Miss Terry has been busy all weekend getting the new issue of the Gypsy Journal stuffed into envelopes to take to the mail service and post office today, while I was busy printing mailing labels, getting the electronic version of the paper uploaded, and e-mailing our digital subscribers that it was ready to read.

Between all of that, every chance we got we popped next door into the Winnebago to check in on Ron and Brenda Speidel, who were doing some last minute things on it for us. Ron and I got our Dish Network receiver moved over to the new rig and got it hooked up, deployed the automatic dish, and made sure we could watch TV. It will be so nice to just push a button and watch TV, instead of going outside to set up a tripod and dish!

Ron also installed an extra electrical outlet in the bedroom for our Sleep Number Air Bed. Meanwhile, Brenda was finding even more things to clean and polish. We are hoping we’ll be able to move our bed and sleep in the Winnebago tonight or tomorrow night.

We have the bus and the Winnebago parked together here at Elkhart Campground, and a lot of people have stopped to say hello and compliment us on the new rig. We’d have loved to have given everybody that asked a tour, but between the rain coming down most of the weekend, and all we had to get done, it just wasn’t possible.

The one flaw in the outside appearance of the bus is that some of the graphic stripes are chipped up, which is common in a seven year old motorhome. So yesterday we had our buddy Michele Henry from Phoenix Commercial Paint came over to look the rig over, and she says she can remove the original stripes and paint new ones on for us. We have seen Michele’s work, and we know she can do a good job.    

Today will be just as busy. We had made a prior commitment to vend at the Carriage RV Club Rally in Goshen this week, so Terry will drop me off at the fairgrounds to get set up, then she will get the mailing dropped off, and come back to help me at the rally. We’re hoping sales are good, because it will be really hard to just sit there staring at the other vendors and doing no business, when we’d much prefer to be here getting moved into our new home on wheels.

One fellow asked if we would get lost in the new rig, it being six inches wider than the bus and with two slides, and I told him Terry and I may just turn out the lights and play hide and seek!

Thought For The Day – No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally

It has been raining for two days now, and I’m sick and tired of it. I know the farmers need the rain to make their crops grow, and it makes for really green lawns and golf courses. But I’m not a farmer, I don’t have a lawn, and I don’t play golf. So right now it’s darned inconvenient! (And yes, it really is all about me!)

We’re like kids the day before Christmas, poking at the gifts wrapped up under the tree and going crazy with anticipation. We want to be outside crawling through all of the bays in our Winnebago figuring out where we’re going to put everything, and moving stuff into it. But yesterday it drizzled all day long, and it is so wet and sloppy outside that we’d be tracking mud all over the new rig, after Ron and Brenda Speidel spent all that time cleaning it, and that’s not going to happen!

I guess it really doesn’t matter, because right now we’re busy getting the new issue of the Gypsy Journal stuffed into envelopes and ready to drop off at the mail service Monday morning. And then we’re supposed to be vending at the Carriage RV Club rally in Goshen Monday through Thursday. I’ve heard that timing is everything, but right now, the timing of everything sucks!

Several Winnebago and Itasca owners have e-mailed to urge us to join the Winnebago-Itasca Travelers (WIT) Club, and to plan on going to the big WIT Grand National Rally at Winnebago’s headquarters in Forest City, Iowa next July, which we hope to do. Since I own a Winnebago, but haven’t officially joined the club and learned the secret handshake yet, does that at least make me a half-WIT?

One of the great things about a bus conversion that you can carry a ton of stuff. One of the bad things about a bus conversion is that you can carry a ton of stuff, and usually do! Moving into a different motorhome gives us the incentive to sort through and get rid of a lot of stuff we’ve been carrying around forever, but no longer need or want. Like my big Porter-Cable air compressor, books, some tools, a lot of kitchenware Terry needs to decide on, and clothes we have not worn in so long we forgot we had them.

We’re going to have a tailgate sale day at our Ohio Gypsy Gathering rally next month for folks who want to set out things for sale, but I hope to get rid of most of our unwanted stuff before then. I’m afraid that if we put them in the Winnebago to take them to Ohio, they’ll end up living in it forever!

For those of you who keep asking, yes, there will be a Bad Nick blog hitting the internet very soon. My pal Chris Guld from Geeks on Tour has been goofing off in Salem, Massachusetts lately, even though I told her to be careful, because they do very bad things to witches there. But between touring all the sites, stuffing herself on lobster, and kayaking in Salem Harbor and Marblehead with hubby Jim, she has got the blog pretty much set up. Look for an announcement any time now. 

Thought For The Day – In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally