For some reason that we have never been able to figure out, but that many other RVers say happens to them as well, we seldom sleep well the night before we travel. Even if it’s a relatively short trip like our 122 mile drive from Apache Junction to Tucson yesterday. We turned in earlier than usual Tuesday night, tossed and turned a lot, and Terry was up by 6:30 yesterday morning, with me following a half hour later.
Terry had all of the loose stuff in the motorhome pretty well secured the night before, so we didn’t have a lot to do to get ready. We did our usual routine of checking e-mail, then I dumped our black and gray holding tanks, and used the auxiliary flush system to give the black tank a good cleaning. With that done, I made a quick trip to the post office to mail out one of our back issue CD sets.
By the time I got back Terry had the Winegard Trav’ler rooftop satellite dish stowed away, the slide rooms in and the HWH leveling jacks up. All I had to do was unplug our electric cord, put it away, and fire up our Cummins 350 diesel engine and we were ready to go. I pulled out of our RV site at Santa Fe RV Park, we hooked the Explorer to our Blue Ox tow bar, did our light check, and we were on the road by 9:30.
The fastest route between the Phoenix metropolitan area and Tucson is Interstate 10, but what fun is that? Besides, it was a windy day and we know how bad the dust storms can get out on that highway. So instead, we took the slower two lane alternative, U.S. Highway 60 east to Florence Junction, then State Route 79 south through Florence, past several state prison complexes, and in Oracle Junction we continued south on State Route 77 into Tucson. From there we got onto Interstate 10 for the last 20 miles to the Pima County Fairgrounds, where we paid for a week. The fairgrounds has full hookup 30 and 50 amp RV sites for $20 a night or $100 a week, which is a pretty good deal in this area.
The wind had blown steadily all the way, but by the time we arrived at the fairgrounds it was getting really bad. We were glad to be safely off the road and parked. Once we were set up and had time to catch our breath, we drove to my cousin Beverly’s house for a visit and then took her to dinner. Bev is one of my favorite people in the world and we always love spending time with her.
We also had some mail waiting for us at Beverly’s, including this beautiful Revolution Supersonic kite that I won in a drawing on the KiteLife website. I love winning things! 
This is my second Revolution kite 
I’m not sure how long we’ll be in Tucson. I have an appointment at the VA hospital on Friday and I need to schedule several others while we’re here if at all possible. A lot of people are asking to get together with us, but we can’t make any commitments until I know what the medical timeline is going to be.
We already have over 100 entries in this week’s Free Drawing for an autographed copy of The Dumb Things Sold Just Like That, A History of the RV Industry In America by my good friend Al Hesselbart. All you have to do to enter is click this Free Drawing link and enter your name in the comments section below. Only one entry per person per drawing please! The winner will be chosen at random on Sunday evening.
I was going to end our latest promotion tonight, which is for a CD set of back issues of the Gypsy Journal for the years 2003 – 2013. But a couple of blog readers have asked me if I would extend it through the weekend to give them time to get paid, so I’ll keep it open until Sunday Night. This is a heck of a deal, eleven years of our RV adventures and misadventures for the amazingly low price of just $50, with free shipping! The back issues are in searchable PDF files that will work on any computer. If you were to purchase them individually from our online download site, they would cost you $198. How can you lose with a deal like that? To order, just click the button below or log onto www.paypal.com and make payment to editor@gypsyjournal.net. Hurry, this deal ends Sunday!
Thought For The Day – There is great need for a sarcasm font.
Check Out Nick’s E-Books In Our E-Book Store
Click Here For Back Issues Of The Gypsy Journal
Click Here To Subscribe To The Gypsy Journal
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
Nick
This drawing is for a book I already have. Whoever wins should really enjoy this book.
Nice prize..
Congratulations on winning that Rev! Enjoy flying it. We have a COLLECTION of kites but now we are in the desert (in Pahrump, NV) and it’s not as much flying here.
Hope you remembered to check tire pressure, love Mom
glad you made it safely to your destination. Our winds finally died down and as fare as I know no damage done here in the park. some areas had downed trees, now we have a cold front that decided to stick around. This morning when I got up to put our new puppy out instead of our normal walk it was an ungodly 32 out. It is now 1:30 and we are a great big 46. Tomorrow they say we will be in the low 80’s go figure. Midnight got his walk a bit late but he got it.
Good to know about the Pima County Fairgrounds – that’s such a fun area to explore and the price of the FHU can’t be beat.
You’ve got me wanting to go fly a kite now – that will be on my list of things to search for when we land in North Fort Myers. I figure they has to be a kite shop somewhere down there….and if not I’ll order it online.