I don’t know why I even try to give our readers an idea of our travel plans, because the minute I do, everything changes. I reported in yesterday’s blog that we would send the CD with the new issue to our printer, and hopefully head west by way of Livingston, Texas and across the central part of the Lone Star State. What a difference a day makes! 

When I called the printer we normally use here in this part of the country, they didn’t have us on the schedule as promised, our contact person was unavailable, and it was obvious they were neck deep in chaos due to internal problems. Now what? We’re already running late and we don’t have time to wait for them to resolve their personnel issues.

I called another newspaper printer we have used in Victoria, Texas, explained our problem, and the customer service rep we work with there promised that if I could overnight the CD to her, she’d make getting us printed a priority. So it looks like we’ll be driving across Interstate 10 counting the road kill after all.

Publishing a newspaper on the road presents these kinds of challenges all the time. It would be great to have one newspaper do all of our printing, but the cost of having them ship the finished issue to us wherever we happen to be would be prohibitive, and timing would become a real issue. Most newspapers could actually handle the mailing for us as well, but besides the papers for our subscribers, we also print several thousand extra copies of each issue to pass out at RV parks, rallies, etc, and those would have to be shipped to us, with the inherent costs mentioned above.

Anyway, with all of that worked out yesterday morning, we drove about 35 miles to Pensacola, Florida to take care of some business, and made the mistake of stopping at a couple of stores. I was quickly reminded of why I try to avoid stores from Thanksgiving until New Years Day. Crowds of shoppers, everybody in a hurry, screaming kids, and frazzled store employees are about as far from the spirit of Christmas as you can get. Bah humbug!

Today we have an appointment at Camping World in Robertsdale to get the last of the repairs done to our motorhome from our burglary and vandalism. Our appointment is for 8 a.m., and they say we’ll be out by noon.

We had expected to be here in Summerdale until after Christmas, and probably until right after New Years, but, with this change of plans in our printing schedule, we’ll be heading toward Texas no later than Wednesday morning. In fact, if they get the work finished at Camping World early enough in the day, we may even put a couple of hundred miles behind us yet today.

We know we are disappointing some folks who wanted to get together with us while we were here, but we really have no choice. Unfortunately, we are not retired and we don’t always have the luxury of the relaxed schedule we like to have. It’s a lot better than our old workaholic lifestyle, but sometimes when duty calls, we just have to answer.

Tune in tomorrow and find out where we are. And if you find out before I do, send me an e-mail and let me know!       

Thought For The Day – I feel like I’m diagonally parked in a parallel universe.

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With Christmas less than a month away, I thought I’d make a few gift suggestions for the RVers on your shopping list, or even as a treat for yourself. I use, or have used, all of the products myself.

1. Dyson DC31 Vacuum – When Dyson contacted us asking if we would be willing to give their new rechargeable handheld vacuum a test, Miss Terry jumped at the chance. She loves this new vacuum, which is powered by a digital motor spinning up to104,000 RPM, which is five times faster than a Formula 1 race car engine. For little cleanup jobs around our motorhome, she no longer uses our built-in vacuum, because the Dyson immediately became her tool of choice. It’s lightweight, sturdy, powerful, and versatile. When she’s finished, it’s easy to empty, all she has to do is open the clear cup on the bottom of the vacuum.

2. LED Flashlight – These little powerhouses are small and incredibly bright, and you can never have too many of them. I keep one in my desk, another on the nightstand, one in the van, and a couple in various bays of our motorhome.

3. Hose Buddy – We’ve all had it happen to us, we’ve stuck our sewer hose into the dump station, pulled the black water handle, and had the sudden rush through the hose pop it out and make a mess. Enter the Hose Buddy, a nifty plastic device that fits over your sewer hose’s 90 degree fitting to hold it securely in place. In the past, I had to look for a rock or something to hold my sewer hose in place, but when the folks who make the Hose Buddy sent me a demo, I knew it was a winner the minute I took it out of the box. Made of high grade plastic, the Hose Buddy is so simple it’s ingenious. I filled the reservoir with water (though sand or pebbles would work fine too), put it over the end of my sewer hose, and it works great, even on those irritating campground sewer fittings that extend several inches above the ground!

4. Acer Aspire Netbook Computer – Packing a lot of power into a small, lightweight, and inexpensive computer, the Acer Aspire is great for checking e-mail, cruising the internet, and makes a great companion to computer mapping software. I use mine with my Silverleaf engine monitor. It sits on the dash without moving and doesn’t take up much space.

5. Silverleaf VMSpc – Silverleaf loaned me a data cable to use with my netbook computer so I could review their free VMSpc engine monitoring software, but I am sending them a check because I like it so much I don’t want to give it up! The program monitors every function of my RV’s diesel engine, is more accurate than the factory gauges on my motorhome, and provides a wealth of information.

6. PressurePro Tire Monitoring System - No more crawling around in the mud and wet grass getting dirty as I check my RV’s tire pressures before a trip. With the PressurePro, all I have to do is look at the digital readout on its monitor, right from the driver’s seat! I wouldn’t leave my campsite without it!

7. Restaurant Gift Cards – Most fulltime or snowbird RVers are very conscious of adding any weight to their load, so a lot of times typical gifts are a hassle. We don’t need doodads and geegaws, but we all love to eat. A gift card from any chain restaurant (Texas Roadhouse, Applebees, TGI Fridays, etc) is always welcomed.

8. Mountain Directory Guides – Every RV should have a copy of both the Eastern and Western editions of these books on board. They provide locations and descriptions of over 550 mountain passes and steep grades nationwide, with mile by mile descriptions of what to expect climbing or descending, runaway truck ramps, and other information that prevents surprises that can get you into trouble.      

9. E-book Reader – A year ago the Amazon Kindle was about the only game in town, but now Sony’s two e-book readers are becoming big sellers. Now the Borders bookstore chain is supposed to introduce its own e-book reader, called the Elonex. Whichever model you choose, any RVing bookworm will love it. They’re lightweight and can carry hundreds of digital books.

10. Electrical Management System - We installed a Progressive Industries Electrical Management System (EMS)  in our MCI bus conversion, and over the years it saved our rig several times from high and low voltage conditions. So another EMS was one of the first things we had installed when we bought our Winnebago Ultimate Advantage. It’s worth its  weight in gold!

11. Rand McNally Motor Carriers’ Road Atlas – While it is made for truckers, this is a handy atlas for RVers too. Along with  detailed, full-color maps of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, the atlas includes valuable information for anyone driving a big rig, including restricted route information, low clearances, 40,000+ updated city-to-city mileages, a telephone area code map, and more.

12. Gypsy Journal RV Travel Newspaper – Hey, it’s great reading for all your RVing friends, and I need to make a buck now and then too, so I can do my Christmas shopping!

So what do you want Santa to bring you for Christmas?

 Thought For The Day – I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to take a nap when I was younger.

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