Terry and I have spent most of our time inside the last few days, catching up on paperwork and working on the new issue of the Gypsy Journal. It’s just as well, because it’s been too darned cold to do much outside. And looking at the weather forecast for the Elkhart area, it’s only going to get worse as time goes on. The highs for the next four days are only in the 40s, with overnight lows at or near freezing. Believe me, I’m working hard to get the paper finished and printed so we can hit the road!

I did take a break yesterday to go check on our bus conversion. Since it’s not plugged into power, which means the block heater isn’t on, I was worried that it might not want to start with this cold weather. But that faithful old Detroit diesel fired right up, blowing out a cloud of smoke that killed any mosquito larvae that might be hanging out waiting for next summer. In a modern coach, that much smoke on startup is a reason to worry, but not in the old diesels. It’s just how they are in cold weather, and once they warm up the smoke goes away. Bad Nick thinks it’s a great way to get even with rude campground neighbors with yappy little dogs.

The other day Al Hesselbart got the battery charged up on his vintage Newell and got it started, and as he drove past us, Terry and I grinned at each other and said “We know that brand of perfume!”

Greg and Jan White, readers from Texas who were at our rally in Ohio, are parked behind us at Elkhart Campground, and yesterday Greg invited us over for a demonstration of the Silverleaf VMSpc program for monitoring diesel engines. I was very impressed with the many options the program offers, and I’ll be adding one very soon. Fulltimer Norm Payne has a very good report on the Silverleaf that does an excellent job of explaining what it can do on his excellent  See Ya’ Down The Road website. Click the link for Silverleaf VMSpc Monitor link.

We have not had mail in a couple of weeks, and yesterday the postman brought us a big Priority Mail box from our mail service. It was late in the day by the time the mail arrived, and by the time Miss Terry got everything opened and made up a bank deposit, we knew we’d have to get every light green in time to make it to the bank before it closed. Which meant, of course, that instead, we got every red light! We made it to the bank a minute after they locked the doors! Grrrr!

Our friends Ron and Brenda Speidel have been in town getting some upgrades done to their Winnebago Journey DL motorhome, and hopefully everything will be wrapped up this morning and they’ll be on the road by noon. We wanted to get together one last time before that happened, so yesterday afternoon we had dinner at one of our favorite places, Texas Roadhouse. We’ve been together since just before we bought our Ultimate Advantage, and we are sorry to have to part company, but we know that we’ll cross paths again somewhere down the road. Hopefully someplace where it’s warmer!

Thought For The Day – To handle yourself, use your head. To handle others use your heart.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

As I wrote in yesterday’s blog, Michele Henry from Phoenix Commercial Paint peeled the faded, chipped up graphic stripe off of our Winnebago motorhome and repainted it in the original color.

After getting the old stripe off, Michele and her crew moved the RV into their paint booth and masked off the area to be painted to protect it from overspray. It looked even larger all covered up in paper! 

I picked the motorhome up yesterday afternoon, and it looks great! We are very pleased with the results of Michele’s work. It really sets the RV off, and everybody who has seen it has been impressed. Now you can count us among the many satisfied customers of Phoenix Commercial Paint! 

Today is going to be a busy day for us. We have to pick up the T-shirts for our Ohio Gypsy Gathering rally, which I got busy and forgot to do yesterday. Then Miss Terry has some laundry to take care of, and I need to get the motorhome’s propane tank filled, and then air up all of the tires to accommodate the weight of everything we now have in it. After that, we need to load our bicycles into the van so we’ll be ready to leave for Ohio Sunday morning.

I also need to move our bus conversion to the storage area here at Elkhart Campground. Owners Bob and Gita Patel have been gracious in allowing us to leave it parked next to our regular site while we moved everything out and into the Winnebago and then stayed in it last night while the motorhome was in the paint shop. We are disappointed that the bus has not sold yet, but we know the right buyer is out there somewhere.

Several people asked if we are going to take the bus with us when we leave for the winter. Probably not, because it gets awfully expensive driving two RVs around the country. We’ll either store it here at the campground, or at my pal Butch Williams’ place at Twelve Mile, Indiana. Or, you could just buy it for a really good price and save me the hassle of draining the tanks and winterizing it.

That reminds me of a funny story from when we first bought the bus, and still had our original RV, the Motorhome From Hell. We were taking the bus to Michigan, where we spent the summer at my cousin Terry Cook’s place getting the first steps of the conversion project finished.

I was driving the bus and Terry was driving the RV, and we pulled into a Flying J for fuel. The RV island was empty, so I stopped at one pump and stuck a diesel hose in the bus tank, then a gasoline hose in the RV, and gave Terry a kiss as she walked inside to pay. A fellow in a Class C had pulled in behind us, and as I was pumping the fuel, he came up and said “I couldn’t help but notice that you and your lady there travel in two RVs.  Doesn’t that get expensive?”

Well, you know Bad Nick wasn’t going to pass up an opening like that, so I looked him right in the eye and said “Well, that’s my wife, and I love her, but we just don’t get along well enough to spend that much time together. So yeah, it’s expensive this way, but it’s still a lot cheaper than a divorce!”

I mentioned weight above, but I don’t mean we are overweight. The Winnebago has a cargo capacity of 3451 pounds, and I don’t think we’re near that. I’ll know for sure once we get to Celina, because we are the first on the list to have Rick and Joyce Lang from RVSEF weigh us at the rally.

If you have not had your RV weighed yet, be sure to print out the Motorhome Work Sheet or Trailer Work Sheet from these links and fill them out so you can have your rig weighed at our rally. The small fee is well worth the investment in your safety and in avoiding breakdowns caused by overstressing your RV’s components with excess weight. For weighing fees and information, or any questions, call Rick Lang at (207) 522-3336, or e-mail him at ricklang46@hotmail.com.

Thought For The Day – Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally