The title of this blog is what a Gypsy Gathering rally is all about. We do a lot of laughing and having fun, we learn more about the RV lifestyle, and we love being with our huge extended family of nomads.

I really started the day off with some laughter, and it wasn’t intended at all. Just as I was starting my new Cemetery Stories seminar, the little remote control I use to advance the PowerPoint slideshow stopped working. I checked the switch to be sure it was on, pushed the forward and back buttons a time or two, and said to the audience “Please bear with me, my little thingie isn’t working this morning for some reason.”

Now, I don’t have a dirty mind, but apparently everybody else in the room did, because it erupted in laughter! About then I realized what I had said, and they tell me my face turned about six shades of red. But the show still has to go on, so I grabbed my Blackberry and called Barbara Westerfield, who handles our technical equipment. I was holding the phone up to my ear with my left hand, and I had the microphone I use for my seminars in my right hand. When Barbara answered, I dropped my left hand away from my ear, put the microphone to my mouth and said “Barbara, I need you to come to my seminar room and fix my computer.” That brought another round of laughter from the crowd, because Barbara couldn’t hear me two buildings away over the microphone.

When I began developing our rallies, I wanted them to be a combination of fun and fellowship, mixed with some pretty serious educational seminars. Sort of a hybrid between a regular RV rally and Life on Wheels, and I think we have accomplished that. We had an excellent lineup of seminars here, including many by our vendors. Mac McCoy, who was also a Life on Wheels instructor, has been to every one of our rallies, presenting his excellent fire safety seminar.

Chris Yust, from Good Sam insurance, did a great seminar on the Pros & Cons Of RV Extended Warranties, and several attendees told me they learned a lot in her seminar yesterday.

 Daryl Lawrence, from Lawrence RV Accessories, is an expert on RV electrical systems, and he has has educated a lot of RVers on how their electrical systems are designed and how to get the most out of them. If you combine all of the knowledge and experience of our vendors and instructors, I don’t thnk there is any aspect of RVing and the RV lifestyle that they don’t know about. 

Socializing is always an important part of any RV rally, and everywhere you looked on the fairgrounds this week, there were small groups of friends old and new visiting, swapping lies, and planning their next RV adventures.

Yesterday Kellie Gunn had a birthday, and there was quite a party  for her. I’ve never had 300 people sing Happy Birthday to me, but Kellie sure seemed to enjoy it!

Of course, any time you put a bunch of RVers together, food is always going to be a priority, and last night’s pizza party was no exception. RVers were at their tables with hungry appetites, Miss Terry’s crew of dedicated servers were lined up and ready, Domino’s delivered two truckloads of piping hot pizza,  and we all stuffed ourselves.

I have no idea how she does it, but Miss Terry is able to organize things so well that her crew served hundreds of people in less than ten minutes! Did I ever tell you how much my wife amazes me?  

After everybody had finished eating, country singer Michael Hargis took to the stage for a fantastic concert that had everybody applauding. RV rallies are hard work, whether you’re the one organizing them, one of the volunteers who help make it all happen, or an attendee who is on the go every minute attending seminars, shopping the vendors, and meeting up with old friends. But even though everybody was tired by the end of the day, Michael’s show was so good that he had a lot of couples up and dancing. Thanks for the great show, Michael!

Today is the last full day of the rally, and we still have a lot of great seminars left to offer, and a lot of fun too! If you couldn’t make it to this rally, I hope we see you at one of our events soon.

Thought For The Day – Celebrate something today. Anything!

We have talked a lot about handy RV accessories we enjoy, and ones we consider indispensible. But what about the not so great options you have seen, or have in your rig?

No two RVers are the same, so what one of us considers essential, the next guy may think of as a waste of money and space. The flip side of that coin, of course, is that there are probably things I couldn’t live without that would leave you scratching your head and asking “Why?”.

Here are my Top 10 Things I Can Do Without, in no particular order.

1. Outdoor entertainment center – Our Winnebago motorhome has a radio in the front storage bay on the passenger side, which I have never turned on, and probably never will. I love music, but when I’m sitting outside of our rig, I’m usually reading a book, or visiting with friends and folks who wander by. I’ve seen many RVs that also have a television in an outdoor bay. That would be totally useless to me. If I want to watch TV, I sit inside and relax to enjoy the show. If I’m outside, it’s because I don’t want to waste my time watching television.

2. In-motion satellite television – I’d run my motorhome into a ditch if I tried to watch TV and drive at the same time! I guess if you had little kids with you, it might entertain them, but if I did travel with munchkins, I’d tell them to turn off the darned TV and look out the windows and see America going by!

3. Automatic awnings – I just don’t trust them. I just know that mine would fail just as a strong wind came up, and I’d be replacing them as soon as the storm passed.

4. Heated driver’s seats – I have seen this option on some upscale coaches, but I’ll pass. I prefer to be where it’s warm to start with, instead of being anyplace where I need to have my seat warmed to keep my seat warm.

5. Fireplace – We know a couple of people who have gas fireplaces in their RV. Yeah, I guess it would be cozy to cuddle in front of on a cold day, but see my thoughts above on being anyplace where it’s cold.

6. Garbage disposal – Why would I want to devote precious space and add to my RV’s overall weight with one of these things when the good folks at WalMart give me perfectly good trash bags every time we go to the store? Besides, walking down to the campground dumpster is sometimes the only exercise I get all day.

7. Dishwasher – Again, why add to the weight and lose space for this? Isn’t it just easier to wash dishes after use instead of letting them accumulate until you have enough for a load in the dishwasher?

8. Washer/dryer combo – Miss Terry and I don’t agree on this one. She likes it, but it seems like she is always doing laundry, due to the unit’s small capacity. To me it makes more sense to just go to the laundromat once a week and get it all done with at once. But since she does the laundry, it’s her choice.

9. Bathtub – I haven’t seen one in an RV yet that I could fit into, and I’m a shower guy anyway.

10. Barbecue Grill – We love our little stainless steel propane gas grill, but I have seen some motorhomes that have a huge slide out grill in one of the curbside storage bays. I guess if you are into tailgate parties it would come in handy, but I don’t need anything that big, and I can use the space for better things.   

So that’s my list of ten things that many RVers no doubt love, but that I don’t care to have. What about you? What accessories or options could you well do without?

Thought For The Day – Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

Holding an RV rally is a lot of hard work, and as I have said before, there is no way we could do it without all of our dedicated volunteers. There are a hundred and one details that have to be handled as they come up, everything from a seminar presenter who needs a quick lesson in how to operate a digital projector, to reuniting somebody with their lost car keys, to listening to a rally attendee vent because they wanted a full hookup site and none are available, to finding the maintenance folks to tell them that the ladies room is out of toilet paper. I know, because I dealt with all four yesterday.

But with all of the hard work, there is still plenty of time for fun. I really enjoy getting up on stage, acting like a goofball, and passing out door prizes. Somebody said maybe I want to be the next Saint Nick. Now that’s a job I could handle – everybody loves you, you only have to work one night a year, and people give you milk and cookies!

One of my favorite parts of an RV rally is having the opportunity to socialize with so many of our friends, as well as making new friends of the people we meet here. That’s what it’s really all about.

When I wasn’t putting out fires and giving my Highway History And Back Road Mystery seminar yesterday, I had a lot of time to just visit with folks. We cross paths with most of the vendors that are here at different rallies across the country, and it is always fun to get together with them. We met Ben and Gay Miller, from Coyote Sales, at our very first RV rally, back in 1999, and we have run into them everywhere from a small bus rally in Arizona to mega-rallies all over the country.

Daryl Lawrence, from Lawrence RV Accessories, has a warped and twisted sense of humor, and I always enjoy bantering with him. Another vendor with a good sense of humor is Butch Williams, who is here with his lovely wife Fonda, selling their convection cooking hot plates and pots and pans. Yesterday I stopped at the outside food vendor and bought myself a brat for lunch, and as I walked past Butch’s booth, he just reached out and snatched it away, and had his own lunch! I’d have tried to grab it back before he sunk his greedy teeth into it, but I know better than to get my fingers in front of his face when he’s in a feeding frenzy. It was safer to just go back and buy another sandwich, which I took into a corner to eat, away from any other predators.

One special friend here at the rally is my buddy Carey McGleish, who we first met when he was a student at Life on Wheels. Back then Carey was a total greenhorn and very unsure of himself in his new fifth wheel, but he’s come a long way in the last few years. He was helping distribute door prizes last night, and I told the audience that I had raised him from a pup. Everybody got a big laugh out of that, including Carey himself. 

That’s how it goes at an RV rally. A little learning, a little nonsense, and a whole lot of fun.        

Somebody said yesterday that we should change the names of our rallies from Gypsy Gatherings to Gypsy Journal Family Reunions, because he feels that way when he comes to one of our events. Yeah, we kind of feel that way too.

Thought For The Day – Can vegetarians eat animal crackers?

With summer in full swing, and gas prices way down from this time last year, a lot of RVs are on the go. We’re expecting a full house here at Elkhart Campground next weekend for the 4^th of July holiday.

As fulltimers, we learned early on that campgrounds fill up fast on holiday weekends during the summer. So we always try to find a place to settle in during the middle of the week and stay put until the next Tuesday or so, to let all of the weekend warriors do their thing and then get back home.

Every once in a while when I complain about weekend campers, someone thinks I am looking down on people who are still living in sticks and bricks houses and can only do their camping on weekends and vacations.

Not at all! We have met many, many wonderful RVers who are not fulltimers or extended time travelers. They have made fine campground neighbors. My problem is with jerks that make noise after hours, allow their kids and dogs to run wild, don’t know how to build a campfire that is not a smudge pot, and ruin the experience for everybody around them.

There are plenty of clods in the fulltime lifestyle too, unfortunately. I remember a group of Bluebird owners in Quartzsite, Arizona two years ago who felt it necessary to blow their musical horns over and over again, serenading everybody around them, whether we wanted to listen or not. And we have had more than our share of fulltimer neighbors with yappy little mutts they think they are just precious and that everybody wants to hear their never ending barking. Bad manners are bad manners, and jerks are jerks, whether they live in RVs or traditional houses.

With the new issue of the Gypsy Journal in the mail, Terry and I have some slack time, but we always find plenty of ways to keep busy. The heat wave has abated a bit, so we may find some place to put our kayaks in the water and do some paddling.

Speaking of the high temperatures that have baked much of the nation, longtime Gypsy Journal reader Richard Prevallet suggested I mention a laser thermometer as a valuable tool to have in any RV. I’ve used one for years. They come in handy to check RV tires and wheel hubs when traveling to alert you to a possible problem before it gets out of hand.

Now that I have a PressurePro system to monitor my tires, I don’t use the laser thermometer as much for that, but I still shoot my wheel hubs when we pull into a rest stop. I also use it to check the surface temperature on our twin radiators. You can get a good quality laser thermometer for $50 or less at Sears, Harbor Freight and any other tool outlet.

Digital laser thermometers, also called laser guns, are simple to use. All you have to do is point the red laser dot at what you want to measure and push the button, and then read the digital display. It’s so simple even I can do it!

Thought For The Day – I am a nutritional overachiever.

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally

Yesterday we were running around in short sleeve shirts, but that didn’t last long! By evening it had turned downright chilly here in Albuquerque, and today’s high is only supposed to be 53 degrees!

We spent most of yesterday printing off copies of our various RV guides and making CDs to sell during the rally. This is our first Affinity rally, and while we have been to some big RV events over the years, I don’t think we’ve ever been to one single venue with so many vendors.

If you were looking for anything from a Fantastic Fan for your ceiling or a rooftop satellite TV dome, all the way down to wheel covers and tire pressure monitors; from headlights and auxiliary running lights to mud flaps and ladders for the back of your RV, they’ve got you covered from top to bottom and back to front. A shopaholic would be in heaven here.

The rally has some excellent seminars on all aspects of RVing, as well as some top notch entertainment lined up. Tonight legendary singer/songwriter Neil Sedaka will be performing, and tomorrow night Rita Coolidge will be the star attraction. On Sunday evening the Osmonds take the stage. I think it’s going to be a fun rally.

I try to stay out of politics and such, because I really just am not at all interested. I prefer to just live my life, roll with the flow, and try to stay under the radar. I have several people who constantly send me forwarded e-mails that would have you believe that President Obama is the devil incarnate, and just as many people forwarding me stuff about how those darned Republicans are the scourge of the earth, and I just delete them all without opening them. I think they all need bumper stickers on their cars that say “My Conspiracy Theory Can Beat Up Your Conspiracy Theory.”

In my little world, it’s all about me, and it really doesn’t matter who is in the White House, because none of them yet have offered to buy me a new bus or give me a cushy political appointment.

Extremists turn me off. My definition of an extremist is anybody who insists on sharing with me his views on religion or politics once I’ve politely said I’m not interested. Usually when people start spouting off about their political or religious opinions, I just nod my head, tune them out, and take a mental trip to Margaritaville with Jimmy Buffet.

That being said, I just had to respond to a guy yesterday. We had a couple of orders to mail out, and the fellow in line in front of me at the post office looked me over and said “You look old enough to be a Vietnam vet. Are you?”

I allowed as to how my Uncle Sam had given me an extended jungle camping trip as my high school graduation present.

“Did you hear what Obama just did?” he asked.

Now, it’s bad enough when my friends start sharing their agendas with me, but when it’s a complete stranger, I immediately start hearing Jimmy singing about shrimp boiling as we waste away in Margaritaville. So I didn’t answer him, just looked toward the counter, in the hope that the line would move quicker.

But he continued by saying “Today Obama and the Department of Homeland Security declared that all white Vietnam veterans are a national threat and he has ordered that they all be rounded up and put into concentration camps by the end of the month, along with their families.”

I tried, but even I couldn’t ignore this! Jimmy was stroking his six string and hit a sour note, and I said “What the hell are you talking about?”

“It’s true.” He insisted, “The mainstream media is keeping it a secret, but it’s all over the internet if you know where to look!”

I know I should have ignored him, but sometimes I just have to say something.

“Are you really stupid enough to believe that?” I asked him. “Do you really think that could happen? And that not one radio or television station or newspaper would report the fact that millions of Americans are headed for a concentration camp? And do you really think we’d all just go along quietly? Have you even considered the logistics of it? How could they make it happen in less than two weeks?”

“It happened to the Jews in World War II,” he insisted. “You just wait and see! I’ll be waving to you from outside the fence when they take you to the gas chamber!”

Now, I’m not going to lose any sleep over his dire predictions. I’ve ridden in Mac McCoy’s van with the windows rolled up on the drive home from the Golden Corral buffet, so I know all about gas chambers. But what really concerns me is that people that dumb are allowed to drive cars and procreate!

(And please, don’t start replying with your political viewpoints, okay? Remember, I have a delete button, and I’m not afraid to use it!)

Thought For The Day – I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes.

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally