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.

Do you have any idea how early in the morning 7 o’clock comes around? Who the heck came up with that idea?

We’re night owls. I usually don’t start any serious writing until about 9 p.m. and usually get to bed between 1 and 2 a.m. But here at the FMCA rally we have to be in our vendor booth by 8 a.m., which has my body’s internal time clock all messed up. And since I still have to post my blog at midnight local time, by the time I get that done, shower, and get to bed, it makes for a short night’s sleep.

Sales the first day at the rally were mediocre, although that is not uncommon at a rally. Unfortunately we did have something happen that was a first for us, someone came by and shoplifted one of our books right from under our noses while we were talking to other customers. One minute it was there and the next it was gone. It’s not going to change our lifestyle or put us in the poorhouse, but it was darned aggravating. In ten years of fulltime RVing and vending at RV rallies, we have never had a theft before.

I know I’ve said it before, but some of the folks at FMCA events are total snobs. There is a certain elitist attitude that too many of them have that really rubs me the wrong way. One clown came by and wanted to tell us all of the things we are doing wrong and why he would never read a “cheap” publication that wasn’t printed on slick paper with full color photographs. He wouldn’t take a sample copy, didn’t want to buy anything, he just wanted expound on his vast knowledge, while interrupting us as we tried to talk to other customers. A lot of others won’t even say hello or acknowledge you as they pass by. They could sure take a lesson or two from the Escapees when it comes to attitude. I had to jerk hard on Bad Nick’s leash and threaten to put him back in his cage a time or two.

I keep telling Miss Terry that I’m going to start a brand new blog called the Bad Nick Blog where he can climb up on his soapbox and spout off about whatever moves him. What do you think? Should I let him have access to a keyboard?

Several former students of ours from Life on Wheels (LOW) stopped by to say hello, and to tell us how much the things they learned at LOW have made their RVing easier. It’s sad that LOW is gone, but the opportunity to learn is still available at the new RVSEF educational clinic in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania September 13-16. Click the link above to learn more about this great new program. We’ll be teaching there, and I hope we see you there too.

Thought For The Day – Have you ever noticed that the people who tell you to calm down are usually the ones that got you mad in the first place?

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally

We were out of bed earlier than usual yesterday morning and hit the ground running, and didn’t slow down until well past midnight. Sometimes there just are not enough hours in the day.

We’re leaving Elkhart Campground today and driving 150 miles to Muskegon, Michigan for a week to spend some time visiting with my cousin Berni and her husband Rocky. We had several last minute things to get done before we left, not the least of them being laundry.

Elkhart Campground has full hookup pull through 50 amp sites, but the site we prefer has just 50 amp electric and water. That’s not a problem, because we have a large waste holding tank, so we only have to hit the dump station every couple of weeks. But Terry can’t do laundry with our onboard washer and dryer,so I dropped her off at the campground laundry, then ran to the post office to mail out some orders.

Back at the campground, I stopped to check in on Terry, and she was just putting the clothes in the dryer. While she was finishing up the laundry, I checked our propane tanks, and one was empty, so I drove up to the office to have it filled. When we built the bus conversion, we opted for a pair of portable propane tanks instead of a stationary onboard tank, because it makes it easier to refill. Instead of having to drive the bus to a propane station, I just take one of the tanks, as needed.

By then Terry was finished, so we ran to Wal-Mart to pick up some items. A few minutes after we got home, Jack and Paula Conrad, from Arcadia, Florida stopped over to visit. Jack and Paula have a very nice MCI bus conversion, and every year they host a large New Years bus rally in Arcadia.

We had a nice visit, and by the time they left, it was time to unload some of the bundles of papers in the van so we could load our kayaks and bicycles back in, and then reload the papers around them. While we were doing that, longtime Gypsy Journal subscribers Pete and Patty Gioia stopped by to say hello. Pete and Patty are a neat couple that Terry and I both enjoyed meeting, and we look forward to seeing them again in our travels.

With the van finished, there was still laundry to put away, a bed to be made, and blogs to write before we could begin to think about getting to bed.

We have a lot planned in the next few weeks. We’ll spend a week in Muskegon, and then we will return here for a couple of days, and head over to Bowling Green, Ohio to be vendors at the big FMCA rally July 20-23. As soon as the rally is over we’ll be on our way to Traverse City, Michigan for Terry’s annual oncologist checkup. 

August 3-7 will find us vending at the Newmar Kountry Klub Rally in Goshen, Indiana, if the nice lady in charge of the vendors ever sends me the necessary paperwork. I’ve talked to her twice now and each time she was going to e-mail it to me immediately, but I’m still waiting. We’ll have a week or two to catch our breath, and then August 24 – 28 we’ll be back in Goshen to vend at the Carriage Travel Club Grand National Rally.

With those events behind us, we’ll be in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania September 13 to 16 for the RV Lifestyle, Education & Safety Clinic held by the Recreational Vehicle Safety Education Foundation (RVSEF).

When we lost Gaylord Maxwell last year, Life on Wheels ended, which left a big hole in the education options for RVers. I was delighted when Walter Cannon, the head honcho at RVSEF, called to tell me that he was going to hold the new event, and asked me to present some seminars. If you have been lamenting the fact that you never got to attend a Life on Wheels conference, now is your chance. Several of my fellow Life on Wheels instructors will be participating in the RVSEF program. I hope we see you there.

As soon as we’re finished with the RVSEF educational clinic, we’ll be burning up the highway back to Celina, Ohio for our own Gypsy Gathering rally September 28 to October 2. This will be our second Eastern rally, and it’s going to be a lot of fun.

I have posted a tentative schedule on the rally page on our website, just scroll down to the bottom of that page and check it out. This is NOT the final schedule, we’ll be adding several other seminars and doing some fine tuning before the rally date, but it will give you an idea of some of the offerings we have in store for you.

After that is all over, and after some appointments at the V.A. hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, we will be more than ready for some downtime.

We plan to head to Florida for a while, and I’m hoping that if I whine and snivel hard enough and long enough about needing a vacation, our pals Tom Owen and Diane Rojewski will invite us back to their houseboat in Key West for a week or three. By then, I’ll be ready for a tropical getaway.

Thought For The Day – I finally got my head together, now my body is falling apart.

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

At least the weather cleared up here in Albuquerque, and though it wasn’t exactly warm yesterday, it wasn’t snowing either.

We had a busy day helping out in the RV Hall of Fame Museum booth, and managed to pass out a lot of copies of the Gypsy Journal, and to make a sale or two along the way. I think most vendors had a better day yesterday, mainly because the weather was better and more folks were out, and also because after the fiasco Friday with the bus schedules, a lot of people drove their cars to the fairgrounds.

The folks in charge of the rally also brought more buses in yesterday, and we didn’t see the long lines of people waiting for their ride back to the Balloon Fiesta Park.

Some local people who have vintage cars and travel trailers brought them by the fairgrounds to put them on display yesterday, and they drew an admiring crowd. What neat old rigs!

For Terry and I, the opportunity to see so many of our RVing friends makes any rally a special event. I can’t keep track of everybody who came by to visit with us, but there sure were a bunch of folks.

Dick and Gaye La Vigne, who were at our Arizona Gypsy Gathering rally are helping out in a friend’s vendor booth, and have stopped by several times, as have Bob and Clara Lee. Now I have to tell you, Bob is a real character. He’s older than dirt, and his jokes were worn out the first time he heard them on the school playground, but he’s such a nice fellow and Clara is such a sweetheart, that we look forward to seeing them over and over again.

Another good friend who stopped by is Michael Chang, whom we first met when he was a student at several Life on Wheels sessions, and who also joined us for our Ohio Gypsy Gathering rally last September.

We also got to visit with Jeff and Barb Franz. I owe Jeff a big thank you, because while we were at Life on Wheels in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania last year, I started seeing an alarming number of floaters in my left eye. When I reported it in the blog, Jeff, who is an optician, immediately contacted me and urged me to get immediate medical care because he said it was very possibly a torn retina. Based upon his warning, we got it taken care of that very morning, before things got out of hand. 

There were a lot of other people who have taken the time to stop by, and I’m sorry that I can’t remember everybody’s name, but even if I could, I don’t think we’d have room here for a roll call. But we sure enjoyed seeing all of you.

I don’t want to be a complete jerk, but I have to address something here. I upset a few readers when I did not post their replies to my blog about the wacko who felt it was his duty to tell me the current administration is rounding up Vietnam vets for transport to a concentration camp.

The point of that post was to demonstrate how far out in left (or right) field people can get. As I closed that post, I asked people not to start sending me all of their political viewpoints, and joked that I have a delete button. This is supposed to be an RV blog, and overall I try to stay focused on the RV lifestyle, though I may exercise my editorial privilege and wander off track a bit now and then.

Still, some readers sent comments that were getting into the realm of a political debate, and I did not post them. In response, one writer accused me of censorship. Yeah, I guess you can call it that, if you want. It’s my blog, and I reserve the right to moderate the posts and comments.

Another reader demanded I allow him his freedom of the press. No way would I step on that basic American right. But you have to understand something. Freedom of the press is not guaranteed to everybody. Freedom of the press is guaranteed to anyone who owns a press. No newspaper has an obligation to print a reader’s letter or comment that they choose not to. Nor does a blog.

I certainly encourage anyone who wants to express their political (or any other) viewpoints to start their own newspaper, or their own blog. Just log onto www.wordpress.com and have at it. It’s even free, and if you send me a link, I’ll read it at least once.

Thought For The Day – We need each other more than we need stuff.

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally