After too many days inside, I get cabin fever. So yesterday afternoon I took a break from working on the new issue of the Gypsy Journal to make a quick run to the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Fairhope.

While Miss Terry picked up some groceries and other items she needed, I browsed the book selection and picked up a couple of paperbacks that caught my interest. From Wal-Mart, we made a stop at Big Lots, and I waited in the van while Terry ran inside. We were only gone an hour or so, but the break really helped me feel rejuvenated.

Back at Rainbow Plantation, I knocked out several more pages of the new issue, and about 5 p.m. we went to Darryl and Judy Patterson’s nice Cedar Creek fifth wheel for dinner. They have been inviting us ever since we got here before our trip north to Indiana, and since they are leaving in a couple of days, it was now or never.

Norm and Linda Payne also joined us for dinner, and we had a couple of hours of good food and good conversation before it was time to say goodbye and get back to work. I love talking to other experienced RVers, and I always learn about new places to go and new things to see and do from them. It was nice to have the time to visit with both couples, and we really appreciate the great dinner. Miss Terry took over some of her great peanut butter cookies, and they were a hit with everybody.

The rain seems to have moved on past us, and hopefully things will start drying out around here. We are parked next to a tree, and when it rains hard, the leaves seem to get weighed down with the water and rub the top of our motorhome. It’s not enough to do any damage, the noise is just irritating. I want to move the coach a couple of feet to get away from them, but the ground is so darned soft that I’m afraid we’ll get stuck if I try.

We got a Wii for Christmas last year, and enjoyed it quite a bit, but we got busy and it got put aside somewhere and we have not used it in quite a while. Miss Terry mentioned several times that she missed it, so when we got back to the Winnebago I hooked it up and we played four games of bowling. It was a pretty close match – I won two games over Terry’s one, and we were tied on the fourth game. But she had more cumulative points overall, because she trounced me so badly in the game she won. We need to use the Wii more often, it’s a lot of fun, and it gives us a little exercise in the process.

Today and tomorrow will be more of the same, finishing up the new issue. I only have a few more pages to go, so I should be able to send it to the printer on Monday morning. The supervisor is a good guy whom we have worked with before, and he knows about our unexpected delay and said he’ll expedite the job, so hopefully we’ll get them back and in the mail within a few days after they get it.

While I was out goofing off, Bad Nick took over the keyboard and posted a new Bad Nick Blog titled The Rules Have Changed. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Do not light a fire you cannot yourself put out.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

For the most part the RV lifestyle is extremely safe, especially in terms of personal safety. I have always told new RVers that they have more to fear from an RV fire, or the idiot coming at them at 60 miles an hour riding three tons of steel, than they do from a criminal. An incident last night has proven to me just how wrong I have been.

We have been parked at an RV repair facility in Elkhart, Indiana having some repairs and upgrades done to our motorhome. Yesterday afternoon we picked up the fellow who flew in from California to buy our bus, and a friend who came to help him drive it back, at the airport in South Bend.

By the time we drove back to Elkhart, showed them the bus, got them checked into a hotel, and took them to dinner, it was almost 9 p.m. when we drove back to the repair shop, where our motorhome was parked in their small camping area. It’s a pretty dark place, and ours was the only occupied RV there. As we arrived, Terry said “Someone broke into our rig!” Sure enough, there was a softball sized hole in the door window. As I got out of the van and went up to the RV, Terry yelled “He’s still inside!” and I found myself face to face with a husky young black man coming out the door.

Now, I have been in the military, saw combat, I was a firearms instructor, have owned and carried a handgun most of my adult life, and have concealed weapons permits from two different states. But this lifestyle has made me complacent, and I seldom carry on a regular basis. And, when going to an airport, that is a big No No. So I wasn’t armed.

Our burglar, on the other hand, was armed with one of my own handguns, and as I yelled at him to show me his hands, he raised one of my Glock 9mm pistols toward us. The smart thing to do when we first spotted the broken window was to back off and call the police, but this all happened in a matter of seconds.

When I saw the gun in his hand, my only thought was to keep him from using it, so I slammed the door shut on his hand, with him inside the RV and me outside, and then slammed it a second (and maybe third time), shattering the rest of the glass in the door. He dropped the gun, then ran past me to get away as I recovered the weapon. My first thought was to shoot him as he fled, but I’m not going to kill anybody for a few material possessions, and the threat to us was over.

Meanwhile, Terry was in the van and on the phone talking to the 911 operator, and I stayed outside, because I didn’t know if there was anybody else inside the RV, and I have other firearms on board. Terry handed the phone out the window to me because the operator wanted to talk to me, and about then I saw the same guy poking his head around the corner of the building. Not knowing if he was armed, I pointed my pistol at him and told him if he took one step toward us I was going to kill him. Fortunately for both of us, he backed off and ran away.

The police used a dog to track him from the RV around the building to where he came back, and then off to a service road, where the scent disappeared. He must have had an accomplice who fled when we pulled into the parking lot, because he appeared empty handed when he ran, but we are missing a flat screen LCD TV, netbook computer, my Seiko wristwatch, the cable for my Silverleaf engine monitor (which was plugged into the computer), and we won’t know what else until we take a total inventory.

Inside, the motorhome, there was a big pile of things in the entryway, including a couple of handguns, our Wii, DVD player, digital SLR camera and other stuff he had ready to take when we interrupted him.

He, or they, also trashed our RV. There is broken glass everywhere, they cut a big triangle into the driver’s seat and pulled out part of the stuffing, ripped down the day/night shades in the bedroom, and threw stuff everywhere as they ransacked the place. The police dusted for fingerprints, and left a mess of stubborn black powder that is almost impossible to clean up.

But at least nobody got hurt. We are shaken, we feel totally violated, and I’m pissed off, both at the thief or thieves, and at myself. If they had to steal something because they are too damned lazy to work, okay, do it. But why vandalize our home in the process?

As for myself, I have become complacent in this lifestyle, and I let my guard down. Getting ripped off is one thing; almost getting shot with my own gun is unacceptable. You can bet that the next time I leave my motorhome, I’ll have more than my empty hand to point at whomever might be waiting for me when I come back home!

With the window busted out and temperatures down in the 20s overnight, there was no way we could stay there, and we were not about to anyway, in case they came back. I called our friend Michele Henry from Phoenix Commercial Paint and explained our plight, and even though it was late at night, Michele came back to the shop and opened it up so we could pull the motorhome inside and stay out of the worst of the weather until we can start dealing with things Monday morning. In the meantime, we are safe, and just coming down off the adrenalin high the incident gave us.

Thought For The Day – Count not what is lost, but what is left.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

My friend Jan Chilson had a post in her Wanderings and Side Trips blog yesterday about playing games, from Wahoo to bowling on the Wii, that I found timely because Ron Speidel just introduced us to a new game called Bongo (sometimes called Ladder Golf).

You may have seen this played at RV parks before. Ron made the components of the game, two “ladders” and the balls out of plastic PVC pipe, golf balls, and cord. Basically, the object of the game is to throw two golf balls, linked by a cord, at the ladder, hoping to wrap the cord around one of the three horizontal ladders. It’s a lot harder than it sounds!

We played in three husband and wife teams; Ron and Brenda, Ken and Billie Barker, and Miss Terry and myself. Being newbies at this, Terry and I came in last every game, but we sure had fun, and I can see that we’re going to have to get in some serious practice to redeem our reputation! We don’t have time for Ron to build any more sets before our Ohio Rally, but maybe in the future we’ll have some championship playoffs at a Gypsy Gathering rally.

RVers enjoy a lot of games, from cards to cribbage to Pegs and Jokers, to our personal favorite, Mexican Train. We also got a Wii last winter and have enjoyed bowling and playing tennis on it. With the extra room we have in the Winnebago, we plan to get a lot more use out of the Wii in the future.

What are some of your favorite games?

Speaking of the Ohio Rally, we’ll be leaving Elkhart Campground Sunday, headed for the fairgrounds in Celina, to get set up for the rally. Yesterday we stopped at RV Surplus Salvage, where owner Trina Ambris gave us several very nice door prizes for the rally. Every year Trina has faithfully stepped up to the plate and generously donated door prizes to support both the Ohio rally and the Western Gypsy Gathering in Arizona. We sure appreciate you, Trina!

We’re looking forward to getting our Winnebago back today from Phoenix Commercial Paint. Yesterday Michele Henry painted a new stripe on the motorhome to replace the chipped up one that was on it, and kept it overnight to finish the job this morning. We stopped in yesterday evening and the rig was still covered in masking paper, and Michele had a crew hard at work on it. I’ll have pictures in tomorrow’s blog!

I’ve sure had a lot of responses to yesterday’s Bad Nick Blog post! I’m all for give and take, and I certainly support anyone’s right to speak their mind, even when they disagree with me, but I find it interesting that some people can get so bent out of shape when something doesn’t agree with their way of thinking. It’s all about dialogue folks! About a free exchange of opinions. We don’t have to agree 100% of the time. What fun is that?  

Thought For The Day – America is the land of the free, because it is the home of the brave.

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally