There are already a lot of folks here at Elkhart Campground for our Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally, and with the rally just a few days away, more are rolling in every day.

Wednesday afternoon, our good friends Jim and Chris Guld from Geeks on Tour arrived, having just driven across the country from Redmond, Oregon to get here. I was so happy to see them that I forgot myself for a moment or two, and actually scratched their French poodle, Odie, behind the ears.

Jim and Chris are presenting nine seminars at the rally, including Managing Digital Photos With Picassa, GPS Navigation & Trip Planning, Google Earth, E-Mail Issues On The Road, Every RVer Needs A Blog, Blogging – Beyond The Basics, Picassa – Beyond The Basics, Internet Love Story – Living & Working On The Road, and Internet Connections On The Road. That’s a lot of information to be shared. Jim and Chris have a tremendous following, and their seminars are always packed.

Then, yesterday evening two of our favorite people in the world, Stu and (Froggi) Donna McNichol, pulled in next to our Winnebago. We’ve known Donna for a long time, ever since she was one of our students at Life on Wheels, and we got to meet Stu at our Western rally in Yuma, Arizona in March. We instantly felt a bond with Stu, and we enjoyed our time together there. I have kept up with their blog, 2 Taking A 5th, just to see what new adventures they have had.

Another couple we have known a long time, Joe and Marcia Jones, also arrived a couple of days ago. We haven’t had time to tour their beautiful new to them Kountry Star diesel pusher, though we have seen plenty of pictures in their Chasing the 70s blog.

There are so many other folks here that I can’t remember everybody’s names, but it sure is great to see everybody.

Yesterday, I made what I hope are the final changes to the rally seminar schedule. Since we ran out of rooms, some of the seminars will be in the big tent we rented, and hopefully that will work out okay for everybody. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.

While I was busy with that, Miss Terry went to Office Max to pick up the name tag blanks for the rally, then to Sam’s Club and WalMart to buy the coffee, hot chocolate mix, tea, sweetener, creamer, Styrofoam cups, and everything else we’ll need for the morning coffee and donuts at the rally.

It costs us over $1,000 for the coffee and donuts, cups, etc that we go through at a four day RV rally, so we were delighted when we got a message yesterday that the nice folks at Bradd & Hall furniture here in Elkhart wanted to sponsor them for one of the rally days, to help offset our costs. How cool is that? Bradd & Hall is a major retailer of RV furniture, and last summer when we visited their showroom, we found some great deals on chairs, sofas, and tables.  They also have RV flooring, day/night shades, and other goodies for your motorhome, bus conversion, fifth wheel, or travel trailer.

We’re getting down to the wire now, and there is still a lot to do before the rally starts. But we’ve got a lot done already, and a lot of folks here who are ready, willing, and able to pitch in for whatever needs done.

Thought For The Day – Don’t worry about avoiding temptation. As you grow older, it will avoid you.

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally!

After the whirlwind activity of getting the new issue of the Gypsy Journal finished, printed, and mailed, it was nice to have a day when we didn’t have to do anything. Yesterday we slept in, and when we got up, Miss Terry made a delicious brunch of crepes. Yummy!

We spent some time checking e-mail and visiting some of our favorite websites, and handling a few little chores around the motorhome. Miss Terry did a couple of loads of laundry, and I dumped our black tank. Then we prepared a few orders we needed to mail out.

Eventually we got ourselves in gear and drove 26 miles into Pinetop-Lakeside, where we stopped at the post office to mail out the orders. Then we stopped at a yarn shop, where Miss Terry looked for some yarn she needs for a crochet project, but they didn’t have anything she wanted.

From there, we drove to my friend Jim Lewis’ Pinetop Book Exchange. Jim and I go back about 25 years, and he is one of the treasures in my life. Soon after we arrived, Jim’s lovely wife Shar showed up, and we swapped lies and told stories for a couple of hours, until it was time for Jim to close up shop for the day.

Then we all walked a few doors down to El Rancho, one of our favorite Mexican restaurants, and one we never miss when we’re back in our old hometown area. The food was delicious, and the easy conversation among old friends was comfortable and fun.

When we left Jim and Shar, we stopped at the Lowes in Show Low, to pick up the new wooden Levolor window blinds we had ordered to replace the day/night shades in our Winnebago.

With them loaded into the van, our next stop was at my daughter Tiffany’s house. Seven year old Hailey wanted to show us her brand new cast, and Grandpa and Grandma Terry got to sign it. Thanks to everybody who wrote and expressed concern over Hailey’s injury. At first there was some concern that she might need surgery to repair the damage, but her doctor said he expects a full recovery, with no complications.

It was getting close to the kids’ bedtime, so we didn’t stay too long. Our final stop for the day was at Wal-Mart, where Miss Terry looked again for the yarn for her project. They didn’t have what she needed, so we headed back to the motorhome at Juniper Ridge RV Resort.

Starting tomorrow, we have more bad weather headed our way, with wind tomorrow, then low temperatures and thunderstorms for the next few days after that.  We’ll probably stay close to home and piddle around, except for an occasional trip into town to see Tiffany and her family. I have quite a bit of computer work to catch up on, and Terry needs some time to wade through a backlog of paperwork, so we have plenty to keep us busy.

Bad Nick has already been busy, posting a new Bad Nick Blog titled An Uproar In Arizona. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day -  A clear conscience is a soft pillow.

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally! 

I got the new issue of the Gypsy Journal wrapped up yesterday, so today we’ll make a run to Flagstaff to drop it off at the printer. It’s about 120 miles each way, and while we’re in the “big city” we’ll stop at Sam’s Club to pick up some supplies. This is our Eleventh Year Anniversary Issue, and it sure feels good to reach another milestone!

My granddaughter Destiny had her own milestone yesterday, when she turned three years old. We had cake and ice cream, and wondered again where little ones get so much energy! Here’s the birthday girl with her cake.

And here’s a picture Miss Terry took of my daughter Tiffany and me. You can tell that she didn’t get her good looks from her daddy.

We have never liked the day/night shades that come on most RVs, and since a couple of them need restringing, we decided that rather than deal with that, we’d replace them with wooden blinds. Miss Terry has spent a lot of time online comparing options, and over the last few months we had stopped at several home improvement stores to see what we liked and what fit our motorhome.

After we left the birthday party, we stopped at Lowes and placed an order for the blinds, which should arrive in about two weeks.  We chose Lowes because the pricing was comparable to Home Depot across the street, but Lowes gives veterans a 10% discount. I appreciate that, and try to spend my money with stores that support our troops and vets.

When I handed the clerk my credit card to pay for the blinds, it was declined. Huh? No way. I told her that there must be a mistake, so we tried it twice more, and the card was declined both times. That’s really embarrassing. I used a different card, and the minute we got back to the Winnebago, I called my bank to see what the problem was, since I knew I had the money available.

After shuffling me between a couple of different customer service representatives, they told me that yes, my account is in fine standing, but they had declined the charge because our billing address is in Nevada, and this was a “large purchase” in Arizona. “We do this to protect you,” the young lady on the other end of the phone told me.

This has happened to us before, and it really ticks me off. I always feel like telling them that I’m 57 years old, I spent more time in uniform than they spent in high school, and I’m heavily armed to boot. I can look after myself, so stop protecting me!

I pointed out to the young lady that the name on my account includes the words “RV Travel Newspaper,” which might imply that we travel, and that we frequently make “large purchases” from Arizona to Florida to Michigan, and points in between.

Once we got that resolved, we had a quiet evening at home. Miss Terry gave the new issue a final proof reading and I made the changes necessary, then we had a light dinner and I posted a travel story to the RV Net Blog while we watched a movie on the Hallmark Channel.

Thought For The Day – Closed minds always seem to be connected to open mouths.

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Today is a very special day for myself and Miss Terry. It’s our twelfth anniversary, and we still feel (and often act) like newlyweds. This was not the first marriage for either of us, and believe me, it was not something that either one of us was looking for, or expected to happen. But isn’t that the way it sometimes goes? We often find the best things in life when we least expect them.

I’m a very fortunate man to be able to live this dream life that I have, to make a living doing something most people can only dream of, and to be able to share it with my best friend in the world. And tonight I’m taking my best girl out for a nice, romantic dinner. I love you, Terry.

Yesterday, I was sitting at my desk writing when suddenly a volley of gunshots went off right outside our motorhome! That will make your blood pressure shoot way up! I wasn’t sure what was happening, but in today’s world who knows? As it turns out, we didn’t have a crazed mass murderer running wild through the park. It was an America Legion Honor Guard firing a gun salute as part of a memorial service for one of the park’s residents who recently passed away. Geez, they should warn a guy before they do things like that!

Little things like gunplay never bother Miss Terry. She spent part of the day yesterday installing one of the new day/night shades in our bedroom, and discovered that it was more of a job then she had expected. Of course, it didn’t help that the company that supplied the blinds did not send any mounting hardware or installation instructions. But she eventually figured it out.

To prove that there isn’t much she can’t do, Terry also decided to make a batch of Asiago cheese bagels. This was only the second time in her life that she had made bagels, and she said her first attempt years ago produced something more akin to hockey pucks than food. But not this time! They turned out yummy! 

I received two different e-mails from readers yesterday about the problems they are having securing financing for RVs. One person is a retired Marine officer with excellent credit, and he has been using the same bank for years. They financed his current motorhome, which he has a lot of equity in, and he said his bank was ready to approve the loan on the new unit until they realized that he is a fulltimer, with no “fixed” residence. Then they turned him down.

The other e-mail was from a gentleman who said his credit union would not finance the fifth wheel he and his wife live in fulltime, but they would refinance his truck. As he said, “Go figure – I can drive the truck away easier than pulling away my fifth wheel!”

I have no idea how the bean counters at financial institutions think, or why they make the decisions that they do, but I did recommend that both of these men call Eileen Gilmore at Alliant Credit Union at (773) 462-9642 and tell her I told them to call. After the financial setback we had from Terry’s cancer, and being self-employed fulltimers, even our own bank, that we’ve used for over 25 years, would not talk to us when we were RV shopping.

But, Eileen got us financed in no time at all, because she took the time to listen to us, look at our credit history, and do the extra work to get us taken care of. I don’t get a penny from referring anybody to Eileen, and she is not an advertiser. I just like to help spread the word about good business people who go the extra mile for their customers.

Of course, Bad Nick just likes to spread controversy, so he posted a new Bad Nick Blog titled Can He Walk On Water Too? Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Procrastination is the thief of time.

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For the most part the RV lifestyle is extremely safe, especially in terms of personal safety. I have always told new RVers that they have more to fear from an RV fire, or the idiot coming at them at 60 miles an hour riding three tons of steel, than they do from a criminal. An incident last night has proven to me just how wrong I have been.

We have been parked at an RV repair facility in Elkhart, Indiana having some repairs and upgrades done to our motorhome. Yesterday afternoon we picked up the fellow who flew in from California to buy our bus, and a friend who came to help him drive it back, at the airport in South Bend.

By the time we drove back to Elkhart, showed them the bus, got them checked into a hotel, and took them to dinner, it was almost 9 p.m. when we drove back to the repair shop, where our motorhome was parked in their small camping area. It’s a pretty dark place, and ours was the only occupied RV there. As we arrived, Terry said “Someone broke into our rig!” Sure enough, there was a softball sized hole in the door window. As I got out of the van and went up to the RV, Terry yelled “He’s still inside!” and I found myself face to face with a husky young black man coming out the door.

Now, I have been in the military, saw combat, I was a firearms instructor, have owned and carried a handgun most of my adult life, and have concealed weapons permits from two different states. But this lifestyle has made me complacent, and I seldom carry on a regular basis. And, when going to an airport, that is a big No No. So I wasn’t armed.

Our burglar, on the other hand, was armed with one of my own handguns, and as I yelled at him to show me his hands, he raised one of my Glock 9mm pistols toward us. The smart thing to do when we first spotted the broken window was to back off and call the police, but this all happened in a matter of seconds.

When I saw the gun in his hand, my only thought was to keep him from using it, so I slammed the door shut on his hand, with him inside the RV and me outside, and then slammed it a second (and maybe third time), shattering the rest of the glass in the door. He dropped the gun, then ran past me to get away as I recovered the weapon. My first thought was to shoot him as he fled, but I’m not going to kill anybody for a few material possessions, and the threat to us was over.

Meanwhile, Terry was in the van and on the phone talking to the 911 operator, and I stayed outside, because I didn’t know if there was anybody else inside the RV, and I have other firearms on board. Terry handed the phone out the window to me because the operator wanted to talk to me, and about then I saw the same guy poking his head around the corner of the building. Not knowing if he was armed, I pointed my pistol at him and told him if he took one step toward us I was going to kill him. Fortunately for both of us, he backed off and ran away.

The police used a dog to track him from the RV around the building to where he came back, and then off to a service road, where the scent disappeared. He must have had an accomplice who fled when we pulled into the parking lot, because he appeared empty handed when he ran, but we are missing a flat screen LCD TV, netbook computer, my Seiko wristwatch, the cable for my Silverleaf engine monitor (which was plugged into the computer), and we won’t know what else until we take a total inventory.

Inside, the motorhome, there was a big pile of things in the entryway, including a couple of handguns, our Wii, DVD player, digital SLR camera and other stuff he had ready to take when we interrupted him.

He, or they, also trashed our RV. There is broken glass everywhere, they cut a big triangle into the driver’s seat and pulled out part of the stuffing, ripped down the day/night shades in the bedroom, and threw stuff everywhere as they ransacked the place. The police dusted for fingerprints, and left a mess of stubborn black powder that is almost impossible to clean up.

But at least nobody got hurt. We are shaken, we feel totally violated, and I’m pissed off, both at the thief or thieves, and at myself. If they had to steal something because they are too damned lazy to work, okay, do it. But why vandalize our home in the process?

As for myself, I have become complacent in this lifestyle, and I let my guard down. Getting ripped off is one thing; almost getting shot with my own gun is unacceptable. You can bet that the next time I leave my motorhome, I’ll have more than my empty hand to point at whomever might be waiting for me when I come back home!

With the window busted out and temperatures down in the 20s overnight, there was no way we could stay there, and we were not about to anyway, in case they came back. I called our friend Michele Henry from Phoenix Commercial Paint and explained our plight, and even though it was late at night, Michele came back to the shop and opened it up so we could pull the motorhome inside and stay out of the worst of the weather until we can start dealing with things Monday morning. In the meantime, we are safe, and just coming down off the adrenalin high the incident gave us.

Thought For The Day – Count not what is lost, but what is left.

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