Okay, I goofed, and I know it’s my fault. But I’m still mad about it.

A week or so ago we were discussing life insurance, and I logged onto Geico’s website to get a quote. The form I filled out included my telephone number, and ever since I get at least one, and usually two or three, calls a day from someone hustling insurance.

I’ve told them over and over again that I have the information I wanted, and if I decide to purchase a policy, I’ll contact them, but to please not call back. Of course, it does no good. They still call.

Now, I don’t know if Geico is any better or worse than any other insurance company. To be honest, I just choose them because I like their commercials with the cavemen and their cute little gecko spokesman. But if I get one more telephone call, I’m gong to track that pesky lizard down and stomp him flat! Folks, never, ever give out your telephone number!

Thursday night we had terrible thunderstorms that lasted for hours. We have crank out style jalousie windows on our bus conversion, and usually we can leave them open no matter how hard it rains. But this storm brought high winds with it that blew under the windows, and I woke up to rain splashing me in the face.

The storm put on a spectacular light show that just went on and on. Then yesterday afternoon and evening we had several more storms roll through, though they did not last as long. I went outside to take some trash to the dumpster and the ground was just saturated.

It was a good day to be inside writing, and I managed to get a lot done. Meanwhile, Miss Terry decided to put her amazing cooking skills to use, and made us a delicious dinner of shrimp scampi with linguini Romano. Yummy!

Since the television signal kept cutting in and out, we listened to music from our iPod played through the Bose docking system and just had a quiet day, with the only drama provided by the weather.

I’ve only got a few pages left to finish for the new issue of the paper, and we’ll be dropping it off to the printer Monday morning. Then we plan to run over to Muskegon, Michigan to visit with my cousin Berni Frees and her hubby, Rocky, and for a nice birthday dinner for Miss Terry. It’s been too long since we’ve seen Berni and Rocky, and we need a dose of the good natured nonsense that only they can provide. 

Thought For The Day – Enjoying life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass; it’s about learning how to play in the rain.

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I spent most of yesterday doing the same thing I’ve been doing all week – working on the new issue of the Gypsy Journal. So I was ready for a break when Al Hesselbart from the RV Hall of Fame Museum stopped over in the afternoon for a visit.

While we were talking, Al mentioned that he wants a website to promote his RV history seminars, which he presents at RV rallies and events nationwide. So once we get the new issue of the paper out, we’ll set down and see if I can design a website that will meet his needs.

If you have not had the opportunity to see Al’s seminar 100 Years of RVs in America, he’ll be at our Ohio Gypsy Gathering rally in September. I have sat in on it a couple of times and always learn something new.  

I have always appreciated the odd and unusual when it comes to vehicles, which had led to me owning some really strange rides over the years. Has anybody reading this ever owned a Toyota Stout pickup? It was a boxy looking little truck with a four speed column shift manual transmission.

Another goofy little car I had, back when I was in high school, was a Daffodil, which wasn’t much bigger than a kid’s pedal car, and almost as powerful. (The Stout and Daffodil in these pictures are not the same ones I owned.)

While I enjoyed these unusual vehicles, finding parts for them can be darned hard, and if you have my limited mechanical skills, you’re better off owning something a mechanic has seen before when it comes breakdown time.

That’s why, while they would never work for our lifestyle, we really like the looks of the vintage Winnebago and Itasca mini-motorhomes. Several of them arrived at Elkhart Campground yesterday for a small rally. When Terry and I took our after dinner walk, we stopped and admired some of the neat old rigs, and took a few pictures.

Another interesting old motorhome that arrived yesterday is this Ultra Van, which is powered by a Corvair engine and transaxle. An estimated 370 of these unique RVs were made from the 1960s to 1970, and records show that some 200 are still on the road, many with over 200,000 miles on the odometer. They cruise comfortably at 60 miles per hour, and get about 15 miles per gallon. Pretty cool, huh? I wonder how many of today’s RVs will be able to meet that record for longevity forty years from now?

Thought For The Day – You know you’re getting on in years when the girls at the office start confiding in you.

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Would somebody please check their calendar and let me know what month it is? My calendar swears that it’s the middle of June, but that can’t be right, because yesterday it was so gray and gloomy that I’m sure it must be sometime in November!

I have been busy working on the new issue of the paper all week, but I did take a couple of hours off last night to go to the Verizon store for their free class on how to use my new Blackberry Storms’ many features. I’m amazed at how much they can cram into such a small package. I’ve only had the smart phone for a few days, but I’m more impressed with it every day.

Isn’t technology a wonderful thing? By simply turning on my computer, I can plan a trip, buy a book, do my banking, keep in touch with family and friends all over the country, and participate in online forums on anything and everything under the sun.

I have made friends with RVers from different internet forums, and have had online conversations with them for years. Some I have met eventually in our travels, while others are still out there waiting to cross paths.

My favorite RV forum is the Escapees Discussion Forum, which should be the first place any new RVer logs onto, as well as those with years of experience. Whenever I have a question about anything, whether it is RV related or in things like selecting my new Blackberry, I make a post on the appropriate section of the Escapees forum and usually within minutes the replies start arriving. I try to return the favor by answering other folks’ questions anytime I have input I can share.  According to the Escapees statistics, I have made over 2,200 posts since I joined the forum in 2002.

Another RV forum with a lot of very good information is IRV2. I don’t log on there as much as I do Escapes, because there are only so many hours in a day, and Miss Terry insists I do some work now and then. I particularly like the Owners Forums on IRV2, where you can get input on just about any brand of RV from people who own them.

I seldom go onto the RV.net forum, just because I can’t spend my whole life online, but it is another popular site with a lot of RVers I know.

Every forum seems to have its own personality. The Escapees forum is pretty friendly, but I have known several people who have left the RV.net forum because they got flamed by some self-appointed critic for innocent posts. Unfortunately, this can happen on any forum, and newbies are sometimes especially targeted before they learn the ropes.

When we were building our MCI bus conversion, I spent a lot of time on the bus conversion forums, but I seldom go onto them any more. I learned a lot, but there are too many guys on them with what I call “Mine’s Bigger” syndrome, and they get tiresome. 

What RV forums and websites do you frequent on a regular basis?

Thought For The Day – Don’t take guilt trips. There are much better destinations available.

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Being sick last week put me behind schedule getting the new issue of the Gypsy Journal out, so now I’m pushing the clock to get finished.

I know I should have been working on it last week, but my brain was just too darned foggy to concentrate. I’d start to write something and halfway through a paragraph, I’d totally lose my train of thought. I managed to get the blog out and to edit the Todays Hero Blog postings, but that was about as productive as I was.

Fortunately, we are both feeling a lot better now. Terry still has some problems with her ears, and I still have a nasty cough, but compared to a week ago, we feel great. We appreciate everybody’s get well e-mails.

I worked on the paper most of yesterday, except for a quick trip to the post office to mail off some new orders. Meanwhile, Terry waded through a backlog of paperwork recording sales receipts. How can taking a few days off get us so far behind? The weather forecast calls for rain for the next five days, so I guess it will be a good time to be holed up inside working.

Never underestimate the power of the World Wide Web. After I wrote about our new friend Michele Henry and her company, Phoenix Commercial Paint, in yesterday’s blog, Michele said her website recorded 321 new visitors, most from my blog post. I hope it gets her some new customers, because she really does great work at an unbelievable price.

Someone wrote to ask me how any company can turn out a quality full body paint job for so much less than anyone else in the business, and said it seems impossible.

Michele can do what she does at that price for the same reason we have been able to publish a successful RV newspaper for ten years without any staff and without filling it up with ads from the big RV manufacturers. We love what we’re doing and we do almost everything ourselves to keep our overhead low. If it takes working 18 hours a day when we’re against a deadline, we do it. The same with Michele; she loves transforming dated looking coaches with beautiful paint jobs, and she isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty to get the job done. If you love what you’re doing, it’s not really work.

I am going to take some time off this evening, though. The Verizon store is having a free class on how to get the most out of smart phones, and I want to go see if they can give me some pointers on my new Blackberry Storm.

I am really impressed with this new phone, and it has so many features that I’ll never discover how to use them all myself. Can you believe that I was even able to download a free level? It looks and works exactly like a bubble level that you would use to check your RV’s level, or a tripod TV dish, but it’s right there on the phone. I tested it against two levels we have, and it is just as accurate.

What do I need a telephone with a level for? I have absolutely no idea, but that’s why my pal Brenda Speidel calls me Gadget Boy! 

Thought For The Day – Be glad God doesn’t give us everything we ask for.

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Yesterday our friend Al Hesselbart from the RV Hall of Fame Museum called to tell me that several vintage RVs from the Tin Can Tourists were visiting the museum and that I was missing a great photo opportunity. So I grabbed my camera and headed over to check things out.

The Tin Can Tourists are a club for owners and fans of vintage trailers and motor coaches. The units on display at the museum included everything from a neat old Travco motorhome to classic travel trailers, and even a couple of really neat homebuilt campers. I really liked this homebuilt camper, with cedar shingles and a back porch, and the old truck pulling it was pretty cool too. I’d have loved to see the inside of it.
Another neat homebuilt is called simply The Shack. Built by John and Dot Flis, the camper built on their 1940 International truck was made from 90% recycled stuff they collected here and there. Don’t let the old truck’s outward appearance fool you, John replaced the original engine with a powerful 350 Chevrolet V-8 engine and beefed up the suspension and drive train to handle the weight of The Shack.

They designed their neat camper to look like a miniature farmhouse, complete with galvanized roof, and tail lights made from old kerosene lanterns. Inside, The Shack has all the comforts of home, including a sink, small refrigerator, microwave, and porta-potty. The Shack has been featured on the Discovery Channel’s RV Crazy episode.

I also liked this beautiful 1950 Spartan trailer, owned by Michael Greene of nearby Bristol, Indiana. As it turns out, Michael is the cousin of our pal Trina Ambris, who runs RV Surplus Salvage, here in Elkhart. Michael told me that he found the 32 foot long trailer decaying in a field one day and tracked down the owner.

The old trailer was in terrible shape, and most sane people probably would not have taken on the task of resurrecting it. But Michael and his wife own a company called Sierra Custom Interiors that builds custom living quarters in horse trailers, and they also build neat retro looking camper trailers called Campfire Campers. Judging by what I saw inside the old Spartan John restored, I think there are some horses that are really traveling in style!

Back at the bus, Michele Henry from Phoenix Commercial Paint stopped over to visit. Both Al Hesselbart from the RV Hall of Fame Museum, and Bob and Gita Patel, owners of Elkhart Campground, had high praise for Michele and her work, and we were glad to get to know her.

For years Michele’s company has painted RVs for some of the local manufacturers, including Four Winds, Forest River, and Phoenix. But with the downturn in the RV industry, Michele, like many companies that support the RV manufacturers, is scrambling to stay alive.

She has painted quite a few coaches for private owners, and it is amazing how much she can transform a dated looking motorhome or fifth wheel. Click on some of the tabs at the top of her webpage, and then click on the individual pictures, and I think you’ll be just as impressed as Terry and I were.

Michele said she much prefers working with individual owners over the big companies, who want to dictate terms and are more concerned with saving a dollar by cutting quality, than the final job.

Michele is a sharp lady, and she has a good business model. Instead of trying to get top dollar from every customer, she charges much less than the competition, and turns out what I feel is work far superior work to some of the other shops. By running a lean operation, and concentrating on quality, she is able to turn out beautiful custom work for around $200 a lineal foot. So if you thought you needed to spend $12,000 to $15,000 for a custom paint job on your RV, think again. Instead of buying a new coach, you can save thousands by refurbishing your present rig inside and out. Check out Michele’s website, she’s good people and she does good work. When Terry and I buy a coach to replace our bus conversion, you can bet we’ll be seeing Michele for a paint job.

Thought For The Day – A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.

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