Today is the last day to take advantage of our Two For One Holiday Special. So if you haven’t clicked the link above, there’s still time. You can enter a new subscription to the Gypsy Journal for yourself, or renew your subscription early, and we’ll give someone on your Christmas shopping list a free one year subscription, with a note that it is a gift from you. All you have to do is enter your mailing address, and send me a separate e-mail with the name of the recipient of your gift subscription at editor@gypsyjournal.net and we’ll do the rest. The special ends tonight at midnight, so if you snooze, you lose!

It’s still unbelievably cold here in Fort Lauderdale, but at least the wind has stopped. We’d like to do some sightseeing while were in this area, but between having to get the new issue of the paper finished, and the weather, I don’t know if we’ll do much of anything but stay home and work.

I got an e-mail from my friend Tom Owen down in Key West yesterday, and he said they tied a record low, set in 1952, and that folks on that tropical island are running around in winter coats, gloves, mufflers and longshoreman caps. Tom said that the wind chill was 30 degrees in Key West! We won’t be going to the Florida Keys this year after all!

Speaking of the cold weather, I have been exchanging e-mails with a couple who are staying in their RV, in a relative’s driveway in the upper Midwest, until after the holidays. They wrote to ask for advice because their water lines were frozen, and I suggested that they put a droplight in their utility bay with a 25 watt bulb. That’s what we did when we were stuck in northern Michigan years ago during Terry’s battle with cancer, and it kept it toasty warm in the water bay.

They replied that their son didn’t want them to do that, because it would run up his electric bill. I also suggested they use heat tape on any exposed water lines, but the lady wrote back and said that was an “awful lot of trouble” and asked me if there wasn’t a simpler way to solve the problem. Uh, yeah, there is. Turn the key and get the heck out of there!

My friend Chris Guld from Geeks on Tour spent most of the afternoon yesterday helping me make some changes in our e-mail program, laying the groundwork for migrating our websites to another host, and talking about where we want to go with our online business in the future. The technology is changing on a daily basis, and it is amazing what we can now offer our readers online.

Later in the afternoon, Chris and her hubby Jim treated us to a wonderful seafood dinner at a restaurant called Catfish Deweys,  that is a local landmark. I had the blackened seafood platter and Miss Terry had blackened catfish, and both were excellent. Thanks Jim and Chris!

Bad Nick has been quiet for a while because he has been on strike, protesting the cold weather. But he finally got of his duff yesterday and posted a new Bad Nick Blog titled Snappy Comebacks. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – You shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands. You need to be able to throw something back sometimes.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

I think we missed a turn somewhere along the way south, and instead of Fort Lauderdale, we ended up at the South Pole! I mean really, 33 degree overnight lows just 30 miles from Miami? Really? Isn’t that just a little bit ridiculous? Uh huh, global warming, sure. Would somebody get that damned penguin off my patio!

Yeah, I know, they are having blizzard conditions in Indiana and Michigan. I don’t care! I’m not in Indiana or Michigan! I left Indiana and Michigan and came to warm, sunny Florida!  Did I mention it was 33 degrees here overnight?

Yes, I’m sniveling. Get used to it. I intend to snivel until it hits at least 72 degrees and stays there. And don’t be surprised if I throw in a pout, a tantrum or two, and some serious bitching until it warms up!

Yesterday my friend Chris Guld, from Geeks on Tour, spent several hours with us, going over a lot of technical issues with our websites and e-mail. I would really like to move all of my websites off the Yahoo servers and to some other hosts. Over the years, Yahoo has messed things up so many times, and their technical support is terrible when you call with a problem. But I didn’t want to try moving to a new hosting company until Chris was available to help deal with any problems that might come up.

Chris has some concerns about moving the websites, and I’m not sure what we’ll end up doing yet. I defer to her in things like this, because that lady has more computer knowledge in her little finger than I do in my whole pasty, flabby body.  

Late in the day we went to the post office to mail out some orders, and when we came back, we stopped at J.C. and Beverly Webber’s beautiful Country Coach motorhome for a tour. Wow, what a palace on wheels!

The four of us went out to a great Chinese restaurant for dinner, called the Dragon Gourmet Buffet. The selection was huge, and everything was hot, fresh, and delicious.  

Even with the unseasonably cold weather, this is still snowbird season in Florida, and this great You Tube video pretty much sums things up. It’s just as applicable if you’re in the Rio Grande Valley; Yuma, Arizona, or any other snowbird roost. check it out, I guarantee you’ll get a giggle.

I wrote a couple of weeks ago that something inside our door lock got out of synch, and we had to have a mobile tech fix it. Yesterday when we started out the door, I stuck my key in the lock to turn it, and the entire lock cylinder fell out! We can still secure the door with the deadbolt, but I think it’s time to just replace the entire thing and be done with it.

The door’s been acting flakey ever since I slammed it on the burglar’s hand last year, even though the RV repair shop took it off the Winnebago and put it in a jig to straighten it. Apparently you’re not supposed to use your door as a weapon. Who knew?

We still don’t know where we’re going when we leave here on Sunday. The weather still looks funky, so we probably won’t go down to the Keys after all. I want to spend our time there kayaking and playing in the water, not sitting inside shivering.

I had better close for now, before I launch into another rant.

Thought For The Day -The measure of a man is not whether he falls down, but whether he gets up again.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

After reading in the blog about the frustrations I was having trying to do research at the Family History Library, Roger Marble sent me some website links to articles on getting the most out of a visit to the Family History Library. I spent a couple of hours Sunday reading those articles, and then getting my notes better organized. It really made a difference.

Yesterday I went back to the library for a couple of hours, and I think I may be getting the hang of how things are laid out there. I found a lot of very good information, including the dates and newspapers that several family members’ obituaries were in, as well as their last addresses before they died. I also found some information on my older brother, who was murdered back in 1968. It was quite a breakthrough, and I feel like I accomplished a lot. I want to go back again today for a while, since our visit here in Salt Lake City is almost over. I definitely plan to come back here again!

Roger presented a couple of seminars on genealogy at our rally in Celina, Ohio last year, and the response was so good that he will be doing them again at our upcoming Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally in Elkhart, Indiana August 30 – September 3.

Blog reader Ray Warner and his wife Cindy live in Riverton, Utah, a little south of Salt Lake City, and when he read that we were going to be in the area, Ray invited us to dinner. Never one to pass up the chance to make a new friend, or a free meal, I was happy to take Ray up on his offer.

We met at the Chuck-A-Rama buffet, where Terry and I had dinner Friday evening, and it was just as good this time around, too. Ray and Cindy are a very nice couple, who have a fifth wheel, and are looking forward to doing some extended traveling once Cindy retires in a couple of years.

We always enjoy talking with folks about the RV lifestyle, and sharing what we have learned in our time on the road. Cindy had questions about things like how do we get our mail on the road, and what happens if you have a major illness or accident when far away from home. We explained to them about mail forwarding services, and medical evacuation services such as Sky Med and MASA.

I also stressed to both Cindy and Ray how important I feel it is for both of them to know how to handle all of the dumping chores, how hook up and unhook their rig, and how to drive the RV, even if one is the primary driver and the other seldom gets behind the wheel. We have seen too many situations where a husband gets sick or injured, and the wife has no idea of how to get someplace safe until the situation is resolved. We have also known couples where the wife does most of the driving, and the husband would be really challenged if he had to take the wheel.

Some husbands (or wives) can teach their spouses how to drive an RV, but for many couples, it just doesn’t work. If you fall into that category, or if you are a new RVer, male or female, I have good news for you.

Dennis Hill from the RV Driving School will be presenting driving seminars at our Elkhart rally, as well as giving private lessons behind the wheel of the students’ rigs. I really hope folks take advantage of this opportunity to get lessons from the pros. The small fee for the class is worth every penny. It will make you a better, safer, and more confidant RVer. And if you do take the class, you’ll probably qualify for a discount on your insurance too!

Bad Nick is back on his soapbox, and he has a brand new Bad Nick Blog titled Talk About Cajones that may just open your eyes to how much money we are giving to criminals every month. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Money can’t buy happiness, but it can sure make misery much more comfortable.

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally!

Many people have asked me how I come up with something new to write about every day in the blog. Usually it’s no problem; I write about our travels when we’re on the move, and about the RV lifestyle in general when we’re stationary for  awhile. And sometimes I stumble across something totally unexpected I want to share with my readers. Yesterday was such a day.

When I drove into downtown Salt Lake City to do some more genealogy research at the Family History Library yesterday, there was a crowd of people, a contingent of Utah Highway patrol Officers,  a horse drawn hearse, and several news crews across the street from the library.

As it turns out, it was the funeral for world famous artist Arnold Friberg, who died Thursday, at the age of 96. Friberg was known for his patriotic and religious paintings. His work also included the posters for the Cecil B. DeMille movie The Ten Commandments, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award; paintings depicting scenes from the Book of Mormon;  and his masterpiece work Prayer At Valley Forge, portraying George Washington kneeling next to his horse, praying for guidance during the darkest days of the American Revolution.

Fribeg was also famous for over 300 paintings he created to honor the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and he was a beloved friend to the Mounties. A squad of Mounties, in their trademark dress uniform known as the Red Serge, the scarlet tunic, worn with the flat brimmed Stetson hat and high boots, were on hand to escort his hearse to a nearby cemetery.

A squad of Mounties in full dress uniform is something very few people ever see in the United States. The Mounties’ everyday working uniform is a grey shirt with dark blue tie, blue trousers, ankle length patrol boots  and a regular policeman’s style cap. The Red Serge is worn only for special formal occasions. A news reporter at the scene said Friberg loved pomp and ceremony, and his funeral certainly provided that, in a grand way.

After watching the Mounties march off behind the hearse, I went up to the second floor of the Family History library, where they have a large bank of computers where visitors can do their research. These computers are hooked up to just about every online genealogy resource that exists. It would cost a person a small fortune to subscribe to all of these websites and services, but it’s all free here.

Half of the second floor has aisle after aisle of cabinets filled with microfilms that contain records for millions of people.

Each box contains a separate filmstrip, and each strip has hundreds, some even thousands, of pieces of data. Everything from court records, to birth, wedding and death records, newspaper items, land records and deeds, and much, much more.

In this age of computers and internet access, I had forgotten a lesson from my early newspaper days that I was reminded of in a big way yesterday. When you are sitting at a viewer, cranking through page after page of microfilm to get to what you are looking for, you can very easily get what can best be described as a form of motion sickness as the images fly past your eyes. Some people experience the same thing when trying to read a book or newspaper while riding in a car. After about three hours, I was so nauseated, and had such a headache, that I had to give up for the day.  When I go back next week, I’ll pace myself better so that doesn’t happen again!

Back at the RV park, I picked up Terry and we went to two different Joann Fabrics stores to get enough of a particular yarn she needed to finish a project she is working on, then we had dinner and went home to a quiet evening.

Today we have some visitors coming by, and then we may drive over to check out the Great Salt Lake. Or, if it’s too hot, we may just stay home and enjoy the air conditioning.

Thought For The Day -  Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally!

Last year I posted a blog about a visit that the Tin Can Tourists paid to the RV Hall of Fame Museum in Elkhart, Indiana, and included several photos of the vintage and homebuilt RVs the club members own.

One of my favorites was this beautiful  cedar sided fifth wheel, named Wayzalot. The unique RV that Hardy and Terry Evans built included more features than I can list here, but you can read about the entire construction process on the Evans’ Wayzalot website. The towed their RV to Tin Can Tourist events all over the country.

I wrote in that blog post that I would have liked to see the inside of Wayzalot, but now that will never happen. A few days ago Hardy and Terry were southbound on State Route 65 in Jeffersonville, Indiana, headed for a Vintage Camper Rally in Tennessee. Just before they crossed the Ohio River, a tanker truck ahead of them braked hard. Hardy managed to stop his rig before he hit the tanker, but then an eighteen wheeler slammed into the rear of Wayzalot.

The impact pushed the Evans’ truck and trailer into the concrete median, totally destroying both units. It was a huge accident that tied up the highway for hours. Fortunately, even though they lost their truck and beloved home on wheels, the only injury the Evans’ suffered was Hardy’s ankle, which was broken in two places.

These photos show the horrendous damage to both the Evans’ truck and trailer. It’s a wonder they escaped alive! Having built our own bus conversion, I know how many hours, and how much blood, sweat, and tears went into the project.

Terry said they had traveled several months a year in their RV for the last ten years, covering over 50,000 miles in over 25 states. Now all they have left are photographs and memories. You can see more pictures of the accident on their website. Folks, it can happen to any of us, at any time, no matter how careful we are. Cherish every day and every mile you travel.

Speaking of travel, my pal “Froggi” Donna McNicol clued me in to a new iPhone app called State Lines that every RVer can use. It includes information on things like state gun laws, rules on sleeping overnight in rest areas, state sales taxes, rules of the road, and lots more. The app updates as you travel, so you always have information for wherever you happen to be. In the coming weeks, the app will be updated for the iPad as well. I plan to get it real soon, because I can see a lot of times when it would be invaluable in our travels. 

I mentioned in yesterday’s blog that there is a noticeable slowdown in service on my iPad here in Show Low, away from AT&T’s 3G system. While we have high speed EVDO 3G service on our Verizon cell phones and air card, the iPad is on AT&T’s slower Edge system.

I did some speed tests last night, and here are the results: My desktop computer, operating off the Verizon air card and Cradlepoint router, showed download speeds of 1.73 MB and upload speeds of .43 MB. The iPad, on the AT&T Edge signal, showed .06 MB download speeds, and a dismal .007 MB upload.  As slow as that sounds, I have been able to get online and do whatever I have wanted to, including opening websites with lots of photos. I don’t know if that is due to the iPad’s own speed over my computer running Windows XP Pro, which seems to be pretty fast under most circumstances. When I switched to our WiFi signal, the iPad showed 1.30 MB download and .16 MB upload. Still not as fast as my desktop computer, but more than enough for my needs. Even on the Edge service, the iPad is still faster than I was getting a lot of times on my computer and air card in Apache Junction back in January and February. I’m very pleased with the iPad and its performance.

Yesterday I showed it to a friend who has never used a computer and who has always said he has no interest in them. Five minutes with the iPad had him asking me where he can get one! Contrary to what the naysayers claim, I’m convinced that this gizmo is going to make a major impact on the way people get online and access media. Now if it would just let me win at Scrabble once in a while!

Thought For The Day -The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally!