I’ve always been a dinosaur. I like being a dinosaur. It’s comfortable. It’s easy. It makes life much less complicated. I don’t have an iPhone, I don’t do text messages, and I don’t speak geek.

But lately I’ve noticed a certain amount of geekness slipping into my life. I blame a lot of it on Chris Guld from Geeks on Tour. She’s a carrier, sort of the Typhoid Mary of Geekdom.

It’s an insidious thing, this geekness. You start out just dipping a toe into the waters of technology to see what it feels like, and the next thing you know, you’re in over your head.

I was perfectly happy running my little travel rag, and then someone convinced me that I needed a website to help promote the Gypsy Journal. That took a while to get a handle on, but it worked out okay and over time our website has become very popular. But just like rabbits, one website begets two, and two begets three, and before I knew it, I had four websites.

When the blogging thing came along, I thought it was nonsense. Who in the world would waste their time reading something like that? Well, you know what happened there. I’ve been blogging for a couple of years now.

Enter Chris Guld, who hounded me into converting my blog to the WordPress format by giving me a hundred reasons why it would be easier to produce and format, would reach a higher readership, and allow the readers to post responses, creating a dialogue.

The next thing I knew, Chris was telling me that a lot of our readers would like an online edition of the Gypsy Journal. We’ll never stop publishing a printed version, but I finally caved in and uploaded an electronic edition of the current issue to a company who handles digital publications. It looks pretty good, and yesterday I sent out a link to it to several of our readers to get their feedback. I’d like to let you all take a look, but since this is just a test run, the company hosting it will only allow a limited number of views.

Here’s where I am with this so far: The cost is extremely expensive, and we’d need at least 500 subscribers to the electronic edition to make it financially viable. The feedback I have received so far is mixed. Some people liked it, some said they would not be bothered, and some said they would read it, but it would take some getting used to.

Do we have 500 readers out there who want to spend $20 a year for an electronic edition of the Gypsy Journal? A lot of you keep asking for it, even demanding. I guess it’s time to put up or shut up. If you’d step up to the plate and subscribe, send me an e-mail at editor@gypsyjournal.net and let me know, and we’ll see what the response is.

As for you readers who don’t want to give up your printed paper, no worries. If we do go with an electronic edition, it will only be an alternative way to subscribe, and the printed version will still remain just as it is.

Okay, you’d think that now that Chris has me blogging and looking at online publishing, she’d be happy. Guess again! At the Affinity rally in Albuquerque last week, she told me that if I didn’t Twitter, I was one step above Cro-Magnon man. I’d heard of Twitter, and like blogging, I wasn’t impressed at first (or second) glance. Twitter is a bunch of geeks sending each other short messages telling each other what they are doing now. Huh? Who cares if I’m going into McDonald’s for lunch? And it’s nobody’s business if I have a magazine in hand and am headed for the bathroom. Who cares?

Apparently, a lot of people do! Some people have thousands of followers on Twitter. Chris and her hubby Jim explained to me that while, yes, there is a lot of nonsense on Twitter, it can also be a good marketing tool and a way to stay in touch with our friends and readers, and to update them on what we’re up to. If I post a new blog, or start a new project, or whatever, I can post with a “Tweet” on Twitter and get immediate responses. So now you can follow us on Twitter under the user name GypsyJournal (no spaces). But don’t expect me to tell you where I’m having lunch (unless you’re buying, of course). And when I head back to the library, just leave me alone, okay? That’s my time!

So there it is. I went to bed a dinosaur one night, and woke up the next day and had websites, blogs, an iPod, a GPS that talks to me, a Kindle e-book reader, and now I’m Tweeting on Twitter.

But if I were honest, I’d admit that it’s really not Chris Guld’s fault. I have nobody to blame but myself, when it comes right down to it. I’ve seen all of those Just Say No commercials, and I knew better. But those darned geeks have such neat toys! Who can resist? I need to find a meeting where I can stand up and get it off my chest.

“Hello, my name is Nick, and I’m a geek.”

Thought For The Day – Some folks wear their halos much too tight.

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No matter how long you’ve been a fulltime RVer, you can still forget the simple things. Or at least I can. Tuesday night Miss Terry was washing some dishes and noticed that our water pump was making a low moaning noise. Hmmm…. I like to think that I’m the only reason moaning noises are coming out of our bus. I decided I’d better check things out.

I grabbed a flashlight, went outside and opened our water bay, and sure enough, our freshwater tank was almost empty. It was late in the evening, so we decided that we’d skip our baths that night and wait until the next morning to refill the tank.

So yesterday morning I got out my 50 foot water hose and stretched it out toward the nearest water bib here at Show Low Lake Campground. Way too short. No problem, I got out my backup 25 foot hose. I was still short, by about five feet. I started to get out my backup to my backup 25 foot hose, and discovered that it was missing. Then I remembered lending it to someone at our Gypsy Gathering rally in Casa Grande, but apparently I never got it back.

So it was off to Wally World for a new hose, I needed one anyway to replace the one I lost, and you can never have too much water hose, right? Back at the campground, I finally could fill our holding tank, and it was a good thing I did! If Miss Terry doesn’t have her morning coffee, she gets a bit testy. Throw in the fact that if I don’t get my shower, I get a bit ripe, and it’s not a recipe for romance.

In case you are wondering how we could run out of water, I have a good excuse. Nick happens. It explains a lot that goes wrong in my world.

We don’t have monitors on our fresh or waste water tanks. They never work anyway, so when we built our bus conversion, we didn’t mess with them. I have enough aggravation in my life already, I don’t need the hassle of tank monitors to add to my stress level. We know about how long we can go on a tank full of water before it’s time to refill, and I can open the bay and look at the tank if I need to be sure. This time around we were just so busy that it got away from us.

In case you’re new to RVing and don’t know it yet, holding tank monitors never work. Especially the ones in your waste tanks. I have seen newbies fret themselves into a tizzy over the fact that they just left the dump station, and their monitors still show the tank is full, or half full, or whatever. If you live this lifestyle long enough, you learn to ignore the monitors. Otherwise it will drive you to drink.

Over time (and not much time at all), gunk builds up on the contacts inside of the tank and give false readings. I’ve heard of a hundred ways to clean the contacts inside a holding tank, from pouring ice cubes down the toilet and driving around to knock the crud off, to filling the tank with water and baking soda, or bleach, not to mention all of the commercial chemicals you can waste your money on. Trust me; none of them work long term.

If you spend much time in an RV, you’ll get to know about how long you can go before you need to dump, depending on the size of your tank and how many people are in the RV. Of course, if you drink a gallon of that stuff my doctor made me drink before my colonoscopy, all bets are off. Either get a full hookup site, or park at the dump station, because you’re going to need it!

Experienced RVers can usually tell when the black tank is getting full based on the way it sounds when they flush. Or you can just follow Uncle Nicky’s RV Potty Rule, which I’ve shared with hundreds of Life on Wheels students, but am now going to tell you too, “If you flush the toilet and your butt gets wet, it’s time to dump!” Trust me, it’s much more reliable than any darned holding tank sensor on the market!

Thought For The Day – I finally got my head together, now my body is falling apart.

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In a blog post titled Am I a Full-timer? I think so… on the RV.Net Blog, Tony Cornett, known as Firedude to his many followers, writes about going to visit family in his old hometown over Easter, and realizing he is indeed a fulltime RVer, not just a weekend warrior.

Some of the clues were subtle, such as wandering through his brother’s home and being amazed at how much “stuff” they have, or that his brother has more stuff crammed into his garage than Tony has in his entire RV.

Other clues were more obvious and we’ve experienced them ourselves when visiting family and friends. Have you ever tried to flush the toilet in somebody’s house with your foot? If you have, you might be a fulltimer! Been there, done that. How about staying at a friend’s house, and turning the water off in the shower while you lather up? My friend Terry Simpson says that when he returns to his home in Mitchell, Indiana after a winter on the road in his bus conversion, he does the same thing.

Tony’s column hit home with me because we are currently visiting our old hometown of Show Low, Arizona. We’ve enjoyed visiting with my daughter and her family, and our friends here, but I’m amazed at how much space they take up and how much stuff they have to fill that space. My daughter and son-in-law live in a rather small two bedroom apartment, which gets cramped with two little girls growing up fast in it, but their place seems huge to us.

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day and he said he envied the fact that we have escaped the rat race. He knew us back in the days when we worked 60, 70 or more hours a week. He had just returned from a visit to his wife’s family, down in the Phoenix area, and said it was sad how her kids and grandkids were fixated on having the newest electronic gadgets, or the latest and greatest hybrid yuppie-mobile. Terry and I don’t need much more in life than each other, a gentle tailwind when we’re going down the highway, and a level, quiet place to park for the night.

Unlike Tony, we have not driven by our old house while we’ve been in town. The place holds no special significance for us. It was just a place to eat and sleep in between our workaholic days. When we left, we put that part of our lives behind us.

But we’ve felt at home all over this country, whether we’re parked in a nice campground on the Texas Gulf Coast, boondocking under a starry desert sky, or grabbing a few hours’ sleep in a highway rest area or Wally World parking lot. We could never go back to our old lives.

In yesterday’s blog I mentioned the fishing opportunities here in Arizona’s White Mountains. While trout, bass, and walleye are the big three for anglers who fish our local waters, one often overlooked species are catfish. But there are some real lunkers waiting for the lucky fisherman (or fisherwoman) who knows how to hook them.

Here is one my son-in-law, Jim, caught yesterday evening at Fool Hollow Lake here in Show Low. The 150 acre lake is part of Fool Hollow Recreation Area, an Arizona State Park that includes 92 RV sites, many with full hookups, as well as 31 primitive sites. Fool Hollow got its name when an early settler began to farm the land now covered by the lake’s waters, and his neighbors joked that “Only a fool would plow that hollow.”

The lake is also popular with bird watchers, who come to spot a wide range of species, including Mallard and Canada geese, Great Blue Heron, Snowy Egret, American Egret, White-faced Ibis, Stellar’s Jay, Lesser Goldfinch, Blue Birds, Acorn Woodpeckers, Nuthatches, and Red-shafted Flicker. Raptors commonly seen are Bald Eagles in the winter, Osprey in the summer, American Kestrel, Northern Harrier and Goshawk. It’s one of our favorite places to stay when visiting our old hometown.

Thought For The Day – Cleaning your house while the kids are still living at home is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing.

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We can tell it’s getting warmer down in the desert, because people are starting to head up to Arizona’s cool mountains. Last week Phoenix had its first triple digit day, and over the weekend we had an influx of neighbors at Show Low Lake Campground. Up until now, we’ve pretty much had the place to ourselves, except for the camp host and managers, and one other camper.

This is the best time of year for fishing Arizona’s high country lakes and yesterday we watched some of the action at Show Low Lake, across the street from the campground. One fellow was casting with a fly rod, his line trailing out behind him as he whipped his limber rod back and forth.

We had to chuckle at a couple in a boat who were coming in from fishing and almost swamped their boat trying to get out of it at the dock. It was kind of like watching newbie RVers trying to back into a campsite.

Of course, it’s not just newbies who have occasionalproblems. After ten years of fulltiming, we pretty much have it down to a science, and with Miss Terry’s expert guidance, I can usually get into any campsite on the first try, with maybe just a little bit of fine tuning once I’m in. But, if there is a crowd of people standing around watching, I’ll run over the utility box, the hose bib, a stray French poodle, or anything else without the good sense to get out of the way. I just don’t do well under pressure!

Terry got the last of the envelopes stuffed with the new issue of the Gypsy Journal over the weekend, and today we’ll drive back to Flagstaff to drop them off at the mail service. Then hopefully we will have some down time to enjoy our grandkids before we hit the road again.

While she was busy with that chore, I was working on lining up entertainment for both our Arizona Gypsy Gathering rally next March 8 – 12 in Yuma, and for the Ohio Gypsy Gathering rally, September 28 – October 2 of this year.

Melissa and Larry Beahm from One More Time wowed the crowd in Celina, Ohio last year, and they will be coming back with a brand new show this time around. We’re excited to have them performing for us again. Melissa and Larry are a fun couple, and they have been making a name for themselves performing at RV rallies and other events from New York to Texas. We’re excited to have them back again.

For the Arizona rally, we are bringing in an excellent performer named Michael Hargis, who has shared the stage with such big name acts as Chubby Checker, The Drifters, and The Oak Ridge Boys. After listening to Michael’s demo recordings, Terry and I both knew that we wanted to hear more from this talented entertainer. His range is really amazing!

If you haven’t made your plans to attend one of our rallies yet, mark them on your schedule now. And don’t forget, we still have vendor spots open at both rallies, so reserve your space now while it’s still available.

Thought For The Day – Standing in the middle of the road is dangerous. You will get knocked down by the traffic from both sides.

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When we announced our ten year anniversary of fulltiming, a blog reader wrote to ask me what we would do differently if we had it to do over again, but knowing what we know now about the fulltime RV lifestyle. In thinking about it, there are several things that would have made our lives easier and saved us a lot of money and frustration in our early years on the road. Of course, hindsight is always 20/20. So here’s my list of things I’d do differently.

1. Do more homework. I thought that I’d done a lot of research before we hit the road, but looking back, we sure had a lot to learn. I read several books on fulltiming, as well as all of the popular RV magazines, and learned quite a bit. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. If I were planning on becoming a fulltimer today, I’d read even more, spend a lot of time reading the various internet forums on RVing, and attend a couple of RV rallies as part of my research.

2. Join RV Consumer Group. The independent RV Consumer Group rates all RV makes and models for highway control, reliability, and value, and provides a wealth of information on what to look for, and what to avoid when making an RV purchase. I have had some people tell me that they don’t trust the RV Consumer Group’s ratings because they do not actually buy and test each individual model of every RV made. Instead they rely on a formula developed by their research. My feeling is that until somebody builds a better mousetrap, they are a valuable resource for RV shoppers. If we would have known about their material beforehand, we would have never purchased our first motorhome.

3. Buy a diesel pusher. There is no one best RV make or model to meet everyone’s needs. We all have different RVing styles and priorities. For our needs, a 38 to 40 foot diesel pusher by a quality manufacturer such as Allegro, Winnebago, or Newmar would have served us much better than the 36 foot gasoline powered motorhome we originally purchased.

4. Not buy a campground membership. Within our first month on the road, we purchased an expensive campground membership, which turned out to be a total waste of money. I always advise new fulltimers to wait at least a year before they buy a campground membership. It takes that long to develop your traveling style.

5. Join the Elks and Moose. My memberships in these two organizations have provided us many nights of free and low cost camping. Our membership dues and the donations we make to the lodges where we spend the night help them with their many good works in their communities, so it’s a two way street. I wish we had not waited several years before joining.

6. Avoid Camping World. It took us a couple of years to realize that just about anything we can buy at Camping World can be found for less money at many other retail locations and online.

7. Not join Good Sam Club. From the day we joined the Good Sam Club we were flooded with junk mail wanting us to upgrade our membership and buy some other product or service they offered. The small discount we got on camping at Good Sam parks was not worth the cost and hassle of the junk mail they sent us.

8. Buy a Blue Ox towbar. When we started fulltiming, we purchased a Roadmaster Falcon 5250 towbar, and fought with it for years. The release buttons were very stiff to push to disengage the arms, and if our dinghy was not perfectly straight , we could not unhook it. A few years ago we upgraded to a Blue Ox Aventa tow bar, which releases with levers, and we have found it to be a much more user friendly product.

9. Research health insurance issues. When we changed our legal domicile from Arizona to Texas, our insurance agent assured us we had full coverage, and we took his word for it. Eighteen months into our fulltime lifestyle, Miss Terry was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer, and our insurance company denied the claim. As it turns out, there was a 24 month exclusion for cancer, and even though we had the policy long before we started fulltiming, the clock started ticking all over again the day we switched addresses. A bridge policy to cover the gap would have saved us a fortune.

10. I would have started a blog earlier. I’m a dinosaur, and when people first started talking about blogging, I did not pay any attention. Since then, my thinking has obviously changed. Blogging has become an important part of our income stream, and the commissions we receive from those little ads you see on the blog help us pay our bills. But even if we did not have a business, or any ad income, blogging is a great way for RVers to stay in touch with their family and friends, and to record their travels.

So there are my Top 10 Things I’d Do Over. I’m curious, what would you experienced RVers do differently if you could start all over again?

Thought For The Day – Don’t go to bed angry. Stay up and plot your revenge.

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