We had hoped to get the work done on our coach early enough yesterday to be able to get on the road and put some miles behind us by dark. True to their word, the folks at Camping World in Robertsdale were finished by noon, and true to their record thus far, the folks at National Interstate insurance dropped the ball again.

They had promised to overnight a check to us at Rainbow Plantation RV Park to cover the costs of the repairs, and the staff at the campground told us they would call us as soon as it arrived. So we left early enough to be at Camping World for our 8 a.m. appointment, and they pulled the Winnebago right in. When the work was done, we still had not heard from the campground. I called our contact at National Interstate trying to get a tracking number for FedEx, and got his voice mail.

An hour went by, I called back, and he was out to lunch, so I left another voice mail. And then another. Finally, sometime around 3 p.m., I got a call from FedEx, asking just where the heck we were. It seems that instead of sending the check to us, care of the Escapees campground at 14301 County Road 28, Summerdale, Alabama, as I had instructed, and as the insurance company rep repeated to me twice, instead they addressed it to 14301 County Road 2828, Sommerville, Alabama! Big surprise, right?

So, by the time we got the check, it was too late to hit the road. We switched to Plan B. Camping World has a half dozen or so pull through RV sites with 30 amp electric and water, free for customer use, so we decided to spend the night there and take off today. This isn’t a campground by any means, but it sure beats the heck out of dry camping, or driving ten miles back to Rainbow Plantation, only to retrace the same route today as we leave town.

I’m pleased with the job the RV tech at Camping World did, installing a new Winegard Traveler automatic TV dish to replace the older Winegard unit we had on our roof. During the burglary and vandalism, they trashed our Dish Network receiver and the control box for the Winegard. Since they don’t make that unit any more, it was not possible to just replace the control box, the entire unit needed to be replaced.

Here is a picture of it mounted on our rig. It’s bigger and heavier than the older dish was, and it seems to take about twice as long to lock onto the satellites. But with triple LNBs, it gets all three Dish satellites, 110, 119, and 129, at the same time, without having to reposition itself when we change channels, like our single LNB dish did.

We had visitors while we were at Camping World! Our friends Paul and Sally Wagner, who are our neighbors at Elkhart Campground in the summer, are staying at Coastal Haven RV Park in nearby Fairhope, and when they read in the blog that we were leaving the area, they came over to say goodbye. We always enjoy visiting with Paul and Sally, I just wish we had more time this trip to do so.

Joe and Marcia Jones are good friends who have the Chasing The Seventies RV blog. We have crossed paths with them many times in our travels, and they arrived at Rainbow Plantation yesterday afternoon, hoping to catch up with us. When they realized we had already left, they came up to Camping World to say hello. We always enjoy these two, and though our visit was brief, we appreciated them taking the time to come all the way back up from the campground to see us.

Terry and I love seafood, and since we are going to be leaving the coastal area today, once we had settled our bill with Camping World and our company had left, we went back to Big Daddy’s Grill for our last fresh seafood dinner. It was just as delicious as last time, and this is one restaurant we’ll be coming back to anytime we’re in the area.

From the weather reports, we may run into some stormy weather as we travel toward Texas, but we’ll just head out and see what happens. If it gets ugly we’ll pull off the road and wait it out. Our goal for today is Lake Charles, Louisiana, a distance of 350 miles.

We had planned to spend the night boondocking at the Isle of Capri Casino, where we’ve stayed before, but Gypsy Journal reader Mark Didelot called last night to tell us about a parish park where he and his wife Sue are parked in Lake Charles, which is just a couple of miles off Interstate 10. The cost is just $12 a night for 50 amp electric, water, and a dump station, with parking on concrete pads. If you have a Golden Age or Golden Access pass, which is now called the National Access pass, the cost is only $6/night. So we will shoot for that instead. Here’s hoping for a good travel day!    

Bad Nick wanted you to have something to do while we’re traveling, so he wrote another Bad Nick Blog post titled Cheaper To Keep Her. Check it out and leave a comment. 

Thought For The Day – Drive like your life depends on it, because it does!

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After too many days inside, I get cabin fever. So yesterday afternoon I took a break from working on the new issue of the Gypsy Journal to make a quick run to the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Fairhope.

While Miss Terry picked up some groceries and other items she needed, I browsed the book selection and picked up a couple of paperbacks that caught my interest. From Wal-Mart, we made a stop at Big Lots, and I waited in the van while Terry ran inside. We were only gone an hour or so, but the break really helped me feel rejuvenated.

Back at Rainbow Plantation, I knocked out several more pages of the new issue, and about 5 p.m. we went to Darryl and Judy Patterson’s nice Cedar Creek fifth wheel for dinner. They have been inviting us ever since we got here before our trip north to Indiana, and since they are leaving in a couple of days, it was now or never.

Norm and Linda Payne also joined us for dinner, and we had a couple of hours of good food and good conversation before it was time to say goodbye and get back to work. I love talking to other experienced RVers, and I always learn about new places to go and new things to see and do from them. It was nice to have the time to visit with both couples, and we really appreciate the great dinner. Miss Terry took over some of her great peanut butter cookies, and they were a hit with everybody.

The rain seems to have moved on past us, and hopefully things will start drying out around here. We are parked next to a tree, and when it rains hard, the leaves seem to get weighed down with the water and rub the top of our motorhome. It’s not enough to do any damage, the noise is just irritating. I want to move the coach a couple of feet to get away from them, but the ground is so darned soft that I’m afraid we’ll get stuck if I try.

We got a Wii for Christmas last year, and enjoyed it quite a bit, but we got busy and it got put aside somewhere and we have not used it in quite a while. Miss Terry mentioned several times that she missed it, so when we got back to the Winnebago I hooked it up and we played four games of bowling. It was a pretty close match – I won two games over Terry’s one, and we were tied on the fourth game. But she had more cumulative points overall, because she trounced me so badly in the game she won. We need to use the Wii more often, it’s a lot of fun, and it gives us a little exercise in the process.

Today and tomorrow will be more of the same, finishing up the new issue. I only have a few more pages to go, so I should be able to send it to the printer on Monday morning. The supervisor is a good guy whom we have worked with before, and he knows about our unexpected delay and said he’ll expedite the job, so hopefully we’ll get them back and in the mail within a few days after they get it.

While I was out goofing off, Bad Nick took over the keyboard and posted a new Bad Nick Blog titled The Rules Have Changed. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Do not light a fire you cannot yourself put out.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

We have a lot of friends here in Alabama that we wanted to touch base with, and yesterday we got to spend time with several of them, both here at the Escapees Rainbow Plantation and at a couple of other nearby RV parks.

I met Tom Wiegman at an Escapade RV rally in Van Wert, Ohio several years ago, when he and his wife Karen were researching the fulltime RV lifestyle. Tom had some concerns that we talked about, and I assured him that if they really wanted to become fulltimers, they could make it happen. These days they are living their dream, workamping at a neat little RV park called Wales West, in Silverheel, Alabama.

Yesterday we dropped in for a visit, and while we missed Karen, Tom was there helping decorate for Christmas. Here is a picture of the two of us, note Tom’s headgear. Tom gave us a tour of Wales West, which is a neat place. The campground has its own railroad, with over a mile of tracks, and is popular with children from all around the region.

The campground’s owners love railroads and they love the country of Wales. The buildings at the campground are all modeled after buildings in a town they visited in Wales, and railroad enthusiasts love coming here to ride the train. If you’re looking for a quiet, off the beaten track campground with friendly people and great amenities, check out the Wales West website.

Our next stop was at Coastal Haven RV Park in Fairhope, where our friends Paul and Sally Wagner are spending the winter. Paul and Sally are regulars at Elkhart Campground, where we spend a lot of time, and two of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. We timed our visit just right, because another dear friend from Elkhart Campground, Myrl Gautsche, was spending a few days there, so we got to see him too. Here are Sally, Myrl, and Paul enjoying the sunshine.

Back at Rainbow Plantation, Terry happened to look out our window and spotted Di Irrgang walking by. Di and her husband Dutch have been vendors at our Arizona Gypsy Gathering rallies, and we did not realize that they are parked just two spaces down from us!

Norm and Linda Payne have a home here at Rainbow Plantation, and they had invited a few people over for snacks and a visit, so about 4:30 we walked over to their place and had a wonderful evening visiting with Norm and Linda, Darrell and Judy Patterson, and Howard and Linda Payne, from RVDreams.com. In this photo, from left to right, you can see me, Judy Patterson, Linda Payne (of RVDreams.com) Howard Payne, our hosts Linda and Norm Payne, and Darrell Patterson. Miss Terry was behind the camera, so she isn’t included in our party picture.

It was fun to sit around and tell war stories from our lives on the road, compare notes on places we have visited and people we have met, and share some of the goofy mistakes we all make from time to time. Darrell told us about how he did $1,000 worth of damage to his truck and almost as much to his fifth wheel when he tried to use cement blocks to stabilize it.

I admitted that in our first month on the road, as we were leaving a campground I commented to Miss Terry about how friendly everybody was, because they were all pointing and waving their arms at us as we drove by. It wasn’t until I got to the exit and glanced into my side view mirrors did I realize that all of our window awnings were still out. By then there was no way I was going to stop and have all of those people staring at me as I got out and put the awnings up, so I just kept on going, while poor Miss Terry had to open the windows, reach outside and remove the awning catch straps from their hooks, and let the awnings roll up! It took me a long time to live that one down!

Bad Nick isn’t quite the social butterfly that I am, so while I was out visiting folks, he was home writing a new Bad Nick Blog post titled Media Whores. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize that you’re wrong.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally