Okay, maybe I didn’t shave my legs, but I was still up before 7 a.m., and I even brushed my teeth! That has to count for something, doesn’t it?

Why was I up at such an ungodly hour, you may ask? Because we’re working a vendor booth at the Hershey RV Show this week – America’s “largest” RV show. I know it’s the largest, because it says so right there on their website. Uh huh, and I stand six feet tall, weigh 100 pounds, and have a full head of hair.  It must be true, because you read it right here on my blog, right?

Here is a picture I took about 10 a.m. yesterday morning of the aisle where our vendor booth is located. Everybody you see in this picture is a vendor, except for the person in the gray sweatshirt in the rear left side of the aisle.

Here’s another picture I took of our vendor aisle, from the opposite direction, just before 11 a.m. Hey, it’s a customer, the guy in the blue jeans in the rear! Everyone else you see is a vendor.

About 2 p.m. it started to rain, driving all of the people who were outside looking at RVs inside the building. We had a rush!

And here’s the vendor aisle just before 7 p.m. The guy on the left with the white hat on is a customer, the guy on the right, fiddling with the bike is a vendor. Do you see a pattern here?  While we did have a few (very few) little busy spurts, most of the day I could have fired a shotgun down the aisle and never hit anybody.

Last year, the Hershey Show claimed to have 37,000 attendees. Unless they all show up in one really big bus today or tomorrow, I don’t think they’ll be breaking any records soon.

Vendor hours are from 9 a.m., to 8 p.m., and if you have never stood on top of an ice rink for eleven hours, trust me, it’s an experience you don’t need to seek out. Just as they did Wednesday evening. a lot of vendors gave up and left a little after 6 p.m., and the place was almost empty. The show directors came on the public address system several times, warning vendors that they were not allowed to leave before 8 p.m. Many ignored them, because they had already left.

Miss Terry wanted to stick it out until closing time, and I grudgingly agreed, until somebody from the show came through the vendor area “taking attendance.” Apparently, if you leave early, they fine you, and if you won’t pay the fine, you can’t come back next year. Now, anybody who knows me well knows that the best way to get the Nixter to do something it to tell me I can’t do it! As soon as Terry told me about the attendance taker, I was packed up and out of there in about five minutes!

It is totally asinine to expect vendors to stand around on a cold ice rink for that many hours a day if they don’t have any customers to sell to! A longtime vendor told me that the number of vendors has dropped dramatically at this show in the last few years. Why do you think that is?

They tell us that today and Saturday will be killer days, with customers pouring in the doors, but it would really have to do a dramatic turnaround before we would ever consider coming back to this show. Lost time is lost time, and you can never get it back, no matter how well you do the next day. Never say never, but I just don’t see it happening for us.

Thought For The Day – The sooner you fall behind, the more time you’ll have to catch up.

Click Here To Register For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally!

As I wrote in yesterday’s blog, I think Pennsylvania is one of our prettiest states. And yesterday we got to see some exceptionally picturesque parts of the Keystone State.

We were in bed early Wednesday night, but as tired as I was after our 420 mile day, I just couldn’t sleep. I tossed and turned all night long, finally dropping off to sleep about 5 a.m., and waking up about 9.

We hit the road and traveled 41 miles east on Interstate 80, and then took the brand new Interstate 99 cutoff (which shows as U.S. Highway 220 on my Streets and Trips mapping program) south a few miles to pick up U.S. Highway 322 at State College.

Most of the 90 miles between State College and Harrisburg was nice divided four lane expressway, except for a 12 mile section between Tusseyviille and Milroy, which was two lane road, but was some of the most scenic of the trip. We passed small towns, pastoral scenes, and homes that must date back two hundred years or more.

This wasn’t a fast route, but it sure was a pretty drive. We climbed up several steep grades, and wound our way down the other side. Much of the route paralleled the Juniata River, and at one point, near Arch Rock, we admired the striations in the rock face where it had been cut away to make room for the highway.

I think it’s going to be an early and cold winter in this part of the country. In several places, the leaves are already starting to change.

At one point, after we topped a particularly steep grade, the speed limit for trucks on the downhill side was 20 miles per hour for about four miles. Of course, that didn’t slow down the cowboys in the big rigs, who sped downhill at 50 miles an hour or more. Where’s a cop when you need him?

Eventually we crossed to the wide Susquehanna River, which is spanned by several neat old bridges.

Then we came under this strange overpass, or bridge or whatever it is. There was no road across it, and no reason for it to be there that we could figure out.

As we got into the Harrisburg area, traffic became pretty hectic, and the drivers were pretty aggressive, pushing their way into any space where they thought they could fit. We snaked our way through it all, and eventually the highway turned into a two lane road as it passed through Hershey. About six miles east of Hershey, we turned down a narrow country lane for a couple of miles and came to the Thousand Trails campground, with 160 miles behind us for the day.

The place was pretty crowded, and all of the good RV sites were gone. Those that were left were all pretty uneven, and in the first three we tried, the only way we could get level was to raise our front tires completely off the ground. That’s not a good thing. Finally, after over two hours of trying, we got into a site where we couldn’t get completely level, but we’re close enough that we’ll live with it.

This is our second visit to this Thousand Trails preserve, and I had forgotten how many Canadian geese inhabit the campground. They are everywhere, and they are apparently very well fed, because there is goose poop in abundance. This is not a place to go barefoot!

By the time we we were finally settled in, we were famished.  We drove four miles back to Campbelltown. On our last visit to this area, several years ago, we discovered a great place called A&M Pizza, and it was just as delicious as we remembered. Yummy!

Back at the motorhome, we took a little nap, and then spent the rest of the evening watching TV, catching up on e-mail, and just relaxing. There has been far too little relaxing in our lives the last few weeks!

Bad Nick, on the other hand, has been loafing a lot lately. But he’s back with a new Bad Nick Blog titled A White Al Sharpton? Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – I used to be schizophrenic, but we’re okay now.

I’m a short round guy, but sometimes I feel stretched so thin that I just can’t cover all the bases, no matter how hard I try.

We have a lot of folks from our rally who are still here at Elkhart Campground, or else are at the fairgrounds in Goshen, waiting for the Escapees Club Escapade rally to start.

Before and during our rally, and since it has ended, we have had many offers to take us out for lunch or dinner from more people than I can count. We appreciate that, and it’s very flattering that so many people want to treat us to a meal and have some time to visit, one on one (or two on two, as it is).

But, there are only so many days in a week, and so many meals we can eat. Plus, we are worn out from the rally, and just need some down time. And we still have a ton of post-rally work to get done before we leave for the Pennsylvania RV Show in Hershey on Wednesday.

We don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings or act like we are too good for our many friends and readers, but sometimes we just have to say no. In at least a couple of cases, that has resulted in hurt feelings, which I really regret, and which really stresses me out. But what can we do?

My dad used to say never complain and never explain, because you’re friends don’t need it, and your enemies won’t believe it. I don’t have any enemies that I know of, if you don’t count ex-wives, but I sure hope our friends understand that there are times when we have other obligations, and times when we just cannot accommodate everybody.

Yesterday Miss Terry and Gita Patel from Elkhart Campground reconciled the numbers for the rally, and arrived at the amount we owe the campground. This rally has been a real shot in the arm for Bob and Gita, and we’re glad we could bring them so much business, and were able to introduce so many new people to their RV park.

I spent some time going over the schedule for the Hershey show, and it looks like I will be presenting my Highway History And Back Road Mystery seminar every day of the five day show. We’re looking forward to introducing a whole new audience to the Gypsy Journal and our books.

After we get done in Hershey, we’re not exactly sure what we’re going to do. We want to go back to Washington, D.C. again, and there are several things in Baltimore and Annapolis, Maryland I’d like to see and do stories on.

We may return to Elkhart to get the next issue of the paper printed, and some dental appointments out of the way. I also have to spend some time in Lexington, Kentucky, getting my annual medical checkup at the Veterans Administration hospital. We know that we’re going to be in Florida for part of the winter, but we’re not sure exactly when we’ll get there. That’s the great thing about the fulltime RV lifestyle – our plans are always written in Jello.

Bad Nick has been quiet for too long, but he just posted a new Bad Nick Blog titled Combat Knows No Calendar. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – There are no such things as limits to growth, because there are no limits to the human capacity for intelligence, imagination, and wonder. – Ronald Reagan

Like most fulltime RVers, we always say that our plans are written in Jello, because, while we may think we know where and when we’ll be going someplace, we never know when something will come up to change our minds at the last minute.

We had planned to leave Show Low on Tuesday and take a trip up through the northeastern corner of Arizona, including Canyon de Chelly National Monument, the Four Corners Monument, and maybe Monument Valley, since I have never been to any of those places, even though we lived in northeastern Arizona for years before we hit the road. We planned to spend a few days, maybe a week, on the road, and then come back here to get the next issue of the Gypsy Journal ready to print.

But, in researching RV parks along our intended route, we began to have second thoughts. There doesn’t seem to be much to choose from, and what we found had some pretty dismal reviews. I also discovered that Four corners Monument, where the states of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah come together, is currently closed except on weekends. Hmmm…. this wasn’t coming together at all like we had planned!

So we stirred up the Jello and rewrote our plans. I extended our stay here at the Elks campground for two more weeks, and instead of taking the motorhome, we’ll do some day trips up north in the van. We may even make an overnight trip if time runs short.

Sometime about mid-June, once we get the new issue finished, we plan (keeping that old Jello thing in mind) to wander over toward the central California coast. We honeymooned in Morro Bay, and we love that area between Pismo Beach and Cambria. Then we will move a bit further north to the Morgan Hill Thousand Trails preserve, where we will do some exploring and sit out the Fourth of July holiday.

As most fulltimers do, we try to plan ahead to be settled into a campsite well before summer holidays arrive and we stay put until all of the weekend warriors go back home to their schedules and their responsibilities. Memorial Day, July 4th, and Labor Day are the three times we always try to have reservations ahead of time, because we learned in our first summer on the road that if we try to find something at the last minute, it isn’t going to happen.

We also have reservations for mid-July at a campground in Colorado, because Terry’s son Casey is getting married July 18 in Vail. That is one commitment we can’t miss, so that is written in concrete instead of Jello.

Then we have to make a beeline for the Midwest, with a stop in Traverse City, Michigan for Terry’s annual oncologist checkup, and then on to Elkhart Campground in Indiana to get things rolling for our Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally August 30 to September 3, another commitment written in concrete. After the rally we’ll have just over a week before we have to be in Hershey, Pennsylvania for the big PRVCA RV Show.

As you can see, we have a lot of traveling planned for this summer. But who knows what might happen if we stir the Jello again?

Thought For The Day – It’s lonely at the top, but you eat better.

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally!

Rick Lang from Recreational Vehicle Safety Education Foundation (RVSEF) called me yesterday morning to tell me that he and Joyce plan to be on hand at Elkhart Campground on August 29th to greet anybody arriving early for our Gypsy Gathering Rally so they can weigh their RVs if they want it done.

If you have not had your rig weighed before, or if it’s been a while, you should seriously consider having it done. The RVSEF crew are specially trained to weigh RVs, which is not the same as pulling onto a truck scale somewhere and calling it good. Rick and Joyce weigh each axle individually and you get a report that tells you not only your RV’s total weight, but also if you are too heavy on any corner of your RV. This is important information to know, and will help you adjust your load for the safest ride and longer tire life.

Speaking of RVSEF, there is still time to sign up for their excellent RV Lifestyle, Education and Safety Conference in Bowling Green, Kentucky June 3-6. This is your opportunity to learn about RV technical issues and lifestyle experiences from some of the top experts in the industry. You can find out more about this great program at the RVSEF website.

I also got a call from Too Crazy Ladies yesterday, confirming that they will be at our rally, making custom name badges for the attendees. Red and Beth are regular vendors at many RV events, and they have built up a huge following of loyal customers over the years.

I have had a lot of people asking if Elkhart Campground has WiFi service available. Yes they do, and it’s free, so you will be able to get online and surf the internet to your heart’s content.

There has been some confusion about the rally dates. The rally starts with RV parking, registration, and welcome on Monday, August 30th, and ends with hitch up coffee and donuts Friday morning, September 3rd. The rally fee covers camping Monday through Thursday night, but if you want to arrive early or stay later, Bob and Gita at Elkhart Campground assure me they will have plenty of room.

Terry and I plan to arrive in Elkhart about the first of August, so we can get all of the pre-rally work done. Then we’ll hang around for a few days afterwards, before we leave for Hershey, Pennsylvania, where we will be vendors and I will be speaking at the Pennsylvania Recreational Vehicle Show September 15 – 19. We won’t be able to make it to the Escapees 50th Escapade, which is September 12 – 17 in Goshen, Indiana. We’ll miss being with our Escapees family, but the Hershey show drew over 37,000 attendees last year, and we can’t miss the opportunity to introduce the Gypsy Journal to so many RVers who have never seen it before.

I have to say a belated Happy Birthday to my son-in-law, Jim Robinson, who turned 29 yesterday. Jim’s a fine young man, and yesterday we took him and Tiffany and the girls out to dinner to celebrate his special day. Of course, somebody let it slip to the waitress that it was Jim’s birthday, and they did the typical thing where several of the waitresses bring out a cupcake with a candle on it and everybody sang Happy Birthday. Jim is a low profile kind of guy, so the rest of us had fun watching him squirm as the center of attention.

Hey Jim, it only goes faster from here on out.

Thought For The Day -Consciousness: that annoying time between naps.

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally!