Wow, I go away for one afternoon and the whole world changes! What’s up with that?

I had to get up earlier than usual for me yesterday morning, because I needed to be wide awake for a 9 a.m. conference call. I’ve found that folks tend to get offended or lose confidence in you if you snore during a business call.

The call took about an hour, and then I spent some time answering e-mails and checking some blog comments that were waiting for moderation. (To fight spam, all blog comments are held for review the first time somebody makes one. After that, the software recognizes their e-mail address and comments post immediately).

I also called my friend Greg White to ask his opinion on a couple of technical issues. No matter what questions I throw at him, from computers to digital cameras to synthetic transmission fluids, Greg always has the answers for me. Either he’s really smart, or he just makes stuff up off the top of his head and gets lucky a lot, I’m not sure which. Thanks for your input, Greg.

About the time I finished up with all that, Dave Damon showed up to borrow my Beanstalk ladder so he could fix something on his rig. Dave also reminded me that his wife, Jean, wants to give Terry and I massages while we’re here. I can hardly wait!

We left the Thousand Trails campground a little after noon, and drove around the area, dropping off bundles of sample copies of the Gypsy Journal at the local RV parks. We also stopped at the Camping World in Orlando to drop off a bundle of papers, but since we didn’t have a display rack for them, the manager said no. This is one of only two or three Camping World stores to say no in over twelve years. I understand their space limitations, but it’s a big store. We just don’t have the room to carry display racks with us, and we could never get back to refill them with every new issue with our travel schedule.

Interestingly enough, the nice folks at a very small RV parts store called Camping Connection, just a few miles east, were happy to have the papers, and found a place to display them. I guess if I need anything while we’re in the Orlando/Clermont area, I know who will get my business.

Check Out Our Holiday Subscription Special Offer! 

Once we were done dropping off sample newspapers, we drove to the Bass Pro Shop in Orlando to do some browsing. I love Cabela’s and Bass Pro Shop, because they are RV friendly, and most of their stores will let RVers park overnight, and because they have every kind of toy a grown up boy could want or need. Are you looking for a new shotgun, or a sleeping, bag, or a GPS, or a fishing rod? How about a pocket knife, a boat, or a tent? They’ve got it!  

Most of the employees I have met at these stores are very professional, but I ran into one dunderhead at the Orlando store. We plan to spend a week or so in the Florida Keys, and I wanted to buy a rod and reel to do some fishing. I was looking for an inexpensive rig that would do the job without breaking the bank, because experienced fishermen have told me that if you use a cheap reel for fishing salt water, you can pretty much expect to throw it away at the end of the season.

An employee in the fishing department asked if he could help me, and I told him what I was looking for. He shrugged and said “ You got a rod, you got a reel, you got some line and a hook. They all do the same thing.” I was tempted to pick up a cheap $10 kid’s rod and reel, and then one of their most expensive units (some selling for over $1,000) and seek out the manager and ask him why there was a difference in price, since they “all do the same thing.” Instead, I just took my money and left.

After stopping for dinner at a good Chinese buffet, we arrived back at the Thousand Trails preserve a little before 7 p.m., to find the place much busier than it had been before we left. I think everybody left Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana, and they all got here at the same time! When we left a few hours before, about a third of the RV sites in our loop were empty, including the ones next to and across from us. When we got home, those and just about every other site we passed in our loop was filled. I go away for one afternoon and the place fills up!

I guess the annual snowbird migration has begun. And it will only get busier over the next few weeks!

Thought For The Day – The greatest ignorance is to reject something you know nothing about.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

I feel like I’m wading in waist deep muck. I have so much I need to get done, but it’s like every step I try to take forward takes forever to accomplish, and I keep falling further and further behind.

Part of it is that I feel like I have hit an emotional and physical wall. I can’t concentrate, my brain feels fuzzy, I’m grouchy and irritable, and I’m worn out. All I want to do is lie down and take about a 36 hour nap. I know that it’s all a delayed stress reaction to recent events, and I’ll work through it. I just needed to snivel. Okay, enough of that.

Yesterday we had a lot of running around to get done. Our first stop was at the post office in Summerdale to mail off a bunch of orders, and then we went to Camping World in Robertsdale, where I picked up a written estimate to have our rooftop automatic TV dish replaced. Among the other things that happened during the burglary was that he (or they) ripped out the control box for the rooftop dish and the Dish Network receiver, threw them on the floor and stomped on them. Since Winegard no longer makes our model of dish or supports it and no replacement parts are available, we have to get a new one.

While we were at Camping World, we picked up a folding aluminum outside step with a 1,000 pound capacity for times when the distance between the ground and the step of the Winnebago is too much for our stubby little legs.

Terry also found a small oak  footstool to put under her feet when  we’re traveling to make it more comfortable for her. The top raises to give access to a small storage area for items like remote controls and such, Just what I need, one more place to lose my remote control!

We then had to run over to Daphne, on Mobile Bay, to pick up some items at Sam’s Club, and while we were in the area, we stopped at the Bass Pro Shop at Spanish Fort. Terry wants a pair of fuzzy moccasin style slippers from Minnetonka or TeePee for Christmas, and I was hoping we could find some there, but they didn’t have what she wanted.   

We also went to an Office Depot to make copies of paperwork for the insurance company and faxed that to them. If you have ever wanted to be a crook for a living but are to afraid of going to jail, I think you should just open an insurance company. It’s like a license to steal. We have paid thousands of dollars in premiums over the years and never had a claim, but now that we need them, we are getting one runaround after another. One person tells you one thing and the next person contradicts the first one, things one tells us are covered the next one says are not, and “total replacement coverage” and “disappearing deductibles” are all bull$&@! when it comes time to pay off.

By the time we got all of that done, it was after 4 p.m. and we were getting hungry. I had spotted a Chinese buffet in a shopping center across the street from the Office Depot, and asked the clerk who sent our faxes if it was any good. She said she didn’t like Chinese, so couldn’t tell me, but one of her co-workers spoke up and said it was her family’s favorite Chinese restaurant, and that her sister drove all the way to Daphne from the far west side of Mobile to go there at least twice a month, so that was good enough for me. We adjourned to the Grand Buffet for dinner, and while I wouldn’t put it up in my Top 5 list of Chinese buffets, it was pretty darned good.

Back at the campground, I answered some e-mails that came in during the day, fiddled with the satellite and Dish receiver hoping against hope I could get them to work, and finally gave up in frustration. I know a lot of folks say that they don’t care much for TV, but I do. There are a few regular programs we watch regularly, and I am a news hound so I miss the daily news broadcasts and a lot of good documentaries on A&E, the History Channel, and such. Tomorrow I may drag out my old tripod dish and see if I can get any kind of a signal off that.

Of course, nothing stops Bad Nick. He has a new blog post titled Welcome Home, Sisters. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – There is great need for a sarcasm font.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

All RVers love food, and one of the great things about the fulltime RV lifestyle is the opportunity to try the local fare at the restaurants wherever we are traveling. So I was surprised when a fulltiming couple I met a while back told me that they never eat anywhere except chain restaurants. “That way we always know what to expect,” they explained. “With those local joints, who knows what you’ll get?”

But isn’t that part of the fun? Sure, a Denny’s Grand Slam breakfast or a Burger King Whopper is going to taste the same whether you eat it in Seattle or Paducah, but that gets boring after a while.

We love finding the local places, where the food has real taste and where our meal is not pre-planned by a dietician in some laboratory, who declares that we’ll get so many ounces of potatoes, the steak will be cut in such and such way, and the ranch dressing comes on the side, not on top of your salad.

One of our favorite books is Road Food, by Michael and Jane Stern. This gem has taken us to some great dining establishments that we might never have found before. We also get a lot of tips on good places to eat from other RVers. Here are some of our favorite places to chow down:

The Brick Pit, Mobile, Alabama – Located in an old 1950s style ranch house, the ambience is nothing to get excited about, but they serve a barbecue that you’ll never forget.

Hog Wild, Cottonwood, Arizona – This is another barbecue place you’ll want to return to after your first visit. It’s the best barbecue restaurant we have found in over 10 years on the road! The portions are huge and everything on the menu is delicious.

Sausage Shop Meat Market, Tucson, Arizona – Tucked away in the corner of a small strip mall, it’s easy to miss the Sausage Shop, but once you find it, you’ll save it’s location in your GPS! They serve some of the best sandwiches you’ll find anywhere.

El Rancho Restaurant, Pinetop, Arizona – When I owned the weekly newspaper here, El Rancho was everyone’s favorite Mexican restaurant, and it still is. El Rancho serves huge portions, it’s all delicious, and the atmosphere is comfortable.

El Siboney Restaurant, Key West, Florida – This is one of those places the locals all know about, but most tourists never find. Their Cuban sandwiches are the best this side of Havana!

Keys Fisheries, Market, and Marina, Marathon, Florida – We loved the fresh seafood at this open air restaurant so much that we drove 50 miles from Key West not once, not twice, but three times in eight days! Their blackened grouper is the best I’ve ever tasted.

Lunkers, Edwardsburg, Michigan – Lunkers is a smaller version of Cabela’s or Bass Pro Shop, with just the one location, in Edwardsburg. Their restaurant serves up some delicious food, including a Cobb salad that is so big that Terry only orders it when she has somebody else to share it with. Besides steaks, burgers, and other food, you can also have such exotic foods as elk, ostrich, and bear meat.

Don’s Drive-In, Traverse City, Michigan – Don’s is a popular restaurant for the burger and fries crowd, and they are very tasty. But what makes this place special is their strawberry milkshakes. Thick and loaded with real fruit, they are almost a meal in themselves.

Golden Girls, Clinton, Tennessee – You can’t beat the broasted chicken at Golden Girls, and Terry loves their collard greens. Southern cooking at it’s best!

The Boiling Pot, Rockport, Texas – We always order the Cajun Combo, a delicious blend of blue crab, shrimp, boudin sausage, red potatoes and corn, all boiled together in Cajun seasonings. Then they cover your table with sheets of paper and pour it all out for you to pick through.

So there are my top ten favorite places to eat across the country. Tell me about some of yours. You can find some of our other favorite restaurants on our website. Check them out.

And while you’re at it, check out Bad Nick’s latest post Religion Or Terrorist Organization?

Thought For The Day – The more time you spend caring, the less time you have to hate.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

We left the fairgrounds in Sedalia about 10 a.m., followed U.S. Highway 65 north to Interstate 70 and took it east to Columbia, where we unhooked the van and left the bus in the parking lot of the Bass Pro Shop while we found a bank to make a deposit, and then had lunch at Culvers.

If you have never had a Butter Burger at Culver’s you have no idea what you are missing. There are only a couple of Culvers restaurants in Arizona, so we had only been to one since we left Indiana last year and it was long past due. In our opinion, they make the very best fast food burger in the world, hands down.

We had considered spending a couple of nights at the Boone County Fairgrounds in Columbia (listed in our RVers Guide To Fairgrounds Camping), which has 575 RV sites with water, electric, and dump stations for $10 a night. But they had two small RV rallies going on, one a Good Sam and the other a Holiday Rambler event. There were still a lot of RV sites left, but it was early afternoon and we decided to continue on to Mark Twain Lake.

We followed U.S. Highway 63, a good divided four lane highway, north from Columbia to Moberly, and then we took U.S. Highway 24 east. In Paris we were supposed to pick up State Route 154 and follow it to Perry, but somehow we got messed up and missed our turn. Five miles later I spotted Highway U and a sign for Mark Twain State Park, and turned off onto it.

Highway U is not exactly a super highway. It was a very narrow two lane road that climbed up one short hill and then dropped down another, but nine miles later we came to the state park and found State Route 154, which we followed to Perry. From Perry it was only a few miles north to Ray Behrens Campground, a Corps of Engineers campground on the shore of huge Mark Twain Lake.

Most of the sites are electric only, but we knew the campground had a few full hookup sites too. But since we arrived about 4 p.m. on a Friday, we really didn’t expect to find a full hookup site open. As luck would have it, they actually had three full hookup sites available! We chose a nice 50 amp site, got parked and settled in. At $12 a night with either a Golden Access or Golden Age pass from the National Park Service, it’s a heck of a deal.

I would never consider having an RV without an Electrical Management System (EMS) from Progressive Industries. Our EMS has saved our bus several times from bad campground wiring. When I plugged in at the campground, the EMS went through its setup procedure, and then shut down the incoming power because it detected a problem, showing an error code.

When this happens, you can bypass the EMS by flipping a switch on the model we have, and for some people I have known, that is their first response. But to me, that’s a recipe for disaster, sort of like ignoring your antivirus software alert and downloading a suspect e-mail attachment.

I called Daryl Lawrence from Lawrence RV Accessories, who is an EMS dealer, and described the problem. After making a phone call to the manufacturer, Daryl called me back and we deduced the problem was low voltage on one leg of the 50 amp power. We could have moved to one of the other open full hookup sites, but we really don’t need 50 amps to live comfortably. So I put on a 30 amp dog bone adapter, and we were good to go.

Daryl, thanks to you and Progressive Industries for your help and for such a great product. Folks, if you don’t have an EMS system in your RV, go to Daryl’s website and order one right now. You never know, the very next time you plug into a campground outlet may be the time you fry your RV’s electrical system and everything you have plugged in inside of it. Our EMS has saved us from damage more than once, and you’ll find very few companies in this industry that stand behind their products like Progressive Industries does.

Our friends Pam and Smokey Ridgely are workamping nearby at Mark Twain Landing, and we called to let them know we were in the area, and Smokey said they were just going to have dinner at the restaurant at their RV park. Never one to pass up food, I told him to give us a few minutes and we’d join them.

It was great to see our friends again after so long, and the food was as good as the conversation. Pam and Smokey introduced us to the campground’s managers and arranged for us to leave several bundles of sample issues for their guests.

By the time dinner and desert were finished, we were both tired from our long day, and the long week of vending we had just finished, so we said our goodbyes, promised to get together again while we’re here, and headed back to our bus and bed.

Thought For The Day – When you’re finally holding all the cards, why does everyone else decide to play chess?

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally