I can only spend so many days in a row stuck at my desk, and then I have to escape for at least a little while. I reached that point yesterday, so I took a break from working on the new issue of the Gypsy Journal, and Greg White and I drove out to Shipshewana to check out the goodies at the gun show.

I think we may have cause to be concerned, when we see the Amish stocking up on guns and ammo! At the Shipshewana gun show last year, I saw several Amish men looking over the hunting rifles and shotguns, but yesterday the exhibit hall was full of them. And I swear, one was buying a 9mm handgun!

Sometimes I forget that not everybody gets my sense of humor. While Greg was looking at something else, I found a nice toy on a display table, and was talking to the man who had it for sale, when Greg walked up. Being the typical wise guy that I am, I said to the fellow at the table, “Well, before I can buy anything, I have to ask my wife here if it’s okay.” The guy looked at his friend, back at me, and suddenly he wasn’t nearly as friendly as he had been just a few minutes earlier. “You’re not those kind of people, are you?” he asked.

Miss Terry and Greg’s wife, Jan, were off having a girl day, and when we left the gun show, we met them for a late lunch/early dinner at El Maguey, one of our favorite Mexican restaurants. Terry, Jan, and I had the shrimp enchiladas, and they were delicious. Greg had a chicken plate, and was just as pleased with his choice.

Back at Elkhart Campground, longtime Gypsy Journal subscriber George Bartley stopped by to say hello, and drop off his two year renewal check. Soon afterward, somebody else came by who is staying at the campground all month, and wanted to register to attend our Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally.

Terry and Jan dropped off some stuff at the motorhome from their trip to the farmers’ market, then took off again for a WalMart run, Greg went off to do whatever it is he does, and I started back in on the paper. That didn’t last long, because somebody else stopped by to chat, and about the time I excused myself and said I really needed to get back to work, a series of telephone calls started coming in. I was finishing up the last of them when Terry and Jan got back home.

I worked the rest of the afternoon, and past midnight local time, except for a break to go to Dairy Queen with Terry, Greg, and Jan about 7 p.m. After our late lunch, nobody was very hungry, but there’s always room for dessert!

If I get an early start, and really, really work hard, I can get most of the new issue done today, making up for the time I spent goofing off yesterday. But it was worth it, I needed the break.

Thought For The Day – One of the many things no one tells you about aging is that it is such a nice change from being young.

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With all of the fun things we did while were in Muskegon, Michigan this last week, I never had the time to report on a visit from Gypsy Journal subscribers Paul and Dennise Ziaja, from Weslaco, Texas. Paul and Dennise were staying at the campground at the Elks lodge and when they read in the blog that we were at Fisherman’s Landing, they came over to say hello. We had a very nice visit, and Dennise told Terry about all of the good produce for sale at the Farmer’s Market, which we checked out the next day. It was great to have the time to chat for a while before they had to go run some errands.

I have been busy working on the seminar schedule for our Ohio Gypsy Gathering rally, and it is a tough balancing act to get everything to fit. We have a great lineup of seminars, and I have a few new ones to tell you about. The Geeks on Tour, Chris and Jim Guld’s seminars are always popular, and they have offered to present a couple of extra seminars at the rally.

They are going to present both beginner and advanced seminars on writing an RV blog, basic and advanced seminars on managing digital photos with Picasa, a seminar on creating digital slide shows with Photo Story 3, and a seminar on Google Earth. That’s six seminars in all, besides their excellent Computer Boot Camp before the rally starts! When will they ever sleep? When will they ever feed their yappy little French Poodle? Where does it all end? Will they be offering late night computer classes for insomniacs? Stay tuned to find out!

One topic we get asked for all of the time is a seminar on cooking in an RV. Subscriber Vera Andrews is a home economist with 14 years teaching experience, and she has presented seminars at Escapade rallies in the past. Vera will be doing two seminars for us in Celina; Cooking on the Road, and Healthy Eating – The Why and The How. I have not added these new seminars to our Rally Registration Page yet, but check it out and factor these new offerings in and I think you’ll agree that we’ll have something for everyone.

As I said, it’s a juggling act to get everything to fit into the seminar schedule, and when some of our speakers learned that Joe and Vicki Kieva will be presenting their excellent Alaska, The Ultimate RV Adventure and RV Travel and Camping Tips seminars, they begged me not to put them up against these two powerhouse speakers. Either they did not want to compete with such well known speakers, or because they wanted to see the Kievas’ seminars themselves. But I’ll figure it all out, one way or another.

Okay, enough of that and on to other things. Early Tuesday morning a nasty thunderstorm hit Muskegon and lasted for an hour or two. We were wondering what kind of weather we’d have to travel in, but by daylight it had calmed down, though the sky was still heavily overcast.

We pulled out of Fisherman’s Landing campground at 12:30 and had an easy run south, with just one little rain sprinkle that only lasted about ten minutes. Traffic was light and we arrived back at our regular site at Elkhart Campground at 3:30 p.m. They have an Avion rally going on, and there are quite a few of the silver trailers here. I hope to get over and check some of them out today.

We’ll only be here a few days before heading to Bowling Green, Ohio for the FMCA rally, if they can find a vendor booth for us. Then our next stop will be Traverse City, Michigan for Miss Terry’s annual oncologist checkup. We’re having a busy summer!

Thought For The Day – Sometimes happiness comes through doors you didn’t even know you left open. 

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