Did I mention that I really, really hate getting up early in the morning? I’ve never been a morning person and never will be. I have never minded working long hours, I just always wanted the night shift, not the morning shift. But I was still awake at 6:30 a.m. yesterday morning. That’s two mornings in a row when I was up with the roosters. Will the madness never stop?

The guys at RV Renovators were on duty at 7 a.m., and they had one heck of a job getting the Norcold refrigerator in our Winnebago Ultimate Advantage loose enough to tilt forward so they could do the recall upgrade. Miss Terry had to empty the unit before they started working on it, and it’s a good thing she did, because judging by this picture it all would have been in a big jumbled mess otherwise. Fortunately, RV Renovators had a refrigerator and a separate  freezer that we could store everything in to keep it from spoiling. 

The techs had to almost crawl inside the access panel opening in the side of the motorhome to get the job done. By late morning they had the upgrade finished, and we started putting everything back inside the refrigerator. Then Miss Terry noticed a problem. The refrigerator would not ignite on propane, and kept giving us an error message. Oops! Now what?

A couple of techs tried to diagnose the problem without success, so they called in Bob, the “old timer” at RV Renovators. It only took a few minutes for Bob to figure out that the air tube directly over the burner was full of crud, and with all of the jerking and pounding to get the refrigerator out, some of it had fallen down and blocked the gas valve. They cleaned it out, and voila, the propane fired right up and we were in business.

For most of our many years as fulltimers, we have had a residential refrigerator, so there is a learning curve to RV refrigerators that we are still working on. Bob told me that the refrigerator burner air tube should be cleaned every year to prevent this kind of problem. I didn’t know that, did you? 

With that problem out of the way, we were ready to go. I would feel confident in recommending RV Renovators to anybody in need of RV service or repair. They took very good care of us, and we will call on them any time we’re in Arizona and need work done. Thanks Cinda, Jesse, Bill, Bob, and everybody else for all of your great service.

From RV Renovators, we drove a few miles east to Apache Junction, where we took a site at Happy Days RV Park, a nice Passport America campground with 50 amp full hookup back-in sites on gravel, with a concrete pad at each site. The place is pretty empty, but we’re only going to be here a few days while we visit with Terry’s parents.

Once we were hooked up and settled in, we drove to their house and spent some time with them. It’s always nice to have family time. By then it was late in the day, and we were both pretty hungry, so we hit our favorite Chinese buffet in this area, #1 Eastern Super Buffet. Even though we don’t live here, we’ve been there so many times during the last two winters that the staff knows us when we go in. I would rate it up with the top four or five Chinese buffets we have found nationwide.

Between two nights with little sleep, and getting up early, along with a full tummy, by the time we had finished eating, I was barely able to keep my eyes open. Terry drove back to the campground, and we had a quiet night watching TV, I wrote my blog, and we were in bed early. Or at least early for us, anyway.

Thought For The Day – There is no shortcut to anywhere worth going.

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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.

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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.

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Miss Terry is still feeling pretty bad, so she spent much of yesterday napping and trying to regain her strength. What we first thought was a cold now seems to be a bad sinus infection. If she’s not better soon, I’m going to drag her kicking and screaming to a doctor.

While she was lying down, I worked on some details for our upcoming Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally in Celina, Ohio. I had two different vendors who wanted to come that I had to send e-mails to expressing regrets because we already have other vendors selling the same products. If you want to attend the rally as a vendor, get in touch with me at editor@gypsyjournal.net to reserve your site soon so you don’t miss out.

Then I reviewed a couple of proposals for new seminars at the rally. One I had to decline, because it was nothing but a sales pitch. We do allow our vendors to present seminars, but we encourage them to give an unbiased overview of the whole topic, not just a description of their products. Since this seminar was titled “Why XYZ Campground Membership Beats The Competition” I had no problem determining that it was not appropriate for the rally. The other seminar, on switching your RV’s old style TV for a new LCD model, looks good, and I think it will be well received. I’m also working on a new seminar for the rally that I think will be fun.

With that done, I went for a walk around the campground, stopping to chat with some folks who are here for the Heartland Owners Rally later this week in Goshen. One of them had a nice old dog, so I was able to get my puppy fix.

Being in an RV park that caters to fulltimers and extended time RVers is kind of like being in a small town. Everywhere you go you run into somebody you know. Some of the regulars we see here at Elkhart Campground every year were out and about, and I visited with them. Then I ran into campground owners Bob and Gita Patel, and they welcomed me back for the season.

The local economy may be down, but business seems to be good here at the campground. There are plenty of RVs here, and during the afternoon I watched quite a few more arrive.

One was a nice looking Monaco diesel pusher with a For Sale sign in the window. I asked the owner about it, and while it is a nice coach, he’s upside down and owes about 50% more on it than he can ever hope to get out of it. He’s aware of that, but says he keeps hoping he’ll stumble onto a buyer with more money than common sense. I wished him luck, but that’s not me. I have even less money than I do common sense!

Thought For The Day – Don’t argue with an idiot….they will bring you to their level and then beat you with experience!

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When we announced our ten year anniversary of fulltiming, a blog reader wrote to ask me what we would do differently if we had it to do over again, but knowing what we know now about the fulltime RV lifestyle. In thinking about it, there are several things that would have made our lives easier and saved us a lot of money and frustration in our early years on the road. Of course, hindsight is always 20/20. So here’s my list of things I’d do differently.

1. Do more homework. I thought that I’d done a lot of research before we hit the road, but looking back, we sure had a lot to learn. I read several books on fulltiming, as well as all of the popular RV magazines, and learned quite a bit. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. If I were planning on becoming a fulltimer today, I’d read even more, spend a lot of time reading the various internet forums on RVing, and attend a couple of RV rallies as part of my research.

2. Join RV Consumer Group. The independent RV Consumer Group rates all RV makes and models for highway control, reliability, and value, and provides a wealth of information on what to look for, and what to avoid when making an RV purchase. I have had some people tell me that they don’t trust the RV Consumer Group’s ratings because they do not actually buy and test each individual model of every RV made. Instead they rely on a formula developed by their research. My feeling is that until somebody builds a better mousetrap, they are a valuable resource for RV shoppers. If we would have known about their material beforehand, we would have never purchased our first motorhome.

3. Buy a diesel pusher. There is no one best RV make or model to meet everyone’s needs. We all have different RVing styles and priorities. For our needs, a 38 to 40 foot diesel pusher by a quality manufacturer such as Allegro, Winnebago, or Newmar would have served us much better than the 36 foot gasoline powered motorhome we originally purchased.

4. Not buy a campground membership. Within our first month on the road, we purchased an expensive campground membership, which turned out to be a total waste of money. I always advise new fulltimers to wait at least a year before they buy a campground membership. It takes that long to develop your traveling style.

5. Join the Elks and Moose. My memberships in these two organizations have provided us many nights of free and low cost camping. Our membership dues and the donations we make to the lodges where we spend the night help them with their many good works in their communities, so it’s a two way street. I wish we had not waited several years before joining.

6. Avoid Camping World. It took us a couple of years to realize that just about anything we can buy at Camping World can be found for less money at many other retail locations and online.

7. Not join Good Sam Club. From the day we joined the Good Sam Club we were flooded with junk mail wanting us to upgrade our membership and buy some other product or service they offered. The small discount we got on camping at Good Sam parks was not worth the cost and hassle of the junk mail they sent us.

8. Buy a Blue Ox towbar. When we started fulltiming, we purchased a Roadmaster Falcon 5250 towbar, and fought with it for years. The release buttons were very stiff to push to disengage the arms, and if our dinghy was not perfectly straight , we could not unhook it. A few years ago we upgraded to a Blue Ox Aventa tow bar, which releases with levers, and we have found it to be a much more user friendly product.

9. Research health insurance issues. When we changed our legal domicile from Arizona to Texas, our insurance agent assured us we had full coverage, and we took his word for it. Eighteen months into our fulltime lifestyle, Miss Terry was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer, and our insurance company denied the claim. As it turns out, there was a 24 month exclusion for cancer, and even though we had the policy long before we started fulltiming, the clock started ticking all over again the day we switched addresses. A bridge policy to cover the gap would have saved us a fortune.

10. I would have started a blog earlier. I’m a dinosaur, and when people first started talking about blogging, I did not pay any attention. Since then, my thinking has obviously changed. Blogging has become an important part of our income stream, and the commissions we receive from those little ads you see on the blog help us pay our bills. But even if we did not have a business, or any ad income, blogging is a great way for RVers to stay in touch with their family and friends, and to record their travels.

So there are my Top 10 Things I’d Do Over. I’m curious, what would you experienced RVers do differently if you could start all over again?

Thought For The Day – Don’t go to bed angry. Stay up and plot your revenge.

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