After reading yesterday’s Bad Nick Blog, titled Armed Citizens Fight Back, several readers e-mailed me to ask if I have a concealed weapon carry (CCW) permit, and how fulltime RVers can get a permit to carry a handgun.

I actually have two CCW permits, a non-resident from Arizona, and a permit from South Dakota, our state of domicile. Between the two of them, those permits are honored in a total of 36 states that have reciprocity agreements with the states that issued my permits. On the map below, the states in blue all honor one or both of my permits.

Getting a concealed carry permit depends on your home state. Some states require you to pass a concealed carry course and demonstrate proficiency with your weapon before you can qualify for a permit. Others simply issue a permit to people who meet the necessary requirements.

In South Dakota, it’s as simple as filling out a form and submitting it to the Sheriff in your home county. After a background check, you go to the Sheriff’s office, pay a small fee (under $20 as I recall), and your permit is issued. Check with the Sheriff in your county for specific information.

The other two states most popular with fulltime RVers also issue concealed weapons permits to their residents. For Florida residents, this link to the Florida concealed carry permit requirements will help you determine what is required. Texas residents can click this link to Texas CCW information.

Arizona, Texas, and Utah all issue concealed carry permits to non-residents who meet their requirements to obtain such a permit. Check each individual state’s website for information on non-resident permits.

At our Arizona Gypsy Gathering rally in Yuma, Byron Hibshman will be giving a seminar on Transporting Firearms In Your RV. Byron will also be doing an evening class to qualify for a Utah non-resident CCW permit. You can contact Byron at his Traveling CCW website for class information and fees.

A good guide to traveling with firearms is the book The Traveler’s Guide to the Gun Laws of the 50 States, which has detailed info on every state, and what is legal and not legal in that state. Another good reference is the website Handgunlaw.us. But please be aware that things can change on a daily basis, so if you have a question or concern, check with local authorities before you go.

Making the decision to own and carry a firearm is not one to be made lightly. It brings with it a very heavy responsibility to yourself, to your family, and to society. I always tell people that if they are going to have a gun, please, please, please take a firearms safety course, as well as a course on firearms use in a tactical situation. You must not only know how to shoot, you need to know when to shoot, and when not to.

And then practice regularly with your firearm. It’s one thing to punch holes in paper at a range, but in a real life situation, when the adrenalin is pumping and you’re scared to death, even trained police officers and combat veterans miss a lot more than they ever hit their targets.

Face it, most of us will never need a weapon to defend ourselves, especially in the RV lifestyle. However, the flip side of that coin is that any of us can find ourselves in a desperate situation at any minute. After all, we don’t spend all of our lives in safe, secure RV parks. We all drive down the road, eat in restaurants, and shop in stores. And we never know what the guy behind us in traffic or in the checkout line, or at the next table, will do. Having faced off with armed opponents both with and without a gun in my hand in the past, trust me, it’s much better with the gun!

Thought For The Day – Dear Santa, All I want for Christmas is thick hair and a thin body. Please don’t mix them up like you did last year.

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I talked to the owner of the RV shop where our burglary and vandalism took place over the weekend, and he told us to be there when they opened this morning, and he and his crew would do whatever needs to be done to get us back on the road in time to get to my medical appointment at the VA hospital in Lexington, Kentucky Wednesday morning.

Now that we have the mess cleaned up, things look a lot better inside our motorhome. If they can get the glass for the side door and get it installed today, we could leave tomorrow and get to Lexington in time. The day/night blinds also should not take too long to replace, assuming they have or can get them today.

Since Elkhart is the RV Capital of the World, at least we’re in a good place to get the parts needed fast. The slashed seat is another matter; I don’t see how that can be repaired that quickly, so we’ll see what happens with that.

There are things about this crime that just do not make sense to us. For example, they took my netbook computer and the attached cable to our Silverleaf engine monitoring system, which entailed crawling under the Winnebago’s dashboard and cutting the straps that held it in place, and reaching an almost inaccessible plug under the driver’s footrest to unplug it. It would have been much easier to just unplug the cable from the USB port of the computer, or to cut it. My iPod was lying next to the netbook computer and they ignored it. In the bedroom, they took a cheap DVD player, but left a shotgun and expensive camera. They left one rather expensive handgun in a dresser drawer, and took a cheaper Glock that was laying under it. Why? They carried away a 19 inch LCD TV, but left other smaller, more expensive, more portable items where they tossed them. We can’t understand their thinking, but being scumbag thieves, they probably are not Rhodes scholars anyway.

You just knew that Bad Nick had to wade in on this one, and he did with today’s Bad Nick Blog, titled Sometimes You Just Want To Kill Something. Check it out and leave a comment.

The date for our Arizona Gypsy Gathering rally is coming up fast, and new reservations are coming in every day. Terry and I have been forced to reevaluate and change our position on rally vendors.

When we started holding rallies, we had a policy of only one vendor per each type of product, to give our vendors the maximum opportunity to make a profit. That became a problem because rally attendees wanted more shopping opportunities, and then we were threatened with legal action for “restraining trade” because we would not allow one vendor to come because someone had already registered selling a similar product. We may have prevailed in court, but I don’t need the expense or the hassle.

My attorney advised us to drop that restriction, so we decided that we would allow vendors who sold similar products made by different companies. That opened an entire new can of worms. These days there are a lot of vendors selling three, four, five or more different products, and if they can’t display and sell all of their products, they won’t come. Everybody wants to sell everything, and nobody wants any competition. I tell you, it’s like herding cats trying to keep up with all of them. How can we win?

We have also had several vendors assure us in the past that they plan to attend, and then cancel at the last minute. Meanwhile, we have turned other potential vendors away who sell similar products. In our mail this week we received a registration for a Passport America vendor who had told us in August he wanted to come to the rally, but did not pay a deposit. Meanwhile, weeks later, another Passport America vendor registered and paid. Now the first guy is upset because he feels we sold his space out from under him.

So the new policy, after the Arizona rally, is that any vendor can come to future rallies, no matter what he or she is selling. No matter what we do, we can’t please everybody, and I’m tired of pulling out what little hair I have left trying to do so.

Before I end this blog, I hope you will take a few moments to remember that today is Pearl Harbor Day, and to remember those who lost their lives on that terrible day in 1941. That seems like a lifetime ago for many of us, but to them and their families, it was the end of their lifetime.

Thought For The Day – It is never too late to mend a broken friendship.

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We have a lot of friends here in Alabama that we wanted to touch base with, and yesterday we got to spend time with several of them, both here at the Escapees Rainbow Plantation and at a couple of other nearby RV parks.

I met Tom Wiegman at an Escapade RV rally in Van Wert, Ohio several years ago, when he and his wife Karen were researching the fulltime RV lifestyle. Tom had some concerns that we talked about, and I assured him that if they really wanted to become fulltimers, they could make it happen. These days they are living their dream, workamping at a neat little RV park called Wales West, in Silverheel, Alabama.

Yesterday we dropped in for a visit, and while we missed Karen, Tom was there helping decorate for Christmas. Here is a picture of the two of us, note Tom’s headgear. Tom gave us a tour of Wales West, which is a neat place. The campground has its own railroad, with over a mile of tracks, and is popular with children from all around the region.

The campground’s owners love railroads and they love the country of Wales. The buildings at the campground are all modeled after buildings in a town they visited in Wales, and railroad enthusiasts love coming here to ride the train. If you’re looking for a quiet, off the beaten track campground with friendly people and great amenities, check out the Wales West website.

Our next stop was at Coastal Haven RV Park in Fairhope, where our friends Paul and Sally Wagner are spending the winter. Paul and Sally are regulars at Elkhart Campground, where we spend a lot of time, and two of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. We timed our visit just right, because another dear friend from Elkhart Campground, Myrl Gautsche, was spending a few days there, so we got to see him too. Here are Sally, Myrl, and Paul enjoying the sunshine.

Back at Rainbow Plantation, Terry happened to look out our window and spotted Di Irrgang walking by. Di and her husband Dutch have been vendors at our Arizona Gypsy Gathering rallies, and we did not realize that they are parked just two spaces down from us!

Norm and Linda Payne have a home here at Rainbow Plantation, and they had invited a few people over for snacks and a visit, so about 4:30 we walked over to their place and had a wonderful evening visiting with Norm and Linda, Darrell and Judy Patterson, and Howard and Linda Payne, from RVDreams.com. In this photo, from left to right, you can see me, Judy Patterson, Linda Payne (of RVDreams.com) Howard Payne, our hosts Linda and Norm Payne, and Darrell Patterson. Miss Terry was behind the camera, so she isn’t included in our party picture.

It was fun to sit around and tell war stories from our lives on the road, compare notes on places we have visited and people we have met, and share some of the goofy mistakes we all make from time to time. Darrell told us about how he did $1,000 worth of damage to his truck and almost as much to his fifth wheel when he tried to use cement blocks to stabilize it.

I admitted that in our first month on the road, as we were leaving a campground I commented to Miss Terry about how friendly everybody was, because they were all pointing and waving their arms at us as we drove by. It wasn’t until I got to the exit and glanced into my side view mirrors did I realize that all of our window awnings were still out. By then there was no way I was going to stop and have all of those people staring at me as I got out and put the awnings up, so I just kept on going, while poor Miss Terry had to open the windows, reach outside and remove the awning catch straps from their hooks, and let the awnings roll up! It took me a long time to live that one down!

Bad Nick isn’t quite the social butterfly that I am, so while I was out visiting folks, he was home writing a new Bad Nick Blog post titled Media Whores. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize that you’re wrong.

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After waiting way too long, due to last minute details we needed to get done, and then bad weather, yesterday we finally hit the road and gave our bad case of hitch itch a mighty scratch!

After a week of gloomy sky, wind, and rain, Sunday morning dawned bright and sunny, with no wind. A perfect day for traveling! Miss Terry stowed away the things inside the motorhome that needed to be secured so they didn’t become a deadly missile in the event of an accident, while I unhooked our water, electric, and sewer connection from the campground’s utility pedestal. Then we hooked up our Blue Ox tow bar, I disengaged the van’s driveshaft disconnect, and turned on the SMI auxiliary brake.

While we were doing that, Gypsy Journal subscriber Herb Staffenski came by to purchase several of our books. It was nice to meet Herb and his wife Anke, and they hope to join us at our Arizona Gypsy Gathering in Yuma, in March.

After running the slides in and pulling up our HWH leveling jacks, we said our goodbyes to Greg and Jan White, and I thanked Greg again for all of his help over the last couple of weeks. It was nice to have the time to get to know this fun couple better, and we look forward to many more good times together in the future.

After a quick scan of our PressurePro tire monitoring system, we pulled out of Elkhart Campground a little after 11:00 a.m., got on the Indiana Toll Road and headed east about 50 miles to the junction with Interstate 69, which we followed south to Fort Wayne, Indiana, and then got on U.S. Highway 30 eastbound, a nice divided four lane highway with little traffic.

We crossed into Ohio and continued east past Van Wert, and eventually came to Interstate 75, and took it south to Dayton. There was a lot more traffic on the superslab, and in Dayton we ran into a long stretch of road construction, with narrow lanes and concrete barriers instead of shoulders. I was glad to leave the interstate again and get onto U. S. Highway 35, another nice four lane limited access road that carried us 140 miles southeast through farmlands and rolling hills to Gallipolis, on the Ohio River.

I said in the blog a few days ago that an ideal driving day in an RV is 250 to 300 miles, but that sometimes when the traveling is good, we find ourselves going past that. And so it was yesterday. By the time we pulled into the Wal-Mart Super Center in Gallipolis and tucked ourselves into the far edge of the parking lot for the night, it was twilight and we had covered 387 miles. We had a bad case of hitch itch, and it just needed to be scratched!

After I wrote about their diesel engine monitoring systems for PC based computers a while back, and included a link to Norm Payne’s excellent article  on the Silverleaf Electronics moitoring system, the nice folks at Silverleaf loaned me one of their VMSpc cables to evaluate and review, and I had hooked it up to a small Acer netbook computer before we hit the road for this trip. The cable plugs into the data port under our RV’s dash, and the Silverleaf program monitors dozens of engine functions with digital displays that you can customize for your own needs.

According to the Silverleaf, we averaged 8.1 miles per gallon yesterday, most of it with the cruise control set at 63 miles per hour, though there were a few times when I was up around 66 or 67 MPH to keep up with the traffic flow.

The more I drive our Winnebago, the more I like it. Even towing our ¾ ton Ford van, the Cummins 350 horsepower engine had no problems coming up a few rather steep hills, down here in southern Ohio, at 60 or 65 miles per hour. I’m impressed!   

Today we’ll cross into West Virginia and continue our trek into new territory to explore and new adventures to discover. 

Thought For The Day – If you do what you enjoy and don’t harm other people, you’re living a beautiful life.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

Getting to know other RVers is one of the best parts of this lifestyle!

For the last few days, Bruce and Linda Fay have been parked next to us at Elkhart Campground in their nice looking older Itasca Sunrise motorhome. Yesterday before they left to go back home to Michigan, they stopped over to say goodbye. Bruce and Linda were at our recent Gypsy Gathering rally in Celina, Ohio, but we were so busy there that we didn’t really have time to talk, so it was nice to have a few minutes to visit.

Later in the afternoon, Greg White invited us to go to dinner with he and his wife Jan, to celebrate Jan’s birthday. We first met Greg and Jan at one of our rallies in Arizona, where Greg managed to get his diesel pusher stuck pulling out of the Casa Grande Fairgrounds, and I teased him in the blog about it. Greg has a great sense of humor, and took it in stride.

They were also at our rally in Celina, and then came back here to Elkhart. We have enjoyed getting to know them better in the last couple of weeks, and Greg has helped me out with several projects. In fact, today we have a couple more planned that I know I could not tackle on my own.

On the topic of rallies, I have added an Early Bird Registration link to our Arizona Gypsy Gathering rally in Yuma March 8-12. Originally it was my understanding that because the fairgrounds are having a Good Sam rally just before our event, we would not be able to have our regular early bird arrival. But I talked to the folks at the fairgrounds Friday, and they tell me the Good Sam group will be leaving the fairgrounds on Sunday, March 7. Early birds coming in for our rally can arrive anytime after noon on the 7^th. If you have been to one of our rallies before, you know how much fun they are, and if you haven’t had the chance yet, I hope you’ll join us in Yuma.

Hardworking Miss Terry finally finished all of the mailing and the new issue is on its way to subscribers all over the country. It’s always a relief when the last envelopes get to the post office and we can breathe a big sigh of relief until next time around.

A couple of our readers e-mailed me during the weekend to give me their winter addresses. Unfortunately, the papers were already stuffed into envelopes and in the system, so I was not able to pull them out and change the addresses. If your paper does not get forwarded to you, please let me know. And if you are getting ready to head for your favorite snowbird roost, be sure to let us know your winter address for next issue.

While Miss Terry was working hard on the mailing, Bad Nick posted a new Bad Nick Blog called AT&T Salutes Vets With One Finger. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – People always talk about the importance of cleaning their homes but they rarely talk about cleaning their minds and souls.  What unwanted stuff are you carrying within you?

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally