Okay, now I have officially seen it all. When we arrived at the Giant Center yesterday, everybody going into the RV show had to pass through a security checkpoint, where sheriff’s deputies were searching all purses, bags, backpacks, briefcases, and such. I asked what they were looking for, and the lady deputy told me they were trying to prevent anyone from bringing alcohol onto the premises.

Are you kidding me? Not guns, hand grenades, or flamethrowers, but booze! Heck, if I was an RV salesman trying to sell some of the crap they make these days, I’d want my customers to be half in the bag. It would make my job a lot easier! Maybe they were worried about the vendors making hot toddies to ward off the chill from standing on the ice rink? In all of our years on the road, working RV rallies from coast to coast, I’ve never seen that before!

Several of the vendors who have worked the Hershey RV Show in the past have been telling us all week that Friday and Saturday would be killer days, and make up for the terribly slow days we had during the week. As it turns out, yesterday was a better day than we had been experiencing, but it wasn’t the killer day they had forecast.

We did see more traffic, and we passed out a lot of sample copies of the Gypsy Journal, but sales were nothing to get excited about, and we were never overwhelmed with customers swarming into the vendor area. But, overall, we had a fairly steady flow of people passing by.

In the last couple of days, we did get the opportunity to see some folks we have met before, and we got to meet some longtime Gypsy Journal and blog readers. Ralph and Cheryl Schey stopped by Thursday, as did Brain Marsh, and Roy Brody. Yesterday Dave and Linda Spindle came by, also Dick and Susan Nevala, Jim Kilpatrick, Gary and Truann Berger, and  I know that there were several others whose names escape this late at night. I hope those who I missed will forgive me.

And here are some photos of the other vendors who are here with us. These three ne’er-do-wells are (left to right) Amy Cannon, Mike Hayn, and Walter Cannon, manning the RVSEF booth.

A few booths down from them, Sandy and Ralph Kinzer were in their booth, displaying Star Lights LED lights for RVs. Switching to LED lights can really help reduce your power usage, and boondockers have eagerly embraced the LED technology.

Now here’s a shady character it there ever was one. That’s my pal Al Hesselbart, historian for the RV Hall of Fame Museum in Elkhart, Indiana.

Al may look like a cowboy in that picture, but the picture I can’t get out of my mind is the one of him as one of the Hoosier Honey beauty contestants at our rally in Elkhart a couple of weeks ago. I’ve tried, folks, I really have. But it’s burned into my psyche forever.

Here’s Miss Terry petting one of the rabbits that Flakey the Clown uses when he entertains kids young and old at RV rallies and shows.

The pretty smiling lady on the left is Carrie Freeman, from Round Top Campground in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Carrie is about the most cheerful person I’ve ever met. She’s so happy she depresses me sometimes. I can’t tell you her friend’s name, because she in the federal witness protection program and it’s classified information. Or else I just forgot it, I can’t remember which. When we leave here next week, we’re going to stop at Round Top Campground for a couple of days and get underfoot until Carrie throws us out.

So today is supposed to be the big day at the Hershey Show. We’ll see how it works out.

Before I close, one bit of RV industry news. We learned yesterday that Thor Industries has purchased Heartland Recreational Vehicles. I’ve already heard a lot of comments from RVers about how this will impact the marketplace. I’ve always been impressed with Heartland products, and I hope this will be a good move for the company. It’s obviously good for Thor, based upon Heartland’s record setting history of growth, even when the rest of the RV industry was in a deep slump. What are your thoughts on the deal?

Thought For The Day – I took an IQ test, and the results were negative.

Please be careful where you walk, because my butt’s dragging and I don’t want you to step on it! And our Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally doesn’t even officially start until today!

Yesterday was the early vendor set-up day, and my friend Mike Loscher and myself were over in the big building a little after 9 a.m., getting a couple of final details wrapped up, before we opened the doors and let the vendors in to start getting their booths ready for the rally.

It’s great to see so many of our vendor friends here for the rally. We’ve worked alongside many of them for years while operating our own vendor booth at RV rallies coast to coast, so we understand what vendors need, and try very hard to provide it for them at our events.

Here is our pal Daryl Lawrence from Lawrence RV Accessories. Daryl has a brand new item, the Tire Traker Tire Pressure Monitoring System, as well as the excellent Progressive Industries Electrical Management Systems, which we have used for years, both in our MCI bus conversion, and now in our Winnebago diesel pusher.

You can see all kinds of goodies at an RV rally, from safety items like the automatic engine bay fire suppression systems that my pal Mac McCoy sells, to camping chairs and other goodies to make your RV travels more fun and more comfortable.

Flags Galore is offering every kind of flag you could ever want to find, in every size imaginable.

Dwane and Janet Trannum from Almost Heaven Micro Fibre spent most of the day hauling their inventory in and stocking their booth. I sure hope they sell a lot, because I don’t want to have to help them carry it back out to their van!

John and Karen Knoll stopped by the RVSEF weighing site here at Elkhart Campground to have Rick Lang weigh their truck and fifth wheel before they parked on their assigned RV site for the rally.

By the end of the day, everybody had worked hard, and most of the vendors were set up and ready to go. I locked the building up about 5 p.m., and then Dennis Haddix from Makarios RV and his pretty wife (whose name escapes me, I’m afraid) pulled in. They had the bed of their Itasca motorhome covered with inventory for their booth, so I opened the building back up long enough for them to unload enough that they could get through the night. Dennis is also the founder of ChatRV.com, a relatively new online forum for the RV community.

Of course, no RV rally has officially started until Red and Beth from Too Crazy Ladies have their booth set up and open for business!

Today is the official registration day, and Miss Terry and her crew of hardworking volunteers will be busy getting everybody checked in, passing out name badges, and answering questions.

One nice thing about having the rally at a campground instead of a fairgrounds is that we don’t have to have a parking crew. The folks just stop at the RV park office and check in, and Bob and Gita send them to their RV site.

When we were visiting with campground owners Bob and Gita Patel late yesterday afternoon, I think they were feeling a bit overwhelmed, but also delighted. They said that this rally will be the first time in all of the years that they have owned Elkhart Campground that they will be completely full! That should help their bottom line a little bit!

Thought For The Day – Count your life by smiles, not tears. Count your age by friends, not years.

The problem with getting up early in the morning is that, like any bad habit, if you do it too often, you find yourself caught up in the action without even realizing it, or giving it a second thought. When that happens, only strong intervention and a lot of willpower can break the vicious cycle.  After our week at the Winnebago service facility in Iowa, I fear I’ve reached that point.

We were out of bed before 7:30 yesterday morning, and within an hour or so we had the RV packed up and ready to roll, the water and electric connections unhooked, window awnings and slides in, and leveling jacks up.

After saying our goodbyes to cousin Terry Cook and his family, we hit the road, headed south on State route 37. We traveled in a heavy overcast past miles of thick forests, broken by occasional small communities, or scattered houses and businesses.

The route was mostly very good two lane highway, with occasional passing lanes. There were a couple of noticeable hills, but we made very good time.

We passed over a couple of rivers that looked inviting, and noted several canoe and kayak rental businesses. We really need to come back here some day and get our boats wet.

There wasn’t much traffic, a few RVs headed north, and the occasional car or truck. 56 miles south, we got onto U.S. Highway 10, and another 25 miles brought us to U.S. Highway 31 southbound, an excellent divided four lane highway.

Less than an hour later, we pulled into the city-owned Fisherman’s Landing Marina and Campground. This is our regular stop when we visit Muskegon. We dumped our holding tanks, got the motorhome parked and hooked up in our site, and by then we were dripping wet from the heat and humidity. It sure was nice to get that basement air conditioner working to cool things down!

Fisherman’s Landing is a Passport America affiliate, and able to accommodate any size RV. The place is only about half full.

Our site is a back in, with 30 amp electric, water, a concrete pad, and a picnic table. Here is our Winnebago, all set up and ready to be home for the time we’re here.

My cousin Berni Frees and her husband Rocky are working folks, and they wouldn’t be home until about 5 p.m., so once we were settled in, I took a nap while Terry checked her e-mail and just enjoyed being inside where it was nice and cool.

Later on, I added the RVSEF weighing forms to our website for those having their rigs weighed at our upcoming rally. Click this link to complete the paperwork for your truck and trailer, or this link for the motorhome worksheet. Print the sheets out, complete them, and bring them to the rally. To schedule your weighing time, or for more information call Rick Lang at (207) 522-3336.

And don’t forget to call Dennis Hill at the RV Driving School at (530) 878-0111 to arrange for your behind the wheel driving lesson at the rally! Separate fees are charged for the weighing and driving lessons, but the costs are small, and they are two of the best investments you can make in your safety.

In addition to the campground, Fisherman’s Landing has a boat launch that always seems to be busy with fishermen and recreational boaters coming and going. When we left to go to Rocky and Berni’s house later in the afternoon, Terry took this picture of a tug boat docked across the inlet from the boat launch. 

It’s always fun when we get together with Rocky and Berni, and though we had not seen them in a year, it was like it was only yesterday. We picked right up with the silly banter we enjoy so much with them. We all piled into their car and went to a great Chinese buffet for dinner, and then back to their place for an evening of Mexican Train and more good times with good friends.

We’ll be here a few days, visiting, and getting some more prep work done for our Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally.  Then it’s on to Elkhart!

Thought For The Day – I don’t believe in a government that protects us from ourselves – Ronald Reagan

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally!

Rick Lang from Recreational Vehicle Safety Education Foundation (RVSEF) called me yesterday morning to tell me that he and Joyce plan to be on hand at Elkhart Campground on August 29th to greet anybody arriving early for our Gypsy Gathering Rally so they can weigh their RVs if they want it done.

If you have not had your rig weighed before, or if it’s been a while, you should seriously consider having it done. The RVSEF crew are specially trained to weigh RVs, which is not the same as pulling onto a truck scale somewhere and calling it good. Rick and Joyce weigh each axle individually and you get a report that tells you not only your RV’s total weight, but also if you are too heavy on any corner of your RV. This is important information to know, and will help you adjust your load for the safest ride and longer tire life.

Speaking of RVSEF, there is still time to sign up for their excellent RV Lifestyle, Education and Safety Conference in Bowling Green, Kentucky June 3-6. This is your opportunity to learn about RV technical issues and lifestyle experiences from some of the top experts in the industry. You can find out more about this great program at the RVSEF website.

I also got a call from Too Crazy Ladies yesterday, confirming that they will be at our rally, making custom name badges for the attendees. Red and Beth are regular vendors at many RV events, and they have built up a huge following of loyal customers over the years.

I have had a lot of people asking if Elkhart Campground has WiFi service available. Yes they do, and it’s free, so you will be able to get online and surf the internet to your heart’s content.

There has been some confusion about the rally dates. The rally starts with RV parking, registration, and welcome on Monday, August 30th, and ends with hitch up coffee and donuts Friday morning, September 3rd. The rally fee covers camping Monday through Thursday night, but if you want to arrive early or stay later, Bob and Gita at Elkhart Campground assure me they will have plenty of room.

Terry and I plan to arrive in Elkhart about the first of August, so we can get all of the pre-rally work done. Then we’ll hang around for a few days afterwards, before we leave for Hershey, Pennsylvania, where we will be vendors and I will be speaking at the Pennsylvania Recreational Vehicle Show September 15 – 19. We won’t be able to make it to the Escapees 50th Escapade, which is September 12 – 17 in Goshen, Indiana. We’ll miss being with our Escapees family, but the Hershey show drew over 37,000 attendees last year, and we can’t miss the opportunity to introduce the Gypsy Journal to so many RVers who have never seen it before.

I have to say a belated Happy Birthday to my son-in-law, Jim Robinson, who turned 29 yesterday. Jim’s a fine young man, and yesterday we took him and Tiffany and the girls out to dinner to celebrate his special day. Of course, somebody let it slip to the waitress that it was Jim’s birthday, and they did the typical thing where several of the waitresses bring out a cupcake with a candle on it and everybody sang Happy Birthday. Jim is a low profile kind of guy, so the rest of us had fun watching him squirm as the center of attention.

Hey Jim, it only goes faster from here on out.

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

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally!

We had snow here in Show Low, Arizona on several days last week, and on Sunday we got two inches of the nasty stuff. I wrote in yesterday’s blog that we plan to go down to Tucson for a week or so, and it immediately warmed up to about 70 degrees yesterday! The weather is supposed to be in the mid-70s here for the next ten days. Go figure.

Yesterday I got a lot of work done on the computer, while Miss Terry hemmed up several new pairs of jeans we both bought a few days ago. I got Terry a new Bernia Bernette sewing machine back in January, and this is the first opportunity she’s had to use it. She is very pleased with its performance, and said the new machine does everything her much heavier ancient Pfaff would do, which gave up the ghost last year.

We also took some time to run into town to see daughter Tiffany and her little ones before we leave town. Terry helped seven year old Hailey with her homework while three year old Destiny spent the time doing whatever it is that three year olds do. I have to tell you, as much as I love my grandkids, there is nothing in the world that would make me want to be a parent of little ones again. I really like this stage of my life. I can go see the girls, spoil them rotten, and then retreat to the the peace and quiet of our motorhome!

As most of you who have been reading my blog and the Gypsy Journal know, I am a strong proponent of both parties in an RV knowing how to drive it. In our case, I do most of the driving, but Miss Terry is fully capable, and comfortable in taking the wheel of our Winnebago if I get tired or just need a break.

Learning to drive a big rig is intimidating to a lot of people, but with skilled instruction, anybody can do it. If you are planning to attend our upcoming Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally in Elkhart, Indiana, I have good news. Dennis Hill from the RV Driving School will be there, offering lessons behind the wheel in your own RV. Here is your opportunity to learn to maneuver that big rig like a pro.

Another great learning opportunity is just a month away. The RVSEF RV Lifestyle, Education and Safety Conference is being held in Bowling Green, Kentucky June 3-6. We won’t be able to make it this year, but Walter Cannon has put together an excellent educational venue for both new and experienced RVers. Many of the folks I taught with at Life on Wheels will be there as instructors, including Gary Bunzer (The RV Doctor), Mac McCoy (Fire and Life Safety), Jim and Chris Guld (Geeks on Tour),  Al Hesselbart (RV Hall of Fame), Dennis Hill (RV Driving School), Rick and Joyce Lang (RVSEF), Howard Payne (RV-Dreams.com), to name just a few. Log onto the RVSEF website, or call 321-453-7673 for more information about the conference.

As I said, we’re leaving Juniper Ridge RV Resort today and going to Tucson. We need to spend some time with my cousin Beverly and I have some other family members there I need to touch base with, plus we are looking forward to visiting a couple of our favorite restaurants down there, and if I can find one, I may break down and buy one of the new Apple 3G iPads.

Bad Nick is looking forward to a change of scenery too, but he took time to post a new Bad Nick Blog titled Another Dumb A$$ Report. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Heck is for people that don’t believe in Gosh.

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally!