That old Boy Scout motto comes in handy in the RV lifestyle, just as it does in the rest of the world.

Early one morning this week, the campground host here at the Show Low Elks campground came to our door to tell us that a construction crew had broken a sewer line near the campground, and city workers had asked that nobody flush their toilets or use their sinks until repairs were made, which could be up to four hours.

Not a problem for us, we had lots of room in our black tank, and since we are in a full hookup RV site, I had the valve to our gray tank open, so it was empty. I closed the valve and we were just fine. I don’t know what the folks in the houses near the campground did, but for us life went on like normal.

We’re not survivalists, but we always try to be prepared for whatever happens, so that things that cause inconveniences to others aren’t even a speed bump for us. We keep our fresh water tank at least half full, even in a full hookup campground, because we’ve had the water shut off for repairs more than once. We keep our fuel tank close to full, even when sitting still for a few weeks, because if the electricity goes out, our generator can supply all the power we need.

We try to be prepared for the unexpected when we’re on the road too. We very seldom make advance campground reservations, because we like the freedom of not having to be on a schedule, but we usually have a general idea of where we plan to spend the night. Before we pull onto the highway, I also have an idea of alternate stops, usually every 50 miles or so apart, along the way that we can get into if bad weather, traffic delays, or mechanical problems delay us. These may be truck stops or RV friendly businesses, a city park or fairgrounds that allows RV parking, or an Elks or Moose lodge.  That way we’re never pushed to drive into inclement weather or past dark to get someplace.

We are also aware of what is happening around us as we travel. If we see traffic starting to slow down, we monitor the CB radio to find out if there is an accident or bad weather ahead, so we can find an alternate route or get off the road into a safe place until the crisis has passed.

As RVers, we usually have the ability to avoid or drive away from areas where bad weather threatens us. But if we happen to find ourselves in some ungodly place like Tornado Alley, a good weather radio will alert us to approaching storms. If we are in a campground that is new to us, we always find out where the storm shelters are, and if we happen to be in a Wal-Mart parking lot or some such, we try to scope out a secure building we can hide out in if things get out of hand.

It doesn’t take much to be prepared, and when you are, it can negate ordinary inconveniences, and help us avoid or survive potential emergencies.

Of course, Bad Nick is always prepared, at least to give us things to ponder. Check out his new Bad Nick Blog post titled You Can’t Make This Stuff Up! and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Make it idiot proof, and someone will make a better idiot.

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There are a lot of reasons I think Al Gore needs a mouth transplant, and his theory of global warming is just one of them. Spend a day or two here in northern Indiana this time of year, and I bet you’ll agree that global warming is an urban legend. Damn, it’s cold!

Our Winnebago Ultimate Advantage has a heat pump, which is new to us. The idea is that down to a certain temperature, we can run the heat pump instead of the gas furnace, and save propane.

At this point, I’m not all that impressed with this option. The heat pump is okay during the day, but it is part of the basement air conditioning system, which is mounted under the motorhome, about where our bed is inside. At night it is very loud, and I’m a light sleeper, so when it’s cold enough to need heat at night, I’ll opt for the gas furnace. I’d rather buy some propane than be cold, or have my sleep interrupted every time the heat pump comes on.

Better yet, I’ll go someplace warm. And you can bet that as soon as we get the new issue of the Gypsy Journal printed and mailed, we’ll be out of here.

Old diesel engines don’t like the cold weather any better than I do. Yesterday Ron Speidel and I tried to help Al Hesselbart, from the RV Hall of Fame Museum, get the diesel engine and diesel generator on his vintage Newell motorhome to start, without any success.

Our MCI bus conversion is parked next to Al’s rig, and I know that with the block heater we had installed last year it will fire right up, but I hope whoever buys the bus has the good sense to head for the sunbelt too. We spent several months living in our first motorhome in northern Michigan during the winter years ago while Miss Terry was being treated for cancer, and we vowed never to do that again. My motto is, if it snows, Nick goes!

Even with all of the filthy talk from the truckers, I still find having a CB radio in an RV to be very handy. Our CB has alerted us to traffic accidents and bad weather ahead, helped us find a way around traffic backups, and the built in weather radio can be a life saver.

Our Winnebago came with a CB antenna pre-installed, and it was pre-wired to hook up a CB radio. So yesterday, after we finally gave up on starting Al’s rig, Ron Speidel installed my Cobra CB radio.

I’ve also been thinking about downloading the free Silverleaf VMSpc software, which allows diesel owners to monitor their engine’s performance and keep up with the maintenance schedule. While the program is a free download, you do need to purchase a cable that plugs into the engine data port under the dash and connects to a laptop computer.

While Ron was prowling around under the dashboard hooking up the CB, he located the data port for me, and marked it so I can plug in the data cable if I decide to go with the Silverleaf. I’d be interested in hearing from any readers who use the Silverleaf, and getting your feedback on it. Some people call it a very handy tool, and others say it’s just another gadget. What do you think?

While I was outside freezing my butt off yesterday, Bad Nick was inside snug and warm,  hard at work postng a new blog titled The Sky Is Still Falling!

Thought For The Day – You are the creator of your own reality show. If you don’t like your part in it, rewrite the script.

A cold front dipping south brought very strong winds to Apache Junction, Arizona yesterday afternoon and evening. At our spot here in Pacific Manor, we are on an end site, with a six foot high block wall on one side and the rear, but even with that our old bus was rocking on its air bags so much it would have made a landlubber seasick! I told Miss Terry I wondered how much more we would have felt without the wall blocking the wind. I’m sure glad we weren’t out on the highway someplace.

We’ve been in some nasty winds while traveling, and the best thing to do is just find a safe place to get off the road and wait it out. We’ve done that many times, not only in high winds, but in other storms as well, and we’ve always been amazed at how many RVs we see still going down the highway.

We’ve also been in RV parks when the weather was dangerous, and seen RVs pulling out first thing in the morning. Why? Where do they have to get in such a hurry? I guess if you’re still working and have to get back to the job, it might be a reason. But I’ve seen fulltimers doing it too, and I just don’t understand it. I’m a dyed in the wool coward, and I avoid putting myself in dangerous situations any time I can. Life has enough hazards as it is, without driving into them.

Which reminds me – do you have a weather radio? If not, why not? They only cost a few bucks, and can save your life. Our CB radio has a weather channel feature on it also, and whenever we’re on the road and things start to look ugly, I turn it on to see what we’re heading into. I also monitor the CB to hear what the truckers say about the weather, and more than once we’ve heard about a bad situation up ahead and found a place to pull over and wait for things to clear up.

Our time here in Apache Junction is almost over, but we’ve enjoyed spending time with Terry’s family. Here is a photo I took earlier in the week of Terry sitting on the right, her sister Dani in the center and sister Lisa on the left, with her dad and mom, Pete and Bess Weber, standing behind them. That Weber family sure turns out some good looking women, doesn’t it?

A while back, my pal Judy Bayless discovered that I had about seventeen minutes a week that I was just wasting by doing things like sleeping and eating, so she turned me on to genealogy. Since then I’ve been playing around on the Ancestry.com website, and have found quite a few relatives, even a few that didn’t serve time in prison, much to my surprise.

The Mormon Church operates over 4,500 Family History Centers worldwide, with a tremendous amount of information on genealogy. You don’t have to be a member of the Mormon Church to research your family tree at these Centers, they are open to anybody free of charge. The staff at the Centers are happy to assist both new and experienced genealogists, and they do not promote church membership to visitors.

There is a large Family History Center in Mesa, and yesterday while Terry and her mom were out running some errands, I stopped by to see what they had to offer. Unfortunately, their computer system was down and I couldn’t get much done. But I can see that it is a great resource for anyone wanting to explore their roots. If you’re into genealogy and are spending some time in the Phoenix area, check it out.

Every week people ask me how Sandy Baleria is doing. Miss Terry and Sandy keep in contact by e-mail, and though it is a long and lonely journey she is on, she has managed to turn her grief over Dave’s loss into a positive thing to reach out to others who are suffering. You can read about it in my post on Sandy on my Todays Hero Blog.

Thought For The Day - Talk slowly but think quickly.

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