We have been having a lot of fun here in Muskegon, Michigan with Berni and Rocky Frees. It is amazing how we can be apart from those two for a year, and the minute we get back together, the fun picks back up right where we left off.

Yesterday they both had to work, so Terry and I hung around the motorhome most of the day, filling a couple of orders, doing paperwork, and answering e-mails. With our Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally coming up fast, we are getting a lot of registrations in.  There is still plenty of time to get yours in too, if you want to come and join in all the fun.

In the afternoon I laid down on the couch for a short nap, and Terry woke me up a little after 5 so we could go over to Rocky and Berni’s. It’s the weekend, and Fisherman’s Landing Campground is starting to get busy. We noticed several RVs that had pulled in during the day, as well as a group of tent campers down at the far end of our lane. Hopefully they won’t be as loud and obnoxious as the tent campers who have partied here on the weekends during our past visits.

We left the van at Rocky and Berni’s and took their car to a great restaurant called Hobo’s Tavern.  We ate there once before, on a previous trip to Muskegon, and it was just as great as we remembered. I had an exceptionally tender and delicious New York strip streak, while Terry had a burrito plate with red chili sauce. We both really enjoyed our meals, and from the comments Berni made about her steak, and Rocky his half rack of ribs, they were pleased too.

Back at their place, we introduced them to a fun game we learned at our Eastern rally in Celina, Ohio last fall, called Pegs and Jokers. We had looked all over for a game of our own, and couldn’t find one, so our pal Ron Speidel made us one in the craft shop at the RV park where they stayed in Mission, Texas last winter. And then our good friends Mike and Elaine Loscher also gave us a second game, so now we have two, when we once had none! Isn’t it great having good friends who are also generous, and love you too?

On the two previous nights we had played Mexican Train, with me winning one game and Berni the other, so we needed to break that tie. Unfortunately, Rocky had to get up very early Friday morning, so by 10:30 or so, he was really beginning to droop. We stopped the game, and will probably have to pick it up tonight, just because Berni was ahead by a good margin at that point. I suggested that maybe we should start a brand new game from scratch today, but poor Berni has so few victories in her life that she insisted we continue the one we already had going. Boy, some people!

Back at the campground, even more RVs and tents had arrived, and campfire smoke filled the air. When we left, the sites on either side of us were empty, and when we returned, there was a motorhome on one side, and a popup tent trailer on the other.

We’re not sure if we’ll leave here Sunday to go on down to Elkhart, or wait until Monday morning. We’re having a lot of fun, but we also have a lot of work to get done.

Thought For The Day – When in doubt, mumble.

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally!

Hindsight is always 20/20, and more than once in my life, I’ve found myself repeating that old saying “I sure wish I knew then what I know now.” Looking back over my life, from today’s perspective, I can see a lot of things I would change, if I had it to do over. 

For example, going back to my high school days, I wish I had spent more time paying attention in typing class, and less time staring at that pretty girl with the long blonde hair who sat across the aisle from me. I’ve forgotten who she was long ago, but as a writer, knowing how to type with more than two fingers would really come in handy. Somebody gave me a touch typing instructional CD a couple of years back, but the habit of a lifetime are hard to overcome.

Speaking of bad habits, anybody who saw the pictures of my daughter in the last two blogs knows that she is the one in our family with the willpower. Tiffany was able to break her unhealthy habits at a relatively young age, while mine are so ingrained that I will probably never lose that kind of weight.

More than once I have wished I had made a career out of the Army. I made rank fast, and I enjoyed military life. It would be nice to have that military retirement to fall back on at this point in my life, and as a fulltime RVer, I’d sure love to be able to take advantage of the Fam Camps on military bases across the country.

Of course, like every RVer, I have my “shoulda, coulda, wouldas,” as my friend Joe Kieva calls them. If I had it to do over again, I’d have done more homework before we started out, and bought a diesel pusher motorhome to begin with.

I would not have invested so much money in an expensive campground membership in our first month on the road. But back then, we had never heard of resale memberships and the bargains they offer.

One thing I would have invested in was an automatic rooftop satellite TV dish. After over ten years of fumbling around with a tripod mounted dish, it sure is nice to just push a button and sit on the couch waiting until the dish locks onto a signal.

I could go on and on – there are roads we should have traveled, and those we should have avoided. There are campgrounds where we should have stopped, and others where we should have just kept right on driving. And there are several dead end streets we never should have turned down! But we’ve all been there, haven’t we?

As a fulltime RVer, there is no doubt that the one thing I would do differently is to have started out years earlier. We were in our mid-40s when we hit the road, and we regret the years and adventures we missed, while we were stuck in our workaholic ruts. I’ve never heard a fulltimer say that they wish they had worked longer, or that they had not started out so soon.

Of course, Miss Terry always reminds me that who we are today is the result of all of the things we have experienced in the past, good or bad. And some of those missteps do lead to good stories to tell around the campfire.  Yes, you really can back up a motorhome with a tow car attached if the street is narrow enough and the neighborhood shady enough to prevent you from wasting time unhooking. You shouldn’t, but you can!

So what about you? What would you do over, if you had it to do again?

Thought For The Day – Sometimes life gives you a second chance.

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally! 

I’ve had a few e-mails from readers who noted that we are currently staying at a Thousand Trails preserve and wanted to know if I felt that  Thousand Trails membership was a good investment.

As I have said many times before, like anything, a campground membership can be a good investment if you use it enough. If you don’t, it’s a waste of money. I know Thousand Trails members who get a lot of value from their memberships, and others, like Terry and myself, who really don’t use it enough to justify the annual dues.

We knew going in that it would take us some time to free up our schedule enough to really take advantage of our membership, and we got it cheap enough that we can handle that.

We have stayed at Thousands Trails and NACO campgrounds in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Tennessee, Texas, and Ohio, and visited preserves in several other states. Most have been more than adequate for our needs, but overall we have not found them to be the idyllic resorts that the fancy brochures the marketing people put out depict.

This is our third visit to the Colorado River preserve in Columbus, Texas, and the first time that we have not had problems with electrical power (so far). As in past trips, the electrical posts at several RV sites are covered with plastic bags and inoperable, so even though the campground is supposed to have 94 campsites available, a number of them are out of service. Nobody ever seems to get around to repairing them.

This lack of maintenance seems to be a common theme at many Thousand Trails/NACO preserves across the country. We have been to some preserves where interior roads were in poor shape, and others where swimming pools and hot tubs were out of commission. There have been a couple that we have not even visited, because of the poor reports on them posted at the Thousand Trails Yahoo group.

Despite maintenance problems at some locations, every preserve we have visited or stayed in has been very clean, and the staff have always been very friendly and helpful.

Be aware that this system was designed for family camping, so in the summertime you can expect lots of kids, bicycles, smoky campfires, and such. If this isn’t your thing, like us, you will probably want to avoid the preserves when school is out of session.

Many Thousand Trails members have expressed concern over the growing numbers of RV sites that are leased out on a seasonal basis, taking them out of the pool for traveling members. These are usually the most desirable sites in the preserves. Given that, we still have always been able to find a site at any Thousand Trails or NACO campground we have visited.

What really burns me up is the fact that they have hired an outside company to handle annual dues payments. This company is also a collection agency, and there has been a lack of communication between them and the Thousand Trails office a couple of times in terms of posting payments.  Twice the dweebs at the outside company have called us and acted like we were deadbeats, when in fact the payment was already made, but Thousand Trails had not updated the records they share with them.

If you are interested in a Thousand Trails membership, be sure to get a nationwide one, with the NACO package included. And be aware that no two Thousand Trails memberships seem to be the same. It’s all about how good a negotiator you are and how hungry the salesman is, as to pricing and what added benefits your membership may have.

You can come to a preserve and sit through their sales spiel, but be aware that like all campground membership sales reps, some of the folks hustling these memberships are very much into the hard sell. A new membership will cost you thousands of dollars. Or, like us, you can buy a used membership.

There are tons of folks out there who have Thousand Trails/NACO memberships who just want to get rid of them and stop paying the dues. You can find a used membership for anywhere from free to about $1,000. Some people ask a whole lot more for them, because they believed the salesman who sold it and told them they could always get their money back.

When we decided we wanted a membership, I simply put a post on the Escapees forum and was swamped with folks wanting to unload theirs for anywhere from free to $5,000.

We got our membership used for $100 plus the $750 transfer fee, from a lady whose husband died and she wasn’t RVing any more. We can stay at any Thousand Trails or NACO park nationwide for fourteen days, and go directly to another one with no days out of the system. The original owner wanted to give it to us, but my attorney said to give her $100 to make it a binding contract.

Our annual dues are $500, which gives us 50 nights of camping, and after that, we pay $5 a night. If we wanted to pay higher annual dues, we could stay in Thousand Tails/NACO parks 365 days a year. So it can be a good bargain if we used it enough, which we hope to do, now that our schedule is not so complicated.

If you are considering a used membership, always call Thousand Trails and give them the contract number and ask what it includes, and if there will be any changes if you buy it. Here is a link to a website where you may be able to find a good deal, if you are looking for a used membership  http://www.rvparkstore.com/campground_memberships.htm

And while you’re online, check out Bad Nick’s new blog post What Does It Take? and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – A cloth is not woven from a single thread.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

With summer in full swing, and gas prices way down from this time last year, a lot of RVs are on the go. We’re expecting a full house here at Elkhart Campground next weekend for the 4^th of July holiday.

As fulltimers, we learned early on that campgrounds fill up fast on holiday weekends during the summer. So we always try to find a place to settle in during the middle of the week and stay put until the next Tuesday or so, to let all of the weekend warriors do their thing and then get back home.

Every once in a while when I complain about weekend campers, someone thinks I am looking down on people who are still living in sticks and bricks houses and can only do their camping on weekends and vacations.

Not at all! We have met many, many wonderful RVers who are not fulltimers or extended time travelers. They have made fine campground neighbors. My problem is with jerks that make noise after hours, allow their kids and dogs to run wild, don’t know how to build a campfire that is not a smudge pot, and ruin the experience for everybody around them.

There are plenty of clods in the fulltime lifestyle too, unfortunately. I remember a group of Bluebird owners in Quartzsite, Arizona two years ago who felt it necessary to blow their musical horns over and over again, serenading everybody around them, whether we wanted to listen or not. And we have had more than our share of fulltimer neighbors with yappy little mutts they think they are just precious and that everybody wants to hear their never ending barking. Bad manners are bad manners, and jerks are jerks, whether they live in RVs or traditional houses.

With the new issue of the Gypsy Journal in the mail, Terry and I have some slack time, but we always find plenty of ways to keep busy. The heat wave has abated a bit, so we may find some place to put our kayaks in the water and do some paddling.

Speaking of the high temperatures that have baked much of the nation, longtime Gypsy Journal reader Richard Prevallet suggested I mention a laser thermometer as a valuable tool to have in any RV. I’ve used one for years. They come in handy to check RV tires and wheel hubs when traveling to alert you to a possible problem before it gets out of hand.

Now that I have a PressurePro system to monitor my tires, I don’t use the laser thermometer as much for that, but I still shoot my wheel hubs when we pull into a rest stop. I also use it to check the surface temperature on our twin radiators. You can get a good quality laser thermometer for $50 or less at Sears, Harbor Freight and any other tool outlet.

Digital laser thermometers, also called laser guns, are simple to use. All you have to do is point the red laser dot at what you want to measure and push the button, and then read the digital display. It’s so simple even I can do it!

Thought For The Day – I am a nutritional overachiever.

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally