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Nick's Blog Sunday, August 31, 2008 Yesterday on Flying J’s website, I saw that diesel fuel has dropped back under $4 a gallon. Wow, what a savings! But any little bit helps, right? Of course, with Hurricane Gustav aimed at the Gulf coast, prices will probably shoot up again. But it was good while it lasted. Flying J has sent out a letter announcing that they are bringing back their penny a gallon discount on fuel for RVers using their RealValue membership card. Customers can also earn up to 30 cents per gallon discounts on gasoline and 4 cents on diesel when spending money in the restaurants and convenience stores at participating Flying Js. That penny a gallon discount seems like a big deal to some RVers I know, but when you think about it, we have a 144 gallon tank on our bus conversion. So even if I was dead empty, the savings are just $1.44. Sometimes the hassle of getting into and out of the Flying J RV island is just not worth the small savings. When we can, we go to the truck islands. They are much easier to access. I was feeling a
bit nostalgic, so I was re-reading my book Meandering
Down The Highway the other day. The book is a compilation of
the travelogues by the same name that I wrote during our first year on
the road, back in 1999. In one entry, I wrote that we bought gas for
$1.06 a gallon in I was asking myself back then if we had waited too long to become fulltimers. Could we afford to continue living our new dream life with prices skyrocketing that high? Gee, almost ten years later, we’re still at it. So I guess no matter what fuel prices do, we won’t be stopping anytime soon. I have a favor to ask of our snowbird subscribers. Please change your address when you head south this year so you can be assured that you keep getting your paper. Unless you have upgraded your subscription to First Class, the post office usually does not forward them.
Yesterday I decided that it was time to get the antenna mounted properly. Knowing that it would be easier for him to mount the darned thing himself than it would be to drag me to the hospital after I fell off the ladder and impaled myself on an electric drill, my pal Ron Speidel gathered up his tools and made short work of the project. The Verizon air card has served us well ever since we got it, and now we’ll have even better reception in fringe areas. Thanks Ron! Thought For The Day –
Young travelers pick a destination and go. Old travelers pick a
direction and go. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally For
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Our Online Marketplace Saturday, August 30, 2008 Fuel prices may be high, but they sure have not slowed down RVers! All day yesterday rigs of every shape and size were rolling into Elkhart Campground for the long Labor Day weekend. It’s the last blast of summer, and I know we’ll have smoky campfires, yelling kids, and yappy little mutts all over the place. But what the heck, everybody deserves to have fun. In a few days those folks will be back at work and school, and life will return to normal. Yesterday Miss Terry decided that she did want the new drop leaf kitchen table we saw at RV Surplus www.rvsurplussalvage.com the other day, so we went back and bought it, and moved our old table outside. In an RV park, if you have something to get rid of, and it still has some life in it, all you have to do is set it in front of your site, and before long someone will come along and give it a new home. Okay, a lot of readers have been asking for an update on my impression of my new Amazon Kindle e-book reader. Actually, I’m on my second Kindle. The first one froze up and stopped working the day after it arrived. I contacted the folks at Amazon.com and they sent me a new unit overnight. It is working great. Actually, as it turns out, the problem with the first one seems to have been solved. After they sent out the replacement unit, one of Amazon’s techs called back to discuss the problem. In the owner’s guide, you are instructed to plug the power cord in to charge your Kindle once you unpack it, and the instructions say you can use it while it is getting that first charge. The tech helped me reset the unit, then said the problem could have been avoided if I had allowed the Kindle to charge for at least three hours before using it, regardless of what the instruction manual says. I made sure to give the new one plenty of time to charge before using it, and I am delighted with the unit. I have downloaded sample chapters of several books, and purchased one title. The download was very fast, and within a minute or so I was reading the new book. I also used a neat free software program to convert a PDF copy of my book Meandering Down The Highway into Kindle format, and loaded it onto the Kindle, along with copies of the Free Campgrounds, Fairgrounds Camping, Casino Camping and other guides contained in our 7 in 1 RVers E-book. I have read the Kindle inside our bus conversion and outside in the sunlight, and it works fine everywhere. I am absolutely sold on it, and if I could convince Miss Terry to embrace this new technology, we’d keep the first unit too, instead of sending it back to Amazon. I love having the ability to have an entire library in one compact package, with no extra weight or space inside the RV. Click one of the Kindle links in this blog and check it out for yourself. I recently became aware of a program that I hope
all of you will consider if you have upgraded your cell phone and still
have the old one laying around. The Cell Phones for Soldiers program was
started in April 2004 by a couple of kids from Thought For The Day – If you can't secure it with bungee cords and electrician's tape, it's not worth carrying. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally For
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Our Online Marketplace Friday, August 29, 2008 Can you believe that the Labor Day weekend is upon us? It’s like I blinked my eye, and summer is history. Would somebody please slow time down for me? It’s going by way too fast. Yesterday we were out exploring again with Ron and
Brenda Speidel. This time we spent the day in Shipshewana, the Amish
community famous for its flea market, where you can get any kind of
cheap junk made in I’ve written before that I am not a big fan of
Shipshewana. It’s both an Amish trade center and a tourist trap, where
busloads of shoppers from all over the But there are some good places in Shipshewana, including the E&S Sales bulk food store, where Brenda and Terry stocked up on all kinds of goodies, from tapioca beads to cheese. We saw stuff for sale there that we didn’t know they even still made! High shelves running along the walls held an impressive display of old toy pedal cars and trucks, Amish mechanical washing machines, and other interesting things. We enjoyed an excellent lunch at the Blue Gate
Restaurant, and it’s worth a trip to A few days ago I wrote about a single RVer being stopped by the police because he met the profile of a drug smuggler, and I asked blog readers how they felt about being stopped by police trying to intercept drugs or illegal aliens. The response was overwhelmingly in favor of the policy. The e-mails I received said things like “Not a problem. I have nothing to hide” from Don Damkaer; or Gene Teggatz, who wrote “I have no heartburn with being stopped for a drug check or an illegal alien check. I do expect to being treated respectfully, and always have been.” Jerry Fitzsimmons wrote to say “If it takes five minutes out of my life to help fight the drug traffic and catch illegal aliens, I’m more than happy to cooperate. I’m retired, where do I have to be in a hurry?” I agree with these and the many other comments I
got on the topic. Drugs have destroyed the pretty Last winter in Arizona we read or heard one news report after another about crimes from murder to violent robberies to fatal DUI accidents where the perpetrator was an illegal alien from south of the border. That is not a racist statement, it is fact. We need to wake up and realize that we are in trouble in this country, and stand up on our hind legs and do something about it. So if a police officer or Border Patrolman needs me to pull over so he can confirm that I’m just an honest citizen going about my business, I’m happy to comply. It’s the least I can do to help them do their job. Thought For The Day –
When blondes have more fun, do they know it? Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally For
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Our Online Marketplace Thursday, August 28, 2008 Lord, why do you tempt me so? I wrote in yesterday’s blog that our pals Tom and Diane have decided that their beautiful Kinglsey coach truck conversion just does not fit their lifestyle, and have put it up for sale. Tom and Diane had
to run to
Doesn’t my
buddy Ron look just like one of those I wrote earlier
about how much Miss Terry and Ron enjoy prowling through the local RV
surplus stores, and we were back at it yesterday. Our first stop was a
new place called Of course, the
granddaddy of all RV surplus stores is RV Surplus http://www.rvsurplussalvage.com/
at We never go to RV Surplus without finding something that we just can’t live without. This trip Miss Terry found a nice looking drop leaf kitchen table, and I think she has decided we need to go back and get it. I mentioned our Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally above, and it’s hard to believe that it is just a couple of weeks away! We’re going to have a good turnout, and we’re really looking forward to seeing everybody there. If you haven’t registered yet, don’t worry, we’ll have plenty of room for everybody. You can pre-register, which really helps us plan the parking, or just show up, and we’ll find someplace to put you. Don’t forget, if you plan on having your RV weighed, call Rick and Joyce Lang at (207) 522-3336 to get set up on the schedule. I think they will be in early for weighing rigs. For driving lessons in your own RV at the rally, call Dennis and Carol Hill at the RV School (530) 878-0111 or visit their website at www.rvschool.com. And for you folks who want to learn to get the most out of your computer, Jim and Chris Guld from Geeks on Tour will be holding their excellent Computer Boot Camp pre-rally September 13 and 14 (Saturday and Sunday) at the fairgrounds. You can register for the Boot Camp at www.geeksontour.com/bootcamp/index.cfm. As you can see, there’s going to be a lot going on before and after the rally, along with all of the great seminars, entertainment, and fun we have scheduled during the rally. How could you miss all of the that? Thought For The Day – When life gives you lemons, turn it into lemonade and then mix it with vodka. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally For
A Great Selection Of RV Books And Accessories, Visit
Our Online Marketplace Wednesday, August 27, 2008 We picked up the new Gypsy Journal T-shirts and Rally T-Shirts yesterday, and they are gorgeous! Terry and I are very pleased with them, and I think our readers will be too. Click on the links above to place your shirt order. We spent a couple of hours yesterday afternoon prowling through Bontrager’s Surplus www.bontragers.com in White Pigeon, Michigan with Ron and Brenda Speidel. Bontrager’s has a huge selection of overstocked, discontinued, close-out, and scratch and dent items from the RV industry, ranging from appliances to furniture, hardware, electrical components, cabinet doors, and more. Miss Terry and Ron are both technical people, and they can look at some little doodad and know exactly what it is for and how they can use it. Brenda and I get bored pretty quickly, but we know that when those two get to a place like Bontrager's, they’re like kids in a candy store. So we just bided our time and let them have their fun. It was worth it, because Miss Terry found a beautiful tile backsplash for behind our stove for just $3, and Ron came away with a couple of goodies too.
My friend Rick Schafer e-mailed me last night to say that he was impressed with my power. It seems that the dates for the 2009 Medium Duty Truck rally have been changed, so that it does not conflict with our Arizona Gypsy Gathering rally in February, because so many of the truck folks want to attend our rally. I wrote back to tell Rick that if he thought that was impressive, he should watch me part the waters in a lake someday. Rick shot back a reply pointing out that there is a huge lake in Celina, and wondered if I had any time to perform that feat while we’re there for our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally. I’m going to be really busy, Rick, but I’ll check the schedule and see what I can do. J Thought For The Day –
The best alarm clock in the world is the sound of singing birds. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally For
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Our Online Marketplace Tuesday, August 26, 2008 My new toy arrived yesterday! My first impression is that the Amazon Kindle e-book reader is everything I had hoped it would be and even more. I had read several reviews that said the page navigation buttons on both sides of the screen take some getting used to, and indeed they do. Several times I have accidentally switched pages when reading, but all it takes is a touch on the Previous Page button and I’m back where I started. Unlike a laptop computer screen, the Kindle screen is easy to read outside in bright sunlight, or inside the bus. I love having the ability to change type size. No more reading glasses for me! One feature I especially like is the ability to download a free sample chapter of a book before I purchase it. I downloaded several yesterday afternoon and found a couple I want, and a couple I’m glad I didn’t spend my money on. The ability to carry a library of hundreds, even thousands of books, makes the Kindle a winner for the RV crowd. Check it out by clicking here. With the new issue of the Gypsy Journal in the mail, Terry and I will hang out here at Elkhart
Campground until after the holiday weekend. We’ll spend the rest of
this week taking care of some last minute chores that we need to wrap up
before we head over to One chore will be picking up our new Gypsy Journal T-Shirts and the Rally T-Shirts from the screen printer today. We have a lot of this first order sold already, but there are still plenty to go around, and we will keep them in stock for our readers. I came across an interesting thread on the Escapees forum about a single RVer who was pulled over by a police officer, who told him that the reason for this stop was that a single male in an RV without a toad behind it meets a “profile” of a drug smuggler. I’m curious, has anyone ever had this happen to them? Check out the thread at http://escapees.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/154607461/m/8011056913. We have never been stopped by the police in our bus, nor have we been pulled over by the Border Patrol in the Southwest, though I have heard of that happening to other RVers. We’ve had to stop at a couple of Border Patrol checkpoints where every vehicle was stopped, but we’ve always been waved through, or at the most asked if it was just the two of us in the bus, and where we were coming from. Some people really resent this, but I don’t have a problem with it. Whatever it takes to stop the flow of drugs and illegal aliens into our country is fine with me. What do you think? Share your views with me at editor@gypsyjournal.net. Thought For The Day –
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Our Online Marketplace Monday, August 25, 2008 Miss Terry has been working like a madwoman the last three days, and she has all of the envelopes stuffed with the new issue of the Gypsy Journal and ready to be mailed out today. It’s always a relief when we get the papers mailed out, and can sit back and draw a deep breath. But we won’t
have much time to relax. Now we start on a long list of last minute
details we need to get done before our Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally in In the last year or two I have had several RVers ask me about the viability of replacing the air in their RV tires with nitrogen. Proponents of this practice (many of whom are selling nitrogen tire inflation systems), claim that it will increase fuel efficiency, improve handling, and that your tires will not lose pressure as quickly with nitrogen as with traditional air inflation. Now, while I think I can add a thing or two to most conversations about the RV lifestyle, working on the road, converting a bus, and a few other topics, this is way too technical for my tiny little mind. Several months ago we installed a Pressure Pro tire monitoring system www.pressureprosystem.com, and now the extent of my tire knowledge is that all I have to do is scroll through the monitor readout to be sure everything is okay before I hit the road, and if the monitor beeps while I’m driving, I have a problem. Stop and get it fixed. Quick and easy. Fortunately, Brad Sears has an interesting post titled Nitrogen, Myth or Fact in his blog at RV.Net http://blog.rv.net/2008/08/17/nitrogen-myth-or-fact that looks at this issue, and the follow up comments are very interesting. Check it out and let me know what you think. Another question
I have received several times since my post on navigating with a GPS a
while back is what brand and model of GPS unit we use. We have a Garmin
StreetPilot c330, which is a pretty basic unit. There are We have a good
selection of GPS units in our Online
Marketplace. I have found that the prices you will find there
are usually considerably less than at any of the big box retailers, even
when you factor in shipping costs. Some friends were shopping for a GPS
just this weekend, and after checking places like The wide array of GPS units on the market today has something for everyone. You can get a GPS that will play MP3 files, that has voice activated software, that will alert you to red light cameras, and Camping World even has a Pioneer model with a built-in AM/FM radio, CD player, and your choice of IPod, XM or Sirius satellite radio! The next thing you know, you will be able to just pull up to the drive in window at your favorite fast food joint and your GPS will order for you! So which is the best GPS for navigating in your RV? To each his own, but I’m happy with my basic unit. I already have an iPod and Sirius radio, my bus won’t go fast enough to get me a traffic ticket, and I eat so much fast food that the kids at the drive up windows recognize me and have my order ready when they see me pulling into the parking lot. Thought For The Day –
Winter is Mother Nature's way of telling you to go south. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally For
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Our Online Marketplace Sunday, August 24, 2008 We had a bus full of visitors yesterday, all at the same time! Our pals Terry and Dale Pace stopped over to say hello, and while they were here, Gypsy Journal subscribers Niles and Deb Robinson and their riding buddies Phil and Rudee Rubeck pulled up on their Gold Wing motorcycles. With eight of us inside our bus with no slides, it was a bit cramped, but we all had a great visit and it was a lot of fun. Besides, when Miss Terry is busy stuffing envelopes, I can never get her to take a break. This way she had to stop for a while and just relax. We can never have too much relaxation in our lives, right? A little after 5 p.m. Terry called it a day, with a huge amount of the envelopes already filled, and we rode a few miles northwest to Edwardsburg, Michigan with Ron and Brenda Speidel for dinner at the Angler’s Inn at Lunker's www.lunkers.com. For those of you not familiar with this establishment, Lunker’s is a locally owned sporting goods store on a par with Cabela’s or Bass Pro Shops, with an amazing selection of anything and everything you could ever want for your next outdoor adventure. Do you need a new shotgun, a fly rod, or a tent? No problem, they have it at Lunker’s, along with archery equipment, outdoor clothing, backpacks, barbecue grills, and books and DVDs on hunting, fishing, hiking, and biking. Lunker’s also has an excellent restaurant, where you can enjoy anything from a hamburger to fresh walleye, or more exotic dishes such as alligator, elk, and ostrich! The restaurant has several nice aquariums displaying all kinds of fish, including a beautiful 1,000 gallon salt-water tank. The ceiling is covered in a canopy of a northern woods scene, and every 30 minutes a thunderstorm goes off, complete with lightning and the sound of heavy rain. My buddy Ron was
in hog heaven! He had heard of Lunker’s before, but had no idea it was
so close to Elkhart. After our dinner and an excellent dessert of cheesecake topped with I had as much fun checking out all of the goodies as Ron did. You know me, I’m always looking for something new to play with, and this time around it was a kayak. Of course, since I can’t swim more than a dozen feet or so, I probably don’t need to think about that particular activity very long. I have no interest in doing any of that whitewater nonsense, but I bet Miss Terry and I could have a great time on a slow moving waterway like the Suwannee River down around White Springs, Florida, or the Peace River, a bit further south near the Thousand Trails NACO campground at Wauchula. There, I wouldn’t have to worry about swimming if I tip over a kayak – the alligators would be waiting for my chubby little body to hit the water! No, I think I’ll just hang out on the riverbank and read my new Amazon Kindle! Thought For The Day –
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Our Online Marketplace Saturday, August 23, 2008 Well, we did it! Yesterday afternoon we reached our goal in sales for the 7 in 1 RVers E-book, and I ordered my Amazon Kindle. It will be delivered Monday, and I’m looking forward to having a full report on it to share with you soon. Thanks to everybody who ordered the 7 in 1 RVers E-book, and don’t worry if you were slow on placing your order, we are still offering the same special on this money saving e-book. In fact, if you already have a Kindle, I can even send it to you formatted for it if you prefer, instead of as a PDF! Between my GPS, air card, iPod, and now the Kindle, my pal Ron Speidel is calling me Gadget Boy. But I’ll tell you something, it is easy to forget just how convenient all of these new toys make our lives. That point was driven home for Miss Terry and I
yesterday morning when we drove over to Yesterday I had forgotten to put the GPS back in
the van after our trip to We were talking with Ron and Brenda last night about how far technology has come in our lifetimes. I still remember our first black and white TV, and now we have high definition sets that will beam a television signal from a satellite in outer space right to our RVs, even parked out in the middle of the desert miles from the nearest electric outlet! When we were kids, Dick Tracy had a wrist radio, and we all know that was science fiction. Today every kid over the age of twelve seems to have a cell phone that will do more things than the earliest computers that changed the world were ever capable of. Can you
imagine what a godsend a simple GPS unit would have been to someone
crossing the country in a covered wagon along the Miss Terry is busy this weekend stuffing envelopes to get them in the mail Monday morning. The envelopes are bar coded and have to be kept in their exact sequence or things get really messed up at the post office. Terry has her own system, and I am not allowed to help at all, except for carrying the big plastic mail bins out to the van. Basically, as always, she is doing the work, and my job is to just stand around and look pretty. I’m just the eye candy around here. J Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally For
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Our Online Marketplace Friday, August 22, 2008 We reached a major milestone yesterday afternoon with our 300,000th visitor to our website. That’s a lot of folks checking in, and we really appreciate your support. Now let’s go for 500,000! I really opened a can of worms yesterday when I wrote about an electronic edition of the Gypsy Journal. I got several e-mails from people who want one, but I also got a ton of e-mail from people asking us to please not abandon the print edition and go all electronic. Don’t worry folks, I promise you that will never happen. We are experimenting with an electronic edition to meet the needs of our readers who don’t want a paper delivered, but there is no way we would go totally electronic. I’m a dinosaur, and I love the feel of newsprint in my hands, and the smell of ink. I was born to be a newspaperman, and I’m just too damned old to learn a new profession now. I remember when I was a little kid, we were in a store in our small town and a fellow pulled up in a big black car and came inside, wearing a suit with a pocket watch chain stretched across his vest. He picked up several items, told the man behind the counter “Put it on my account” and walked out without paying! I asked my Dad how come he could get stuff without paying for it, and the store owner said “That’s Mr. McLain, he owns the newspaper. He’s good for it.” Right then and there I knew I wanted to be just like him, with a fancy car, a watch chain, and an “account,” whatever that was! My very first job was for that same Frank McClain, working as a printer’s devil in the old letterpress shop, cleaning the lead type slugs and whatever other grunt work needed done. Then I’d take a bundle of papers and hit the street delivering them. Since then I have owned small town weekly newspapers, a daily, shoppers, and now the Gypsy Journal. Just yesterday we picked the new edition up from our printer, and when I walked into the pressroom, it felt like coming home. There is an old saying in the newspaper business that once you get that ink into your veins, it will never leave you. So don’t worry, folks, while we want to give all of our customers what they want, we will continue to have the same print edition as always, even if we can solve the problems associated with going to an electronic edition for those who want that. We would have
loved to spend more time with my cousin Terry Cook and his family in Traverse City, South of Grand Rapids we took State Route 222 east to Allegan, where we stopped at our printer, and then followed State Route 40 south for 55 miles to pick up U.S. Highway 12 just above the Indiana state line. From there it was a short drive to Elkhart Campground.
Okay, here’s an
update on the Kindle Will I make it to my goal? I think so, because I know what a great money saver our 7 In 1 RVers E-book is! I can almost feel that new Kindle in my hands now! Thought For The Day –
Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally For
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Our Online Marketplace
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Unfortunately, we
were in Miss Terry had her annual checkup with her oncologist yesterday, and got a clean bill of health report. It has been eight years since she was diagnosed with cancer, and though it looked very grim at the time, she made an amazing recovery and is healthy now. She had a lot of things going for her, from an excellent doctor and medical team, to the love and prayers of so many of our family and friends, to her own strong will to live. When they told us she had stage 4 cancer and that we should expect the worst, her response was “I have way too much to live for, and I don’t have time to die. So just stop that kind of talk!” Did I ever tell you that she is my hero? Today we’ll
leave We’ve had a very good response to our special 7 in 1 RVers E-book offer, and some of you who have ordered it have already written back to tell me what a great value it is. Those people are going to be saving a bunch of money as they travel! With today’s high fuel prices, taking advantage of the many free campgrounds, fairgrounds camping locations, and casino camping opportunities can really help you out the next time you pull up to the RV fuel island. Now, I’ll be
honest here folks, as much as I want to see you saving money on your
campground fees, I have a selfish reason, too. Miss Terry says if I sell
just ten more this week, I can order my very own Amazon Kindle Over the years, a lot of people have asked us about the possibility of an all electronic edition of the Gypsy Journal that they can subscribe to. We have toyed with the idea a time or two, but just have not been able to work out the technical issues and figure out a way to make it economically feasible. The biggest problem is the sheer size of the finished PDF file, over 21 MB. That is just too big to e-mail out, and I have had some of the best computer geeks I know try to figure out how to reduce the size of the thing, with no success. Making it into a zip file seemed to make the most sense, but I’ve never been able to zip the file correctly, because it doesn’t work. I can zip other files, but not this large PDF. Someone recently told me PDFs cannot be zipped. I don’t know. Another idea has been to upload the paper to a website, and use a password for access, but I have not been able to figure out how to do that yet either. I keep experimenting with ways to make this work for the people who don’t want to carry around a printed issue, or who want to reduce the volume of incoming mail they receive. But not being all that computer literate, so far I’ve not been able to get the job done. And I have to ask myself, is it really worth it? Even though a lot of folks say they want an electronic issue, when I have brought it up a couple of times in the past, very, very few were willing to actually pay for it. As a business, we do need to make a profit to be able to continue doing this. What are your thoughts? Would you pay for electronic delivery instead of print? Let me know at editor@gypsyjournal.net. Thought For The Day –
Calling an illegal alien an “undocumented immigrant” is like calling
a drug dealer an “unlicensed pharmacist.”
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Our Online Marketplace Wednesday, August 20, 2008 In yesterday’s blog, I mentioned parking overnight at Elks and Moose lodges, and at VFW posts. I received a couple of e-mails from readers asking if one has to be a member of those groups to utilize their overnight parking opportunities, and if so, what is required for membership. Another question was how does one find lodges and posts that allow overnight parking. I was remiss in not stating that in most cases, you must be a member to use post or lodge parking. So, how does one become a member? To join the Elks or Moose, you must be sponsored by
a current member. Membership is open to both men and women. The Elks
require prospective members to attend a meeting or two before induction.
Annual dues at Elks lodges varies by state. I believe dues for my home
lodge, in If you are a fulltimer, the Elks lodges in Gila
Bend and The Moose have no requirement that you attend
meetings prior to joining. You simply get a sponsor, fill out the
application, and send it in with the dues and initiation fee. Annual
Moose dues are $60, and there is also a small initiation fee. If anyone
wants to join the Moose, I have applications available for my home
lodge, in Full membership in the VFW is limited to American
citizens who are honorably discharged veterans of the On the subject of links, my pal Smokey Ridgely from Waterless Clean N Shine called last night and asked if I would let my readers know that his website address has changed. We use Smokey’s products on our bus and have been very happy with them. They make it easy to have a sharp looking rig, even for a lazy guy like me! Check out Smokey’s new website at www.waterless-clean-n-shine.com. Thought For The Day –
Red meat is not bad for you. Fuzzy green meat is bad for you. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally For
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Our Online Marketplace Tuesday, August 19, 2008 A regular blog reader who recently retired and plans to spend the winter snowbirding in his fifth wheel trailer wrote to ask me how we plan our travels. Do we make reservations in advance and have a planned destination every night, or do we just drive until we get tired and then look for a place to stay overnight? What about when we get to our final destination, do we make reservations or fly by the seat of our pants? Everybody is different, as are their travel styles. Some people want the security of knowing they have an RV site reserved for the night ahead of time. It is less stressful for them if they know that at the end of their driving day, they won’t have to search for a place to spend the night. For Terry and I, and a lot of other people we know, we very seldom make reservations ahead of time, unless we are going to a busy location where we want to be guaranteed an RV site. On the road, going from Point A to Point B, we never make advance reservations for the night. We like to hit the road after the rush hour is over, so we seldom pull out before 9 a.m., and 10 a.m. is more likely. Sometimes we just sort of meander along, stopping to check out interesting historical markers, pulling into a truck stop or restaurant with big rig parking and having a leisurely lunch, and maybe even stopping in a rest area for a short nap. Other days we’re in driving mode and just keep rolling up the miles. Having a preordained stop for the night would just be to stressful for us. Do we have to rush to get there? Or do we have to stop earlier than we feel like it, because we’re there already? On the road, we seldom spend the night in an RV park. We’re just too frugal to give somebody $20 or $30 a night just to sleep in our own bed. We find a convenient truck stop, WalMart, rest area, a small town city park with free RV parking, or maybe an Elks or Moose lodge, or a VFW post close to the highway where we can park overnight. While we don’t plan our stops for the night ahead of time, we usually have several options picked out that we can get into when we’re done driving for the day or if bad weather, traffic delays, or some other unplanned event interrupts our day’s travel. We usually try to pick options about 50 to 75 miles apart, stretched over our route. I have used the example of traveling Interstate 40
across from Flagstaff, It is 95 miles to Gallup, New Mexico, where there is an Elks lodge with RV parking, as well as a couple of RV friendly truck stops; 60 miles east of there, Grants, New Mexico has several RV friendly truck stops; 27 miles further east, at Casa Blanca, the Dancing Eagle Casino has an RV park with full hookups for $10 a night, or we can dry camp in the parking lot overnight. There are a couple of other casinos just west of Albuquerque with RV parking, and Albuquerque has everything from a Flying J to Elks and Moose lodges, and at least one Passport America RV park where we can spend the night. As you can see, it’s not hard to find a place to park overnight. Our bus conversion has ample water and waste holding tanks, an inverter and battery bank, solar panels, and an generator, so we can live quite comfortably wherever we happen to pull in for the night. But even without all of the dry camping equipment we have added to our rig, any RV will be able to keep you safe and comfortable for a night or two on the road. So how do we find these convenient overnight parking spots? We've spent years researching them, but you don't have to. For our great 7 in 1 E-book, listing over 1,000 free and low cost overnight parking places, as well as casinos and fairgrounds with RV parking, a guide to RV Good Guys offering service you can trust, a guide to RV dump stations, and other important information to make your life on the road both less expensive and more comfortable, click this 7 in 1 E-book link. I guarantee that it will pay for itself the first time you use it. Thought For The Day –
Money isn't everything, but it sure keeps the kids in touch. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally For
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Our Online Marketplace Monday, August 18, 2008 We just never
know when we’re going to run into our friends and subscribers, or how
many near misses we have with them either! Friday when we were driving
north on U.S. Highway 31 near Holland, Michigan, our cell phone rang,
and it was our friend Alice Allard, calling to tell us she and husband
Ed had just passed us heading south! We had missed them by minutes last
month at Country Roads RV Park www.4countryroads.com
in Lake Delton, Sunday we were
getting ready to pull out of Fisherman’s Landing in We had a great
time in Of course, just because a fellow is injured doesn’t mean I cut him any slack. We were playing Mexican Train Saturday night and I got on a roll cracking jokes until poor Rocky was holding his side from laughing, and begging me to stop because it hurt. Well, that’s like letting a shark sniff blood in the water, so I went in for the kill. I finally had to stop, because the wimp threatened to make me walk back to my bus. If it hadn’t been after midnight in a strange city, I might have called his bluff. While we were in Muskegon, we got to meet Rocky’s parents, Lee and Shirley Frees. I immediately fell in love with Rocky’s mom. Shirley is a tiny ball of energy that never stops moving for one second. She reminded me of a beautiful little hummingbird, and I wanted to take her with us on the road, because you could never have a bad day with that delightful lady around you. We only had a few minutes to visit with Lee and Shirley, but I hope we get back to see them again one of these days. We would have
been happy to stay for another couple of weeks, but sometimes life gets
in the way. We needed to get up to My buddy Jack
Mayer suggested that I get one of the Amazon Kindle Thought For The Day –
A fool and his money can throw one hell of a party. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally For
A Great Selection Of RV Books And Accessories, Visit
Our Online Marketplace Sunday, August 17, 2008 Someone wrote to complain that I was putting down weekend campers in yesterday’s blog. They said they are still working and raising kids, and don’t have the luxury of being fulltimers yet, but that it was wrong for me to look down on someone who is not a fulltime RVer. They ended their e-mail with. “Everybody needs to blow off some steam now and then.” I think if one were to go back and read yesterday’s blog, my comments were about the neighbors here at Fisherman’s Landing who had a big bonfire going last night and were hooting and hollering after 1:30 a.m. This morning when we looked out, the parents were still sacked out sleeping off their party, while their kid were outside picking up the beer bottles they had thrown all over. I don’t look down on anybody who is working responsibly and raising kids. We’re still working, we just do it from the road. And both Terry and I were single parents, raising our kids by ourselves. My objection is to people who come into a campground on the weekend and go hog wild, showing absolutely no respect for their neighbors, or in this case even their own children. If one wants to be offended by that position, so be it. Yesterday we
played tourist again. Rocky and Berni took us north to Silver Lake,
Michigan where we went on a dune buggy ride out through some of the most
spectacular sand dunes you’ll find this
Ladies, I’ll
give you a word of advice, unless you want
to join the wet t-shirt contest, don’t sit on the driver’s Back at Mac
Wood’s, the company that operates the dune buggy rides, we From
While we were at
the Iron Angel Forge, we met Sylver and Gwyd, and their two kids, Megan
and Colin. These two were some of the most interesting people we have
met in a long time. They are sideshow entertainers, and Sylver, a pretty
and petite redhead trained as a classical dancer, is a fire eater. How
does a nice girl from The kids are learning the business too. Both do some magic, and Colin said he can even make his sister’s head disappear! Is that the kind of thing we want precocious big brothers knowing how to do? Here is a picture of Gwyd demonstrating his escape skills, and it was amazing how quickly he was out of the chains that were locked around his wrists. Gwyd also made us cringe when he put out a cigarette on his tongue. Can you say ouch! As if that’s not enough, he holds the world record for the most number of mousetraps snapped on a persons’ tongue – 19 in one minute! Have you ever been sitting around the old RV and said to yourself, “Ya know, I bet if I had enough mousetraps….” Check out their website at www.knottybitssideshow.com. Thought For The Day –
We have enough youth. How about a fountain of smart? Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally For
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Our Online Marketplace Saturday, August 16, 2008 We love playing tourist, and we sure got to do so yesterday! We left Elkhart
Campground and had an easy run to Berni is my cousin, but our friendship transcends family ties, and we also have fun with this couple. They have been urging us to come and let them play tour guide in their town. And did they ever do a great job!
Terry and I love
being on a beach anywhere, be it on the
We used what
little daylight remained to drive to We ended the evening with a short game of Mexican Train, but after three rounds my eyes were drooping, so we called it a night. Back at the bus, even after 1 a.m., the noisy folks next door were outside raising a ruckus. Weekend campers… don’t you just love them? Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally For
A Great Selection Of RV Books And Accessories, Visit
Our Online Marketplace Friday, August 15, 2008 It was a fast and
furious week, but we got it all done! The CD with the new issue of the
paper is on its way to the printer, the screen printer is busily making
our Rally Shirts and Gypsy Journal
Shirts, the bulk mail service is
working on the address labels, and today we’ll be on the road, headed
for Fisherman’s Landing Campground in We plan to spend a couple of days hanging out with Berni and Rocky Frees, letting them show us the sights around their home, and if all goes well, I’ll convince Rocky to treat me to outrageously expensive meals while we’re in town. We had originally
planned to stay at the Elks Lodge in Our second choice was Fisherman’s Landing, which is a Passport America park with roomier sites with 30 amp electric and water. The Passport America rate is $12.50 a night, but it does not apply on weekends, so we’ll be paying the regular rate of $25/night. But when you factor in the easier time we’ll have parking, the better electric, and the fact that Fisherman’s Landing is only a couple of miles from Berni and Rocky’s home, while the Elks is at least ten miles away, it was a no brainer. $25 a day is more than we usually spend for an RV site, but when you’re in a resort area or a place where there is a lot of traffic, you have to expect to pay more. No problem, we save so much by using free campgrounds, lodges, and fairgrounds most of the year that we can bend the budget now and then. Besides, I’ll get a lot of that money back when Rocky takes me to dinner. J In yesterday’s
blog I mentioned the Amazon Kindle Thought For The Day – Five days a week my body is a temple. The other two it's an amusement park. Thursday, August 14, 2008 We have been busy
the last few days getting as much done as we can before we leave While I was doing that, Miss Terry installed our new Sealand toilet, which took her much less time than she expected. It seems to be a much better unit than the Thetford we replaced, or the Thetford that preceded that one. Yesterday morning
we were up and out early, headed to With that chore out of the way, we paid a visit to our screen printer and shelled out huge chunks of money for Rally Shirts and Gypsy Journal Shirts. I sure hope you folks buy a lot of shirts, or else I can tell you what my daughter and grandkids will be getting for Christmas and birthdays for many, many years. J Back at the bus, I was working on the paper when Mike and Elaine Loscher stopped in for a visit after spending the morning touring the RV Museum and Hall of Fame. Mike has been telling me about his latest toy, and he wanted to show it to me. Called a Kindle The Kindle Thought For The Day –
Successful people credit others for their successes. Losers blame others
for their failures.
Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally For A Great Selection Of RV Books And Accessories, Visit Our Online Marketplace Wednesday, August 13, 2008 How’s this for one cool looking RV? The RV Museum and Hall of Fame in Elkhart, Indiana www.rv-mh-hall-of-fame.org/ recently received this unique custom motorhome, named the Silver Streak II, and now has it on display.
Bad news for
Winnebago owners. I learned yesterday that Winnebago Industries has
decided to close its Surplus Store in Forest City, Even though weight is not much of a factor to us in our bus conversion (we have so much carrying capacity that if we can find a place to put it, we can carry just about anything), every so often we still find ourselves dragging stuff out of the bays that we have not used in years and pitching or donating it. Just this week we finally decided that the pair of Lafuma recliner chairs we have lugged around since we became fulltimers were just added clutter. I put them out in front of the bus with a “Free” sign on them, and within minutes they had a new home. For folks with traditional RVs, the need to reduce weight is often imperative. If you have not had your rig weighed yet, you really should. We’ll have Rick and Joyce Lange from RVSEF weighing RVs at our Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally next month, and I urge everyone to call Rick at (207) 522-3336 to make an appointment to get weighed. On the subject of getting rid of “stuff” in our RVs, a fellow gave me a great tip yesterday. He said he bought a packet of those red adhesive paper dot stickers at an office supply store, and then spent a weekend pulling everything out of his bays and closets and every other hidey hole in his motorhome and slapped a dot on it. Every time he takes something out to use it, he peels the dot off. He said after one year, he was surprised how many red dots he was still seeing, and 90% of that stuff was disposed of. Now he has plenty of room in his bays, his coach weighs less, and he says he even gets a tad better fuel mileage. Maybe we should all buy a package of red dots! Thought For The Day –
If you wait, all that happens is that you get older. For A Great Selection Of RV Books And Accessories, Visit Our Online Marketplace Tuesday, August 12, 2008 I woke up early yesterday morning in a panic, realizing that we had just 30 days to finish the new issue of the paper, get it printed and mailed, get up to Traverse City, Michigan for Terry’s annual checkup with her oncologist and some family time with my cousin Terry Cook, spend a couple of days visiting with Berni and Rocky Frees in Muskegon, Michigan, get back to Elkhart to pick up the new Rally Shirts and Gypsy Journal Shirts from the screen printer, get over to Celina, Ohio to finalize some last minute details for our Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally, then go to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to teach at Life on Wheels, and get back to Celina to welcome the folks coming in for the rally. And did I mention that we need to install our new Sealand toilet in the bus sometime along the way too? Can somebody clone me? Now, if you know me very well, you may not believe this, but I was so wired up that I got out of bed at 5:30 a.m. and spent an hour at the computer trying to get a head start on my day! Then I realized that I was being dumb. First of all, I
had climbed into bed about 2 a.m., and adrenalin is no substitute for
sleep. And I know it will all get done. The paper is almost finished,
and I have until Monday to get it to the printer. We had hoped to spend
a week or two in We have some great help coming to Celina early to get a lot of things done, which will take a ton of pressure off of Terry and me. Ron and Brenda Speidel will go to Celina with us at the end of the Labor Day weekend, and be on hand to handle a laundry list of chores I have for them. Terry and Connie Simpson, who have carried so much of the weight for us at our Arizona rallies will be arriving about the time we head to Pennsylvania, and will be busy collecting door prizes and doing whatever else needs done, in their faithful, energetic way. Several other folks have also said they plan to arrive early to help out. With support like this, how can we go wrong?
With the rally fast approaching, reservations and orders for rally shirts are both coming in fast and furious. Have you registered yet? I think we’re going to have a wonderful turnout, and I know it’s going be a lot of fun too. Thought For The Day – I don't know how I got over the hill without getting to the top. Register
Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally For A Great Selection Of RV Books And Accessories, Visit Our Online Marketplace Monday, August 11, 2008 I received a tremendous number of responses to yesterday’s blog about RV parks, and I thought I’d share some of them with you. As you can see, just as with everything in life, when it comes to RV parks, there is no one size fits all. But the majority of the responses I received place a priority on value and roomy, level sites over extra frills such as a swimming pool or organized activities. “Friendly helpful folks in the office. I can just about put up with anything if the people in the office act like they appreciate me spending my hard earned $ with them and not the next park down the road.” – Red Meador “My preferences are for level, 30 amps, and shade. If we are going to be there for more than three days full hookups are nice, otherwise a dump and water fill are fine. We never use the pool, party room, etc, unless they are giving away free food. Quiet is always good but it's hard to select for that. We prefer not to look into our neighbor's windows from ours.” - Linda Sand “We are fulltimers, starting our eleventh year, and tend to shy away from "resorts". A nice friendly mom and pop is much better for us. Some activities are a good thing, but not every minute planned.” - Stan and Ann Marie Kozloski “We feel the same as you and Terry about the campgrounds, pretty much. We are not activity people and usually not there long enough. One thing that has made us actually seek out a campground again is a fenced in dog run. It’s a huge luxury for us and our two adopted greyhounds.” – Kathy Walker “Here are the important things for a campground to offer: Reliable shore power, level slots, long slots so we can park our toad comfortably, well maintained grounds, clean laundry, friendly owners or staff, non-muddy grounds and road, solid ground under the rig for jack stability. Like you and Terry, we do not use the showers, pools or most activities.” – Greg Vederoff “We seldom need hookups because we have nine solar panels on our 5th wheel, but we stop at campgrounds to catch up on laundry, dumping, getting water, and getting a social fix (happy hour, game nights, potlucks, etc.) Usually an Escapee park meets our needs if one is around. What we like in a campground is one that gives us a reduced rate for boondocking. We hate to pay for what we don't need.” - Joyce Space “These are the things we look for in a campground: A quiet, clean, safe setting; husband is a very light sleeper, so highway traffic, trains, etc. can keep him up all night; a satellite friendly site to get roof-mounted internet satellite dish; adequate room for a 40 foot motorhome and a Jeep, and sites wide enough so we and our neighbors can both put out slides and awnings without touching each other; we prefer full hookups and 50 amps, but can live with 30 amps as long as I remember not to run the microwave and toaster together. We don't care about activities or meals at the park, don't use the bathroom and shower facilities, don't care about pools or spas, etc. Our needs are very basic.” - Hannah Duboc “We agree totally on campgrounds. We really like it better when school starts, since it gets the kids out of the campsites.” – Terry and Dale Pace “Being a DataStorm owner, I guess the most important thing for us would be a clear shot of the southern sky, followed by full hookups if we are going to stay longer than a week or so, clean and a friendly staff, site size is also important as well, but not critical, a patio or grass would be nice, and price is a big consideration, especially with the price of fuel.” - Phil Brown “A campground that has flexibility in the type of spots (level pull through, 50 amp, 30 amp, and priced accordingly), back-ins with more room, some spots "in the back" that are closer to nature, some shade spots, etc. Also important (or at least nice) is when the owners/managers are willing to work things around in case you need to stay longer. We've had some campgrounds that have a rigid reservation policy, and we had to move our rig three times just to stay put a few days longer. We've had others that are willing to move future reservations around to accommodate their current guests. That's appreciated! Most critical is that the spots aren't right on top of each other!” - Robert Streett “Here is what we look for in a campground: 30 amp electric is all we need, a full hookup is good, as we stay put for two weeks at a time, if trees on site need to have an opening for my satellite internet satellite and TV, or free WiFi, a level site is a very good thing, sites big enough that you don't feel like you are on top of your neighbor, clean restrooms and showers are important. Anything else is just a plus.” – Mike Loescher “Like you said in the blog, there is no good campground for everybody. Some like the mountains, some like the sand, some like the shade, some like openness, some are hermits, some are socially active. I owned a campground for 12 years, and I learned in the beginning that you can please no one; you can get close for some and not even close for others. The campground I had, had some creek side sites and some sites away from it, some shaded sites and some open sites, and I realized everybody wants something different.” - Jon Ensminger and Kathleen Lightner Thought For The Day –
The best alarm clock is the sound of singing birds. Sunday, August 10, 2008 What do you look for in a campground? Are full hookups important? Do you care about a swimming pool or spa? How about free WiFi? Or pull-thru sites? Do you participate in RV park activities and appreciate a full schedule of events? Or are you willing to forgo amenities in favor of a lower price? Do you like mom and pop type RV parks, or are you more the upscale resort type?
For example, I
like to check the opinions posted on www.rvparkreviews.com
and compare the different reviews for the same campground. Yesterday I
read the reviews for Campbell Cove RV Resort in It’s interesting that the Mackinaw City, Michigan KOA has one review rating it at only 1½ stars, another two star rating, and a four star review, all in the last two months. The person who left the four star review said the park was clean and well maintained, while the person who posted the lower rating complained that the campground was minimally maintained. http://www.rvparkreviews.com/regions/Michigan/Mackinaw_City.html#CGID1417 Terry and I
don’t really care about a lot of amenities in a campground, though we
do appreciate ful Two very good campground discount programs we belong to are Passport America www.campsave50percent.com and Recreation USA www.campingandcampgrounds.com. Both have saved us a lot of money over the years. I have heard some complaints that member campgrounds are small, lack some amenities, and that they sometimes have blackout dates when the discounts are not honored. The first two objections don’t concern us, as stated above. As for blackout dates, yes, some discount campgrounds do have them during their peak periods, and that information is printed in the directories. I understand this, and it makes perfect sense from the campground owner’s viewpoint. They join these membership programs to fill their sites when times are slow, but during their peak period, when they have people standing in line to get in, there is no reason to discount their rates. We prefer to avoid the busy places during their peak times of the year anyway. We do our visiting just before or after the season, when it’s not so crowded and the pace is a bit slower. I’d be interesting in hearing your thoughts on what makes a good campground. E-mail me at editor@gypsyjournal.net. Thought For The Day – Sometimes, the best communication happens when you say nothing at all. Saturday, August 9, 2008
There are
actually three Goodyear blimps www.goodyearblimp.com/fleet/,
and I believe this one was the Spirit
of Goodyear, which is based at Goodyear's
Wingfoot Lake Airship facility in Goodyear’s
blimp history dates back to 1925, when the company built its first
helium-filled public relations airship, the Pilgrim,
which helped spread the company’s name as it barnstormed across the During World War II, Goodyear airships provided the U.S. Navy with a unique aerial surveillance capability. Used as convoy escorts to search for lurking enemy submarines, the blimps were an effective early warning system. The Navy continued to use airships until 1962, when newer electronic surveillance technology made them obsolete. I’d love to ride in one someday, wouldn’t you? Every few days
seems to bring news of more hard times for the RV industry here in the I have been working on the new issue of the Gypsy Journal, but the last couple of days I have taken a break from the computer to spend an hour or so practicing slow speed maneuvers on my motorcycle in the grass field behind our bus. Riding straight down the road doesn’t take a lot of ability, but I’m really rusty handling the bike at slow speeds. A while back, at the behest of my pal Donna (Froggi) Yeaw, her pal Jerry Palladino from Ride Like A Pro www.ridelikeapro.com sent me a couple of his training DVDs, and they have helped me learn a lot. Even though I rode for years, after a decade away from motorcycling, I have lost a lot of my riding skills. What I really need to do is take a refresher course, if I could find one in an area where we will be for a week or two. I need to make a clarification here. Dennis Hill from the RV School www.rvschool.com and Jim and Chris Guld from Geeks on Tour www.geeksontour.com will be presenting seminars at our upcoming Ohio Gypsy Gathering rally. However, if you want to take one of Dennis’ behind the wheel driving classes (and everyone should take this class if they are new to RVing), you need to contact Dennis directly at rvschool@wizwire.com. He will be offering classes before and after the rally. The Gulds will be presenting their excellent Computer Bootcamp before the rally, on September 13 and 14, and if you attend, you will learn more about your computer than you ever imagined. For more information on the Computer Bootcamp, check out www.geeksontour.com/bootcamp. We have over 100 RVs registered for the rally now, and more coming in all the time. This is going to be a lot of fun, and Terry and I are excited. I hope we see you there! Thought For The Day –
Sometimes the fastest way to get there is to stop for the night. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Friday, August 8, 2008 I guess I need to
go back to school and take a couple of English classes. After I shared
my idea yesterday about forming my own country and then declaring war on
the More bad news for
the economy here in northern I had an odd experience yesterday afternoon. I walked up to the office here at Elkhart Campground to get our mail, and the mailman had just pulled up to the box out front. The sun was shining at the office, but when I got to the mailbox about 200 feet away, it was raining pretty steadily. When I walked back to the office the sun was still shining! A couple of
people have e-mailed to say they wanted to order Gypsy
Journal shirts or Gypsy
Gathering shirts, but the PayPal website will not let them
specify size or color. No problem, if you want to order a shirt, just
make your payment from the link provided, and then e-mail me at editor@gypsyjournal.net
with the details of size and color. You can also order your shirts by
sending a check to us at Gypsy Journal, 1400 Colorado St.
#C-16, I don’t mind someone who makes a mistake, but then learns from it. But stupidity offends me. And as they say, “You can’t fix stupid.” We have been taking advantage of the 30 day trial period and purchasing our postage online at www.stamps.com. We spend an awful lot of time standing in line at post offices all over the country waiting to mail orders out. With the online postage plans, we can pay for our postage online, print out a label, slap it on the package and drop it off in any mailbox without the hassle of standing in line. Well, maybe. Yesterday I had a bunch of packages to send out, and since it was late in the day and I wanted them to get postmarked and into the system that day, I went into the post office in Elkhart to deposit them into the drop box in the lobby. A lady who works there saw me, looked at one of the packages and informed me that I would have to get in line, because it weighed over 13 ounces and postal regulations require anything over that limit to be handed to a postal clerk. This issue came up last week, with the same lady. According to the Stamps.com website, this is not required using their postage labels, because the bar code can be tracked back to the original sender. After our first encounter with her, I called Stamp.com’s customer service department to be sure I was doing things correctly, and they assured me I was. But she was adamant that I was misinformed, so I got into the long line and waited my turn to get to a window, where a different lady clerk informed me that only regular letter sized envelopes could be mailed with online postage. No large envelopes like we send the Gypsy Journal out in, and no packages. I asked her why the website would have settings for large envelopes and packages if that were true, but she said that they didn’t. Well, duh! I’m standing there with them in my hand! I moved over to the next window, asked the clerk working there, and he said any size envelope or package could be dropped into any mailbox, just as the Stamps.com folks said. In theory this program sounds pretty good, but until the postal employees get their act together, I worry that someday they will either return a bunch of orders, creating delays for the customer, or maybe just toss them. So, the jury is still out on whether we’ll keep it after our trial period or not. Thought For The Day – Two-lane blacktop isn't a highway - it's an attitude. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Thursday, August 7, 2008 As much as I love the A recent story in the Boston
Globe said the war in Something’s wrong with this picture, people. We are going bankrupt to support a war to “liberate” an oil-rich country that is sucking us dry like a parasite. As far as I’m concerned, all the oil in the Mideast is not worth one drop of American blood. Okay, so they have oil. So what? We have wheat and other food crops they need even more than we need petroleum products. How about we take our toys and go home, stop shipping them food, and tell them to live on a slab of camel washed down with a big glass of crude oil? I got a call yesterday from the manager of the
fairgrounds where we hold our winter Gypsy Gathering rally in
I have learned
of a change in the management for the Escapees RV Club’s www.escapees.com
Escapade rally. Bill and Jeanette Fisher, Directors for the 2007 Fall
Escapade in Yesterday, after we left the screen printers, we stopped at the RV Hall of Fame and Museum www.rvmhhalloffame.org to drop off a couple of sample bundles of the Gypsy Journal for their visitors, and chatted with Historian Al Hesselbart. Al will be presenting his excellent program 100 Years of RVs at our Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally next month, and it is a great retrospective that will show you how we got to the land yachts of today. While we were there, Al ordered a supply of my books Highway History and Back Road Mystery and Meandering Down The Highway for the museum’s gift shop. Folks, if you
have not visited this great museum, located just off the Thought For The Day –
There are two theories to arguing with a woman...neither works. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Wednesday, August 6, 2008 Computers have changed the world, and sometimes I wonder how mankind lived without them for so many centuries. From simple tasks like staying in touch with our families and friends to performing delicate surgery, these magic machines have made our lives easier, safer, and more enjoyable. In the RV world, we have computerized engines and transmissions on most modern rigs that give us the best combination of power and fuel economy, GPS mapping systems that will take us to any point in the continent by the most direct route, computerized systems to deploy dishes and tune in satellite TV and internet signals, systems that monitor our tire pressure, laptop and desktop computers to allow us to do everything from sending and receiving e-mail to storing digital photographs, and so much more. GPS units are one
of the handiest computer gadgets ever created, and I’ve used several
different models. One of our laptops has the Computer software has advanced to keep pace with the new technology. Not only will mapping software get you where you’re going, but it will also tell you where to find fuel, food, and camping along the way. Other software programs help us record our travel adventures on blogs and in scrap books, and yet other programs allow us to crop and enhance mediocre digital photographs into works of art. One of my favorite pieces of computer software is the RVer’s Notebook www.rvnotebook.com. Created by my friend, the late Mickey Ivey, this essential program helps us keep track of our RVing expenses, from maintenance to campground fees to fuel and groceries. But RVer’s Notebook is much more than an accounting program. Separate pages allow us to record our campground stays, including our reviews of individual campgrounds; help us keep our scheduled maintenance on track; include an address book where we can record the names and contact information for the friends we meet in our travels; keep trip logs; calculate the weight of not only our RV, but the things we carry and our water, fuel, and even propane; and much, much more than I have room to describe here. Do yourself a favor and check it out. If you use it for a month or two, I bet you’ll thank me. Thought For The Day –
I refuse to tiptoe through life just to arrive safely at death. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Tuesday, August 5, 2008 Just when you think there is nothing left to blog about, Mother Nature throws you a freebie! J Yesterday was one of those drudge days. I spent a lot of time working at the computer, we ran a few errands, Terry did some laundry. Just a typical day in the lives of working fulltime RVers. Then about 11:15 p.m., just as I was getting ready to write the blog, and wondering what I’d come up with to write about, the fire department drove through Elkhart Campground with their lights flashing, tooting their horn every so often, and announcing on their loudspeaker that there was a tornado warning in effect, and to seek shelter. Terry and I scrambled into our shoes, grabbed a couple of essential items and our cell phones, and headed to the campground laundry room, where a couple dozen other people were gathered together. I’ll admit I asked myself how much more security the steel building offered over our heavy bus, but I think it’s basic human nature to seek safety in numbers. It’s that old herd mentality thing. We all exchanged nervous banter for a few minutes, and before long someone’s weather radio announced that the tornado warning had been lifted, and we all headed back to our RVs. One thing we don’t have, and we need to make assembling a priority, is a bailout bag. A bailout bag should be kept near the front door for easy access, and contain a week’s supply of any prescription medications you take, insulin if you are a diabetic, some cash (in today’s economy maybe $500), a credit and/or debit card, spare eyeglasses, a list of emergency contact information (family members, doctors, insurance agent, attorney, bank contact), copies of your insurance policies, medical insurance cards, pet vaccine information, and other vital paperwork you might need if you are displaced from your home on wheels for any reason. Other items one might include are a small weather radio, pre-paid cell phone, extra batteries for your cell phone(s), a couple of bottles of water, leashes for your pets, toothbrushes and toothpaste, and some energy bars. Some experienced RVers even advocate having more than one bailout bag. Perhaps one by the front door, another in the bedroom in case you have to exit out a window in a late night emergency, and one in your dinghy or tow vehicle. Do you have a bailout bag? If so, what do you keep in yours? Thought For The Day – Real generosity is doing something for someone who will never know about it. Monday, August 4, 2008 Yesterday was a busy one for me. I spent it at the computer, and got a lot of work done. In the morning I added a shopping mall to this website (see link below to our Online Marketplace), and also to my other two sites, www.publishing4profit.com and www.motorcycletravelonline.com. We will continue to operate our online Gypsy Journal Bookstore, but this new option will allow our readers to choose from a huge variety of RVing books and products that we could never find room to carry in the bus. Someone complained that our website is too commercial. Well, yeah, we are a business, after all. We move around so much that those folks from the Publishers Clearinghouse never catch up to give us with that multimillion dollar check I’ve been waiting for. In the meantime, somebody has to pay the bills. But I think we offer some pretty darned good products, and there is a ton of good RVing information here. If you click those little Google ad links to check out an advertiser, or order one of our books or CDs, we sure appreciate it. But it doesn’t cost you a penny to read anything on here and take advantage of all that we have to share with you. I don’t hide the fact that we are a commercial enterprise, nor do I apologize for it. With that done, I started hammering out articles for the new issue of the Gypsy Journal. Usually I try to write a couple of articles a week, but with us being away for three weeks, I didn’t get much done. No problem, I’ll just chain myself to the computer, and as long as Miss Terry keeps me supplied with cold drinks and snacks, I’ll still make our deadline. We had quite a bit of company yesterday. We met John and Mary Jo Overpeck, who were parked near us in their beautiful Eagle bus conversion, a few days ago, and before they left yesterday morning, John came over to order a subscription. A little while later, a fellow named Wade Magel came by to introduce himself and buy a subscription. Wade is a nice guy, and the more we talked, the more we discovered we have in common. It was getting scary there for a while. J Subscriber Dick Nicolo came by with his pretty wife, whose name escapes me, and we visited for a while, and then Jim Stanfield stopped over to say goodbye because he and wife Corinne are leaving this morning. By the time all of our company was gone, it was dinnertime. Miss Terry had grilled some delicious boneless chicken breasts, and they sure hit the spot! With our dinner finished, we went for our walk around the campground. We try to do two rapid laps each evening, which is about one mile. Of course, I had to stop and pet a couple of dogs along the way, so that took a while. We have made the decision not to have a pet in this lifestyle, but I have loaner dogs scattered all over the country that I can play with. It’s the best of both worlds. I get my puppy fix, and someone else has to walk them and scoop the poop! Thought For The Day –
Never kick a cow chip on a hot day. Sunday, August 3, 2008 A while back I
reported that Now it looks like
We have seen a lot of good how to books on RVing and the RV lifestyle over the years, but obviously we are becoming a market large enough to attract attention from fiction writers too, because several novelists have also discovered RVing as a topic for their work. Sue Henry, well known for her mystery series featuring Alaskan State Trooper Alex Jensen and his lady friend, dogsled racer Jessie Arnold, has created a spin-off series featuring retiree RVer Maxie McNabb, who wanders around the country in her RV accompanied by her mini-dachshund Stretch, solving mysteries she encounters in her travels. Titles in the series include The Serpents Trail, The Tooth of Time, and The Refuge. I have enjoyed Henry’s mysteries for years and the Maxie McNabb RV series is a winner. Lady RVers especially will enjoy Some Like It Red Hot, a mystery written by Robin Merrill that introduces us to Lotsi Hannon, a refugee from the corporate world that sets out on her new life in an aging motorhome, and finds romantic fireworks and an elusive killer along the way. Just this week I received yet another new RV novel titled www.queenmotorhome.com. Yes, that looks like a website address, and it is, along with being the title of Patt Fero’s new book. That’s a bit of marketing genius, isn’t it? The lighthearted book centers around two Baby Boomer women who leave their corporate jobs and mystified husbands behind as they live their road trip dream and hit the road. This is a book that will give you plenty of chuckles, as well as insight into the RV lifestyle. I love roaming the back roads in my RV, but when I’m settled down into a comfortable site in my favorite RV park, what better way to spend my time than to read about RVing? Thought For The
Day – If you put a small value
upon yourself, rest assured that the world will not raise the price. Saturday, August 2, 2008 When we tell people that we are fulltime RVers, one question they frequently ask us is what is our favorite place in the country. That’s like asking a parent which child is their favorite. We have so many
“favorites” that I could never choose just one. Last winter Terry
and I made our first visit to the
The We honeymooned in
But there are
plenty of wonderful places in the We love the architecture of the East, those magnificent old buildings that were built back in the days when craftsmen put part of their heart and soul into every project. Give me a 150 year old structure over the fanciest new glass and steel building anytime. I’ll always
remember walking The South has its
own beauty and personality. We love the mountains of Tennessee, the swamps of
Florida, and the beaches along the Gulf
Did I mention There are so many places we have fallen in love with and can’t wait to get back to again. Still, if we do, what about those other places we have yet to discover? When will we have time for them? Choose just one “favorite” place. It can’t be done! Thought For The Day –
I'm on the 30 day diet and so far I've lost 15 days. Friday, August 1, 2008 In a recent blog post, I wrote about the dangers that face RVers every day. Not the urban legends about crime that so many people worry about, but the real threats – things like accidents, fires, and tire failures.
They said it happened so fast that they never saw what hit them, and were not able to stop and go back to look for it. It could have been a rock kicked up by a passing car, but there was only one other vehicle near them at the time, and they were not at an overpass where someone could have thrown something from above. Dale even wondered if it could have been a meteorite. Who knows? If it would have happened to me, I’d have thought it was “blue ice” from an airliner passing overhead! J Fortunately, the safety glass held and the object didn’t penetrate into the passenger compartment, but this could have been a tragedy. Folks, never, never take anything for granted. There are no routine trips to the grocery store, bank, or post office! There has been a lot of speculation about what high fuel prices are doing to the RV world. Yes, some big name manufacturers like Alfa, Travel Supreme, Kingsley Coach, and National RV have gone under, but their demise can’t be laid completely at the feet of the oil barons. How much did other factors, including poor management decisions, spiraling interest rates, and quality control issues have to do with their failures? I don’t know what happened in those boardrooms and factories. In any industry, there will always be some companies, even ones with long histories, that don’t make it. What I have
observed firsthand is that the RV parks we have visited and talked to
have not become overnight ghost towns. In fact, if you were here at
Elkhart Campground www.elkhartcampground.com
the last few days, you might think that fuel was selling for a buck or
two a gallon. There is a Holiday Rambler rally at the fairgrounds in
nearby Elkhart
Campground owners Bob and Gita Patel have told me the same thing
campground owners and managers from Yes, fuel prices
are high, but let’s keep this in perspective. Someone asked me how we
could afford to drive all the way back to Thought For The Day – If you don't learn to laugh at trouble, you won't have anything to laugh at when you are old. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Click Here For Our July 2008 Blog Click Here For Our June 2008 Blog Click Here For Our May 2008 Blog Click Here For Our April 2008 Blog Click Here For Our March 2008 Blog Click Here For Our February 2008 Blog Click Here For Our January 2008 Blog
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When we purchased
our Verizon air card last year, we also bought a router, amp, and Wilson
Trucker antenna. I plugged it all in and never got around to mounting
the antenna on the outside of the bus. All this time it has just sat on
the corner of my desk by a window, and overall it has worked fine. But
obviously it would get a much better signal if it were mounted outside
the bus as it was designed.
Several blog
readers have asked for pictures of our new 
Terry, and our friends Ron and
Brenda Speidel agreed to play model and pose for me. The photos don’t
really do the shirts justice, but they look great.
hoity-toity anorexic models you
see on all of the magazine covers? Maybe the latest issue of Trailer
Trash monthly or Chrome Dome
Chronicles?
Back at Elkhart
Campground, our friends Tom Owen and Diane Rojewski had arrived in their
beautiful Kingsley Coach truck conversion, and I could not believe my
eyes when I saw a For Sale sign in the windshield. I thought it was just
Tom’s way of pulling my chain, but the rig really is for sale, along
with its double stacker cargo trailer. Tom and Diane have spent years
touring the country on their Gold Wing motorcycle, and they have decided
that the truck conversion is just not right for their lifestyle. If
anyone has a spare $179,000 laying around they're not using, they could
be the owners of a gorgeous rig.
After visiting
for a while, and a tour of the truck and trailer for Ron and Brenda, we
all drove to Goshen
for dinner at the South Side Soda Shop 
newer models
on the market with more bells and whistles, but they all basically do
the same thing, get you from Point A to Point B. Most will have a route
setting option that will allow you to select either a car, truck or bus
route. I believe at least one manufacturer has a GPS unit that has an RV
routing option, though I think that would probably be pretty much the
same as the truck/bus routing.
An
hour or so after we got parked in our site and hooked up, our pals Ron
and Brenda Speidel arrived and pulled into the site next to us. They had
just left 
quest. As I wrote in yesterday’s blog, Miss Terry
said I had to sell ten more of our 
How’s
this for a unique looking RV? My friend Al Hesselbart from the RV Museum
and Hall of Fame in 
side of the Sahara Desert.
Now, this isn’t you’re
granddaddy’s dune buggy, but rather a
stretched struck with several rows of seats, and when they get that
thing flying up the dunes and back downhill, it’s a thrill ride.
side rear
quarter.
were so
tired that we had to take a break in this big rocking chair.
John is a friendly fellow, and we had a good time
getting to know him and learning about his craft. I was looking at one
of the swords, but Miss Terry made me put it back before I cut off a
finger or anything else vital.
whip. Gwyd is a magician, escape artist, and sword swallower, who also
does fun things like laying on a bed of nails and walking on broken
glass. We really need to get these folks into a red meat diet!
Once
we got the bus parked and hooked up, we all piled into their car and
headed for a great Chinese buffet for an early afternoon dinner, and
then drove the few miles to 
Atlantic or Pacific, the Gulf of Mexico or one of our Great Lakes. The
shoreline around 
Our
next stop was the Great Lakes Naval Memorial and Museum, where we saw
the USS Silversides. The venerable old submarine made fourteen combat
patrols during World War II, sinking thirty enemy ships and damaging
fourteen more. The Naval Museum also has a retired Coast Guard cutter on
display, as well as exhibits of naval weapons and equipment. 
After
a stop for ice cream (Diet? What diet?) we drove back to the 
Built
by Paul Jones of 
I
exchanged e-mails with Michelle Beahm from One More Time music, and she
and hubby Larry are looking forward to the rally. The couple will be
performing for us on Wednesday evening at the rally, and I know they
will be a hit. Check out their website at 
Every RVer is
different, and it’s interesting that a campground one person enjoys
and is perfectly happy in does not measure up to someone else's
standards. It’s
all about our lifestyle and needs.
l hookups when we can get them. One thing that is
important to us is a fairly level site, because we do not have leveling
jacks on our bus. Since we have a Verizon air card, WiFi is not an
issue, and we’re just as content with 30 amp electric as we are with
50 amps. We do object to being
parked next to neighbors with yappy little dogs or who insist on
building smoky campfires. We have been in a few “resorts,” but give
us the small family owned places and we’re much more comfortable. We
post reviews of the campgrounds we have visited on this website in our 
We had a famous
visitor yesterday! Miss Terry had gone over to the campground laundry
room, and called to tell me that the Goodyear blimp was flying overhead.
I went outside to watch as the blimp made several passes over the
campground.
Yesterday we got
the artwork back for our new Gypsy
Journal T-shirts and the shirts for our upcoming 
shirts, which will be sent to you by Priority Mail. Click
this 
We lived in 
You can see a
thousand photographs of 
Add
to that list UFOs. Longtime Gypsy
Journal and blog readers Terry and Dale Pace sent me this picture of
the windshield of their truck, which was shattered when a rock or
something they described as “like a cannon ball” hit them while
driving down the highway.