It’s often windy here in Arizona, and since we’ve been in Yuma we’ve had occasional winds that lasted a few hours and then died down. But Thursday and Friday the wind really increased and it never seemed to let up.
It has been blowing so hard that the thick welcome mat outside our door has pretty much completely disappeared, buried in sand. Our cars are covered and it’s still blowing. I really hope it stops before we start parking RVs on Sunday afternoon. Last year we had strong winds on parking day and it really made the job miserable. Although it was not as miserable as the year before, when Yuma got more than it’s normal amount of rainfall all on the day, our early birds arrived. Just once, couldn’t we have good weather for one of our rallies? Just to see what it feels like?
With every rally, we always have a few people that register in advance and then have to cancel at the last minute because of illness, mechanical problems, or whatever. And we also have a few people who just show up without registering. It always seems to work out about the same in numbers by the time everything is over. I had a cancellation yesterday, and less than five minutes later I got an e-mail from a couple telling me they had just heard about the rally and wanted to know if we had room for them. Sure, come on over. The more the merrier.
Today our parking crew will come in to dry camp overnight so they can be on hand to start parking folks Sunday. If you are on the parking crew, please be out in the front parking lot of the fairgrounds about 2:30 or 3 p.m.
The Good Sam rally ends Sunday and they are supposed to be gone by noon, and at 1 p.m. we can start parking for our rally. You can arrive anytime after 8 a.m. Sunday morning at the front parking lot on 32nd Street and get staged to be parked. When we start parking, we will get the handicapped and vendors parked first, if possible. If you need handicapped parking you MUST have a handicapped license plate or placard. The other day a woman told me she does not have one, but still wants handicapped parking. I told her she couldn’t park in the handicapped sites at WalMart without one and she can’t here either. Her reply was that she parks in handicapped spots all the time. By the time our conversation ended, it was determined that she won’t be at our rally.
Please try to arrive with empty waste tanks and full fresh water. If you want to be parked with friends, you should arrive together, or else we’ll have you wait in the staging area until they arrive. We can’t “save” spaces inside the fairgrounds when we park people. It gets too confusing, and slows things down too much.
We try to park everybody as quickly as possible, but please be patient with our parking volunteers. It takes a while to get the 100+ RVs who will be coming in as Early Birds parked. So just relax, get out of your RV and meet the folks waiting with you, and make it a party. It may look like chaos, but we’ve been doing this a long time and we really do know what we’re doing.
Thought For The Day – Money poisons you when you’ve got it, and starves you when you haven’t.
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
Nick, I will be heading out today from the LA area. I plan to connect with my solo friends tomorrow before coming to the fairground. I will pay when I arrive so I can use my coupon. I will be in a 23 foot Tioga with no tow vehicle. See you tomorrow.
Great response to the “handicapped” lady! I “comment” to those type of folks at Walmart, etc from time to time.
Hi Nick – Sorry to hear about all that wind and dust makes it difficult to do things Something you might think about at the rally is advising people about Valley Fever. It is rampant in Arizona and a lot of people are getting sick and not knowing what is wrong. Talk to Cool Judy she has it and has a lot of information about it. I am just waiting for my test results to see if that is what I have. I know I wasn’t aware of it when I was out there and hiking the desert.
Nick, The weather forecast is for very nice weather for your rally. People will be running their A/Cs the way it looks. No rain predicted either. lol
We fought the wind from NM to here it is going to take me a week to get the stuff out of the MH. I am also happy with the response to the lady and the Handicap issue, She has been lucky she has not been turned in by someone who needs the spot, it is a heavy fine for it plus the cost of getting your car out of hock when they tow it. We are happy to be here and are ready to work.
Good for you on your handling of the non-handicapped lady. Also as a holder of a handicap placard I try not to use it when I don’t need to. There is always someone more handicapped than I & really needs the spot. Just because I have it doesn’t mean I have to use it.