When we checked into the Peace River NACO campground on Sunday the office was closed, so the ranger said to go up to the office anytime Monday morning and pay for our stay. Apparently “anytime” is first thing in the morning, because at 10 a.m. somebody was knocking on our door.

Since we seldom get to bed before 2 a.m., we don’t get up early, so by the time I threw on some clothes and got to the door, the person was driving away in a golf cart. After I brushed my teeth and combed my five or six hairs, I went to the office and paid for our stay. Geez, we’re here for fourteen days, it’s not like we were going to stiff them out of $70.

Over the years, we have gotten a lot of flack from other RVers who seem to be offended by our sleeping schedule. More than once some older RVer has said something about “lazy” people sleeping the day away. I usually tell them I’m not lazy, I was up late working hard so I could pay into Social Security so they can get their check next month. I mean, really, is it anybody’s business when we go to bed or get up, as long as we don’t make any noise or disturb them when we’re up and they’re in bed?

Since the rain had stopped and we had a nice blue sky overhead, even if it was still rather cool, we went down to check out the boat ramp to the Peace River, here at the campground. The river was nice and calm, and if it warms up some more, we want to get our kayaks wet.

Okay, maybe we want to get our kayaks wet! I saw a sign about alligators at Lake Hancock at the Orlando Thousand Trails, and that didn’t bother me. But snakes? That’s taking things a little bit too far! I’ve heard of people wrestling alligators, but this fat boy don’t do snakes!

The Spanish moss that hangs from the live oaks trees all over Florida is even on the palm trees here at the campground! 

Our South Dakota license plates and registration for the Explorer came yesterday. The nice folks at our mail service in Sioux Falls, Alternative Resources, handled all of the paperwork, got the plates and registration, and sent them to us by Priority Mail. Since the 30 day temporary plate from the dealer where we bought the SUV expired Saturday, I was glad the plates arrived.

After picking up the license plates in the office, we drove into town to make a stop at the post office to mail off an order, then on to WalMart for a few things, and back to the campground. As we were driving back to our RV site, we stopped to take a picture of this motorhome with steer horns mounted on the front end. I wonder if this guy is from Texas?

We spent the rest of the day at home. I answered e-mails, had a long exchange with a lady in Oklahoma who is looking at a used RV and was asking my advice because she had some concerns. After hearing them (105,000 miles on a 1999 gas powered Class A, many stains on the ceiling from obvious roof leaks, a musty smell inside the coach, a generator that would not start, and a broken windshield), I told her to run, not walk, away. She still wasn’t convinced, because at only $25,000 the seller tells her it’s a heck of a deal. Yes, it is. I’m just not sure if it’s a heck of a deal for him, or for her!

Thought For The Day – Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

Miss Terry set a new record getting all of the envelopes stuffed with the new issue of the paper, and by yesterday afternoon the majority of them were in the mail. We’ll drop the remainder off at the post office and UPS this morning.

The Gypsy Journal goes out to our subscribers several different ways, depending on their preference. The greatest majority are sent as Standard Rate mail, which used to be called Bulk Mail.

We use different commercial mail houses around the country, depending where we happen to be when we publish a new issue. We send the mail service our address list and they print the names onto envelopes. Then we pick the envelopes up, stuff them with papers, and return them to the mail service, which uses its mail permit to send them out. Because a mailing permit is specific to one post office, and we travel all over the country, we don’t have our own permit, which would require us to return to the same post office for mailing every time. Standard Rate is the least expensive way to subscribe, but it is also the slowest delivery method. If subscribers are traveling, the post office will not forward Standard Rate mail.

The second option is First Class mail, which costs more, but moves faster through the postal system. First Class is also supposed to be forwarded, but it has been our experience that no matter what the rules say, the good folks at the post office do (or don’t do) whatever they feel like. We use Stamps.com to print our own First Class postage, and we can mail items anywhere.

We also have a lot of subscribers who use mail forwarding services such as Escapees, FMCA, and Alternative Resources. We have so many subscribers who use these three mailing services that they all allow us to put the envelopes with the papers for their clients into boxes, and ship them to them by UPS. This saves us a few dollars in postage, and gets the papers into subscribers’ mail boxes a little quicker than Standard Rate.     

Last year we also made digital subscriptions available, and we have had a lot of subscribers switch to that option. When a new issue is uploaded, we send them a link to its location on the internet, where they can either read it online, or download it to their computers. The digital subscription is the quickest way to get each new issue of the paper, because subscribers can be reading it minutes after I upload it.

Now that the new issue is making its way to subscribers in every corner of the country, we can relax a little bit, and we can even try to squeeze in a little bit of fun. Today we plan to drive down to Tucson and visit my cousin Beverly, who is one of my favorite people in the whole world. For the last three or four  years, we have spent a couple of weeks in Tucson visiting Beverly, but this year our schedule is so crowded that we’re not sure if we can get down for a stay or not. But we at least want to make a day trip to the Old Pueblo and spend some time with her before we head to Yuma for our Gypsy Gathering rally.

While Terry and I were busy dealing with mailing chores, Bad Nick was busy posting a new Bad Nick Blog titled 10 Things That Piss Me Off. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – New survey shows that 3 out of 4 people make up 75% of the world’s population.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

I was hoping that the cold weather here in northern Indiana may have forced the gremlins who inhabit my computer to follow the rest of the RV snowbirds south, but alas, the little buggers are still hanging on.

We use a commercial mail service for sending the Gypsy Journal to most of our subscribers, who chose the Standard Mail rate. But we also send out separate mailings to subscribers who use the Escapees Mail Service, FMCA mail service, and some of the commercial mail forwarding services such as Alternative Resources, as well as for our subscribers in Canada, and those who choose to pay an extra fee for First Class postage.

Yesterday as I was trying to print the mailing labels for those subscribers, I suddenly starting getting an error message and they would not print. This has happened before, for no apparent reason, and usually after a lot of frustration, whatever the problem is seems to clear up and they finally print. But yesterday I spent hours fighting with the mailing lists, with no success at all.

Our friends Rick Schafer and Marcia Gantz stopped over to see our new motorhome and tell us all about their summer travels in Alaska. Between the two of them, they have forgotten more about computers and computer programs than I’ll ever hope to learn, and when I mentioned the problems I was having with the mailing list, they put their heads together and tried to come up with a solution. Rick downloaded new drivers for our HP laser printer, which we hoped would do the job.

As it turns out, the problem still persisted, and I tried to get the mailing labels to print out all evening. Finally, about midnight, the gremlins must have fallen asleep, because suddenly the problem disappeared and the labels printed just fine. I didn’t do anything different, so what gives?

I think we have figured out a problem a few subscribers to the digital edition of the Gypsy Journal had with the current issue. In each case, they could not open the new issue, and by a process of elimination, I discovered that all of their computers had recently done an automatic update to Adobe Reader version 9.

Miss Terry experienced it with her laptop, which did the automatic update after she had already opened the new issue on the older version of Reader. She deleted the update and reinstalled the earlier version 8 of Reader and once again could open the file with no problems.

We have also had subscribers who use Firefox as their web browser report the same problem, but when they use , it works. Did I mention that sometimes I hate computers?

Even with all of the computer problems, it was nice to see Rick and Marcia again, and to hear about their travels since we last crossed paths. Terry and I have not made the Alaska trip yet, but it’s very high on our bucket list.

Quite a few Gypsy Journal subscribers were readers of a great little tabloid called Two Lane Roads that a fellow named Loren Eyrich published a few years back. I was a fan of Loren’s work, and when he was diagnosed with cancer and had to stop traveling and publishing, we took over the balance of his unfulfilled subscriptions.

Several people have asked me from time to time how Loren is doing, and I’m happy to report that I got an e-mail from him yesterday. Loren has been cancer free for seven years now, and he told me that while he has some long term effected from the chemo and/or radiation, he’s well and happy to be alive. Loren posts occasional updates on his website at http://www.two-lane.com/, and I know he’d be happy to have you log in and pay him a visit. 

Thought For The Day – Don’t assume malice for what stupidity can explain.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

There are big changes in store for fulltime RVers who use South Dakota as their home base. According to a newsletter we received from our mail forwarding service, Alternative Resources, effective January 1, 2010, when it is time to renew your South Dakota drivers license, or when getting your first South Dakota drivers license, you must stay one night in a campground or motel and show a receipt to the drivers license office. You can do this in any city that issues licenses. You can still use your mailing service as the address on your driver’s license.

According to South Dakota officials, this puts the state in compliance with the Federal Real ID Act, and will allow license holders to board a commercial airplane, enter federal buildings, etc. I don’t know about you, but Big Brother is really starting to tick me off!

In other news from South Dakota, you now must reside in the county where you apply for a concealed weapons permit (CWP) for 30 days immediately prior to applying for the gun permit. You can use a motel or campground, and must present a receipt and note from said motel or campground stating the exact dates of your stay. Apparently your mailing service address will not be accepted. I don’t know how this will apply to those of us who already have a CWP when it comes time for renewal.

I had heard rumors about this for a while now, but in response to e-mails I sent to the state, officials said no decision has been made.  I would imagine that these new rules may steer at least a few prospective new South Dakotans toward a different state, such as Texas or Florida.

One dream trip for many RVers is Alaska, and it’s a journey we hope to make someday. Dennis and Carol Hill, owners of the RV Driving School, have been in Alaska this summer, and on their RV blog they have some great pictures of a bear catching a fish for dinner. I can’t wait to see Alaska someday too!

Meanwhile, back here in the Lower 48, Walter Cannon from the Recreational Vehicle Safety Education Foundation (RVSEF) called to tell me that he has been forced to pull the plug on the RV Lifestyle, Education, & Safety clinic scheduled for Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in September.

Walter said low student registration numbers and a lack of sponsorship from the RV industry made going forward with the event impossible, but he plans to spend the winter focusing on new ways to promote the program with students and sponsors, and hopefully in 2010 we’ll see it happen. For those who never got to attend a Life on Wheels session, the RVSEF program could be an excellent learning opportunity. I’ll keep you updated as I hear more from Walter.

Thought For The Day – If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.