After reading yesterday’s Bad Nick Blog, titled Armed Citizens Fight Back, several readers e-mailed me to ask if I have a concealed weapon carry (CCW) permit, and how fulltime RVers can get a permit to carry a handgun.

I actually have two CCW permits, a non-resident from Arizona, and a permit from South Dakota, our state of domicile. Between the two of them, those permits are honored in a total of 36 states that have reciprocity agreements with the states that issued my permits. On the map below, the states in blue all honor one or both of my permits.

Getting a concealed carry permit depends on your home state. Some states require you to pass a concealed carry course and demonstrate proficiency with your weapon before you can qualify for a permit. Others simply issue a permit to people who meet the necessary requirements.

In South Dakota, it’s as simple as filling out a form and submitting it to the Sheriff in your home county. After a background check, you go to the Sheriff’s office, pay a small fee (under $20 as I recall), and your permit is issued. Check with the Sheriff in your county for specific information.

The other two states most popular with fulltime RVers also issue concealed weapons permits to their residents. For Florida residents, this link to the Florida concealed carry permit requirements will help you determine what is required. Texas residents can click this link to Texas CCW information.

Arizona, Texas, and Utah all issue concealed carry permits to non-residents who meet their requirements to obtain such a permit. Check each individual state’s website for information on non-resident permits.

At our Arizona Gypsy Gathering rally in Yuma, Byron Hibshman will be giving a seminar on Transporting Firearms In Your RV. Byron will also be doing an evening class to qualify for a Utah non-resident CCW permit. You can contact Byron at his Traveling CCW website for class information and fees.

A good guide to traveling with firearms is the book The Traveler’s Guide to the Gun Laws of the 50 States, which has detailed info on every state, and what is legal and not legal in that state. Another good reference is the website Handgunlaw.us. But please be aware that things can change on a daily basis, so if you have a question or concern, check with local authorities before you go.

Making the decision to own and carry a firearm is not one to be made lightly. It brings with it a very heavy responsibility to yourself, to your family, and to society. I always tell people that if they are going to have a gun, please, please, please take a firearms safety course, as well as a course on firearms use in a tactical situation. You must not only know how to shoot, you need to know when to shoot, and when not to.

And then practice regularly with your firearm. It’s one thing to punch holes in paper at a range, but in a real life situation, when the adrenalin is pumping and you’re scared to death, even trained police officers and combat veterans miss a lot more than they ever hit their targets.

Face it, most of us will never need a weapon to defend ourselves, especially in the RV lifestyle. However, the flip side of that coin is that any of us can find ourselves in a desperate situation at any minute. After all, we don’t spend all of our lives in safe, secure RV parks. We all drive down the road, eat in restaurants, and shop in stores. And we never know what the guy behind us in traffic or in the checkout line, or at the next table, will do. Having faced off with armed opponents both with and without a gun in my hand in the past, trust me, it’s much better with the gun!

Thought For The Day – Dear Santa, All I want for Christmas is thick hair and a thin body. Please don’t mix them up like you did last year.

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As massive storms moved across much of the country yesterday,  we spent the day and evening monitoring the weather. This area of Tennessee was under a tornado watch, and we were braced for whatever Mother Nature decided to throw at us.

We’ve been in some really nasty weather in our 12+ years on the road, and we take it seriously. RVs don’t provide much protection against severe weather, and to ignore warnings is just plain foolish. We knew that the bathroom on the west side of the campground is the designated tornado shelter, and we were prepared to head there on a moment’s notice. We were glad that we weren’t out on the road someplace, or sitting out the weather in a rest area or WalMart parking lot. We’ve done that, too!

I post this blog a little after midnight local time, and we were still under the tornado watch at that time, so if you don’t see a blog post tomorrow, it may be because we were blown away to the Land of Oz. If we do, and if we land on a witch like Dorothy did, I hope it’s one of my ex-mothers-in-law!

We enjoy this area of Tennessee, but we are looking forward to getting down to Florida, so we will probably leave here Thursday or Friday. The most direct route is to take Interstate 75 south, but we’ve been over that route so many times that we could drive it in our sleep. Plus, we really don’t like driving through Atlanta.

So, for a change of scenery, we may take Interstate 40 east from Knoxville to Asheville, North Carolina, and then Interstate 26 across South Carolina to Interstate 95, which will take us south to Titusville.  The mileage is about the same as taking Interstate 75, and we’ll pass through some areas we haven’t been to before.  

During the afternoon, our friends Vince and Judy Douglas pulled in, and parked right across from us. It has been several years since we crossed paths, so when Vince and his little dog Lady came by to visit, it was a nice treat. I don’t like yappy little dogs, but I do like dogs of any size that are well mannered and have a good personality. And Lady has a great personality! I played with her for an hour or so as we chatted with Vince, and that little critter sure has a lot of energy! It was kind of like having my grandkids over; I enjoyed the visit and had fun playing, but I was glad Vince took her with him when he left. I like loaner dogs like Lady rather than having the responsibility of caring for one myself.

Speaking of dogs, I exchanged e-mails yesterday with a lady who got upset with us at our first Arizona Gypsy Gathering rally because we wouldn’t allow her to bring her dog into the seminar buildings, or to morning coffee and donuts. Since then she has contacted us every year wanting to attend our Arizona rally, but insisting that her dog be allowed to accompany her to all of the events, because it suffers from separation anxiety when left alone, and destroys things in her RV. And, just as I have every year, I told her that only service animals are allowed in any of the buildings. It’s our policy at every rally, and our insurance company insists on it.

I guess this time I really ticked her off, because she informed me that she will be in the fairgrounds parking lot with a sign saying “Nick Russell Hates Animals!” Actually, I like some animals much better than I do their inconsiderate owners.

Before I close this blog, I want to tell you about a neat website that my friends Orv and Nancy Hazelton discovered, and shared with me, called Mile By Mile. It lists state and interstate highways in every state, as well as Canada and Mexico, with mile by mile descriptions of what you’ll see along the way. I know I’ll spend a lot of time exploring this one, and I bet you will too!

Bad Nick laughs in the face of bad weather! He spent part of yesterday posting a new Bad Nick Blog titled Cruel And Unusual? Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Go where you are celebrated, not tolerated.

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A few days ago we covered the reasons to consider upgrading your present RV rather than going into debt to buy a new (or newer) motorhome or fifth wheel trailer. But a few people have written to ask when you should consider the other option, of trading in your old rig for something new(er).

Terry and I were faced with that decision last year. For over eight years we lived and traveled in the 1976 MCI bus conversion that we had built ourselves, and we loved that old bus. It was built like a tank, we had unbelievable cargo carrying capacity, and we could carry anything that we could find room to cram into it. We built the bus for extended boondocking, with huge holding tanks, 540 watts of solar power, a large battery bank, and a top of the line pure sine wave inverter.

If we were snowbirds who only went out to Quartzsite to hang out in the winter, or if we were weekend warriors, the bus would have been our home on wheels forever. In fact, we expected it to be.

However, our needs and our traveling style changed over the years, and at the same time, the bus was beginning to need some major upgrades. We have done a lot of boondocking over the years; our longest stint was over seven months without being plugging into electrical power or water. We still don’t mind dry camping for a few days, but we have gotten to the point where we really enjoy being in a campground with full hookups.

We didn’t have slides in the bus, and as our two granddaughters have gotten older, it was getting really cramped when they visited us. We looked into having a living room slide installed, and the cost would have been over $10,000.

The 8V71 Detroit diesel was never a powerhouse, even new, and ours had a million miles on it, and it was getting older and slower every day. Climbing even moderate hills was presenting a real challenge, and the mountains out west were becoming impossible. We found ourselves not going places where we wanted go, because of the limitations of the bus. We were getting to the point where we were not enjoying traveling because we were always worried about a major breakdown.

Another problem was that it was getting harder and harder to find qualified diesel mechanics who knew enough about the old two stroke manually aspirated motors like we had. They are a dying breed. There are plenty of technicians who can plug an analyzer into a data port and tell you everything that is wrong with a modern diesel, but it takes an old school mechanic to understand the quirks of an old Detroit diesel.

We looked into replacing the motor, and the best quote we got for a factory rebuilt 8V92 turbo was $35,000 installed. However, the mechanic, someone who had done a lot of work on the bus for us in the past, and whom we trusted completely, said that our transmission would not hold up to the torque of the newer, more powerful engine. A used transmission would have set us back another $15,000. And then we’d still have cooling issues, so figure another $3,000 to $5,000 for two new radiators and the rest of a cooling system upgrade. Sam told us “You’ll still have a 35 year old bus with a non-electronic engine, that won’t be worth much more than half of what you’ll put into it.”

For us, it was time to step up to a newer coach. We found our 2002 Winnebago Ultimate Advantage, with 33,000 miles on it, for not much more than what we would have invested in upgrading the bus.

If we weren’t fulltimers, and if  I was a diesel mechanic, and if  I had the necessary tools and a place to do the work, I would have kept the bus and done the upgrades myself. But like my dad used to say, if a frog had wings, he wouldn’t bump his butt.

So when is it time to trade your old RV in? For us, it was when the basic design no longer fit our needs, and when the cost of upgrading was 3/4 of what it cost to buy a much newer, more powerful motorhome that had more room and more advantages for us than keeping the old bus did.

Now that we have been in the Winnebago for over a year, and put 10,000+ miles on it, we are convinced that we made the right decision for us. Only you can decide which choice is right for your needs, your lifestyle, and your budget.

Thought For The Day – I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn’t learn something from him.

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I was lazy pretty much all day yesterday. Actually, I’m lazy every day, but most of the time I make myself do something. Yesterday, I just indulged myself and didn’t do much of anything.

The Stamps.com website was down all day Friday and Saturday, so I couldn’t print the last of the labels for our final batch of mail that needed to go out. But it as back up by yesterday morning, and I wrapped them up so Miss Terry could stuff the last few envelopes, which we’ll drop off at the post office this morning.

Then I spent the rest of the day goofing around on the internet, loading up some of the tombstone pictures we took Saturday to Find A Grave, doing a little genealogy research, and watching old movies on TV.

At 4:30 we walked up to the clubhouse for the Sunday afternoon ice cream social. There is nothing like ice cream to bring a bunch of Escapees together, and we had a good time visiting with folks, talking about our RV travels, and sharing a few laughs.

Back at the motorhome, it was more of the same – just being lazy until I wrote the blog and got ready for bed. I really didn’t accomplish a darn thing all day long, and I didn’t even feel guilty about it!

I had some interesting responses to Saturday’s blog post Why Buy New When You Can Upgrade?, and most of the folks I’ve heard from seem to be in agreement that they would rather keep their present RVs and upgrade them than go into debt to buy a new rig.

One e-mail, from RVing friends who just purchased a new diesel pusher last year said that they are really regretting their purchase, and that they wish they had kept the coach they traded in and remodeled it instead. Another RVer wrote to say that they had crunched the numbers several times, and they decided that if they didn’t buy a new fifth wheel, they would save enough in interest over the next five years to cover the costs of remodeling the one they now have, and not have any payments to make.

I’ve had a couple of people ask me if Byron Hibshman from Traveling CCW will be at our Arizona Gypsy Gathering rally in Yuma, presenting his evening class to get a Utah concealed weapons permit. Yes, Byron will be there doing a seminar on Transporting Firearms In Your RV, and teaching the evening class to get your permit. You don’t have to be a Utah resident,  nor do you have to go to Utah to get the permit. Once you take Byron’s class and he signs off on it, you send your paperwork to Utah with the appropriate fees, and the permit is mailed to you. There is a separate fee for the class, which you will pay directly to Byron at the rally. You can contact him ahead of time at contactus@travelingccw.com if you have any questions.

There were a couple of places we wanted to visit in this area for stories in a future issue of the Gypsy Journal, but we have thunderstorms predicted for most of this week, so we’ll see how it goes. Who knows, I may just stay home and practice being lazy some more!

Thought For The Day – I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.

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We are fast running out of time here in Apache Junction, and we still have a lot to get done before we head to Yuma for our Arizona Gypsy Gathering rally in March. We still need to replace the tires on or motorhome, replace the house batteries, I’m working on the new issue of the Gypsy Journal, and once it is printed, we need to get it mailed out. And, of course, there are still a few dozen rally details and chores that need completed too.

Aside from work related tasks, we still have some folks who want to get together for lunch or dinner, I want to get down to Tucson to visit my cousin Beverly, and I’d like to spend a few hours at the Family History Center of the LDS Church in Mesa. I’m not a Mormon, but their genealogy research facilities are open to anyone, and I’m running into a brick wall on my father’s side of my family tree.

A couple of weeks ago I bought Miss Terry a new Bernina Bernette sewing machine, and while I was working on the new issue of the paper yesterday, she went to a class at Quilter’s Ranch in Tempe to learn about all of the new machine’s bells and whistles. What, you say? A class to learn how to operate a sewing machine? No, Terry has been sewing since she was a youngster, this class was just to learn all about the features of her new machine and its many capabilities.

What the heck, when I got my Blackberry Storm last summer, Verizon had a free class to learn to use it! Of course, I still can’t do much more than make a call or answer e-mails on it.

Yesterday, my friend Sharon Del Rosario sent me an e-mail to tell me about a great country singer and yodeler named David Bradley that she and hubby Don met in Quartzsite, and she suggested that I contact David and talk to him about performing at our Yuma rally. Since I value Sharon’s opinion, I called David and we worked out an arrangement for him to come to the rally and perform a concert on Monday evening.

David is the son of world champion yodeler Gene Bradley, and has been performing since he was five years old. He performed with the famous Sons of the Pioneers for five years, and was a featured solo artist at the popular Country Tonite Theatre in Branson, Missouri, where he won the Featured Entertainer of the Year award. You can hear some sound bites of David’s music on his Born To Yodel website. Check it out, and make plans now to attend his concert at the rally. Between David and the Michael Hargis’ concert, we’ll have plenty of reasons to tap our toes at the rally, won’t we?

Besides great entertainment and a full line of seminars at the rally, you will also have the opportunity to take advantage of some extra activities, including getting your RV weighed by Rick and Joyce Lang from RVSEF; taking behind the wheel RV driving classes from the RV School, and taking a class to obtain a non-resident Utah or Florida concealed weapons permit from Traveling CCW.

There is a separate fee for any of these valuable extras, and you should make arrangements before the rally if you can, because they all fill up fast. For RV weighing, contact Rick Lang at ricklang46@hotmail.com; for the RV School, contact Dennis Hill at rvschool@wizwire.com; and for the CCW classes, visit the Traveling CCW website.

News out of Elkhart, Indiana is that Heartland Recreational Vehicles LLC., builders of what I consider some of the finest fifth wheel trailers on the market, has purchased the rights to the brand names Prowler, Mallard, Pioneer, Wilderness, and other Fleetwood towable products, and will begin to build their own line of trailer models under those names. A company press release says they plan to begin manufacturing RVs under the acquired names in the next year. Given my personal opinion of Fleetwood products, I’m not sure this is a move I would have made, but if anyone can build something worthwhile under those brand names, I think it would be Heartland.

As busy as we are, Bad Nick still found time to write a new Bad Nick Blog post titled Dying With Dignity. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Don’t believe all you hear, spend all you have, or sleep all you want.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally