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Nick's Blog Friday, October 31, 2008 Happy Halloween! I wish we could Trick or Treat at RV parks, I'd be out getting me some goodies! I may be an old man, but my inner child has never outgrown his sweet tooth! Poor Miss Terry
has come down with a nasty cold, and has been sneezing and coughing
something terrible. But that hasn’t stopped my hardworking bride from
stuffing thousands of envelopes to get the new issue of the Gypsy
Journal in the mail. We drove back up to Like most
fulltimers, we use a commercial mail forwarding service to receive our
mail for us and then send it to us wherever we happen to be traveling.
Actually, we use two mail services, Alternative Resources www.alternativeresources.net
in The way mail forwarding works for fulltime RVers is that we pay the mail service an annual fee for their service, and also place a certain amount of money on deposit with them to be used for postage. They receive our mail, and whenever we want it, we call them and give them the address of a small town post office where we will be able to stop and pick up our mail, or the address of the campground where we are staying, if they will accept mail for their guests. The mail service puts all of our mail in a Priority Mail envelope of box and sends it in care of General Delivery at the local post office, or wherever we request it. Normally it arrives in two to three business days. Overall it is a foolproof method, but on rare occasions things can go wrong. They usually go wrong when you are in a hurry to get your mail because you have reservations down the road and have to leave, or you are waiting for an important piece of mail, such as your license renewal. Sometimes it is a mistake made by the mail service, though this is rare, because they are all pros and really know their stuff. Other times the problem is caused by a postal employee. Several years ago
we were in We ordered mail
earlier this week and yesterday it arrived right on schedule, but this
time around somebody goofed at our mail service in Hey, things happen, right? We’ll roll with the flow. It’s just one of those little speed bumps we sometimes hit on the road of life. But overall the ride is great. Thought For The Day –
Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally Thursday, October 30, 2008 Last month I wrote a blog about friendship, especially the friendships formed by RVers, that received a lot of responses. Let me give you an example of just how great our RVing friends are. When we arrived
here in They arrived about 4 p.m., and within minutes of parking their MCI bus next to ours, Howard had our engine bay open and was inside diagnosing the problem. Fortunately it was actually a minor problem at this point, and he set right to work fixing it before it became a major one. Within a couple of hours he had replaced a bad valve cover gasket and we’re good to go again. How many people do you know who would drive two hours out of their way, in a vehicle that gets about 6 or 7 miles per gallon, to get themselves covered with oil and grease to fix somebody else’s mechanical problems? If you’re a fulltime RVer, you probably know several. Fulltimers really are a strange breed of animal. If you don’t believe me, try this experiment. Go rent a room in a hotel, and wait until the folks across the hall step outside of their room, and say “Hi, where are you from? Where are you going from here? How do you like your room? Can I come in and see the layout? Do you want to come in and see our room? What kind of toilet paper do you use? We’re going out to dinner soon, do you want to ride along? Where are you spending the winter? Hey, do you want to hook up someplace out west? Do you want to see some pictures of my grandkids?” I guarantee you that if they haven’t called hotel security by then, they’ve run back inside their room and locked the door. But to the inhabitants of this crazy RV world we live in, that’s just our way of saying “howdy.” Miss Terry gets embarrassed sometimes, because I will start a conversation with anybody, sometimes in what she considers outrageous ways. But it pays off, because I meet a lot of nice folks, and some of them really know how to make friends. Several years ago
we were at the Escapes North Ranch campground near Congress, “Just washing the windows,” was her reply. “Well stop it.” I said. “Go inside and make me cheesecake instead.” Now, I had never seen this woman in my life before, but in less than an hour she was at our door bringing me a tray of mini-cheesecakes! As my old Daddy used to say, “If you don’t ask, you don’t get!” Thought For The Day –
The greatest of the human freedoms is to choose one's attitude in any
given set of circumstances. Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally Wednesday, October 29, 2008 When we woke up
yesterday morning in Between This time around the RV islands were backed up and everybody was complaining because the card readers on the pumps were not working correctly, so they had to go inside to stand in line (only one person was working the counter) to pre-pay, then go back inside to stand in line again for their change. We got lucky, and after only two or three swipes of our card, the pump worked for us. Of course, it would not print out a receipt when we were finished, so Terry still had to go stand in line while I moved the bus away from the fuel island to allow the next person to get to the pumps. Soon after we
left the truck stop, we crossed the Back at Lee’s
Country Campground I spent a frustrating hour trying to get my satellite
TV dish to work, and finally gave up just as our pal Orv Hazelton pulled
in with his new to him Allegro motorhome. Orv has just picked the unit
up and is on his way home to Thought For The Day –
A person carries their success or their failure with them. It does not
depend on outside conditions Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally Tuesday, October 28, 2008 I don’t know about you, but I’ll sure be glad when the election is over, if for no other reason than that hopefully people will stop flooding my in-box with e-mails declaring that one candidate or the other is the devil’s spawn. Like all junk mail, I don’t read them, I just automatically hit delete. For the record, I do not I support Obama or McCain. They’re both politicians, which ranks them somewhere between RV salesmen and maggots, with the worst traits of both. I just don’t care who’s elected. I really don’t, and please don’t e-mail me with all of the reasons why I should care. My mind’s made up, so don’t try to confuse me with facts. Okay, I’m done talking politics. Yesterday we had hoped to get on the road by noon, but I asked Christopher Best to do several last minute things on the bus that were not part of the scheduled job, and then we took it for a test drive to see how it performed. So it was 3:30 p.m. when we finally hooked up and pulled out. I have to tell
you, I’ve known a few diesel mechanics in my time, but none of them
can top Christopher, in my opinion. He really knows his stuff. In
addition to repairing our Jake brake, correcting the problems with our
governor, and running the rack on the bus (the equivalent to a tune-up
on a gasoline engine), he also installed a sight glass to make it easier
to check our radiator fluid level, replaced our old style canister oil
filter with a new style screw-on adapter with filter, replaced our leaking power
steering reservoir, installed an electric block heater to make the bus
easier to start in cold weather, replaced the starter, and replaced several hoses. The bill
came to much less than we had anticipated, and was a lot less than the
cost of an engine rebuild, which we had prepared ourselves for.
Christopher really checked our old The bus now has a lot more power than it did. Not that it would ever outrun my old Corvette, but we can see a marked difference in performance. We’ve been down this stretch of Interstate 75 many, many times, and there are hills where we used to lose as much as 15 or even 20 miles per hour by the time we got to the top. We still slow down a bit, but now we’re only losing about 6 or 7 miles per hour. That’s a significant increase! And, for the first time since we had it installed years ago, our Jake brake is really working right! Getting the late
start that we did, we hit We had hoped to
make it into northern Today we’ll drive to Florida, get the bus parked, unload our kayaks and bicycles from the van, drive 50 miles back north to Valdosta, Georgia, pick up the new issue of the Gypsy Journal from our printer, drive back to Florida, and then stuff envelopes like crazy to get them into the mail by the end of the week. Once that chore is finished, we have some serious play time in our immediate future. Thought For The Day –
The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for. Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally Monday, October 27, 2008 We love history,
and the small towns in this region of northern
Just across the
street from the pharmacy stands an interesting monument to Several people have written to ask me about the Prevost I mentioned in yesterday’s blog. Now, I love all of you to death, but until I drive it myself and see if I can make a deal, I think I’ll be just a little bit selfish and keep the information to myself for a few days. Actually, I have not even seen it yet, just photographs. It’s in Florida, and we’ll stop and check it out sometime in the next week or so. Now, on the other hand, if you’d like to see your name on a marble shaft someday, get out your checkbooks. Heck, if old Mr. Cooper could find himself 38 benefactors back in those tough times, I should be able to round up 40 or 50 of my own in today’s information age. J Christopher has a
couple of last minute chores to finish up on our bus this morning, and
then we’ll take it for a test ride. Assuming that all is well (and we
have no reason to expect otherwise) we’ll be on the road headed south
by noon. We hope to make it into north Thought For The Day –
Where are we going and why are we in this hand basket? Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally Sunday, October 26, 2008 Yesterday was a
busy day for us here in north We now have sixteen coaches here at our little bus rally, and the day began with a pancake breakfast. I’m not much of a morning person, nor am I a big breakfast eater, but I drug myself out of bed a little before 9 a.m. and forced down a stack of pancakes, four or five sausage patties, a few strips of bacon, and a half gallon of orange juice, just to be sociable. We can’t offend the ladies on the cooking crew, after all. After breakfast a bunch of us piled into cars for a field trip. As I’ve shared with you before, Christopher Best is a top rated heavy equipment and diesel engine mechanic, and folks around Cartersville know he’s the man to call when the tough jobs come along. A new mineral
museum is opening here soon, and they managed to acquire a massive dump
truck that had been retired from service at a gold mine in
A crowd of us went over to the museum grounds to see the reassembled truck, and it sure is a massive machine. I wonder how many gallons per mile it takes to move that thing!
Now, I have a confession to make. Growing up a poor boy, I’ve always been a bit of a reverse snob, turning my nose up at some of the rich kids’ toys I knew I’d never be able to afford anyway. In particular, I’ve had a distaste for Prevost bus conversions, both because new they cost more than the annual budget of most Third World countries, and because so many of them look like rolling bordellos, what with their mirrored ceilings and rope lighting. (Not that I’ve ever been in a bordello, mind you, but I had a buddy who was in one once, and he told me all about it.) But looking at some of the Prevosts here in our little group, I’ve seen two or three that I could call home. Yeah, I know, I’ve had my heart set on a truck conversion for a long time now. But that darned pal of mine, Tom Owens, let my 56th birthday go past last week without giving me his, and I’m beginning to think that fantasy may never come true. We’ve talked about getting a truck and building our own conversion, but between editing my work here, writing her recipe columns, cooking, laundry, cleaning up my all too frequent messes, and apologizing to polite society for my constant lapses in etiquette, let’s be honest, Miss Terry’s already stretched pretty thin. Can she even find the time to convert another rig, and still give me the attention I deserve?
Thought For The Day –
A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.
Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally Saturday, October 25, 2008 It rained hard all day yesterday, and the temperature never topped 60 degrees. It was one of those gloomy days when all you want to do is curl up with a good book and a cup of hot chocolate. Speaking of books, several people have written to ask what I think of my Amazon Kindle e-book reader now that I’ve had it a while. Actually, I’m on my second Kindle. The first one froze up a couple of days after receiving it. I called Amazon, and they had one to me the very next day by overnight FedEx. That’s great customer service. As for the Kindle, I love it! I have several different books stored on it, and I really like having the ability to download and read sample chapters of a book for free before I decide to purchase it. If you want a Kindle of your very own, scroll down the page and click the link on the right column. I’ll make enough commission to buy a gallon or two of diesel. J Some people think they’re eerie, but Terry and I enjoy exploring old cemeteries. Walking through an old burying ground is educational, and it will really help you put your own life into perspective. If you think your life has been hard, you may have to think again when you read some of those old gravestones. It is sad to see how many infants were born and died on the same day, or only lived a few weeks before they were taken away.
The cemetery
includes several graves of Civil War veterans, all of whom We are working on
the seminar schedule for our Third Annual Western Gypsy Gathering, which
will be held in Several people have written to say they are staying in area RV parks for the winter, and asking if they can come in on day passes. No problem at all, the cost is $5 per person per day, which includes all regular rally events. Come join in the fun. Thought For The Day –
Make the mistakes of yesterday your lessons for today. Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally Friday, October 24, 2008 After spending
over $1,000 with mechanics from Grady told me that when these coils go, you can often expect another one to do the same thing within six months or so. But at almost $100 each, he did not feel it was worth replacing all of them at once. He did tell me what type of test a shop must do to find this problem, since it does not show up in a normal test where they plug into your vehicle’s data port, so at least we’ll be better informed if it happens again. You can bet that I added Grady to our RV Good Guys book! Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Christopher Best has been working hard on our bus engine, and has it almost done. He said he thinks we'll be pleased with the results. As most of you know, I’m not a mechanical guy, but I’ll try to explain what he has told me. Christopher says only one out of eight injectors was getting a full charge of fuel to the cylinder, the governor which controls the engine speed was totally out of whack, and our Jake brake had not been installed correctly and would not disengage fully, which cut out some of our cylinders from working. Basically we were operating on about 1/2 to 2/3 of our engine's potential. I'm sure the bill will be stiff when he’s all finished, because he’s put a lot of hours into the job, but I don’t mind paying for top notch service, and this guy is a real pro. Plus, we know it will not be nearly as much as a new or rebuilt engine, which is what we had worried would be necessary.
Before the war
began, Kingston
was a bustling railroad town, and when hostilities began it became an
important supply center. The first hospital for the Confederate Army was
located here at a small boarding house called the Wayside Home, and more
than 10,000 sick and wounded Southern solders received medical attention
in Union General
William Tecumseh Sherman seized Kingston has one other claim to fame – the local women began decorating the graves of the Confederate dead in the local cemetery, and once Federal troops occupied the town, the Union commander decreed that they had to either stop or also decorate the graves of Union soldiers buried locally. They agreed, and this is where Decoration Day, which became Memorial Day, was born. Eventually the
trains no longer stopped in Thought For The Day –
Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for
I may not follow. Do not walk beside me, either. In fact, just leave me
alone! Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally Thursday, October 23, 2008 After yesterday’s blog, in which I lambasted the RV industry, I received several e-mails from blog readers who were lamenting the problems they have experienced with RV dealers and salesmen. Jackie Pellman from Youngstown, Ohio wrote to tell me that after they took delivery on their motorhome, they learned just how little they were prepared to protect themselves in the sales process. Jackie said the taillights and brake lights did not work (they found this out when a policeman stopped them on the way home from the dealership), the rear air conditioner blew warm air, the toilet leaked around the floor seal, and the water heater would not stay lit. When they called the dealer they were told all sales were final and the RV was sold “as is.” When she replied that the unit was less than a year old, and the salesman had told her it had been completely checked out before delivery, the sales manager quoted her the shop rate if she wanted to bring it back for repairs. Fulltimers Mike and Stacey Devlachek wrote to say that they have had their fifth wheel back to the original dealer seventeen times for problems that existed when they purchased it new. The manufacturer has since gone out of business and the dealer said he has not been reimbursed for warranty work and will not do any more unless they pay for the prior repairs that the factory authorized but did not pay for. I won’t bore you with all of the responses I got, but these examples are all too common. However, there
are also some good dealers out there, and the buying public needs to
know about them. Faithful reader George Stoltz reports that when he
bought his used coach from Motorhomes of Texas, they went the extra mile
to take care of any items that needed attention before he picked up the
unit. George Bahnmiller wrote to say that he ordered his 2007 NuWa
HitchHiker from Lloyd Bridges RV in
Thought For The Day – Why
is there a light in the fridge and not in the freezer? Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally Wednesday, October 22, 2008 Well, I have two
pieces of good news to report today. The first is that we have arranged
to get the November-December issue of the Gypsy
Journal printed by a newspaper we have worked with before in The other bit of good news is that Christopher Best, at whose home we are all staying for this small bus rally, and his dad Howard, gave our bus engine a cursory inspection last night and both seem to agree that the problems are not nearly as bad as we had feared. Christopher works on Detroit Diesels and has many years of experience, and he thinks some work on the governor, running the rack, and some other adjustments should do us a world of good. He’ll start working on it this morning, and hopefully we’ll know more soon. As most of you know, I am no fan of the RV industry, which is why I’ll never be able to retire on all of that advertising money they never spend with me. I’m sorry, but I believe pimps and loan sharks practice better business ethics than most of the RV manufactures, dealers, and salesmen I have run into. Why is that? When we purchased our first RV for fulltiming, a Fleetwood lemon disguised as a Pace Arrow Vision, the sales manager at the big dealership in Mesa, Arizona was slapping my father-in-law, Pete Weber, on the back and telling him they were going to put him on the payroll because, as a satisfied customer himself, Pete had referred several other buyers to the dealership. The next day, after we had taken delivery and discovered that they had lied about the size of the engine and several other things, the same sales manager called Pete a liar when he insisted that he too had heard the salesman make the same misrepresentations he had to us. So how did this good man, a deacon in his church and strong advocate for the dealership, descend to liar status in less than eighteen hours? I can’t tell you how many horror stories I have heard or been witness to over the years in which customers purchased an RV in good faith, only to discover that they had been lied to and taken advantage of at every turn. I have a good friend who, even as I write this, has been stuck in Florida for eleven days at a huge dealership that is a household name in the RV world, trying to get a long list of issues resolved with an RV he went down to purchase after being assured several times by the salesman that it was in excellent condition. He arrived to discover damage to the bumper that was not reported, leveling jacks that did not work, a damaged floor, and several other issues that they have promised to attend to quickly, than dragged their feet on. When I talked to him yesterday he had discovered that at highway speeds the coach handles so poorly as to be dangerous. When he took it back to report this, they first tried to tell him that he was just not used to driving a big rig. After he told them that he had spent his working days driving everything from buses to tractor trailers, they sent an employee out to ride in the RV, and he too agreed it was dangerous. But the dealership assured him the problem is only a missing bolt. Now, I do think somebody has a screw loose somewhere, but I’m not sure how that affects the rig’s handling. Personally, I’d have walked away a long time ago. I teach a class at RV events called How To Be A Smart RV Shopper, in which I demonstrate all of the games and pressure tactics RV salesmen use, and I even call a student out of the class to roll play a typical sales scenario with me. Before we’re halfway through, people are nodding their heads and saying “That happened to me too!” I also sell a Special Report called RV Dealer Scams that outlines many of the ways that RV dealers have of separating you from your money. You can order a copy for $2.50 by clicking the button below. But why do you need to take a class or buy a Special Report just to protect yourself from being taken advantage of when you go to make a major purchase in good faith? Why can’t a dealership and a salesman offer a decent product at a fair price, and be happy with an honest profit? Why do they have this need to rape and pillage every time someone steps on the lot? I just don’t get it. Thought For The Day – Birthdays
are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live. Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally Tuesday, October 21, 2008 Normally by this time we would have the new issue of the Gypsy Journal in the mail, or at least printed and be in the process of stuffing thousands of envelopes to take to a mailing service. Unfortunately, this issue is going to go out a bit late. The newspaper industry is currently in a transition state. Just as you once purchased a pound of coffee, and now the container only holds about 13 ounces (for the same price), over the years newspapers have been going to smaller paper sizes to save money. A lifetime ago, when I was a greenhorn youngster just getting into the publishing business a tabloid page measured 18 inches high and was printed two-up on what was called a 36 inch web. Over time the size dropped to 17 inches (a 34 inch web) and then sized jumped all over the place before they standardized on a 16 inch page printed on a (32 inch web). About four or five years ago, the bean counters in the front offices decided to put the screws to the reading public and the advertisers again, and everything went smaller again, finally stabilizing on a 25 inch web. Well, guess what? They’re at it again, and it looks like the standard will be (for a while at least) a 24 inch web. Eventually your daily newspaper will be the size of a paperback book. Over time you may not have noticed this gradual downsizing, but if you are a regular daily newspaper reader, you may have noticed that the type sizes keep getting smaller and smaller. It’s not your eyes (well, maybe it is, we’re all getting older), they just keep trying to cram the same amount of content onto a smaller page. Every time this
has happened, the folks down in the trenches doing the real work of
producing the newspaper have to tear everything apart and completely
redesign their pages to accommodate the smaller web sizes. For us, we
have to search for a newspaper that has a size we can work with. Since
we are currently in north Meanwhile, our mail caught up to us, and we had a ton of orders to fill, so today we’ll take them to the post office, and then drop our van off to yet another mechanic who we hope can resolve the problems we’re having with our engine missing so badly. Keep your fingers crossed for us. Thought For The Day – We
could learn a lot from crayons... Some are sharp, some are pretty, and
some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colors. But
they all have to live in the same box. Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally Monday, October 20, 2008 So it’s Monday
and you think you’re having a bad day. Think again. Check out this
link to a news story out of Another reader,
Rick Devoy sent me a link to a great video slide show showing some
really neat old travel trailers. It made me homesick for Elkhart, It is cold here
in northern We’re looking forward to paddling our new kayaks, but not until we get someplace where we won’t get hypothermia if we fall overboard. As I wrote yesterday, our friends Howard and Ellen Best are hosting a small private bus rally and pig roast, but it is actually at the home of their son Christopher and his lovely wife Jackie. We’ve been having a good time meeting some new folks, ogling their buses, and just relaxing. Christopher is a heavy equipment mechanic, with a lot of experience on Detroit Diesel engines. As I’ve said before, Howard knows more about the mechanical workings of a bus than any man I have ever met. So while we’re here Christopher and his dad are going to spend some time checking out our tired old 8V71 Detroit Diesel engine. We have noticed a decided drop in power (not that the old Detroit was ever a high performance motor), and Terry and I have been worrying about how long we have before we have to start thinking about a major rebuild or replacement. Howard and Christopher say things might not be as bad as we fear, and that maybe with some TLC they can help us get a few more miles out of the thing. So we’re keeping our fingers crossed. Christopher also knows a very good automobile mechanic locally that he is going to hook me up with, in the hopes that he can figure out what’s going on with our van. As I wrote a week or so ago, we have a miss in the engine, and after several hundred dollars worth of repairs, it is still there. I’m no mechanic, but I hate driving a vehicle that doesn’t work right, and I’m happy to pay someone to solve a problem. But it really drives me crazy to spend a lot of money and drive out of a garage with the same problem I drove in with. Thought For The Day – It
may be that your sole purpose in life is simply be a bad example to
others. Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally For A Great Selection Of RV Books And Accessories, Visit Our Online Marketplace Sunday, October 19, 2008 We just love
exploring the back roads and small towns of
I always wonder what joys and sadness were these decrepit old walls witness to? Who lived and died here? Were they happy here? What happened to them? Were they forced to move on when their crops failed too many seasons in a row? Did traffic on the new superhighway bypass that old gas station or general store, until finally the owner had to give up and lock the door? Or maybe there was a happy ending. Did the farmer succeed to the point where he could build a bigger home just down the road? Did that old storekeeper or pump jockey make enough to retire in the Florida sun? I like to think so. We’ve covered
some superhighways and back roads in the last couple of days. Friday we
left Sequoyah Campground in We first met Howard and Ellen at a bus rally in Guthrie, Oklahoma right after we bought our bus, and I am I ever glad we did! Besides being two of the nicest folks you’ll ever know, Howard has forgotten more about buses than myself and five other guys will ever know. I can’t count the number of times I’ve called Howard in a panic, and had him talk me through a problem with our bus. He’s also skinned his knuckles more than a few times keeping our old MCI running. Yesterday Terry
and I drove the van 70 miles east to Dawsonville,
Thought For The Day – A
truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour. Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally For A Great Selection Of RV Books And Accessories, Visit Our Online Marketplace Saturday, October 18, 2008 With the recent passing of its founder, Gaylord Maxwell, the decision to discontinue the Life on Wheels (LOW) program was announced this week. Currently there are two separate threads on the Escapees forum about the Escapees or some other group picking up Life on Wheels to keep it alive. Unfortunately,
Life on Wheels was on its last legs even before we lost Gaylord. Over
the last few years, attendance numbers were dropping dramatically, the
schedule of five conferences a year was a back breaker, the program lost
several core instructors, and Gaylord and his wife Margie struggled with
the decision of whether or not to continue. In the last conversation I
had with him, at the Harrisburg LOW in September, he said that the At one time there was talk of who would be Gaylord’s successor with the program. One well known name in the RV industry spent a lot of effort, with Gaylord’s encouragement, to work up a business plan to assume command of the program. For whatever reasons he had at the time, Gaylord declined to go forward with the plan. In the last
couple of years, the Recreational Vehicle Safety Education Foundation (RVSEF)
was in negotiations to take over the reins, but again, things broke down
at the last minute. As we were wrapping up the LOW conference this year
in So who does that leave? We have brought several excellent Life on Wheels speakers to our Gypsy Gathering rallies, but Terry and I don’t want to be the next Gaylord Maxwell. We have enough on our plate already. As I see it,
there are only two possibilities, the Escapees or Affinity, the
conglomerate that is like the WalMart of the RV world. As far as I know
at this moment, Affinity has not shown any interest. I think either
group could do it, but does
either one want to? I heard a distant rumor that the Escapees may try to
pick up some of the slack by expanding their Boot Camp program. I hope
so. The problem I see with the Escapees trying to either create a free standing program like LOW or to meld it into their Escapade rallies, is that they don’t want to pay instructors. In the past, they have not even been willing to barter a vending booth in exchange for a seminar. They pay their mail room staff, their clerical staff, and their other employees, but expect seminar speakers to pay their own way to get to an event, pay to attend that event, and then work for free. Volunteer instructors are fine for a simple RV rally, but the core Life on Wheels instructors were professional teachers and speakers with years of experience in the RV world. I don’t work for free, nor will most of them. And if we did, how could we justify charging another RV group a speaking fee if we do it for free for the Escapees? This is our business, just as Escapees is a business. Whoever were to take over Life on Wheels, or to try to duplicate the program, must approach it as a business. I think the market was over saturated with five conferences a year. The student numbers could not support five venues, and many of us instructors were burnt out. Two well publicized conferences a year, one east and one west, would have been much better. While I had tremendous respect for Gaylord Maxwell in many ways, I strongly disagreed with his approach to running LOW. I believe that his dependence on sponsors was a big mistake. With the downturn in the RV industry, sponsor money was getting harder and harder to come by. When a manufacturer is laying off employees and closing down production lines, it is hard to justify giving an outside program thousands of dollars in sponsorship money. Gaylord was a master at fund raising, but the funds were just drying up. I felt, and told him many times in our discussions about the future of the program, that the key to LOW’s success was in marketing, not sponsorships. Gaylord spent very little on advertising, and told me once that he felt that advertising was “crass.” He believed that people who were interested enough to attend LOW would seek him out. My reply was, “How can they seek you out if they don’t know it exists?” We donated advertising space to LOW in the Gypsy Journal, and many students learned about the program from those ads. At one time, Terry and I offered to insert a LOW brochure in every issue of the Gypsy Journal that went out. All Gaylord would have had to do was pay to print them, which would have cost about $300. We would do the inserting and pay for the extra postage. He felt that it would not be worth it. Think how much exposure 15,000 brochures, all going out to people who have a decided interest in the RV lifestyle, could have done for LOW. Last year at our
Gypsy Gathering rally in Gaylord Maxwell was my friend. He was a good man, a genius in many ways, and he knew how to squeeze a nickel until the buffalo whined. He had a wonderful dream in Life on Wheels, and he made that dream come true. Unfortunately, I think the program outgrew him, and when the opportunity to step aside and let someone else take charge came, he just was not able to let his baby go. I can understand that. But it still hurts to see all of his blood, sweat, and tears die with him. I hope somebody does pick up the Life on Wheels concept. And if they do, I hope they approach it from a business standpoint and that they have many, many years of success. It is a program that the RV world desperately needs. Thought For The Day – Some
mistakes are too much fun to make only once. Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally For A Great Selection Of RV Books And Accessories, Visit Our Online Marketplace Friday, October 17, 2008 I continue to get e-mails from readers about my comments on not having to have the newest and best RV in the campground to enjoy the RV lifestyle, and our belief that often less is more. One reader wrote to say “Maybe we can’t afford the latest and greatest rig on the market, but we’ve been rattling around the country for over fifteen years in our old motorhome, and having a ball. We put a rebuilt engine and transmission in it last year, which was a lot cheaper than buying a new RV, and we’re good to go for a long time.” Another e-mail
said “Thank you for pointing out that you can fulltime in a travel
trailer. We bought a new trailer in 1998, hauled it all over the country
from coast to coast and border to border, and when it finally wore out
last summer, replaced it with a used Forest
Both of these readers spent a lot less to refurbish or replace their RVs than the cost of a new unit would be. A dear friend who lost her husband earlier this year wrote to remind us that it’s not about what we travel in, it’s that we live for today: “Too bad these wannabes can't seem to understand that they are running out of time. They need to stop fussing about what they go in and just get out there. I would give up all of my money and live in a rolling garbage can if I could have my husband back. Some of our best times were spent in small, city parks. This isn't about money. It is about living your life!" Of course, some people just don’t get it. I had an e-mail that said “Maybe you are happy in your old bus, but it’s just not for us. We demand better in life and we’ll work a while longer until we can afford to do it our way.” So be it. We’ve spent this week parked in a lovely campsite in the shadow of Lookout Mountain, toured some beautiful country, visited some wonderful small towns, and met some fantastic people. How was life for you this week in that cubbyhole office or on that assembly line? I also got an e–mail from a reader who questioned how I can justify purchasing a motorcycle a while back, two nice bicycles this summer, and now we are shopping for kayaks, when I talk about minimizing. It is because we live simply, and don’t have any debt, that we can afford to buy nice things once in a while, and pay cash for them. To us, working hard and living simply equates to living well. Today we’ll be leaving Thought For The Day – Nobody
cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance. Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally For A Great Selection Of RV Books And Accessories, Visit Our Online Marketplace Thursday, October 16, 2008 We love the small town people we meet in every
corner of Here’s a good example. We were looking for a
kayak dealer near the small town of So I stopped at a convenience store to seek advice. There were two young ladies and a young man behind the counter, and he started to give me directions, then asked “Ya’ll from outta town, ain’t ya?” When I admitted as much, he said “You’ll just never find it. Ya better follow me.” And with that, he told his coworkers to watch the store, jumped into his car, and led us over seven miles up a winding mountain road, turned down a narrow country lane, and took us right to the drive of the business. Try getting that kind of service in the big city! Another example of down home friendliness was
yesterday, when we toured the Alabama Fan Club and Museum in
After we enjoyed the displays in the museum, Karen pulled a printed map out from under the counter and gave us detailed directions to lead singer Randy Owen’s home, as well as that of cousin and fellow band member Teddy Gentry, who lives just a mile or so down the road. “If you see them boys out in the yard or working on the farm, stop and say hello. They’ll be glad to visit with you,” Karen instructed us.
We love neat old architecture, and the handsome old
sandstone railroad depot in Back at the bus, we sat outside and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the RV park, watching sheep graze in the pasture and a pair of bats feeding on insects as they flitted overhead. Life is good in small town Alabama . Thought For The Day – Due to the current financial crisis, the light at the end of the tunnel has been temporarily turned off. Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally For A Great Selection Of RV Books And Accessories, Visit Our Online Marketplace Wednesday, October 15, 2008 All of the longtime instructors expected it, and now it is official. The decision has been made to close the Life on Wheels program, effective immediately. The program was already floundering, and with the death of Gaylord Maxwell last month, his widow Margie made the difficult decision not to continue. Over the last fourteen years, Life on Wheels educated over 15,000 students, helping start them down the road to a positive RV experience, and I am proud to have been a part of it. Regular blog readers may remember that a while back
I wrote that Wall Street speculators carried a lot of the blame for high
gas prices. Has anyone noticed that with the recent drop in the stock
market, gas prices are also coming back down? I have no love for the In other financial news, Pepsi is letting 3,300 workers go due to financial problems. A year ago I promised Nancy Hazelton, my primary care provider at the V.A. hospital, that I’d really work on losing weight. Since then I’ve cut back drastically on drinking Pepsi. Do you see the connection?
A display area shows some of the oddities that have
turned up While such oddities do turn up occasionally, bargain hunters will be disappointed to learn that they don’t get to paw through unopened luggage in search of treasures. The company has employees who do that, and price merchandise accordingly.
So how good are the deals at Unclaimed Baggage? We didn’t think they were all that great. Last summer I paid $239 for a current generation 80 gig iPod Classic. At Unclaimed Baggage they were selling older generation 80 gig iPods for $180, but none I saw had the ear buds or battery charger. I looked on eBay, and found charger cables averaging about $5 or $6, and ear buds about the same. For the $50 or so extra, I’d go with a new unit with warranty. We found used blue jeans in my size starting at $8.95 a pair. I can buy new Wranglers at Wally World for under $15 a pair. We’re glad we went, because now we can say that we did, but I don’t think we’ll be rushing back anytime soon. One thing that we were really glad of was that we didn’t drive our bus to Scottsboro from the campground. We took State Route 40, which was a nice road until we started down the mountainside toward Scottsboro. It was posted as a 14% grade for three miles, with many switchbacks, only a couple of guardrails, and the gravel shoulder was about two feet wide! That would be no fun at all in our MCI bus! Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally For A Great Selection Of RV Books And Accessories, Visit Our Online Marketplace Tuesday, October 14, 2008 Greetings from We’re exploring
new territory. Yesterday we left the
The complex includes the campground, Sequoyah Caverns, which offers hour long underground tours, and the historic Ellis Homestead, which was established here in 1841 by James Ellis. Today the direct descendants of James Ellis still live here and welcome visitors from all over the world.
A few miles south
lies
We’ll be here
for a few days doing some exploring locally and getting to know this
corner of the Yellowhammer
Thought For The Day - If
at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you. Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally For A Great Selection Of RV Books And Accessories, Visit Our Online Marketplace Monday, October 13, 2008 Yesterday’s blog brought several responses from people who all said they want to live the RV lifestyle as I have described it, without the hassles of huge payments and worries about failing stock markets and real estate prices that are bottoming out. But I saw a theme in almost every letter; nearly everyone who wrote me is not prepared to do with less to accomplish that goal. One e-mail said “We have wanted to do this forever, but we just don’t have the confidence to pull all of our money out of the market and invest it in an RV. We’ve already lost $75,000 since the first of the year.” I don’t think we have a total of $75,000 invested in our bus! With what they have lost so far, they could have purchased a decent used RV and be on the road. Another respondent said “We could afford to buy an RV right now, but we would not be happy with anything we have the money for. We have our hearts set on a new Newmar diesel coach, and just know that we will never be happy settling for less. So we’re stuck waiting until we can earn and save enough money to buy what we really want.” Or, you could die in the meantime, or your savings could go away, or illness could change your plans, or a hundred other things could happen to put an end to your plans. One lady said she has long dreamed of a simpler life on the road, but her husband is unwilling to sell their four bedroom house on seven acres or to downsize to a smaller home and use part of the funds for an RV purchase, even though their last child moved out over ten years ago. Someone else wrote to say that they have been reading the Gypsy Journal and my blog for years, but they can’t see themselves staying in many of the places we do; small town city parks, fairgrounds, an occasional rest area or WalMart parking lot. They really like comfortable RV resorts with plenty of amenities and organized activities, they are (in her words) “willing to put up with a small mom and pop place for a day or two if we have to” but they just can’t see themselves “living on the cheap.” Yet, she acknowledges that they can’t afford to spend much time in the upscale resorts they prefer, so even though they would like to fulltime, they have decided to just be snowbirds for three or four months a year instead. In all of these cases, these folks say they want a simple, uncomplicated life on the road, but they don’t want to compromise in any way to get it. You don’t have to run around the country in an old bucket of bolts to enjoy the RV lifestyle, but you also don’t have to have a four slide 42 foot long diesel pusher with an outside entertainment center, automatic awnings, and in motion satellite TV system. We know folks who are perfectly happy living the good life in used travel trailers that they paid less then $5,000 for. As I’ve said time and time again, the view out the windshield of our old bus is the same one the guy parked next to me in the fanciest diesel coach enjoys. Thought For The Day - He
who angers you controls you! Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally For A Great Selection Of RV Books And Accessories, Visit Our Online Marketplace Sunday, October 12, 2008 Old time singer and comedian Sophie Tucker was quoted as saying “I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor. Rich is better.” Well, I’ve never been rich, but I’ve darned sure been poor. Like many Americans, my parents suffered terribly during the Great Depression, and came through the experience stronger than when they went into it. Though they were hardworking people, financial success was never theirs. They could never give their children much in the way of material things, but they instilled a work ethic in us, and raised us to understand that things don’t make you who you are. We didn’t need to have the newest and fanciest to make us happy, because happiness comes from inside, not outside. I was taught early on that if I wanted something bad enough, I could find a way to get it. All it took was sacrifice and hard work. That’s why I worked a fulltime job after school every day, and why I had two cars and a motorcycle before I ever got my drivers license. They weren’t new cars, it wasn’t a new bike, but they were mine, bought and paid for. Growing up poor may not have always been fun, but it prepared me for today’s tough economy. Over the last few weeks every news report has told us how far the stock market is crashing, and I have friends pulling their hair out, but it’s not a problem for us, since we don’t own any stock anyway. We also don’t have any debt. Our bus may be the oldest thing in the RV park, but it’s paid for. The same for our van and everything else we own. When we want something, we save our money until we can afford to pay cash for it. Not having a house mortgage to pay or an RV payment to make every month sure makes life a lot easier. Over the years we have had people look down on us because we don’t have a 401K plan or money salted away in investments. Now we are watching many of those same people lose everything they have been counting on to finance their retirements. But while they fret and worry, we continue living our simple lifestyle. Yes, I think this country is in for some very hard times. One couple we know told us they have lost $80,000 in the recent stock market downfall, another fellow mentioned that he saw over $100,000 of his money evaporate in weeks. Someone else said the value of his home, which is on the market (and not selling), has fallen by $30,000. But an article by Eric Carvoin that I read online yesterday puts some of these losses into perspective. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081011/ap_on_bi_ge/where_s_the_money According to the article, a lot of this loss is “paper wealth.” In other words, someone did not reach into their wallets and take the money out, it was wealth that accumulated over time in the stock market and was based upon what their stock portfolio was worth at a given moment. If they did not actually sell that stock for whatever it was rated at on a given day, how real was that value? If you have a car to sell and you feel that it is worth $10,000 but the best offer you receive is $5,000, you have a $5,000 car, no matter what you think it’s worth. If you hold onto that car for several years and it becomes prized by a collector, the value may rise. If you allow it to deteriorate over time, its value may drop and it will only be worth $500 someday. But right now, today, you have a $5,000 car. Aren’t stocks the same way? Except that at least you can drive that car if you want to. I feel sorry for my friends who are distressed over their portfolios, but I’ll sleep well tonight. My “investments” are parked right here in my RV site, and they aren’t going anywhere until I turn the key. Thought For The Day - Always
read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it. Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally For A Great Selection Of RV Books And Accessories, Visit Our Online Marketplace Saturday, October 11, 2008 We sure had a good time yesterday! We spent the day
at the
Some of the best
known acts in bluegrass, including the Grascals, Leroy Troy, Melvin
In addition to
the music, we really enjoy seeing the crafts items on
It is amazing to me how many young people are accomplished musicians. We listened to several young men and women who would rival anyone performing anywhere. Just as many were busy performing almost forgotten country tasks such as rail splitting with a maul and wedges, woodcarving, chair caning, and basket weaving. It’s good to see old time skills and traditions passed down to the younger generations. No festival like this would be complete without food, especially local delicacies. We treated ourselves to homemade ice cream, Miss Terry enjoyed a serving of fried green tomatoes, and I had a funnel cake. We also sipped some fresh homemade apple cider and an herbal blend of iced tea. By the time our day was over we were tired, but we left humming to the music that still lingered in our ears. A day like this beats the heck out of staring at the boob tube watching spoiled overpaid athletes play ball, or wringing your hands as you watch CNN and see your investment portfolio evaporate. Thought For The
Day - Accept that some days you're
the pigeon, and some days you're the statue. Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally For A Great Selection Of RV Books And Accessories, Visit Our Online Marketplace Friday, October 10, 2008 Mother Nature is
putting on quite a show for us, painting the Tennessee
hillsides with a colorful palette of reds, yellows and oranges. When we
arrived here at
Thought most
people think of Yesterday we met
our friend Orv Hazelton for lunch at one of our favorite restaurants,
Golden Girls in nearby Orv is on his way south to look at and hopefully purchase, a motorhome for fulltiming when his wife retires in a few short weeks. We’re looking forward to seeing their new home on wheels if the deal goes through. The transition from a sticks and bricks home to fulltiming involves a lot of work and decisions. One of which is what to do with all of one’s “stuff.” We came to realize a long time ago that we didn’t own our stuff as much as it eventually owned us. We became slaves to our stuff. We worked to purchase it, we worked to earn enough money to insure it, we worked to pay for a place to keep it, and one day we woke up and realized that we never had time to enjoy our stuff because we were working too hard to support it. And what did we do if we had a few bucks left over at the end of the month? We bought more stuff, of course! Yard sales are a popular venue for a lot of folks to dispose of what they don’t want to take on the road. One of the problems a lot of folks have when selling off a lifetime’s accumulation of stuff is that they are dismayed at the prices offered. It really hurts to sell a cherished piece of furniture or an antique that you paid several hundred dollars for and take a loss. But one has to remember that (hopefully) you did not purchase the things in your home as an investment. You acquired them to use and enjoy, which you have. There are very few things that you can reasonably expect to get your money back out of, let alone a profit. Think of it this way – if you bought an appliance or a power tool for $300, used it for a while, and can only sell it for $100 at your yard sale, that’s a small price to pay for freedom. Thought For The Day - Never
put both feet in your mouth at the same time, or you won't have a leg to
stand on. Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally For A Great Selection Of RV Books And Accessories, Visit Our Online Marketplace Thursday, October 9, 2008
And the best
thing about those old cars was that any old shadetree mechanic could fix
them. Even I Our Ford van
developed a bad miss in the engine last year, and we had to have a spark
plug boot replaced. I didn’t even know what a spark plug boot was, but
it is the modern version of a spark plug wire. That helped for a while,
but the problem came back early this year, and a garage in I took the van to
a garage near the Escapees RV park here in Since the computer scanner shows that the problem is now corrected, even though it isn’t, the next step was to call the local Ford garage and talk to the service manager. His suggestion was to replace the fuel filter again, and if that doesn’t work, to replace one or more of the coils (as it turns out, each of the eight cylinders has its own coil) at a cost of $75 each plus labor. If the problem persists, the next step is to pull the fuel tank and replace the fuel pump. If that still hasn’t solved the problem, he had a list of other parts we can replace, all very expensive and labor intensive. He had no guarantees how long this process would take or how much it would cost. When I was a youngster, a guy named Norm or Bill, with grease under his fingernails and a cigarette tucked behind his ear opened your hood, listened to your engine as you revved it up, nodded a couple of times, and then tore into the thing and had you back on the road in an hour or two. These days we no longer have mechanics, we have “technicians” whose only solution to a problem is to throw parts (and dollars) at it until it goes away. They no longer know how to fix things, they just bolt on new parts. I miss the old cars, and I miss guys like Norm and Bill. Thought For The Day Drive
carefully. Cars are not the only things that can be recalled by their
maker. Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally For A Great Selection Of RV Books And Accessories, Visit Our Online Marketplace Wednesday, October 8, 2008 Judging by the responses to yesterday’s blog, I hit a sore point with quite a few readers, who are also fed up with out of control children and the parents who refuse to discipline them. Several readers
e-mailed to say they have suffered in silence many times while unruly
brats ruined a meal or an outing to a movie. Others said they are not as
willing to allow their dining experience to be destroyed by such
actions, and do not hesitate to complain to the parents, and if that
fails, to the restaurant management. One reader probably took things
just a bit to the extreme when he wrote “Instead of moving your chair,
you should have used it to beat the little brat to death.” Maybe doing
in the parents would have been okay, but I think it’s illegal to maim
munchkins in With the election drawing near, in a rather inaccurate and obviously slanted article titled The Winnebago Vote written by a scribe named Forrest Wilder, the Texas Observer has raised the issue of RVers who vote by absentee ballot once again. To read the
story, the Escapees RV Club is nothing but a massive scam designed
wholly to defraud Democrats of their ability to win an election in I never realized that all of those tax dollars Escapees members who use Livingston as their legal domicile pay to register their RVs and other vehicles, the time they devote to serving on jury duty and devote to other civic causes, and the money they spend in the area, are all just part of a larger conspiracy to keep Bubba from getting elected dog catcher. Check it out at http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2860 Personally, I have absolutely no interest in politics, on the local or national level. I’m jaded. I spent too many years in the newspaper business to fall for any candidate’s line of bulls#!%. I was known as a
bit of a maverick in the small town newspaper business (go figure). I
prided myself on stepping on all toes, regardless of race, religion, or
political affiliation. I once wrote that there was nothing wrong with
the mayor of our I used to love September and October in election years, because suddenly I became the belle of the ball. Every wannabe town councilman, state representative, and senate candidate who had shunned me for months was suddenly inviting me to lunch, asking me to come to barbecues, and pumping my hand like an oil well gone mad. But I knew that come November 3rd the ball was over and I would turn back into a pumpkin and be put back on the shelf until they wanted my newspapers’ support again. What frustrates me the most about politics these days is that nobody ever runs on his or her own merits. Why is it that instead of telling the voting public what they stand for and what they hope to accomplish in office, every candidate, be they Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, or Independent, bombards us with message after message about how bad the other guy is? I guess they figure that if they can get us to focus on how terrible their opponent is, we won’t notice their own shortcomings. Thought For The Day –
If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague. Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally For A Great Selection Of RV Books And Accessories, Visit Our Online Marketplace Tuesday, October 7, 2008 Yesterday was a day for unruly children. We were
awakened by a young boy who is staying here at In the afternoon we took a tip from longtime
readers George and Starr Sharrer and tried out a great burger joint
called Five Guys www.fiveguys.com
for dinner. If you haven’t tried Five Guys yet, do
yourself a favor and find one. The burgers were great and their French
fries are some of the best we’ve ever had. Five Guys has restaurants
all along the Eastern Seaboard and throughout the Midwest, and some as
far west as The only downside to our meal was the family who sat behind us and had three of the most ill-mannered rug rats we’ve ever come across. Mom and a little redheaded girl of about five or six were behind me, and the kid was up and out of her chair and then back more than I could possibly ever count, and each time she had to bang her chair into the back of mine. The mother was just as bad, getting up to fetch her brood sodas and napkins a half dozen times, and she too had to bounce her chair off mine every time in the process. Finally I said “I’ll just move my chair out into the aisle so everybody will stop banging into me over and over again,” and did so. They just ignored me and continued to play musical chairs. There were also two boys in the same family, maybe eight or nine years old, who stomped around the restaurant, came up to other diners’ tables and made faces, then went into the restroom, where they held a screaming contest that went on for many long minutes. Finally they decided to take their show on the road and came back into the restaurant proper, still sounding off. All the while this was going on, their mother and grandma and grandpa, who were with them, seemed totally oblivious to their misbehavior. Why would someone think it is okay to subject the dining public to such wild brats? My kids would have never dared to think they could get away with such antics, either in public or private. I was a single dad, and whether it was politically correct or not, I didn’t hesitate to swat their rear ends often enough to let them know that there were rules and consequences for their actions. And you know what? If you do that from time to time, the message gets through and you don’t have to repeat the process on a daily basis. Thought For The Day –
In each of us there is a little of all of us Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally For A Great Selection Of RV Books And Accessories, Visit Our Online Marketplace Monday, October 6, 2008 Terry and I have
been slowly working our way through a huge backlog of paperwork that
piled up during our rally and the time we were in Yesterday we
never left the bus until almost 6 p.m., when we walked over to the
clubhouse here at Terry and I
always enjoy this part of the country, with the lush green hillsides and
small town friendliness that belie its close proximity to a big city
like Hopefully while
we’re in the area, we can take some time to cruise some of the back
roads and do some sightseeing. There is a lot to see and do in this
area, from Dollywood and the other the tourist traps around Pigeon
Forge, to the
The Tennessee Fall Homecoming will include some of the best known names in bluegrass, folk, and mountain music. At any given time during the four day long event there will be acts performing on five different stages, as well as demonstrations of pioneer crafts, and of course, lots of wonderful food to sustain us while we take in all the fun. Thought For The Day –
The easiest way to find something lost around the house is to buy a
replacement. Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally For A Great Selection Of RV Books And Accessories, Visit Our Online Marketplace Sunday, October 5, 2008 One of classes I teach at Life on Wheels is called The Reluctant RVer, and covers second thoughts and concerns many of us have when we make the transition to the fulltime RV lifestyle. One of the most common problems people deal with is leaving their adult children and grandchildren behind. Many people put themselves through a terrible guilt trip, and punish themselves needlessly because they feel they are being selfish by following their dreams of travel and freedom. Nonsense. Lots of grandkids grow up without Grandpa and Grandma there every day, and they turn out just fine, growing up to be responsible, contributing citizens. Yes, your adult children and their kids love you and you love them. But that does not mean you have to be joined at the hip for eternity. I had one woman, at a Life on Wheels conference in Idaho a few years back, insist that she simply could not agree to her husband’s plan to go fulltime because “My grandson needs me.” I asked if the child’s parents were in the picture and capable of caring for him, and she told me they were both present and responsible parents. But she and her grandson spent at least two hours a day together, as well as most weekends. Then she told me the grandson was fourteen years old! My reply to her was that if a fourteen year old boy was spending that much time with his grandmother, there is something unhealthy about the relationship. Did she plan to go off to college with him when the time came, and to accompany him on his honeymoon? Do your adult children really even have time for you in their lives on a day to day basis? If they live in the same time town, how often do you really spend time together? Usually they are busy with work and child rearing, and mom and dad are an afterthought or convenient babysitters at best. Yet, there can be resentment and feelings of abandonment on the part of adult children when they suddenly realize their parents are going to hit the road. My daughter Tiffany and I went through a rough patch when we became fulltimers, but we’ve worked through that and now have a very strong relationship, and I treasure her not only as my daughter, but as my friend. We find that when
we go back to Show Low, It is important to stay in contact and be a presence in our grandkids’ lives, but we can do that successfully at a distance. Our granddaughter Hailey will be six years old this month, and we send her picture postcards from wherever we are traveling. Kids love getting their very own mail, and now Hailey is mailing us funny postcards in return. Getting these updates from the road can help small children understand more about our country – it’s a great geography lesson when they can look at a map and see where Grandpa and Grandma are at this week. I wonder if we are planting a seed of wanderlust in their souls that will sprout someday in the future. We also stay in contact by cell phone, and it’s not uncommon for my phone to ring and a little girl’s voice greet me with “Hi Grandpa. Guess what?” and then she fills me in on the latest events in her life. From her first day of school, to getting a cast on her arm after a recent schoolyard accident, we’re kept up to date on what’s happening from her perspective, as well as from her mom’s. Some grandparents even take the little ones with them for short trips, or arrange to have them fly in and spend some time together in different areas of the country. We haven’t done that; our bus sleeps just two and we like it that way. But we’re just a phone call, a post card, or an e-mail away. And when we visit, we can make up for a lot of time spoiling them to death in short order. Then we hand them back to Mom and Dad and hit the road again. Thought For The Day –
Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way. Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally For A Great Selection Of RV Books And Accessories, Visit Our Online Marketplace Saturday, October 4, 2008 It’s that time of year again. Interstate 75 and every other southbound highway in the United States is seeing an ever growing stream of RVs heading toward warmer climes for the winter. We’ve spent time in many of the popular snowbird roosts over the years, and each has its own good and not so good points. The great thing about the RV lifestyle is that there is usually something for everyone, no matter what you look for in a winter hangout. We spent a couple
of winters in Northern Florida
is less expensive, but can get darned chilly; we had water hoses freeze
on several occasions in Anther favorite
area for us is the Gulf
Shores
area of Folks in the Lone
Star State love Winter Texans, and there is a reason snowbirds return
there over and over. We celebrated our first two Christmases on the road
at the Escapees Rainbows End park in Even though Galveston and some areas along the coast got wiped out by Hurricane Ike, there are still plenty of options for RVers. Friends in Port Aransas tell me they received no more than some heavy rain, and all is well there. Terry and I plan to spend at least a month, maybe two, in the Rockport/Fulton/Port Aransas area this winter. We spent part of
one winter in the Hill Country a few years ago, and while it was very
friendly, again, I prefer to be a bit warmer. We have never been to the Many snowbirds
don’t think of Deming,
Thought For The Day –
He who believes he is deceiving others often deceives himself. Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally For A Great Selection Of RV Books And Accessories, Visit Our Online Marketplace Friday, October 3, 2008 After giving the rush hour traffic time to settle down, we rolled out of Kentucky Horse Park yesterday morning and drove south on Interstate 75. It was a beautiful day for traveling, plenty of blue sky, not too warm, and traffic was light.
Ever since then, I have been paranoid whenever we get onto a rough stretch of highway that makes it feel like we are getting a flat tire. I can’t tell you how many times I have pulled onto the shoulder of the roadway to check out my tires in situations like this. But no more; my PressurePro system will alert me to a drop in pressure on any of the van or bus tires, and if things feel strange for some reason, all I have to do is scroll through the tires on the monitor and I’m reassured all is well. It’s also darned nice not to have to crawl around on my hands and knees with a tire gauge anymore before we hit the road. A quick glance at the PressurePro tells me if all of my tires are properly inflated. If you don’t have one of these systems in your RV, visit www.pressureprosystem.com and check it out. Hey, Christmas is coming, maybe Santa will surprise you. As I wrote in
yesterday’s blog, we were not sure that we’d get a space at
There is a pickup truck slide-in camper set up on wooden Yes, I know that Joe and Kay Peterson started the club when Joe was an itinerate construction worker, and I don’t have a thing against construction workers or anyone else who puts in an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. And it’s not because some of the rigs parked here long term are older units. Heck, our bus is 32 years old! But when you turn RV parks that were marketed as being for traveling Escapees members into long term parking for local workers, and when you allow non-members in off the street, then tell an Escapee member that there may not be room for him, I have a real problem with that. Even though it is called a “club,” Escapees is actually a privately owned business, and the owners have every right to operate their business any way they see fit. But as a long time customer of that business, if I am not getting what I want, it may be time for me to reevaluate my continued patronage. Thought For The
Day – All those who believe in
psycho kinesis, raise my hand. Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally For A Great Selection Of RV Books And Accessories, Visit Our Online Marketplace Thursday, October 2, 2008 Did I ever tell you how much I hate mornings? We were up way too early Wednesday morning, and out the door while it was still dark, so we could get to the VA hospital for my lab work and first appointment of the day. I saw dawn as we pulled into the Leestown VA facility in the north side of Lexington. Take it from me, dawn’s not all that pretty, and certainly now worth crawling out of a warm bed to greet. As I wrote in
yesterday’s blog, we had a really busy schedule of medical
appointments, and would be running back and forth between the two VA
hospitals. But we got lucky – my first appointment, to have my eye
checked out, was at 8 a.m. But since we were there by 7:30, they took me
in early, and the appointment was over before its planned starting time.
So we went downstairs to the lab to get blood drawn, and still made it
to the Again we lucked out, they took me right in to the dermatologist, who froze off several pre-cancerous spots on my face, head, and ears. How can freezing something hurt that darned bad? Ouch! By 10:30, my
morning appointments were completed, and the next one was back at
Leestown at 1 p.m. After that I had a 2 p.m. back at With that
finished, we stopped at Subway for a quick lunch, browsed in a neat
little used bookstore in the same strip mall, and then returned to
Leestown for my appointment with Nancy Hazelton, my primary care
provider. We had just had dinner with Nancy and her husband Orv the
night before, so this was mostly a formality. Unfortunately, this would
be my last appointment with The good news is that overall, my medical reports are great. My eye, which we feared was in the process of having a detached retina, is much better than we had hoped for. Two different doctors gave it a good exam and said that while they could see a small scar on the retina, they are comfortable in saying it won’t get worse. I will have to contend with the bothersome floaters, but they tell me those may well decrease over time. That is a real relief to me! Otherwise, my cholesterol is down, my blood pressure, which has always been very good, was slightly elevated, and it looks like I’ll be around to get underfoot for a while longer.
This morning we
will leave for the Thought For The Day –
You can either take action, or you can hang back and hope for a miracle. Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally For A Great Selection Of RV Books And Accessories, Visit Our Online Marketplace Wednesday, October 1, 2008 I figured that I’d tick off a few horse lovers with yesterday’s blog, but I was surprised at how many mule fans came out of the woodwork! I received quite a few e-mails from readers who all agreed my Dad’s often voiced opinion that a mule makes a much better ride than any horse ever born. As for me, I don’t want anything to do with either one. I’ll stick to something with an automatic transmission, power steering, and a good Sirius satellite radio. J
Yesterday Terry
and I drove to Since I wrote a while back that we had become interested in kayaks, I was amazed at how many RVers we know who wrote to suggest models to look at, or just to tell us about their favorite paddling waters. Today will be
very busy. I have to be at the Leestown Road
From there, we
have to be back at the Leestown Road
facility at 1 p.m. for an appointment with Nancy Hazelton, my primary
care provider. And as soon as that is wrapped up, we have to get back to
Hopefully we’ll
get everything wrapped up on the medical side today, and be free to take
off tomorrow morning. It’s only about 160 miles to the Escapees
Raccoon Valley RV park near Thought For The Day –
We must teach our children to dream with their eyes open. Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally For A Great Selection Of RV Books And Accessories, Visit Our Online Marketplace Click Here For Our September 2008 Blog Click Here For Our August 2008 Blog 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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One
was the 138 foot long Euharlee Creek covered bridge, which was built in
1886 by Washington W. King, the son of a freed slave. The bridge was
adjacent to a mill that has long since disappeared, except for its
foundation. The covered bridge is no longer open to vehicular traffic,
but it was fun to walk across it and see the details that went into its
construction, including the wooden pegs that hold the wooden planks in
place.
In
downtown Cartersville, on the side of the Young Brothers Pharmacy
building, we found the world’s first outdoor painted-wall
advertisement for Coca-Cola. The sign was painted by a Coca-Cola syrup
salesmen named James Couden in 1894. Over the years the sign has been
repainted several times, and the pharmacy, which is still in business,
has many Coca Cola artifacts and collectibles on display inside that
make it well worth stopping in to see.
friendship, a monument erected by a debtor to honor his creditors.
According to a historical sign next to the marble shaft, in 1857 local
businessman Mark A. Cooper was deeply in debt and in danger of losing
his Etowah Iron Works. 38 of Cooper’s friends signed bank notes
totaling $100,000 to save their friend’s business. It took years of
hard work, but Cooper eventually satisfied his debts, and then erected
the monument to honor the friends who stood by him in his darkest hours.
The was not
simply bolting a few pieces together, folks. The bed of the truck
alone
weights 40,000 pounds, and the tires are seven or eight fee tall! To get
the bed back onto the truck, Christopher positioned two huge tow trucks
at either end of the thing, had them lift the bed into the air, then
used a third tow truck to drag the dump truck under the bed so they
could lower it into place!
Back at
Christopher’s house, we spent the afternoon kicking tires, comparing
notes on our
buses and our travels, and telling lies. In the afternoon,
Christopher’s dad, Howard, fired up the grill and barbecued enough
ribs to feed the crew of an aircraft carrier, and were they ever
delicious! It was a potluck affair, with lots of great side dishes, and
we all stuffed ourselves to the point where it was painful.
But, a fellow here
has a 1990 Prevost Country Coach conversion for sale for just over
$50,000 and I could probably embezzle that much money somewhere over a
period of a year or three. Besides, if fuel prices skyrocket again, I
could hire a couple of lot lizards and set up business at a truck stop
until I made enough money to get on down the road. 
As it turns out,
Christopher Best, our host co-host for this little bus rally, has a
small cemetery on part of his acreage. Terry and I stopped to check it
out, and took a few photographs.
served the
South, as you might expect here in 
We
spent some time yesterday prowling around the little hamlet of Kingston,
Georgia, a place rich with Civil War history. I’d be comfortable in betting
that 
I
can’t believe how my pal Howard Best can cram the buses onto this
property for his little bus rally and pig roast. But, this is the
fifteenth year for the soiree and I guess by now he has it down to a
science. There are a dozen or more buses here now, and even a factory
built motorhome that we won’t talk about. Howard’s son
Christopher’s beautiful Wanderlodge has a lot of company this week –
everything from MCIs to Eagles, and several very nice Prevosts. And more
are on the way!
It
is on the back roads that we so often find reminders of someone’s
dream gone bust. Some fallen down cabin or farmhouse that someone once
called home, now home only to cobwebs, pack rats, and memories. Some
long forgotten business that somebody once staked their future in.
It took us over
two hours to cover that 70 miles, but it was worth it because our
destination was a great store called The Outside World 
Our salesman was
a fine young man named Garrett, and he went far beyond patient with us,
explaining the nuances and features of at least half a dozen different
kayaks, putting several into the water for us to test, and helping me
drag my portly posterior out
of a couple. Garrett even lugged one
outside to our van so we could test whether or not it would fit inside.
When all was said and done, we came away with two kayaks, a beautiful
red 12 foot Native Watercraft Manta Ray for Miss Terry and a green Ocean
Kayak Trident Prowler Angler 11½ foot model for me. Both are sit on top
models, incredibly stable, and very comfortable. We can’t wait to get
them into the water!
On our way back
to 
The four members who made up the band Alabama grew
up here, and after an outstanding career in which they won more awards
than just about any other group in country music, they retired from the
road and moved back home to Fort Payne, where they are active in the
community.
We’re not usually star struck, but decided we’d
drive up the side of
from 1891 to 1970, is now a museum
displaying Indian artifacts, railroad memorabilia, local history
exhibits, and more than 90 dioramas depicting fairy tales, historic
events, life beneath the sea, and more.
Yesterday we drove the van to Scottsboro to check
out the 
over the years, including the Hoggle figure from the
movie Labyrinth.
Created in 
Basically, Unclaimed Baggage is just a big thrift
store. If you’ve been to a Goodwill store, you’ll feel right at
home. Over 60% of the merchandise is used clothing, everything from
leather jackets to wedding dresses to blue jeans. The company says many
are designer labels, but we didn’t see any ourselves. There is also
jewelry, electronics, baby strollers (who walks out of an airport with
their baby in their arms and forgets the stroller?), books, and
accessories.
This family owned
Passport 
This is beautiful
country, with mountain ridges towering above old barns and cabins
located beside winding two lane roads. This was the land of the
Cherokee, before they were forced west on the Trail of Tears, and the
great chief
Fort
up the country
group 
The
The
Fall Homecoming features over 400 musicians playing bluegrass, gospel,
folk and old-time country music continuously on five stages. In
addition, there are small groups of two to four
people playing here and there across the 60 acre grounds at any given
time. Step into one cabin and you’ll find someone like this pleasant
lady playing a hammer dulcimer,
year
to be a part of the Fall Homecoming, and judging by the crowds of fans
in attendance, even on a Friday, they are much appreciated.
display, and watching local artisans demonstrating old time skills.
Thomas Robinson may look like a farmer fresh out from behind the
mule-drawn plow, but it is amazing to watch him tatting and see the
intricately detailed pieces of needlework he creates.
We
spent quite a bit of time watching a group of men sawing logs into cedar
boards and shakes using an ancient tractor powered buzz saw. An OSHA
inspector would cringe to see someone operating this old equipment,
where the only safety features were heavy work gloves, luck, and common
sense.
I’ve
always considered myself fortunate for growing up in the age of the
muscle car and 29 cent a gallon gasoline. Those hot old Chevy and Ford
V-8s I cut my teeth on did not have cruise control, airbags, Sirius
satellite radio, and all of the other creature comforts today’s
automobiles have. But they had enough power to jerk you back in your
seat when you put the pedal to the metal and you learned how to drive
cars like that, not just point them down the highway.
could do simple jobs like changing spark plugs and installing a new set
of points. With today’s vehicles, you have to be a computer technician
to keep them running.
Next weekend is
the annual Tennessee Fall Homecoming at the 
And
who can talk about 
We
hit a couple of rough patches of highway between 
But we were
disappointed that it looks like they are turning the place into a
trailer park, with all of the negative connotations that go along with
that term. There are several rigs here that belong to construction
workers who are employed locally, and look like they have been here a
long time.
sawhorses, with stuff stacked around outside, more covered with blue
tarps. This isn’t what we joined Escapees for and not what we expect
when we go to an Escapees park.
Back
at the campground, this neat Freightliner cabover truck conversion had
pulled in a few sites down from our bus conversion. The back part is a
horse hauler, but I can see how a guy could create a very comfortable
motorhome in one of these rigs.
However,
there are some things that even I don’t want to drive down the
highway. Check out this two-sided bus that reader Joyce Space spotted in