We are into our annual slowdown in our printing schedule.

We try to have each issue of the Gypsy Journal printed and mailed by the middle of the month preceding the issue date, and five issues a year, we are usually able to meet that deadline. But every year, when it’s time to print the January-February issue, that schedule goes out the window. No matter where we are in the country or which newspaper we are using to do the printing, and no matter how far we plan ahead, we run into scheduling problems.

This is caused by several factors, including heavier than usual printing schedules, as stores are printing and mailing out special holiday advertising inserts, at the same time that press rooms are shorthanded as employees take vacation days. Because we are not a weekly or even monthly job on their schedule, we get shoved to the bottom of the pile while they take care of their regular customers’ needs. We understand it, we expect it, but it’s still frustrating.

So, like every year, the newest issue of the paper is going out later than we want it to. It’s at the printer now, and hopefully they’ll have it back to us early next week so we can get it mailed out. In the meantime, we appreciate everybody’s patience.

We have made a change to the way we do our printing, starting with this issue. Until now, we have used different printers in different locations around the country, wherever we happened to be when it was time to go to press. This has been problematic at times, and with the changes in the industry, it has only gotten worse. We never know what kind of quality we’re going to get with a new printer.

Another major problem is that the size of most newspaper pages is getting smaller and smaller, and we have resisted going to the newest size reduction. But, it has been increasingly hard to find newspapers that continue to print on our size paper at times. Last year we had to leave Alabama earlier than we had planned and drive all the way to south Texas to get printed, after last minute changes at the printer we had used in this region in the past. This year we thought that we’d have to go all the way back to Indiana from Washington, DC to get printed, when the newspaper we had planned to use switched paper sizes on us. Fortunately, we found a printer in Virginia at the last minute, but it was stressful.

So we have contracted with one of the newspapers who prints us in Michigan when we are in the Midwest to do all of our printing in the future. They have recently upgraded their systems and added the ability to allow us to upload our files to them via the internet, and once each issue is printed, they will ship it to us by truck.  They could actually handle our mailing too, but in addition to the papers we mail out, we also have several thousand extra printed of each issue, which we distribute as samples at RV rallies and RV parks we visit in our travels.

This will add quite a bit to our cost for each issue, but it will give us consistent quality from a printer we are comfortable with, and who understands our unique needs.  I’m sure we’ll have a glitch or two along the way, but we’re confident that in the long run, it will all work out.

I’m still adding new seminars to the schedule for our Arizona Gypsy Gathering rally, March 7-11 in Yuma. I still have quite a few time slots to fill in, but it’s coming together. I have posted a very preliminary seminar schedule on our rally registration page to give you an idea some of the offerings we will have. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and check it out. We’ll have over 60 different seminars by the time we’re done, so there’s sure to be plenty to meet everybody’s interest. As I said, this is just a preliminary schedule, and there will be lots of changes and additions by the time the rally starts. Be sure to register early, we’re looking forward to seeing you there!

Thought For The Day – We can’t go back in time and have a different beginning, but we can start today to make a new ending for ourselves.

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When we checked into the Peace River NACO campground on Sunday the office was closed, so the ranger said to go up to the office anytime Monday morning and pay for our stay. Apparently “anytime” is first thing in the morning, because at 10 a.m. somebody was knocking on our door.

Since we seldom get to bed before 2 a.m., we don’t get up early, so by the time I threw on some clothes and got to the door, the person was driving away in a golf cart. After I brushed my teeth and combed my five or six hairs, I went to the office and paid for our stay. Geez, we’re here for fourteen days, it’s not like we were going to stiff them out of $70.

Over the years, we have gotten a lot of flack from other RVers who seem to be offended by our sleeping schedule. More than once some older RVer has said something about “lazy” people sleeping the day away. I usually tell them I’m not lazy, I was up late working hard so I could pay into Social Security so they can get their check next month. I mean, really, is it anybody’s business when we go to bed or get up, as long as we don’t make any noise or disturb them when we’re up and they’re in bed?

Since the rain had stopped and we had a nice blue sky overhead, even if it was still rather cool, we went down to check out the boat ramp to the Peace River, here at the campground. The river was nice and calm, and if it warms up some more, we want to get our kayaks wet.

Okay, maybe we want to get our kayaks wet! I saw a sign about alligators at Lake Hancock at the Orlando Thousand Trails, and that didn’t bother me. But snakes? That’s taking things a little bit too far! I’ve heard of people wrestling alligators, but this fat boy don’t do snakes!

The Spanish moss that hangs from the live oaks trees all over Florida is even on the palm trees here at the campground! 

Our South Dakota license plates and registration for the Explorer came yesterday. The nice folks at our mail service in Sioux Falls, Alternative Resources, handled all of the paperwork, got the plates and registration, and sent them to us by Priority Mail. Since the 30 day temporary plate from the dealer where we bought the SUV expired Saturday, I was glad the plates arrived.

After picking up the license plates in the office, we drove into town to make a stop at the post office to mail off an order, then on to WalMart for a few things, and back to the campground. As we were driving back to our RV site, we stopped to take a picture of this motorhome with steer horns mounted on the front end. I wonder if this guy is from Texas?

We spent the rest of the day at home. I answered e-mails, had a long exchange with a lady in Oklahoma who is looking at a used RV and was asking my advice because she had some concerns. After hearing them (105,000 miles on a 1999 gas powered Class A, many stains on the ceiling from obvious roof leaks, a musty smell inside the coach, a generator that would not start, and a broken windshield), I told her to run, not walk, away. She still wasn’t convinced, because at only $25,000 the seller tells her it’s a heck of a deal. Yes, it is. I’m just not sure if it’s a heck of a deal for him, or for her!

Thought For The Day – Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.

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We find that a day out running around or playing, balanced out by a day at home, seems to work best, when we can do it. After our day of kayaking Tuesday, we spent Wednesday here at the Orlando Thousand Trails preserve.

In mid-morning, our friends Dave and Jean Damon came by to say hello, and to welcome us to this area. We first met Dave and Jean when we were vending at an FMCA RV rally in Ohio a while back, and hit it off well with them.

They sell 303 Protectant products, and Jean is also an excellent masseuse, whose services are in great demand everywhere they go. A couple of years ago, Jean gave me a massage after our Gypsy Gathering rally in Celina, Ohio, and by the time she was done kneading and working on me, I was so relaxed that I could hardly walk back to our motorhome!

Dave and Jean spend a lot of time in this area, so they were able to fill us in on some good places to eat and shop, and because Dave is the kind of guy who doesn’t pull any punches, he also told us about a couple of places to avoid.

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While Dave and Jean were here, Terry happened to look outside and spotted a gopher tortoise. We have seen a lot of these critters over the years, and I am always amazed at how fast they can move when they want to.

Gopher tortoises have been around for over 60 million years, making them one of the oldest living species known to man. They  live in underground burrows that average 30 feet long, and can go down as deep as 20 feet. Can you see the dirt this guy is throwing up as he heads underground?

It’s burrow is right next to our RV site, and we’re happy to have it as a neighbor. It’s a lot better than a yappy little dog!

Terry spent much of the day catching up on paperwork, while I pretty much goofed off. I had several e-mails to answer from readers wanting more information on the PaddleSki inflatable kayak that I wrote about in yesterday’s blog, and also several from folks asking about our upcoming Arizona Gypsy Gathering rally. I don’t have the rally schedule ready to post yet, there is still a lot of finalizing to do, but I guarantee you that we will have some great seminars to meet every interest!   

During the afternoon, I went over to the Activity Center here at the campground and dropped off a bundle of sample issues of the Gypsy Journal, then drove down to the campground’s dock and boat launch to check things out. I arrived just in time to see a fellow coming off the water in a very nice paddle-drive Hobie fishing kayak. He showed me a couple of nice bass he had kept for dinner, and told me that during his last hour on the water, they were hitting on about every fourth cast he made.

The other day I wrote about discounts that businesses are offering veterans in honor of Veterans Day. The RV Business website reports that Carefree RV Resorts has announced a new veterans discount program.  The company is offering veterans a year round 50% nightly discount, on a space available basis, at 35 RV parks in Florida, Texas, New Jersey, North Carolina and California. Check it out, you might save some money on a very nice RV site for a few days.

Bad Nick was busy yesterday posting a new Bad Nick Blog titled Like A Bad Rash. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Who says nothing is impossible? I’ve been doing nothing for years.

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None of us like wasting money, and in today’s economy, a lot of people are finding ways to save every penny they can. But when does thrift become less advantageous than the effort or inconvenience required to achieve it?

One example is an RVer I know who never purchases fuel at stations near an interstate exit, because he says that more often than not, he can save two to three cents per gallon by driving an extra mile or two into town. Okay, so let’s say he has a 100 gallon fuel tank, and he waits until the gauge is at the 1/4 tank level. He puts in 75 gallons of fuel, and saves $2.25 (based on 3 cents per gallon savings). But how much fuel did he burn driving the mile or two into town and back to the highway? Not to mention the hassles of dealing with surface street traffic in a big rig. And again, he tells me that more often than not he saves money. That means there are times when he doesn’t pay any less. Then those extra miles actually cost him more than if he filled up at the exit!

When it’s convenient, we usually fill up at Flying J truck stops, because they traditionally give RVers a penny a gallon discount on fuel, most have dedicated RV fuel islands, an RV dump station, and allow RVers to park overnight. I don‘t go to Flying J because of the discount, although I am happy to get it. I go because I appreciate their RV friendly-attitude.

However, there are some Flying J locations, such as Kingman, Arizona, that I will bypass to pay a little more somewhere else, because the layout of that particular Flying J makes it extremely difficult to get in and out with a big rig. Since we have a 100 gallon tank, and I seldom let our fuel level get below half, saving 50 cents is just not worth the hassle.

We all know that we can save fuel driving at 55 miles per hour, as opposed to 65 or faster. But just how much fuel can we save, and is it really worth it? A few days ago, while driving along Interstate 95 in southern Georgia, I did a test. I set our cruise control at 65 miles per hour and carefully monitored our Silverleaf VMSpc engine monitor. Over a 20 mile distance, we averaged 7.3 miles per gallon.

Then I dropped our speed down to 55 miles per hour, and reset the cruise control. Over the same flat terrain, we averaged 7.7 miles per gallon. So yes, at 55 miles per hour, we can save fuel. (By the way, ignore the 101 MPG rolling MPG on the readout, that was because I coasted into the rest area where Terry took this picture. Also ignore the 0% coolant level, my rig doesn’t have a sending unit for that, and I need to reconfigure the Silverleaf display to remove it.)

I’m terrible at math, but if I punched the right buttons on my calculator, that means that on a 1000 mile trip, on all flat terrain, we could save just over 7 gallons of fuel. Let’s assume that fuel is $3 per gallon. That’s a saving of about $21.

However, at 65 miles per hour, we were keeping up with traffic on the busy freeway. At 55 miles per hour, we had traffic piling up behind us waiting for an opportunity to get into the left lane and pass, and several times eighteen wheelers rushed up on our rear end and tailgated until they could get past. We did not feel safe driving at 55 in that kind of traffic.

Dry camping is another example.  We often pull into a WalMart, truck stop, or highway rest area to spend the night when we’re on the road. But we do it for the convenience more so than the economy. I don’t want to have to get off the highway and drive two or three miles to an RV park, unhook our tow vehicle, and back into an RV site, then hook up the campground utilities. And then in the morning I have to reverse the entire process.

When we dry camp like that, we usually run our generator for an hour or two while we watch TV and I use my desktop computer to check e-mail. That’s a couple of bucks worth of fuel, and worth it to me. However, if there is a convenient Passport America campground with pull-thru sites for $10 to $12 a night just off the highway, I’d as soon go there and have hookups.

If there is no handy WalMart or truck stop, I know RVers who will drive past that $10 or $12 campground and drive as much as five for six miles into town to dry camp at an Elks or Moose lodge. Again, is the effort worth the savings?

So what about you? What will you do to save a buck?

Thought For The Day – Everything is funny as long as it is happening to somebody else.

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Yesterday was a girls’ day out for Terry and our friend Ann Moran, while Ann’s husband Tim and I had a boys’ day in. It worked out well for everybody.

We had told our friends that we’d come down to their place in Rockledge about mid-morning, and spend the day together. The plan was that Terry and Ann were going to do some shopping and hit some of the  craft supply stores, while Tim and I visited a local museum, and then we’d meet up with the ladies for a late lunch.

My back was acting up the night before and I didn’t get a lot of sleep, and when we got to Rockledge, Tim was feeling under the weather. Plus, the electric motor on the well pump that they use for watering their lawn had failed, and a repairman was on the way to replace it.

So, we made a change in plans. Terry and Ann went ahead and did their thing, while Tim and I stayed at the house waiting for the repairman to get finished with the motor. When the job was done, Tim and I decided to just hang out at the house and visit for the afternoon. So that’s just what we did, and I think that between the two of us, we solved most of the problems of the world by the time Terry and Ann returned about 4 p.m. I really enjoyed having a quiet day with my good friend, doing nothing at all.

The space shuttle is supposed to launch Wednesday afternoon, and my buddy Greg White had e-mailed me about a good place to watch the launch, from the causeway that connects Titusville with the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Greg told us where to park, and said we’d have a nice unobstructed view of the launch across the water.

Either we went to the wrong place, or else Greg didn’t know about the new bridge they are building next to the causeway, but the view sure seemed “obstructed” to us!

No problem, we just drove a little further out the causeway, which has parking areas on both sides, and we found several places from which we can watch the lift off, if we get there early enough to beat the crowds.  The signs along the causeway say No Overnight Camping, but we saw several RVs parked there that look like they are settled in until the launch. Maybe the rules are relaxed when they have a launch, I don’t know.

We spent some time watching people fishing, or just enjoying being near the water, and Miss Terry got some very nice sunset pictures.

We wanted to have dinner at Dixie Crossroads again, but when we arrived the place was packed and people were standing in line waiting to get seated. Wow, when we were there Saturday night, we walked right in! The hostess told me the wait was about 30 minutes, and that they would stay this busy until after the crowds who came to town for the launch have left. We drove a mile so to a little Mexican restaurant called La Bamba II that we discovered on our last visit here, and had no problem getting a table. The food was excellent, and we were stuffed when we left.

Back at The Great Outdoors, there was a note on our door warning us to boil the water before we used it for drinking, brushing teeth, etc. for the next 72 hours. Apparently they had a broken pipe, and were worried about any contamination that might have occurred. We always keep at least a half tank of water on board, so it won’t be a problem, just a minor inconvenience.

A major inconvenience here is the terribly slow service we’re getting on our Verizon air card. We are only a couple of miles from town, but we are on the fringe of the signal area, and sometimes we can’t get online at all, or we get thrown off repeatedly. So much of our work is done online that this presents a real problem for us.

Hopefully today my back will cooperate and Tim will be feeling better, and we can get that museum trip in.

Thought For The Day – Be careful about reading health books. You could die of a misprint.

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