Yesterday morning Terry’s parents, Pete and Bess Weber, stopped by to visit on their way home from church. Pete had only seen our Winnebago once, a few evenings earlier, but it was after dark, and he couldn’t see much of the outside. So he spent some time walking around checking it out before coming inside, and I think he was impressed.

A few minutes after Pete and Bess arrived, Terry’s sister Lisa also stopped in to say hello. I really like Lisa and always enjoy visiting with her. She’s a lot of fun, has a good sense of humor, and is drop dead gorgeous too! What a combination!

As I wrote in Sunday’s blog, we got an engine bay fire suppression unit and refrigerator compartment fire extinguisher from Mac McCoy at Fire and Life Safety a while back, but we have not had the time and good weather to install them. Yesterday both came together, and we decided to get the job done, so once our visitors left, we got busy.

The refrigerator compartment fire extinguisher can be mounted either vertically or horizontally. The compartment is accessed from a cover on the outside of the motorhome, and it took a couple of attempts at placing it before Terry decided to mount the extinguisher standing upright at the rear of the compartment. Not sure about drilling holes into the side of the compartment, because we didn’t know what was on the other side of the wall, Terry instead took Mac’s advice and mounted the extinguisher with industrial strength Velcro.

The engine bay fire suppression unit mounted to the bulkhead on the top of the engine bay. This bulkhead is accessed from the floor of our bedroom closet, and once the removable floor panel is out, was held in place by four bolts. We drilled four holes for the mounting brackets, bolted the unit in place, and put everything back together. Again, we had to call Mac to be sure we were mounting the unit in the correct location.

Overall, just figuring out exactly how to mount the extinguishers, and unloading the closet to get to the floor and the bulkhead below, took longer than actually installing them. Both of the units are automatic, and are activated when the temperature inside the compartments reaches a certain level, so there was no wiring to connect.

We have seen a lot of pictures of RVs burning, and they really go up fast. We’ll travel and sleep a little easier now that we have these new safety devices installed.

With nasty weather predicted for this week, we will probably just take it easy, do a lot of reading and cruising the internet, and I’ll get some writing done. For the last month or so, we have had very spotty service on our Verizon air card, and the last few days it has really been frustrating.

From reading a couple of internet forums, it seems like a lot of RVers are experiencing slow service and dropped signals in different areas of the country. There have been several suggestions on how to remedy this, and I have tried them all, from updating the air card firmware to setting it to Broadband only so it won’t automatically switch to the slower National Access when both signals are available. Nothing has really worked. I suspect that as more and more people are getting cell phones and air cards, the situation will only get worse. Hopefully the techno geeks will come up with something to help get service back up to the reliability levels where it used to be.

While we were busy installing the fire extinguishers, Bad Nick was busy posting a new Bad Nick Blog titled My Mother, The Pedophile. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Being ‘over the hill’ is much better than being under it!

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

Sunday evening the wind began to blow here in Celina, Ohio, and it got stronger by the hour all night long. I don’t think many people here at our Gypsy Gathering rally got much sleep, with our rigs rocking in the gusts.

Daylight brought no reprieve; the cold wind blew hard all day long, with gusts reported as high as 60 miles per hour in some areas. A couple headed in for the rally called to say that there were high profile vehicle warnings on Interstate 75 and the highway patrol was telling people to get off the road. They wisely decided to pull into a truck stop and wait it out, hoping to get in today.

Even with the wind, we still had 20 more RVs arrive yesterday for the rally, and our dauntless parking crew braved the gale to get them parked safely. I’m glad these guys are volunteers, because we sure could not afford to pay them what any sane man would want for doing their jobs!  

On the first day at all of our rallies, after we welcome everybody and introduce the vendors and seminar presenters, I moderate an RV Quick Tips discussion, where the audience can ask questions of a panel of RV experts. For this rally, the panel included Dennis Hill from the RV Driving School, RV authors and speakers Joe and Vicki Kieva, Mac McCoy from Fire and Life Safety, RV seminar speaker Ron Speidel, fifth wheel hitch expert Pete Peterson, and Kevin Mallory from Cruising America RV Service Company.

One question was whether Life on Wheels would ever be revived, and I explained that the Recreational Vehicle Safety Education Foundation (RVSEF) had hoped to hold a similar program this year, but due to lack of industry support and student registration, they had to cancel the event. I was very flattered when Mac McCoy then said that as far as he and a lot of other people are concerned, our Gypsy Gathering rallies are the new Life on Wheels. When Joe Kieva concurred and the audience applauded, I really felt honored.

I could never hope to be compared with the late, great Gaylord Maxwell and his excellent RV education program, but we have worked very hard to make our rallies something more than the run of the mill RV get togethers. While we have vendors, entertainment, and a lot of fun at our rallies, we also strive to put together a lineup of real meat and potatoes seminars, not just fluff “buy me” presentations to sell products. Judging by the feedback we have been getting, it’s a winning combination.

With so much going on, and even as busy as she has been overseeing all of the rally details, Miss Terry still finds time to see the beauty in life that so many of us overlook. Monday she found these beautiful mushrooms growing at the base of one of the old oak trees here at the fairgrounds. Terry always amazes me; we can be cruising down the highway keeping up with traffic, or meandering along some two lane road, and she is always spotting hawks sitting on fence posts, or deer and antelope grazing in meadows. What an eye!

Thought For The Day – Unnecessary possessions are unnecessary burdens.

My gosh, I think we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel in our move from our bus conversion to our new to us Winnebago Ultimate Advantage motorhome!

In spite of all of the rain we have had this past week, Miss Terry has been hard at work emptying closets, drawers, and everywhere else we had stuff stashed away in the bus. Yesterday I managed to empty out the cavernous bays on the bus, sort through everything, and move what we are going to keep into the bays of the Winnebago. As I have said before, the great thing about a bus conversion is that you can carry a ton of stuff, and the bad thing about a bus conversion is that you usually do end up carrying a ton of stuff!

A lot of stuff did not make it into the bays of the motorhome, and Bobby Patel, owner of Elkhart Campground, is the proud new owner of some tools, a lot of hardware, and other things he can use around the RV park. Bobby and his wife Gita have always treated Terry and me like family, and we were happy to bequeath it all to him.

My friend Mac McCoy from Fire and Life Safety called the other day to see if we had buyer’s remorse yet. He said when he first bought his American Tradition motorhome, he went through a period of near panic, wondering “What did I do?” This is common after any major life event, from getting married to making a large purchase. Mac said all of those misgivings disappeared when he was about forty miles into his first trip in the motorhome.

We have not taken any trips in the Winnebago yet, but we have been living in it for several days now, and it is starting to feel more and more like home to us. So far we are very happy with it, except for a couple of little things.

The shower doesn’t have as much pressure as we had in the bus, even here on the same site where we always park the bus. My buddy Ron Speidel did some adjusting, and hopefully that will help. We may just need to replace the shower head, and we have been looking at the Oxygenics models, which we have heard good reports about. I am also finding that the shower is a bit more cramped than in the bus, where we had an apartment sized tub and shower.

The motorhome has an open bath/bedroom arrangement, with a separate water closet, so the bedroom area feels very large to us, which we enjoy. And with the two slides, as well as the fact that the Winnebago is six inches wider than the bus, we really notice the extra space. In the bus, when I was sitting at my computer (and it seems like I am always sitting at my computer), Terry had to squeeze between my desk chair and the couch to get past me. In the new rig, there is plenty of room to walk around, even when I am working at the computer.

Miss Terry loves to cook, and we seriously considered moving her stainless steel Avanti range into the Winnebago, but it would require some major renovations to the kitchen area, so she is going to try to adjust to a simple cooktop and a convection oven. The jury is still out on that one.

Terry also has a learning curve to adjust to the Splendide washer/dryer combo in the Winnebago, after her separate washer and dryer in the bus.

We are looking forward to getting back on the road soon so we can experience traveling in the new rig. I’m especially looking forward to tackling some of those mountains in the west, which were so problematic in the bus. There are a few creature comforts we’ll enjoy when traveling that we didn’t have in the bus, such as cruise control, that will be fun to have.   

On another note, Bad Nick tells me he has a new post on the Bad Nick Blog for those of you who have been waiting. Check it out.

Thought For The Day – We have confused the free with the free and easy.

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally

I’m sure glad we moved into the Indoor Vendor area, because it was still raining when we went to bed last night! At least we are parked on the road. Almost everybody else here at Escapade is parked on grass, or what was grass before spinning tires churned it into mud. The local tow trucks are making a fortune pulling people out.

Of course, part of the problem is that people tend to panic when it gets wet. If they would just sit tight until things dry out (and the weatherman promises they will be drier by Friday when the rally ends), everybody would be better off. But people want to move early to avoid getting stuck, and in the process they create a giant mud hole and then everybody gets stuck!

The big majority of the people here are fulltimers, so it’s not like most of them have to rush off someplace. The rally ends on Friday. They could stay here in beautiful Sedalia and enjoy the town for a day or two and leave after the weekend and have no problems getting out.

Sedalia has a lot to offer, and we love the charming old downtown section, which looks like a time capsule from 50 years ago. If it were not for the modern automobiles parked on the streets, it would be easy to imagine that you had been transported back in time to a typical small town America Main Street.

I often mention the many vendors who help make up our extended family of RV gypsies, so I thought for this blog I would include a few pictures to put faces with the names.

This first couple needs no introduction to most RVers. While they are not vendors, they are icons in the fulltime RV world, Kay and Joe Peterson, founders of the Escapees RV Club.

And here is my good buddy Mac McCoy, from Fire and Life Safety, and a familiar name to blog readers. Mac and I go way back, and he’s been a good friend for many years.

This pretty lady is Carol Hill, co-owner of the RV Driving School, along with her husband Dennis. Carol loves dancing, and gives line dancing lessons at many RV events.

Next up is another familiar name to blog readers, my dear friend Chris Guld from Geeks on Tour, talking with Jim Beletti, head honcho of the Heartland Owners RV Club.

John and Lexa Comstock own Big Rig RV Accessories, and sell all kinds of top quality products to keep your RV looking good as new, when Lexa is not busy doing acrobatics and back flips from lawn chairs.

We just met Joe and Susan Briggs from Uniquely RV, vendors for neat portable solar lampposts for your favorite campsite.

Ken and Marilyn Murphy from Coil N Wrap have been vending at RV rallies for a long time and have a loyal following of customers.

Patsy Collins was holding down the SMI Braking Systems booth while husband Reggie was off gallivanting somewhere.

While not vendors, we have known and loved Sami and Earl Aeverman for years. They were so generous as to offer us the use of their lot in Aransas Pass, Texas for the five weeks we were there this past winter.

And last in the photo show, but always first in my heart is my own dear Miss Terry, pictured visiting with another longtime friend, Oz Oszman in our booth.

Thought For The Day – I just got lost in thought. It was unfamiliar territory.

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally

We picked up the new issue of the Gypsy Journal Wednesday, and Miss Terry has been busy stuffing envelopes to get everything ready to go in the mail.

We’re excited because this is our 10^th Anniversary Issue. Where did the time go? And we’re just getting started, there is still so much we want to see and do. We won’t be hanging up the keys anytime soon.

One thing we do hope to do soon, though, is to replace our bus with a different rig. The bus has been a great home on wheels for us for eight years, but we’re to the point where we’d like something a bit newer, and with a slide or two. As our granddaughters get older, it’s getting pretty cramped in here when they come to visit us.

The bus would make a great coach for someone who doesn’t put on the miles we do every year, or who spends most of their time east of the Rocky Mountains. In fairly flat country it runs fine, but out here in the mountains, it slows way down on some of the steep grades. If you’re interested in a nice older bus, check out the ad link for it under this Bus For Sale link.

We’ve looked at several replacement coaches, and we have a couple of options we’re considering. One coach we have not actually seen yet is an American Dream diesel pusher. I really don’t like anything to do with Fleetwood products, but my pal Mac McCoy from Fire and Life Safety has an American Tradition, and he tells me that the American Coach line is a completely different animal than other Fleetwood models. Who else out here has an American Coach? I’d like to hear your feedback.

Whatever coach we eventually end up with, we know that we’ll have to do some customizing to accommodate operating our business on the road. One place we’ll be checking out is a company in Decatur, Indiana called From Trees to These, which makes custom cabinetry and desk units for RVs. Mac McCoy has had them do some upgrades to his coach, and I’m really impressed with the quality of their work.

Something that comes up frequently when talking to wannabe fulltimers is what to do with everything they can’t take with them. Someone on the Escapees forum was commenting that he can’t get nearly what he paid for some of this stuff, and is wondering how best to sell it.

When we were selling our stuff off years ago to go fulltime, we took the position that yes, we paid $400 for something, and all we can get for it is $150. But we had the fun of using it, and that counts for something. Whatever else we lost was the price of buying our freedom to hit the road.

I talked to Walter Cannon from the Recreational Vehicle Safety Education Foundation (RVSEF), and he says things are coming together very well for their new  RV Lifestyle, Education, & Safety Clinic, which is scheduled for September 13-16 in Harrisburg Pennsylvania. If you regret never making it to a Life on Wheels conference, make your plans now to be in Harrisburg for this new educational opportunity

Thought For The Day – Any connection between your reality and mine is purely coincidental.

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally