Yesterday was a gray and gloomy day in the desert. Heavy clouds and a chilly wind reminded us that while we may be in Arizona, it is still February.

During the morning we did some banking, mailed out a stack of orders that had come in last week while we were busy with our rally, and ran a few other errands. Then we went back to the bus, and I tried to work on the computer for a couple of hours, but I just couldn’t concentrate. It was a good day for a nap and I was getting droopy, so finally I stretched out on the couch.

While I was being lazy, Miss Terry did some laundry and made up a batch of dough for homemade pizza. We love pizza, and I’ve never found a restaurant that can make pizza like my bride does. I woke up just as she was taking a scrumptious pizza out of the oven for dinner. Yummy!

I wrote a few days ago that we plan to spend some time in the Pacific Northwest this summer, and I logged onto the Thousand Trails website and booked us a total of six consecutive weeks at Thousand Trails and NACO preserves in two week intervals along the Oregon and Washington coasts. We’ll start at the South Jetty preserve in Florence, Oregon; then move on to the Pacific City campground in Cloverdale; and from there we’ll go to the Long Beach preserve in Seaview, Washington.

We love the Pacific coast, and some of our favorite memories of our fulltime RV lifestyle are those from our first summer on the road, when we spent several weeks meandering down Highway 101, exploring the beach towns, lighthouses, and working fishing villages from the tip of the Olympic Peninsula to the California border.

It was here that Miss Terry was first introduced to the banana slug, one of the slimiest and most disgusting creatures you’ll ever encounter. The Pacific banana slug can be over nine inches long, and that’s a lot of ugly!

I still remember the first time I spotted one of these snails without a shell, and decided that it would make great fishing bait. What fish could refuse such a fat offering when I stuck it on my hook and threw it into the water?

Have you ever actually touched a banana slug? If not, take my word for it. Don’t do it! It took me forever to get the sticky goo off my fingers?

We also want to get up to Port Townsend, Washington to spend some time at the Escapee park there. Port Townsend is a picturesque little town, with a lot of history and plenty to see and do.

There are a several other places we want to visit, including the beach town of Seaside, Oregon and historic Astoria, Oregon, at the mouth of the Columbia River; as well as Westport, Washington, with it’s charter boats, commercial fishing fleet, and beautiful lighthouse.

The last time we were in Lincoln City, Oregon we actually saw a couple of gray whales playing in the harbor, and we want to go back and see if we can spot some more!

 Thought For The Day - Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.

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.

Back in my old days publishing small town newspapers, a friend once came to town to visit, and accompanied me on my daily rounds. My first stop of the day was the local bakery, where I got my requisite two glazed donuts and a cold milk to wash it down with. When I walked up to the counter to pay, the shop’s owner waved me away and said “This one’s on me, Nick.”

My next stop was the barbershop, where I shot the bull with the barber, as he trimmed what few hairs I had left. We were good buddies, and when he was finished and I reached for my wallet, he too waved me off and said “I’ll catch you next time.”

After calling on a few customers, we stopped for lunch and ran into the Chief of Police, who invited us to sit with him, then picked up the tab. As we left the restaurant, I commented to my friend that “I don’t make a lot of money, but as you can see, I don’t need a lot of money!”

I felt that way at our rally last week. Folks were so generous with their time, volunteering to help us make the rally a success, and even giving me all sorts of neat stuff. At our rally in Ohio, Dan Foshee donated some of his beautiful drawings as door prizes. I have always wished I had that kind of talent, and told Dan so.

At last week’s rally, besides donating even more of his artwork as door prizes, Dan brought me a really neat book titled Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, that he assures me will help me discover that artist deep inside me.

Dan said I’ll be amazed at what I can do, and besides the book, he even brought me a sketch book, and a charcoal and graphite drawing kit with pencils and other supplies. Thanks, Dan! I know I’ll never measure up to you, but I’ll sure give it a try.  I loved the quote from artist Julia Cameron that Dan included with a note he wrote inside the book: “Art is like sex; even the poorest effort can be quite satisfying!”

I wasn’t the only one to get a gift! Bad Nick got one too! Sue Didelot made a custom hat for my alter ego, that troublesome little imp who inhabits the deep recesses of my subconscious and sometimes writes checks with his mouth that my butt can’t cash. Sue even included a beard on the little devil she drew on the hat! Like I told that friend of mine so long ago, I don’t make a lot of money, but then again, I don’t need a lot of money.

I think too many people forget how to keep things in perspective. Life isn’t about who has the newest and the biggest toys. It’s not about money. It’s about enjoying every day to the fullest. About sharing laughs with friends. About being with the people you love. About making deposits to your bank of memories.

I’ve told people many times that being in the Army as a kid was one of the best things that ever happened to me, because I learned at an early age what really matters. If I didn’t sleep in the mud last night, and I woke up this morning and nobody shot at me, it’s a pretty good day.

Miss Terry didn’t really understand that until her terrible battle with cancer eight years ago. Now when we have some annoying little problem that she begins to fret over, I remind her that she doesn’t have to go in for radiation or chemo today, and that makes whatever challenges we face seem pretty darned trivial.

No, I may not have much money, but with the friends I have, and the people who love me, I’m the richest man you’ll ever meet.

Thought For The Day - Fanaticism is overcompensation for doubt.

With our rally over, and Life on Wheels now gone, for the first time in a very long time, Terry and I have no place we have to be and nothing we have to do for the next seven months. I have to tell you, that is a nice feeling! It brings to mind the early days in our fulltime RV lifestyle, when we literally pulled up to an intersection and did a mental flip of the coin to decide right or left, north or south.

As I have written before, if I had to define the fulltime RV lifestyle in just one word, that word would be freedom. The freedom to go where we want, when we want, unhampered by schedules and timelines. We’re looking forward to enjoying some of that freedom in the coming months.

Our next real commitment is our Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally in Celina, Ohio, September 28 – October 3. Between now and then, our plans are written in Jello. Next week we’ll make a short trip to San Diego with my daughter and her family to take the grandkids to Sea World. After that, we plan to spend some time wandering around here in Arizona. Eventually we’ll begin meandering toward the Pacific Northwest, an area we love and have seen entirely too little of in the last few years.

Half a lifetime ago, I got my start in the newspaper business in the small towns along the Northwest coast, and I have missed that area. Except for a brief two week visit five years ago, we have not been there since our first summer on the road. It’s time to go back. We have no real destination in mind, anywhere between Brookings, Oregon and Port Townsend, Washington is fine with us.

Though we spent much of our lives living in the deserts and mountains of the Southwest, Terry and I love being around the ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. We feel at home anywhere there is salt water, a beach, working fishing ports, lighthouses, and fresh seafood.

We really have not used our Thousand Trails membership enough to make it cost effective, but we knew the time would come when we could start exploring more of the country, and this summer we plan to hit several of the Thousand Trails and NACO preserves along the Oregon and Washington coast.

While we don’t usually like to make reservations, in popular areas like this, we know we’ll have to do so to some extent. But between the above mentioned membership RV parks, Elks and Moose lodges, VFW posts, and our Passport America membership, I’m sure we’ll find plenty of accommodations.

Thought For The Day - One must wait until evening to see how splendid the day has been.

Like so much in the RV industry, our attendance at this year’s Western Gypsy Gathering rally was down considerably from last year. The 2008 rally had 254 RVs, and this year our top number was 157. But the folks who came sure had fun, in spite of the rain, mud, wind, and cold. Here is a picture our friend Bill Joyce took from the top of his RV, showing some of the parking area, and just one of the numerous mud puddles left over from the storm that hit early in the week.

Yesterday morning after coffee and donuts, most of the RVs pulled out, off to their next adventure, or in search of more comfortable parking facilities. The fact that a rabbit and pig show was coming into the fairgrounds as we were ending our rally (more of that double booking we appreciate so much), didn’t do much to make folks want to stay longer. By noon the greatest majority of rigs had left.

But a few of us are hanging around, at least for the weekend. We moved from the front of the fairgrounds to the back, to be away from the incoming activities, and our friends Sami and Earl Aeverman are parked right next to us. Mac McCoy from Fire and Life Safety is one space away on the other side. Several others from the rally are scattered around the fairgrounds.

Coming into the rally, I asked people to save their receipts for any purchases they made with local businesses, because I want to show the community leaders the money our one little rally brings to town. Even Terry and I were surprised. Judging by what I have seen from the receipts handed in, I estimate that each RV spent well over $300 in Casa Grande. That’s over $47,000 minimum, in one week!

Not to mention the many thousands of dollars Terry and I paid to rent the fairgrounds, or the revenue they made from RVs who arrived early or are staying over. Or the nearly $1,000 we spent on the pizza party, or the hundreds of other dollars we spent on door prizes, donuts every morning, and rally supplies. And we are just one small RV rally.

Yet, the folks who run the fairgrounds just don’t seem to get it. In a couple of meetings yesterday, I showed them the feedback forms from the rally, where one attendee after another complained about the poorly maintained buildings and grounds, the filthy restrooms, and inadequate water and electrical hookups. They acknowledge they have serious problems, but don’t seem to care about fixing them.

Another major complaint we had was the fact that when we started having our rallies here, we had the exclusive use of the fairgrounds for the week. But somewhere along the line they decided it was okay to double book events, and to rent RV spaces to the general public in the middle of our rally!

Since the powers that be here obviously don’t care about our business, we’ll just take it (and our money) elsewhere. The coordinators of other RV rallies who have been using the fairgrounds told me that they are also not returning. Our attendees made it very plain to us that they don’t want to come back, and unless major improvements were made in both the fairgrounds itself and the mindset of the management, we won’t be.

There will be a Western rally next year, like always, but we have not settled on a location or a date yet. We are looking at several different venues, so stay tuned. As soon as we have something finalized, we’ll announce it here.

After existing on four or five hours of sleep a night all week, Terry and I plan to turn off our telephones and sleep late tomorrow. We’ll wrap up some business here over the weekend, have dinner with some friends we didn’t get to spend enough time with during the rally, and Monday we’re headed for Tucson.      

Thought For The Day - I think, therefore I laugh.