There is an ongoing thread on the Escapees Forum about the fact that Flying J truck stops are now charging RVers $5 to dump their holding tanks. Some of the people who have commented about Flying J’s new policy, as well as some who have written to me about it, are really ticked off, calling it corporate greed and vowing to buy their fuel elsewhere from now on. One fulltime RVer who e-mailed me said “I have bought fuel at Flying J for 8 years, used their dump stations, and spent the night many times. But I’ll go out of my way to avoid them from now on!”

Well, I don’t blame you, brother. The nerve of those guys! After years of giving you free camping and free dumping, now that the economy has changed and businesses are scrambling to cover their costs, let alone make a profit, you deserve to be able to continue to freeload. How dare they start charging you for the same things that commercial campgrounds have been charging for ever since they first opened!

I remember a similar thread last year before the Escapade rally in Sedalia, Missouri, when folks were complaining that barriers in the parking lot of the Sedalia Wal-Mart prevented RVers from entering to dry camp overnight, and there were comments about boycotting the store. 

Where is it written that a business has to give its customers anything for free! Good service, yes; a fair price, absolutely; but free camping and the free use of an RV dump station? I guess I missed that memo.

I served many years on my town’s Planning and Zoning Commission, and I remember codes requiring businesses to jump through a lot of hoops if they wanted to set up shop in our community. But I can’t ever remember demanding that a business give something away to customers.

For the most part, RVers are pretty special people, and I’m proud to count myself among their numbers. But every barrel has a few bad apples,including ours.

My friend Bill Joyce sent me a link to a blog post yesterday about Wild Horse Casino near Chandler, Arizona. It seems that in the past, RVers had abused the casino’s hospitality by setting up housekeeping for weeks, even months on end. That has changed, and now casino security is clamping down on the RV slobs who take unfair advantage of the casino’s free RV parking. I’m sure that there are some who feel this is unfair too. Probably the same jerks who caused the problem in the first place.

I just don’t get this idea that somebody owes us anything and we deserve to get it. I appreciate it when a business gives me a break, whether it be free camping, free dumping, or a discount on a purchase. But I don’t expect it, and I don’t demand it. And if a business has been generous in the past, but things change and they have to start charging me for a service that was free in the past, I certainly don’t feel offended, I don’t boycott them, and I don’t whine and complain. I appreciate the courtesies of the past, pay up and figure I’m still ahead because of prior savings,and continue to support them. It just seems like the right thing to do.

Bad Nick has been busy, by the way, posting a new Bad Nick Blog titled Our Tax Dollars At Work. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – I want to know – therefore I go.

We spent part of yesterday visiting with Smokey and Pam Ridgely at Mark Twain Landing, which has an RV park and a huge water park. Smokey and Pam are workamping there this summer, and we wanted to see them before we left the area.

Bob and Molly Pinner had moved to Mark Twain Landing from the Corps of Engineers campground, and we ran into them at the RV park’s restaurant, where we joined them for lunch.

Paul, the restaurant’s cook, really knows how to turn out some great food, and our waitress, Tracy Grove, was an absolute delight. She is pretty, funny, and kept us laughing during our meal.

After lunch, Smokey gave us a behind the scenes tour of the water park. It has several pools, including a 500,000 gallon wave pool that uses huge fans to create waves that would be great for body surfing. There are also water slides, a “river” for floating on tubes, and wading pools for the little ones. Not to mention a lot of very pretty young ladies in bikinis. I’m not sure how much they are paying Smokey to hang out at the pool all day, but I suspect he’d actually pay the park instead, based upon some of the “scenery” around the pool.

Driving back to our campground, I realized that I had I goofed. When we arrived at Ray Behrens Corps of Engineers Campground we paid for a week, and for some reason I had it in my mind that we were due to leave today. It was not until I happened to glance at the tag hanging on the rear view mirror of our van that I realized that we were actually supposed to leave on Friday! Oops! A classic example of cranial-rectal inversion on my part.

Checkout time is 4 p.m., and it was about 3 p.m. when I realized my mistake, so we stopped at the ranger station and asked if we could pay for an extra night. The volunteer on duty said no problem, we were in a non-reservable site, so nobody was waiting for us to leave so they could come in.

Later in the afternoon we drove to the campground at Mark Twain Lake to visit with Ron and Brenda Speidel, who are camp hosting there for the month of June. They had a steady stream of campers coming in to register, and others stopping by to buy firewood.

Ron and Brenda enjoy volunteering at state parks, and it’s a pretty good gig. The work is easy, the hours are flexible, and they get a full hookup site in exchange for their work. So they get a month’s free camping in exchange for a few hours of light work every week registering campers. They don’t clean the restrooms or mow any grass, just check campers in, sell firewood, and answer questions. They said the park is busy on the weekends, but Monday through Thursday, they pretty much have the place to themselves.

With budgets cuts everywhere, state parks, Corps of Engineers campgrounds, and other facilities nationwide are always in need of help. If you are interested in learning more about volunteering, Ron and Brenda will be presenting an excellent seminar on it at our Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally in Celina, Ohio September 28 – October 2. Make your plans to attend.

Thought For The Day – Having a child fall asleep in your arms is one of the most peaceful feelings in the world.

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally

Yesterday started out as a frustrating day.

In Sunday’s blog I wrote that when we bought fuel at the Paso Junction Sinclair truck stop in Pratt, Kansas they triple charged my debit card for over $472 in false charges. I called my bank and they reversed the charges, but Monday night they were back and the money was out of my account. After repeated calls to the bank and the truck stop, which acknowledges that the problem is on their end, now they tell me it could be up to 35 days before it is resolved!

I wanted to get an early start on the road yesterday morning, but instead had to run around finding a place to send out faxes of my receipts and the false charges on my account to both the truck stop’s manager and to my bank.

$21 in fax charges later, we finally got out of town only to get held up in a massive traffic jam caused by an accident just before the junction of Interstate 470 and Interstate 70. Why are drivers so dumb?  We were sitting still as emergency vehicles tried to squeeze past to get to the accident scene, and the cars would not move over to let them pass. Finally we got past the accident scene and got onto Interstate 70 for the short drive to the fairgrounds in Higginsville. We were greeted by George and Starr Sharrer, who have been parked here for a week in their fifth wheel. Soon afterward, Jim and Chris Guld from Geeks on Tour pulled in.

This is typical of the many fairgrounds around the country that RVers can take advantage of for low cost parking. For $10 a night we are getting 30 amp electric, water, and a dump station. What a deal! Here is a picture of the Geek’s motorhome at the fairgrounds, and another of our bus. If you have not checked out the many low cost camping opportunities in this country, order our Special 7 in 1 CD, which includes over 1,000 free campgrounds, fairgrounds with RV parking, casinos that welcome RVers with free camping, public RV dump stations, RV Good Guys, and more. It will save you a bundle.

Once Jim and Chris were parked, it was time to eat. We had dinner at Zybisco’s Bar and Grill, where it was Taco Tuesday, with three for $1.50. Terry said they were great. I had a huge one pound double bacon cheeseburger that even I could not finish! Terry pointed out the weight to me on the menu, but I was busy talking and didn’t hear her. Big mistake! It was yummy, but way too much for one guy to eat alone.

Of course, I had to save room for dessert. We walked a couple of blocks down Higginsville’s Main Street to Sweetz, where owner Jeni Bayens fixed us up with ice cream and other goodies. Before seeing the error of her ways, Jeni was a nutritionist. Now she’s hustling ice cream and chocolate covered strawberries. Personally, I think it was a great career choice.

Jeni’s 10 year old son Casey was a cool kid that I enjoyed visiting with. I didn’t know I could have loaner kids all over the country like I do loaner dogs. Why didn’t anybody ever tell me that? I could have saved a ton of money on child support!

Casey may look shy with his eyes downcast, but he’s just keeping his eye on the showcase full of goodies like chocolates covered strawberries, chocolates covered licorice, and even chocolates covered jalapenos (jalapenos?) to make sure I didn’t sneak one out!

Thought For The Day – Life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally