On the Road Again… THEN “Squirrel”

For the last 2 1/2 weeks we have been in Yuma with the Advanced Team for the Gypsy Gathering Rally, Nick & Terry Russell and Greg & Jan White. We parked first at the horse barn area, our rig first, then Nick’s, then Greg’s.  Notice Tom’s new 23 foot flag that he bought just across the street from the fairgrounds.  We have had a great time getting together with these wonderful friends again. It hardly seems like a year since laughing, eating, working and even tearing up a couple of times with these guys. We will certainly miss them, but know we will see them down the road again. 

We did do a little shopping while in Yuma. We had bought a chair while in Indio. I just love it, but needed a little cabinet to go with it. We found one at Big Lots in Yuma and it is perfect. I can put the big printer-scanner-copier on it when needed and there are 3 drawers for holding my computer essentials.  We then visited the largest Flea Market we’ve ever been to and bought a little table that slides under the couch for Tom’s computer. The foot stool storage unit is also perfect for Tom’s stuff until he can find a place to put it (like shoes) .

 

Our time in Yuma was filled to the brim with activities: helping Terry with registration, working with Cool Judy & Luke Rinehimer on Geocaching and Smart Phone sessions.  Cool Judy is a champ at on the spot improvising. When at 11 PM Nick asked who could moderate a session at 9 AM the next morning, whose name  came to mind -- Cool Judy. Two text messages on our Droids and she accepted the challenge.  When I almost forgot my last session on GSAK, Geocaching Swiss Army Knife, who was there for me… Cool Judy. Thanks Judy!  You are Cool in addition to being from Cool.

We also set up 5 seminar rooms for the rally with Judy & Luke’s help. That was about 250 chairs and 20 tables to set up and break down. Whew!

If all this sounds like a lot of work, it was, however we have rarely had this much fun. If laughing is good for your health and extends your life, we definitely added several days, weeks or months to our life.  We also had the job of finding the best restaurants to eat at for the rally-goers.  It was a hard job, but somebody has to do it and we are REALLY good at it.

Because Nick blogs everyday (Nick envy here) you can check his very interesting and fun blog to see what we have been up to: Nick's Blog.

But, alas, all good things must come to an end and we left our ‘team’ and got on the road yesterday morning after doing the dumping thing. We headed east on US-8 toward Tucson.  We found a nice Passport America campground, Arizona Hideaway RV Park,  for $15 a night and did about 3 weeks of laundry, watched TV, and just relaxed. Another purchase Tom made at the Flea Market was a very striking purple shirt that just happened to match the beautiful Purple Cactus at the RV Park. Can you find Tom in this picture?

We had planned to make our next stop Tucson to see the Titan Missile Museum and Silo before heading to Benson to do some visiting with Sharon & Don DelRosario. We shared a panel discussion with Sharon, Don, Nick and Terry titled, “How to Full Time in an RV and stay Happily Married”.  What a kick that discussion was.

Tom was washing windows, disconnecting, and checking the rig when he noticed the locking latch on the roadside slide was stuck up. If he hadn’t noticed that and I had pulled the slide in, there would have been a big hole punched into the side of the RV.  Just another reminder to ourselves to not take the last minute safety check around the rig lightly.  It could save lots of trouble, not to mention money, later.  We called the Good Sam Insurance people to see what we should do first. They said have a repair service check it and call Good Sam before having it fixed. So we called RV  Renovators and our favorite receptionist, Cinda, said bring the RV in.  “Squirrel”.  We back tracked up I-10 to Mesa where we are now waiting for the OK to fix the slide locks.

If you are a regular or irregular (since I am an irregular blogger) reader you will notice I have been unreliable about blogging.  Miss Terry Russell says I should set myself a goal. So here I am setting myself a goal and challenging our good friend and fellow Boomer and Geocacher, Theta Brentnall, to blog at least one a week. 

We will be doing some catch up when here in Mesa. Tom’s Droid was run over by an big RV in the parking lot while helping the Crew park rigs at the rally.  Though it does not have a lot of damage, the flash light is broken and the HDMI plug is smashed. That’s why we carry the insurance. We also want to check on new glasses for Tom as he had his eyes checked in Yuma and should probably get the lenses updated.  There are probably some geocaches here that need finding, too.  So until next time, we are

On the Road Again, Caching Places that we’ve never been,

Barbara, Tom & Pansy