We’re getting down to the wire on our Western Gypsy Gathering rally, and I need to be twins, maybe even triplets, to get everything done! Most of yesterday was spent answering e-mails and phone calls from folks registering for the rally.

We have over 200 RVs registered now, and more coming in all the time. I just hope we can find a parking place with electricity for everybody! We have lots of room for dry camping, but we hope to have 20 amp electricity for everybody too.

There are no full hookups for RVs at the fairgrounds, but there are water bibs and a dump station. We have very few 30 and 50 amp electric hookups, but those have to be reserved for people with special needs. And no, wanting to use your microwave or curling iron is not a special need! Sorry.

Hey, Terry and I have been here all week, and we’re getting by just fine on 20 amp electric in our Winnebago diesel coach. Just because we have a 50 amp plug doesn’t mean we have to have 50 amps to live comfortably.

Bill Becker stopped by to say hello yesterday afternoon. Bill and his wife Mabel handle T-shirt sales at our western rallies, and they are hanging out around Yuma until it’s time to come in for the rally. Bill is a retired Marine, and he has arranged for a spokesman from the Marine Air Station here in Yuma to come to the opening of the rally and tell us all a little about their mission to train pilots and crews.

About 3 p.m., Tom and Barbara Westerfield arrived at the fairgrounds. They are part of our advance staff, and boy, do we have a lot of work for them to do! They handle a lot of our technical things, making sure the seminar speakers have the audio-visual equipment they need and that it is working properly, as well as 1001 other tasks. We sure do appreciate all of our volunteer helpers!

Once they were settled in, the four of us took a tour of the fairgrounds, and I showed them where the two main RV parking areas will be, as well as other spots where we can park a rig or two. Unlike the fairgrounds in Casa Grande, where we have held our past rallies, here we won’t have everybody parked in long back to back lines of RVs. Some folks will be parked that way, but others will be put in spots next to buildings where we can get them plugged into electric.

If you don’t have or want to use your rooftop TV dish during the rally, we have several 20 amp electric hookups with water that are under a large covered canopy.

With so little time left before the rally starts, there isn’t time to send rally confirmations by snail mail, but we can do so by e-mail if you register online. You can also register and pay when you arrive at the fairgrounds, either on Sunday, the 7^th from noon to 5 p.m., or Monday, the 8^th from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. If you are staying in the local area and don’t want to bring your RV to the fairgrounds, you can come in on day passes, for $5/person per day, which entitles you to all rally activities. Come join in all the fun!

Thought For The Day – I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

I’ve been pretty lazy the last couple of weeks, but it’s time to get into work mode. I have an awful lot to get done between now and our rally in Yuma, which is only five weeks away.

I’m trying to develop two new seminars for the rally, one on the interesting stories we have come across in cemeteries (it may sound strange or ghoulish to some people, but we like exploring cemeteries), and one on blogging for RVers. Our pals Jim and Chris Guld from Geeks on Tour do an excellent seminar called Every RVer Needs A Blog that gets rave reviews, but they can’t make it to the Yuma rally, and I have had so may requests for a blogging seminar that I have to come up with one, even though it won’t hold a candle to the Geeks’.

I also need to get the next issue of the Gypsy Journal ready to go to the printer. We need to have it printed and mailed in the next couple of weeks. And then, of course, there are all of the rally preparations that still need to get finished. So it’s nose to the grindstone time.

I spent a lot of time yesterday fielding e-mails and telephone calls from vendors for the rally. I know it’s human nature to put things off until the last minute, I’m guilty of it myself all too often. But, some of these folks just don’t get the big picture. A couple of vendors told us they wanted to come to the rally months ago, and we sent them vendor application forms, telling them that registration was on a first come basis.

We have followed up with them a couple of times, and they assured us they would get their registrations in, but they never did. Now that the rally is coming up fast, those same vendors are upset because their competitors got in ahead of them, or because there are no vendor seminar time slots left. It takes months to plan one of these events, and we can’t wait until the week before the rally to start on it.

Speaking of rally seminars, another request we have had a lot is for a geocaching seminar. I’ve arranged for not only a seminar on this fascinating hobby, but also a follow-up field exercise to actually go out on the fairgrounds property to look for caches we have hidden for the rally. Gene Teggatz will also be doing a seminar on Adding Solar To Your RV, which is another much requested topic.

By yesterday afternoon, I needed to get out and take a break from the rally preparations, so we dropped some bundles of sample papers off at local RV parks, and then took Terry’s mom and dad, Pete and Bess Weber, to dinner at Streets of New York, one of our favorite pizza places in this area.

As the host was showing us to our seats, Ed and Joan Mikolajczak said hello to me. They were there having dinner and looked up as we were walking past their table. They have been to our Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally the last two years, and it was nice to see them again. It seems like no matter where we go in this great land of ours, we run into somebody we know.

Fulltime RVers are like the population of a small town, where everybody knows everybody. The only difference is that our “town” keeps changing location all the time!

While I was out goofing off, Bad Nick stayed home to post a new Bad Nick Blog titled A Different Standard. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

Yesterday I planned to chain myself to the computer and get a lot of work finished for the next issue of the Gypsy Journal. But you know the old saying, “if you want to hear God laugh, make plans.”

Early in the day I had a long series of e-mails and phone calls to deal with, and it seems like the minute I had worked my way through all of them, more came in. It was well after noon before I finished with the last of them, and then the flood gates opened and we had a long line of visitors coming by to chat.

I’m afraid I can’t remember everybody’s names, but there was a fellow from a fifth wheel parked down the road from us who wanted to ask some questions about the bus after seeing the For Sale sign in the windshield. Then somebody else came by to say hello and was gone before I got his name.

A few minutes later a nice couple who were at our Arizona Gypsy Gathering rally, and who I sponsored to join the Elks, came over. I’m embarrassed that I can’t remember their names, but right this moment I’m drawing a total blank. We had a nice visit, I knew who they were while they were here, but for the life of me I can’t remember now. So if you’re reading this, I hope you’ll forgive my early senility.

As they were leaving, Bill Joyce and Diane Melde arrived, Diane sporting an arm sling because she had fallen and dislocated her elbow a few days ago while in Minnesota. Ouch! We always enjoy spending time with Bill and Diane, and they have always pitched in to help us with parking at our Arizona rallies, working long hours to help get all of the RVs parked at the fairgrounds. We had a very nice visit with them, and they hadn’t been gone two minutes when Dan and Karen Silverwood were knocking on the door.

Dan and Karen are parked next to us in a beautiful Winnebago Vectra motorhome and they wanted us to take a tour of their coach. We were understandably impressed! Winnebago sure makes a good rig, and they are very high on our list of possible coaches to replace our bus with. Dan and Karen wanted us to go to dinner with them, but we had a previous commitment, so we had to beg off.

We also got to visit with Terry and Dale Pace before the day was over. We have known Terry and Dale for what seems like forever, and since they are from this area, we always run into them here at Elkhart Campground sometime during the summer.

That’s one of the great things about the fulltime RV lifestyle; no matter where we go, we run into folks we know and have things in common with. I always tell people it’s like living in a small town where we run into our neighbors in every corner of the country!

Needless to say, I didn’t get one word written yesterday, but we sure had a good time visiting with all of our friends!

Thought For The Day – The world bursts at the seams with people ready to tell you you’re not good enough. Ignore them, they’re all idiots.

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally

There are big changes in store for fulltime RVers who use South Dakota as their home base. According to a newsletter we received from our mail forwarding service, Alternative Resources, effective January 1, 2010, when it is time to renew your South Dakota drivers license, or when getting your first South Dakota drivers license, you must stay one night in a campground or motel and show a receipt to the drivers license office. You can do this in any city that issues licenses. You can still use your mailing service as the address on your driver’s license.

According to South Dakota officials, this puts the state in compliance with the Federal Real ID Act, and will allow license holders to board a commercial airplane, enter federal buildings, etc. I don’t know about you, but Big Brother is really starting to tick me off!

In other news from South Dakota, you now must reside in the county where you apply for a concealed weapons permit (CWP) for 30 days immediately prior to applying for the gun permit. You can use a motel or campground, and must present a receipt and note from said motel or campground stating the exact dates of your stay. Apparently your mailing service address will not be accepted. I don’t know how this will apply to those of us who already have a CWP when it comes time for renewal.

I had heard rumors about this for a while now, but in response to e-mails I sent to the state, officials said no decision has been made.  I would imagine that these new rules may steer at least a few prospective new South Dakotans toward a different state, such as Texas or Florida.

One dream trip for many RVers is Alaska, and it’s a journey we hope to make someday. Dennis and Carol Hill, owners of the RV Driving School, have been in Alaska this summer, and on their RV blog they have some great pictures of a bear catching a fish for dinner. I can’t wait to see Alaska someday too!

Meanwhile, back here in the Lower 48, Walter Cannon from the Recreational Vehicle Safety Education Foundation (RVSEF) called to tell me that he has been forced to pull the plug on the RV Lifestyle, Education, & Safety clinic scheduled for Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in September.

Walter said low student registration numbers and a lack of sponsorship from the RV industry made going forward with the event impossible, but he plans to spend the winter focusing on new ways to promote the program with students and sponsors, and hopefully in 2010 we’ll see it happen. For those who never got to attend a Life on Wheels session, the RVSEF program could be an excellent learning opportunity. I’ll keep you updated as I hear more from Walter.

Thought For The Day – If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.

Thanks to everyone who posted comments to the blog or sent e-mails with suggestions of replacement laptop computers for Terry. And thanks especially to our pal Jim Guld from Geeks on Tour. I was on the phone several times with Jim yesterday trying to resolve the issues with Terry’s Compaq, and then again as we shopped for a replacement.

Following Jim’s directions, we actually got the Compaq running for a short time. He told us to remove the battery and unplug the AC power, and then to hold the power button down for about 10 seconds, and then plug the computer back in. I did all of that, and the darned thing booted right up! I thought our problems were over. A message popped up on the screen saying the NVIDIA software had been updated and the computer was going to reboot automatically. It shut itself down and no matter what we did after that, it just would not work. It was dead.

I had decided we should buy Terry a Dell laptop to replace her Compaq, but several readers wrote to suggest a Toshiba instead. We drove over to Best Buy in Mishawaka, a few miles west of Elkhart, and looked at the Dells, and also the comparable Toshiba. Terry liked the Toshiba much better, so I was back on the phone again with Jim Guld, asking his opinion. After I read him the specs on both units, Jim gave his blessing on the Toshiba, and that’s what we bought.

These days computers are a very important part of many RVers’ lives, ours included. Not only do we keep in touch with our friends and family by e-mail, as well as cruising the internet, we also use them daily in our business. Just as a good mechanic needs quality tools, we need computers we can rely on.

Yesterday, new friends Dan and Martha Widmeyer, from Short Hills, New Jersey stopped by to say hello. I met them Friday when I stopped into the office here at Elkhart Campground to pick up our mail, and they were there checking in. They had a couple of questions about local RV factory tours, and I suggested they check out the Heartland factory, since they are one of our favorite RV manufacturers.

We had a nice conversation, I gave them a sample copy of the Gypsy Journal, and they said they were looking forward to reading it. Once they did, they said they knew they had to subscribe, and to meet Miss Terry as well. What a nice couple! We look forward to crossing their path again in our travels. You meet the nicest people in an RV!

If you are traveling in eastern Ohio or Western Pennsylvania, I want to give you a lead on a neat place to visit that reader Levi Patton suggested. Noah’s Lost Ark in Berlin Center is a non-profit rescue sanctuary for abused and neglected exotic animals. After I spent some time exploring their website, it’s very high on our travel plans. Check it out, I think you’ll be impressed. We were!

Thought For The Day – Never be afraid to say what you feel. You can only die once.

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally