As I wrote in yesterday’s blog, there is a rally of old GM motorhomes going on here at Elkhart Campground. I love these neat old coaches, and yesterday I poked my nose out into the cold to take a couple of photos of some of them.

Our friends Dan and Terri Greg travel in a neat old GM motorhome, and are here for the rally. We first met them in Arizona a year or two ago, and I have been following their Travel Blog ever since. We haven’t had time to get down and say hello yet, but Dan said they’d try to catch up with us today.

Yesterday was my birthday, and I just don’t understand it. My driver’s license says I’m 57 now, so how come I still feel like a 20 year old kid? Okay, a 20 year old kid with a lot of creaks and groans in the morning, but still a kid.

My dad used to say that it was a shame that youth is wasted on the young, and I never understood that. I do now. I’d love to have the energy and optimism I did when I was 20, but only with if I could keep what little wisdom I may have picked up along the way.

Still, I wouldn’t want to go back and re-live all of the drama of youth. I’m at a very comfortable time in my life, I’ve never been more content in my work or my personal life, and I look forward to getting out of bed every morning. Life is good.

Miss Terry is having a hard time finding any cookbooks that will give her some ideas of how to use the microwave/convection oven in our Winnebago motorhome. Terry is a great cook, but she’s a traditionalist, and has always been very happy with her gas oven in our bus conversion. She sure has created a lot of delicious meals and treats with it.

The Winnebago has just a gas cooktop and a GE Profile microwave/convection. The few cookbooks she has found have recipes, but not much in the way of techniques or instructions on how to transition from a gas oven to a convection model.

Yesterday she made me a birthday cake in the convection oven, her first attempt to use it. I thought it was delicious, but she wasn’t satisfied. Just to reassure her, I went back for a second big piece of cake, and I may have another for breakfast. Oh, the things I do for that woman!

Thanks to everyone who sent me Happy Birthday e-mails or posted greetings on Facebook. You all make me feel very special. 

Thought For The Day – Dieting is a way of starving to death so you can live longer.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

I’m going to change my name to Nanook of the North, because I’m beginning to feel like an Eskimo. It looks like winter has already set in here in northern Indiana, and we’re freezing! There is a small rally of old GM motorhomes here at Elkhart Campground, and I keep thinking that those folks are even worse at planning than I am. We have to be here to get the new issue out, but those fools chose to be here this time of year!

I know that there are folks who enjoy cold weather, but I’m not one of them. I lived in cold country too many years to have any attraction to it. A lifetime ago when I was a young soldier, we held war games in some Godforsaken place like Iceland or Greenland, to prepare us for combat if the Soviets ever invaded.

I suggested that we give the frozen place to the Commies and regroup in Key West to look out for the Cubans, who might use the diversion to launch a sneak attack on our rear. As it turns out, the strategists really didn’t want my input, but time has proven me right. Russia isn’t a threat anymore, but Cuba is still there, just waiting for us to look the other way, and they’ll be swarming ashore and heading for the bars on Duval Street. Wait a minute, they already do that…! I’m not Nanook of the North, I’m a soothsayer!

That’s better anyway. I don’t have room for a sled dog team in our Winnebago, and that whole Eskimo nose rubbing instead of kissing thing just doesn’t work for me. What’s sexy about two red, runny noses bumping into each other anyway?

One problem with cold weather RVing is condensation. Cooking, showering, even running a propane furnace, all put a lot of water vapor in the air, and we have noticed that the outside wall at the back of our bedroom closet, as well as our windshield, are collecting condensation. We open the bathroom roof vent and turn on the exhaust fan when we shower to allow the steam to get out, but it’s still an issue we need to keep an eye on.

Years ago, when Terry was being treated for cancer, we were stuck in Traverse City, Michigan into the winter. No matter what we did, our Pace Arrow Vision, the Motorhome from Hell, was wet inside. It was so bad that Terry had a package of rolls of paper towels stored between the front passenger seat and the dashboard, and they were saturated. Our Ultimate Advantage is a lot better insulated than that Fleetwood lemon, but we still have to deal with condensation.

Of course, the best remedy is to get out of the cold and into someplace warmer. It’s something I’m really looking forward to. I think we’re in for a long, cold winter in much of the country, and I want to get as far away from it as I can and still be on dry land.

Bad Nick is no fool. He spent his time inside where it was nice and warm,  working on a post for the Bad Nick Blog titled The Higher Education Scam.

Thought For The Day – In insurance policies, the big print giveth, and the small print taketh away.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

Terry and I have spent most of our time inside the last few days, catching up on paperwork and working on the new issue of the Gypsy Journal. It’s just as well, because it’s been too darned cold to do much outside. And looking at the weather forecast for the Elkhart area, it’s only going to get worse as time goes on. The highs for the next four days are only in the 40s, with overnight lows at or near freezing. Believe me, I’m working hard to get the paper finished and printed so we can hit the road!

I did take a break yesterday to go check on our bus conversion. Since it’s not plugged into power, which means the block heater isn’t on, I was worried that it might not want to start with this cold weather. But that faithful old Detroit diesel fired right up, blowing out a cloud of smoke that killed any mosquito larvae that might be hanging out waiting for next summer. In a modern coach, that much smoke on startup is a reason to worry, but not in the old diesels. It’s just how they are in cold weather, and once they warm up the smoke goes away. Bad Nick thinks it’s a great way to get even with rude campground neighbors with yappy little dogs.

The other day Al Hesselbart got the battery charged up on his vintage Newell and got it started, and as he drove past us, Terry and I grinned at each other and said “We know that brand of perfume!”

Greg and Jan White, readers from Texas who were at our rally in Ohio, are parked behind us at Elkhart Campground, and yesterday Greg invited us over for a demonstration of the Silverleaf VMSpc program for monitoring diesel engines. I was very impressed with the many options the program offers, and I’ll be adding one very soon. Fulltimer Norm Payne has a very good report on the Silverleaf that does an excellent job of explaining what it can do on his excellent  See Ya’ Down The Road website. Click the link for Silverleaf VMSpc Monitor link.

We have not had mail in a couple of weeks, and yesterday the postman brought us a big Priority Mail box from our mail service. It was late in the day by the time the mail arrived, and by the time Miss Terry got everything opened and made up a bank deposit, we knew we’d have to get every light green in time to make it to the bank before it closed. Which meant, of course, that instead, we got every red light! We made it to the bank a minute after they locked the doors! Grrrr!

Our friends Ron and Brenda Speidel have been in town getting some upgrades done to their Winnebago Journey DL motorhome, and hopefully everything will be wrapped up this morning and they’ll be on the road by noon. We wanted to get together one last time before that happened, so yesterday afternoon we had dinner at one of our favorite places, Texas Roadhouse. We’ve been together since just before we bought our Ultimate Advantage, and we are sorry to have to part company, but we know that we’ll cross paths again somewhere down the road. Hopefully someplace where it’s warmer!

Thought For The Day – To handle yourself, use your head. To handle others use your heart.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

We spent most of the last couple of days wrapping up the paperwork from our recent Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally, and logging in all of the subscriptions we sold there.

At each of our rallies, we ask attendees to complete a feedback form, telling us not only what we did right, but what we could improve as well. Looking over the rally feedback forms, it seems like overall folks had a good time and went away happy.

One frequent comment is that they like the small laid back feeling of the rally. This is something we strive for at all of our events, because that’s the kind of rally we enjoy ourselves. We’ve been to too many of the huge mega-rallies where there are thousands of RVs, and nobody knows anybody. A lot of folks tell us our rallies are more like a family reunion.

It also seems like people really appreciate the variety of educational seminars we offer. Mac McCoy told the audience at the rally that our events are the “new Life on Wheels,” and Joe Kieva agreed, which was a great compliment to Terry and me. As core Life on Wheels (LOW) instructors, these were the guys we looked up to when we went to LOW as new RVers ourselves. Getting to know them personally years later when we became instructors ourselves only increased our admiration for them, so their comments on our rallies are high praise.

Writing about the rally in their RV Notebook blog, Joe and Vicki Kieva said in part “The Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally is over. And it was a good one. Great location, informative seminars, relaxed, friendly atmosphere. Nick and Terry Russell know what it takes to put together a successful rally. They have experienced rallies as attendees, vendors and seminar presenters. So now, as rally producers, they understand the expectations, needs and interests of rally participants.”

Our vendors also liked our idea of having them inside, in the same building where we held registration and served morning coffee and donuts. It really helped their sales!

Of course, we can’t please everybody. One lady wrote that she did not appreciate me telling her on two different occasions that she could not bring her dog into the seminar buildings. We announced several times that only service dogs were allowed in the buildings, but some people just don’t get it.

Another complaint was that there were not enough full hookup RV sites at the fairgrounds, and that two remained unused through the rally. We reserved the few full hookup sites for handicapped attendees and those with special needs. Some folks did not show up, even though they had registered and paid, but we did not want to give their sites away and then have them arrive and not have a place to park them. There were also a few of us on full hookup sites who arrived a week before the rally began to make preparations, and who stayed after the rally ended to handle post-rally details.

And we had a couple of comments that there was not enough free time to socialize. While we usually have a lot of impromptu get togethers around the RVs during our rallies, the weather did not cooperate very well for that this year. But while we offer a lot of activities for those who want them, nobody has to attend each and every one. That’s why we had a hospitality area in the vendor building, with tables and chairs where people could just sit and visit, play cards, and get to know one another.

We keep learning with every rally, and try to implement those lessons to make future events even better.     

With this year’s Eastern rally behind us, it’s time to start focusing on our Western Gypsy Gathering, which will be March 8-12 in Yuma, Arizona. We have made a change to our vendor policy at future rallies, starting with the Yuma event. In the past, we have only allowed one vendor per type of product, but we have had so many requests for more vendors that, after talking to the vendors at Ohio, we have decided to start allowing vendors in who sell competing products by a different manufacturer. So while we may have a vendor selling PressurePro tire monitoring systems, for example, we may also have a vendor selling Doran systems.

One final word on our rallies before I close this blog. We have set the location and dates for our next Eastern rally. It will be August 30 to September 3, 2010 at Elkhart Campground in Elkhart, Indiana. This will be two weeks before the Escapees rally in Goshen, which will allow vendors and attendees to come to our rally, then have a week off before they go in to Escapade.

And for those who have complained about not having full hookups at our rallies, we will have both 50 and 30 amp full hookups available by pre-registration, as well as sites with just water and electric. This is a departure from our previous rallies, and we’re looking forward to seeing how folks like it.

Thought For The Day – Drive carefully! Remember, it’s not only a car that can be recalled by its maker.

There are a lot of reasons I think Al Gore needs a mouth transplant, and his theory of global warming is just one of them. Spend a day or two here in northern Indiana this time of year, and I bet you’ll agree that global warming is an urban legend. Damn, it’s cold!

Our Winnebago Ultimate Advantage has a heat pump, which is new to us. The idea is that down to a certain temperature, we can run the heat pump instead of the gas furnace, and save propane.

At this point, I’m not all that impressed with this option. The heat pump is okay during the day, but it is part of the basement air conditioning system, which is mounted under the motorhome, about where our bed is inside. At night it is very loud, and I’m a light sleeper, so when it’s cold enough to need heat at night, I’ll opt for the gas furnace. I’d rather buy some propane than be cold, or have my sleep interrupted every time the heat pump comes on.

Better yet, I’ll go someplace warm. And you can bet that as soon as we get the new issue of the Gypsy Journal printed and mailed, we’ll be out of here.

Old diesel engines don’t like the cold weather any better than I do. Yesterday Ron Speidel and I tried to help Al Hesselbart, from the RV Hall of Fame Museum, get the diesel engine and diesel generator on his vintage Newell motorhome to start, without any success.

Our MCI bus conversion is parked next to Al’s rig, and I know that with the block heater we had installed last year it will fire right up, but I hope whoever buys the bus has the good sense to head for the sunbelt too. We spent several months living in our first motorhome in northern Michigan during the winter years ago while Miss Terry was being treated for cancer, and we vowed never to do that again. My motto is, if it snows, Nick goes!

Even with all of the filthy talk from the truckers, I still find having a CB radio in an RV to be very handy. Our CB has alerted us to traffic accidents and bad weather ahead, helped us find a way around traffic backups, and the built in weather radio can be a life saver.

Our Winnebago came with a CB antenna pre-installed, and it was pre-wired to hook up a CB radio. So yesterday, after we finally gave up on starting Al’s rig, Ron Speidel installed my Cobra CB radio.

I’ve also been thinking about downloading the free Silverleaf VMSpc software, which allows diesel owners to monitor their engine’s performance and keep up with the maintenance schedule. While the program is a free download, you do need to purchase a cable that plugs into the engine data port under the dash and connects to a laptop computer.

While Ron was prowling around under the dashboard hooking up the CB, he located the data port for me, and marked it so I can plug in the data cable if I decide to go with the Silverleaf. I’d be interested in hearing from any readers who use the Silverleaf, and getting your feedback on it. Some people call it a very handy tool, and others say it’s just another gadget. What do you think?

While I was outside freezing my butt off yesterday, Bad Nick was inside snug and warm,  hard at work postng a new blog titled The Sky Is Still Falling!

Thought For The Day – You are the creator of your own reality show. If you don’t like your part in it, rewrite the script.