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

Yesterday we had hoped to sleep in a bit, to catch up on all of the sleep we had missed during the rally, but we were both awake by 9 a.m., which was still better than the early hours we had been getting up during rally week.

It would have been nice to just relax all day long after our hectic week, but while we are busy with a rally, life goes on, and so do our other responsibilities to our business. So we had a lot of work to catch up on. I spent some time answering e-mails that had backed up, and updated both the Small Town Festivals calendar and the RV Rally calendar on our RV website. Miss Terry spent most of the day resolving the books for the rally, so we can settle our bill with Elkhart Campground. Hopefully we’ll have enough left over to get out of town afterward

There is a tremendous amount of paperwork associated with any RV rally, and it was compounded this time around because some attendees made their reservations through us, while others paid the campground directly. So Terry and Gita have been trying to get everything sorted out so we know who paid who. There were also several people who made their reservations through us, but then decided to take a weekly or monthly rate at the campground, so Terry has to get that all straightened out and issue refunds to those who paid us and then the campground. If we ever hold a rally at a campground again, we’ll just collect the rally fee and have the attendees make their reservations directly with the campground, to avoid all of this confusion.

Greg White has had the bay doors off the passenger side of his American Eagle motorhome for the last week or so, because Michele Henry at Phoenix Commercial Paint was repairing damage from an unfortunate encounter with a boulder out west a while back. During the early afternoon, he picked them up from Michele, and I helped him reinstall them on his motorhome. My contribution to the project consisted of helping to hold the doors in place while Greg bolted them to their struts.

During the day, several people stopped in to say hello, to thank us for all of the fun they had at the rally, and to say goodbye because they were heading out.

Our mail arrived, as well as a UPS shipment of three boxes of my books from the printer, inventory for our vendor booth at the Hershey RV Show. Included in the mail was the contract for our Western Gypsy Gathering rally, which will be March 7-11 at the fairgrounds in Yuma, Arizona. Make your plans now to attend. I’ll be posting a rally registration page in a few weeks.

For those who really want to plan ahead, our next Eastern rally will be September 26-30 at the Mercer County Fairgrounds in Celina, Ohio.

About the time we finished going through the mail, Chris Guld from Geeks on Tour came over to say hello. Chris and Jim are going to spend the winter in Florida, and we made a tentative date to meet up with them at the Peace River NACO preserve for some kayaking while we’re in the area.

About the time Chris left, our pals Mike and Elaine Loscher arrived to take us out to dinner. These two are such great friends and supporters of our work that we should have been the ones buying them dinner, but they insisted.

Back at Elkhart Campground, I was getting really droopy, so I took a nap on the couch. Later in the evening Stu and Donna (Froggi) McNichol came over for a visit. We really enjoy these two, and never get enough time with them. They left about 10:30, and a couple of minutes later, Elkhart Campground owner Gita Patel called and said she wanted to stop in and give Miss Terry some delicious soup and rice cakes, a traditional Indian dish she wanted to share. We visited with Gita for a while, and when she left, I wrote the blog and got it ready to post. By the time that was done, we were both tired and ready to call an end to our day of “rest.”

Thought For The Day – One father teaches more than a hundred schoolmasters.

There are already a lot of folks here at Elkhart Campground for our Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally, and with the rally just a few days away, more are rolling in every day.

Wednesday afternoon, our good friends Jim and Chris Guld from Geeks on Tour arrived, having just driven across the country from Redmond, Oregon to get here. I was so happy to see them that I forgot myself for a moment or two, and actually scratched their French poodle, Odie, behind the ears.

Jim and Chris are presenting nine seminars at the rally, including Managing Digital Photos With Picassa, GPS Navigation & Trip Planning, Google Earth, E-Mail Issues On The Road, Every RVer Needs A Blog, Blogging – Beyond The Basics, Picassa – Beyond The Basics, Internet Love Story – Living & Working On The Road, and Internet Connections On The Road. That’s a lot of information to be shared. Jim and Chris have a tremendous following, and their seminars are always packed.

Then, yesterday evening two of our favorite people in the world, Stu and (Froggi) Donna McNichol, pulled in next to our Winnebago. We’ve known Donna for a long time, ever since she was one of our students at Life on Wheels, and we got to meet Stu at our Western rally in Yuma, Arizona in March. We instantly felt a bond with Stu, and we enjoyed our time together there. I have kept up with their blog, 2 Taking A 5th, just to see what new adventures they have had.

Another couple we have known a long time, Joe and Marcia Jones, also arrived a couple of days ago. We haven’t had time to tour their beautiful new to them Kountry Star diesel pusher, though we have seen plenty of pictures in their Chasing the 70s blog.

There are so many other folks here that I can’t remember everybody’s names, but it sure is great to see everybody.

Yesterday, I made what I hope are the final changes to the rally seminar schedule. Since we ran out of rooms, some of the seminars will be in the big tent we rented, and hopefully that will work out okay for everybody. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.

While I was busy with that, Miss Terry went to Office Max to pick up the name tag blanks for the rally, then to Sam’s Club and WalMart to buy the coffee, hot chocolate mix, tea, sweetener, creamer, Styrofoam cups, and everything else we’ll need for the morning coffee and donuts at the rally.

It costs us over $1,000 for the coffee and donuts, cups, etc that we go through at a four day RV rally, so we were delighted when we got a message yesterday that the nice folks at Bradd & Hall furniture here in Elkhart wanted to sponsor them for one of the rally days, to help offset our costs. How cool is that? Bradd & Hall is a major retailer of RV furniture, and last summer when we visited their showroom, we found some great deals on chairs, sofas, and tables.  They also have RV flooring, day/night shades, and other goodies for your motorhome, bus conversion, fifth wheel, or travel trailer.

We’re getting down to the wire now, and there is still a lot to do before the rally starts. But we’ve got a lot done already, and a lot of folks here who are ready, willing, and able to pitch in for whatever needs done.

Thought For The Day – Don’t worry about avoiding temptation. As you grow older, it will avoid you.

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally!

I spent quite a bit of time over the weekend finalizing things for our upcoming Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally in Elkhart, Indiana. Can you believe that it’s less than a month away? It seems like we were just wrapping up our Western rally in Yuma, and here we are halfway across the country getting ready to do it all over again!

Yesterday, I e-mailed info letters out to all of the rally participants whom I have e-mail addresses for. We had several that bounced, even though we checked their addresses against their original reservations. So if you have registered for the rally and didn’t get a letter, it’s either because we have a bad e-mail address for you, or none at all. Please send me a quick e-mail and I’ll get a letter off to you.

Of course, no project is perfect, especially if I have anything to do with it. I had the wrong starting dates for the rally on the first letter I sent out. The rally starts on Monday, August 30 and ends on Friday, September 3rd. If your letter has an incorrect date, my apologies.

I talked to Gita Patel at Elkhart Campground yesterday. They have been busy upgrading a lot of their RV sites to 50 amp full hookups, but they are not sure the job will be completely done before the rally. So at this time, all we have left for sites that we can guarantee, are 30 amp water and electric, and a handful of 20 amp water and electric. If you register and more full hookup sites become available, we can upgrade you once you arrive at the rally, if you wish. But again, there is no guarantee.

Camping for the rally is for four nights, from Monday, August 30 to Thursday, September 2. You can arrive early or stay later if you wish, but those arrangements have to be made directly with Elkhart Campground at (574) 264-2914.  They will not take your reservation for the rally dates, that is handled through us. But for before or after the rally, they will be happy to reserve a site for you.

I also arranged for our entertainment for Wednesday night after the pizza party. Whitt and Judy McKinney, who perform as the McKinney Washtub Two, come highly recommended by several people we know, including Larry and Melissa Beahm of One More Time music, who have performed at our last two Eastern rallies. I think it’s going to be a fun show. Check out the Music Page on their website for sound clips of some of their original songs.

I talked to my buddy Greg White, who pulled into Elkhart Campground yesterday. Greg said the place is really busy, and quite a few folks are already there just waiting for the rally to begin. We’re really looking forward to seeing Greg and his pretty wife Jan again, because like I said, Jan is really pretty, and because I have a lot of projects for Greg to work on.

We also spent a couple of hours last night filling orders that came in with our last mail delivery, or from our website. I’ll be making a post office run this morning to get them in the mail.

It’s been a busy weekend, and it’s only going to get busier as we get closer to the rally dates!

Thought For The Day – Do infants enjoy infancy as much as adults enjoy adultery?

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally!

We came to Las Vegas because we needed a little vacation after our Gypsy Gathering rally in Yuma, Arizona a couple of weeks ago. As it turns out, relaxing is hard work!

We have been playing tourist with our friends Greg and Jan White, and between seeing the sights of Sin City, and the time we spent replacing the motor for our HWH leveling jacks and slide rooms, we’ve been busy every day. But we sure are having a lot of fun!

Yesterday started with lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings in Henderson, and then a walk across the parking lot to Panera Bread, where we bought a dozen Asiago cheese bagels. Our friends Barry and Jan Kessler introduced us to Panera Bread back in North Carolina last fall, and we immediately became hooked on their delicious bagels. We’ve been looking for another Panera Bread ever since.

Our next stop was the Atomic Testing Museum, just a couple of miles off the Las Vegas Strip. Since 1951, the government has been conducting tests with atomic bombs and experiments in nuclear technology at a location north of Las Vegas. The museum had some very interesting exhibits, and we learned a lot about how the world was changed as a result of the work that was done here.

One of the things I have wanted to do was to visit Fremont Street, the famous Glitter Gulch area of old downtown Las Vegas, to see the light show. We decided that last night would be a good time for that, but when we arrived, there was some kind of big rally or cultural event going on, and the streets nearby were packed. Even more so than on a weekend night. We all mutually decided that we’d skip the Fremont Street Experience, and hope to come back another night.

Several people have written to suggest that we see different shows in Las Vegas, but after looking at the cost, we just cannot justify it. Prices per ticket for Blue Man Group start at $100 and go to $142; tickets for The Lion King start at $66 for marginal seating, up to $170; and if you want to see Phantom, you’ll pay anywhere from $78 to $174. Our budget won’t handle that, and even if it could, we’re too frugal (read cheap) to spend that kind of money when there are so many things to see and do for much less. We’ve had a great time just cruising the Strip and enjoying all the sights, people watching, and checking out the local eateries.

We’ve got a few days left in Las Vegas, and we’re watching the weather reports for our old hometown of Show Low, Arizona. We hope to get there sometime around the first week of April,  to spend some time spoiling those granddaughters of ours. But this weekend, the overnight temperatures are supposed to drop into the upper 20s. We really, really don’t want to be anywhere that cold!

We plan to spend a few weeks in Show Low, and then our schedule is kind of up in the air. We had planned to visit Branson, Missouri on our way to Forest City, Iowa for the Winnebago Grand National Rally in July. But, we learned a couple of weeks ago that Terry’s son, Casey, is getting married in Vail, Colorado in mid-July, so that changes everything.

We’ll probably hang our here in the western half of the country until after the wedding, and then we’ll have to make a beeline for northern Michigan to get Terry’s annual checkup with her oncologist out of the way, and then scoot right down to Elkhart, Indiana to get things in place for our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally August 30 – September 3. I hope to have the rally registration page uploaded to our website in the next few days, if I can find time in my busy vacation schedule.

Thought For The Day – Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn’t. -Erica Jong