That old Boy Scout motto comes in handy in the RV lifestyle, just as it does in the rest of the world.

Early one morning this week, the campground host here at the Show Low Elks campground came to our door to tell us that a construction crew had broken a sewer line near the campground, and city workers had asked that nobody flush their toilets or use their sinks until repairs were made, which could be up to four hours.

Not a problem for us, we had lots of room in our black tank, and since we are in a full hookup RV site, I had the valve to our gray tank open, so it was empty. I closed the valve and we were just fine. I don’t know what the folks in the houses near the campground did, but for us life went on like normal.

We’re not survivalists, but we always try to be prepared for whatever happens, so that things that cause inconveniences to others aren’t even a speed bump for us. We keep our fresh water tank at least half full, even in a full hookup campground, because we’ve had the water shut off for repairs more than once. We keep our fuel tank close to full, even when sitting still for a few weeks, because if the electricity goes out, our generator can supply all the power we need.

We try to be prepared for the unexpected when we’re on the road too. We very seldom make advance campground reservations, because we like the freedom of not having to be on a schedule, but we usually have a general idea of where we plan to spend the night. Before we pull onto the highway, I also have an idea of alternate stops, usually every 50 miles or so apart, along the way that we can get into if bad weather, traffic delays, or mechanical problems delay us. These may be truck stops or RV friendly businesses, a city park or fairgrounds that allows RV parking, or an Elks or Moose lodge.  That way we’re never pushed to drive into inclement weather or past dark to get someplace.

We are also aware of what is happening around us as we travel. If we see traffic starting to slow down, we monitor the CB radio to find out if there is an accident or bad weather ahead, so we can find an alternate route or get off the road into a safe place until the crisis has passed.

As RVers, we usually have the ability to avoid or drive away from areas where bad weather threatens us. But if we happen to find ourselves in some ungodly place like Tornado Alley, a good weather radio will alert us to approaching storms. If we are in a campground that is new to us, we always find out where the storm shelters are, and if we happen to be in a Wal-Mart parking lot or some such, we try to scope out a secure building we can hide out in if things get out of hand.

It doesn’t take much to be prepared, and when you are, it can negate ordinary inconveniences, and help us avoid or survive potential emergencies.

Of course, Bad Nick is always prepared, at least to give us things to ponder. Check out his new Bad Nick Blog post titled You Can’t Make This Stuff Up! and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Make it idiot proof, and someone will make a better idiot.

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally!

Note to self – If we ever hold another Gypsy Gathering rally at a commercial campground, we will require attendees to make their own reservations directly with the campground. The original plan was that the campground would have us handle the rally reservations, but it has become a nightmare as some people make reservations with us, some make them directly with Elkhart Campground, and some make reservations for the rally dates with us, but separate reservations for the days before and after our rally directly with the campground. At this point we know we have 30 and 50 amp full hookup sites left, but neither we nor the campground know how many of each.

We don’t mark up the camping fees, but the campground has weekly and monthly rates that may be less than the rally camping rates, which has left us scratching our heads when trying to help attendees who may be arriving early or hanging around after our rally to wait for the Escapees Escapade two weeks later in Goshen. Plus, people don’t understand that if they want extra days, the daily rate does not include the 7% local sales tax.

Note to self – I really like the Koni shocks that Redlands Truck & RV installed on our Winnebago Ultimate Adventure motorhome after our Western Gypsy Gathering rally in Yuma back in March. They give us a superb ride, the handling is great, and I would recommend them, and Redlands, to anybody.

Note to self – The Verizon internet service we’re getting from our air card here at Tra-Tel RV Park in Tucson is as slow as what we experienced a few months ago in Apache Junction. At that point, Verizon said it was because so many snowbirds were in Arizona, using up the bandwidth. Okay, that makes sense, but now it’s May, the campground is more than half empty, the snowbirds have packed up their RVs and hit the trail. So what’s their excuse now? We had much faster service in the small town of Show Low than we are experiencing here in the big city.

Note to self – I can’t please everybody, but some people ask so much that it’s not even worth trying, so don’t worry about it. I got an e-mail from a fellow who has been a regular blog reader and for the last couple of years, though we have never met. He is staying in a campground north of Phoenix, and is interested in getting a Silverleaf VMSpc engine monitoring system like I use in our motorhome, and has been asking me a lot of questions about how it performs. The other day he wrote me that he has the same engine/transmission combination that I do in our RV, and was planning to come to our Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally. He asked if he could borrow my Silverleaf system to use on his trip to Indiana to help him decide if it was worth the investment. My first response was no, followed by NO! I replied that I had never met him, I wasn’t in the habit of loaning expensive equipment to strangers, and that I needed it for our own trip to Indiana. I have pasted, in part, his response: “I bet you never shared your toys with the other kids when you were a kid either did you? I hate selfish people!!!! You wont see me at your rally or reading your stupid blog ever again!!!” Uh, okay, I’ll miss you (I guess). Where do these people come from, and how do they get my name?

Note to self – Whatever kind of onions I got into Friday were really, really nasty, because all day yesterday I still felt terrible and couldn’t keep anything down. There has to be an easier way to lose weight.

Note to Mom – It’s been a long time since you left us, but it was much too soon. I love you and I miss you every day. I wish you could have been here to know Miss Terry, you would have loved her, and I know she would have loved you too. Happy Mother’s Day, Mom.

Thought For The Day – Happy Mother’s Day to all of the moms out there. If your mom is still alive, be sure to tell her today how much you love her, because someday you will wish you could.

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally! 

With our rally over, and Life on Wheels now gone, for the first time in a very long time, Terry and I have no place we have to be and nothing we have to do for the next seven months. I have to tell you, that is a nice feeling! It brings to mind the early days in our fulltime RV lifestyle, when we literally pulled up to an intersection and did a mental flip of the coin to decide right or left, north or south.

As I have written before, if I had to define the fulltime RV lifestyle in just one word, that word would be freedom. The freedom to go where we want, when we want, unhampered by schedules and timelines. We’re looking forward to enjoying some of that freedom in the coming months.

Our next real commitment is our Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally in Celina, Ohio, September 28 – October 3. Between now and then, our plans are written in Jello. Next week we’ll make a short trip to San Diego with my daughter and her family to take the grandkids to Sea World. After that, we plan to spend some time wandering around here in Arizona. Eventually we’ll begin meandering toward the Pacific Northwest, an area we love and have seen entirely too little of in the last few years.

Half a lifetime ago, I got my start in the newspaper business in the small towns along the Northwest coast, and I have missed that area. Except for a brief two week visit five years ago, we have not been there since our first summer on the road. It’s time to go back. We have no real destination in mind, anywhere between Brookings, Oregon and Port Townsend, Washington is fine with us.

Though we spent much of our lives living in the deserts and mountains of the Southwest, Terry and I love being around the ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. We feel at home anywhere there is salt water, a beach, working fishing ports, lighthouses, and fresh seafood.

We really have not used our Thousand Trails membership enough to make it cost effective, but we knew the time would come when we could start exploring more of the country, and this summer we plan to hit several of the Thousand Trails and NACO preserves along the Oregon and Washington coast.

While we don’t usually like to make reservations, in popular areas like this, we know we’ll have to do so to some extent. But between the above mentioned membership RV parks, Elks and Moose lodges, VFW posts, and our Passport America membership, I’m sure we’ll find plenty of accommodations.

Thought For The Day - One must wait until evening to see how splendid the day has been.