I wish I had something new and exciting to write about in today’s blog, but right now I’m in my plow horse mode, just plugging away to get the new issue of the Gypsy Journal ready to go to the printer early next week.

This is the mundane part of our job, and while we enjoy the traveling, sightseeing, and adventures we have along the way, none of it matters if we don’t sit down and put it all together for the next issue. Our lives are pretty cool overall, especially compared to the rest of the working world, but into every working RVer’s world, a little rain must fall. Six times a year, this is our rain.

My plan for this week was to chain myself to my desk and get the job done. Of course, nothing ever goes exactly according to plan. When I fired up my computer yesterday morning, the display on my LCD monitor was an ugly shade of deep rose or pink. I spent an hour or so trying to adjust the color balance, and got it somewhat back to normal, but all day long it would suddenly switch from green to blue to red tints, and no matter how much I fiddled with the color balance, it would not stay at any one setting. I suspect the monitor is on its last legs.

I really can’t complain. I’ve had this Envision monitor for at least five years, maybe six, and it has been bounced along over many thousands of miles of highways and back roads, which it was never designed to do. I just hope it holds out long enough for me to get the new issue finished.

Several people have asked me why I don’t use a laptop computer, like most RVers do. While I have a very nice Dell laptop, I spend hours a day at my desk, and I just prefer the larger size keyboard and monitor of a desktop unit. And yes, I could plug an external keyboard and monitor into a laptop, but this is what works best for me.

I did take a break about midday, when Al Hesselbart from the RV Hall of Fame Museum stopped in to say hello, and asked  if I could give him a ride to a repair shop a few blocks away, where his car was waiting. It’s always good to see Al, and we look forward to spending  more time with him while we’re here.

Back at Elkhart Campground, I kept pounding away at the keyboard, with occasional breaks to readjust the display on my monitor, while Miss Terry made a WalMart run to stock up on things we needed. I hate shopping, so it’s always best if she goes by herself, and doesn’t have to deal with me breathing down the back of her neck while she shops.

A couple of times, folks who are here waiting for our Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally to start came by, but I was just too busy to visit, and asked them if we could get together after the paper was finished.

About 5:30 we got together with Greg and Jan White  and Al Hesselbart at a nearby Chinese buffet for dinner, and Al told us about his trip to China last winter to be the featured speaker at an RVing conference. The Chinese are just discovering the RV lifestyle, and Al said there are only about 30 campgrounds with RV hookups in the entire country! It was interesting hearing about his trip, which was a once in a lifetime experience.

Back at the campground, I went for a short walk, then came back and worked for a couple more hours, until it was time to stop and get the blog ready to post.

Like I said, just plugging away, and tomorrow will be more of the same.

Thought For The Day -The happiest people don’t have the best of everything, they just make the best of everything they have.

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It’s no secret that when it comes to critters, I’m prejudiced.

I don’t like cats, I’m a dog person. But I don’t like just any dogs. I abhor yappy little mutts that serve no purpose in life except to make noise and waste precious oxygen. An ill mannered dog of any size is not something I care to be around.

I tolerate well behaved medium sized dogs just fine, and I like big dogs. My preference is for the working breeds, be they spaniels, retrievers, or shepherds. Over the years I have owned a couple of Springer Spaniels that were fine animals, but my favorite dog of all time is the German shepherd. For my money, you cannot find a more intelligent, loyal, or versatile canine companion. I have had several in my life.

However, a German shepherd is probably not the best suited dog for the RV lifestyle, which is why I don’t have one today. In fact, as much as Terry and I both love animals, we don’t have any pets, and have made the decision not to do so for as long as we continue to be fulltime RVers. For our particular lifestyle, vending at RV rallies, doing speaking engagements, and leaving the bus a lot to cover stories for the Gypsy Journal, it just is not fair to have an animal that spends so much time alone. 

For many years we traveled with Terry’s cat, Sasquatch, who came as part of a package deal when we got married. But he wasn’t your run of the mill kitty. He was a hybrid with some lynx, Manx, and Himalayan blood, that tipped the scales at well over 20 pounds in his prime, and looked like a bobcat. He also had several extra toes on each foot and could use them like a hand to grasp things. Even though I don’t like cats, he was a good conversation starter because he looked so unique. Sasquatch passed away a few years back, but he wasn’t the only unique pet we have seen in RVs as we have traveled around the country.

Once, in Lake Conroe, Texas, we met a couple who fulltimed with two parrots. They said the birds loved traveling, and were always drawing a crowd wherever they were parked when they brought them outside. Since parrots can live a long time, the owners had already made provisions in their wills for the adoption of the birds if something were to happen to them. Since then, we have met several other RVers who travel with birds.

I also met a couple once who fulltimed with a collection of snakes, which they used to present educational programs to schoolchildren. I hate snakes even more than I do cats and yappy little dogs, so I took their word for it and did not venture inside their motorhome to see for myself.

While I have never seen them myself, I have met RVers who told me they traveled with ferrets, a skunk, and even a monkey. Don’t ask me why, I don’t know.

My friend Henry Gartner, better known as Flakey the Clown, travels with a couple of rabbits that he uses in his act at RV rallies and shows. Does that qualify them as pets or props? I’m not sure. Just as I wasn’t sure if the goldfish one couple kept in their RV to entertain their cat qualified as a pet, or just pet food.

Perhaps the strangest pet we ever saw in an RV was a baby kangaroo, which is more correctly called a joey. It’s owner came to a Life on Wheels session in Bowling Green, Kentucky when we were teaching there several years back, and people were crowded around wanting to pet and hold the little guy, who just wanted to snuggle up to his human daddy and go back to sleep.

Thought For The Day – Don’t believe everything you think.

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Terry and I have been very lucky in that our business has allowed us live our dreams and have a life that many people envy. We’ll never be rich, if you measure riches in terms of dollars, but we get to go where we want, see interesting things and beautiful places, and meet wonderful people.

We really don’t have the time to take on any other jobs, but I can’t help browsing through the pages of Workamper News and thinking “That might be fun to do!”

Last week while we were at the Escapade rally in Sedalia, Missouri, we talked to some friends who are going to be selling fireworks for a couple of weeks leading up to the Fourth of July. They gave me the name of their contact at the fireworks company, and I called just to see how it all works.

Basically, as the company representative explained it to me, they have specific locations arranged, sometimes a lot on a busy corner, sometimes part of a WalMart parking lot or some other high traffic business. The company sets up a tent and delivers a load of fireworks about the third week of June. The contracted dealers, many of whom are RVers, sell from the stand through July 5^th or 6^th, and then whatever inventory remains is returned to a nearby company warehouse. The dealer gets 20% of all of the money they take in.

I was told by some people that have experience in such things that different companies have different contracts, and some pay a guarantee plus commission. We have met several RVers who pick up extra money selling fireworks, Christmas trees, and pumpkins at roadside stands. It is hard work, you are expected to be open 12 hours a day for two weeks or more, and you are responsible for any theft. The tent must be lighted at night to prevent theft, and the dealer is expected to either use their RV generator to power the lights, or rent a generator.

How much you make depends on your location. At one spot the company had in Connecticut, the representative said we could expect to clear $4500. At another, in southern Michigan, I was told to expect to make about $3,000.

That sounded like a lot of money for just a couple of weeks’ work, until I crunched the numbers. The Michigan commitment would require us to spend a day or two receiving the inventory and getting it set up, 15 days of sales, and then at least another day to pack all of the inventory up and get it back to the warehouse.

Just the 15 days of sales, at 12 hours a day per person for the two of us was a deal breaker. That is $200 a day, or $100 each. $100 divided by 12 hours is $8.33 an hour. And that does not include the time involved in receiving and setting up the inventory, fuel for a generator to light the tent at night, rental of a credit card machine and cash register, as well as a few other expenses the job required, or the time to pack everything up and take it back to the warehouse. It also did not factor in the loss due to theft, or heaven forbid, if we got robbed.

Even if we would have been willing to invest the time, that is when our next issue of the Gypsy Journal is due to be printed and mailed, so we would not have had the time anyway.

I’m curious if any of you blog readers have sold fireworks, Christmas trees or pumpkins, and how it worked out for you. Care to share your experiences?

Thought For The Day – Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

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