Today is a very special day for myself and Miss Terry. It’s our twelfth anniversary, and we still feel (and often act) like newlyweds. This was not the first marriage for either of us, and believe me, it was not something that either one of us was looking for, or expected to happen. But isn’t that the way it sometimes goes? We often find the best things in life when we least expect them.

I’m a very fortunate man to be able to live this dream life that I have, to make a living doing something most people can only dream of, and to be able to share it with my best friend in the world. And tonight I’m taking my best girl out for a nice, romantic dinner. I love you, Terry.

Yesterday, I was sitting at my desk writing when suddenly a volley of gunshots went off right outside our motorhome! That will make your blood pressure shoot way up! I wasn’t sure what was happening, but in today’s world who knows? As it turns out, we didn’t have a crazed mass murderer running wild through the park. It was an America Legion Honor Guard firing a gun salute as part of a memorial service for one of the park’s residents who recently passed away. Geez, they should warn a guy before they do things like that!

Little things like gunplay never bother Miss Terry. She spent part of the day yesterday installing one of the new day/night shades in our bedroom, and discovered that it was more of a job then she had expected. Of course, it didn’t help that the company that supplied the blinds did not send any mounting hardware or installation instructions. But she eventually figured it out.

To prove that there isn’t much she can’t do, Terry also decided to make a batch of Asiago cheese bagels. This was only the second time in her life that she had made bagels, and she said her first attempt years ago produced something more akin to hockey pucks than food. But not this time! They turned out yummy! 

I received two different e-mails from readers yesterday about the problems they are having securing financing for RVs. One person is a retired Marine officer with excellent credit, and he has been using the same bank for years. They financed his current motorhome, which he has a lot of equity in, and he said his bank was ready to approve the loan on the new unit until they realized that he is a fulltimer, with no “fixed” residence. Then they turned him down.

The other e-mail was from a gentleman who said his credit union would not finance the fifth wheel he and his wife live in fulltime, but they would refinance his truck. As he said, “Go figure – I can drive the truck away easier than pulling away my fifth wheel!”

I have no idea how the bean counters at financial institutions think, or why they make the decisions that they do, but I did recommend that both of these men call Eileen Gilmore at Alliant Credit Union at (773) 462-9642 and tell her I told them to call. After the financial setback we had from Terry’s cancer, and being self-employed fulltimers, even our own bank, that we’ve used for over 25 years, would not talk to us when we were RV shopping.

But, Eileen got us financed in no time at all, because she took the time to listen to us, look at our credit history, and do the extra work to get us taken care of. I don’t get a penny from referring anybody to Eileen, and she is not an advertiser. I just like to help spread the word about good business people who go the extra mile for their customers.

Of course, Bad Nick just likes to spread controversy, so he posted a new Bad Nick Blog titled Can He Walk On Water Too? Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Procrastination is the thief of time.

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With only 33,000 miles on it, our 2002 Winnebago diesel pusher is like new in many ways. The previous owner kept in inside a heated barn most of the time, and only used it for vacations and short trips with the grandkids. Miss Terry and the other ladies who have seen it all agreed that the stove had probably never been used, for example.

But the motorhome did have one noticeable flaw; one of the decorative stripes was chipped up in several places for some reason. So yesterday Michele Henry, from Phoenix Commercial Paint, spent several hours with a heat gun removing the old stripe, and this morning we are taking the Winnebago to her shop, where she will repaint the stripe in the original color.

We’d love to have one of Michele’s custom full body paint jobs, but there is just no room in the budget for it right now. Still, she can work wonders, and while the motorhome looked nice before, we know it will be even more attractive after Michele gets the new stripe on.

She will need to keep the motorhome overnight, so we are going to be back in the bus for one more night. I told Terry it’s sort of like having a weekend getaway place until we sell the bus.

Several fulltimers who have been RV shopping have written to tell me that they have been having trouble getting bank financing, and asking me who financed our rig. Over the years, I have had several fulltimers tell me they have experienced problems getting financing, even though they had very good credit.

We worked with Eileen Gilmore, an assistant branch manager with Alliant Credit Union in Chicago. We joined Alliant after meeting Eileen at Escapade in May, and she worked with us to get things set up to be sure we qualified. She has done everything she said she would do, and we are very pleased with our experience working with her. If you are shopping for a new or late model RV, I suggest you give Eileen a call at (773) 462-9642 or e-mail her at egilmore@alliantcreditunion.com, and tell her I sent you.

At the same time we joined Alliant, we also joined Community Resource Credit Union, which is based in Texas, and also had a booth at Escapade. One of the reasons we joined Community Resource is that they are part of the Shared Network, which in theory gave us the convenience of access to hundreds of affiliated credit union branches all over the country who also belong to the network. We were told that we could go into any Shared Network credit union anywhere in the country and it would be just like if we were at one of Community Resource’s own branches.

Well, not exactly, as it turns out. We made a couple of small deposits at Shared branches here in Indiana, and it took anywhere from two to three weeks minimum for them to be credited to our account. I could mail a deposit to our regular bank and have it credited before that!

As if that were not frustrating enough, when we took in cash to get a cashier’s check when purchasing our motorhome, we had to jump through all kinds of hoops and get a manager’s approval.

I called Community Resource to complain, and was told that while we could use any of the Shared affiliate credit unions, we had to wait for them to forward the deposits to Texas, which could take at least two weeks. Or, to speed things up, we could take photocopies of the checks we were depositing, as well as the deposit receipt from the Shared branch, and fax them to Community Resource in Texas. Yeah, that sure sounds convenient!

I had a better idea. I just closed the account.  

But before I close this blog post, Bad Nick wanted me to tell you that he has a new post in the Bad Nick Blog titled Yes, Racism Plays A Role. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – One nice thing about egotists; they don’t talk about other people.

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