Miss Terry set a new record getting all of the envelopes stuffed with the new issue of the paper, and by yesterday afternoon the majority of them were in the mail. We’ll drop the remainder off at the post office and UPS this morning.

The Gypsy Journal goes out to our subscribers several different ways, depending on their preference. The greatest majority are sent as Standard Rate mail, which used to be called Bulk Mail.

We use different commercial mail houses around the country, depending where we happen to be when we publish a new issue. We send the mail service our address list and they print the names onto envelopes. Then we pick the envelopes up, stuff them with papers, and return them to the mail service, which uses its mail permit to send them out. Because a mailing permit is specific to one post office, and we travel all over the country, we don’t have our own permit, which would require us to return to the same post office for mailing every time. Standard Rate is the least expensive way to subscribe, but it is also the slowest delivery method. If subscribers are traveling, the post office will not forward Standard Rate mail.

The second option is First Class mail, which costs more, but moves faster through the postal system. First Class is also supposed to be forwarded, but it has been our experience that no matter what the rules say, the good folks at the post office do (or don’t do) whatever they feel like. We use Stamps.com to print our own First Class postage, and we can mail items anywhere.

We also have a lot of subscribers who use mail forwarding services such as Escapees, FMCA, and Alternative Resources. We have so many subscribers who use these three mailing services that they all allow us to put the envelopes with the papers for their clients into boxes, and ship them to them by UPS. This saves us a few dollars in postage, and gets the papers into subscribers’ mail boxes a little quicker than Standard Rate.     

Last year we also made digital subscriptions available, and we have had a lot of subscribers switch to that option. When a new issue is uploaded, we send them a link to its location on the internet, where they can either read it online, or download it to their computers. The digital subscription is the quickest way to get each new issue of the paper, because subscribers can be reading it minutes after I upload it.

Now that the new issue is making its way to subscribers in every corner of the country, we can relax a little bit, and we can even try to squeeze in a little bit of fun. Today we plan to drive down to Tucson and visit my cousin Beverly, who is one of my favorite people in the whole world. For the last three or four  years, we have spent a couple of weeks in Tucson visiting Beverly, but this year our schedule is so crowded that we’re not sure if we can get down for a stay or not. But we at least want to make a day trip to the Old Pueblo and spend some time with her before we head to Yuma for our Gypsy Gathering rally.

While Terry and I were busy dealing with mailing chores, Bad Nick was busy posting a new Bad Nick Blog titled 10 Things That Piss Me Off. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – New survey shows that 3 out of 4 people make up 75% of the world’s population.

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We have less than a week left in Apache Junction, and we have barely scratched the surface of all of the things we wanted to get done while we were here. Where does the time go? There are several people we have not gotten around to see, we wanted to empty and rearrange our motorhome’s storage bays, and I still need to replace our house batteries and the RV’s tires.

Terry was busy all day yesterday stuffing the new issue of the Gypsy Journal into envelopes to get mailed out, and she managed to make a huge dent in the job. I am always amazed at how fast she gets this monumental task done every time. She still has a lot to get stuffed, but she’s getting it done fast.

While Terry was doing her thing yesterday, I got the new digital edition uploaded and sent the link to our digital subscribers. I also mailed out several dozen rally information letters to folks who don’t have e-mail addresses and depend on snail mail.

I have a continuing problem with some folks who use e-mail filters to protect them from spam. I certainly see the need for such filters, and I don’t blame folks for wanting to keep their inboxes from being filled up with unwanted junk e-mail. Most folks who use a filter require anyone not on their approved list to fill out a quick form and usually you have to type in a set of letters and numbers to prove that you are a real person and not a spam belching computer robot. Usually, once you do this any future e-mails are accepted automatically. I can live with that.

But I have about three dozen folks who either subscribe to the digital edition or have registered for the rally who apparently have their programs set up so all e-mails have to be approved, because I have had to go through this process every time I try to send them a link to a new issue, rally information, or whatever. One fellow told me that only his children are on his approved list, everybody else has to jump through the hoops every time they e-mail him. He said it’s no big deal, it only takes a minute or two. That true, but multiply that by 36 or so people, and I lose a lot of time trying to get the information they want to them. It gets frustrating.

Meanwhile, we had ordered new slide toppers for our Winnebago motorhome, and the guy arrived yesterday morning to install them. He removed the topper fabric from the bedroom slide, and then realized his supplier had sent him the wrong size. He made a couple of phone calls and hopes to have a replacement in by today or tomorrow.

I made him measure the new cover for the large living room slide before he removed the old one. That one was okay, and he got it installed pretty quickly, with me holding up one end while he slid it into the channels that hold it in place.

The old toppers were in pretty sad shape, with several small holes and tears. A young man who does work here in the park came by to ask if he could have the old toppers to use as drop cloths when painting, and I was happy to give them to him, just so I didn’t have to lug them down to the dumpster.

We had to disappoint some folks yesterday morning, who called and wanted to come by for a visit, but we have so much to get done it just wasn’t possible. We hope they’ll understand and give us a rain check.

Thought For The Day – First things first, but not necessarily in that order.

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Longtime Gypsy Journal and blog readers probably already know that I am fascinated by those small world encounters that we have or hear about all the time.

You know what I mean, those chance conversations with a new friend in a campground, where you suddenly realize that you both worked at the same company 20 years and 3,000 miles ago. Or discovering that the longtime acquaintance you have always nodded to at RV rallies when you cross paths is your second cousin’s brother-in-law. Or pulling into an RV park and finding that the folks in the next site are people you shared a volunteer project with last summer. I call it small world syndrome, and we have had it happen to us more times than I can count.

Among my past publishing endeavors, years ago I put out a racing newspaper. I was standing in the press box of a small town dirt track once and got to talking to a gentleman who was visiting from out of state, looking for a race track to buy, which would be the fulfillment of his longtime dream. He said that now that he was retired from being a school administrator, he finally could get his racetrack. Can you imagine the surprise we both got when we talked a bit more, and discovered that he had been the incoming principal of my high school back in Toledo, Ohio the year I graduated early to join the Army?

Just last summer, Terry and I were helping our buddy Al Hesselbart by playing tour guides to a group from the Heartland Owners Club at the RV Hall of Fame Museum in Elkhart, Indiana. One custom built RV on display at the museum has emblems from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York incorporated into the design.

One of the men taking the tour pointed the emblems out to his wife and said that they reminded him of his old days in the Army. I spent a couple of my Army years teaching firearms and close combat at West Point, and after hearing his comment, we got to talking. It turns out that he left the Academy a few years before I arrived, and I had taken over his old job!

It has happened to us more times than I can count. We have pulled up to an intersection and looked over and seen friends sitting in their RV across the street; been filling our motorhome’s fuel tank and had other RVing friends pull in to the fuel island next to us; and stopped in roadside rest areas for a stretch and potty break, and met up with fulltimers we have crossed paths with all over the country. None of these unplanned meetings were expected, they just happened.

We had another small world encounter yesterday. We drove 100 miles north to Cordes Junction, Arizona to meet Bill Smith, head pressman for the Arizona Daily Sun newspaper in Flagstaff. Because there is so much snow on the ground up north, and we don’t have snow tires on our van, Bill had volunteered to drive 100 miles south to meet us halfway and deliver the new issue of the Gypsy Journal to us.

I have known Bill close to 20 years, ever since my newspaper days here in Arizona, and Terry has known him over ten years. Yesterday we were telling Bill about our travels, and he asked if we ever got up to Maine. We told him we had, and about visiting Saint Johns, the old grade school Terry had attended in Bangor.

Bill said he had grown up in Bangor, and then shocked us by telling us that he had gone to the same school! Of course, Bill is so old he has moss growing on his back, and Terry is only a few years out of puberty, so they weren’t there at the same time, but it was still fun listening to them reminisce.

Bill asked Terry what part of Bangor she had grown up in, and she told him that her father was stationed at Dow Air Force Base there, and they had lived in post housing. Bill blew us away again, when he said that when he joined the Air Force, he had been stationed right there in his hometown, at Dow!

I know our experiences are not unique. How many small world encounters have you had?

While we were out making new memories, Bad Nick was home writing a new Bad Nick Blog post titled I Like Arizona! Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Many of us go to our grave with our music still inside of us. Sing your songs now.

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I spend a lot of hours every day working at my computer, and a lot of that time is spent online, either answering e-mails from our readers, updating my blogs and websites, or researching new places we want to visit to see what kinds of stories I can find there for the Gypsy Journal.

But you know what they say about all work and no play, so occasionally I take a break from whatever I’m working at to check out interesting, fun, or even goofy websites. But why should I have all the fun? So I thought I’d share a few of them with you.

1. People of Walmart.com – I guarantee that if you spend a few minutes browsing this collection of candid photos of the denizens who hang out at your local WalMart store, you’ll be amazed, appalled, and get a chuckle or two. I also bet you’ll double check your RV’s door locks the next time you spend the night at Camp WalMart!

2. Mental Floss – Mental Floss magazine, and its sister website, bills itself as “Where Knowledge Junkies Get Their Fix.” Here you will finds all kinds of interesting trivia, from The Weird & Scary History of Winter Olympic Mascots, to People Born on the (Exact) Same Day You Were, to 9 Tasty Foods Named After People, and a lot of other information that would come in really handy if you ever land a spot as a contestant on Jeopardy or Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

3. My Parents Were Awesome – Long before they were introduced to dirty diapers and 2 a.m. feedings, our parents were hip youngsters who had the world by the tail. Contributors to this website send in photos of their parents that you’ll find interesting and even funny at times. My only concern, when looking at these photographs, is that sometimes I suspect it is our kids sending in pictures of us when we were kids!

4. Today’s Front Pages – After a career in the small town newspaper business, I’m a born newshound. I pick up newspapers wherever we are traveling just to get a feel for the community. At Today’s Front Pages you can view the current front pages of newspapers around the country.

5. Newspapers, USA And Worldwide – Just one part of the great refdesk.com website, which is a wealth of information, their links to small town and big city newspapers worldwide is another favorite site for news junkies like me.

6. Thinkexist.com – This is another one of those neat websites where you can get lost for hours. With more than 300,000 quotations by over 20,000 authors, you’ll be able to find just the right words for any occasion here.

7. Find A Grave – Whether you’re searching for your great uncle Harry’s final resting place, or the graves of the rich and famous, you’ll probably find it here. It’s a great resource for genealogists.

8.  Speedtest – Do you ever wonder how your current internet connection compares to the average for that server, or to your last location? You can check it quickly at Speedtest.

9. Snopes.com – Before you blindly forward the next wild story that shows up in your e-mail inbox, check out its validity at Snopes.com.

10. Post Secret - PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on a postcard. The voyeur in all of us will find it interesting.

Thought For The Day – If at first you don’t succeed, give up, there’s no use being a fool.

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Yesterday we had a party to celebrate Terry’s dad’s 80^th birthday. My father-in-law, Pete Weber, is one of the kindest, nicest, and most loving men I have ever known. Pete is a retired Air Force NCO, and even though he won a battle with cancer a few years ago, nothing slows him down.

He still walks several miles a day, he can do 25 pushups before I could even get down on the floor, and he can outwork most men 30 years younger. In fact, a while back Pete didn’t have enough to do, so he got himself a job as a WalMart greeter, working the graveyard shift four nights a week.

But that wasn’t enough of a challenge, so he volunteered to spend two of his nights retrieving shopping carts from the furthest edges of the parking lot! Here’s a picture of the happy birthday boy

Terry’s sisters Dani and Lisa, Lisa’s husband Jim, Dani’s beautiful daughters Lauren and Andrea, and their guys, joined us. Terry’s twin sons, Casey and Cody, and their ladies came down from their homes in Colorado, and her son Shawn and his girlfriend arrived from New Mexico, to help Pete celebrate his special day. Here is a picture of Terry and her dad. Can you tell how much she loves him?

That many people demand a lot of food, so Terry, Lisa, Dani, and their mom, Bess, prepared a feast that included Miss Terry’s delicious barbecued smoked ribs, beef sandwiches, all kinds of side dishes, and a huge chocolate cake that would destroy anybody’s diet. We all ate until we couldn’t eat another bite, and then we ate some more!

It was a great day, and everybody had a good time. We stayed until after 9 p.m., and by then everybody’s eyelids were beginning to droop, especially the Colorado contingent, who had to get up at 3 a.m. yesterday morning to be at the airport in Denver in time for their flight. I know Pete really appreciated having so many of his family with him for his birthday.

Friday I put a picture of the grapefruit tree at our RV site in the blog, and longtime reader Dave Burman thought I might want to see what life was like in his little corner of the world. Dave and his wife Mary are stuck in Frederick, Maryland, waiting for retirement so they can hit the road next year. Dave said he promised Mary that this will never happen again, and that he will drive their Winnebago Journey to Mexico if necessary, but they will be warm next winter!

I don’t blame you, Dave. We were stuck in Traverse City, Michigan during the wintertime years ago, while Miss Terry was battling cancer, and I don’t think I have completely thawed out yet! Our daughter Tiffany and her family live in Show Low, Arizona, only about a three hour drive from here, and I’d love to be up there spoiling my two granddaughters. But, until it warms up and the snow melts in the high country, that just isn’t going to happen.

Today we’re going back to Terry’s parents’ house to enjoy some more family time, and I bet there are plenty of leftovers we’ll have to wade through. It’s a dirty job, but somebody has to do it!

Thought For The Day – Birthdays are good for you; the more you have the longer you live.

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