Through a herculean effort on the part of Miss Terry, we got the new issue of the Gypsy Journal mailed out, and now we can take a deep breath and relax. At least until next time.

In yesterday’s blog, I wrote about how Cheryl Howarth from Miller Insurance helped us get the ball rolling with National Interstate following our burglary, and I mentioned that another agent, from a different agency, also intervened on our behalf.

At that time I did not have her name available, but I do now. It was Gina Shaver, from Epic Insurance in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Gina’s office phone number is 605-271-8100, and her company website is http://www.epic-ins.com/.  She is another agent whom I highly recommend. I like supporting the people who support me. Of course, that’s a two way street, as some other people are now well aware of.

As I wrote when I first reported on our crime, RVing is a safe activity overall. But, as I also stated, crime can and does happen anywhere. Most of the crimes suffered by RVers are petty. Unsecured bicycles and coolers have a way of walking off in campgrounds, if their owners go away and leave them. Most of the reports of this activity we have heard about occurred in state parks.

A couple of years ago in Quartzsite, there was a rash of thefts of portable generators. Some were stolen even when chained to the owners’ RVs. The thieves cut the cables with bolt cutters and carried them off. Bicycles also were disappearing in Quartzsite about the same time.   

But crimes of violence, while uncommon in the RV world, do happen, as our experience, as well as this story in the Bandera County Courier show http://www.bccourier.com/Archives/News_detail.php?recordID=091210N5.

According to the news story, a couple camping at the Medina Lake Thousand Trails in Lakehills, Texas were accosted by two teenagers wearing ski masks who pointed a gun at them and said “Give me all your money or I’ll kill you.” As it turns out, the gun was a BB gun, and the boys were at the campground with their grandparents.

These two punks were damned lucky. If they had pointed a BB gun at somebody else, they may have found out their victim was carrying a real gun. Just because their gun wasn’t real doesn’t mean a victim wouldn’t have been justified in blowing them away. In the dark, who can tell?

As I also reported earlier, our only other crime related incident happened in our first months on the road, when somebody tried to steal our pickup while we were in a Coast to Coast campground in California. So much for the “security” of campgrounds, even membership campgrounds!

Still, you have to keep in mind that in over ten years of fulltime RVing, including hundreds of nights spent dry camping in every corner of the nation, those were the only criminals we have come into contact with. Most folks living in even a medium sized city rub shoulders with all kinds of thugs every day, and never know when they might become a victim.

By using common sense, choosing a well lighted area when spending a night in a parking lot, keeping your doors locked and your valuables out of sight, and by being aware of your surroundings, you will go a long way toward avoiding becoming a victim of crime. Remember, the most effective weapon you own is right between your ears, and you don’t need special training or a permit to possess it. So use it.

Thought For The Day – It’s never too late to be what you might have been.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

Terry and I both want to thank all of you who posted comments on the blog, e-mailed, or called us after reading about our encounter with an armed burglar in our RV. Your concern and support are very much appreciated.

We are okay, but both of us feel totally wiped out, I think myself more than Miss Terry. I have always been able to function during a crisis or emergency situation, but like this time, a day or so later it all hits me at once, leaving me feeling shaky, wrung out, and feeling like I am teetering on a ledge.

I only slept an hour or so Friday night, and ever since the incident, I have been going over it in my head, second guessing myself, and wondering what I could have/should have done differently. Looking back, I keep thinking that the second I realized that we had been victimized, we should have backed off and avoided the potential confrontation that followed. And I keep thinking what could have happened to Terry if he had shot me and she was left alone with him. I am mentally kicking myself over and over again for putting her into that situation. That is the worst part, the what ifs.

Rationally, I know it all happened too fast for me to have had time to think it all through and consider my options, and that I reacted the way my instincts and training told me to do. And it worked out; nobody got hurt (except maybe the intruder’s arm), and we are here to tell the story. But again, there is that nagging “what if.”

Somebody wrote to say that this could have been avoided if we had been in a campground, instead of dry camping in a parking lot. But there are no campgrounds open where we are this time of year. And while we have dry camped in everything from truck stops to rest areas, to the open desert with no problems, this was an RV repair facility’s RV parking area with hookups. The only other time we had a crime issue was in our first month on the road, when somebody tried to steal our pickup truck while were in a Coast to Coast campground in California. So much for the argument of campgrounds over other locations to spend the night.

I also had several people tell me that they would have shot the burglar and worried about whatever happened later. With all due respect, that sounds a lot better in talk than in real life. Once you pull that trigger, you can’t take that bullet back. The legal and civil ramifications that will follow will cost you much more than whatever they may have stolen, not to mention the psychological aftermath.

Taking another person’s life is about the worst experience one can ever have, no matter what the circumstances. You will relive it for the rest of your life, trust me on this one. I’ve been there and still wake up too many nights in a cold sweat.  Would I have shot the guy if he continued to be a threat to our lives? In a nanosecond. Would I regret it forever after? Yes, I would. I’m just very grateful it didn’t come to that.

On another note, our faithful old MCI bus conversion is on its way to California with its new owner, Rich Perry. Rich and his friend  Bill flew in Friday, spent most of yesterday going over the bus from stem to stern, and left about 4:30 yesterday afternoon.

Here is a picture of myself and Rich shaking hands on the deal, while Bill and Miss Terry stand beside us.

Bill has an MCI 7 of his own, and has converted several buses for friends, so I feel confident that he’ll help Rich get our beloved bus to its new home. It was really sad to see her driving away for the last time, but as the old verse says, “to everything, there is a season…”

Before all of this started with the burglary, we had planned to leave Elkhart as soon as the bus sale was wrapped up. Now I’m not sure what will happen. I have an appointment at the VA hospital in Lexington, Kentucky on Wednesday morning, and trying to cancel and reschedule it would be a real hassle. But we may have no other choice. We obviously need to spend some more time inside a repair shop before we can go anywhere. 

Thought For The Day – It is not what you are called, but what you answer to that matters.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

Even though our Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally doesn’t officially start until next week, folks have been rolling in for the last two days!

Yesterday Mike and Elaine Loscher arrived to help with the rally. This will be the fourth or fifth Gypsy Gathering rally for this nice couple, who always show up prepared to volunteer to do whatever needs done to make the rally a success. Mike works long hours with the parking crew, and Miss Terry has come to rely on Elaine to help make registration go smoothly.

Shortly after Mike and Elaine pulled in, Bob and Molly Pinner arrived, along with Howie and Norah Glover, as part of an Escapees RV Club Class Reunion. Several other couples have also arrived for the reunion, including John and Doni Hargis, Dan and Dee Hawkey, and Rick and Terry Traver, to name a few.

Yesterday afternoon Phil Brown and Joy Waldrop dropped over to visit, along with Bill Joyce and Diane Melde. Both couples are staying at a Coast to Coast campground in nearby Wapakoneta, and they rode down together to say hello and check out the fairgrounds.

While we were visiting with them, Linda Fleeger came by to say hello. Linda is going to be presenting a seminar on Volunteering At National Wildlife Refuges at the rally, and she also volunteered herself and her pal Terry Traver to go out and collect door prizes from the local business community. I quickly passed that duty on to them, because we have been going in so many different directions at once that we still have not had time to call on anybody for door prizes.  

While all of this was going on, Brenda Speidel and Billie Barker had commandeered one of the fairgrounds buildings to sort rally T-shirts. It is always hard to know how many shirts to order, and in what sizes. Last year here in Ohio, we sold out of the smaller sizes, and were stuck with leftover XX and XXX sizes. But at our Arizona rally in February, the larger sizes sold out the first or second day, and we had leftover smaller sizes.

We have debated only having shirts available on a pre-order basis, but we have so many people who show up at the rallies at the last minute that they would be shut out. The problem, of course, is that as soon as the rally ends, any leftover shirts are just excess baggage and wasted money. The screen printer definitely does not want them back, and we don’t want to carry them around.

While all of this was going on, Bad Nick was busy too, posting a new Bad Nick Blog titled I Didn’t Do It! that I think will get some interesting responses.

On another topic, I reported Sunday that we had lost one of the safety pins from our Blue Ox tow bar. I got an e-mail from my friend Michele Henry at Phoenix Commercial Paint yesterday telling me that she had found the missing pin in her paint booth. Apparently I had not attached it securely when I moved the tow bar from our bus conversion to the Winnebago, and it fell out while the motorhome was in her shop getting the stripe painted on last week.

Several people have written to tell me that they had either heard of, or even experienced, having safety pins pulled out when parked at truck stops and highway rest areas. While we have never had that happen to us, one longtime reader lost the Jeep he was towing while going through Atlanta. He had stopped and taken a nap at a rest area south of the city just before. Mere coincidence? Who knows?

Whenever we stop for fuel or for a break at a rest area, and every morning before we hit the road, I always do a walk around to inspect the RV and our dinghy, to be sure everything looks okay. Even though we have and trust a PressurePro tire monitoring system, I check the tires for any cuts or damage that might have occurred from highway debris; check the tow bar, safety pins, and safety cables; check for leaks, and just look to see that the bumpers have not fallen off or something. (Hey, you might laugh, but you never had the Motorhome from Hell that we started our RV life in!)

It only takes a couple of minutes, but it gives me an excuse to get out and stretch my legs, and it’s always better to spot a potential problem when you’re safely off the road, rather than waiting for something to go wrong at 60 miles per hour.

Thought For The Day – I’m not old, I’m chronologically gifted.

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally