One Rally At A Time

At least a half dozen different people have written to ask when and where our next Eastern rally will be, and when they can register for it. We won’t have anything "official" on our website about the Eastern rally until the Western rally is over. We tried that once, and had too many people trying to register for the wrong rally. It’s hard enough for my tiny little mind to keep things straight for one rally, let alone two at the same time.

However, the Eastern Rally will be at the Mercer County Fairgrounds in Celina, Ohio September 26-30. The cost is $125 for an RV and two people in it. This includes four nights parking. As soon as we get Yuma over with, we’ll start on the Ohio rally.

Yesterday, we drove into Phoenix to pick up the new issue of the Gypsy Journal at the UPS freight dock, and our route took us through an industrial area filled with truck terminals, warehouses, and repair shops. At one point, we passed by a bar parking lot that was filled with police cars and an emergency response team. We knew something bad had gone down, even before we saw a body on a gurney. The news later reported that a shootout in the parking lot had left one man dead and another wounded. I much prefer the peaceful atmosphere of an RV park, given the choice.

Once we had the Explorer loaded, we stopped at Fry’s Electronics so I could pick up a switch box to switch our TVs between the automatic rooftop TV dish, our crank up over-the-air antenna, and the DVD player. My buddy Greg White got us hooked on Fry’s when we were in Las Vegas last year, and it’s like a toy store for geeks. They have everything from TVs and computers, to digital cameras, appliances, components, and more.

What the Tempe store doesn’t seem to have, are any employees who know a darned thing about what kind of merchandise they carry. In the TV department, I asked about the switch box, and was sent to the component section, where they have all kinds of oddball parts and goodies. The clerk there checked with his manager, who told us that they don’t carry the switch boxes in that department, they were in the TV area. Been there done that, so I walked around the corner of the next aisle, and there they were! I took one of the boxes back to the clerk and said “This is what I was looking for.” He told me that they don’t carry anything like that. I told him that somebody must have broken in and stocked the shelves overnight, because there were a couple dozen on the shelf. He didn’t get it.

I caught up with Miss Terry, who was browsing the small appliances. I can only look at so many coffee pots and toasters, so I asked another employee where their books were, knowing that Fry’s usually has a decent selection of computer and technical books. He told me that they don’t carry books, only a few magazines. I looked across the aisle, and lo and behold, there was the book section! I didn’t bother telling him it was within eyesight, because by then I was getting one of those headaches I usually only get when I eat ice cream.

When we left Fry’s, we grabbed something for lunch, then stopped at Terry’s parents for few minutes, before we returned to the motorhome. We carried enough newspapers in to get started on the mailing. Terry went into whirlwind mode stuffing envelopes, and before I knew it I was carrying out filled bins to the Explorer. By midnight she had made a huge dent in the job.

Today will be more of the same, as we work our way through a mountain of bundles of newspapers. Once we get this job behind us, we’ll be heading for Yuma.

Thought For The Day – When seconds count, the cops are just minutes away.

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