I got a call from my daughter Tiffany the other day, telling me that her grandfather, Jim Zipf, had passed away. Even though I had not seen the man in almost 25 years, and even though Tiffany’s mother and I had parted company long, long ago, I was still sorry to hear the news. I always liked Jim, and we got along very well.

Tiffany and I were talking about families, and how she has now lost all of her grandparents, her aunts and uncles on my side of the family, and other people she loved. I hated to tell her that as she gets older, it will happen again and again. We never know when our own, or somebody else’s time on this earth will end.

One of the things I love about the RV lifestyle is that it gives me the freedom to visit family and friends in every corner of the country. Since we hit the road over twelve years ago, I have been able to reestablish relationships with cousins I had not heard from in years, high school and Army buddies I had lost contact with, and recently, my nephews and a niece, right here in Florida, that I had not seen in over 25 years. It is amazing that so much time can pass, yet with many of these people, we have been able to pick up right where we left off, and the connection is still just as strong.

In one case, I’m glad I did, because I was able to visit with one of my best friends from high school several times before he died suddenly earlier this year. Like I said, we never know.

The RV lifestyle also has allowed Terry and I to see places and do things that we had only dreamed of before. How many people can say that they have paddled their kayaks in the Florida Keys, or ate fresh lobster in Maine, or watched the leaves turning on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, or been serenaded to sleep by coyotes in the Arizona desert?  How many have been able to walk the hallowed ground at Arlington, or roamed the narrow streets of the French Quarter in New Orleans? Many RVers have done all that and more in the same year!

Sometimes I burn Miss Terry out, because I want to be going and doing all of the time, and once in a while she needs some down time to recharge her batteries. I need that too, but I have known so many people who were always going to do something “someday” and never made it, because their calendar ran out before “someday” arrived.

I know that we need to stop and smell the roses now and then, but there are so many new adventures and old favorite places waiting for me just around the next bend in the road and over the next hill. I want to get to them all while I still can!

Thought For The Day – Making a ‘living’ is not the same thing as making a ‘life’.

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Never underestimate the power of positive sniveling! It actually warmed up a bit in Fort Lauderdale yesterday, and it looks like the worst of this cold spell is about over. The forecast for the next three days is for highs in the mid-70s, and sunshine! Whatever will we do?

Yesterday morning J.C. and Beverly Webber came by to say goodbye and pick up a bundle of Gypsy Journals to drop off at their next stop, then they headed on down the road toward Marathon Key.

After they left, Terry and I ran some errands, stopping at the post office, bank,  and WalMart. I have to be honest and say that even if the weather was good, this area is just too darned busy for our taste. We much prefer a slower pace, and this is a big city, with all of the hustle and bustle that any big city has.

Paradise Island is a clean RV park, and the staff are all very friendly and helpful, but it’s an older place, with very tight spaces, and for us it’s really just a convenient place to park while we visit our friends Jim and Chris Guld from Geeks on Tour. If we wanted to play tourist in this area, it would be a good base from which to do so.

Fort Lauderdale is called the “Venice of America” because of the more than 300 miles of waterways that wind past parks, estates, and luxury hotels. If it was warmer, I’d have my Sea Eagle PaddleSki in the water doing some exploring while we’re here!

For some reason, I had started feeling really puny while we were out, and it felt like my cold or flu from a couple of week ago was returning. Back at the motorhome, I took some Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold Formula and took a nap. I woke up an hour or so later, and felt better, so whatever it was seems to have passed.

I called my daughter Tiffany in Arizona and we talked a little bit about what the grandkids wanted for Christmas, and then I went online and ordered a couple of items for them. Isn’t online shopping great? No parking places to find, no crowds pushing and shoving, no packages to wrap, and no long lines at the post office to stand in. Isn’t technology a wonderful thing?

So many people seemed to enjoy the link I posted to a You Tube video about Florida snowbirds in Tuesday’s blog that I found a new one to make you giggle. This isn’t a video, just a funny holiday parody that appealed to my warped sense of humor, so turn up your sound and enjoy!

Chris has been working hard on our website relocation, and tells me she’s making headway. I’m glad she’s the one doing all of this confusing technical stuff, because I get a headache just thinking about it!

Chris and Jim are a real RV success story. When we first met several years ago, they were in the early days of operating their mobile computer education business, and since then we have watched the Geeks on Tour grow into the recognized experts in the RV world. Their seminars are popular at RV rallies nationwide, and they have taught literally thousands of RVers how to get the most out of their computers. They also offer online education for those who can’t make it to one of their seminars. Check out their website to learn more.

Thought For The Day – Wealth is a crutch for those who can’t handle poverty.

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Whether we’re in our motorhome or our van, whenever time allows, we always prefer to travel the two lane back roads wherever we are going. A Denny’s or a Flying J truck stop are pretty much the same, whether they are at an interstate highway exit in Arizona or Tennessee.

But on the back roads you see the real America; the small towns, the neat farmsteads, the old courthouses with their Civil War statues, the fields of corn, and the roadside produce stands. You can’t travel as fast on the back roads as you can on the super highways, but why would you want to, anyway? There’s too much to see along the way.

Yesterday we drove back up to Allegan, Michigan to pick up the new issue of the Gypsy Journal from our printer. Our route took us up State Route 40, through the small towns of Marcellus, with its handsome old houses and storefronts; and Lawton, where the beautiful old stone railroad depot is now home to an American Legion post.

We passed a lot of farm fields, those roadside produce stands I mentioned above, and several lakes. I’d like to get our kayaks wet up here, and I bet there is some good fishing in these waters too!

I always like driving through the busy little town of Paw Paw, just for the name if nothing else. Paw Paw is the home of the St. Julian Winery, which offers free tours and wine tasting.

The Paw Paw Police (as opposed to the cantaloupe cops), have a neat old 1950s-era police car that we had hoped to get a picture of, but it wasn’t in its usual parking place, so we’ll have to try again one of these days.

We enjoyed the ride up to Allegan so much that, once we loaded the new issue into the van, we drove right back to Elkhart along the same route. (Of course, it’s the shortest and easiest route, so that helped too.

How would you like to spend the morning driving through all that pretty scenery I just showed you, and come back to find this parked next to you? No, the Beverly Hillbillies didn’t get a motorhome and hit the road, that’s my buddy Greg White’s American Eagle. Greg managed to scrape up his bay doors on a boulder or a panhandler, I forget which, so he took them off and our pal Michele Henry at Phoenix Commercial Paint is fixing them like new again. In the meantime, I just had to pick on Greg, because you know what they say, you can take the redneck out of the trailer park, but you can’t take the trailer park out of the redneck.

I was feeling a bit droopy by the time we got back to Elkhart Campground, so I laid down for a little nap, and woke up when my friend Orv Hazelton called to tell me he and his lovely wife Nancy had arrived and were parked next to us. We went over to check our their beautiful new Allegro four-slide diesel pusher, I fussed over their little mutt Duffy, who is almost acceptable for a wannabe dog, and then the four of us went out to dinner. We haven’t seen Orv and Nancy in quite a while, and it was nice to have some time to visit and catch up.

When we got back to the campground, I wanted to take a little walk, and then go inside and get caught up on e-mail from the day. But before I could, a series of folks stopped by to introduce themselves, say hello, ask about the rally, and to  talk about my Bad Nick Blog posts. I’m afraid I can’t remember everybody’s name, but they included Phyllis Schell,  and subscribers Gary and Elaine Regelman. My apologies to those whose names I missed, but my brain capacity is a bit exceeded right now.

I finally managed to get in a couple of laps around the campground, stopped to visit with some folks along the way, and got back to the Winnebago in time to check out the new series Hardcore Pawn on True TV. We managed about 20 minutes of the half hour episode and changed channels. It’s obviously an attempt to cash in on the popularity of A&E’s Pawn Stars, but we both felt that it pretty much sucked. We won’t waste any time on it.

Thought For The Day – If you can’t be a good example, then you’ll just have to serve as a horrible warning.

Yesterday, relatives from all over the western United States descended on Avon, Colorado for Terry’s son’s wedding today. In the early afternoon we drove to Avon, which is sort of a bedroom community to Vail, to get together with everybody at her son Cody’s house.

We had not seen Cody and Jonna’s place before, and it was pretty impressive. Located high on a hillside overlooking the valley, they have a great view, but I really wouldn’t want to drive down the steep roads they have to navigate in the wintertime.

Terry’s mom and dad, and her sister Dani had arrived from Arizona just a few minutes ahead of us, and her son Shawn pulled in from New Mexico an hour or so later.  Then we all headed to a Mexican restaurant for a family dinner. The kids’ father, Larry Wyse,  and his significant other, Jane,  were in from Wyoming and met us there, as did the bridal couple, Casey and Leslie, pictured below.

Here is a picture of (left to right), Shawn, Leslie, Casey, Cody, and Cody’s wife Jonna. If Casey and Cody look very much alike, it’s because they are identical twins. Terry and I have been married over thirteen years, and I still can’t tell them apart. I think they should wear name tags like RVers do. It would sure make my life easer! (Yes, it really is all about me!)

And here is one the waiter took of our dinner party. That’s your truly on the left, then Terry’s dad, Pete Weber, Shawn, and then from the far back right we have Cody, Jonna, Casey, Leslie, Shawn’s date, Faith, Terry’s mom, Bess Weber, Miss Terry, and her sister Dani.  The young man in the dark shirt and head brace next to Shawn is Casey and Cody’s friend, Bob. He broke his back in a bicycle accident just two weeks ago and is in a body brace and looks pretty rough, but there was no way he was going to miss the nuptials. You can just barely see Larry’s cowboy hat behind Bob, and Jane was hiding someplace.

This area is very pretty, but I have to tell you, it’s just not for me. Too many people crammed into too little space, and every inch of that space is very expensive. Cody told us that a small run of the mill two bedroom, one bath apartment, goes for $1600 a month, plus utilities, on a year lease minimum, in this slow economy. When things are booming, the same apartment will cost upwards of $2,000 a month. It is not uncommon for as many as four to six people to share a small apartment, all of them working two or three low paying jobs just to make ends meet. All so they can live in this natural outdoors playground.

Cody pointed out what he called “get away homes,” perched on the mountainside, owned by wealthy out of town people who come here to ski in the winter and mountain bike in the summer, and said the lowest priced house costs over $2 million. Since Cody is the accountant for one of the major development companies in the region, he knows what the current values are at any given time.  A lot of sports and Hollywood celebrities have homes in Vail and Avon, and enjoy coming here to rub shoulders with the ”little people.”

Don’t get me wrong, the area is beautiful, but I wouldn’t trade our life on the open road for the fanciest, most expensive house here. Our motorhome may not have as much square footage, but we can turn the key and go wherever we want, whenever we want.

Today we’ll get those two young people hitched, and spend some more time doing the family thing, and then things will get back to normal and we’ll get back to real life.

Thought For The Day – A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty.

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We slept in yesterday morning, taking advantage of the calm before the storm of activity this weekend, when Terry’s son Casey marries his lady love, Leslie.  River Dance RV Resort has cinnamon rolls on some mornings, and Rusty and Rebecca, in the office, had insisted we allow them to treat us to a couple, as compensation for the short delay getting into our RV site yesterday. 

We appreciated the gesture, and the cinnamon rolls were huge, but since Miss Terry makes the very best cinnamon rolls in the world, it’s hard for anything else to compare.

It was another hot day here in Colorado, well over 90 degrees, and we are finding that our Norcold refrigerator doesn’t keep things like milk nearly as cold as the residential style refrigerator we had in our bus conversion. Our awnings help shade the sides of the motorhome, which helps a bit, and the air conditioner keeps it nice and comfortable inside, but the refrigerator is definitely working hard just to keep things cold.  

The Eagle River runs right along the edge of the campground, and we walked down to check it out yesterday afternoon. The water was moving along pretty well, and it would have been fun to get our kayaks wet.

At one point there is a wide gravel sandbar just a couple of feet off shore, and Terry rolled up her pants legs and went wading. She said the water was cool and felt wonderful on such a hot day.

The water is very clear, as you can see in this picture. We didn’t spot any, but the folks in the campground office said beaver are seen frequently in the river.

While Terry was out wading, I took some photos of the river and the campground. It sure is located in a scenic spot. The campground stays busy all season long, and because it’s the weekend, it’s even busier. All day long everything from popup trailers to huge motorhomes were pulling in.

I spent much of the afternoon working on the schedule for our Eastern Gypsy Gathering in Elkhart, Indiana the end of August, and I hope to have the preliminary schedule posted on our main website by sometime Monday. I’m still waiting for last minute confirmation on a few seminars.

About 6 p.m., Terry’s son Cody and his wife Jonna came by to visit, and we went out to dinner at a place in Eagle called Moe’s Barbecue. It was pretty good, but not in a league with Hog Wild in Cottonwood, Arizona, or any of the Bandana’s Barbecue or Famous Dave’s we’ve been to at different places in the country. But, it was nice to spend time with Cody and Jonna.

Back at the RV, we chatted for another half hour or so, but since Cody has a lot of responsibilities with his twin’s wedding on Sunday, including the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner today, we soon called it an evening.

We’ll be busy with family activities the rest of the weekend. Terry’s other son, Shawn, and her daughter Kelly, are arriving today, from New Mexico and Nebraska, respectively; and her parents and sister Dani will arrive from Arizona this afternoon. So we’ll have lot of family to spend time with.

Thought For The Day – My father didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.

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