Today is a very special day for myself and Miss Terry. It’s our twelfth anniversary, and we still feel (and often act) like newlyweds. This was not the first marriage for either of us, and believe me, it was not something that either one of us was looking for, or expected to happen. But isn’t that the way it sometimes goes? We often find the best things in life when we least expect them.

I’m a very fortunate man to be able to live this dream life that I have, to make a living doing something most people can only dream of, and to be able to share it with my best friend in the world. And tonight I’m taking my best girl out for a nice, romantic dinner. I love you, Terry.

Yesterday, I was sitting at my desk writing when suddenly a volley of gunshots went off right outside our motorhome! That will make your blood pressure shoot way up! I wasn’t sure what was happening, but in today’s world who knows? As it turns out, we didn’t have a crazed mass murderer running wild through the park. It was an America Legion Honor Guard firing a gun salute as part of a memorial service for one of the park’s residents who recently passed away. Geez, they should warn a guy before they do things like that!

Little things like gunplay never bother Miss Terry. She spent part of the day yesterday installing one of the new day/night shades in our bedroom, and discovered that it was more of a job then she had expected. Of course, it didn’t help that the company that supplied the blinds did not send any mounting hardware or installation instructions. But she eventually figured it out.

To prove that there isn’t much she can’t do, Terry also decided to make a batch of Asiago cheese bagels. This was only the second time in her life that she had made bagels, and she said her first attempt years ago produced something more akin to hockey pucks than food. But not this time! They turned out yummy! 

I received two different e-mails from readers yesterday about the problems they are having securing financing for RVs. One person is a retired Marine officer with excellent credit, and he has been using the same bank for years. They financed his current motorhome, which he has a lot of equity in, and he said his bank was ready to approve the loan on the new unit until they realized that he is a fulltimer, with no “fixed” residence. Then they turned him down.

The other e-mail was from a gentleman who said his credit union would not finance the fifth wheel he and his wife live in fulltime, but they would refinance his truck. As he said, “Go figure – I can drive the truck away easier than pulling away my fifth wheel!”

I have no idea how the bean counters at financial institutions think, or why they make the decisions that they do, but I did recommend that both of these men call Eileen Gilmore at Alliant Credit Union at (773) 462-9642 and tell her I told them to call. After the financial setback we had from Terry’s cancer, and being self-employed fulltimers, even our own bank, that we’ve used for over 25 years, would not talk to us when we were RV shopping.

But, Eileen got us financed in no time at all, because she took the time to listen to us, look at our credit history, and do the extra work to get us taken care of. I don’t get a penny from referring anybody to Eileen, and she is not an advertiser. I just like to help spread the word about good business people who go the extra mile for their customers.

Of course, Bad Nick just likes to spread controversy, so he posted a new Bad Nick Blog titled Can He Walk On Water Too? Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Procrastination is the thief of time.

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This is our third stay Fisherman’s Landing Marina and Campground, which is owned by the City of Muskegon, Michigan. Overall, we really like it, because it is a comfortable campground and is only a mile or two from my cousin Berni Frees and her husband Rocky’s place, which makes visiting convenient.

I really wish they had a weekly rate, because we’d visit more often, and stay longer. The daily rate is $25 for a back in site with 30 amp electricity and water, and our site also has a picnic table and cement slab.

While they don’t have a weekly rate, they do offer a monthly rate of $500, which is too steep for our budget, especially for a site with no sewer, just a dump station at the exit from the marina. $300 a month I could understand, but not $500. They do offer a Passport America discount for two nights at half price out of any 30 day period.

The only problem I have with the place, and it is a problem that may well play into our decision whether or not to return to Fisherman’s Landing, is that on two out of our three visits, groups of rowdy tent campers were raising hell into the wee hours of the morning. I don’t mind folks having a good time, but when people are hooting and hollering and playing loud music at 3 or 4 a.m., as they were Saturday night, that’s too much.

When this happened on a previous visit, the manager said she was away from the campground overnight, or she would have done something about it. I don’t know what the excuse is this time around, but I know that the folks in one RV parked near us left Sunday morning because of the noise and foul language. They had told me the day before that they were thinking of extending their stay for a few days because they liked the community so much.

If the folks in charge want to attract family campers and have them return, and if they want them to have a good impression of Muskegon, they need to monitor the party animals that are running good customers away. The Elks lodge in Muskegon has a campground with RV sites for $21 a night, and I was told they have a $300 monthly rate.  I think we’ll stay there on our next visit, so we can get some sleep.  

I’m always on the lookout for interesting RVs, and when I spotted this old Airstream motorhome parked next to us at Fisherman’s Landing, I had to take a photograph. I have a soft spot in my heart for Airstream travel trailers, and though I have never been inside one of the motorhomes, I really like their classic looks.

Yesterday was the 57^th wedding anniversary for Rocky’s parents, and we were invited to take part in a family dinner Berni and Rocky were holding for them. We didn’t want to intrude, but everybody insisted we join in, so we did. Berni grilled some delicious steaks, Miss Terry made an awesome triple berry pie and her yummy homemade yeast rolls, and we all gorged ourselves. Wow, 57 years! That’s a real achievement! Congratulations!

Thought For The Day – Urban sprawl is when they cut down all the trees and name the streets after them.

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I want to wish a belated Happy Anniversary to Terry’s parents, Pete and Bess Weber, who celebrated their 58^th wedding anniversary yesterday. Here’s hoping you have many, many more together.

My in-laws are very healthy, active senior citizens who are always busy. Apparently walking four miles a day, being involved in his church, helping his daughters with home improvement projects, and doing small repairs for the neighbors wasn’t enough to keep him busy, so at 79 years old Pete got a job as a Wal-Mart greeter! Bess is always finding a new recipe, working with her genealogy projects, taking part in church activities, and a hundred and one other things that fill her days. They’re just too darned busy to get old!

Unfortunately, as our generation’s parents age, not every family is as blessed as Terry’s. Diminished physical or mental capacity can impact every member of the family. Last night ABC aired a Primetime special on aging parents that showed some of the problems that come up.

Sometimes the fulltime RV lifestyle can be an asset to a family with aging parents, and other times it adds to the problems. We know several RVers who return to their hometowns to give other family members who are caregivers a respite, sometimes staying for several weeks at a time.

We have also known RVers who take elderly parents on the road with them for short trips, and even one or two who travel fulltime with an elderly parent. Just last week our friends Richard and Patsy King stopped at Elkhart Campground with Richard’s 91 year old mother, Dorothy, who is still as sharp as a tack and absolutely beautiful. They had been showing Dorothy the sites around Ohio’s Amish country and then Indiana before taking her back to their hometown of Victoria, Texas.

Some RVers we know have had to get off the road to care for parents whose health is failing, either because other family members refuse to do so, or because there is nobody else to take on the responsibility. One lady told me that she loves her father, but she felt guilty because she also resented having to give up the lifestyle she had dreamed of for years to care for him. I told her not to beat herself up, that her feelings were only natural. But I secretly thanked my lucky stars that my in-laws are so healthy, and that Terry and I are able to continue enjoying the freedom of life on the road.

Thought For The Day – A bartender is just a pharmacist with a limited inventory.

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Today is a very special day for Terry and myself. We are celebrating our 11th wedding anniversary. And what a wonderful time we have had together since that day when we stood in Judge Reinhold’s courtroom in Lakeside, Arizona, and the good judge pronounced us man and wife! 

Terry and I always say that in some ways it feels like we are still on our first date, and at the same time it feels like we have been together forever. Here’s our love story, if you care to hear it:

We had known each other for many years. Terry ran a commercial glass shop that advertised in the small town newspaper that I owned. At that time I was in a bad marriage, and since Terry always wore a big ring on her finger, I assumed she was married as well. We were just business acquaintances, though I always admired her because she is that combination of a beautiful and intelligent woman who is very real and never “puts on airs” as my Mama used to say. With Terry, what you see is what you get, and I found that very refreshing.

After my marriage ended, I instructed my friends that if I ever said I was going to get hitched again, please shoot me. I had been shot twice and married twice, and you can get over shot quicker and with less financial outlay. 

One week I wrote a silly little column in my newspaper about making the transformation to the single life. I wrote that I had learned that I could survive for a weekend on Pepsi and Toaster Strudel, and that in a pinch, I could wash my underwear in the dishwasher and dry them in the microwave. But I lamented the fact that the bakery in town had closed its doors, and a chubby little cherub like myself needed sweets, so somebody had better send me either a recipe or a woman. Terry responded by sending me a big plate of brownies with a note that read “Quit your sniveling!”

The brownies were delicious, and I got a chuckle out of the note. When I called Terry to thank her, she said “Anytime you want something like that, just let me know. I love to cook and bake and I don’t have anybody to do it for.” I asked her why she didn’t bake for her husband, and she told me she had been single for fourteen years. “I work with contractors and construction workers all the time,” she told me, “I wear the ring to keep guys from hitting on me.” (Now, you have to wonder, after fourteen years, if she settled on me, what kind of troglodytes did she pass on?)

Now, I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer, so when my secretary told me “Terry is sending you a signal, but you’re too dumb to know it” I didn’t believe her. But over a period of several weeks I began stopping in at Terry’s shop more frequently, and we really hit it off. It was amazing how much we found that we had in common.

Eventually I screwed up my courage and asked her out to a movie and dinner. We snuggled down in our seats at the theater and whispered to each other all through the movie (don’t ask me what movie it was, neither of us can remember). Afterwards we went to dinner, then sat and talked until dawn. I was smitten.

Two weeks later we had our second date, to the Fall Festival in our little mountain town. I was on the board of directors of the battered women’s shelter, and we had arranged a fund raiser in which the town council and other local “dignitaries” were supposed to take turns in a dunking booth. You know the type, where you pay a buck to throw three balls at a target, and if you hit it, the person inside the booth drops down into a pool of water.  It was a chilly day, with temperatures about 50 degrees, and suddenly the local luminaries decided it would be “undignified” to climb up onto the dunking platform.

Well, if you’ve ever met me, you know that I’m about as undignified as they come, so I handed Terry my jacket, shoes and socks, and climbed aboard. It took all of about three seconds until some cowboy with a good eye nailed the target and I dropped down into the water. Damn, that was cold!

That’s when I discovered that I was too short and pudgy to hoist myself back up onto the metal platform. The dunking tank was a wire basket with a canvas reservoir full of water in it, so I had to hook my fingers and toes in and crawl back up the side of it and slide myself into my seat. I didn’t have time to get comfortable, because that cowboy had two balls left, and he used them well! Twice more I got dunked and crawled back up. No sooner had the cowboy stepped aside than the local postmaster, a good buddy of mine, took his place. Bill wasn’t quite as good a pitcher, but he managed to dunk me one throw out of three.   

The local radio station was doing a live remote broadcast, and the announcer was another good buddy of mine. JJ the DJ announced over the airwaves “Folks, if Nick Russell has ever written something that ticked you off, it’s payback time. Come on out and get him wet. It’s all for a good cause!”

And come they did! I was in that dunking booth for over three hours, and we raised over $3,000 for the women’s shelter. By then my toes and finger were bloody from crawling back up that dumb canvas bag, and I was so blue that I looked like a smurf.

Terry was in tears much of the time, though I never have been sure whether it was sympathy for me or mortification from being out in public with the class clown. Whatever it was, she took me home, dried me off, and kept me. We’ve been together ever since.

Happy anniversary baby. I love you more and more every day.

Thought For The Day – Blessed are those who can give without remembering, and take without forgetting.

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