I wrapped up the new issue of the Gypsy Journal late in the afternoon yesterday, Miss Terry got it proofed, and today we’ll send it over to our printer for final tweaking and printing. If all goes according to plan and if the angels are smiling on us, we’ll get it back and mailed by the end of the year. Still late, but it’s the best we can do under the circumstances.

With the paper finished, we needed a break, so we went out to Foley to a Chinese buffet for dinner, and by the time we got back to the campground it was cold! I am so tired of being cold, I just want to be someplace where we can sleep with the windows open, and not have to shiver every time we step out the door.

Back at the motorhome, I wrote a blog entry about my thoughts on some of the electronic gadgets I’ve experimented with over the last few months and my impressions looking back, then decided I didn’t really want to post it, and saved it for a day when I’m running late and have nothing to write about. Writers call that “banking” stories – saving a few in reserve for when they have a deadline and their brain turns to pudding and they need to fill a column or blog quickly. I don’t believe in such a thing as writer’s block, because I can always find something to write about. As I wrote in an article on my Publishing4Profit website, writer’s block is a crock. Anyone who has made their living in the daily or weekly newspaper business will tell you that. But sometimes it’s nice to have that extra cushion, just in case I get lazy, if nothing else.

I’ve been looking at our trip west, and though the easiest route would be to get on Interstate 10 and take it all the way into Arizona, I really don’t like that route. I-10 across Texas is long, boring, and we’ve done it too many times. I mean, how many dead armadillo, coyote, and deer can you stand to look at?

If the weather cooperates we may go up to Livingston, Texas for a couple of days, and then take U.S. Highways through Waco, Gatesville, Goldwaithe, Brownwood, Ballinger, and San Angelo before we eventually hook up with I-10 somewhere in west Texas. There are a couple of stories up in that area I’d like to stop and research for future issues of the paper. But as always, we never know exactly where we’ll be and which route we’ll take until after we’ve been there.

We may find something that catches our interest, and hang out somewhere or take a side trip along the way, and we may just as easily fall into “go fast” mode and just decide to get there and get settled in. We don’t have to be anyplace until early February, when we’ll be in Apache Junction, Arizona to help Terry’s parents celebrate their birthdays. That’s the great thing about the fulltime RV lifestyle, we have plenty of options and the freedom to exercise them at our whim. 

Thought For The Day – The future will be either what you make it to be or what you allow it to be.

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Quite a few RVs have left Rainbow Plantation here in Summerdale, Alabama as people head off for the holidays. We have talked to people who are going as far north as Louisville and as far west as California to be with family and friends. Others, like us, are hunkering down in a comfortable RV park somewhere until after New Years.

We have done it both ways, enjoying the holidays with RVing friends in different parts of the country, and returning to Arizona to celebrate with Terry’s parents, sisters, and their families. Each has been special it its own way. Last Christmas we were in Aransas Pass, Texas, and Terry and I spent the day together, just the two of us, and that was very special too.

My daughter Tiffany and her kids live in our old hometown of Show Low, Arizona, and since that is mountain country where the snow can pile up, we have not been there with them at Christmas. But those little girls of hers are getting older and I think one of these days we’re just going to have to bite the bullet and do that, even if we leave the motorhome in a park in the Apache Junction area and stay in a motel while we’re there.

Our RVing lifestyle has introduced us to some different holiday traditions in different parts of the country. In east Texas, people set off fireworks at Christmas and on New Years, which is noisy, but a lot safer than the fools who fire guns into the air to ring in the New Year. Down south, folks eat black eyes peas on New Years Day for luck, and in Florida one year, we were introduced to deep fried turkey, which was absolutely delicious.

Most RV parks that cater to snowbirds and fulltimers have a Christmas dinner, usually a potluck. Often the campground will furnish the turkeys or ham, and everybody else brings a plate to pass around. These are usually busy, festive occasions, and everybody has a good time. You can always tell the real cooks, like Miss Terry, because they bring wonderful dishes that took a lot of time and effort, while those who are not into the culinary arts often bring pies, rolls or a cheese or vegetable platter from a grocery store. It doesn’t matter, because it’s all delicious and it all disappears!

Sometimes, instead of putting together a big meal, a group of RVers will all get together and go out for their Christmas dinner, letting the folks at a local restaurant do all the work, and giving the ladies a break.

Wherever Terry and I are for the holidays, it doesn’t matter because we’re together, and that makes it home.

Where do you spend your holidays? Do you return back to wherever home is, or was, to be with the kids and grandkids, or do you hang out with RVing friends? Do you go to different places for the holidays each year, or always return to one place that you enjoy?

Thought For The Day – He who dies with the most toys is still dead.

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After too many days inside, I get cabin fever. So yesterday afternoon I took a break from working on the new issue of the Gypsy Journal to make a quick run to the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Fairhope.

While Miss Terry picked up some groceries and other items she needed, I browsed the book selection and picked up a couple of paperbacks that caught my interest. From Wal-Mart, we made a stop at Big Lots, and I waited in the van while Terry ran inside. We were only gone an hour or so, but the break really helped me feel rejuvenated.

Back at Rainbow Plantation, I knocked out several more pages of the new issue, and about 5 p.m. we went to Darryl and Judy Patterson’s nice Cedar Creek fifth wheel for dinner. They have been inviting us ever since we got here before our trip north to Indiana, and since they are leaving in a couple of days, it was now or never.

Norm and Linda Payne also joined us for dinner, and we had a couple of hours of good food and good conversation before it was time to say goodbye and get back to work. I love talking to other experienced RVers, and I always learn about new places to go and new things to see and do from them. It was nice to have the time to visit with both couples, and we really appreciate the great dinner. Miss Terry took over some of her great peanut butter cookies, and they were a hit with everybody.

The rain seems to have moved on past us, and hopefully things will start drying out around here. We are parked next to a tree, and when it rains hard, the leaves seem to get weighed down with the water and rub the top of our motorhome. It’s not enough to do any damage, the noise is just irritating. I want to move the coach a couple of feet to get away from them, but the ground is so darned soft that I’m afraid we’ll get stuck if I try.

We got a Wii for Christmas last year, and enjoyed it quite a bit, but we got busy and it got put aside somewhere and we have not used it in quite a while. Miss Terry mentioned several times that she missed it, so when we got back to the Winnebago I hooked it up and we played four games of bowling. It was a pretty close match – I won two games over Terry’s one, and we were tied on the fourth game. But she had more cumulative points overall, because she trounced me so badly in the game she won. We need to use the Wii more often, it’s a lot of fun, and it gives us a little exercise in the process.

Today and tomorrow will be more of the same, finishing up the new issue. I only have a few more pages to go, so I should be able to send it to the printer on Monday morning. The supervisor is a good guy whom we have worked with before, and he knows about our unexpected delay and said he’ll expedite the job, so hopefully we’ll get them back and in the mail within a few days after they get it.

While I was out goofing off, Bad Nick took over the keyboard and posted a new Bad Nick Blog titled The Rules Have Changed. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Do not light a fire you cannot yourself put out.

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It’s just as well that I’m stuck inside working on the new issue of the Gypsy Journal, because it’s raining again. We had one mostly clear day Wednesday to give us a break, but yesterday it started all over again, with more rain forecast today.

I know a couple of people who want to leave Summerdale, but the ground is so saturated that they aren’t sure they can even get their RVs out of their campsites. As soon as we get the new issue printed and mailed, we’ll be right behind them. I’m ready to head west.

I spent most of yesterday at my computer, except for an hour or so in the afternoon, when I began to get droopy and stretched out on the couch for a nap. We had a late breakfast or an early lunch, depending on what you want to call it, and when evening rolled around, we weren’t really hungry, so Miss Terry made up a batch of her homemade peanut butter cookies, which were delicious with a cold glass of milk. She says she really misses the Avanti gas range and oven she had in our bus conversion, but I think she’s getting the hang of using the convection oven in our Winnebago.

Judging from the responses to my last couple of blog posts, and the many, many e-mails I have received about our problems with our insurance claim, this has really stirred up a hornet’s nest.

Though PoliSeek, whom we purchased our insurance from, has never called me back, yesterday two other agents who sell for National Interstate contacted the bigwigs at that company, after their customers read my blog comments and e-mailed them. One said that she had already lost customers over the issue, who were taking their business elsewhere. The company told one of them that they were already aware of the blog posts on the subject and were going to get the issue resolved immediately.

Suddenly there seems to have been a complete change of attitude on the part of the claims adjuster I have been working with. He called to tell me that they didn’t have to wait for the last set of notarized papers I sent him listing the items stolen, all I needed to do was go out and buy replacements and they would reimburse me. I explained that I don’t have huge piles of money laying around to go on a shopping spree, and that we had acquired those things over time. He said no problem, just find them on the internet and send him a link to web pages showing their prices and they will send me out a check for whatever the total comes to. Suddenly that 180 day time frame that existed to settle the claim in seems to have disappeared.

I’m still waiting for word on the final repairs that have to be made at Camping World, but he assured me that it will all be resolved very quickly. I’m still skeptical, based upon National Interstate’s past performance, but I hope they will now follow through.

And while I’m appreciative of the other agents, whom I have no business dealings with, for going to bat for us, I’m thoroughly pissed that my own agent, PoliSeek still has ignored us. One of the other agents who contacted the company made one phone call, and had three managers from National Interstate contact her within 24 hours to find out the details to get the issue resolved. Why couldn’t PoliSeek do that for me? They sure have made a lot of commission money from my premiums over the years, since they cover our motorhome, two other vehicles, and I used them for coverage on the bus and my motorcycle before I sold them. I also used them to secure insurance for our Gypsy Gathering rallies. They have lost our business, and I will make it a point to tell any other RVers I talk to (and I talk to a lot of RVers over the course of a year), just how bad they treated us.

So yes, things look better, based upon my last conversations with the claims adjuster. But this whole thing leaves me wondering how many people out there have the same problems, but do not have access to the wide audience I do, to vent their frustrations in public, and instead just have to bend over and take it. It shouldn’t have to be that way for anybody.

Thought For The Day – He who knows nothing, doubts nothing.

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The rain stopped long enough yesterday for us to enjoy mostly blue sky, but the temperature dropped quite a bit, and the next week or so is supposed to be much cooler. I won’t complain about that, it’s still better than we had in Indiana. Now I wish it would just dry out!

I have been furiously pounding away at the keyboard, working on the new issue of the Gypsy Journal, except for an hour or two we spent yesterday meeting with an insurance adjuster, and then going into town to make more copies of forms for the insurance company, getting them notarized, and mailed off to National Interstate.

I love small town folks. Somebody here at the Escapees campground said that there was a notary public at City Hall in Foley, but when I stopped in she was out of the office, so they sent me next door to the library. The lady who usually does notary work there was also out, so they sent me upstairs to Library Director Steve Horn’s office. Steve is a very nice man, and after he notarized my papers, we must have talked for a half hour or so about small town life, and our fulltime RV lifestyle. Try getting that kind of one-on-one friendliness in the big city!

Back at the campground, I worked some more on the new issue, and then we stopped long enough to go to the 4 p.m. Social Hour, which actually took about 35 minutes. I always like attending Social Hour at Escapees RV parks. It gives us an opportunity to visit with folks, meet the people who recently arrived, and just relax.

Soon after we returned to the motorhome, Greg and Judy Bahnmiller came by to pick up a bundle of Gypsy Journals to pass out at an RV rally they will be attending, and at other RV parks they will be visiting in their travels. Many of our readers help us spread the word about the paper this way, introducing it to people in parts of the country where we don’t have an opportunity to get to, and it really helps us a lot. We always print a couple thousand extra copies of each issue just for this purpose. So if we cross paths and you have room in your rig for a bundle or two of newspapers to distribute wherever you’re headed, we’d be happy and grateful to make you an honorary “paper boy” (or girl).

Longtime subscribers and Gypsy Gathering rally attendees Jim and Mary Gallivan are here at the campground, and they have been inviting us to dinner for years, but we never seemed to have the time when we met up with them. So yesterday evening we all went to an excellent local restaurant called Big Daddy’s Grill.

Tucked away at the end of a small road on the bank of the Fish River, the restaurant may not be fancy by New York City standards, but who wants to go to New York City anyway? But if you want excellent food, especially seafood, it should be on your list of places to go. Jim and Mary introduced Miss Terry to fried pickle slices, which she said were delicious. I was glad they all liked them so much, because it left more of the fried crab claws for me. And those were just the appetizers! I had the shrimp and oyster combo basket, Terry had a shrimp quesadilla, Mary had a grilled shrimp salad, and Jim ordered a huge cheeseburger with sweet potato fries. We all loved our selections, and Big Daddy’s is now on our list of places we can’t wait to get back to.

As good as the food was, having time to sit and visit with Jim and Mary was even better. We share an interest in genealogy, though I have barely gotten my toes wet, while they have been poking the limbs on their respective family trees for decades.

By coincidence, Mary mentioned that she used to write a column for the Lapeer County Press newspaper in Michigan, which has been considered one of the best small town newspapers in the country for as long as I can remember. Back when I was still a wet behind the ears kid starting my own first newspaper, I met the publisher of the Lapeer newspaper at a newspaper convention, and he gave me tons of valuable advice to help me get my publication off the ground. A lot of the things he taught me, I continued to use throughout my newspaper career and it came in far more useful than anything I ever learned in a college journalism classroom.

The weather reports say that yesterday’s break was going to be fleeting, and we have another inch of rain predicted today and tonight. I think my “love handles” are going to turn into giant gills if this keeps up!

Thought For The Day – People seldom see the halting and painful steps by which “overnight success” is achieved.

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