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Nick's Blog Saturday, May 31, 2008 Much of the
Midwest, including Though we’ve never experienced it first hand, we have talked to RVers who have received rude comments from people about their “big gas guzzling RVs” and how much energy they are wasting. My pal Thom Hoch has one of the best responses I’ve ever seen posted, on his blog, titled An Open Letter To Critics Of Our Lifestyle. Take the time to read it, and I think you’ll have some great ammunition if you are ever questioned about how much fuel you are “wasting.” Check it out at http://tdhoch.com/blog49/2008/05/30/an-open-letter-to-critics-of-our-lifestyle/. Maybe it’s just my good looks or charming personality, but I never get hassled for things like that. I remember back during the Vietnam War hearing stories about GIs being harassed by the “peaceniks.” But the only time I was ever hassled in uniform was when I was home on leave and my uncle and Dad took me to their VFW post, where an old drunk began running me down, calling me a punk, and telling me he was in World War II, which was a real war, then threw his glass of beer on me. I’m a proud member of the VFW these days, but it took over 30 years before I ever set foot in another post.
Terry and I have
been evaluating our lifestyle, in the face of rising fuel prices and the
fact that every day the time left on our yardstick of life gets shorter.
Assuming everything is okay after my visit back to the VA hospital next
week, and I have every reason to believe it will be, we are going to go
to But next year
we’re cutting way back. Life on Wheels has been very good to us. The
extra income has helped, the exposure has been good, and it has allowed
me to grow immensely as a public speaker. But it has come with a price
tag. We have curtailed a lot of our travel plans to accommodate the LOW
schedule. For years now we have wanted to spend more time on the We plan to do
some LOW conferences next year, but not all of them. When we leave So do me a favor, will you? Next spring when I start to vacillate and say that maybe we’ll do all of the LOW sessions one more year, remind me of this blog entry, will you? Or better yet, if you’re within 75 miles or so, drive over and kick me in the butt. I’ll even pay for the gas. J Thought For The Day – A
diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday, but never
remembers her age. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Friday, May 30, 2008
Terry and I are confirmed dry campers. Our longest straight
stint without Even if you do not plan on spending days or weeks dry camping, there are plenty of times when knowing how to get along comfortably on your RV’s systems for a few days will make your RVing life much more enjoyable. Examples might be while dry camping at an RV rally, when getting off the highway to wait out bad weather in a truck stop or rest area, or while waiting at a dealer or service facility for repairs.
Now John is offering a series of dry camping workshops, where a limited number of attendees can learn the secrets of extended dry camping and how to do it comfortably. Even if you don’t plan to spend weeks at a time in the desert like we sometimes do, knowing how to maximize your water conservation and how to get the most from your RV’s auxiliary power systems can make RVing a whole new experience for you. You can get more information about the dry camping workshops by calling John at 941-928-4573.
In the last few days I have had to turn away two vendors who wanted to attend our Ohio Gypsy Gathering rally because we already have someone signed up to sell the same products they wanted to display. While we do not grant exclusivity for display advertising in the Gypsy Journal, we do have a policy of only allowing one vendor for each type of product or service at our rallies. For example, we will only have one vendor selling tire monitoring systems, one doing windshield repair, etc. This prevents having duplication, and gives our vendors the opportunity to have a successful rally. If you are a vendor considering coming to the rally in Thought For The Day – The
severity of the itch is directly proportional to the inability to reach
it. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Thursday, May 29, 2008 Well, we did it. Yesterday afternoon we went back to All About
Cycling & Fitness here in Elkhart
and put down a deposit on a pair of Trek Navigator 3.0 bicycles. The one
I want is actually in stock, but they had to order a ladies model in
Terry’s size, and then they will get both bikes prepped and ready to
go. Hopefully we will be able to pick them up Friday afternoon and get
in some riding before we head back down to the VA hospital in Hopefully between my diet, riding the bicycle, and walking every evening, I can continue losing weight. We’ve been doing two fast walking laps around the perimeter of Elkhart Campground every evening, which is just about one mile. I’ll tell you what folks, weight is sure easier to gain than it is to lose! L If I had known that I was going to live this long, I’d have taken a lot better care of myself! There is no question that the high fuel costs we are seeing are taking a toll on the entire RV industry, from the manufacturers to the dealerships, and right on down the line to the RV parks. Last weekend was Memorial Day weekend, and I would say occupancy at this campground was down at least 30%. Campground owners I have talked to nationwide are all telling me they are feeling the pinch. Here in Elkhart, many of the big RV manufacturers have cut back on their workforce, as have manufacturers of support products. Eventually the upward price spiral will level off, just where is the question. I think we all have to accept that gasoline and diesel will never again sell for under $3.50 a gallon, and prices well over $4 a gallon are more likely. But the RV lifestyle will survive. I think it will evolve over time, and I foresee much smaller RVs in our future. I believe more and more people will opt for Class C motorhomes, B vans, and smaller trailers and tow vehicles. I also think many folks will curtail their traveling somewhat, staying longer in one place before they move on down the highway. That’s not all bad. There is no place in the country we have visited that we could not find a dozen or more interesting places to see within a short drive. When we are not committed to getting somewhere fast for a speaking or rally commitment, our preferred travel style always has been to find a place we like and to settle down for a few days and make day trips around an area before we move on. It is amazing how much we overlook when we rush hither and yon in a mad dash to clock up more miles on the odometer. Thought For The Day – If it weren't for marriage, men would go through life thinking they had no faults at allRegister Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Wednesday, May 28, 2008
But I really think Gypsy Journal subscriber Phil Rubeck has taken it a little too far. Apparently Phil believes that if he can get enough bees gathered on the back of his Freightliner hauler, they can flap their wings and push him down the highway! Actually, Phil and his wife Rudee were at a Good Sam rally over the weekend and this huge swarm of bees took up residence on the back of their truck. They called a beekeeper to remove the critters, and he estimated there were 4,000 to 5,000 of them on the truck. That’s a lot of honey makers! Speaking of ways to save on fuel, Miss Terry and I are starting a new project. Long before we bought my motorcycle, we had planned to buy a van and convert it into a basic Class B van for short trips away from the bus. Our ¾ ton extended length Ford van, which gets 15 miles per gallon, as opposed to the 5 to 6 miles per gallon we get with the bus, will work perfectly for that purpose. We have purchased a queen size Simmons Beautyrest air mattress, we have a small 120/12 volt cooler that will also run on propane, and will be adding a porta potty and auxiliary battery. We don’t intend anything fancy, just enough to get us by for a few days at a time. We will still be able to haul the bike and the newspapers, and be under our weight limit. I’ll keep you updated on our progress. I’m no fan of Big Brother, and I see that the bureaucrats are
hard at work making someone else’s life miserable. Blog reader Robert
Streett sent me a link to a story about a fellow who built his own small
scale private railroad on his property near Deadwood, Of course, no good deed goes unpunished, and now the state has fined him for building it upon what they consider endangered wetlands. Hey, why bother with drug dealers and thugs on our streets? Here’s an old guy having fun and not bothering anybody at all, let’s go after him! You can read about it at http://www.peak.org/~kmr3/M&LKRailroad/index.html. Your tax dollars at work. Thought For The Day – If
you woke up breathing, congratulations! You have another chance! Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Tuesday, May 27, 2008 It was nice
spending a couple of days with my cousin Berni Frees and her husband
Rocky parked near us. We stayed up late playing Mexican Train, gorged
ourselves on Miss Terry’s good cooking, and had a lot of fun.
Yesterday afternoon they had to leave and go back to their home in Several people have written to ask how I was making out with the continuing problems with my Top Global wireless router. After working with Victor, the head tech at 3G Store, and after downloading the latest firmware for the Top Global router, the problems continued. Victor then talked to his boss, and they shipped me a new Cradlepoint MBR1000 router. We installed it yesterday, and the difference was immediately apparent. Our speeds were down to sludge with the Top Global before the switch, and with the Cradlepoint we are back up to over 1600 kb. Rocky and Berni were parked two sites away from us here at Elkhart Campground, with nobody parked between us, and was using our WiFi signal. The signal strength bar on his computer almost doubled from the Top Global to the Cradlepoint. I’m a happy camper again, and I appreciate Victor’s help in getting this resolved. The Escapees Class of 2005 is planning a reunion in Celina, Ohio a couple of days before our Ohio Gypsy Gathering rally, and I believe some of those renegades from the Class of 2007 who made our Arizona rally so much fun in February will be joining us as well. It’s going to be a lot of fun. Celina a friendly little town, with lots to see and
do in the area, and it’s just a short drive off Interstate 75. We’re
excited about this new rally, which we hope to turn into an annual event
for those folks who can’t travel out west for our We’re putting together some great seminars on topics such as RV weight safety, saving money on your RV insurance, traveling the back roads of this great land of ours, boondocking, creating a blog, fire safety, understanding warranties and extended service plans, saving money on the road, tech tips, tire safety, mobile internet options, and driving RVs, just to name a few. We’ll also have some neat evening entertainment, including music by a fun husband and wife duo called One More Time, and Al Hesselbart from the RV Museum and Hall of Fame here in Elkhart will present a fascinating evening program called 100 Years of RVs that will show you how today’s modern recreational vehicles have evolved over time. We’ll also have evening door prizes, and a lot of fun and laughter along the way. If you haven’t signed up for the rally yet, click the link below to register. Thought For The Day – Do
not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path
and leave a trail. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Monday, May 26, 2008 It’s not about cookouts and campfires. Memorial Day traditionally kicks off the summer season of vacations, campouts, and long fun-filled days. Today millions of Americans are celebrating with cookouts, camping trips, and family activities. But it’s not about cookouts and campfires. Right now young American men and women are fighting, and yes, dying, so that you and I can go about our business in peace. We can sleep in comfort tonight and wake up to freedom tomorrow, because somewhere someone’s son or daughter, someone’s husband or wife, someone’s father or mother, is facing the enemy. Because they are willing to lay down their very lives for us. On Memorial Day each and every citizen should take the time to remember our fellow Americans who have made the supreme sacrifice to preserve the very freedom we have to enjoy our cookouts and campfires. Too many of us have forgotten that. I never will. I have lost friends in battle. I have served as a funeral escort for the fallen. I have stood at attention and held back my tears as the gun salutes rang out and the bugler played Taps. I have handed the folded flag to weeping widows and mothers. I can never forget. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Sunday, May 25, 2008 Well, we all knew it was coming. We just didn’t know when. On
the Flying J website yesterday diesel at the Flying J on Interstate 90
in But let’s put it into perspective. Our bus gets about six
miles per gallon. If we drive 10,000 miles a year, we use 1667 gallons
of fuel, rounded off. Last winter in When you consider all of the ways an RVer can save money; by using free and low cost campgrounds, by boondocking a week here and there, by pulling into a WalMart or truck stop for a night when going from point A to point B, or by simply driving at 55 miles per hour instead of 65, there are ways to offset much of the price increase. Sure it hurts every time we pull up to the pump. But it’s not a fatal diagnosis. Among the things many Americans are doing to beat the fuel pump
bandits are walking more and bicycling. We win in more ways than one
when we do this. We save money on fuel, and we give our bodies some much
needed exercise. Yesterday Terry and I test rode Yesterday we unloaded the motorcycle from the van, the first time we have taken it out since March. I was afraid it would not start, and the battery was low, but it cranked over and fired up, so I took it for a quick spin around the campground. I have had the bike almost eighteen months now, and have only put about 200 miles on it. I need to either ride it more or sell it. I’m in kind of a Catch 22. After ten years away from riding, my skills and confidence level are both low, and I’ve scared myself a time or two on the big 1100cc motorcycle. But, the only way to build them back up is to ride more. If I could get into a motorcycle safety course for a refresher class, that would help, but I have not been able to locate one with any openings where we have been traveling. My cousin Bernie and her husband Rocky rolled into Elkhart Campground yesterday and we had a wonderful reunion with them. It’s been months since we last saw them, but the time apart evaporated instantly and we picked up right where we left off, playing a spirited game of Mexican Train that lasted well past midnight, and teasing each other mercilessly. They will only be here for the weekend, so we have a lot of fun to catch up on. Thought For The Day – Marriage
is like any other job...it's much easier if you like the boss. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Saturday, May 24, 2008 It’s Memorial Day weekend, and Elkhart Campground is a busy place! A square dance club is here for their annual campout, and families have poured in to celebrate the traditional start of the camping season. Of course that means lots of kids running all over the place, smoky campfires, and more activity around us than we’re accustomed to. But what the heck, it’s just for a weekend and everybody is having a great time. Among the folks here for the weekend are Larry and Linda Stevens, Gypsy Journal readers from Hart, Michigan, who are here with their two adult sons and their families. We ran into them while out for our evening walk yesterday and had a nice visit, and discovered that they are parked right behind our bus. It is always nice to meet folks who up until then have been just names on a mailing list. My cousin Berni Frees and her husband Rocky are also on their
way down to Here’s an update on our bicycle shopping. Yesterday we stopped
at a store called All About Cycling & Fitness in The lady who waited on us while Frank took care of a couple of other customers showed us the Trek Navigator series of hybrid bicycles, also known as comfort bikes, and invited us to take a pair of them across the street to a park and try them out. But first, she and Frank made several adjustments to the seat heights to get us the best fit, and off we went. No deposit, they didn’t even take our names, they just sent us off and told us to take a nice long ride and see what we thought of the bikes. Comfort sure fits the style of these bikes! Before we had ridden 100 yards, Miss Terry was hooked. We probably rode the bikes a mile or so before taking them back to the shop, where Frank spent more time explaining the bikes’ features and answering questions for us. The Treks are not exactly what we first thought we wanted, but after our test rides, we could see the benefits of the different gears, they are much lighter than some of the models we have looked at, and when I sought the advice of a couple of my friends who are really into cycling, they both gave the Treks high marks. We have not made a final decision yet, but we’re leaning heavily in that direction right now. Thought For The Day – People seldom see the halting and painful steps by which “overnight success” is achieved. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Friday, May 23, 2008 Yesterday was a busy day for us. We left Elkhart Campground and
drove the van to to After leaving the rally, we spent some time browsing through a
couple of bookstores in There is something I don’t understand about bookstores these
days. Years ago I owned a couple of used bookstores, and I can’t count
the number of new and used bookstores I’ve shopped in over the years.
Almost universally the people who work in bookstores have been pleasant
and intelligent. But lately, from At one store I asked where the travel books were, and the clerk, who was on the telephone on what was obviously a personal call, merely waved her hand toward the back of the store. At another store, I found several copies of the identical book, marked with different prices as much as $3.50 apart. Not once, but on two different books! I asked the woman at the checkout counter why the different prices, and her only response was “Do you want the more expensive one or the cheaper one?” At this same store, which was not very busy, when I walked up to the checkout counter, a lady customer had a big pile of books and the same clerk started to ring them up while I waited my turn. The clerk was pretty slow at her job, and the customer walked a short distance away to look at something that caught her eye. Suddenly the clerk went off on her. “If you’re not finished shopping, you should have said so,” she chastised the customer. “I could have been ringing this man up, or doing something else instead if you were still looking around!” I assured her and the customer that we were in no hurry, but she didn’t seem to care, glaring at the embarrassed customer, who hurried up with checkbook in hand to make her purchase, which was for a considerably larger sum than ours was. If I would have been in her position, I would have told the clerk where to stick her books and walked out. As I wrote a few days before, we have been thinking about
buying a couple of bicycles, so we stopped in a bike shop in One thing we have learned from our research is that the bike must fit the rider. Terry and I are both short people, and the only bikes he had in stock were too tall for us. Our toes barely touched the ground when on the bikes. When I mentioned that, he said “All bikes come in the same size. You won’t find anything else.” Terry told him we had sat on bikes at another shop that were obviously closer to the ground, and he told her she was wrong, all bikes came in one standard size, the size of his bikes. About the time I decided that shopping here was a waste of time, he realized we were not going to be a pushover sale and blew us off. Just as well. We prefer to shop with businesses who care more about the customer than the profit margin.
Thought For The Day – Children
will soon forget your presents, they will always remember your presence. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Thursday, May 22, 2008 As the old saying goes, getting old sucks, but it sure beats the alternative. Miss Terry has reached the point where she needs glasses, so part of yesterday was spent with eye exams and selecting a pair of frames. I can’t wait for them to arrive, just so I can put that old myth that “boys don’t make passes at girls who wear glasses” to rest once and for all. J Back at the bus, Rick Schafer and Marcia Gantz had driven down
from Our pals Terry and Dale Pace have been parked across from us here at Elkhart Campground, and yesterday they brought one of their recumbent bicycles over for us to try out. At first glance, this looked like my kind of riding. Basically you sit back in a seat with a comfy backrest, stretch your legs out in front of you like you were in a recliner, and away you go. But as a couple of unfortunate prior marriages have taught me, things are not always like they seem at first glance! I’m sure if a person had some experience riding a recumbent they would do just fine. But you have to remember that I’m just a little less graceful than an elephant on roller skates. Folks, it was not a pretty sight! It didn’t take me long to give it back to Terry and Dale and thank them for their kindness, but I think I’ll keep on looking. I don’t want a trike, but do they make adult bikes with training wheels? Today we plan to make a day trip up to Thought For The Day – If
Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Wednesday, May 21, 2008 Wow! No single blog entry has ever received more e-mails than yesterday’s on bicycle shopping. I asked for readers’ input, and did I ever get it! 53 individual e-mails came in making suggestions about bikes and places to find them, giving me tips on what to look for and what to be wary of, and sharing mistakes and successes you have had in bike shopping. It will take me a while to sort through them all, but will I ever get an education! Thanks everybody. Terry and I had a
lot of fun yesterday. For years now we have wanted to tour the Auburn
We quickly
learned that one day is not nearly enough for all there is to see and do
in the area. Besides the Auburn Cord Dusenberg Museum, which is housed
in a beautifully restored factory and showroom where these beautiful
automobiles were manufactured, we also toured the nearby World War II
Victory Museum and the adjacent Kruse Automotive Horse Power and
Carriage Museum, plus the Mid-America Windmill Museum, located in
Kendallville, about 10 miles away. We ran out of time before we could
visit the National Automotive and
As a veteran
myself, and the son of a World War II combat veteran, I really
We took the Indiana Toll Road on our trip to Auburn, but coming back to Elkhart we took the much slower paced U.S. Highway 20, a nice two lane road that passed by some beautiful farm country, where we shared the road with Amish wagons and bicycles, and I could not help but compare their simple methods of transportation with some of the vehicles we had been admiring all afternoon. I prefer more than just one horsepower for my personal ride, thank you just the same. Thought For The Day – The
greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearful that
you will make one. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Tuesday, May 20, 2008 It’s chilly
here in northern We always enjoy
spending time at Elkhart Campground. I’ve always said that if you stay
here or at the Escapees Rainbows End RV Park in Right now our friends Terry and Dale Pace are parked across from us in their beautiful Allegro Phaeton, we ran into some folks whom we first met at Life on Wheels two years ago, and a couple who were at one of our Gypsy Gathering rallies in Florida several years ago stopped by yesterday to say hello. And we’ve only been here a couple of days, early in the season! The fulltime RV community is a close knit bunch, and we have run into the same people over and over again all over the country. Some of us stay in touch, often with e-mails and phone calls, others we run into somewhere at the whim of fate, and sometimes we agree to meet up someplace for a few days of socializing and good times. It’s kind of like living in a small town that happens to relocate to every point of the compass occasionally. Terry and I have been talking about getting a couple of bicycles, both for the exercise, and for the recreational benefits. We prefer fat tire bikes to the skinny racing models, want fenders on them, comfortable seats, and don’t really need a gazillion gears. We won’t be riding up the sides of mountains or off the road on trails, just riding around the RV park or a leisurely ride in the local neighborhoods. Yesterday we stopped at a local bike shop and looked at Giant Suede GX series bikes. It’s been years since I bought a bike, and when I saw the price tag of $419, I about reached for the nitro tablets my doctor now has me carrying! Then again, I haven’t bought a new bike since my kids were learning to ride, so I don’t know what bicycle prices are like these days. If anyone can give me any ideas of good bikes to consider for our needs, and what price range to expect, I’d appreciate your input. Thought For The Day – Try
to look unimportant; the enemy may be low on ammo. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Monday, May 19, 2008 Great news! Dennis Hill from the RV School has confirmed that he will be at our Ohio Gypsy Gathering rally teaching a couple of classrooms sessions, as well as offering behind the wheel driving lessons. If you have ever attended one of my seminars on RVing, you know that I am a big believer that both members of a couple in an RV should know how to safely drive the rig. Ladies, even if you do not intend to drive for long distances, you still must know how to get the RV to someplace safe in the event of an illness or emergency on the road. And when it comes to learning how to drive an RV, there is no better way to learn than with the RV School. I have talked to dozens of RVers who were intimidated by their rigs until taking one of their classes. Ladies who just couldn’t seem to learn from their husbands for whatever reason have spent a couple of hours with Dennis or one of his instructors and told me they came way very confident behind the wheel. For more information on the RV School, check out their website at www.rvschool.com The behind the wheel classes fill up fast, so contact Dennis early to reserve your lesson time. These days the talk in small town cafes, truck stops, and RV parks across the country is all about the obscenely high fuel prices, which keep climbing, with no end in sight. Over and over, I hear that the “damned oil sheiks and/or the big oil companies are getting rich at our expense.” I’m no fan of those folks either, but there is more to the story than that. If you do some reading on the subject, you will find that greedy speculators on Wall Street and commodity investors worldwide also have a big impact on the price of a barrel of oil. When it was announced last week that the Saudis are going to boost oil production by 300,000 barrels a day, the investment gurus said it would not impact rising prices, because speculators are going to continue to ride the crest of the wave by bidding prices even higher. Capitalism is built upon profit, and as long as investors can continue to reap huge profits while we all suffer at the fuel pump prices will keep climbing. I’m no sophisticated investor, or any kind of investor at all, but even I think we’re blaming the wrong bandits. Or at least not blaming all of the bandits! I keep hearing
that a lot of truckers are slowing down to save fuel, but you sure
couldn’t prove that by me. We left Thought For The Day – A
woman is incomplete until she is married. Then she is finished. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Sunday, May 18, 2008 Who stole my youth? I’ve gone from stud muffin to grandpa in three nanoseconds! One day I was learning to ride a bicycle without training wheels, and now I have an array of pills I must take every day, they are burning skin cancers off my bald head, and sticking a periscope up my posterior! What the hell happened? Friday evening after we arrived in Elkhart and got the bus parked, Terry and I ran over to Dairy Queen for a much deserved treat. (Yes, I’m on a diet, I really am. But there’s no reason to be a fanatic, is there?) We got there shortly before closing, and the manager had her eighteen month old grandson there, a cute little toddler who spotted me and made a beeline for our booth. Then the little tyke held his arms up, and with a nod from his Grandma, I picked him up and we had a nice visit. But when did I become a grandpa figure to strange youngsters? I could handle that if it were college cheerleaders wanting me to hold them on my lap, but apparently those days are long gone. I guess it’s not all bad news though – the doctor who did my colonoscopy sent me a dozen roses, and we’re now going steady. J Yesterday Miss Terry caught up on laundry while I worked my way through a long list of backed up e-mail. As many of you know, in September we replaced our HughesNet tripod internet dish with a Verizon USB 720 air card, Wilson antenna, amp, and Top Global MB 6800 router from 3G Store, and we have never looked back. The router is plugged into my desktop computer, and Terry WiFis off the router with her laptop. Overall I love the setup, except for the router. Every so often (2-3 times a week) our speeds will drop to nothing and we get knocked offline over and over. This happens in both EVDO and National Access areas. Sometimes if I reboot the router it helps. Sometimes not. But if I unplug the air card from the router and plug it directly into either computer, speeds are good again. I talked to the tech folks at 3G and they said the problem was my desktop, so I reformatted it. No difference. I plugged the router into an old backup laptop we have, same problem. Here at Elkhart Campground we have five bars of high speed EVDO service. With the air card in the desktop USB port, I did a speed test and got 1368 KB. In Terry’s laptop I got 1272 KB. In the router I got 217 KB on one test and 134 on a second! That sucks! Now I have learned that 3G Store recently stopped carrying Top Global routers because of the number of problems that they have had with them, and the poor support they were getting from the manufacturer. I’ve sent a lot of business to 3G Store, and I am hopeful that they will do something to help me replace this piece of junk router. I’ll let you know what happens. Thought For The Day – If
you think there is good in everybody, you haven't met everybody.
Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Saturday, May 17, 2008 As the old John Denver song says, “Hey, it’s good to be back home again!” After unhooking
and pulling out of our site, making a quick stop at the dump station,
hooking up the van and using our PressurePro system to get a quick scan
of all of our tires, we left Kentucky Horse In the past we’ve tried both the I-275 eastern and western bypasses around the city, but the last couple of times we’ve just stayed on I-75 and barreled right through, and found it easier and shorter. This day was no exception. Traffic was moderately heavy, but we stayed in the second lane from the right and let the faster vehicles pass us by, and soon we were out in the open countryside. There was more
road construction in Folks, this is a nice venue! We’ll have plenty of electric hookups for everybody who shows up, there are water bibs all over the place, a dump station, super clean restrooms with showers, and nice buildings for our seminars and entertainment. We have a few full hookup sites, but we’re reserving them for people with special needs. And no, wanting to wash your hair every day is not a special need! J) Some of you may
know that we have had some difficulties in the past with the fairgrounds
in The fairgrounds
were having their annual Rib Fest this weekend, and they invited us to
hang around and enjoy the festivities. But when they told us that they
expected 5,000 or more people, we decided that was too much of a crowd
for us, and decided since it was still early in the day we’d continue
onward. We took U.S. Highway 127 north to Van Wert, stopped for a late
lunch/early dinner, and then drove west
on U.S. Highway 30 to We had planned to stop in Auburn to cover some stories for the Gypsy Journal, but we learned some friends were at Elkhart Campground that we wanted to touch base with, so we decided to get on Interstate 69 and just go on to the campground, and come back in the van in a few days to tour the museums in Auburn. Once we got on the Terry went inside to put down a deposit, and had to wait while the clerk finished her cigarette and came back inside, all the while talking on her cell phone. (I guess if you puff away inside the store you expose others to your second hand smoke, so the safe thing is to go outside where all of the gas pumps are to light up!) She could only authorize $200 at a time, and the pump was incredibly slow. At $4.65 a gallon, $200 doesn’t get you much diesel, and when the pump clicked off, Terry had to go back inside, wait while the clerk talked on the phone some more, and finally got her to turn it on again. We must have spent a good 30 to 40 minutes buying $400 worth of fuel, and could have put more in, but we just hated to interrupt the dimwit’s phone call a third time, so we gave up and got back on the highway. We arrived at Elkhart Campground just after 7 p.m., received warm hugs from Gita, then pulled into our regular site here. Before we were hooked up, some of the regulars came by to say hello. We have been coming here for years, and this place has become like a second home to us. We always feel good just rolling in the gate. We covered 375 miles yesterday, but it was mostly easy driving. Three weeks ago
today we left Thought For The Day – It
is generally inadvisable to eject over the area you just bombed. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Friday, May 16, 2008 Well, the good news is that my colonoscopy came out very well, and I won’t have to repeat it for five years. The bad news is that the nasty stuff I had to drink will probably be just as bad in five years! Actually, the doctor who performed the procedure told me that there are couple of alternative preps, one of which simply involves taking a series of tablets and drinking a gallon of plain water. The VA doesn’t provide for that recipe, but I’d gladly pay for it myself just to get out of drinking that horrible GoLytely again! It was another
rainy, gloomy day in I have come to realize that I am a reverse snob. I’ve never had money, good looks, or much else to brag about, so I guess maybe I go out of my way to look down my nose at people who have been so blessed. But sometimes I can’t help it. Yesterday while it was pouring rain, a big Class A Newmar Mountain Aire diesel pusher pulled into the site across from us at Kentucky Horse Park Campground, and as soon as he had it parked and hooked up, the owner was outside in his raincoat washing his coach! Why? It’s wet already! I dozed off for a while, and was awakened by a beautiful Country Coach backing into the site next to us. Again, just as soon as he was parked and leveled, the owner was outside in the downpour washing the rig! Now, my bus may not hold a candle to either of those high dollar rigs, but I’m rather proud of it. Still, I don’t feel the need to be outside in a deluge cleaning it. I may not be the smartest cookie in the jar, but I do have enough sense to come in out of the rain! In the evening we had dinner with our friends Orv and Nancy Hazelton. Nancy is my primary care provider with the VA, and she had the results of all of my exams. Things look pretty good overall. My cholesterol is still somewhat high and we’re still working on that, but my weight loss has started to show some results. I’m down 26 pounds since I started, and still have a very long way to go, but I work at it every day. Today we’ll go
to From Celina
we’ll be stopping to collect a few stories in northeastern Thought For The Day – If you want your spouse to listen and pay strict attention to every word you say, talk in your sleep. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Thursday, May 15, 2008 Yesterday was a horrible day, and my wife is an evil woman. Among the fun
things I get to do while here in The procedure itself is really not that bad, thanks to the wonders of drugs that quickly take you to la-la land while the doctors do their thing. But the prep… oh, the prep! Ladies and gentleman, there truly is hell on earth! First of all, you
have to fast the day before the procedure. I’m not a fasting kind of
guy. I’m half-fast at best. The fun starts with drinking a bottle of
chilled magnesium citrate, which tastes like salty 7-Up. It’s not the
most pleasant beverage I’ve ever had, but it’s not too bad. Than, a
little later, comes the main course. I had to drink a gallon of a
concoction called GoLytely, and if there was ever an example of no
truth in advertising, this is it! The stuff tastes like what I imagine a
combination of salt water, yak urine, and diesel fuel would, and my gag
reflex was working overtime. And I can assure you that you will not
go lightly! You will go heavily, frequently, and without stop. You will
have eruptions that will put I had three hours to get this stuff down, and while she was pouring the first glass and handing it to me, that loving, gentle and supportive woman I married began to suddenly morph into a sadistic Nazi nurse whose only purpose in life was to gloat over my misery. I complained about the taste of the stuff, and she reminded me that I had many more glasses to finish, so I’d better get used to it. I reminded her that we share everything, and that it would not be fair of me to keep this nectar of the gods to myself and consume it all in front of her. Her reply was “Nice try, buster. Now drink up!” The same woman who has talked me over high bridges, assured me she still finds me attractive when I accidentally stumble in front of a full length mirror, and rubbed my shoulders and feet after a long day of teaching, suddenly was without sympathy as she forced glass after glass of this noxious liquid plumber onto me. At one point, after my 102nd trip to the bathroom, all I wanted to do was cuddle to her bosom and have her tell me what a brave little soldier I was being. Instead, she suggested that I turn on the bathroom fan on and leave it on. “Don’t you care what I’m going through?” I asked tearfully. “Of course, I care, darling,” she replied. “After all, I’m the one who insisted we put oversize holding tanks on the bus so you wouldn’t have to go to the dump station between glasses.” Folks, I know it’s necessary. I even think Miss Terry really means it when she says it’s all for my own good. But I swear that at least once as I went rushing past her toward the bathroom I saw a smile on her face that told me she was enjoying payback for every time I neglected to wipe my feet before tracking mud inside on her clean floor, or every time I mistakenly glanced in the direction of some sweet little waitress at dinner. The good news is that I’m going to be very proud of myself when I climb on my bathroom scales this morning, because I know where 30% of my body weight went in the last 24 hours. Talk about fat flushing foods! Thought For The Day – When
you create your own destiny, you prevent others from doing it for you. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Wednesday, May 14, 2008 Blogging has become an important tool for RVers to keep in touch with family and friends, as a record of their travels and for some, a way to make a few extra bucks. Blog is geek-speak for a web log, an online diary, if you will. Most RVers host their blogs with commercial blog services, such as www.mytripjournal.com, www.blogger.com, or www.wordpress.org. Some of these services are free, while others may charge a fee. Many RVing bloggers feel that if there is a fee, it is money well spent for the convenience and extras the companies offer. Some RVers want to share more than a simple blog with the world, and actually have full fledged websites, with the blog being a part of the overall website. While most RV blogs are intended simply as a communication tool, for some, blogging has also provided the added benefit of a secondary income stream. This income usually comes from commissions from advertising links placed on the blog, as part of an affiliated marketing program. Perhaps the best known of these is the Google AdSense program www.adsense.com, which places small ad links into member blogs and websites that are targeted toward the content of those web pages. Google’s computers “crawl” the blog or website pages and select appropriate ad links based upon keywords on the pages. You will never get rich with ad links on your blog, in spite of what many internet hucksters would have you believe (and they just happen to have information to sell you that explains how to do it!). But if you can draw enough readers to your blog on a regular basis, you might be surprised at how those little ad clicks add up. I have been participating in the AdSense program with my three websites www.gypsyjournal.net, www.motorcycletravelonline.com, and www.publishing4profit.com for over eighteen months, and am averaging over $500 a month from the ads on all three sites combined. But, I put a lot of work into it, updating my blog on a daily basis, usually writing a daily entry from 500 to 750 words. We average several hundred hits a day on our three websites. Some of the ads pay as much as $2 each time someone clicks on them, especially on the self-publishing website. But the biggest majority of ad links on the RV website pay in the 25 to 35 cent range, and quite a few pay only a penny or two. AdSense only works if you have a lot of daily hits, and until you accumulate $100 in ad commissions, you do not receive a check. Still, if you enjoy writing and blogging, the extra money is an added benefi. You do not have to update your blog on a daily basis, but if you don’t do so fairly regularly, you will lose readers who soon grow tired of visiting and seeing the same old posts. I would think at least twice a week would be the very minimum if you want to attract new readers and keep them coming back. So what do RV bloggers write about? Everything and anything. Their travels, of course, and all of the adventures they have along the way. In their blogs they also talk about the people they meet, campground activities, good roads and bad, and whatever else happens to come to mind. Some bloggers prefer to keep their readers at a distance and don’t delve too deeply into personal feelings, while others find it cathartic to share their good times and bad. RVing has both good times and bad, and to me it is just as interesting to read about the days when one is sick and stays inside, or when bad weather keeps them confined, as it is to read about them being awestruck standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon, or watching a sunrise over the mountains of New Mexico. Every blogger has their own style, a direct reflection of their personality. I read several blogs every day, and others on a more infrequent basis, including Donna Yeaw’s http://lilypad.froggilady.com/, Dan and Terri Gregg’s http://www.danandteri.blogspot.com/, the adventures of Tioga and George at http://blog.vagabonders-supreme.net/, Mike and Pat McFall’s blog at http://mikepatstravels.blogspot.com/, and Jerry and Suzy LeRoy’s http://www.jerrysuzylifeonwheels.blogspot.com/. Each is different, and each teaches me something new every time I read it. For those wanting more information, Jim and Chris Guld have a lot of information available on their website at www.geeksontour.com and will be presenting an excellent seminar on blogging at our Ohio Gypsy Gathering rally in September. Chris has proposed holding a Computer Boot Camp prior to the rally, and we are trying to work out the details on that now. Blogging is easy, it’s fun, and it’s a great way to share your RV adventures with your friends, with the added bonus of a way to make new friends. So what are you waiting for? Jump on the blogging bandwagon! Thought For The Day – Life is a test, and I didn't take very good notes. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Tuesday, May 13, 2008 While Terry and I love it, fulltime RVing is not the right lifestyle for everyone. As the Bowling Green Life on Wheels was wrapping up Saturday, a couple came up to me to thank me for convincing them that it would not work out for them. One of the things I stress in my classes on fulltiming is that a couple may love each other, but they must also be best friends to make this work. A couple that constantly quarrel and bicker in a 3,000 square foot house may well find living in 300 square feet of rolling homestead intolerable. I have no doubt that this husband and wife, who have been married for over three decades, will continue to get along well enough in their present home but they were wise enough to realize that they get on each others’ nerves too much in close quarters, and that the things each wanted out of the new lifestyle they were considering were radically different. She wanted to be able to visit family and friends scattered all over the country and see attractions she had only read about. Her idea of the perfect RV was a large motorhome with multiple slideouts. He was determined to get as far away from people as he could and enjoy the solitude of the great outdoors, and wanted nothing larger than a small fifth wheel or a Class C. Neither seemed willing to compromise. It’s better to learn that before they sell their home and spend their equity on an expensive RV. Most of yesterday
was spent on a series of medical appointments at the VA hospital. The
folks take very good care of me here in For several days now I have not been feeling well, and the last two days I have had a vicious headache, sore throat, and overall aches and pains. I thought a lot of it was because of talking so much at Life on Wheels, but it was determined that I have a sinus infection, so a course of antibiotics was prescribed. Several folks were concerned, as I was, when I wrote about being awakened with chest pains a few days ago. Yesterday I had an EKG, which shows some heart damage from a past cardiac incident, but right now things look fine. Seventeen years ago I had a heart attack, but that did not show up when I had my last two EKGs within the last couple of years. I’m not sure if the damage that shows up now is from something more recent but I’ll know more about that after all of the results from this week’s tests are in. I have some more medical stuff to do here, including an appointment tomorrow, and on Thursday, the dreaded colonoscopy. What fun! But I lost some family members to cancer, including colon cancer, so that puts me in a high risk group and is something that needs to be monitored. It was also decided today that I’m going to have some surgery in the next few weeks. It’s a relatively minor thing, but of course, when it’s your own body they are messing with, nothing is minor, right? L Back at the bus, longtime Gypsy Journal readers Bill and Helen Moll stopped in to say hello. It’s been a while since we crossed paths, and it was nice to see them. Unfortunately I was not feeling very well, and I’m afraid I wasn’t much company. Hopefully they will give me a chance to make it up to them the next time we meet up. Thought For The Day – I
feel like I'm diagonally parked in a parallel universe. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Monday, May 12, 2008 We left 70 miles north of Bowling Green, at Elizabethtown, we turned east on the Bluegrass Parkway, a nice divided four lane highway that took us 80 miles east to Lexington, passing through beautiful rolling hill country that was shrouded in rain and mist. The rain let up a bit, and the wind was now coming from the rear quarter instead of a full broadside, which made driving a bit easier. We covered the
150 miles to the campground at the With all due
respect to our friends Orv and Nancy Hazelton, who have called the city
home for years, has anyone ever been to This year I scheduled my annual visit to the VA hospital for mid-May, and when we arrived here it was cold, raining hard, and the wind was enough to blow you over. By the time I stopped at the dump station, got the bus parked in our site, and the utilities hooked up, I was freezing.
We’ll be here all week while I get some medical stuff done, and I also hope to spend some time getting some writing done. I’ve even promised myself a couple of afternoon naps. Thought For The Day – Go
as far as you can see, and when you get there, you will see farther. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Sunday, May 11, 2008 Usually when a
Life on Wheels session ends, Terry and I find someplace to relax and
decompress for a few days before we do much else. We need the time just
to catch up on our rest, have some quiet moments together, and to go
over the feedback forms the students fill out about our different
classes. The I did some horse trading yesterday. We always donate some one year subscriptions as door prizes to Life on Wheels, as do other companies who want to help support the program. One door prize that they give away at every session is a nice barbecue grill. Another is a Dometic RC 4000 portable refrigerator that operates either on 120 volt, 12 volt, or propane. Measuring just over 16 inches high and about 24 inches wide, the refrigerator would be perfect in our van. The students who won the barbecue came up to me and said that they would love to have a subscription to the Gypsy Journal, and offered to trade the grill for a subscription. We don’t need a grill, and this one was too big for us to use, but I said sure, thinking we’d give it away as a door prize at our Ohio Gypsy Gathering rally in September. (You’ve heard of re-gifting – this is sort of like re-prizing). I went up to pick up the grill, and the lucky winners of the refrigerator were there getting their prize, and told me that they wished they had won the grill instead, because they already had a portable refrigerator. They also mentioned that they wanted a Gypsy Journal subscription. It didn’t take us long to strike up a deal, and suddenly I was the owner of a brand new portable refrigerator! Even before we bought the motorcycle, which we haul in the van, we had decided we wanted to replace our pickup with a van that we could throw a cooler, porta potti, and air mattress in and use for short two and three night trips away from the bus. So the Dometic fits perfectly into our plans! Once the closing ceremonies were over, we went to dinner with a couple of the Life on Wheels instructors, our pal Orv Hazelton and Mac McCoy. Mac is the recognized expert in RV fire safety www.macthefireguy.com and we have enjoyed our time with him at RV rallies and Life on Wheels session across the country for more years than I can remember. Back at the campus, most of the students and instructors had already left, but a few RVs remained. We sat around swapping lies with Rick Schaefer and Marcia Gantz, new Life on Wheels instructors whom we have known for quite some time, Rick and Joyce Lange from Recreational Vehicle Safety Education Foundation www.rvsafety.org, Mac McCoy, and a few of the students. File this one
under Typical Bureaucratic BS – a gentleman in Thought For The
Day – When
a man steals your wife, there is no better revenge than to let him keep
her. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Saturday, May 10, 2008 Apparently I’m
not the only one disappointed in Verizon cell phone and air card service
in the We wrap up our Life on Wheels conference today, with me teaching two 90 minute sessions. Then we’ll have the closing ceremony, and like baby birds flying away from the nest, our students will head off in every direction to try out their newfound RVing skills. Teaching ten 90 minute sessions in 2½ days is hard work, and I pay a price for it. But when a student comes up to me, as a lady did yesterday evening, and tells me that she has been terrified of leaving home and her familiar surroundings to go fulltiming with her husband, but that my classes helped put her mind at ease and now she’s looking forward to it, suddenly the aching back, the sore feet, and the ragged throat are worth it. I really do love teaching and sharing, and feel honored to be able to help newbies learn about this wonderful lifestyle of ours. Yesterday was a very rough day for me. One of the worst I have can remember experiencing in a long time. As I wrote in yesterday’s blog, I have not been sleeping well, and sometime early in the morning I woke up sick to my stomach, aching all over, and my chest was hurting. Over the next hour or so it got so bad that I was seriously contemplating waking Terry and asking her to get me to an emergency room. I finally dropped off to sleep and woke up again about 6 a.m., still feeling puny. It was the first time in all of my years of teaching at Life on Wheels and other RV events that I really did not think I could make it through my classes. My first class was at 8 a.m., and I decided to give it a shot, hoping I could give the students what they came for. It was a long, long day, but sometime around the third class of the day I started to get my second wind, and muddled on through. As soon as the last class was over I went back to the bus and took an hour long nap, and woke up feeling somewhat better. We’ll stay on
campus again tonight, and Sunday we’ll drive to Thought For The Day – For those that have answered the call, freedom has a flavor that the protected will never know. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Friday, May 9, 2008 Over all, I have been very satisfied with our Verizon air card. In our experience it has been a much better option than the manual tripod internet dish we used for many years. The convenience of being able to get online wherever we have been traveling has made our lives on the road much easier. However, the
service here in We knew going in
that we would run into marginal service areas, and I expected them in
places like Quartzsite or rural Yesterday was our first full day of teaching here at Life on Wheels, and already I’m worn out. I taught four 90 minute classes yesterday, and by the end of the day I felt like I usually do after the conference ends. I haven’t slept well for some reason, something that happens to me often during our teaching gigs. My mind just won’t shut off at bed time, and instead of resting I find myself thinking about the next day’s classes. I teach four more 90 minute sessions today, and two on Saturday. I don’t drink coffee, and I’ve cut way back on my Pepsi consumption for my diet, but right now I sure could use a caffeine jolt. Maybe I’m just getting old. It rained most of yesterday, and the dreary sky didn’t help matters any. It would have been a great day to snooze on the couch. As I write this, it’s just after midnight and I need to be up and in the classroom in just a few hours, so I’m going to make this blog entry short and go snuggle up with Miss Terry. Maybe she’ll tell me a bedtime story. Thought For The
Day – The
journey, not the arrival, is what matters. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Thursday, May 8, 2008 Terry and I both slept restlessly Tuesday night, and awoke yesterday morning feeling tired before we even got out of bed. We spent the day meeting and greeting students coming in for Life on Wheels, renewing acquaintances with the other instructors, and generally socializing, which is a part of what we do here on registration day. I was delighted to have several students say they are regular blog readers, and it was nice to get to know them. Now, don’t go getting
all excited here, but I actually helped two different students with
mechanical/technical problems yesterday! One lady with an Alfa See Ya had
posted on the Escapees forum that her house batteries were not charging,
and I told her to look me up when she arrived here in The next student was a fellow who bought a used coach with an aftermarket security system that had suddenly decided to go off every fifteen minutes. He was of the opinion that the neighbors would not appreciate being awakened several times an hour by his blaring horn and flashing headlights. Myself and instructor Rick Schafer went to check it out. The system was tied into his starting batteries, and we searched or a battery disconnect switch, but could not find it. So we opened the compartment where the alarm system was mounted and I spotted a circuit breaker. I pulled the fuse out, and the problem was solved! Just to be sure everything else still worked, we had him start his engine to be sure I hadn’t disabled anything critical. These must seem like very small issues to many folks, but when you consider that I could get my fingers caught in a crescent wrench and need a team of paramedics to get free, you can see why they are major victories to me. After the instructors meeting and the Welcoming Session for the students, we joined our friend Orv Hazelton for dinner at a nice barbecue place, then went back to the campus to get ready for today’s teaching sessions. As with much of the RV
industry, the high fuel prices are taking a toll on Life on Wheels
attendance. We are down over 60 students from last year. We still have
two more conferences this year, in Lewiston, Thought For The Day – The
journey, not the arrival, is what matters. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Wednesday, May 7, 2008 We pulled out of our site at Cherokee Landing
Thousand Trails preserve near We didn’t need it, but we stopped at the Flying J
in As I wrote in yesterday’s blog, I wasn’t
looking forward to all of the traffic congestion and road construction
in Chalk this one up as a near miss. As we crossed the
state line into Kentucky, I almost stopped at the When we arrived at the campus, some members of the Life on Wheels staff were already on hand. Once we unhooked the van and were parked, we dragged out lawn chairs and joined everybody for happy hour. It was nice to see everybody, but I have to tell you, it’s just not the same without our dear friends Dave and Sandy Baleria here with us. Today the students will be coming in and getting parked, and we’ll be busy meeting and greeting everybody. Classes start Thursday morning at 8 a.m., and I’ll be teaching ten 90 minute classes in 2½ days. It’s going to be a busy week! Thought For The Day – There
are 3 kinds of people: those who can count and those who can't. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Tuesday, May 6, 2008 We’ll be on the
road today, headed for Bowling Green, Kentucky, where we’ll be teaching at Life on Wheels at What I’m not
looking forward to is driving through In big cities
with multilane highways, I prefer to drive in the second lane from the
outside, which allows faster traffic to pass us on the left, and keeps
us out of the merging incoming lane on the right. But in Faithful blog reader Mark Thiel has been parked near us at the Thousand Trails and it was nice to get to know him. Mark and I see eye to eye on a lot of things, so you just know he must be a sick and twisted individual too. Mark took bundles of the Gypsy Journal with him to drop off at two other Thousand Trails campgrounds where he and his wife Sharleen will be staying. We always appreciate when our friends do this for us, because it helps spread the word to new areas. Thanks, Mark! As some of you
know, I’ve toyed with the idea of building a truck conversion on a
stretched semi tractor frame for quite We’re a long way from taking on such a project, but I’ve seen some good deals on trucks lately, because just like the RV market, truck sales are in a real slump right now. Miss Terry has been thinking about floor plans and doing some preliminary planning, so who knows? All it takes is time and money. Thought For The Day – Education
is what you get from reading the small print. Experience is what you get
from not reading it. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Monday, May 5, 2008 I have a friend
in Now, don’t get
me wrong, we owned a Getting on the internet has changed dramatically since Terry and I became fulltimers nine years ago. Back then, we lugged our laptop to the campground office and borrowed a telephone line to plug into to retrieve our e-m ail, and if we wanted to surf the internet we either used the computers at the local library, or found an RV park with phone hookups at the sites. These days, with WiFi, air cards, and internet dishes, we can reach the world wide web from the comfort of our homes on wheels, wherever they may be parked. The internet is a great resource, and as a writer I sometimes wonder how I ever worked without it. But one has to be aware that there is a tremendous amount of misinformation out there. Unfortunately, there are a multitude of people who seem to believe anything that pops up on their computer screen as gospel. It must be true, it’s on the internet. The other day I was chatting with a couple of guys here at the RV park, and someone mentioned flashing your headlights at an eighteen wheeler when it passes you to let the driver know it is safe to pull back into the right lane. Immediately one of the fellows warned us never to do that, because he had read on the internet that an initiation ritual with gangbangers involves driving down the road with their headlights off, and shooting the first driver who blinks their lights to let them know. I believe this claim about as much as I do the ones from all of those hot college coeds who send me e-mails because they want me. How many gangbangers have you seen cruising down Interstate 40 in a Kenworth? Another RVer warned me a while back about using a GPS in our bus, because the government can use the signal from the satellites to track our movements. He knew it was true, because it was on the internet. So let’s see, we have fuel prices climbing higher every day, illegal aliens swarming across our border, wars and terrorists abroad, and recession at home, but the Feds want to know which WalMart or truck stop I’m parked at tonight? Give me a break! Use the internet for the valuable tool it is, but always remember that a lot of what you see online has just about as much truth to it as your average RV salesman’s spiel. Thought For The Day – If
you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there. Sunday, May 4, 2008
We had a good time admiring all of the dog related artwork, from sculptures of hunting dogs that greet visitors to the museum, to the beautiful paintings of dogs and hunting scenes inside. The museum also has a nice library of outdoor books and periodicals, and I recognized several titles that once graced my own bookshelves.
I spent at least a half hour crawling around on the floor with this gentle and loving dog, and loved every minute of it. Though Miss Terry and I made the decision not to own another pet at this point in our lives, I suspect that if Lottie Dot had followed me out to the van, she’d be sleeping at my feet right now. But I know she has important work to do here at home. We have enjoyed
playing tourist here in southwestern Thought For The Day – A
good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Saturday, May 3, 2008 After two days of sightseeing, we spent yesterday at home. While I did some writing, Miss Terry did some housekeeping chores and a couple of loads of laundry. Terrible storms battered much of the region throughout the day, and I kept the television tuned to the Weather Channel, monitoring reports of strong thunderstorms all around us. We were under a tornado watch most of the day, and were glad when all we got at the campground was some wind, lightning, and a lot of rain. Bad weather is
always a concern for RVers, and we have had a couple of close calls over
the years. In There is not much you can do in the path of a tornado except seek shelter. Here at the Thousand Trails campground, we are parked near a sturdy block building that houses the laundry room and bathrooms, and knew that if the weather worsened it would provide refuge. We try never to travel in inclement weather, but when we have gotten caught out on the highway, we have found a place to park in a rest area or truck stop and waited for the storms to pass. Driving a big RV is challenging enough, why add to the danger by trying to drive in a nasty storm? We have our house with us, so if we pull off the highway until the weather clears, we can read, catch up on our e-mail, have a snack, or just relax until it is safe to get back on the road again. There is no place we have to get to that is so important that it can’t wait until it is safe to travel. Like many RVers, we have a CB radio in our bus conversion, and like many RVers, we leave it off much of the time because the language of the truckers can get pretty rank. But when the weather looks ominous, we keep it on, and it has alerted us to problems up the road. Our CB also has a weather channel, which we monitor when we are traveling and run into marginal weather conditions. While we are cautious about bad weather, we don’t let the fear of what could happen dominate our lives. Just like high fuel prices, tire blowouts, and mechanical problems, bad weather is just a fact of life we have to be aware of. We keep informed of what is happening around us, we have a plan of action in case things go bad, and then we continue to enjoy our life on the road. Thought For The Day – Whoever
said nothing is impossible has never tried slamming a revolving door. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Friday, May 2, 2008 We spent some more time playing tourist yesterday, visiting a couple more points of interest here in western Tennessee. We drove to
The story was familiar history to me. I remember my dad playing his guitar and singing the Ballad of Casey Jones when I was a kid, and I used to imagine myself in the cab of a steam locomotive. After checking out the locomotive on display at the museum, I think I’m just as glad I do my traveling in the cab of a bus. The creature comforts are far superior. Casey Jones Village Marketing Director Deborah Laman treated us to lunch in the restaurant and spent some time visiting with us and telling us about the history of the place. The food was excellent, and after our meal we spent some time wandering around the store and checking out all of the neat antiques on display.
Of course, no trip is without some adventure. Along the way I spotted a sign pointing toward a small Civil War battlefield and detoured to check it out. Unfortunately, the signage was not very comprehensive, and we could not find the place. So we ended up making a long detour through some pretty countryside. But what better way to spend an nice afternoon than out for a ride with my best girl? In the town of Just in case, I kept a low profile until we were way out of town. One can never be too careful, you know. J Thought For The Day – After all is said and done, more is said than done. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally Thursday, May 1, 2008 Bad news for owners of Alfa RVs. RV Industry News blog reported yesterday that the California manufacturer has laid off its entire work force and closed their doors. Another one bites the dust. It’s sad to say, but I think we’ll see more of this as fuel prices continue to climb. It sucks to be us. We had to work yesterday! Of course, the good news is, our work consists of going where other people go on vacation. That’s a pretty good gig when you think about it. J We left the bus
at the Thousand Trails campground and made a big loop through Selmer,
Adamsville, Our first stop
was
We stopped at the
Back at the bus,
subscribers Mike and Sharon Young stopped by to visit. We last saw them
at our Gypsy Gathering rally in Today we’re off
in search of new adventures, and I’ll be sharing some more interesting
places in western Thought For The Day – The
real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in
having new eyes. Register Now For Our New Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally
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Dry camping. Some people love it and some people hate it. I
think a lot of folks who don’t enjoy dry camping or have never tried
it equate dry camping with roughing it. But if you do it right, nothing
could be further from the truth.
being plugged in at a campground was over seven months. On
another occasion we spent nearly five months living off the grid. During
that time period we installed the headliner in our MCI bus conversion,
Terry built our kitchen and bedroom cabinets using power tools, and we
published several editions of the Gypsy
Journal, along with two books and two RVing guides. We have also dry
camped many times for shorter time periods ranging from overnight stops
in rest areas to a couple of weeks in Quartzsite. Except for being more
conservative with our water usage, we live pretty much the same way dry
camping as we do while parked in a full service campground.
John Palmer, owner of Palmer Energy Systems in 
I’m
all for alternative energy and finding creative ways to save on fuel,
and I’ve seen some pretty wild ideas bandied about, from inventions
that will run a gasoline motor on regular water to a recent article on a
hybrid Class A motorhome that runs on either gas or battery power.
As
we were leaving Mishawaka, our friend Tom Owen called to tell us that he
and his lady Diane Rojewski were in Elkhart and were stopping by the campground
to say hello. We hurried back and had a nice visit with them. Tom even
gave Miss Terry a ride on his beautiful Gold Wing motorcycle. These two
are real adventurers, putting 90,000 miles on their bike in eight years,
including an extended trip to Alaska
towing a small pop-up trailer behind them! Now that’s roughing it!
What a couple of wild and crazy kids!
Miss Terry
appreciates and understands mechanical things better than I do, and she
really enjoyed the 
enjoyed
the World War II Victory Museum. It has what I think is surely the
largest collection of military vehicles in the world on display,
everything from motorcycles and scooters, to Jeeps, half tracks, tanks,
amphibious landing craft, and airplanes. Give yourself several hours to
tour the museum, this is not a place you can rush through.
The Kruse
Automotive Horse Power and 
Back in the good
old days, the wealthy loved to cruise around in finely crafted
automobiles, and there was nothing on the road that compared to the
beautiful Auburns, Cords, and Dusenbergs made locally. Unfortunately,
even though we carry two digital cameras so we’ll have a backup, by
the time we got to the 
To give you an
idea of just how bad the storm was, here is a picture of a trailer that
lost its awning at the 
some time now, similar to the
Kingsley Coach or Haulmark conversions. We love our bus, and it has
served us faithfully for years now and could continue to do so for many
more years. But there are some advantages to a truck conversion,
including more power, better fuel mileage, and we could incorporate some
of the things we learned in building the bus that we wish we could do
over.
There
are cat people and there are dog people. I’m a dog person. I can’t
tell you how many dogs I have lived with over the years, mostly German
shepherds. But I also have a soft spot for the hunting breeds, having
owned a couple of wonderful Springer and Brittany spaniels in the past.
So yesterday I had a good time touring the 
As
it turned out, the only real live dog at the museum was not a hunting
breed at all, but rather a delightful and lovable Dalmatian that I
instantly fell in love with. Lottie Dot belongs to the lady on duty at
the museum, and although she is totally deaf, she is a certified therapy
dog, working with sick children, the elderly, and veterans at the
Memphis V.A. hospital.
Located
in a downtown building, the museum includes musical instruments, photos
of well known musicians, and music memorabilia. Every year the Hall of
Fame hosts a Rockabilly Festival where some of the biggest acts in the
music genre come to perform. Terry and I were impressed with the mural
on the side of the building, which had us tapping our toes just looking
at it.
Our
next stop was Casey
From
the village, we drove to 
Sheriff
Pusser was a larger than life lawman who took on the gangsters and
corrupt politicians who had turned the area along the
A
few miles east of Adamsville, we stopped at the 
Our
next stop was the battlefield at Shiloh, where 44,000 Confederate troops clashed with a force of 40,000 Union
soldiers in a bloody two day battle in April, 1862. Terry and I are
history buffs, and we always enjoy visiting the places that we have only
read about in books before.
Anyone
who has been reading the Gypsy
Journal for very long probably knows that about the only thing I am
more afraid of than driving over bridges or letters from my ex-wives'
lawyers, is snakes. People have told me that snakes are more afraid of
me than I am of them, but I’ve e never believed that, because if that
were true, they’d carry guns too! But Miss Terry has worked very hard
to get me house trained and civilized over the last ten years, and I
think it’s working. Yesterday we came across this serpent, which
measured about four feet long while we were at Shiloh, and I shot it with a camera instead of a pistol. Of course, I had a
camera with me and not a
pistol, so who knows what could
have happened?