We all like saving a buck when we can, and in today’s blog, I want to share a few good deals, and even a freebie or two, that may make you smile.

With Veterans Day this Thursday, even though the “official” holiday isn’t celebrated until next Monday, several restaurant chains  are honoring veterans with free meals. Military veterans and active-duty service members are invited to eat free at any Hooters, Chili’s, or Applebee’s restaurant on Veteran’s Day, Thursday, November 11.  Outback Steakhouse is offering veterans a free Bloomin Onion and a beverage on Thursday.

Continuing a 10 year tradition, Golden Corral restaurants nationwide will be holding their Military Appreciation dinner on Monday, November 15. All veterans, and those currently on active duty or serving in the National Guard or Reserves, will receive a free dinner and beverage.

Both Lowes and Home Depot also offer veterans a 10% discount every day of the year. I don’t know about you, but I really appreciate a business that honors our nation’s veterans like this!

But you don’t have to be a veteran to get great deals! This Thursday, the National Park Service is admitting everybody free at more than 100 national parks that usually charge entrance fees. You can get free entrance to national parks next year during National Park Week, April 16-24, 2011; on Public Lands Day, September 24, 2011; and on Veteran Day, November 11, 2011.

Speaking of national parks, the annual America the Beautiful Pass costs $80 and admits the pass holder, and anyone in their non-commercial vehicle, into fee areas at national parks and historic sites nationwide. If you are age 62 or older, the America the Beautiful Senior Pass costs $10 and is good for life. The pass admits the pass holder, and anyone in their non-commercial vehicle, into fee areas at national parks and historic sites nationwide. For those with a permanent disability, the America the Beautiful Access pass gives the same discounts and is free. Note that you do not have to be 100% disabled to qualify for this pass, anybody with a documented disability of any kind is eligible.

The other day, my pal (Froggi) Donna McNicol had a link on Facebook to a great website where you can download free Kindle books. These are wonderful old classics by authors like Louisa May Alcott, L Frank Baum, Agatha Christie, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Herman Melville, and many more.

I don’t have a Kindle any more, but I have my iPad linked to my old Amazon Kindle account, and downloaded a couple of classic books that I have always wanted to read, but never got around to. You can even read these free books on your computer or smart phone with the free Kindle app from Amazon. Check it out at http://www.fonerbooks.com/free.htm. 

Terry and I always want to help our readers save a buck when we can. We used to run an end of year holiday special, and we got away from it for some reason. So, just in time for your Christmas shopping, here we go. If you subscribe or renew your existing Gypsy Journal subscription for two years, we’ll also send a one year gift subscription ($20 value) to whoever you choose, with a note that it’s a gift from you. This applies to both printed subscriptions to U.S. addresses by Standard Rate mail, and digital subscriptions.  Just click this Holiday Special Offer link and place your order. Sometimes the PayPal website gets stubborn and will only let you enter one address, so if this happens, use yours for the two year subscription, and send me an e-mail at editor@gypsyjournal.net with the name and address for the gift subscription. You can take advantage of this special offer even if your current subscription is not yet due for renewal. We’ll extend your subscription to reflect the two year renewal. This special offer is valid now through December 15, so act today to take advantage of the savings!

One final note before I close for today. Somebody sent me an e-mail about yet another Norcold refrigerator recall. Don’t let this go by, be safe and check it out  at http://www.norcoldrecall.com/ and see if your refrigerator is included in the recall. The repair is free, and it could save you from having an RV fire.

Thought For The Day – It’s always darkest just before the dawn. So if you’re going to steal your neighbor’s newspaper, that’s the time to do it.

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Our friends Ron and Brenda Speidel call me Gadget Boy, because I always want to check out the newest electronic gizmos. But I have an excuse; I want to be able to tell all of our great readers about them, both the good and the bad. At least that’s what I tell Miss Terry when she rolls her eyes at me when I start salivating over some new toy.

I write about the things when I try them out, but I get a lot of questions from readers asking how I feel about something down the line, after I’ve used it for a while. So here we go, we’ll call this the Gadget Boy Report.

Blackberry Storm – I’ve been using this “smart phone” since last summer, and I have a love-hate relationship with it. Being able to access my e-mail anywhere I am during the day, and respond if necessary, is wonderful. The phone saves me a lot of time and trouble with just that feature alone. The text display and keypad are both large enough to read and use easily, unlike many cell phones I have seen. It has features and applications that can do a number of great things that I could appreciate, if I only had the time to learn how to do them.

The biggest downside for me is that the darned phone is almost worthless anytime I’m any distance from a cell tower. The signal is just too weak. At the Escapees RV park in Summerdale, Alabama, we were maybe four or five miles from town, at most. Terry’s cell phone, and the old LG that we use for business calls, both worked fine, but the Blackberry constantly dropped calls and cut out. I also have problems with the display. If you are making a call, you have to jump through a couple of hoops to get the keypad back on the screen in case you need to “Press 1 for English.” Another problem is that, during a call, it is very easy to move the phone in such a way that your cheek presses the Mute button, and all of a sudden, the person on the other end cannot hear you.    

Amazon Kindle – I absolutely love the concept of the Kindle, the Sony e-book reader, and the similar devices on the market. They make great sense for RVers, where weight is an important consideration. They are lightweight, easy to read, and you can store a ton of books on them.

That being said, I sold my Kindle a while back. I found that I just wasn’t using it enough. I love prowling through bookstores, I love the feel of a real book in my hands, and I gravitate to used book stores like a duck to water. Most fiction paperbacks for the Kindle cost about $10, but I can’t sell or trade them after I read them. I can buy the same book for $7.50 to $10 at Wal-Mart, then get ¼ the cover price in trade when I take it to a used book store, or I can pass it on to a friend when I’m finished with it. I also read a lot of non-fiction books, and the quality of photographs, charts and illustrations on the Kindle was very poor.

Silverleaf VMSpc Engine Monitor – This is one addition to our motorhome that I would not be without. Besides providing more accurate information than my dashboard gauges, it monitors our diesel engine’s performance, computes fuel mileage, explains any error codes that might show up, and a lot more. One RVer told me that when his engine was giving him an error code, a shop wanted $3,000 to fix the problem, and the Silverleaf revealed that it was a quick and easy (and cheap) fix. It more than paid for itself right there!

Verizon Air Card – Air cards have pretty much killed the satellite internet industry for RVers. Ours has provided excellent service coast to coast, and there were more times we couldn’t get online with our Hughes dish than there have been with the air card. Coupled with a Wilson Trucker antenna, Wilson amplifier, and a Cradlepoint wireless router, we can both be online on our own computers. It is a hard combination to beat.

Progressive Industries EMS System – The EMS system in our bus conversion saved us from damage a couple of times, and getting another installed in the Winnebago was the first order of business when we bought it. If you don’t have an EMS system, you are playing Russian Roulette every time you plug into a campground’s electrical pedestal.

PressurePro – If you have read more than a few of my blog posts, you already know how much I rely on our PressurePro tire monitoring system. It’s another “must have” for every RV, in my opinion. It can save your tires, your RV, and even your life!

We have a couple of other items that we haven’t installed yet that we want to get to, if the weather will ever cooperate. One is an automatic engine bay fire suppression system from Mac McCoy, and the other is an automatic fire extinguisher for the refrigerator compartment. Both are easy installations, and both can save your RV from becoming a total loss in a fire. We want to get them installed very soon.

Thought For The Day – Happiness is an inner emotion; it is being at peace with who you are.

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Would somebody please check their calendar and let me know what month it is? My calendar swears that it’s the middle of June, but that can’t be right, because yesterday it was so gray and gloomy that I’m sure it must be sometime in November!

I have been busy working on the new issue of the paper all week, but I did take a couple of hours off last night to go to the Verizon store for their free class on how to use my new Blackberry Storms’ many features. I’m amazed at how much they can cram into such a small package. I’ve only had the smart phone for a few days, but I’m more impressed with it every day.

Isn’t technology a wonderful thing? By simply turning on my computer, I can plan a trip, buy a book, do my banking, keep in touch with family and friends all over the country, and participate in online forums on anything and everything under the sun.

I have made friends with RVers from different internet forums, and have had online conversations with them for years. Some I have met eventually in our travels, while others are still out there waiting to cross paths.

My favorite RV forum is the Escapees Discussion Forum, which should be the first place any new RVer logs onto, as well as those with years of experience. Whenever I have a question about anything, whether it is RV related or in things like selecting my new Blackberry, I make a post on the appropriate section of the Escapees forum and usually within minutes the replies start arriving. I try to return the favor by answering other folks’ questions anytime I have input I can share.  According to the Escapees statistics, I have made over 2,200 posts since I joined the forum in 2002.

Another RV forum with a lot of very good information is IRV2. I don’t log on there as much as I do Escapes, because there are only so many hours in a day, and Miss Terry insists I do some work now and then. I particularly like the Owners Forums on IRV2, where you can get input on just about any brand of RV from people who own them.

I seldom go onto the RV.net forum, just because I can’t spend my whole life online, but it is another popular site with a lot of RVers I know.

Every forum seems to have its own personality. The Escapees forum is pretty friendly, but I have known several people who have left the RV.net forum because they got flamed by some self-appointed critic for innocent posts. Unfortunately, this can happen on any forum, and newbies are sometimes especially targeted before they learn the ropes.

When we were building our MCI bus conversion, I spent a lot of time on the bus conversion forums, but I seldom go onto them any more. I learned a lot, but there are too many guys on them with what I call “Mine’s Bigger” syndrome, and they get tiresome. 

What RV forums and websites do you frequent on a regular basis?

Thought For The Day – Don’t take guilt trips. There are much better destinations available.

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