The "Super Show" is Over

Last Wednesday we drove south to Avondale, from Cottonwood to attend the five day long Good Sam Super Show.  Leaving the campgrounds we were delighted to see this sight.  This was right above Thousand Trails Road!  We stopped to get propane and gasoline then headed out on our way.  We got to the show site at the Phoenix International Raceway (PIR) by 11 am, and were lead to a nice site.  
 
 We got set up (dry camping doesn't take a lot of set up).  We walked over to sign in and get our ID bracelets, nothing was opening until the next day.  As you can see below, and to the right, we had a spectacular sunset that night.  I just can't get used to the beauty of the desert, and grand sunsets.


 Any way, that's how the visit started.  Jim put the awning out, and chairs and we sat outside noshing on crackers and cheese and drinks while we chatted with other campers.  Around 2 am, we woke up to high winds whipping the awning around, and Jim had to rush outside to lower it!  We decided not to put it out again while we were there.

Thursday we headed over to the show, and picked up the schedule for seminars and entertainment.  We were delighted to find that Bob Livingston was one of the speaker.  However, we were disappointed to find out they had scheduled him to give the SAME talk twice a day for all four days!  Bob knows just about EVERYTHING there is to know about RVing, and he could have talked that many times about a different topic each time!  Many of the speakers were scheduled to give the same talk each time.  We did enjoy the seminars we attended, but disappointed that there were not more choices offered.  As you can see, I took a picture of Jim with the Good Sam guy......and below is a picture Jim took of me with Captain America!  LOL.

 

We visited a lot of vendors, and saw lots of new stuff for RVers.  I wish we could have bought an inverter/charger, but that was outside of our budget at this time, but it is in the future plans.  We did buy a new and better water hose though.  And we bought a really nice electronic weather station by Le Crosse industries.  It shows the date & time, as well as indoor and outdoor temperatures in large numbers, and in colors!  It's nice because it is so easy to see and read.  The one we used to have was black print on a gray background so it was not easy to read, and it often would NOT show the outdoor temperature.  
We also went to the Verizon booth to get them to reset the time on our Fitbit watches, since we are not on California time.  They set them to change with the time zones when we travel.  YAY!!!!  
But then they talked me into upgrading my Jetpak that I use for our WiFi.  The guy on the left assured me it would only cost the one time charge to purchase it.  I only used it for about ten minutes twice, and I got a text message that I was using up "tons" of data.  I called tech support and the person told me that the new Jetpak does use a lot more data, so I had her turn it off and turn on my old one again.  The next day I took it back and I'm happy to be using the old one again.  I've learned my lesson about upgrading our stuff.............if it ain't broke, DON'T FIX IT!!!!
Usually we have definite plans of where we will be going next before we leave our present location.  However, we wanted to visit the Escapees park in Casa Grande, called Rovers Roost, and they don't take reservations.  They told us there was a very good chance of us getting a full hookup site, as they had several campers who would be leaving about that same time.  As a back up, I also looked into our going to the Elks lodge in Chandler.  Yesterday I called Rovers Roost to be sure we still had a site, and they said there was one who would be leaving, and if it stayed open we could go there.  It wasn't a sure thing, so I called back to the Elks, who had previously said they had plenty of space.  Yesterday they said they were completely full now, so we headed towards Casa Grande.  We were about 20 minutes away when she called me back and said the one in the site we were hoping to get just told her he was extending for another week, but we could dry camp until a full hookup site opened up.  We got there and checked in and were lead to our site, sans any hookups.  We started to set up and I was looking at the rules.  One of the worst was that they only allow using generators between 8 --10 am and 5 --7 pm.  We would hate to have to wait until 8 am for our morning coffee, and we do like to watch some evening TV, which we wouldn't be able to do there.  The dog walk area was waaaaaaay down outside the end gate, and we already know that Millie wouldn't make it that far.  We talked it over and I called the Elks here in Casa Grande, and they said we could dry camp here (for much less) and use our generator whenever we want to.  We got here before 3 pm, and checked in.  We had a quick drink while we made out our paperwork, and then came out to set up.  We're staying a week, and then we do have reservations for a stay in Benson WITH FULL HOOKUPS.  We're not wild about dry camping, but the folks here are nice and we're right in town so we can get supplies if we need anything before moving on.  There is a train that runs by not too far away, but we still got a pretty good night's sleep last night. 

In summary, we were disappointed with the Good Sam Super Show, and will probably not attend another one.  The events booked as a rally, such as the FMCA Rally or the Escapees Escapades are more expensive to attend, but they offer much more for the price.  We have decided to cross Rovers Roost off our list of places to stay when we are traveling in Arizona.  Even if we had gotten a full hookup site, we would not have been thrilled.  The sites are too close together.  These are lessee owned sites that get rented out when the owners are away.  If you rent one, you are required to water the plants and pull weeds on the site!!!!  I can't see paying rent on a site and then being told I have to do work there if I want to stay there.  Anyway, life goes on, and we are happy to be here instead of there.  
In closing, we wish everyone a good week and good health.  I wish to remind people NOT to use your phones while you drive.  Especially don't text and drive.  A very dear friend of ours was riding his bike when a distracted driver, who was texting, ran him over.  He is lucky to be alive, but has suffered some very painful injuries because of it.  It's bad enough when an accident happens that couldn't have been prevented, but it's truly tragic when it could have been avoided by not trying to text and drive.  When you are driving a vehicle, that task should have all of your attention.  Please don't practice risky behaviors that could have heart breaking results.  Stay alert and watch out for others on the road, especially bike riders.  Thank you and blessings to all.