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!

I spent most of yesterday updating our Gypsy Journal website and working on details for our upcoming Gypsy Gathering rally March 8-12 in Yuma, Arizona. As of now, we already have about 100 RVs registered, and at past rallies, most of the registrations come in during the last three weeks. So I think we’re going to have a big crowd.

I posted a preliminary rally schedule on our website to give you an idea of some of the seminars we have planned. Please scroll down to the bottom half of the page to view the schedule. This is a preliminary schedule only, and there will be some changes as more seminars and activities are added.

New for this rally will be seminars on oil painting, wine tasting, and Joe and Vicki Kieva’s excellent Personal Security Tips For RVers seminar, just to name a few. Byron Hibshan will also be on hand to tell you how you can get a non-resident concealed weapons permit from Utah, and we’ll have not one, but two seminars on RVing Alaska. We’ll also have seminars on boondocking, choosing a home base for fulltimers, and Mac McCoy’s excellent RV Fire Safety class.  

While the rally dates are March 8-12, Early Birds can arrive on Sunday, March 7 for an extra $15 fee. There is a Good Sam rally going on at the fairgrounds before our rally, and they will be leaving by noon on Sunday. Our people cannot be parked before noon. There is a large parking lot outside the fairgrounds, on 32^nd Street, and RVs can park there until the Good Sam group departs and we can start bringing our people in.

As always, we have had many requests from people wanting to be parked next to friends at the rally. While we cannot absolutely guarantee it, we will try our best to park everybody together who wants to do so. To help us make that happen, please arrive together, or be prepared to park off to the side until the rest of your group arrives. We will have 200 RVs or more to get in and parked in a very short time, and the logistics can be very difficult. Please try to arrive at the fairgrounds with empty waste and gray water tanks, and full fresh water, if possible.

They do not have full hookups at the fairgrounds, but the fairgrounds manager has told me that everybody will have electric, and there are water bibs and a dump station on the grounds.

I am a firm believer in both people in an RV being able to drive it, if only in case of an emergency. Dennis and Carol Hill from the RV Driving School will be at the rally, and Dennis will be presenting two seminars. They have two instructors in Yuma during the season. Dennis said they can give lessons before or after the rally, and they have four different RV parks in the Foothills area of Yuma that they suggest to students. You can contact Dennis at rvschool@wizwire.com for details on driving classes in your own RV.

Another important service we will have at the really is RV weighing by Rick and Joyce Lang from the Recreational Vehicle Safety Education Foundation (RVSEF). An overloaded RV can cost you money in the form of increased breakdowns, premature tire wear and failure, and can be downright dangerous. If you want to have your RV weighed, please click the appropriate link and complete either the Truck and Trailer Worksheet or the Motorhome Worksheet before the rally so you can give them to Rick and Joyce and they can get you on their weighing schedule. For more information on getting your RV weighed, you can call Rick at (207) 522-3336.

As you can see, there’s a lot going on. We hope we’ll be seeing you in Yuma!

Thought For The Day – If someone with multiple personalities threatens to kill himself, is it considered a hostage situation?

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

Sunday evening the wind began to blow here in Celina, Ohio, and it got stronger by the hour all night long. I don’t think many people here at our Gypsy Gathering rally got much sleep, with our rigs rocking in the gusts.

Daylight brought no reprieve; the cold wind blew hard all day long, with gusts reported as high as 60 miles per hour in some areas. A couple headed in for the rally called to say that there were high profile vehicle warnings on Interstate 75 and the highway patrol was telling people to get off the road. They wisely decided to pull into a truck stop and wait it out, hoping to get in today.

Even with the wind, we still had 20 more RVs arrive yesterday for the rally, and our dauntless parking crew braved the gale to get them parked safely. I’m glad these guys are volunteers, because we sure could not afford to pay them what any sane man would want for doing their jobs!  

On the first day at all of our rallies, after we welcome everybody and introduce the vendors and seminar presenters, I moderate an RV Quick Tips discussion, where the audience can ask questions of a panel of RV experts. For this rally, the panel included Dennis Hill from the RV Driving School, RV authors and speakers Joe and Vicki Kieva, Mac McCoy from Fire and Life Safety, RV seminar speaker Ron Speidel, fifth wheel hitch expert Pete Peterson, and Kevin Mallory from Cruising America RV Service Company.

One question was whether Life on Wheels would ever be revived, and I explained that the Recreational Vehicle Safety Education Foundation (RVSEF) had hoped to hold a similar program this year, but due to lack of industry support and student registration, they had to cancel the event. I was very flattered when Mac McCoy then said that as far as he and a lot of other people are concerned, our Gypsy Gathering rallies are the new Life on Wheels. When Joe Kieva concurred and the audience applauded, I really felt honored.

I could never hope to be compared with the late, great Gaylord Maxwell and his excellent RV education program, but we have worked very hard to make our rallies something more than the run of the mill RV get togethers. While we have vendors, entertainment, and a lot of fun at our rallies, we also strive to put together a lineup of real meat and potatoes seminars, not just fluff “buy me” presentations to sell products. Judging by the feedback we have been getting, it’s a winning combination.

With so much going on, and even as busy as she has been overseeing all of the rally details, Miss Terry still finds time to see the beauty in life that so many of us overlook. Monday she found these beautiful mushrooms growing at the base of one of the old oak trees here at the fairgrounds. Terry always amazes me; we can be cruising down the highway keeping up with traffic, or meandering along some two lane road, and she is always spotting hawks sitting on fence posts, or deer and antelope grazing in meadows. What an eye!

Thought For The Day – Unnecessary possessions are unnecessary burdens.

Today is the first day of our Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally, but by the end of the day yesterday, we already had 104 RVs on the fairgrounds! This included our advance staff, the parking crew, quite a few vendors, the Escapes class reunion group, the attendees at the Geeks on Tour Computer Boot Camp, and the folks who paid for early bird arrival. And today we have even more rigs scheduled to arrive!

Mike Loscher is a veteran member of our hardworking parking crew, and the first person people talk to when they arrive. Mike determines if they need to take on fresh water or dump their holding tanks, if they need handicapped parking, and then sends them on to the designated parkers.

Mike is retired military, then retired from a second career in nursing. I think he does this to prepare for a third gig as a Wal-Mart greeter!

Once everybody was parked, they headed over to the Registration Building, where Terry and the dedicated ladies who help her got them signed in, gave them goodie bags, sold them tickets for our pizza party and rally T-shirts, and answered lots of questions.

This is our first year to have our vendors inside, and they are in the same building where we hold registration and serve morning coffee and donuts.

We have a nice variety of vendors, selling everything from RV cleaning supplies to automatic rooftop satellite television dishes, and anything else you could want. Russ and Debbie Davis are back for a second year, selling magnetic jewelry and Eniva health supplements. Since we saw them last, they have purchased a truck conversion, and I can’t wait to get over and check it out!

Red and Beth, from Too Crazy Ladies, are outside vendors, and by mid-day they were already doing a brisk business, as people lined up to order name badges and other custom engraved items. They have vended at our Arizona Gypsy Gathering rallies, but this will be their first Eastern rally with us.

Meanwhile, back in the driveway, we had a long line of RVs pulling in, and the parking crew worked long hours getting everybody in and parked in record time. Everybody I talked to was very happy with how smoothly they got in and parked in their designated sites. Well known RV authors and speakers Joe and Vicki Kieva have decided to retire from presenting seminars at RV rallies and shows, but they honored us by making our rally their last event. They arrived with their beautiful and lovable young Golden Retriever, Molly, whom I instantly fell in love with. What a magnificent animal!

We were first introduced to Joe and Vicki through their columns and books, and then we got to know what a nice couple they are in person when we all taught at Life on Wheels. Be sure to check out their RV Notebook blog.

Chris and Jim Guld from Geeks on Tour were busy presenting their Computer Boot Camp, and from the look on the faces of Henry and Kathy Gartner, they were both learning and having fun at the same time. That’s what the Geeks are all about!

On the other side of the fairgrounds, Rick Lang from Recreational Vehicle Safety Education Foundation (RVSEF) was weighing motorhomes and fifth wheel trailers, and from the happy smiles on this couple’s faces, Rick must have given them a good report on their motorhome.

While all this was happening, Dick Snider was spiffing up the veggie powered Country Coach he is displaying for sale. That’s right, veggie powered! The coach runs on biodiesel and waste cooking oil! If you want to travel for just pennies day, stop by and see Dick’s motorhome here at the rally, or check it out online here.

Terry and I could not make these rallies happen without all of the hard work from so many volunteers, from the folks who collect door prizes, to those who help with parking and registration, door prize runners at our evening drawings, those who help serve at the pizza party and clean up afterwards, our seminar room hosts, and all of the many other chores that need doing. We appreciate every one of them more than we can ever say!

Thought For The Day – The advantage of exercising every day is that you die healthier.

Okay, we both know that headline is a lie. I’m very overweight. But the good news is that our Winnebago motorhome is not overweight!

My buddy Rick Lang from the Recreational Vehicle Safety Education Foundation (RVSEF) arrived at the fairgrounds here in Celina yesterday, and will be weighing RVs for folks coming in for our rally. Once Rick was in and set up, I had him weigh our new coach to see how we were doing now that we have moved in.

The motorhome has a Gross Vehicle Weight Rating of 32,000 pounds. With a full tank of diesel fuel, about 75 gallons of water onboard, and empty waste tanks, with me in the driver’s seat, we came in exactly 500 pounds under our weight limit. So the good news is we’re okay for weight, and the bad news is, we have to be very careful about bringing anything else onboard. That was never an issue with our bus conversion. If we could find a place to stick it, we could carry it.

Actually, we still have quite a few things to get rid of, including some books, tools, and other heavy items that will probably give us another couple hundred pounds of safety margin once they’re gone. Thanks for weighing us Rick, you gave us some extra piece of mind.

Okay, as for my weight, I have decided that I can spend an hour or two a day walking and exercising to lose weight, or I can just spend an hour or two once a year going to Wal-Mart to buy new clothes in a larger size. As busy as I am, I think that’s the way it will probably go.

I am a big believer in education, especially education that can save your life. There are many excellent safety classes offered at RV rallies that every RVer should take part in. These include the RVSEF classes on RV weight safety and tire safety, Mac McCoy’s excellent fire safety classes, and the RV Driving School’s classroom seminars and their behind the wheel driver safety program.

Modern RVs, with power steering and brakes, and air bag suspensions, are easy to handle. But they are still big, heavy vehicles, and they don’t drive like the family minivan. They take longer to get up to speed, longer to stop, and longer to clear an intersection.

One careless minute and you could find yourself in a situation like this, which took place in Amador, California when an RVer pulled out into the path of a big truck. Get some education before you get behind the wheel.

When you read blogs, do you also read the comments? If so, do you ever go back the next day and read the comments that were left after you originally read the blog? Do it sometime. The comments from Friday’s blog, Who Gets Their Dream, have been very interesting. Longtime reader George Stoltz sent me an e-mail saying that they could be a discussion guide for a graduate-level course on marital relationships. I have to agree. In fact, for the first time ever, Miss Terry even left a comment!

Thought For The Day – Before you give someone a piece of your mind, be sure you have enough to spare.

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally