It started raining late Wednesday night, and it rained hard most of the night here in Titusville. By morning the rain was really coming down, and NASA postponed the space shuttle launch again. Now they are aiming for this afternoon.

The many delays may be frustrating for those who are waiting to see the space shuttle blast off, but the local merchants sure appreciate it. The stores and restaurants are all very busy.

I used to do a lot of fishing, but it’s been years since I dipped a line in the water, except for one outing a couple of years ago with our friends Wes and Jan Chilson on their boat in Aransas Pass, Texas. Lately I’ve been wanting to get back into the sport.

With yesterday’s launch canceled, we visited a couple of shops so I could look at fishing equipment. The stuff I had years ago was getting beat up in the bus bays, and never getting used, so I finally gave it to my son-in-law. I’ve been away from fishing so long that I need to reeducate myself on what kind of gear I need.

I’m pretty much a catch and release angler, because I like catching fish a lot more than I like eating fish. I don’t plan on doing any deep sea fishing, so I don’t need super heavy duty stuff, and I don’t want to spend a lot of money, because I’m cheap. I’m leaning toward a Shakespeare Ugly Stick rod and spinning reel combo I saw at WalMart. My friend Al Hesselbart from the RV Hall of Fame Museum in Elkhart is a dedicated angler who’d rather fish than eat, so I called him for his suggestions, and Al thought the Ugly Stick was a good choice for my needs.

After looking at fishing gear at a couple of places, we stopped in at a little used book store in town, because we can never pass up a book store. But, the owner was closing early because she had to get to an appointment, so we only stayed a few minutes. We’ll have to go back on another trip to this area.

It was still raining, and obviously wasn’t going to clear up anytime soon, so we decided to have an early dinner and then head back to the motorhome. Somebody had suggested Valentino’s, an Italian restaurant in the shopping mall on U.S. Highway 1 (Washington Street). The place wasn’t fancy, but Terry and I agreed that it was absolutely the best pizza we have had in more years than we can remember.  The service was fast and friendly, and our total bill for bread knots, a medium pizza, and drinks, was $20. You can’t beat a bargain like that!

The weather is supposed to clear today, and we’re scheduled to have lunch with our friends, and hosts here, Peter and Connie Bradish. If we get done in time, we’ll run back to the riverfront and try to find a parking place among the crowds. NASA says the shuttle launch is back on schedule for 3:03 this afternoon, and I really hope we get to see it this time! It’s one more thing to cross off my bucket list.

Thought For The Day – It is easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

We had already planned our trip to Titusville and The Great Outdoors RV Resort when we learned that space shuttle Discovery was going to be launched for its final mission on Monday, November 1. So that was like icing on the cake.

Since Titusville is right across the Indian River from the John F. Kennedy Space Center, we’re in the perfect location to see the launch.

Well, Monday came and went, and the launch was delayed until Wednesday,  due to mechanical issues. Those issues were resolved, and then an electrical problem caused the launch to be rescheduled until this afternoon. Then, late yesterday, NASA said that there is an 80% chance of the launch being postponed again, due to bad weather that is moving in. So I guess time will tell if it flies or not. We’re scheduled to leave here Sunday morning, so I hope the launch goes off before then.

We have not been doing any exploring on this trip to the Space Coast, because my dear friend Tim Moran has been having some very serious health issues, and I’ve been spending as much time with him as I can. Miss Terry and Tim’s wife Ann have been running around a bit, doing some shopping and having girl time while I stay at the house and keep Tim company. It’s hard to see somebody you love suffering so much. Folks, live every day to the fullest, because life is very tenuous, and the time goes by way too fast.

When we leave here Sunday, we’re going to the Orlando Thousand Trails preserve, which is actually in Clermont. This is a big campground, and one we haven’t stayed at before before. Our friends Dennis and Cindy Henderson are at the Thousand Trails, and we hope to get a chance to get our kayaks in the water and do some paddling with them.

Our annual Thousand Trails membership dues give us 50 nights of “free” camping a year, and any nights over 50 are $5 a night. We’ve had the membership for five years now, and this will be the first year we have used our whole 50 nights. We knew going in that it would take us a while to have the time to really get the most out of our membership, but since we basically got it for free, we were okay with that.

This is a good example of why I always tell new fulltimers to wait at least a year before they buy into a campground membership, because it will take them at least that long to define their camping and traveling style. And I always encourage RVers to look for used campground memberships, because you can save literally thousands of dollars. Our nationwide Thousand Trails/NACO Platinum membership sells for a lot of money brand new, but on the resale market one can be picked up for pennies on the dollar.

Do your homework before you go shopping for a campground membership, and understand that a membership may not be right for you. Many, many RVers we know get by just fine with a combination of Escapees campgrounds, Passport America RV parks, Corps of Engineers campgrounds, and such. A membership is only a good investment if you use it enough to get your money out of it. Only you can decide that.

Bad Nick couldn’t let the mid-term elections go by without having something to say. Check out the new Bad Nick Blog post titled The People Have Spoken and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

None of us like wasting money, and in today’s economy, a lot of people are finding ways to save every penny they can. But when does thrift become less advantageous than the effort or inconvenience required to achieve it?

One example is an RVer I know who never purchases fuel at stations near an interstate exit, because he says that more often than not, he can save two to three cents per gallon by driving an extra mile or two into town. Okay, so let’s say he has a 100 gallon fuel tank, and he waits until the gauge is at the 1/4 tank level. He puts in 75 gallons of fuel, and saves $2.25 (based on 3 cents per gallon savings). But how much fuel did he burn driving the mile or two into town and back to the highway? Not to mention the hassles of dealing with surface street traffic in a big rig. And again, he tells me that more often than not he saves money. That means there are times when he doesn’t pay any less. Then those extra miles actually cost him more than if he filled up at the exit!

When it’s convenient, we usually fill up at Flying J truck stops, because they traditionally give RVers a penny a gallon discount on fuel, most have dedicated RV fuel islands, an RV dump station, and allow RVers to park overnight. I don‘t go to Flying J because of the discount, although I am happy to get it. I go because I appreciate their RV friendly-attitude.

However, there are some Flying J locations, such as Kingman, Arizona, that I will bypass to pay a little more somewhere else, because the layout of that particular Flying J makes it extremely difficult to get in and out with a big rig. Since we have a 100 gallon tank, and I seldom let our fuel level get below half, saving 50 cents is just not worth the hassle.

We all know that we can save fuel driving at 55 miles per hour, as opposed to 65 or faster. But just how much fuel can we save, and is it really worth it? A few days ago, while driving along Interstate 95 in southern Georgia, I did a test. I set our cruise control at 65 miles per hour and carefully monitored our Silverleaf VMSpc engine monitor. Over a 20 mile distance, we averaged 7.3 miles per gallon.

Then I dropped our speed down to 55 miles per hour, and reset the cruise control. Over the same flat terrain, we averaged 7.7 miles per gallon. So yes, at 55 miles per hour, we can save fuel. (By the way, ignore the 101 MPG rolling MPG on the readout, that was because I coasted into the rest area where Terry took this picture. Also ignore the 0% coolant level, my rig doesn’t have a sending unit for that, and I need to reconfigure the Silverleaf display to remove it.)

I’m terrible at math, but if I punched the right buttons on my calculator, that means that on a 1000 mile trip, on all flat terrain, we could save just over 7 gallons of fuel. Let’s assume that fuel is $3 per gallon. That’s a saving of about $21.

However, at 65 miles per hour, we were keeping up with traffic on the busy freeway. At 55 miles per hour, we had traffic piling up behind us waiting for an opportunity to get into the left lane and pass, and several times eighteen wheelers rushed up on our rear end and tailgated until they could get past. We did not feel safe driving at 55 in that kind of traffic.

Dry camping is another example.  We often pull into a WalMart, truck stop, or highway rest area to spend the night when we’re on the road. But we do it for the convenience more so than the economy. I don’t want to have to get off the highway and drive two or three miles to an RV park, unhook our tow vehicle, and back into an RV site, then hook up the campground utilities. And then in the morning I have to reverse the entire process.

When we dry camp like that, we usually run our generator for an hour or two while we watch TV and I use my desktop computer to check e-mail. That’s a couple of bucks worth of fuel, and worth it to me. However, if there is a convenient Passport America campground with pull-thru sites for $10 to $12 a night just off the highway, I’d as soon go there and have hookups.

If there is no handy WalMart or truck stop, I know RVers who will drive past that $10 or $12 campground and drive as much as five for six miles into town to dry camp at an Elks or Moose lodge. Again, is the effort worth the savings?

So what about you? What will you do to save a buck?

Thought For The Day – Everything is funny as long as it is happening to somebody else.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

Yesterday was a girls’ day out for Terry and our friend Ann Moran, while Ann’s husband Tim and I had a boys’ day in. It worked out well for everybody.

We had told our friends that we’d come down to their place in Rockledge about mid-morning, and spend the day together. The plan was that Terry and Ann were going to do some shopping and hit some of the  craft supply stores, while Tim and I visited a local museum, and then we’d meet up with the ladies for a late lunch.

My back was acting up the night before and I didn’t get a lot of sleep, and when we got to Rockledge, Tim was feeling under the weather. Plus, the electric motor on the well pump that they use for watering their lawn had failed, and a repairman was on the way to replace it.

So, we made a change in plans. Terry and Ann went ahead and did their thing, while Tim and I stayed at the house waiting for the repairman to get finished with the motor. When the job was done, Tim and I decided to just hang out at the house and visit for the afternoon. So that’s just what we did, and I think that between the two of us, we solved most of the problems of the world by the time Terry and Ann returned about 4 p.m. I really enjoyed having a quiet day with my good friend, doing nothing at all.

The space shuttle is supposed to launch Wednesday afternoon, and my buddy Greg White had e-mailed me about a good place to watch the launch, from the causeway that connects Titusville with the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Greg told us where to park, and said we’d have a nice unobstructed view of the launch across the water.

Either we went to the wrong place, or else Greg didn’t know about the new bridge they are building next to the causeway, but the view sure seemed “obstructed” to us!

No problem, we just drove a little further out the causeway, which has parking areas on both sides, and we found several places from which we can watch the lift off, if we get there early enough to beat the crowds.  The signs along the causeway say No Overnight Camping, but we saw several RVs parked there that look like they are settled in until the launch. Maybe the rules are relaxed when they have a launch, I don’t know.

We spent some time watching people fishing, or just enjoying being near the water, and Miss Terry got some very nice sunset pictures.

We wanted to have dinner at Dixie Crossroads again, but when we arrived the place was packed and people were standing in line waiting to get seated. Wow, when we were there Saturday night, we walked right in! The hostess told me the wait was about 30 minutes, and that they would stay this busy until after the crowds who came to town for the launch have left. We drove a mile so to a little Mexican restaurant called La Bamba II that we discovered on our last visit here, and had no problem getting a table. The food was excellent, and we were stuffed when we left.

Back at The Great Outdoors, there was a note on our door warning us to boil the water before we used it for drinking, brushing teeth, etc. for the next 72 hours. Apparently they had a broken pipe, and were worried about any contamination that might have occurred. We always keep at least a half tank of water on board, so it won’t be a problem, just a minor inconvenience.

A major inconvenience here is the terribly slow service we’re getting on our Verizon air card. We are only a couple of miles from town, but we are on the fringe of the signal area, and sometimes we can’t get online at all, or we get thrown off repeatedly. So much of our work is done online that this presents a real problem for us.

Hopefully today my back will cooperate and Tim will be feeling better, and we can get that museum trip in.

Thought For The Day – Be careful about reading health books. You could die of a misprint.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

One of the nice perks of our business is that from time to time we get to try out neat new products, and tell our readers about them. Occasionally we get a product that’s a dud, and I make somebody mad because I say so, but most of what comes our way is pretty cool.

We’ve recently received several new goodies to review, and I’m impressed with all of them. Since I didn’t have anything else to write about today, and with Christmas coming, I thought I’d tell you about them now, and maybe you can make one of your RVing friends (or even yourself) very happy. I don’t make a commission off of any of these, they are just good products I think you might want to know about.

The first is the Dandy Duster, from Cliff’s Custom Crafts, in Bay City, Michigan. Measuring over eight inches long and made of static free hog bristles, mounted in a beautiful wood handle, they are perfect for cleaning everything from computer keyboards to musical instruments, fans, air conditioner vents, and lots more around the home or RV.

I keep one with a handsome Brazilian cherry handle in my desk drawer to clean up after myself, and Miss Terry’s is a light oak, and also gets a lot of use.  Cost is just $19, with free shipping. You can find out more by e-mailing company owner Cliff Atwater at  cliffscrafts@chartermi.net.

Another product that I am impressed with is the Eyelog Personal Wireless Mobile Camera, supplied by our friends Phil and Tracey May at TechnoRV. I first became aware of this nifty tool at our Indiana Gypsy Gathering rally, when Phil called me late in the evening to tell me that somebody was in his booth in the locked vendor building. We immediately ran to the building, only to find it empty. Phil showed me the picture on his cell phone, which turned out to be the campground’s owner, who had been setting the air conditioner thermostats on the wall behind Phil’s display.

The Eyelog uses AC and/or battery power, and is motion sensitive. When armed, if an intruder is detected it will send either a photo or a video to your computer and cell phone. If we would have had one of these a year ago, we would have been forewarned and would not have walked in on an armed burglar in our RV! For more information, contact Phil or Tracey through their website or by phone at (866) 324-7915.

The Adalite is a handy wireless LED light that is perfect for RV storage bays, closets, kitchen cabinets, truck toolboxes, storage sheds, and anywhere else where you need some extra illumination.

The Adalite comes with a detachable mount for emergency use, and wireless sensors. The light operates when a storage compartment or closet is opened, and the sensors are separated. The “sending unit” sensor sends a signal to the Adalite that can be mounted anywhere within a 30 to 45 feet range of the sensors. Once the sensors are separated by opening the compartment, a signal is sent to the Adalite, which has (33) multi-directional bright LED lights that light up any area automatically. This is a great new product that is handy in dozens of ways around the RV or at home. Look for Adalite at your favorite RV rally or show.

Maybe I didn’t have anything to write about, but Bad Nick did. While I was playing with new toys, he was busy posting a new Bad Nick Blog titled Choose Your Poison. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that!

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally