My friend Brenda Speidel calls me Gadget Boy because I am always looking for some neat new toy to tell my readers about. But that’s okay, like the old saying goes, “the only difference between men and boys is the cost of their toys.” With Christmas coming, there has to be a gadget out there for every guy on your shopping list.

One of the most useful upgrades I have come by in years is my HTC Incredible Android phone.  I’m not a true geek, so I can’t tell you all of the technical specifics that make the Droid so much better, but it has the Blackberry beat in every way, in my opinion. It’s more user friendly, it gets better reception, it has more built in features, internet access is much faster with it, and there are more and better apps available.

One free app I recently downloaded is ShopSavvy. This is pretty cool. When I am in a store, I hold the Droid over an item’s barcode, and the software scans it, then tells me the price of the item online and in nearby stores. It even gives me directions to local stores stocking the item, and their addresses and telephone numbers. Now I never have to worry that I paid too much, and I can show a salesman the price just down the street and ask them to meet or beat it. Way cool!

I’m finding that I use the GPS features on the Droid as often as I do our Garmin GPS, and usually it’s more accurate and up to date. I especially like the Google street view, which shows me exactly what the neighborhood looks like where I’m going.

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Speaking of GPS units, blog reader Roger Parrish told me about a new techno toy he got; a Garmin Nuvi 465T Trucker GPS. Roger said this has all of the features of a regular GPS, with the addition of specialized routing options suitable for commercial trucks. If you have ever let your regular GPS lead you onto narrow, winding residential streets hardly suitable for an Oldsmobile, you can see the value of this GPS already! Roy said it  displays warning information of upcoming road conditions to make drivers aware of sharp curves, steep grades, side winds, and other possible hazards along the route. The GPS even has an FM traffic receiver to give drivers free alerts about traffic delays, road construction, and detours around the problem area.

Now, I haven’t actually seen this one, but somebody sent me a link that every RVer who uses WiFi to get online should have; a T-shirt with a built in WiFi signal detector! You could be the first in your RV park to have your very own WiFi Detector T-Shirt!

My buddy Phil May from TechnoRV is the guy who really knows gadgets, and he’s always got something new to drool over. Check out Phil’s You Tube video of The Beast, which has to be the brightest LED flashlight I’ve ever seen! I want one of these for the motorhome, and another for the Explorer!

Of course, I can’t afford every new gadget that comes along, and even if I could, I wouldn’t have any place to carry them in my motorhome. The good news is that since I can’t try them all, you can try some of them yourself, and tell me about them!

Now if somebody would just just invent a gadget that makes mornings go away. I have to take the Explorer to Camping Connection this morning to have the base plate installed, which means getting up way before my usual time.  I tried to get Miss Terry to take it over to them, and let me sleep in. But apparently there’s no app for that! 

Thought For The Day – My mind not only wanders, sometimes it leaves completely.

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Yesterday we drove over to the Giant Center in Hershey to pick up our name tags and parking pass for the Hershey RV Show. It was a lesson in frustration.

First, there had been some miscommunication about what the show expected from me, in terms of being a speaker, as well as our vendor booth. Like any big operation, there seems to be a lot of people in charge of something, but apparently they don’t always communicate with one another about anything.

We drove around the massive Giant Center twice before we could find a place to park, and then went to the Registration Tent, only to find nobody there. So then we had to find the show office. The ladies at the ticket booth didn’t know where that was, so they had to make a telephone call or two. Once they pointed us to the show office, we were told to go to the tent. I told them nobody was there, and was told they were there now. So back we went.

Sure enough, the girl was back, and she quickly located our packet. Now the only problem was that it contained the parking pass and my name badge, but not Terry’s. The young lady was very nice, and quickly made Terry a name badge, but she insisted that the mistake had to have come from our end, not theirs. Apparently they are all infallible.

Next, we went down to the main vendor floor to locate our booth space, and ran into our friend Al Hesselbart from the RV Hall of Fame Museum in Elkhart. Al brought a beautiful old 1915 Model T camper to display, and he will be presenting two seminars a day during the show. They have me down for my Highway History And Back Road Mystery seminar every day during the show, and as it turns out, Al will be doing his seminars in the same room. According to the map, it looked to Al and I like the room was upstairs, so we went up and walked all the way around the arena, with no success.

Then Miss Terry called to tell us that she had found the room, and it was down on the main  floor, just a few steps from where we started. The Giant Center is a huge sports complex and hockey arena, so Al and I had to trudge all the way back down the steep steps to the main floor, which is actually the ice rink, which is covered by thin temporary flooring. We could see ice under the edges in a couple of places. Note to self – wear warm socks to the show.

Miss Terry was looking over the schedule, and discovered that my seminars are Wednesday through Saturday from 4 to 5 p.m., and Sunday from 2:30 A.M. to 3:30 P.M.  That’s going to be one heck of a long seminar! I’m good, but I really think I’m going to be hard pressed to find enough to talk about for thirteen hours! I’d think it was just a typo, if I didn’t know that the show folks are infallible.

We unloaded a truckload of Gypsy Journals to pass out to the show crowd, and then we retired to Al’s Newell motorhome for a cold drink and a chat. Then we all three piled into the van and drove to a nearby Fuddruckers for dinner.  I found the restaurant in my GPS, but when we followed the directions it gave us, we ended up at a retirement and rehabilitation home. Al and I agreed that we probably need rehabilitation, but we decided we didn’t need it that day, so we drove another mile or two, found the restaurant, and had a nice dinner.

After we dropped Al back off at his motorhome, we stopped at Sam’s Club in Harrisburg for a couple of items, and then drove to a Verizon company store, where a very nice and helpful young lady named Carin helped us select new phones. I replaced my Blackberry Storm with a Droid Incredible, which I think will be a major improvement. Miss Terry replaced her LG Decoy with a Samsung Alias 2.

Unlike the pushy guy at the mall in Lebanon the day before, who just wanted to sell something, Carin was very patient, explained the pros and cons of several different phones, and then transferred all of our contacts from both phones, and set up our e-mail on the phones. Unfortunately, while Terry’s e-mail works fine, mine didn’t take for some reason, so I have to give Carin a call and have her try to walk me through setting it up.  Once I get a little more familiar with the Droid, I’ll have more to report. 

In yesterday’s blog, I reported that we had opened registration for our Arizona Gypsy Gathering rally in Yuma next March. Dave and Lynn Cross wasted no time being the first to register. A couple of folks e-mailed me to say that they were having a problem with the registration link when they tried to pay, but I think that was a temporary glitch that has been cleared up now. If you run into any problems, you can just log onto www.paypal.com and make payment to editor@gypsyjournal.net, and make a note that the payment is for the rally.

Today we’ll go back to the Giant Center and finish setting up our booth for the show. The show hours are from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., so we’re going to be very tired by time it’s over.

Thought For The Day – Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.

Click Here To Register For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally!

We’ve been Geeked! A couple of days before we left Elkhart Campground, Jim and Chris Guld from Geeks on Tour interviewed us for one of their Gabbing With The Geeks podcasts. We talked about the Gypsy Journal and how computer technology makes it possible for us to live and run our business on the road.

Jim and Chris are a success story when it comes to operating a business as they travel fulltime in their RV. They give seminars on all kinds of technical topics at RV rallies and RV parks, they have several websites and blogs, and they teach RVers how to get the most out of their computers and digital cameras, both in their seminars and online. Their website is sort of like an online college for anybody who wants to know just about anything about computers and how they fit into the RV lifestyle.

Speaking of all things geek, my Ipad had started to malfunction recently. When I hit the Home button to exit a program or application, it wouldn’t work, and I would have to reboot the Ipad to get back to the home page. So yesterday I took it to the Apple Store at the Park City Center mall in Lancaster, about 20 miles from the Hershey Thousand Trails campground.

Driving to Lancaster, we just drank in all of the beautiful scenery. We passed fields of corn, and farm fields that had recently been harvested, with just the stubble of cornstalks sticking up like a rural five o’clock shadow. 

Around there, the old houses, barns, and commercial buildings crowd close to the roads.

In Manheim, one of the most picturesque old towns we have ever visited, the streets are pretty narrow, and I sure wouldn’t have wanted to drive a big motorhome through town!

Terry and I are history nuts, and we love the architecture of this area. Manheim was laid out  in 1762, and formally incorporated in 1838. There are so many buildings dating back to Colonial days that we were like two kids in a candy store, rubbernecking in every direction. If these old buildings could only talk, the stories they could tell!

When we got to the Apple Store, the nice tech who waited on us (they call them Geniuses at Apple) checked the Ipad out, verified that the button had malfunctioned, and handed me a brand new 64 gig 3G Ipad, just like I had! No questions, no hassles, and he even switched my AT&T sim card from the old unit to the new one for me so I could get online with no problems. I appreciate customer service like that!

While we were in the mall, we stopped by the Verizon kiosk, because I want to upgrade from my Blackberry Storm to a Droid Incredible. The Blackberry has not lived up to my expectations, and it seems like every time they do a software upgrade (or sometimes just because it feels like it), it wipes out all of my apps and I have to fight to get them back on it again.

I was all set to go with the Droid, but then the clerk started hammering me to also buy an “accessory bundle” that included a car charger, case, and a Bluetooth headset. I told him I didn’t need or want any of that, and he insisted that I just “had’ to have them to get the most out of the Droid and that “everybody” needs a Bluetooth. Guess what, mister? I’m not “everybody” and I don’t “have” to have anything! I’m sure I’ll still upgrade pretty soon, but I’ll deal with somebody who is more concerned with what I need, not what he wants to sell me.

We can never pass up a bookstore, so when we left the mall, we browsed through a nearby Border’s, where Miss Terry found a couple of cookbooks that she has been looking for.

Then we had dinner at a Five Guys restaurant. Five Guys makes excellent cheeseburgers, and their fries are delicious. Unfortunately, there was no ice, so my soda and Terry’s tea were room temperature. I told the manager there was no ice, and he said the machine was broken. I had to wonder why nobody was fixing it, or at least buying ice somewhere to put in the drinks. I like Five Guys, but I don’t think I’ll be going back to that particular restaurant again.

After dinner we stopped at Home Depot, where Miss Terry got a new toy, a Dremel Trio multi-tool, as a late birthday present. Some guys buy their wives flowers or jewelry for special occasions, but my lady likes books and power tools!

We’ve just finished our Eastern Rally, and we’re already working on Arizona for next year!  I have added a Rally Registration Page to the blog, since I have had people asking when they could register for our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally, which will be held in Yuma, March 7-11, 2011. To register online, click the link below, or the Arizona Gypsy Gathering tab on the top right of this page, above the blog header.

Whatever else you do today, please take a moment to remember all of those who perished nine years ago today during the terrorist attacks. We can move on with our lives, but as a nation, we must never forget.

Thought For The Day - Consciousness - that annoying time between naps.

Click Here To Register For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally!

Well, I didn’t make my goal of getting the new issue of the Gypsy Journal finished yesterday, but I’m close enough that I see the light at the end of the tunnel. Unless that light is from an oncoming train, we’re still in good shape. Today I’ll put the finishing touches on the new issue, Miss Terry will proof it again, and tomorrow we’ll take it to our printer in Michigan.

With the paper about done, it’s time to start finishing things up for our Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally, which starts in just two weeks. Greg and Jan are out soliciting door prizes from local merchants today, and will be most of the week. I need to get the artwork to the screen printer for our rally t-shirts, and finish tweaking the seminar schedule.

One new seminar being presented by Whit Reeder, a district manager for a Verizon Wireless provider, will cover smart phone such as the Droids, Blackberrys, and Palms.  Whit says the seminar will introduce folks to a lot of free applications to make life a little smoother, and will save most people up to an hour a day.

We took a short break yesterday to chat with Terry and Dale Pace, who stopped in to say hello. Terry just got out of the hospital, and it’s good to see him up and about.

Later on, we went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse with Greg and Jan, and Al Hesselbart from the RV Hall of Fame Museum. They make an excellent steak at Texas Roadhouse, but why do they always have to have the darned music so loud? For me, when I go to dinner with people, the opportunity to talk is a big part of the experience. At Texas Roadhouse, you have to shout to be heard most the time.

Back at Elkhart Campground, our friends Susie Orr, Marlene Hinman, and Carol Hill stopped in to say hello. With that many pretty ladies in our motorhome, and Miss Terry too, I was about to overdose on cute!

I got an e-mail in response to yesterday’s blog, in which I said I raised eyebrows when I referred to Greg White as my “wife” at a local gun show, telling me that I was insensitive to gay people. No, I am just terribly politically incorrect, and I have a sense of humor.

I can’t say that “some of my best friends” are gay, but I do have several gay friends that I really care about, and I think we know each other well enough that they would have let me know if I had offended them. I won’t go into an entire Bad Nick thing here, but lighten up people. Not everything in life has to be drama. If you can’t laugh once in a while, you’re in big trouble.

But Bad Nick knows that some things are not laughing matters, as you’ll read in his new Bad Nick Blog post Ground Zero Mosque. Check it out and leave a comment.

Okay, back to work. I have a paper to finish!

Thought For The Day – When you can’t control the wind, adjust your sails.

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally!

We spent yesterday playing tour guide, showing our pals Greg and Jan White around our former home, here in Arizona’s White Mountains. It was fun seeing some favorite old places we have not seen since we hit the road eleven years ago through their eyes.

A lot of people think of Arizona as all sand and cactus, but the White Mountains rise over 10,000 feet, and this is a land of thick Ponderosa pine forests, sparkling lakes, and one of the best known snow skiing areas in the Southwest.

We started our day with a stop at Anasazi Trading Post in Lakeside, where Jan and Miss Terry did some browsing while Greg and I sat outside in the truck and solved most of the problems in the world. Then we stopped at Pinetop Sporting Goods to introduce Greg and Jan to my good friend Lyle Worman, and Terry popped into the locksmith shop next door to get an extra set of door keys to our motorhome made, so we will not find ourselves locked out again, as described in yesterday’s blog. 

Then we stopped at Pinetop Book Exchange, owned by another longtime friend, Jim Lewis. Greg and Jan bought a few books, and we had a nice visit, even though it was short. By then it was early afternoon, so we stopped for a late lunch/early dinner at Red Devil, which is a small restaurant that serves excellent Italian food and pizza.

About halfway through our meal, I realized that I did not have my Blackberry with me, though I knew I had it earlier in the day. I used Greg’s phone to call my own number, and it rang twice before Jim answered. Just as I had suspected, I had left it at the bookstore. Fortunately, we were only a 1/4 mile or so away, so we went back and I ran in to fetch it.

We drove out through the White Mountain Apache Reservation, where Greg and Jan admired the beautiful forests and lakes we passed by. We took a side trip off of State Route 260 onto State Route 373, for the short drive to the little mountain hamlet of Greer, known as “The Town at the End of the Road,” because the road literally ends five miles from the main highway. 

We were amazed at how much Greer has grown since we were there last. For years the only things there were a few scattered summer cabins, a couple of gift shops, and the historic Molly Butler Lodge. Now there are several huge lodges, beautiful log homes that serve as “summer cabins” for flatlanders, and the place was packed. Greer is no longer the sleepy little community we once loved. It has grown up.

From Greer, we drove to Springerville, where we stopped at Western Drug, one of my favorite stores. Western Drug is kind of like an old time general store. You can buy cooking utensils, fabric and yarn, fishing supplies, guns and ammo, medicine, clothes, boots, and just about anything else your heart desires.

Standing on the corner near Western Drug is this Madonna of the Trail statue, one of 12 identical monuments located from Bethesda, Maryland to Upland, California, along the route of the National Old Trails Road, established in 1912.

We returned to Show Low by way of US Highway 60, completing a circular route of about a 115 mile loop, including the detour to Greer and back. While State Route 260 traverses pine forests most of the way from Show Low to Springerville, US 60 travels through open high plains and scattered juniper, where we saw a lot of antelope standing a hundred yards or so off the highway.

Back at our motorhome at the Elks lodge campground, Greg fiddled with some settings on my RV blog and website to try to resolve some problems people are having trying to subscribe, and then we polished off the last of Miss Terry’s wonderful cinnamon rolls before we called it a night.

In yesterday’s blog I told you about WalMart Bingo, and in response, my friend Joyce Space sent me this link to a fun little You Tube video about RVers and WalMart. 

The video may be fun, but Bad Nick has some not so funny things to tell you in his latest Bad Nick Blog post titled Our Tax Dollars At Work. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – It is never too late, unless you’re dead. If you’re not, go ahead and try for your dream.

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally!