We left Bowling Green State University Friday morning, and though I had been worried that we might get stuck in the field where we were parked, we got out just fine. We stopped for fuel, then drove north about ten miles on Interstate 75, skirted the west edge of Toledo on Interstate 475, then picked up U.S. Highway 23 and followed it north into Michigan.

The line at the dump station in Bowling Green was really long, so we decided to stop at the Cabela’s Outfitters in Dundee, Michigan, about 45 miles north of Bowling Green, to use their dump station. Apparently quite a few other folks from the FMCA rally had the same idea, because there were several motorhomes waiting to dump. We also needed to make a bank deposit, so we unhooked the van and Miss Terry ran off to do that errand while I waited in line to dump. She needn’t have hurried, because I was still in line when she got back.

Several rigs ahead of me pulled up, dumped, and quickly went on their way, but you know there always has to be one jerk in every crowd. A guy in a big diesel pusher pulled up to the dump station, got out, didn’t like his position, got back inside his coach and maneuvered around a bit, got back out, still didn’t like where he was, and repeated the process again. Then he puttered around, opened his sewer bay, closed it, went back inside his coach, came back out, opened the sewer bay again, then opened several other bays until he found his rubber gloves and put them on.

Then he took out his sewer hose, hooked it to his tank outlet, realized that it was too short, and went to two other coaches until he could find somebody to loan him an extra length of hose and a connector, which he attached to his hose and finally dumped. That chore done, he rinsed out the hoses, unhooked the loaner hose, unhooked his sewer hose, replaced it in the bay, returned the loaner hose, went back to his rig and opened two bay doors before he decided where he wanted to put his gloves, changed his mind and got them back out and put them in a different bay, and finally got inside his coach. And sat there. And then he sat there some more. People started blowing their horns and the fellow ahead of me was ready to do him bodily harm before the fool finally drove off and the line moved forward, and eventually I was next in line to dump.

That was when an idiot in an SUV pulling an Airstream trailer came the other way through the parking lot and tried to shoehorn himself in behind the rig that was finishing dumping. No way was that going to happen, and Bad Nick went flying out of the bus to explain the facts of life to the guy behind the wheel. Meanwhile, the air was split with blaring horns as people who had waited patiently in line let the offender know that he wasn’t going to get away with that!

He decided to play dumb and said “Oh, are all of you waiting to dump? I’m sorry,” before beating a hasty retreat.

We wasted an hour at the dump station, but eventually got back onto the highway and followed it north until it joined Interstate 75. Traffic was heavy all the way from Toledo to Bay City, with some particularly bad stretches in Ann Arbor and Flint, where nobody seemed to know what a yield sign, a turn signal, or a rearview mirror was for.

By the time we turned west on U.S. Highway 10 at Bay City, I was more than ready to get on a slower paced road. An hour later we joined State Highway 115 and took it to U.S. Highway 131 near Cadillac, and with a couple more zigs and zags down two lane highways we arrived at my cousin Terry Cook’s place just south of Traverse City about 6:30 p.m., having logged just over 300 miles.

We backed into our usual spot in Terry’s driveway, received warm greetings from the entire family, and hooked up to water and electric. We’ll be here for a few days as Miss Terry has her annual visit to her oncologist, and we enjoy some time relaxing with family. After being up early every morning at the FMCA rally, the first order of business will be to turn the telephones off and sleep late every morning!

Thought For The Day – Over prepare, and then go with the flow.

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally

Boy, there sure are a lot of RVs here on the campus of Bowling Green State University for the FMCA! The last official word I had was 2500 family coaches, plus a couple hundred vendors, staff, and volunteers’ RVs, not to mention several dozen new motorhomes on display by dealers and manufacturers.

The FMCA brought a crowd to this little college town, and the merchants are sure happy about that! Everywhere you go the restaurants and stores are full of RVers.

We have a booth in the indoor vendor area, where we’ll be introducing people to the Gypsy Journal and the various books and booklets we have to offer. The indoor market area is open today through Thursday, and this grand soiree winds up Friday and we’ll all head for every point on the compass.

That is if it doesn’t rain. We are parked on a very rutted grass field that could well turn into a real problem if we get a lot of rain and it gets soft. And since the weather reports are for scattered thunderstorms all week, we’re hoping for the best. Obviously a lot of heavy vehicles have been here before us, because the grass is so rutted it shakes the fillings out of your teeth just driving across it at a snail’s pace.

The vendor area has a ton of offerings; everything from sewer hoses to campground memberships, to RV furniture and awnings, and whatever else your little heart could desire and your pocketbook can afford. We have had the opportunity to visit with many of our vendor friends, and we’re hoping to entice a few more of them into coming to our Ohio Gypsy Gathering rally in late September.

We’ve only done one of the huge FMCA International rallies before, many years ago, though we have vended at many of their smaller regional rallies with limited success. So we’re hoping for the best.

Once we had our vendor booth ready to go and spent some time visiting with other vendors yesterday, we drove back to Toledo to look up one of my best friends from high school, Dan Connell. It’s been about nine years since I had seen Dan, and it was great to see my old pal. I know Miss Terry and Dan’s pretty lady Patty must have gotten tired of us reliving every single teenage prank and bit of mischief we ever got into together, especially since I’m sure we had the same conversation the last time we got together, but some of those stories just needed retelling.

I also get to meet Dan’s son Steve. The one and only time I saw him, Steve was less than a week old, and he is a grown man now. He sure grew up to be a fine young man, and it was heartwarming to see the bond he shares with his Dad. We hope to get back up to Toledo to see Dan and Patty before we leave the area.

By the time we got back to Bowling Green and grabbed a bite to eat, there was just time to write the blog post and answer a few e-mails before bedtime. We are not morning people, so being bright eyed and bushy tailed to start meeting and greeting the public at 8 a.m. is a real chore.

Thought For The Day – I gave up jogging for health reasons. My thighs kept rubbing together and setting my shorts on fire.

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally

The world has lost a legend. Yesterday, broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite died at age 92.

Long before cable television, CNN, and the internet, the world tuned in to CBS News every evening to hear the venerable Cronkite tell us what was going on in the world, and he gave us the news of some of the most important moments in American history, from the Apollo 11 moon landing, to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.

The first time I ever heard about the Vietnam War was from Walter Cronkite. I remember asking my parents where Vietnam was and if I would have to go there and fight. My mother assured me that the war would be over long before I was old enough to have to go, but my father, a World War II veteran, just looked worried and didn’t say anything. In the next few years I watched my older cousins go off to fight in Vietnam, and then my turn came. By then Walter Cronkite had already told America that we were mired in a stalemate in Vietnam, and public opinion had turned against the war. If “Uncle Walter” said so, we knew it was true. Because as he told us every night, “And that’s the way it is.”

Rest in peace, Mr. Cronkite. The evening news has not been the same since you left.

On another note, we can’t figure out what happened, but a lot of people that were not due to renew their subscriptions yet received renewal notices with the new issue of the Gypsy Journal. The gremlins were apparently creating havoc with our mailing list and they sure have caused a lot of confusion.

You can check your renewal date by reading the top line of the address block on your envelope. It will have a two digit number, as well as possibly some initials. That two digit number is the issue your subscription expires with. For example, the current issue is Number 61, so if that two digit number on your address block is 66, you still have five issues left on your subscription.

If you received an unexpected renewal notice and your address block still shows you are current, please disregard the notice you received and please accept our apologies for the inconvenience.

We received confirmation yesterday afternoon that we will be able to get a last minute vendor booth at the Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA) rally in Bowling Green, Ohio next week. So we’ll leave Elkhart Campground Sunday morning and make the 150 mile drive to Bowling Green State University, where the rally is being held, and get our booth set up and ready to do business.

That means today will be busy as Terry does the laundry, I print booklets to sell at the rally, and we do all of the last minute chores needed before we take off. FMCA rallies have never been very successful events for us in terms of sales, but we hope to be able to make a few sales and introduce some folks to the Gypsy Journal. Wish us luck!

Thought For The Day – I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once.

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally