We are into our annual slowdown in our printing schedule.

We try to have each issue of the Gypsy Journal printed and mailed by the middle of the month preceding the issue date, and five issues a year, we are usually able to meet that deadline. But every year, when it’s time to print the January-February issue, that schedule goes out the window. No matter where we are in the country or which newspaper we are using to do the printing, and no matter how far we plan ahead, we run into scheduling problems.

This is caused by several factors, including heavier than usual printing schedules, as stores are printing and mailing out special holiday advertising inserts, at the same time that press rooms are shorthanded as employees take vacation days. Because we are not a weekly or even monthly job on their schedule, we get shoved to the bottom of the pile while they take care of their regular customers’ needs. We understand it, we expect it, but it’s still frustrating.

So, like every year, the newest issue of the paper is going out later than we want it to. It’s at the printer now, and hopefully they’ll have it back to us early next week so we can get it mailed out. In the meantime, we appreciate everybody’s patience.

We have made a change to the way we do our printing, starting with this issue. Until now, we have used different printers in different locations around the country, wherever we happened to be when it was time to go to press. This has been problematic at times, and with the changes in the industry, it has only gotten worse. We never know what kind of quality we’re going to get with a new printer.

Another major problem is that the size of most newspaper pages is getting smaller and smaller, and we have resisted going to the newest size reduction. But, it has been increasingly hard to find newspapers that continue to print on our size paper at times. Last year we had to leave Alabama earlier than we had planned and drive all the way to south Texas to get printed, after last minute changes at the printer we had used in this region in the past. This year we thought that we’d have to go all the way back to Indiana from Washington, DC to get printed, when the newspaper we had planned to use switched paper sizes on us. Fortunately, we found a printer in Virginia at the last minute, but it was stressful.

So we have contracted with one of the newspapers who prints us in Michigan when we are in the Midwest to do all of our printing in the future. They have recently upgraded their systems and added the ability to allow us to upload our files to them via the internet, and once each issue is printed, they will ship it to us by truck.  They could actually handle our mailing too, but in addition to the papers we mail out, we also have several thousand extra printed of each issue, which we distribute as samples at RV rallies and RV parks we visit in our travels.

This will add quite a bit to our cost for each issue, but it will give us consistent quality from a printer we are comfortable with, and who understands our unique needs.  I’m sure we’ll have a glitch or two along the way, but we’re confident that in the long run, it will all work out.

I’m still adding new seminars to the schedule for our Arizona Gypsy Gathering rally, March 7-11 in Yuma. I still have quite a few time slots to fill in, but it’s coming together. I have posted a very preliminary seminar schedule on our rally registration page to give you an idea some of the offerings we will have. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and check it out. We’ll have over 60 different seminars by the time we’re done, so there’s sure to be plenty to meet everybody’s interest. As I said, this is just a preliminary schedule, and there will be lots of changes and additions by the time the rally starts. Be sure to register early, we’re looking forward to seeing you there!

Thought For The Day – We can’t go back in time and have a different beginning, but we can start today to make a new ending for ourselves.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

We thought about making the drive back to Glenwood Springs yesterday, just so we could drive through Glenwood Canyon in the van, but it was very windy for much of the day.  We had such a backlog of paperwork and e-mails to wade through because we have been busy with the wedding the last few days, that we decided to act like grownups and stay home and work instead. I don’t like being a grownup!

But just because we had to work doesn’t mean you can’t do some virtual sightseeing. Colorado is a colorful place, and here are a few pictures we took the other day that I’ll share with you.

Between Eagle and Vail, Interstate 70 passes through some awesome red rock formations. U.S. Highway 6 parallels the interstate through here, and we took the slower route just so we could pull over and take in the dramatic scenery.

When the sun is setting, the cliff faces just seem to glow. It’s really something to see.

We even saw a covered bridge, though it is not as old, or has the character, as the ones we have seen in Indiana, Iowa, and New England.

Sunday night we were treated to a beautiful sunset, and Miss Terry managed to capture a couple of good shots of it.

I mentioned the other day that Terry’s son, Cody, is the accountant for one of the major developers in the region. Besides allowing him to live in this outdoor sports wonderland, his job comes with some pretty neat perks, including these gondolas that he can ride right from an upper floor of his office building to the top of the ski slopes! How cool is that?

As promised, yesterday I posted a preliminary schedule for our upcoming Gypsy Gathering rally on our Rally Registration Page. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see the seminar lineup. I will be making some changes and adding more seminars as we go, but we have over 50 listed now, so there is sure to be something for everyone!

Today we will be heading east on Interstate 70, through the Eisenhower Tunnel and down into Denver. I’m a bit apprehensive about this stretch of highway, which tops out at 10,666 feet at Vail Pass, and then follows a lot of steep downgrades as we descend the Rocky Mountains.

As I’ve said before, while our Winnebago diesel pusher climbs the mountains much better than our old MCI bus conversion did, the exhaust brake on the motorhome is not nearly as effective as the Jake brake was in the bus. My Mountain Directory shows that there are several places on the eastern descent where the speed limit for heavy semi-trucks is 32 miles per hour. I plan to be in the right hand lane poking along with them all the way down!

For those of you who get concerned when I write about doing long days on the road, here’s fair warning that we’re about to do it again. We want to stop at the Winnebago factory in Forest City, Iowa and have some work done on our coach.

Since the Winnebago Grand National Rally is in Forest City, Iowa this week, I wasn’t sure about the chances of getting in for service. I  called Winnebago to ask about an appointment, and was told that they do not make them during rally week or right after, but if we arrive by Friday at 3 p.m., we can put our name on a list to get service, and we should be able to get in by Tuesday or Wednesday. But, we have to actually be there to sign up, they won’t take our name by telephone.

It’s 940 miles, so we can do it easily, and we’ll scoot right along, so we can hopefully catch up with some of our friends who are in Forest City for the rally, before they hit the road.

While we were out taking pictures and attending weddings, Bad Nick was home posting a new Bad Nick Blog titled Who’s The Racist. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally!

One of the greatest things about the RV lifestyle are the many wonderful friends we have made. As with most fulltime RVers, many times we find that these friendships are deeper and more fulfilling than those we had with folks back in our old lives, living in sticks and bricks.

Like our lifestyle itself, RV friendships are different than other relationships we may have had in the past. Sometimes we only see our RVing friends once or twice a year, depending on where our travels take us. But we keep in contact with e-mail, on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, by reading their blogs, and through the RV grapevine.

There are times when we will make plans to meet up with fellow RVers someplace for a day or a week, and other times when the meetings are more serendipitous. We have pulled into and discovered friends we have not seen in months parked in the site next to us, and we have stopped for lunch at a highway rest area and found friends parked there doing the same thing. Once, in Indiana, we were at a fuel stop on the Indiana Toll Road when our friends John and Margie Conda happed to pull up to the fuel island next to us. Things like this happen so often that we’re not even surprised when they do anymore.

Yesterday, we had lunch with two of our very special RV friends, Jerry and Suzy LeRoy. They have a lot at the Escapees co-op in Benson, about 35 miles south of Tucson, and when they learned that we were going to be here for a few days, they called and suggested we meet for lunch.

We decided on Mimi’s Cafe at Wilmot and Broadway, on the east side of Tucson, because it is closer to Benson than the Mimi’s on the north side of town near Tucson Mall, and only a mile or so from my cousin Beverly’s apartment.

We met at 1 p.m. and had a wonderful lunch as we talked about our different adventures since we last crossed paths, compared notes on family relationships, and solved most of the problems of the world. Before we knew it, our luncheon had stretched out for three hours, and our friends had to get on the road to get back to Benson. Time really does fly when you’re having fun!

Here is a picture of Jerry, Suzy, and Miss Terry outside the restaurant just before we parted company.

I asked Jerry and Suzy if they would take a bundle of Gypsy Journals to the Escapee park for us, and they were happy to oblige. Whenever we can pass a bundle of sample papers on to RVing friends to distribute in their travels, it helps us spread the word about our efforts. Many times when we receive a new subscription order, it includes a note saying that they picked up a copy of the paper at such and such RV park, someplace where we’ve never been.

After we left Mimi’s, we stopped at Jo-ann Fabrics so Terry could pick up some yarn she needed for a project, and then we went to Beverly’s place, where I spent the next three hours trying to delete cookies and spyware in an effort to speed up her laptop computer, which has slowed down to slightly less than snail speed.

I wasn’t getting anywhere, so I called another RVing friend, my pal Greg White, and asked for suggestions, since Greg made his living resolving computer issues for folks. He suggested some things to try and clean the laptop out, but I wasn’t making much headway. Since Beverly has a medical appointment on our side of town today, we didn’t want to keep her up too late while I struggled with the laptop, so we called it a night and headed home. I’ll take another shot at her computer today or Saturday.

Back at Tra-Tel RV Park, we watched some TV, answered a few e-mails and I wrote my blog post before we headed for bed.

Today, after Beverly’s doctor appointment, we are getting together for lunch with two more of my cousins, Vivian and Sharon, who also live here in Tucson.

Bad Nick is not nearly as much a social butterfly as I am, so he spent yesterday writing a new Bad Nick Blog post titled Did He Push Humpty Off The Wall Too? Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain, and most fools do.

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally! 

Yesterday I realized that we were having a déjà vu experience, wondering if we would get out of Las Vegas today or not. Exactly five months ago we were in Indiana at Elkhart Campground with Greg and Jan White, watching the weather and wondering if the high winds there would die down so we could hit the road! Now here we are with Greg and Jan in Las Vegas, wondering if the wind will die down so we can hit the road. History does repeat itself! 

Yesterday the wind blew hard all day, and we were glad we were not out on the highway in a high profile vehicle. Today the wind is supposed to be considerably lighter, and if it is, we’ll pull out about mid-morning and head for Kingman, Arizona.

If we take the direct route, over Hoover Dam, it is 106 miles to our destination in Kingman, Arizona.  RVs can cross the dam unless there is a heightened alert status, but traffic can get very congested going down to the dam and back up. The longer route, through Searchlight to Laughlin, Nevada, and then to Kingman, adds an extra 25 miles to the trip, but usually has much less traffic congestion. We’ll probably choose that route.

But again, it all depends on the weather. If the wind is still blowing hard, we’ll just pay the Thousand Trails preserve for an extra day and wait until tomorrow. One of the great things about living in an RV is that you have your house with you, so it doesn’t matter where you are, because you’re at home. So why press our luck driving in hazardous conditions if we don’t have to?

We have had an absolute blast playing tourist here in Las Vegas with Greg and Jan. It has been like going on vacation from our permanent vacation, and all four of us agree that we have seen things and done more than we would have if we had not all been together. But I have to be honest with you, I miss working. I couldn’t do this on a regular basis.

I have been able to get enough information for several stories for the next issue of the Gypsy Journal, but I usually spend several hours a day at my computer researching and writing. We’ve been so busy for the past two weeks that, except for writing my blogs, I haven’t gotten much work done at all. I’m not complaining, it’s been a lot of fun and we have made some incredible memories. I’m just ready to get back to my regular routine.

The last time we were in Kingman, the service on our Verizon air card was terrible, and from what I understand, things have not improved since then. Mohave County, Arizona seems to be stuck in the dark ages of technology, and nobody told the folks in charge that it’s not 1950 anymore. So if the connection is as problematic as it was last year, there may not be as many photos on the blog for the next few days.

Of course, that all depends on if we actually do get out of Las Vegas today.

Thought For The Day – Forgive your enemies…once.

I’ve gotten a lot of e-mail asking where we are with the insurance company, following our burglary to our motorhome. As regular blog readers know, at first we were having a real hassle with our insurance company, National Interstate, and when we called our agent, PoliSeek, they told me they didn’t get involved in problems like that and referred me back to the same claims adjuster at National Interstate who was giving us all the problems.

After I wrote about the problem in the blog and it became a topic of discussion on several RV internet forums, most notably the Escapees, people started calling their agents and National Interstate asking if they could expect the same lack of service if they had a claim.

Cheryl Howarth from Miller Insurance in Lake Oswego, Oregon, and another agent from South Dakota, both of whom have a lot of RV owners as customers, took it upon themselves to contact National Interstate on our behalf. The response from the company was immediate, and within an hour or so the same claims adjuster who had been giving us grief was on the telephone bending over backwards to accommodate our every need.

We now have been reimbursed for all of the items that were stolen or vandalized, except for one small check that we should receive this week, and as I understand it, the shop in Indiana that did our repairs has also been paid, except for two sets of day/night shades that we are still waiting on the factory to send to us.

Fourteen days after our burglary, a representative from PoliSeek called in response to the internet uproar that had resulted, and the next day her supervisor called. They wanted to know what they could do to help, and I told them that they were too late, other agents had handled the problem for us. The supervisor told me that it really wasn’t their job to deal with the insurance company for us. In other words, they’ll take our money, but they don’t want to get involved if we have a problem. So why have an agent in the first place?

As soon as life gets back to normal after the holidays, we will be talking to Cheryl at Miller Insurance about placing all of our business with her. From all of the good feedback I have gotten from customers of Progressive, I think that’s who we’ll end up with, if Cheryl represents them. She has earned our business, and I’d much rather she makes a commission on our insurance policies. PoliSeek has seen the last penny they’ll ever get from me. If you are looking for RV insurance, or are thinking about moving your business, I’d readily recommend Cheryl. I’d recommend the agent in South Dakota as well, but I never did get her full name or the name of the agency she works for.

While Miss Terry was busy stuffing envelopes yesterday, Bad Nick wrote a new Bad Nick Blog post titled The GPS Made Me Do It. Check it out and leave a comment. 

Thought For The Day – A friend is someone who reaches for your hand, but touches your heart.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally