We got a rude awakening yesterday when we got the keys to the building here at Elkhart Campground where we plan to have our vendor booths, seminars, and evening entertainment. We have outgrown it before our Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally even starts! 

As soon as Terry and I started measuring the big new room where we expected to put our vendors and hold the entertainment, we looked at each other and both said “oh oh!” There is no way we could even put all of the vendors in the room, let alone be able to cram in seating for 300+ people for the evening door prizes. We goofed, plain and simple. We overestimated the size of the building available to us, and underestimated the number of people who wanted to attend the rally.

We scratched our heads, then called our pal Greg White and had him come over and take a look. I didn’t really think Greg could build another building in twelve days, but I have seen him do some pretty remarkable things, so who knows?  He walked around for a while, paced off the length and width of the room, did some mathematical calculations in the air with his finger, then scratched his head, and said “Yep, you goofed!” I can always depend on Greg to cut right to the chase.  

Now what?

We can expand the vendor area into a second room, and we can make that work. But there’s still the matter of where to put all of those folks in the evening.

I’m nothing if not resourceful. As the old saying goes, I’ve done so much with so little for so long, that I can now do almost anything with absolutely nothing. We are arranging for a huge tent, which will be set up on the tennis courts in front of the rally building, and that will be the venue for the evening events. It’s not perfect, but as long as the weather cooperates, it will work.

Every time we hold a rally it’s a learning experience, especially when we hold one in a new location. And we’ve certainly learned a lot this time around!

If we ever hold a rally at an RV park again, and I’m not sure we ever will, we will just collect the rally fees, and have the campground handle all of the reservations. At this rally, we were supposed to collect all of the camping fees, and pay Elkhart Campground for each RV attending. But some people made their reservations directly through the campground, some booking a whole month, and it has resulted in a logistical nightmare.

Plus, because the campground is open to other folks during the rally, we have had a lot of people who are going to be here who want to attend the rally events, but can’t understand why they should pay the rally fee, since they’re here already. They don’t understand that it costs us a lot of money to put on an RV rally. Besides the facility rental, insurance, morning coffee and doughnuts, and now hundreds of dollars to rent a tent, there are the costs of printing rally seminar schedules, the door prizes we buy to give away, sound system rental, and a lot of other things I can’t remember off the top of my head. When I told a couple of the people that they would have to pay the rally fee, they were pretty upset. But this is a business, and we have to cover our costs, plain and simple.

Oh, I’m just venting. We’ll get it all worked out, and I’ll probably only have to sell two or three pints of blood to have enough fuel to get out of town. Like I said, it’s a learning experience.

The good news is that 99.99% of our rally attendees are fantastic people who are able to roll with the flow, and if we have to have the evening events in a tent, they’ll slap on the mosquito spray, carry over their chairs, and sit down and have a great time. As for that other .01 percent, well, they’ll do some learning too, right?

Bad Nick has been busy too, posting a new Bad Nick Blog titled Out At Last. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – When you’re finally holding all the cards, why does everyone else decide to play chess?

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Keep your raincoats buttoned up, you perverts! That’s not what I’m talking about!

Do you flash your headlights to let truckers and other RVs know it is safe to pull back into the lane ahead of you after they pass? I’m curious. If you do (and we all should), how many of them blink their marker lights or tap their brake lights to say thank you?

That used to be the norm, from the days I first started driving, but it seems to me that fewer and fewer truckers take the time to send this little thank you message these days. Why is that? Have the truckers changed, or has society in general changed that much, that not many people bother to acknowledge simple courtesies any more?

Or, are we part of the problem ourselves? Do we alienate a lot of truckers by our actions?

I’ve noticed lately that a lot of RVers don’t seem to understand basic etiquette. Things like pulling away from the fuel pump at a truck stop when done, so the next fellow in line can fill his tank. Over and over we see RVs blocking the fuel islands while the wife or husband goes inside to pay, and some trucker sits there waiting to get back on the road. I’ve seen more than one RVer fill his tank, then wash his windshield, and then go inside to pay, while the wife sits in her seat and never steps outside. That’s just wrong.

When we pull up to a fuel island, Terry goes inside to pay if they won’t take a credit card at the pump, and then while I am filling the tank, she cleans the windshield. As soon as the tank is full, she goes back inside to settle our bill and get a receipt, while I pull far enough forward to clear the pump with our motorhome and van.

We have spent many nights parked at truck stops, and when we do, we always park in the designated RV area, if they have one. If not, we get as far away and as far over to the side as we can, both to give the truckers room to park, and because it’s usually a little quieter.

Now that we have a motorhome with a much more powerful engine than our old bus conversion had, I will admit that I do gloat when I pass an eighteen wheeler on a long hill. But, I also watch my rear view mirror, and if I see another truck coming in the left lane, I’ll stay over and wait to pass slower traffic until he has gone on by. I can regain my momentum faster than a heavily loaded truck, and I don’t want to slow them down. These are working men and women!

On the road, whenever we see an eighteen wheeler coming up the onramp, we get over to the left or center lane if we can, so they can build up speed before they merge into traffic. I have noticed, however, that even when we do this to make their lives easier, not many truckers signal a thank you.

But that’s okay, I still do my thing. I just enjoy being a flasher.

Thought For The Day – Where do forest rangers go to “get away from it all?”

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We were so tired Saturday night that we were in bed by 9:30 p.m. and I waited until Sunday morning to post the blog. We had a rainy night, and were wide awake before 7 a.m. Sunday, and on the road before 8 a.m., which was a new record for us.

We passed through Montgomery with only a few cars and trucks to keep us company, and pulled into the Flying J truck stop a few miles south of town to take on fuel, and decided to try their breakfast buffet, which was surprisingly good.

Back on the road, we had an easy run to the Escapees Plantation RV Park in Summerdale. We checked in at the office, where we got a warm welcome, and then were assigned to a site. As we were unhooking the van, Jack Mayer came by to say hello. The battery in our van is getting weak and didn’t want to turn over, so we got out our battery charger and Jack helped us put some juice into the battery to get the van started.

By the time I had backed the motorhome into our RV site and finished hooking up our utilities, several people had come by to say hello and welcome us back, and to commiserate over our recent misfortune. We had pretty much a steady stream of visitors until we went to the Activity Center a little after 5 p.m. for their Chocolate Decadence event, in which for $3 each we had our choice of dozens of chocolate goodies, everything from brownies and cookies, to fudge, and even chocolate covered chicken wings. I passed on the wings, but sure tried to sample as much of the rest as I could. 

Following that, they had the Sunday evening Ice Cream Social. And everybody managed to save enough room for ice cream too. RVers love to eat! It was nice to see so many folks we know, and to be made so welcome. And it is wonderful to be warm again! It was 72 degrees when we arrived at Summerdale!

After I reported in yesterday’s blog that we were spending the night parked behind the Moose lodge in Prattville, Alabama, I got three or four e-mails from people asking if we were not afraid of being victimized again.

We have dry camped all over this country without a problem for years, and though we will exercise more caution in the future and not allow ourselves to become complacent again, the reality is that we could spend another 20 years on the road (which we hope to do), and never have a problem again. Of course, we also realize it could happen again tonight. But, we refuse to live in fear, or to give up our freedom because of what “might” happen.

Keep in mind, too, that our crime did not happen while we were dry camping in some out of the way place. It happened at an established RV repair shop’s camping area, which had 24 hour surveillance cameras, which large signs plainly announced. Crime can and does happen at any time, anywhere. The luck of the draw was that we just happened to be the victims this time around.

Now that we are finally out of the deep freeze up north and getting the inside of our Winnebago back to normal, we are still discovering some other things missing, including the handheld Garmin GPS we use for geocaching, a digital photo frame with pictures of our granddaughters, and Leatherman pocket tool. On the flip side, we found a small digital camera we thought was gone, so that’s a good thing. Life goes on.     

Thought For The Day – Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you anywhere.

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The title of today’s blog pretty much sums up how I have felt for the last two days. All the while we were driving north toward Indiana, we were passing RVs going in the other direction. In the past, when we have been the southbound RV and we have spotted rigs going north late in the year, I always told Miss Terry “That dummy’s got it all wrong. He should be headed south like us.” Well, this year I am that dummy!

After spending the night at the Tennessean Truck Stop, we woke up early yesterday morning and were back on Interstate 65 a little after 8 a.m. I never like driving through Nashville, and this trip was no exception. The traffic was terrible, and on the north side of town we saw a UPS tractor trailer rig towing tandem that had rolled onto the drivers’ side. I sure hope nobody got hurt in the accident.

As we passed Bowling Green, Kentucky, where we taught for Life on Wheels so many times at Western Kentucky University, we reminisced about all of the good times we had there. The schedule was a real grind, but we miss all of our other instructor friends, and interacting with the students.

About 50 miles north of Bowling Green we hit a rough spot in the road, and suddenly a loud beeping noise startled us. Terry grabbed the PressurePro tire monitor control, sure we had blown a tire. But she quickly realized what we were hearing was our “Jacks Down” alert, and the red light was flashing on the dashboard. I pulled off the road and into a truck stop and turned on the HWH system. It showed our left rear jack was down. I checked to be sure that all of our automatic leveling jacks were in the travel position, then hit the Store button and the alarm went off. I guess when we hit the rough pavement, it jolted the system enough to give a false signal.

Back on the road, we continued north through Louisville, where traffic wasn’t as bad as I expected, then crossed the Ohio River into Indiana. We stopped for fuel at the Flying J in Whiteland, a few miles south of Indianapolis, and I was disappointed that the sign on the highway said diesel was $2.69 a gallon, but a sign at the pump said it was $2.83. What’s that about?

We circled Indianapolis on the Interstate 465 bypass, and got on U.S. Highway 31 northbound. We have driven this route so many times that I could do it blindfolded.

Blindfolded maybe, but not in the dark. My night vision sucks, so about 100 miles out of Elkhart, the sun was getting low in the sky, and Miss Terry took the wheel and drove the rest of the way. She test drove our Winnebago before we bought it, but this was her first time to drive it on the highway, and she did just fine, as I knew she would. I have been putting off letting her drive, because I was afraid that once she got a feel for the big Cummins diesel engine, she might never let me behind the wheel again! And I think I was right!

We are big believers in both people in an RV knowing how to drive it. While I do the great majority of the driving in our coach, it is an extra measure of safety knowing that Terry can take the wheel whenever necessary if I get sick, tired, run out of daylight, or just need a break.

We arrived at Duncan RV Repair in Elkhart about 6:30 p.m. local time, with just over 500 miles behind us this driving day, and 900 miles total in two days. That’s a lot of driving!

Duncan RV has several 30 amp RV hookups available, and can do any type of RV service or repair, from simple tune-ups to body work and refurbishing. Our regular hangout here, Elkhart Campground, is closed for the season, so we’ll be staying here while we wrap up our business with the bus buyer. We also have an appointment to have Duncan do some work on our motorhome while we’re here, killing two birds with one stone. Or at least in one trip.              

Thought For The Day – Was learning cursive really necessary?

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Fulltime RVers always say that their plans are written in Jell-O, and that’s a good thing, because it gives us the flexibility to go with the flow. Even when the flow is taking us where we don’t want to go!

I have bad news, and good news, and more bad news to share with you. The first bad news is that we have had a change of plans and had to cut our Florida visit short. The good news is that we have received a deposit on our MCI bus conversion and soon it will have a brand new owner. The second bad news is that we have to meet him December 4^th in Elkhart, Indiana. Yes, Indiana in December! Can you say cold?

So yesterday we were out of bed at the ungodly hour of 7:30 a.m. and started preparing to leave The Great Outdoors in Titusville, Florida. I wanted to be on the road by 9 a.m., but we were low on propane, and nobody was going to be available at the resort’s propane station until 9. Okay, how long can it take to get propane? We’d be on the road by 9:15 at the latest. Yeah, right?

I unhooked our utilities while Miss Terry stowed things away inside the motorhome, plugged in our PressurePro tire monitoring system, and started to scan our tires when an alert started beeping, telling me that our right outside dual was low on air. How low, you ask? It was down to eighteen pounds pressure! That’s not a good thing!

Our Winnebago diesel motorhome has an onboard air compressor, and came with a coiled plastic air hose to fill tires and such. I had never used it, but I drug it out of one of our storage bays, only to discover that it was kinked and cracked in three or four places. Totally useless.

The Great Outdoors has its own RV service facility, Eagles Pride, which is conveniently located next door to the propane station. It was a short drive, and I knew I could get there okay with the second tire on that dual side carrying the weight. After taking on propane, which took longer than expected, I walked over to Eagles Pride and asked if they could air up the tire and take a look at it. They said no problem, pull it up in front of one of their service bays.

That’s when I discovered that I had locked the motorhome door and left the keys inside! This day was rapidly going downhill. Fortunately (for me, at least), I had left the sliding window open next to the driver’s seat. I boosted Miss Terry up, she slid the screen out of the way, and crawled inside to open the door.

Ever the optimist, I was hoping that I had burned up all my bad karma, and maybe the flat tire was because I had not screwed on the PressurePro sensor cap correctly and had accidentally allowed the air to seep  out.

No such luck, the tech at Eagles Pride found a bolt stuck in the tread of the tire. They are not set up to repair tires, so they recommended a shop in Cocoa, about twelve miles away. With the tire aired up, we drove to the shop and it took an hour or so for them to take off the tire, remove the bolt and make the repair.

Finally, we hit the road, and rolled north on Interstate 95. We pulled into the Flying J in Saint Augustine for fuel, and since it was almost 2 p.m., had a late lunch. We were back on the road by 2:30, continued north to Interstate 10, and turned west. We were so far behind schedule that I had given up any hope of putting too many miles behind us this driving day. But traffic was light and we scooted right along, making good time.

We don’t like to drive at night, but we pushed it as far as we could, and just as the last light was fading from the sky we pulled into the Flying J at Midway, Florida, just west of Tallahassee. They have several designated RV parking spaces in their parking lot, and we slid in between two other motorhomes and settled in for the night. Including our detour south to Cocoa to get the tire fixed, we had covered 330 miles, which was a good day of driving after all.

Today we’ll have an easy run of 225 miles to the Escapees Rainbow Plantation RV Park in Summerdale, Alabama. We plan to stay there until after Thanksgiving, and then we’ll have a straight shot north up Interstate 65 all the way to Indiana.

That’s assuming, of course, that there are no other last minute changes of plans or problems to get us sidetracked.

Thought For The Day – Plant yourself in good soil if you want to bloom.

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