Thanks to all of you who e-mailed or posted comments wishing Miss Terry good luck with her doctor’s appointment yesterday. I’m happy to tell you that she got a good report, and continues to be cancer free after over ten years. And she feels much better now that her yearly ordeal is over.

We were talking a bit with the oncology nurse before the doctor came in, and I mentioned that I strongly believe that Terry’s willpower and attitude had a lot to do with her recovery. When she was first diagnosed and they told us she had Stage 4 cancer, I asked her first doctor what that meant, and his casual reply is “Stage 5 is when they bury you. You folks probably need to be talking about funeral plans.”

Talk about a lack of bedside manner! He could just as easily have been a mechanic telling us that we probably should think about trading in our old clunker, because it was past saving. Terry promptly fired that SOB, and we found a wonderful doctor who was just as committed to saving her life as she was to surviving, and her being here today is living proof of the power of positive thinking, in every aspect of our lives.

One thing that Terry always says is that, if the worst would have happened, she was glad that at least we had that first eighteen months on the road to live our dream. Over the years, we have met too many people who waited too long, waiting on the perfect “someday” that never arrived.

Today we’re headed south to Muskegon, Michigan for a few days with Rocky and Berni Frees. While it has been pretty comfortable here in Traverse City during our stay, and we have gotten along just fine on 20 amp electric, yesterday it really warmed up and we would have liked to run our basement air conditioner.

I’m also looking forward to a clear shot at the sky for my automatic rooftop TV dish. The thick trees in my cousin’s driveway prevented us from getting a satellite signal, and I don’t have a portable dish any more. I jokingly told Miss Terry last night that we have turned into “those people” – the ones who really enjoy their full hookup RV sites that we used to sneer about when we spent weeks, even months boondocking. We still boondock for an occasional night or two, and are quite comfortable doing so. But, there is something to be said for creature comforts on a long term basis.

We have enjoyed our stay here in Traverse City, and very much appreciate my cousin Terry Cook and his family’s hospitality. They always treat us like, well, family. We appreciate you guys, and look forward to getting back up here again next year.

Today will be an easy run, about 140 miles. After our 440 and 480 mile mad dashes to get here from Iowa last week, we’re looking forward to much shorter trips in the foreseeable future. Yes, we have turned into “those people.”

Thought For The Day – Failure seldom stops you. What stops you is the fear of failure.

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally!

Yesterday we had a party to celebrate Terry’s dad’s 80^th birthday. My father-in-law, Pete Weber, is one of the kindest, nicest, and most loving men I have ever known. Pete is a retired Air Force NCO, and even though he won a battle with cancer a few years ago, nothing slows him down.

He still walks several miles a day, he can do 25 pushups before I could even get down on the floor, and he can outwork most men 30 years younger. In fact, a while back Pete didn’t have enough to do, so he got himself a job as a WalMart greeter, working the graveyard shift four nights a week.

But that wasn’t enough of a challenge, so he volunteered to spend two of his nights retrieving shopping carts from the furthest edges of the parking lot! Here’s a picture of the happy birthday boy

Terry’s sisters Dani and Lisa, Lisa’s husband Jim, Dani’s beautiful daughters Lauren and Andrea, and their guys, joined us. Terry’s twin sons, Casey and Cody, and their ladies came down from their homes in Colorado, and her son Shawn and his girlfriend arrived from New Mexico, to help Pete celebrate his special day. Here is a picture of Terry and her dad. Can you tell how much she loves him?

That many people demand a lot of food, so Terry, Lisa, Dani, and their mom, Bess, prepared a feast that included Miss Terry’s delicious barbecued smoked ribs, beef sandwiches, all kinds of side dishes, and a huge chocolate cake that would destroy anybody’s diet. We all ate until we couldn’t eat another bite, and then we ate some more!

It was a great day, and everybody had a good time. We stayed until after 9 p.m., and by then everybody’s eyelids were beginning to droop, especially the Colorado contingent, who had to get up at 3 a.m. yesterday morning to be at the airport in Denver in time for their flight. I know Pete really appreciated having so many of his family with him for his birthday.

Friday I put a picture of the grapefruit tree at our RV site in the blog, and longtime reader Dave Burman thought I might want to see what life was like in his little corner of the world. Dave and his wife Mary are stuck in Frederick, Maryland, waiting for retirement so they can hit the road next year. Dave said he promised Mary that this will never happen again, and that he will drive their Winnebago Journey to Mexico if necessary, but they will be warm next winter!

I don’t blame you, Dave. We were stuck in Traverse City, Michigan during the wintertime years ago, while Miss Terry was battling cancer, and I don’t think I have completely thawed out yet! Our daughter Tiffany and her family live in Show Low, Arizona, only about a three hour drive from here, and I’d love to be up there spoiling my two granddaughters. But, until it warms up and the snow melts in the high country, that just isn’t going to happen.

Today we’re going back to Terry’s parents’ house to enjoy some more family time, and I bet there are plenty of leftovers we’ll have to wade through. It’s a dirty job, but somebody has to do it!

Thought For The Day – Birthdays are good for you; the more you have the longer you live.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

Terry and I love this area around Traverse City, Michigan. It is absolutely gorgeous is the spring, summer, and fall, though we like to be long gone before the first snowflake falls. Having spent part of a winter here years ago while Miss Terry was being treated for cancer, I can tell you it’s no place to be in an RV!

Grand Traverse Bay, with its amazingly blue water, is a playground for swimmers, boaters, and fishermen. The hills are covered in lush forests, and I think we have seen more wild turkeys here than anyplace in the country. The shops in the charming downtown area offer some neat shopping opportunities. If you like to tempt Lady Luck, there are three nearby Indian Casinos operated by the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.

We return here ever year for Terry’s annual visit with her oncologist, and also to visit with my cousin Terry Cook and his family. When Miss Terry was so sick, we squatted in their driveway for a couple of months while she was undergoing chemo and radiation, and they treated us just wonderfully. Before then I had not seen my cousin Terry in close to 20 years. We had planned on only a quick visit before Miss Terry got sick, but they made us feel right at home and were a major source of support for both of us during the cancer ordeal. For that we will be forever grateful.

When we first came here, so many years ago, my cousin’s kids, Michelle and Patrick, were teenagers, and now Michelle is a grown woman and Patrick is almost finished with college. That makes us feel old sometimes!

For us, one of the great things about the fulltime RV lifestyle has been the opportunity to connect with family members we had not seen in many years. My cousin Berni Frees and her husband Rocky, whom many of you know from this blog and the Gypsy Journal, have become much more than family, they are two of our best friends in the world.

Berni is about ten years younger than me, and the last time I had seen her she was a little girl when the family came to see me off to Vietnam. We had had no contact in a lifetime, until she somehow learned we were fulltime RVers. She and Rocky were interested in the RV lifestyle, so she made contact and a friendship grew from there. They tried fulltiming for a year or so, and decided it wasn’t the right time in their lives for it, but we still see them a couple of times a year at their home in Muskegon, Michigan.

RVing has also given us the chance to get to know Berni’s sister Vanessa and her hubby Mickey and their kids in Ohio, and allowed us to spend time with my cousin Beverly in Tucson.

Terry was also able to hook up with a cousin she had not seen in years, Carolyn Henley. Carolyn and her husband Mel were also interested in fulltiming, and now they just started on their grand adventure a week or two ago. In Idaho we were able to visit an uncle that Terry had not seen in a long time.

There are many facets to the fulltiming RV lifestyle, and as you can see, the chance to get to know your extended family can be one of them. With relatives scattered from coast to coast and border to border in our modern society, many of us don’t have the close family ties that our parents and grandparents had. RVing can help us renew those relationships.

And of course, the great thing is that if we happen to find a few fruits and nuts on the family tree, we have wheels under our house, and we can drive away!  

Thought For The Day – Faith is a journey, not a guilt trip

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally

Yesterday Miss Terry had her annual checkup with her oncologist, and we’re pleased to report that everything is fine, and she is still cancer free after almost nine years now. It is always a very frightening and emotional ordeal for Terry when this time of year comes around. I’m sure I’d feel the same way if I were boarding an airplane back to Vietnam. We appreciate everybody’s e-mails and positive thoughts for a good result for Terry yesterday.

After reading my comments on our recent experience with the FMCA, the things I said about Fleetwood a few days ago in the blog, and in view of past criticisms I have made about things in the RV world (namely, the poor quality of too many rigs), a longtime industry insider told me that the problem is that Terry and I are outsiders and can’t see the whole picture.

It’s true. After 10 years on the road and publishing the Gypsy Journal, almost nobody in the RV industry has ever heard of us.  We don’t go to the trade shows like the big Recreational Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA) event in Louisville, Kentucky every winter to rub shoulders and hobnob with the movers and shakers, so we have little credibility with them.

We are not a part of the RV industry as much as we are a part of the RV community. We live in an RV 365 days a year, and we have for over a decade. We’re not in an office or a boardroom somewhere deciding what RVers want and need. If you want to find us, look in your nearby campground or at an RV club potluck dinner, where the real RVers are! Those are the folks who have to live with the junk that so much of the RV industry produces.

Maybe I can’t see the big picture from the viewpoint of the RV industry, but from where I sit it’s pretty simple: build a decent product, sell it at a fair price, and stand behind it if something goes wrong. That’s not rocket science folks, it’s pure and simple Business 101!

I have been accused of putting down every RV manufacturer out there. Not true at all! There are some very good companies producing excellent rigs, and I have applauded their reputations many times. Companies like Heartland, Winnebago, Tiffin, and Newmar, who have been able to withstand the downturns in the RV industry because of the loyal customer base they have earned.

Notice that I said earned. Customer goodwill is not something that just happens when a salesman hands over the keys to a new RV to its owners. It’s easy for any company to smile and pat you on the back when they have your check in their pocket and the ink isn’t dry yet. The telling point is when you have a problem, and how they deal with it.

Do they solve it without a hassle, like Bob Tiffin is famous for doing at his company? Or do they give you a runaround, and tell you it’s your fault their workmanship was not up to par, like too many outfits in this industry are famous for?

By the way, I’ve never met Bob Tiffin, I don’t own an Allegro or Tiffin coach, and his company has never spent a nickel advertising with us. But I am very impressed with the way the man does business, and someday I’d like to shake his hand.

Thought For The Day – People are more violently opposed to fur than leather because it is easier to harass rich women than motorcycle gangs.

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally

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.

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally