My mother used to say that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. I was reminded of that last week when we were at the Winnebago Customer Service facility in Forest City, Iowa.

Several of us who were having our coaches worked on were relaxing outside under the shade of a big old tree, solving all of the problems of the world, when  a couple pulled in with an attitude.

The way things work at Winnebago, if you do not have a scheduled service appointment, your name goes on a list and when you get to the top of that list, you’re the next one in the shop. Apparently that wasn’t good enough for these folks, because from halfway across the parking lot we could hear both of them reaming out the service writer because they were not going to be taken care of immediately, and to hell with everybody else who was patiently waiting their turn.

They didn’t have to wait all that long anyway, and when the service tech assigned to them came out to move their coach inside, we listened as they gave him a hard time, let him know just how important they thought they were, and what a hayseed he and anyone else in Iowa was. A couple of us listening in mentioned that we sure wouldn’t want to be talking that way to the fellow who was then going to drive away in our motorhomes and fix whatever we needed done.

That’s about like treating a waitress rudely in a restaurant. Come to think of it, I bet those two jerks have probably drank some coffee laced with spit in their time!

I was reminded of a fellow I ran into at the Verde Valley Thousand Trails Preserve in Camp Verde, Arizona one time, who obviously thought he walked on water, and Jesus walked one step behind him.

I was at the guard shack when he pulled up, blew his horn to get the attention of the young lady on duty, and then walked past several of us who were waiting in line to demand to be led to a 50 amp full hookup site and hooked up. She explained to him that they only had 30 amp sites, and that they don’t escort campers to their sites, to just go find one, and then come back and let her know where he was parked.

He was a rather large gentleman, who towered over the young lady, and he looked down at her and said “I don’t believe you heard me correctly, my dear. I am Mr. So And So, and I need a 50 amp site, and I need to be taken there now!”

Never being one who has ever been accused of shyness, I spoke up and said “Sir, why do you need 50 amps?”

He but his hands on his hips, leaned down toward me and said, “Because, my friend, I have a 50 amp coach!”

I replied “My bus is 50 amps too, but I just use a dog bone adaptor to plug into 30 amps. They have them here in the store if you don’t have one. You’ll get by just fine on 30 amps, it’s very comfortable weather here, so you won’t need any air conditioning or anything like that.”

He scowled at me and stood up in all his glory and said, “Why, thank you, my good man. Obviously I’m not as smart as I thought I was!”

Well, you just know that old Bad Nick had to get in on the fun, so I smiled right back and said “Maybe not, but you’re just as smart as I thought you were!” He stormed out, and all of us had a good chuckle at his expense.

Why do some folks have that need to put other people down? Does it really make them feel that much superior? Do they really think that they are that much superior?

I learned a long time ago that my mother was right, and that most people will bend over backward to accommodate you, if you just treat them with respect.

Fortunately, the RV lifestyle doesn’t have too many clods like that, but there are a few out there. I usually just ignore them, because I prefer to spend my time with all of the real people we meet who are busy enjoying life and accepting others as they are.

Thought For The Day – If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.

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Friday morning we were up early again, serving coffee and donuts to our rally attendees, saying goodbye, and wishing them a safe trip to wherever they are headed next. There were lots of hugs as RVers wished us well, congratulated us on a great rally experience, and promised to see us somewhere down the road.

By noon, most of the RVs had departed from the Yuma Fairgrounds, usually after making a stop at the dump station on their way out, to empty their gray and black tanks. The place sure looked empty after being filled with motorhomes, fifth wheels, and travel trailers for two weeks, first for the Arizona Good Sam rally and then our Western Gypsy Gathering rally.

We waited until everybody else had pulled out before we made our trip to the dump station, and then we parked in the same back corner of the fairgrounds where we had been before the rally. As soon as we were situated, an installer from Redlands Truck & RV started installing a set of Koni shock absorbers on our Winnebago Ultimate Advantage. Our motorhome rides pretty good already, but the new Koni shocks should make it even better. Thanks Keith Shumaker and crew, for your great service! Redlands was one of our rally vendors, and I was really impressed with them, as were many rally attendees who kept them busy with installations.

Once Rob, the Redlands mechanic, was finished with our rig, Terry and I, Greg and Jan White, and Mike and Elaine Loscher went to an early dinner at Chretin’s, a wonderful Mexican restaurant that Miss Terry pronounced one of the best she has been to in our travels around the country. That’s saying a lot! We had a pleasant meal, just unwinding, rehashing the rally events, comparing notes on what we did right, what we did wrong, and how we can make it better next year.

Back at the fairgrounds, we said our goodbyes to Mike and Elaine, who are leaving early today, bade Greg and Jan goodnight, and headed inside for a quiet evening just trying to let the kinks and aches seep out of our bodies.

We were in bed much earlier than usual, turning off our cell phones and vowing not to open the curtains today until at least noon!

It’s been a busy week, a great rally, and we’re sure glad it’s over! Thanks to everybody who came, and especially to our hardworking volunteers!

Thought For The Day – Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.

Every RVer is different. Some of us like motorhomes, and some like trailers. Some of us like to move around from place to place, seldom staying longer than a week in any location, while others like to “put down roots,” and often stay several months at a time in one place. There are those of us who always want to see new places and hate traveling the same routes, or going back to the same RV parks. Others find comfort in the familiar, and have favorite places where they go every winter or summer. Some appreciate upscale RV resorts with every amenity, while there are those of us who prefer the small mom and pop campgrounds.

I say viva la différence! Wouldn’t it be a boring world if we all enjoyed the same things and went to the same places all the time? Not to mention crowded!

Even among fulltiming couples, preferences can vary. I love to be on the go, and if we stay more than a week or two in most places, I start getting hitch itch. Miss Terry, on the other hand, likes to find a nice place to nest once in a while. She enjoys having time to bake, crochet, read, and just relax. So we compromise, which is the secret to success for any snowbird or fulltiming couple. 

In Saturday’s blog, Ten Least Favorite Places, I wrote about some of the places we have visited and didn’t care for. I expected to get comments from readers who agreed with me, as well as from those who didn’t. I wasn’t disappointed.

Several readers agreed that they also don’t like the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, and I heard from those who love it.

I was surprised to see that my friend Mike McFall agreed with me in his Mike and Pat’s Travels blog post yesterday, since they have a beautiful lot at Retama Village in Mission, Texas. But Mike said he’s no fan of the Valley, outside of Retama. Having visited Mike and Pat and seeing how nice Retama Village is, I have to agree that it’s the best thing we saw in the Rio Grande Valley.

The great thing about the RV lifestyle is that there is no “one size fits all.” Barring health or financial issues that might put a cramp in our traveling style, most of us are free to do it our way.

If we want to bounce around like pin balls from one corner of the country to the next, we can do it. If we like to find a comfortable place and hunker down for a season, there are plenty of RV parks offering monthly rates. If we enjoy watching the sun set over the ocean, or sunrises over the Great Lakes; if we are desert rats, or find comfort in the high mountains, we can go there. If we are history buffs, we can actually go to the places where our forefathers struggled to build this nation. If we love playing golf, what better way to enjoy our hobby than by following the sun all year long, playing in shirtsleeves from Connecticut to California?  

Don’t you love being a part of our great lifestyle, where one size does not fit all?

Heck, some of us even have alternate personalities. My alter-ego, Bad Nick, was at work yesterday putting together a Bad Nick Blog post titled Charity Begins At Home. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Never confuse a street address for where you actually live.

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We know many RVers who work in RV parks around the country to offset their traveling costs. Typically, they work a set number of hours per week in exchange for a free RV site, and any hours over those agreed upon for the site are paid at an hourly wage. Some workamping RVers return to the same campground to work every season, while others prefer to move about and see new places.

Workamping in an RV park can be interesting, and can help you save some money in camping fees. However, as I always say in my seminars on working on the road, as well as in my book Work Your Way Across The USA, if your goal is to make the most possible money in a given time period, often you would be better off to rent a site in an RV park on a monthly basis, and got a job at the local Home Depot or a restaurant in town. RV park wages are just not that good in most cases.

But if you want to do something a little bit different, and still earn money, there are many, many opportunities out there to make money and have fun that don’t involve cleaning bathrooms in an RV park, serving French fries in a fast food restaurant, or working in retail stores. Here are ten jobs that RVers we know have done that you may never have thought of.  

1. Beet Harvest – We have known several RVers who have worked the sugar beet harvests in places like North Dakota and Minnesota. Jobs include everything from driving trucks to sorting the beets when they arrive at warehouses. One website on the sugar beet harvest claims that some workers make as much as $7,000 in a month or less.

2. Canoe & Kayak Tour Guide – From the Florida Keys to Michigan’s wild Upper Peninsula, canoe and kayak liveries are busy all season long introducing tourists to the joys to be found on the water. It’s a great job for RVers who want to make some extra money and spend the summer (or winter) paddling. 

3. Working For Amazon – During the Christmas rush, online retailer Amazon.com hires many RVers to work at their fulfillment center in Kansas. The last I heard, the wage was $11 an hour, plus bonuses, with overtime available.

4. Dealing Blackjack – The gaming industry, in places like Las Vegas, Reno, and Laughlin, Nevada, provides many working opportunities for RVers. Jobs range from dealing blackjack to working as a customer greeter in casinos.

5. Driving Tour Bus – From Alaska to the Grand Canyon to Florida, tourist areas provide many employment opportunities for RVers. Driving tour buses, ranging in size from extended length vans to full sized coaches, is a good way to make money while spending time in places where the tourists pay big bucks to visit.

6. Fish Cannery – This is hard, dirty, smelly, physically demanding work, but one fulltime RVer we know spends a full summer in Alaska working long hours at a fish cannery, and he tells us he makes enough in a season to pay for two years of fulltime RV travel.

7. Working The NASCAR Circuit – Every race car driver, from the superstars to the new guy in the pits, have somebody selling souvenirs with their names and car numbers on them. We’ve met a couple of RVers who tow a vending trailer behind their motorhomes and follow the circuit, selling souvenirs to racing fans.

8. Selling Christmas Trees – This is obviously a seasonal job, and is hard physical work, but we have known many RVers who sell Christmas trees on lots across the country, and several have told us that they have made $8,000 or more in less than a month. Many times the same companies who hire RVers to sell Christmas trees hire them to sell fireworks for the Fourth of July, and Halloween pumpkins on the same lots. One couple we know made about $7,000 in two weeks selling fireworks this past summer.

9. Horse Wrangler – I make it a point never to ride anything you can’t put gasoline in, but if you are an equestrian fan and are comfortable in a saddle, you may find work as a horse wrangler, leading trail rides at one of the many dude ranches in the Southwest. The pay isn’t usually top dollar, but tips can be good, and if you love horses, it’s your chance to get paid for playing cowboy (or cowgirl).

10. Gas Line Survey – There is a long, ongoing thread on the Escapees forum, on working as a gas line surveyor, and the RVers we have talked to who have done this work all say that it’s a great way to make good money and get a lot of exercise in the process.

For more ideas on making money as you travel, check out my Working On The Road web page. What are some of the ways you have earned money on the road?

Thought For The Day – My wife does all the driving; I just get to hold the steering wheel.

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We wanted to be on the road by about 9 a.m. yesterday, but that didn’t happen. We were up early, and Miss Terry got the inside of our Winnebago ready for the road, while I made a stop at the dumpster, and then went up to the office at the Thousand Trails campground to tell them we were checking out a couple of days early. Our case of hitch itch just needed scratched.

Back at our RV site, I unhooked the utilities, and then Terry ran in our slides. The bedroom slide went fine, but when the living room slide started coming in, big chunks of ice started falling down from the top, along with cold water. The slide suddenly came to a stop about eight inches away from being all the way in.

I was outside, and had Terry run it back out, and then try to bring it back in again. It came another inch or so more than the first time, then stopped again. The problem was that the rain we had a few days ago had frozen and formed thick chunks of ice on the slide topper, which were jamming the slide. Terry went up the ladder on the back of our motorhome, I handed her up a broom, and she swept the top of the slide topper clean, dislodging chunks of ice about ¾ of an inch thick and up to six inches across.

With that chore done and Miss Terry safely back on terra firma, we retracted our leveling jacks, and then Terry noticed that our automatic Carefree patio awning was out about four inches. We had not used the awning since we arrived at the Thousand Trails, and I suspected that water had also accumulated inside and frozen, pushing the awning out. Sure enough, we extended the awning and more water and ice fell out. Did I ever mention that cold weather RVing sucks?

With everything finally buttoned up, I scrolled through the display on our PressurePro tire monitoring system, and then pulled out of our RV site and made a stop at the propane station to fill our tank, then Terry drove the van back up to the office to pay for the propane, came back, and we hooked the van to our tow bar. With all of the delays, it was 10:30 by the time we finally got on the road.

I really don’t like driving through San Antonio, so this trip we tried the Loop 1604 around the east side of the city. The first five miles or so were regular two lane road, with a couple of traffic signals, then the loop became a divided highway two to three lanes wide. There was still a lot of traffic, but we rolled along fine, and eventually rejoined Interstate 10 on the north side of San Antonio. I think the loop was better than driving through town on I-10, but I’d still rather avoid the city altogether.

Once we were out of the metropolitan area, the rest of our day was just a lot of long, boring miles counting the road kill. We pulled into a couple of rest areas for potty stops and to do a walk around the motorhome and van, checking our tow bar connection, tires, etc. Late in the afternoon, with the sun sinking slowly into the western sky (sorry, I couldn’t resist that one), we pulled into the WalMart in Fort Stockton, hoping to dry camp for the night.

Terry had called ahead and asked permission, and the lady she spoke to said we were welcome to park overnight, and to please park at the western end of the parking lot. This is a small WalMart, not a SuperCenter, and when we arrived, there were a half dozen or so motorhomes and fifth wheels, and there was no way we could park without the rear end of the van sticking out into a lane of the parking lot. We decided they had enough RVs at Camp WalMart that evening, so we got back onto the highway and drove another 45 miles to Saddleback Mountain RV Park, a Passport America park a few miles west of Balmorhea. We had covered 485 miles in a little over eight hours of driving, which is a long day on the road.

This is a small campground with nothing much to recommend it, except for price and convenience. It is just off the highway, and has long pull through full hookup sites with 30/50 amp electric, for $10 a night with the Passport America discount. It’s not a place we’d spend any time, but for a safe overnight stay, it was a good deal.

Today we’ll go on to Salt Flat, where we’ll spend a day or two visiting our friends Mike and Pam Steffen, before we continue our westward trek.

Thought For The Day – I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it.

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