When I checked my e-mail yesterday morning, I had a message from Verizon Wireless that an update for my Blackberry Storm was available, which was supposed to be the latest and greatest thing since sliced bread.

So, being the trusting soul I am, I plugged my phone into my computer, logged onto the Verizon website, and clicked the update button. The process took a few minutes, and then I got a message telling me the download was complete. Quick and easy, right?

Well, yes, except for the fact that the upload wiped out my entire contacts list. The photos I had stored on the phone are still there, even a couple of songs I transferred over from my computer a while back. But every telephone number I had is gone.

Yeah, I know, I could have backed up my information to my computer, but I never thought of it. So I’ll be spending some time digging out business cards and entering all of those numbers all over again. What fun.

There are many features I like about the Blackberry, but after using it for the last few months I have come to realize that my smart phone is smarter than I am by a long shot! I’m sure my seven year old granddaughter Hailey could probably make it do wonderful things, but I get a headache trying to figure what all the buttons are for.

It has been interesting to read all of the e-mails and comments from readers of yesterday’s blog Considering Our Options, about RV extended warranties. Some people feel that an extended warranty is a good investment, and just as many, if not more, seem to think they are not worth the money. I also heard from some folks who did buy extended warranties on their RVs, only to find that the companies issuing the warranties either did not honor needed repairs, or were very slow in paying. Like so much in the RV industry, there seem to be so many snakes selling extended warranties that you have to be very, very careful who you do business with.

I have had some comments from longtime readers who took me to task for buying a factory built motorhome because I have always said that “all RVs are junk and I’d never own anything but a bus conversion.” I don’t know when I supposedly said that, and in looking back over several years of past blogs and issues of the Gypsy Journal, I don’t find any such comment.

Yes, I have said many times that the quality of most factory built RVs is pretty sad, and I have said that a lot of junk has been foisted off on RV buyers by a lot of companies. However I have also said many times, in print and in the seminars I present at RV rallies, that there were four companies whose rigs I would be comfortable owning. Those companies are Heartland, Tiffin, Newmar, and Winnebago. When we started looking for a rig to replace our MCI bus conversion, they were on our very short list.

I love our old bus, and I will always be a fan of bus conversions. For cargo carrying capacity, safety in the event of a crash, longevity, and overall ruggedness, there has never been a stick and staple motorhome built that can compare. When we moved from the bus to our Winnebago, we traded down in those respects. No question about it.

However, our needs have changed. As our granddaughters have gotten older, the bus has become very crowded when they came to visit. We really wanted a coach with a slide. We also do not see ourselves doing nearly as much dry camping as we have in the past, so the huge holding tanks, battery bank, and solar panels on the bus are no longer a necessity.   

Yes, we had many wonderful years in our bus, and it carried us many miles in comfort and safety. Just as it will whomever owns it next. And though we have moved on, we’ll always look when we hear an old Detroit diesel roar to life. Once a bus nut, always a bus nut.

Thought For The Day – It’s frustrating when you know all the answers, but nobody bothers to ask you the questions.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

The title of today’s blog says it all. That’s how I feel sometimes, including right now. About the time I think I have a good handle on something, some unforeseen and unexplainable problem shows up.

After a couple of years of experimenting, we launched our digital edition of the Gypsy Journal several issues back, and after a lesson from my friend Chris Guld from Geeks on Tour and a short learning curve, I managed to upload the digital issues to the web with no problems.

But yesterday, when I tried to upload the new issue, it wouldn’t go. The Ipswitch file transfer program kept asking me for the user name and password to our FTP site, and when I entered it, I got an error message telling me to re-enter the information again. I could log directly onto our FTP site with my user name and password, so I knew it was correct, but it just wouldn’t work using the file transfer program.

After hours of frustration, just about the time I was going to call Chris Guld and ask for help, the darn thing logged right on and worked just fine. I didn’t do anything different, and it was the same user name and password I’d been entering all along. Go figure.

I know that computers are wonderful tools, and I wouldn’t want to go back to the old days before we had great things like websites and internet access. I just wish the darned gremlins would stay out of them!

We got our bus conversion winterized Wednesday, and yesterday morning we dropped it off at the building where we’re going to store it this winter. Even though it is going to be inside, out of the winter weather, we drained the water heater and all of the lines and filled them with RV antifreeze, just in case of a power failure or something like that. We probably overdid it, since we had never winterized an RV before, but we wanted to be safe, rather than sorry.

We had hoped to have the bus sold by now, and have several people who are interested, but we’re just about out of time and don’t plan to hang around here much longer. One gentleman asked if we would delay our departure until November 1^st, which is the earliest he can get here, and if he confirms he’s coming for sure, we’ll wait. But Elkhart Campground is closing in just a few days, so that’s about as long as we can stretch it.

Subscribers Greg and Jan White are parked behind us here at Elkhart Campground, and Greg has been helping me with a couple of last minute projects I wanted to get done on our motorhome before we hit the road for our winter travels. I sure appreciate your help, Greg!

We picked up the new issue of the Gypsy Journal at our printer yesterday, so the next few days will be a mad rush to get all of the envelopes stuffed and mailed out. As we were driving up to Michigan to get it and back, Miss Terry commented that we are very lucky. Even though we don’t like the cold weather, we get to see some spectacular fall colors, and then we can leave before the snow starts piling up.

Yeah, even with contrary computer programs and other little problems, I guess life is pretty good after all.

Thought For The Day – I believe in sharing the road with other drivers. They can have the part behind me.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

I stole the title of today’s blog from our dear friends Ron and Brenda Speidel, who presented an excellent seminar by the same name at our Eastern Gypsy Gathering rallies this year and last. One of the most popular seminars at our rallies, the Speidels show RVers how they can save tens of thousands of dollars by upgrading and refurbishing their current motorhome or fifth wheel trailer instead of buying a new one.

Ron and Brenda know what they are talking about; they have turned their stock 2002 Winnebago Journey DL motorhome into a palace on wheels with the addition of a new custom full body paint job, custom built computer work station/dining table, replacing the original kitchen sink with a larger style, and several other projects. Most people who see their coach cannot believe that it is almost eight years old! It looks like a much newer, much more expensive motorhome.

Yesterday we visited their rig to admire their latest addition, a beautiful wood floor installed by Brad and Hall, an RV furniture dealer here in Elkhart, Indiana. Monday they will take the Winnebago to another local shop, Duncan RV Repair, where a new shower unit will be installed.

While they have invested some money in upgrading their RV, Ron says it has been a fraction of what it would have cost them to buy a different motorhome.

There is probably no better place in the country than the Elkhart area to refurbish an RV. Long known as the RV Capital of the World, you can find shops offering every service needed to complete any RV upgrade project here, as well as RV supply and surplus parts stores that have anything you might need. Some of the best known companies that we have dealt with ourselves, or whose work we have seen are listed below:

Phoenix Commercial Paint, (574) 238-5668 – Michele Henry does first class custom RV full body paint jobs for much less than anybody else in the RV industry. Most folks who have shopped the competition can’t believe the prices she quotes, and when they see the end result, they are always delighted.

Focal Wood Products (574) 773-4268 – We are just two of Amish craftsman Carlyle Lehman’s many satisfied customers. He’s the man to see for custom RV furniture.

Brad and Hall (574) 522-7435 – For RV furniture and flooring, the crew at Brad and Hall have seen many RVers driving out with a smile.

Duncan RV Repair (888) 738-6226 – For everything from general RV repairs to custom installations, these folks can do the job right the first time. 

RV Surplus (574) 264-5575 – When we built our bus conversion, we saved a fortune by shopping at RV Surplus, where they have anything and everything that goes in, on, and under an RV.

Sierra Custom Interiors (574) 848-1300 – Michael Greene builds custom interiors for horse and cargo trailers, and has a lot of creative ideas you might be able to tap into.

Master Tech RV Services (574) 522-6224 Master Tech offers a full line of services, from repairs and upgrades, to paint and graphics.

These are just a few of the companies here that can help you transform that plain vanilla RV into a custom home on wheels that will serve you well for years to come, for much less than the cost of purchasing a new RV. So if you’ve been thinking about buying a new RV, think again. You may be able to get what you want for a lot less than you would expect to have to pay!

Thought For The Day – Growing old beats the alternative of dying young.

Okay, we both know that headline is a lie. I’m very overweight. But the good news is that our Winnebago motorhome is not overweight!

My buddy Rick Lang from the Recreational Vehicle Safety Education Foundation (RVSEF) arrived at the fairgrounds here in Celina yesterday, and will be weighing RVs for folks coming in for our rally. Once Rick was in and set up, I had him weigh our new coach to see how we were doing now that we have moved in.

The motorhome has a Gross Vehicle Weight Rating of 32,000 pounds. With a full tank of diesel fuel, about 75 gallons of water onboard, and empty waste tanks, with me in the driver’s seat, we came in exactly 500 pounds under our weight limit. So the good news is we’re okay for weight, and the bad news is, we have to be very careful about bringing anything else onboard. That was never an issue with our bus conversion. If we could find a place to stick it, we could carry it.

Actually, we still have quite a few things to get rid of, including some books, tools, and other heavy items that will probably give us another couple hundred pounds of safety margin once they’re gone. Thanks for weighing us Rick, you gave us some extra piece of mind.

Okay, as for my weight, I have decided that I can spend an hour or two a day walking and exercising to lose weight, or I can just spend an hour or two once a year going to Wal-Mart to buy new clothes in a larger size. As busy as I am, I think that’s the way it will probably go.

I am a big believer in education, especially education that can save your life. There are many excellent safety classes offered at RV rallies that every RVer should take part in. These include the RVSEF classes on RV weight safety and tire safety, Mac McCoy’s excellent fire safety classes, and the RV Driving School’s classroom seminars and their behind the wheel driver safety program.

Modern RVs, with power steering and brakes, and air bag suspensions, are easy to handle. But they are still big, heavy vehicles, and they don’t drive like the family minivan. They take longer to get up to speed, longer to stop, and longer to clear an intersection.

One careless minute and you could find yourself in a situation like this, which took place in Amador, California when an RVer pulled out into the path of a big truck. Get some education before you get behind the wheel.

When you read blogs, do you also read the comments? If so, do you ever go back the next day and read the comments that were left after you originally read the blog? Do it sometime. The comments from Friday’s blog, Who Gets Their Dream, have been very interesting. Longtime reader George Stoltz sent me an e-mail saying that they could be a discussion guide for a graduate-level course on marital relationships. I have to agree. In fact, for the first time ever, Miss Terry even left a comment!

Thought For The Day – Before you give someone a piece of your mind, be sure you have enough to spare.

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally

I’m always amazed when I hear somebody say that they are bored. How can that be? I just don’t understand it. There is always something to do and something to learn. I never seem to have enough hours in a day to do all of the things I want to get done.

In addition to my regular writing and blogging duties, and researching things to write and blog about, I have a half dozen or more books in the writing process that I try to spend some time on every week.

Then there are the many hobbies and special interests that I try to find time for, from geocaching and kayaking, to reading, target shooting, genealogy, and surfing the internet.

While I have a Facebook account and try to post something on there fairly regularly, I have purposely avoided even looking at the many games and other fun stuff there, such as Farmtown. I just don’t have the time to even allow myself to get interested. At one time I got hooked on the computer simulation game Sim City, and had to give it up when I found myself spending way too many hours building my own little virtual worlds.    

Sometimes I find myself wasting time just watching something that catches my eye. I once sat on a beach in Washington State for over three hours just watching as some freak occurrence drove thousands of small fish into the surf line, where the birds swarmed in and dove down again and again, grabbing an easy dinner.

When I lived on the Northwest coast, I loved watching the storms roll in off the ocean, sending huge waves crashing onto the beach and jetty. After the storm would clear, I’d go for long walks, picking up odd pieces of driftwood and flotsam, and once even a round glass ball used as a fishing float.

Yesterday was a good example of just stumbling upon something interesting and finding a way to pass the time.

There are quite a few huge old oak trees here at the Mercer County Fairgrounds in Celina, Ohio, and yesterday afternoon a large limb on one of the trees cracked with a loud noise and sagged down onto an electric line, pulling a nearby power pole off center at an angle.

The County Public Works garage is here at the fairgrounds, and a crew of men and a boom truck quickly arrived to cut down the limb before it came down on some unsuspecting passerby or vehicle.

A project like this is pretty far removed from my usual day, so I sat down at a picnic table and watched as a worker climbed into the boom bucket, raised himself into the tree, and used a chain saw to cut away branches and smaller limbs until he could get to the broken limb.

As the close up photo shows, the offending limb was probably eighteen inches in diameter, and certainly weighed several hundred pounds, so the trimming job required a lot of caution. I sure was glad our motorhome wasn’t under it when that thing let go!

Thought For The Day – It is far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your help.

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally