It’s just as well that I’m stuck inside working on the new issue of the Gypsy Journal, because it’s raining again. We had one mostly clear day Wednesday to give us a break, but yesterday it started all over again, with more rain forecast today.

I know a couple of people who want to leave Summerdale, but the ground is so saturated that they aren’t sure they can even get their RVs out of their campsites. As soon as we get the new issue printed and mailed, we’ll be right behind them. I’m ready to head west.

I spent most of yesterday at my computer, except for an hour or so in the afternoon, when I began to get droopy and stretched out on the couch for a nap. We had a late breakfast or an early lunch, depending on what you want to call it, and when evening rolled around, we weren’t really hungry, so Miss Terry made up a batch of her homemade peanut butter cookies, which were delicious with a cold glass of milk. She says she really misses the Avanti gas range and oven she had in our bus conversion, but I think she’s getting the hang of using the convection oven in our Winnebago.

Judging from the responses to my last couple of blog posts, and the many, many e-mails I have received about our problems with our insurance claim, this has really stirred up a hornet’s nest.

Though PoliSeek, whom we purchased our insurance from, has never called me back, yesterday two other agents who sell for National Interstate contacted the bigwigs at that company, after their customers read my blog comments and e-mailed them. One said that she had already lost customers over the issue, who were taking their business elsewhere. The company told one of them that they were already aware of the blog posts on the subject and were going to get the issue resolved immediately.

Suddenly there seems to have been a complete change of attitude on the part of the claims adjuster I have been working with. He called to tell me that they didn’t have to wait for the last set of notarized papers I sent him listing the items stolen, all I needed to do was go out and buy replacements and they would reimburse me. I explained that I don’t have huge piles of money laying around to go on a shopping spree, and that we had acquired those things over time. He said no problem, just find them on the internet and send him a link to web pages showing their prices and they will send me out a check for whatever the total comes to. Suddenly that 180 day time frame that existed to settle the claim in seems to have disappeared.

I’m still waiting for word on the final repairs that have to be made at Camping World, but he assured me that it will all be resolved very quickly. I’m still skeptical, based upon National Interstate’s past performance, but I hope they will now follow through.

And while I’m appreciative of the other agents, whom I have no business dealings with, for going to bat for us, I’m thoroughly pissed that my own agent, PoliSeek still has ignored us. One of the other agents who contacted the company made one phone call, and had three managers from National Interstate contact her within 24 hours to find out the details to get the issue resolved. Why couldn’t PoliSeek do that for me? They sure have made a lot of commission money from my premiums over the years, since they cover our motorhome, two other vehicles, and I used them for coverage on the bus and my motorcycle before I sold them. I also used them to secure insurance for our Gypsy Gathering rallies. They have lost our business, and I will make it a point to tell any other RVers I talk to (and I talk to a lot of RVers over the course of a year), just how bad they treated us.

So yes, things look better, based upon my last conversations with the claims adjuster. But this whole thing leaves me wondering how many people out there have the same problems, but do not have access to the wide audience I do, to vent their frustrations in public, and instead just have to bend over and take it. It shouldn’t have to be that way for anybody.

Thought For The Day – He who knows nothing, doubts nothing.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

As I wrote in yesterday’s blog, there is a rally of old GM motorhomes going on here at Elkhart Campground. I love these neat old coaches, and yesterday I poked my nose out into the cold to take a couple of photos of some of them.

Our friends Dan and Terri Greg travel in a neat old GM motorhome, and are here for the rally. We first met them in Arizona a year or two ago, and I have been following their Travel Blog ever since. We haven’t had time to get down and say hello yet, but Dan said they’d try to catch up with us today.

Yesterday was my birthday, and I just don’t understand it. My driver’s license says I’m 57 now, so how come I still feel like a 20 year old kid? Okay, a 20 year old kid with a lot of creaks and groans in the morning, but still a kid.

My dad used to say that it was a shame that youth is wasted on the young, and I never understood that. I do now. I’d love to have the energy and optimism I did when I was 20, but only with if I could keep what little wisdom I may have picked up along the way.

Still, I wouldn’t want to go back and re-live all of the drama of youth. I’m at a very comfortable time in my life, I’ve never been more content in my work or my personal life, and I look forward to getting out of bed every morning. Life is good.

Miss Terry is having a hard time finding any cookbooks that will give her some ideas of how to use the microwave/convection oven in our Winnebago motorhome. Terry is a great cook, but she’s a traditionalist, and has always been very happy with her gas oven in our bus conversion. She sure has created a lot of delicious meals and treats with it.

The Winnebago has just a gas cooktop and a GE Profile microwave/convection. The few cookbooks she has found have recipes, but not much in the way of techniques or instructions on how to transition from a gas oven to a convection model.

Yesterday she made me a birthday cake in the convection oven, her first attempt to use it. I thought it was delicious, but she wasn’t satisfied. Just to reassure her, I went back for a second big piece of cake, and I may have another for breakfast. Oh, the things I do for that woman!

Thanks to everyone who sent me Happy Birthday e-mails or posted greetings on Facebook. You all make me feel very special. 

Thought For The Day – Dieting is a way of starving to death so you can live longer.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

My gosh, I think we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel in our move from our bus conversion to our new to us Winnebago Ultimate Advantage motorhome!

In spite of all of the rain we have had this past week, Miss Terry has been hard at work emptying closets, drawers, and everywhere else we had stuff stashed away in the bus. Yesterday I managed to empty out the cavernous bays on the bus, sort through everything, and move what we are going to keep into the bays of the Winnebago. As I have said before, the great thing about a bus conversion is that you can carry a ton of stuff, and the bad thing about a bus conversion is that you usually do end up carrying a ton of stuff!

A lot of stuff did not make it into the bays of the motorhome, and Bobby Patel, owner of Elkhart Campground, is the proud new owner of some tools, a lot of hardware, and other things he can use around the RV park. Bobby and his wife Gita have always treated Terry and me like family, and we were happy to bequeath it all to him.

My friend Mac McCoy from Fire and Life Safety called the other day to see if we had buyer’s remorse yet. He said when he first bought his American Tradition motorhome, he went through a period of near panic, wondering “What did I do?” This is common after any major life event, from getting married to making a large purchase. Mac said all of those misgivings disappeared when he was about forty miles into his first trip in the motorhome.

We have not taken any trips in the Winnebago yet, but we have been living in it for several days now, and it is starting to feel more and more like home to us. So far we are very happy with it, except for a couple of little things.

The shower doesn’t have as much pressure as we had in the bus, even here on the same site where we always park the bus. My buddy Ron Speidel did some adjusting, and hopefully that will help. We may just need to replace the shower head, and we have been looking at the Oxygenics models, which we have heard good reports about. I am also finding that the shower is a bit more cramped than in the bus, where we had an apartment sized tub and shower.

The motorhome has an open bath/bedroom arrangement, with a separate water closet, so the bedroom area feels very large to us, which we enjoy. And with the two slides, as well as the fact that the Winnebago is six inches wider than the bus, we really notice the extra space. In the bus, when I was sitting at my computer (and it seems like I am always sitting at my computer), Terry had to squeeze between my desk chair and the couch to get past me. In the new rig, there is plenty of room to walk around, even when I am working at the computer.

Miss Terry loves to cook, and we seriously considered moving her stainless steel Avanti range into the Winnebago, but it would require some major renovations to the kitchen area, so she is going to try to adjust to a simple cooktop and a convection oven. The jury is still out on that one.

Terry also has a learning curve to adjust to the Splendide washer/dryer combo in the Winnebago, after her separate washer and dryer in the bus.

We are looking forward to getting back on the road soon so we can experience traveling in the new rig. I’m especially looking forward to tackling some of those mountains in the west, which were so problematic in the bus. There are a few creature comforts we’ll enjoy when traveling that we didn’t have in the bus, such as cruise control, that will be fun to have.   

On another note, Bad Nick tells me he has a new post on the Bad Nick Blog for those of you who have been waiting. Check it out.

Thought For The Day – We have confused the free with the free and easy.

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally