Miss Terry has said that she wants to see if a Sea Eagle inflatable kayak might suit her needs as a replacement for her heavy Manta Ray, but she didn’t want something as big as my PaddleSki 435. Tim Ryerson from Inflatable Boats 4 Less has suggested one of their sporty Fast Track kayaks for her.

As we were driving through the Thousand Trails preserve, I spotted a Sea Eagle 370 kayak in the back of a pickup truck, and stopped to ask the owner what he thought of it. In one of those small world incidents that we keep experiencing, the owner was Bob Timko from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and he and his wife Linda are new subscribers to the Gypsy Journal.

As it turns out, Bob has two Sea Eagles and is an avid fisherman who has used his inflatable boats from Florida to Alaska. In a testament to the quality of the Sea Eagles, he told us that he once ran his other one up onto a stump while using an electric trolling motor and got hung up. Bob said that he had to bounce all over the place while the trolling motor was in reverse, to finally get loose, and that he was afraid that he had done some serious damage to the boat. But Bob said that when he got back to shore and turned the kayak over, he couldn’t see a mark in it! Now that’s quality!

In addition to the two Sea Eagles, Bob has owned everything from canoes to pontoon boats. Linda told us that she is very uncomfortable in any kind of boat, but that she was so impressed with the stability of the Sea Eagles that she now goes out in the inflatable with Bob. In another vote for Tim and Crystal Ryerson’s excellent service after the sale, Bob said that any time he has had a question or concern, Tim has been quick to do whatever it takes to get it handled.  

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Quite a few readers have taken advantage of our Holiday Special offer, and if you haven’t already done so, click the link and check it out. We only have a couple of weeks left on this special offer, so don’t delay. Unfortunately, due to higher mailing costs, we cannot extend this offer to Canadian addresses, except for digital subscriptions.

Yesterday, Terry and I had to drive back down to Winter Haven to pick up the title to the Explorer from the dealership where we bought it, and then I dropped off a big load of orders at the post office. Last week I wrote that I try to avoid big stores between Thanksgiving and Christmas to avoid the crowds, but I had forgotten how busy that place is during the holiday season! There was a long line of people waiting to mail Christmas packages. I’ll be using my Stamps.com postage for everything I can in the next few weeks.

We spent two weeks at this Thousand Trails and were gone a week, but the place really filled up in our absence. There are very few empty RV sites in our section, where just a week ago there were quite a few open sites. The snowbirds are definitely flocking south! We have bumped into quite a few people we know already, and we’re looking forward to seeing even more.

Thought For The Day – The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. - Amelia Earhart

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Thank you to everybody who e-mailed get well wishes to us. We’ve come through the worst of it, and I think we’re going to live after all.

Yesterday afternoon we drove into town and dropped off bundles of sample copies of the Gypsy Journal at several RV parks. We stopped at four or five different RV parks, and it didn’t look like any of them were much more than half full. Is it going to be a slow season in Florida, or did everybody wait until after Turkey Day to hit the road?

After we finished with the RV parks, we stopped at WalMart to get some more meds, and a few things Terry needed to restock our larder. I try very hard to avoid going into any store between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but sometimes things get desperate, and a guy’s gotta do what a guy’s gotta do. I was out of Pop Tarts and Jello pudding cups.

I was surprised that the store was no more crowded than it normally is. I guess all of the Black Friday shoppers were home sleeping off their ordeal of the day before. Or maybe they’re doing more of their shopping online.

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I’m curious. How many of you blog readers shop online for Christmas gifts, or for things you need yourself? We don’t do it a lot, but last night Terry ordered a pair of those comfy Tee Pee Creepers slippers for somebody, and I’m about to order a Kodak Vi8 camcorder from Amazon for a new project I’m working on. I’m also going to contact Tim and Crystal Ryerson from Inflatable Boats 4 Less and have them send me out an electric pump for my Sea Eagle PaddleSki 435 inflatable kayak.

For fulltimers who move around a lot, being in one location long enough to receive packages can be a problem. RV parks differ in their policies about accepting mail and packages. Some will allow you to have anything sent to you, in care of the office address, others will only allow FedEx or UPS packages, and some will not allow anything at all. I much prefer a campground where I can have both packages and my regular mail sent to me, instead of having to trudge down to the post office and stand in a long line to get my mail by General Delivery.  And since the post office won’t accept FedEx or UPS general delivery packages, it can be a hassle when ordering online.

Today we are leaving the Escapees Sumter Oaks campground and are headed back to the Orlando Thousand Trails preserve so we’ll be ready to get the base plate installed in our Ford Explorer next week. We’re taking a different route back than the one we came in on a week ago, one that my friend George Sharrer tells me will shave about 15 miles off the trip. Once again, Terry will follow me in the Explorer. I’ll sure be glad when we have it set up for towing, I miss her when we travel this way. I don’t think I could enjoy being a solo RVer.

I booked us into the Thousand Trails for fourteen days, though I’m not sure we’ll actually stay that long. If we get everything wrapped up, I really want to get down to the Keys and play for a while.

Thought For The Day – Those that judge us don’t matter. Those that matter don’t judge us.

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Terry and I are still feeling crappy. I suspect that what we thought was a cold may be the flu. Whatever it is, it sucks.  We had better get well soon, because we’re about out of meds, and we both have cabin fever.

I’d like to say that I’m taking advantage of the downtime to get a lot of work done, but the truth is that my head has just been too foggy to get much accomplished. I tried writing a couple of stories over the last two days, but when I went back to read them, even I could not make any sense of what I was trying to say.

I also spent some time working on the schedule for our upcoming Arizona Gypsy Gathering rally in Yuma in March. Unfortunately, a couple of our regular seminar presenters won’t be there, due to scheduling conflicts. Mac McCoy has to be in Perry, Georgia for the FMCA convention the next week, and that doesn’t allow him any traveling time, so I’m afraid we won’t have his Fire Safety seminar. This will be the first time Mac has missed one of our rallies, but we understand the logistics that will keep him away.

I’m always looking for new seminar topics, so if you have an idea for a seminar you’d like to see, or if you have one you would like to present, send me an e-mail and tell me about it.

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For years I have done a seminar on working the road, based upon my book Work Your Way Across The USA.  But now I’m trying to put together a seminar on small businesses that RVers can operate as they travel. There are a lot of things out there that can be done from an RV, from flea market vending, to internet based businesses, RV repair, and more. If you operate a business from the road, and would care to share an idea or two, please e-mail me at editor@gypsyjournal.net.

While we’re on the subject of RV related businesses, a while back a fellow named Gary Smith, who operates an RV awning repair business in Oregon, contacted me and asked me to review a new fourteen set DVD course that teaches people how to start their own RV awning repair business. I must say that I was very impressed with Gary’s program, and if I were a handy person looking for a small RV related business to start, this is one I’d really consider.

The DVDs explain the basics of the business, including how to get started,  proven advertising techniques that have served Gary for over 20 years, and in depth explanations on how to do everything from replacing window awnings, to RV awning hardware repair, replacing awning fabric, screen rooms, and more. After watching Gary’s careful explanations and demonstrations, I think even I could swap out an awning if I had to!

Gary says that besides the DVD course, buyers can contact him anytime they run into a problem with an awning repair or installation for his expert advice on how to get the job done.

How impressed was I with Gary’s program? Enough that when we get back to Arizona, I’m going to talk to my son-in-law about the possibility of him setting up his own awning repair business!

To learn more about Gary’s RV Awning Repair Course, click the link and check it out. If you decide this might be a good business idea for you, call Gary at (541) 247-0185 and tell him I sent you, and he’ll give you a discount off the regular price of the course. Give it a look, this might be a good match for you!

While I was moaning and groaning yesterday, Bad Nick took the time to post a new Bad Nick Blog titled And Now, Your Honor. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Friends are the sailors who guide your rickety boat safely across the dangerous waters of life.

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It’s Black Friday, let the madness begin! For the next month, I will do everything in my power to avoid any WalMart, Sam’s Club, Best Buy, or any of the other big box stores. I just can’t handle the crowds and all of the “happy” holiday shoppers pushing, shoving, and scrabbling to save a buck on something, or to find that perfect Christmas gift for somebody on their shopping list. Bah humbug!

I’m not against Christmas, but we have gotten so far away from the reason for the holiday that these days, it is all about the almighty dollar. It wears me out very fast.

Miss Terry says she’s feeling somewhat better today, and I think I’m on the upswing too. I spent most of yesterday doing the same thing I did the day before, sleeping a lot and sniveling even more.

Our friends Joe and Marcia Jones came by to say hello, and we visited for a little bit before they went over to the activity center for the big Thanksgiving dinner. We stayed home, because neither of us felt like being in a crowd of people, and because we didn’t want to make everybody else sick too.

We watched some movies on the Hallmark channel, and Terry made us a delicious anchovy aioli pasta dinner, with homemade Italian bread. Who says you have to have turkey on Thanksgiving anyway? Do I look like a pilgrim to you?

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In the evening, my daughter called from Show Low, Arizona, and while I was talking to her, Terry’s mom called from Apache Junction. We miss our families during the holidays, but I have to be honest and admit that I really do like having a quiet day at home too.

We’re only going to be here at the Escapees campground a couple more days, because we are scheduled to go back to the Orlando Thousand Trails on Sunday, so we can get the Blue Ox base plate installed on the Explorer next week at Camper Connection. I’m hoping that we’ll get to feeling well enough to hit some of the local RV parks around here and drop off sample bundles of the Gypsy Journal before we leave.

Somebody wrote to ask me if I wasn’t worried about not having our whole winter booked up here in Florida, and if we were going to be able to find a campground to get into, once all of the snowbirds start flocking in during the next few weeks.

We’re really not concerned, we purposely have not booked any long term stays anywhere, because we want to be able to bounce around and do whatever we feel like doing, wherever we feel like doing it, while we’re here. Between Thousand Trails preserves, Escapee campgrounds, Passport America, Elk and Moose lodges, and VFW posts that welcome traveling members, we figure we can always find somewhere to park.

We’ve had to be someplace at some certain time for so much of the last few years that we are really enjoying the freedom of not having a schedule. The only place we have to be is Yuma in early March, for our Arizona Gypsy Gathering rally.  Hey, if worse comes to worse, there is always Camp WalMart! Wherever we end up, we’ll be together, and that’s all that matters, right?

Thought For The Day – When you’re willing to be seen as someone who makes mistakes and has flaws, you’re essentially telling yourself being human isn’t something to be ashamed of.

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Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! I hope you are having a nice holiday, and are spending it with people you love.

We are at the Escapees Sumter Oaks campground in Bushnell, Florida, and they are having a big dinner at the activity center this afternoon, but we’re going to sit it out. Miss Terry had a nasty cold earlier in the week, and while she says she is feeling somewhat better, yesterday it hit me hard. We don’t want to spread this crud to everybody else. I’m hoping we didn’t pass it on to my nephews and niece when we visited the other day. That would be a heck of a gift to bring them after a 25 year absence, wouldn’t it? They’ll probably want me to stay away another 25 years!

We never even stepped outside yesterday. I slept late, and then took part in a Skype video conference call in the mid-afternoon. I had never used Skype before, but it’s pretty cool. With a webcam and microphone, which most laptop computers come with these days, you can have a face to face visit with any other Skype user, and it’s all free! There was some lag in the video, but still, it was a great way to communicate. I need to get my daughter Tiffany to set up a free Skype account, and then I can see those beautiful little girls of hers more often!

Being a guy, I’m much more of a wimp when I don’t feel good than Terry is. While she was the sickest, she helped load the kayaks on the roof of the Explorer, packed the motorhome for traveling, drove the Explorer from the Orlando Thousand Trails preserve to the Escapees campground, and then got our home on wheels opened up and livable again.

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I, on the other hand, am totally worthless when I don’t feel good. Except for the Skype call yesterday, and a brief visit from George and Starr Sharrer, I spent much of the day napping and feeling sorry for myself. Terry didn’t walk up to the couch and kick me in the butt, but who could have blamed her if she did?

My pal Jaimie Hall Bruzenak sent me an e-mail to tell me that she and writing partner Alice Zyetz are offering a $2 discount off any of their e-books. What a great present for RVers or wannabee RVers! To take advantage of the savings, just click the link on the right hand column of this blog for their book Retire to an RV: The Roadmap to Affordable Retirement Living, or go to their RV Lifestyle Experts website and use coupon code 20RVL.

I also got an e-mail from subscriber Trisha Schmidt, asking me to pass on the word that if anyone lost one of their DIRECTV coastal feeds for the major networks, and had that service prior to May 2010, you need to call the DIRECTV telephone number that deals with RV travelers, 800 769-4635. Trisha said she was on hold over 20 minutes before she spoke to an actual person, but then she had both coastal feeds restored within a few minutes.

Apparently there has been quite a lengthy discussion about this on the Yahoo Boomer group site, and Trisha said that even though she called DIRECTV twice to be sure that she was ‘grandfathered’ in, they still disconnected her West Coast feed the other night.

She told me that DIRECTV’s website has a section for RVers having difficulties at http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/content/travelers/rvs, and that she was told that if you lose one of your coastal feeds, you only have until November 28th to remedy the problem, and after that it may not be possible to get both feeds restored.

As I said, we’re having a quiet day at home, and that’s just fine with us. We have a lot to be thankful for – overall good health, a loving marriage, wonderful family and friends, and we get to enjoy the greatest lifestyle there is, in the greatest country in the world. It just doesn’t get any better than that!

How about you? Where are you, how are you spending the day, and what are you especially thankful for this holiday season?

Thought For The Day – To know when to go away and when to come closer is the key to any lasting relationship.

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