.

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This is an historic day for our nation. You cannot deny that, no matter what your politics are.

Some people believe that we are on the threshold of monumental changes that will make us a better country and a better people, and others are just as convinced that we are headed for hell in a hand basket. I guess it’s all about your viewpoint.

In my years of publishing small town newspapers, I always seemed to have someone upset with me about my politics. The conservatives thought that I was too damned liberal, and the liberals accused me of being too conservative.

I think that the problem that most of these folks had was that I refuse to wear any label. I stated my opinions without regard to whose toes I was stepping on.

Because I am a strong supporter of law enforcement, because I believe that every American has the right to own a firearm and to use it to defend their home and family, because I feel that aliens who entered our country illegally should be rounded up and deported, disagree with affirmative action, and support capital punishment when it is called for, some would have had you believe that I’m one step away from donning a sheet and burning a cross on somebody’s front yard.

On the other hand, because I believe that a person’s sexual orientation should not make them a second class citizen or deny them the right to serve in the military or marry the person they love, because I support the strides that minorities and women have made due to their own efforts, and believe that we need to stop interfering in other nations’ affairs, and stop wasting the lives of our men and women in uniform fighting wars we have no business being in, some people would have had you believe I’m a commie pinko fag.

No, I’m just an American, exercising his right to express his opinions, right or wrong. Isn’t it great that we live in a country where we can do that?

I do not believe that our new President is inherently evil because he is a Democrat or because of his skin color; nor do I believe that he is our savior because of his party affiliation or race. He is just a man, with all of the strengths and weaknesses we all have. But, none of us can deny that Barack Obama has made history.   

Thought For The Day – Destiny is not something to be waited for, but rather something to be achieved.

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Yesterday we were up and out of the bus early, making a road trip to our old hometown of Show Low, Arizona. It is 175 miles from the Pinal County Fairgrounds to Show Low, and every foot of it is scenic.

U.S. Highway 60 winds its way uphill from the Valley of the Sun to the White Mountains, passing through desert, spectacular mountains, historic small towns, and dense pine forests along the way. The highway has been undergoing a major construction project between Apache Junction and Superior the last few years, and the results are great. Much of it is divided four lane highway, and the portions that are still two lane road have frequent passing lanes. They call this the Old West Highway, and it weaves through the Queen Creek Tunnel and between rough mountains that are popular with rock climbers, photographers, and artists.

As we drove through the small town of Miami, tall mine derricks looked down on us from the hillsides, and a few miles down the highway at Claypool the smokestack and main buildings of one of the many regional copper mines dominated a ridgeline. Globe, Miami, and Claypool are all separate towns, though you drive out of one and into the next without ever knowing it.

There is a lot of history in this area, so slow down and enjoy the neat old commercial buildings as you pass through. Since this stretch of the route is also aggressively patrolled for speed, be careful so you don’t make an unexpected donation to the local economy. This is a No Tolerance area, and the cops here will write you up for one mile over the limit.

35 miles north of Globe, U.S. 60 starts winding five miles down to the bottom of the Salt River Canyon, one of the most breathtaking places in the West. Here in Arizona, we call this the “Other Grand Canyon.” The highway has lots of pullouts, so be sure to stop at each one. The vistas are just unbelievable, and different at each pullout.

Be sure your camera batteries are fully charged, because I guarantee that you’ll be taking lots of pictures! Be careful driving through the canyon! In my years publishing the weekly newspaper in Show Low, I covered many fatal accidents on this highway. Most were caused by speed and carelessness. Those signs that show 15 mile per hour curves are there for a reason. The canyon’s hairpin turns are unforgiving, and if you go off the side, it’s a long way down!

At the bottom of the canyon there is a rest area large enough for RVs to pull into, and it’s a good place to take a break, enjoy the scenery, and to let your brakes cool down if you need to. A pair of bridges cross the river just past the rest area. One is closed to vehicular traffic, but pedestrians use it to get good views of the rushing river below. On summer days you’ll often see white water rafters enjoying the river. This is Apache land, so if you want to hike, fish, or explore past the highway, you’ll need a reservation permit.

Once you cross the bridge, it is 48 miles to Show Low, and you are climbing all the way. The elevation at the bridge is 3,363 feet, and Show Low is 6,450 feet. Once you climb out of the canyon, there are still curves and some short, steep climbs, but most of it is gradual. Between the Salt River Canyon and Show Low, the road passes through the huge White Mountain Apache Reservation.

The only place to buy gas between Globe and Show Low is at a small convenience store 24 miles north of the Salt River Canyon, at the junction with State Route 73. This store seems to open and close at the whim of whomever is supposed to be working on any given day, so I always top off my tank before leaving Globe or Show Low.

As the highway climbs up to the White Mountains, it passes through dense forests of tall Ponderosa pine trees. Be alert for wildlife here. Elk, deer, and black bear are commonly struck by vehicles in this area. When you arrive in Show Low, you will not believe you are still in Arizona. The pine trees, lakes, and snow (yes, there was still a lot of snow on the ground yesterday), will make you think you are in Colorado or Montana.

The long trip was worth it, because we had several hours with my daughter Tiffany, son-in-law Jim, and granddaughters Hailey and Destiny. Little Destiny is still too young to remember us from our last visit in April, but it didn’t take her long to warm up to her Grandpa. Here is a picture Jim took of me with my favorite ladies in the world (from left), Miss Terry, Hailey, Grandpa Nick, Destiny, and Tiffany. Did you ever see a fat old guy with so many pretty girls?

We spent the afternoon with the kids, looked at a house they are negotiating to buy (which has plenty of room for our bus and a dozen more RVs to park), and all too soon had to make our way back down the hill to the bus. It was a long day, but we have been away from those two grandkids too long and we had a whole bunch of kisses, snuggles, and tickles we needed to deliver.        

Thought For The Day – If God wanted me to touch my toes, he would have put them on my knees.

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Before I go any further, I want to thank everybody who wrote about my blog post about Terry’s shooting accident, and to all of you who wrote in response to Friday’s blog about our anniversary. There was so much response, both in posts to the blog and in personal e-mails, that I just did not have the time to answer every one individually. Terry and I are both touched by your kindness, good thoughts, and support. You make us feel very, very special.

Speaking of special people, our dear friends Orv and Nancy Hazelton came through Casa Grande yesterday on their way to Quartzsite and took time out of their travel schedule to meet us for lunch. Orv has been enjoying the extended travel RV lifestyle part time for years now, but Nancy just retired from the V.A. hospital in Lexington, Kentucky and they started their life as fulltimers just a couple of weeks ago.

They were having problems getting their satellite TV working, and after lunch I fiddled with the controls for their TV, switch box, and King Dome antenna, and managed to get it set up properly for them.

Orv was also having trouble getting the built-in air card on his Dell computer to connect, and we got that problem resolved too. I was feeling pretty proud of myself, and then Orv mentioned that his hydraulic leveling jacks were not working properly. I figured that rather than press my luck, I’d retire an undefeated champion, and told him that job needed the skills of a mechanic.

Back at the Pinal County Fairgrounds, we had to thread our way past a fleet of livestock trailers and pickup trucks that arrived early yesterday morning for a horse show.

If you’ve been reading my blog or the Gypsy Journal for very long, you already know that I’m not exactly politically correct, and I step on toes occasionally. So if you’re an equestrian lover, get your feet out of the way, because I’m about to tap dance on them.  

I don’t like horse people. I’m sure that there are millions of horse owners who are the salt of the earth, and I’ve even met a few over the years. But in my mind, there is a big difference between horse owners and horse people.

The folks I am talking about are into the show circuit or the rodeo thing, and there’s nothing wrong with either activity. But does that give them an excuse to be rude and inconsiderate?

Case in point; this fairgrounds has acres and acres of open space, and electrical and water hookups everywhere you look. But yesterday morning about 7 a.m. a family with a long horse trailer complete with living quarters pulled in right next to us, and soon they were outside yelling, slamming doors, and unloading their horses. They were even walking between our van and the bus, and when we went out later to meet Orv and Nancy for lunch, I had to walk around piles of horse crap to get to the van.

By the time we returned to the fairgrounds in the afternoon, there was trash laying all over, several horse trailers had stacks of empty beer cartons piled up by the living quarters doors, and the place looked like a cowboy version of a Third World country.  

Okay, it’s a fairgrounds. I get that. But is than an excuse to intrude on other people’s space? To leave “landmines” from your animals that you don’t clean up, and to make the entire place look like a dump?

We saw the same thing with this crowd in prior visits to the fairgrounds, but we have also seen it at fairgrounds in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Oklahoma. Someone told me that country folks think differently than us. That’s wrong. We know lots of country folks. They have always impressed us with their courteousness and good manners. Country folks make good neighbors.

These guys and gals at the fairgrounds may have horses, they may even live in the country. But they are not country folks. They are the typical “Me First” mindset kind of selfish, irresponsible people who are always bores to be around, whether you encounter them in a high rise city apartment with stereos blasting through the walls disturbing their neighbors’ peace, speeding through a no wake swimming zone in their power boats, shooting up road signs, or tearing up the countryside riding ATVs in protected wildlife areas. Bad manners are bad manners.      

Thought For The Day – We are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.

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As much as we love the fulltime RV lifestyle, we know that there will come a day, hopefully many years down the road, when we have to hang up the keys. It happens to all of us.

We have met some fulltimers who knew going into the lifestyle that it was only a temporary thing – they were searching for a place to retire, or fulfilling long awaited dreams of traveling before they moved on to another stage in their lives.

For some, this day comes when illness or failing eyesight forces the issue. For others, family issues cause them to settle down near their children or aging parents. And some people just get tired of living in a house on wheels and want a patch of grass to mow and call their very own.

No matter when or why you decide to hang up the keys, having an exit plan is important. What do you plan to do when you come off the road, and where do you plan to do it?

Maybe you want to settle down on a lot in one of the Escapees RV Club co-op parks, or into a park model in one of the senior-oriented RV communities in the Sunbelt. Or maybe you don’t want the hassles of upkeep, and will opt for a condo or apartment where all you have to do is pick up the telephone and call Maintenance if a faucet starts to drip.

On the other hand, we know RVers who just don’t need many people around them and are never happier than when they are boondocking far away from the nearest neighbor. Some of them we have talked to are looking for that perfect 10, 20, or 30 acres out in the middle of nowhere where they can enjoy plenty of peace and quiet.

Some RVers are perfectly content to just watch the grass grow and listen to the birds sing. Others want to be more active and need something to be involved in. That can help shape their plans for the day when they come off the road.

I have always said that my exit plan is to burn my last drop of diesel, bounce my last check, and have a fatal heart attack, all on the same afternoon. We really don’t have an exit plan at this point, though we have some ideas of what we would like for when that day comes.

Terry and I both love the water, and we love small town life. Kayaking, fishing, and just walking along a beach are things we very much enjoy. If we had to choose a place to settle down today, it would probably be somewhere on the Texas Coastal Bend, probably around the Rockport/Fulton and Aransas Pass area where we recently spent several weeks.

In fact, we have even considered buying a lot there to park our RV when we visit the area, and to have a place to retire to someday. But we’re not sure that we want to do that just yet. If we had a lot, we’d almost feel obligated to go there every year to get a return on our investment. It’s a string, and strings can tie you down all too soon if you’re not careful. We love our freedom too much to let that happen.

My daughter and Terry’s parents and sisters all live in Arizona, and as much as we love being with them, we really don’t see ourselves ever calling Arizona home again. I keep telling my daughter that if she and her husband would just uproot their lives and move to the Texas Gulf coast it would really make our decisions about our future easier. But you know how spoiled and selfish young people can be these days. They think it’s all about them, even though I keep telling them that it’s really all about me!

Wherever we settle down (and I hope that will be many, many years from now), we don’t want the responsibilities of a house. We’d be perfectly happy in our bus or maybe a park model. And we don’t want the structure that many of the formal retiree parks we’ve seen have, so I can’t see us in one of those situations.

But no matter where or when we do hang up the keys, as long as I’m with my best friend and we have all of our memories to share, we’ll be home.

Thought For The Day – Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.

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