After too many days inside, I get cabin fever. So yesterday afternoon I took a break from working on the new issue of the Gypsy Journal to make a quick run to the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Fairhope.

While Miss Terry picked up some groceries and other items she needed, I browsed the book selection and picked up a couple of paperbacks that caught my interest. From Wal-Mart, we made a stop at Big Lots, and I waited in the van while Terry ran inside. We were only gone an hour or so, but the break really helped me feel rejuvenated.

Back at Rainbow Plantation, I knocked out several more pages of the new issue, and about 5 p.m. we went to Darryl and Judy Patterson’s nice Cedar Creek fifth wheel for dinner. They have been inviting us ever since we got here before our trip north to Indiana, and since they are leaving in a couple of days, it was now or never.

Norm and Linda Payne also joined us for dinner, and we had a couple of hours of good food and good conversation before it was time to say goodbye and get back to work. I love talking to other experienced RVers, and I always learn about new places to go and new things to see and do from them. It was nice to have the time to visit with both couples, and we really appreciate the great dinner. Miss Terry took over some of her great peanut butter cookies, and they were a hit with everybody.

The rain seems to have moved on past us, and hopefully things will start drying out around here. We are parked next to a tree, and when it rains hard, the leaves seem to get weighed down with the water and rub the top of our motorhome. It’s not enough to do any damage, the noise is just irritating. I want to move the coach a couple of feet to get away from them, but the ground is so darned soft that I’m afraid we’ll get stuck if I try.

We got a Wii for Christmas last year, and enjoyed it quite a bit, but we got busy and it got put aside somewhere and we have not used it in quite a while. Miss Terry mentioned several times that she missed it, so when we got back to the Winnebago I hooked it up and we played four games of bowling. It was a pretty close match – I won two games over Terry’s one, and we were tied on the fourth game. But she had more cumulative points overall, because she trounced me so badly in the game she won. We need to use the Wii more often, it’s a lot of fun, and it gives us a little exercise in the process.

Today and tomorrow will be more of the same, finishing up the new issue. I only have a few more pages to go, so I should be able to send it to the printer on Monday morning. The supervisor is a good guy whom we have worked with before, and he knows about our unexpected delay and said he’ll expedite the job, so hopefully we’ll get them back and in the mail within a few days after they get it.

While I was out goofing off, Bad Nick took over the keyboard and posted a new Bad Nick Blog titled The Rules Have Changed. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Do not light a fire you cannot yourself put out.

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It seems like we had more rain and cold weather this past summer than we did sunshine. October hasn’t changed that. While we were in Celina we had several rainy days, and though we got a break while we drove back to Elkhart Thursday, it started raining just about the time we finished getting set up in our site at Elkhart Campground. It poured all night long, and most of yesterday it continued to rain.

Somebody posted a thread on the Escapees forum yesterday saying it was raining where he was, and asking what fulltimers do with their time on days like that. I replied that we sleep in, make love, have a leisurely breakfast, sip hot chocolate, watch TV, surf the internet, read books, talk, take naps, and call friends and family. Then I added that I hope it rained again today!

Maybe it’s because of all those years I spent living on the Washington coast, where we averaged well over 120 inches of rain a year, but I like rainy days, as long as we don’t have to travel on them. Eventually I do get cabin fever, but a drizzly day now and then is very relaxing. 

I told Miss Terry once that I’d like to spend an entire winter on the Northwest coast sometime, when the pace is slower, and we could enjoy watching the storms rolling in over the Pacific Ocean. I wonder if we can put a fireplace in our motorhome?

Yesterday we did venture out in the afternoon to drop off some orders at the post office, then we met Bill Joyce and Diane Melde for dinner at Mancino’s, our favorite pizza place here in Elkhart. By the time we got back to the campground it had finally stopped raining, and the weatherman says we can expect clear skies for most of the next week, though it’s going to be chilly, with daytime temperatures in the 50s and nights in the mid-30s.

Once things dry out around here a little bit, we want to spend some time getting the bays in our Winnebago better organized. My buddy Ron Speidel taught a seminar at our Gypsy Gathering rally about how to organize your storage bays, and though I didn’t have time to sit in, I’ve taken a few tips from observing how Ron has things in his Winnebago Journey.

We were pretty ruthless in purging things as we moved from our bus conversion into the motorhome, and got rid of a lot of stuff. So our bays are not crammed full, but we still have a few things to discard, and then we want to rearrange things to make accessing them easier.

Yesterday we also stopped to check out our bus conversion. Now, I know it’s an inanimate object and incapable of emotions, but I swear, it looked real sad sitting there, when it was made to be out rolling down the highway. We are very pleased with our new RV, but we love that old girl. We put in every screw and strung every inch of wiring, and she carried us a lot of miles over the years.

A few days ago I wrote a blog post about solar power, and that we had decided not to transfer our solar panels from the bus to the Winnebago. But the solar setup we installed on the bus sure does a great job. The bus has been sitting for about three weeks and is not plugged in, but with just the solar panels supplying power, our house battery bank was fully charged. Someone asked if we ever had problems running our house style refrigerator off the inverter and battery bank when dry camping, but with this solar array, we never had to worry. It does the job.

Thought For The Day – They say wine improves with age. As I enter my golden years, I say age improves with wine!

With temperatures in the mid to upper 90s yesterday in Elklhart, and humidity over 50%, it wasn’t a day to get out and do much. Our MCI bus conversion is so well insulated that we seldom need our rooftop air conditioner to feel comfortable, but yesterday we turned it on early and stayed inside all day.

It was a good day for paperwork, and while I updated our mailing lists, Miss Terry began proofing a new book I hope to get out before our Ohio Gypsy Gathering rally. There wasn’t much on TV that interested us, so we listened to music most of the day. I like days like that once in a while, and we get a lot accomplished, but after spending the entire weekend inside, I’ve got cabin fever and need a break. Hopefully today we do something different, even if it’s just going to the laundromat.

As a writer, I don’t know how I ever got by without the internet. I used to spend hours in libraries doing research, and I loved prowling the stacks looking for books on any and every topic under the sun. But with the internet, I can find just about anything I want in seconds, with just a few keystrokes and a mouse click or two.

Yesterday I came across an interesting website called Mental Floss, which has an amazing amount of trivia and little-known information, from 7 Civil War Stories You Didn’t Learn in School, to the Bizarre History of White House Pets, to 10 Bizarre Athlete Superstitions.

Of course, the Internet is also a great source of misinformation. It has changed the Urban Legend into worldwide phenomena. I am constantly amazed at all of the crapola that shows up in my e-mail inbox. And you know it has to be true, because it’s on the internet. I delete about 90% of the stuff that gets forwarded to me, because I don’t have the time or interest to read it, and because I’ve seen most of it many times before.

Some of these stories have some basis in fact, but are updated and morphed into fiction to take advantage of whatever is currently catching the public’s interest.

One that I have received a dozen or more times in the last few days is that while the media was falling all over itself covering the death of Michael Jackson, there was no mention of the death the same week of Ed “Too Tall” Freeman, who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions at Landing Zone X-Ray, in the Ia Drang Valley of Vietnam in 1965. Ed Freeman flew his unarmed helicopter into the overwhelmed landing zone under heavy enemy fire fourteen times on that day to bring out 30 wounded soldiers. When I was in the First Cavalry a few years later, Ed Freeman was a legend.

However, Ed Freeman did not die the same week as Michael Jackson! The war hero actually died August, 20, 2008 in Boise, Idaho. To use his name and accomplishments to foster an internet myth is objectionable to me. Whenever I get some story like this, if I look at it at all, I run it past Snopes to see if there is any validity to it.

Okay, enough with the internet, I need to get outside and experience real life today!

Thought For The Day – The labels we stick on ourselves define how we live. What do your labels say?

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Happy Fathers Day to all of the dad’s out there. Be sure to call your father and tell him you love him. My own dad has been gone for over twenty years, and I sure do miss him. He was always my biggest fan, and he always encouraged me to follow my dreams. He gave me my love of books and of travel, and from the time I was old enough to understand what he was saying, he always told me that I could do anything I wanted to in the world, if I just put my mind to it and worked hard enough to make it happen. I wouldn’t be the man I am today if it had not been for his influence on my life.  

The first order of business for me yesterday was a haircut. I had gotten so shaggy that I was in danger of being in violation of the local leash laws. So Miss Terry cut my hair and trimmed my beard, and I look almost human again, or at least as close as I ever get to it. Anytime Terry is cutting my hair, we always have somebody walk past and ask if they can be next. I guess if times ever get too hard, we can set up a mobile barbershop.

With that chore done, I worked on the new issue of the Gypsy Journal most of the day. Our good friends Tom Owen and Diane Rojewski came to visit a little after 5 p.m., and took us out to dinner. Tom and Diane are two of our favorite people in the world, and we always enjoy spending time with them.

The weather has cleared up, at least for now, and we’re looking forward to getting the new issued printed and mailed so we will have some time to play outside. I get cabin fever if we’re stuck inside too many days in a row.

With the weather warming up, we’re really itching to get our kayaks in the water. The lazy St. Joseph River winds its way through this area and has some good places to launch, so I know we’ll be out on the water the first chance we get.

This time of year in the Midwest, we always have to get used to the fact that it stays light outside until well after 9 p.m. We’ll be busy working on some project and not realize how much time has passed until we glance at a clock and discover it is close to 10 p.m. and we still have not had dinner!

Thought For The Day – Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.

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