Today is the last day to take advantage of our Two For One Holiday Special. So if you haven’t clicked the link above, there’s still time. You can enter a new subscription to the Gypsy Journal for yourself, or renew your subscription early, and we’ll give someone on your Christmas shopping list a free one year subscription, with a note that it is a gift from you. All you have to do is enter your mailing address, and send me a separate e-mail with the name of the recipient of your gift subscription at editor@gypsyjournal.net and we’ll do the rest. The special ends tonight at midnight, so if you snooze, you lose!

It’s still unbelievably cold here in Fort Lauderdale, but at least the wind has stopped. We’d like to do some sightseeing while were in this area, but between having to get the new issue of the paper finished, and the weather, I don’t know if we’ll do much of anything but stay home and work.

I got an e-mail from my friend Tom Owen down in Key West yesterday, and he said they tied a record low, set in 1952, and that folks on that tropical island are running around in winter coats, gloves, mufflers and longshoreman caps. Tom said that the wind chill was 30 degrees in Key West! We won’t be going to the Florida Keys this year after all!

Speaking of the cold weather, I have been exchanging e-mails with a couple who are staying in their RV, in a relative’s driveway in the upper Midwest, until after the holidays. They wrote to ask for advice because their water lines were frozen, and I suggested that they put a droplight in their utility bay with a 25 watt bulb. That’s what we did when we were stuck in northern Michigan years ago during Terry’s battle with cancer, and it kept it toasty warm in the water bay.

They replied that their son didn’t want them to do that, because it would run up his electric bill. I also suggested they use heat tape on any exposed water lines, but the lady wrote back and said that was an “awful lot of trouble” and asked me if there wasn’t a simpler way to solve the problem. Uh, yeah, there is. Turn the key and get the heck out of there!

My friend Chris Guld from Geeks on Tour spent most of the afternoon yesterday helping me make some changes in our e-mail program, laying the groundwork for migrating our websites to another host, and talking about where we want to go with our online business in the future. The technology is changing on a daily basis, and it is amazing what we can now offer our readers online.

Later in the afternoon, Chris and her hubby Jim treated us to a wonderful seafood dinner at a restaurant called Catfish Deweys,  that is a local landmark. I had the blackened seafood platter and Miss Terry had blackened catfish, and both were excellent. Thanks Jim and Chris!

Bad Nick has been quiet for a while because he has been on strike, protesting the cold weather. But he finally got of his duff yesterday and posted a new Bad Nick Blog titled Snappy Comebacks. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – You shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands. You need to be able to throw something back sometimes.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

Today is our last day in Traverse City. Time sure goes fast when you’re having fun! It seems like we just rolled in yesterday.

This afternoon, Terry has her annual checkup with her oncologist, and we’re looking forward to getting that behind us for another year. Terry has been cancer free for ten years now, and every day is a blessing. But she still gets very nervous and uptight before her annual appointment. I’m sure I’d feel the same way if you tried to put me on an airplane headed back for the jungle. I wish I could make it easier for her, but all I can do is hold her, encourage her, and let her know that she is not alone.

There is so much to see and do around here that I wish we had more time. But we have to get down to Elkhart to start getting things set up for our Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally. If you haven’t visited this part of northern Michigan yet, you really owe it to yourself to check it out.

Speaking of the rally, sometimes I feel like no matter what I do, I get into trouble. I had a couple of comments on yesterday’s blog from people who were upset because we have run out of full hookup RV sites, and two or three more e-mails from others who are mad at me because they waited to register, or expected to arrive at the rally without a registration, and still get a full hookup site.

I opened registration for the Eastern Rally April 10, and we immediately had several people register. And since then, almost four months ago, I have had a registration link in the blog and on our website, an ad in the printed edition of the Gypsy Journal, and constant updates on the rally, with warnings that the 50 amp full hookup sites were limited. So why am I the bad guy? Whatever happened to that old saying, “Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part”?

As I wrote in yesterday’s blog, the folks at Elkhart Campground are scurrying to finish upgrading sites to make more 50 amp full hookups available. If they are able to get the job completed, folks can upgrade to them if they wish.

But trust me, you really can live for four days on a 30 amp site. We are currently living quite comfortable on a 20 amp circuit while parked in my cousin’s driveway. Terry makes her coffee every morning, my computer and wireless router are on all day long, and she has even done several loads of laundry! It’s all about energy management.

We’re in a hurry to get to Elkhart to get started on things there, but on our way south we plan to stop in Muskegon, Michigan to spend a couple of days with Berni and Rocky Frees. It’s been way too long since we had time with them, and we need a fix of the brand of pure insanity that only they can provide.

Bad Nick has been way too quiet for way too long, and when he gets that way, I get nervous. God only knows what goes on in his twisted mind. But he’s back with a brand new Bad Nick Blog post titled Screw You, WalMart. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Love your children enough to teach them self discipline, good manners, respect, and consideration for others.

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally!

After our fast trip from Colorado to Iowa, then our busy week in Forest City getting our motorhome worked on, and then our fast trip to northern Michigan, we needed some time to catch up, both on our sleep, and our paperwork. Not to mention our laundry.

So yesterday morning we slept in, and then started whittling down our long “To Do” list. The first order of the day for Miss Terry was to begin reducing the pile of laundry that had accumulated. Since we hadn’t had full hookups since we left Colorado, it was threatening to spill out of the basket and take over the bedroom.

Terry hates laundromats, and is getting used to the washer/dryer combo in our Winnebago. She says it’s not as good as the separate Whirlpool washer and dryer units that we had in our MCI bus conversion, but it’s much better than the old Splendide we had in our first motorhome. An added plus for her while we’re visiting family here in Traverse City is that she doesn’t use our dryer, she hangs things out on the clothesline. Is there anything as crisp as freshly washed sheets that have dried outside in the sun?

I had a mountain of my own to deal with as I worked my way through an accumulation of e-mail. I have to say that I get pretty frustrated when I tell people that I’m in a poor internet service area, and not to send me any forwards or jokes, and they do so anyway. One fellow sent me 19 in one day, and 13 the next! When I wrote and asked him (again) not to do that, he just replied “If you don’t want them, don’t read them.” Here’s a better idea, fellow, I’ll just block all of your e-mail from now on!

Two weeks’ backlog of snail mail had arrived from our mail forwarding service, and we were also busy sorting that and logging in renewals, book orders, and rally registrations.  We also received back an order we sent out to J. Andrews of Mesa, Arizona, with a notation by the post office that it was undeliverable. If you’re reading this, please contact us with a current address, so we can get your items out to you.

One of the reasons we rushed here so fast is that we have a very dear friend who is fighting a tough battle with cancer, and things have been touch and go for a while now. When Miss Terry was going through that ordeal herself, our friend was a constant source of love and support, and we wanted to get here to spend as much time with her as possible and as her stamina allowed. So during the afternoon we paid a visit on her.

I also went to the Northwestern Michigan Fairgrounds to check out their campground and talk to the folks there about the possibility of  holding one of our Gypsy Gathering rallies there in the future.

They have 120 sites with 20/30/50 amp electric power, water bibs, and two dump stations. They told me that they can also put out portable power lines to provide electric to plenty more RVs, as needed. The buildings are a little small for our crowd, but it might be workable.

If you find yourself in Traverse City, this is the best bargain on camping anywhere in the area. Rates are just $20 a night, or $125/week. In this resort area, that’s a heck of a deal.

As these photos show, they can accommodate any size RV, and there is enough to see and do in this area to keep you busy all summer long. Check out their website for more information.  

In another of those small world syndrome things that happen so often, we discovered that the campground hosts, Henry and Kay Hauffe, just had their fifth wheel painted by our pal Michele Henry at Phoenix Commercial Paint in Elkhart, and that they know many of the same people that we do. The community of fulltime RVers may be spread out all across the land, but we are a close knit group.

It was my cousin Terry Cook’s birthday, so in the evening we took him and his wife Peggy out to dinner to celebrate. By the time we got back to the motorhome, we were tired and looking forward to climbing into bed again.

Thought For The Day – Keep your words both soft and tender, because tomorrow you may have to eat them.

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally!

There are a lot of reasons I think Al Gore needs a mouth transplant, and his theory of global warming is just one of them. Spend a day or two here in northern Indiana this time of year, and I bet you’ll agree that global warming is an urban legend. Damn, it’s cold!

Our Winnebago Ultimate Advantage has a heat pump, which is new to us. The idea is that down to a certain temperature, we can run the heat pump instead of the gas furnace, and save propane.

At this point, I’m not all that impressed with this option. The heat pump is okay during the day, but it is part of the basement air conditioning system, which is mounted under the motorhome, about where our bed is inside. At night it is very loud, and I’m a light sleeper, so when it’s cold enough to need heat at night, I’ll opt for the gas furnace. I’d rather buy some propane than be cold, or have my sleep interrupted every time the heat pump comes on.

Better yet, I’ll go someplace warm. And you can bet that as soon as we get the new issue of the Gypsy Journal printed and mailed, we’ll be out of here.

Old diesel engines don’t like the cold weather any better than I do. Yesterday Ron Speidel and I tried to help Al Hesselbart, from the RV Hall of Fame Museum, get the diesel engine and diesel generator on his vintage Newell motorhome to start, without any success.

Our MCI bus conversion is parked next to Al’s rig, and I know that with the block heater we had installed last year it will fire right up, but I hope whoever buys the bus has the good sense to head for the sunbelt too. We spent several months living in our first motorhome in northern Michigan during the winter years ago while Miss Terry was being treated for cancer, and we vowed never to do that again. My motto is, if it snows, Nick goes!

Even with all of the filthy talk from the truckers, I still find having a CB radio in an RV to be very handy. Our CB has alerted us to traffic accidents and bad weather ahead, helped us find a way around traffic backups, and the built in weather radio can be a life saver.

Our Winnebago came with a CB antenna pre-installed, and it was pre-wired to hook up a CB radio. So yesterday, after we finally gave up on starting Al’s rig, Ron Speidel installed my Cobra CB radio.

I’ve also been thinking about downloading the free Silverleaf VMSpc software, which allows diesel owners to monitor their engine’s performance and keep up with the maintenance schedule. While the program is a free download, you do need to purchase a cable that plugs into the engine data port under the dash and connects to a laptop computer.

While Ron was prowling around under the dashboard hooking up the CB, he located the data port for me, and marked it so I can plug in the data cable if I decide to go with the Silverleaf. I’d be interested in hearing from any readers who use the Silverleaf, and getting your feedback on it. Some people call it a very handy tool, and others say it’s just another gadget. What do you think?

While I was outside freezing my butt off yesterday, Bad Nick was inside snug and warm,  hard at work postng a new blog titled The Sky Is Still Falling!

Thought For The Day – You are the creator of your own reality show. If you don’t like your part in it, rewrite the script.