I’ve been traveling America’s highways and byways all of my life, first as a little kid riding in the back seat of my Dad’s old Hudson, as we moved from one place to another or made our annual pilgrimage back to Ohio to visit family.

Later on, as a teenager I remember hitchhiking through several states, back in the days when hitchhiking was a safe and even accepted mode of travel. As a young soldier without any money, I “rode my thumb” across dozens of states to get to wherever I wanted to go.

Over the years I have traveled from coast to coast and border to border, on and in everything from motorcycles to automobiles, and now in a motorhome. There’s a reason I named our publication the Gypsy Journal; I know if I had been born 200 years ago, I’d have been a pioneer coming through the Cumberland Gap, in search of whatever lay over the next hill and across the next valley.

So I’ve covered a lot of miles in my time, and I’ve seen a lot of tourist traps along the way. You know what I mean, those hokey places offering “Real Indian Jewelry” and the opportunity to see “Live Rattlesnakes” or, in the case of the famous Wall Drug in South Dakota, just “Free Ice Water.”

Who knew you could build a business recognized around the world by giving away water? The folks at Wall Drug knew, and they did it! I don’t think you can drive any highway west of the Mississippi and north of Oklahoma and not see a sign for Wall Drug.

I have a love-hate relationship with tourist traps. I know that whatever they’re advertising to draw me in is probably not nearly as good as they promise, but who can drive past The Thing in southern Arizona, or the Jack Rabbit Trading Post up on Route 66 in the northern part of the state and not want to stop?

For those of you who have always wondered, but never stopped, the Thing is a mummified Indian found in a cave somewhere in the Southwest. But for the low admission price, you also get to see some other oddball things, including strange sculptures, and a Rolls Royce that supposedly once belonged to Adolf Hitler.

Of course, roadside tourist traps are not just a Western phenomenon. There are plenty to explore in the eastern half of the country, from the massive South of the Border on Interstate 95 in Dillon, South Carolina, where you can find trinkets and trash, along with some decent food and even a South of the Border theme park called Pedroland. How politically un-correct is that? I love it!

Just down the road from us here in Titusville, Florida is another famous tourist trap, called Jungle Adventures, which boasts the World’s Largest Alligator. As it turns out, that would be Swampy, a 200 foot long alligator shaped building that houses the ticket counter and gift shop. Not exactly what I wanted to see if I’m expecting the real world’s largest alligator. Still, Swampy’s toothy grin was quite inviting. I’d hate to have to pay his orthodontist bill!

Thought For The Day – Everyone thinks his own goose is a swan.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

After a chilly night in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart in Gallipolis, Ohio, we were up bright and early yesterday morning. There were several things we wanted to see locally, so I went inside the store and obtained permission to leave our motorhome there for a couple of hours while we went exploring in the van.

Gallipolis was settled in the late 1700s by French aristocrats who fled the old country to escape the guillotine. It is the hometown of Bob Evans, founder of the Bob Evans Restaurant chain, and the family farm is now a tourist attraction that includes an RV park offering water and electric hookups and a dump station for $15/night.

While exploring the friendly community, we noticed several back in RV sites with water and electric hookups at a Public Access boat launch on the bank of the Ohio River downtown. I stopped at City Hall to ask about the sites, and learned that RVers passing through the area can stay either for free, for $10 a night, or for $25 a night, depending on which secretary you want to believe. For free or $10 a night, I’d stay a while just to watch the riverboats going by, but for $25 a night, I’d pass.

This trip it didn’t matter, because we had a lot of miles to cover yet. We crossed the river on the Silver Memorial Bridge, and I think I may be getting over my bridge phobia, because I didn’t snivel once. The original Silver Bridge here collapsed in 1967, throwing 70 cars into the river below and claiming 46 lives. Maybe I’m not over my phobia after all, and I just figured lighting wouldn’t strike twice in the same place.

On the West Virginia side of the river, Point Pleasant is a charming little town with enough to see and do to keep visitors busy for several days. In 1774, a force of Virginia militia was ambushed here by Shawnee and Mingo Indians and the fierce battle lasted for hours. In the end, 75 militiamen were killed, along with an estimated 33 Indians. Many consider this to be the first battle of the American Revolution. Today a small park on the riverfront where the battle took place includes an 84 foot high granite obelisk honoring the men who fought and died here.

Point Pleasant also has a place in paranormal history. Here, in 1966, a strange winged man-like creature that became known as Mothman was reportedly sighted. Since then there have been several reported sightings of the creature, usually before disasters. Several people claimed to see Mothman perched high in the girders of the original Silver Bridge before it collapsed. Since then, Mothman has become a worldwide phenomenon, with mention in documentary films, movies and television specials.

Sure, it’s probably just the figment of imaginations gone wild, but the folks in Point Pleasant took it serious enough to erect a state of Mothman on Main Street downtown, and there is a Mothman Museum just across the street.

With our sightseeing over, we returned to Gallipolis, picked up the motorhome, and crossed the river again. On the Ohio side of the river, U.S. Highway 35 had been a very nice divided four lane, but  a couple of miles into West Virginia, it dropped down to a two lane road with no shoulders, and lots of curves for maybe 25 miles, and then it became divided four lane again.

Before long we joined Interstate 64 and followed it east a few miles into Charleston, where we picked up Interstate 77 south past the gold domed State Capitol building. Traffic was pretty heavy in Charleston, but before long we put the city behind us, and Interstate 77 became the West Virginia Turnpike.

For the next hundred miles we climbed up and around one mountain after another, the Winnebago doing just fine. I can’t believe the power this thing has! The constant climbing did affect our fuel mileage, though. The day before, we averaged 8.1 miles per gallon across relatively flat Indiana and Ohio, according to the Silverleaf, and yesterday our average was right at 7 miles per gallon.

It cost $10.50 in tolls to travel from Charleston to the state line, but I don’t think they spend much of that money on highway improvements, because that was one rough road in many places!

We crossed into Virginia, stopped for fuel at the T/A truck stop in Wytheville, and in less than an hour we arrived at Mayberry Campground in Mount Airy, North Carolina.  

Mount Airy is the hometown of television star Andy Griffith, and the picturesque town was the inspiration for the fictional town of Mayberry in the old Andy Griffith show.

Andy and his trusty deputy Barney Fife probably wouldn’t recognize the old town these days. It has a Wal-Mart Super Center, Staples Office Supply, Golden Corral Buffet, Lowes, and other major stores and restaurants.  Unfortunately, crime has come to Mayberry. The day before we arrived, a gunman killed four men in a shooting a few blocks from Main Street.

This is a beautiful area, with a lot to see and do, and we’ll be here a few days before we head on down the road. I’ll have a lot to share with you in tomorrow’s blog, so stay tuned. 

Thought For The Day – Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark, professionals built the Titanic.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

We got wrapped up in some projects that have delayed our departure for a bit, but with most of the things wrapped up that we wanted to get done before we leave northern Indiana, we hope to be on the road by the weekend. Now we just have to decide where we’re going, and how to get there.

We plan to spend November and most of December in Florida, and as I wrote here before, the plan was/is to go over to the coast someplace and go down the eastern seaboard. But since we’re getting a later start than originally planned, we’re undecided about which route to take.

We would like to go to Washington, D.C. again, and considered dropping down to Interstate 70 across Ohio and into Pennsylvania, and then dropping down to catch Interstate 68 across the northern edge of Maryland. But we may be too late in the season. Getting to warmer weather is a priority. Playing tourist is no fun when you’re chilly.

I thought about going to Lexington, Kentucky, and then taking Interstate 77 east to hook up with Interstate 64, which would take us to Norfolk, Virginia, but again, weather is a factor.

A third option was to go to Knoxville, and then take Interstate 40 east, but a major rockslide has closed the highway near the Tennessee – North Carolina border, and news reports say it could be weeks, if not months, before the road is open again.

Now we’re looking at going all the way to Atlanta, and then striking east on Interstate 20, but we’ll miss a lot of the territory we wanted to see along the coast going that way.

Then, just to muddy the waters even more, we have learned that Terry’s father has some health issues that are causing us some concern. Hopefully everything will be just fine, but we are prepared to scrap our travel plans and head for Arizona at a moment’s notice.

We have also been kicking around getting an extended warranty on our Winnebago motorhome. The Ultimate Advantage only has 34,000 miles on it and except for a contrary electrical side to our water heater, it’s in excellent condition. We’re debating whether the cost of an extended warranty is worth it.

Like any insurance policy, it’s a gamble. If we are lucky and don’t have any major breakdowns or system failures, we’d lose money on an extended warranty. However, a serious problem, such as an engine or transmission failure could easily cost much more that what we’d pay for an extended warranty. So do we bet against ourselves, or for ourselves? Why don’t some of you fulltimers and extended time RV travelers out there pitch in and share your input? Do you have an extended warranty? If so, who with, and are you glad you bought it? Is there anyone out there who decided to play the odds and lost with a major repair bill? Inquiring minds want to know.

Thought For The Day – Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

After getting a clean bill of health from my new doctor at the V.A. hospital in Lexington, Kentucky on Monday morning, we returned to the Mercer County Fairgrounds that afternoon to wrap up some business and do some exploring in the area.

We love small towns, and Ohio has many charming little communities to choose from. Greenville, located about 30 miles south of Celina on U.S. Highway 127, is a friendly community with a lot of history, and one of the best small town museums we have ever found.

Midway between the two towns, the small hamlet of North Star consists of a post office, a couple of stores, a farm implement dealer, and a smattering of houses.

But North Star has a special claim to fame; Annie Oakley. America’s most celebrated female marksman was raised here, and learned to handle a rifle shooting small game to help feed her impoverished family. By the time she was seven years old, she was an accomplished hunter and trapper, even selling her excess game to a store in Greenville. A small roadside monument honors the girl sharpshooter at the site of the home she lived in. Annie Oakley is buried in a small cemetery just off Highway 127, a couple of miles from her girlhood home.

Greenville remembers Darke County’s favorite daughter with a statue of Annie Oakley downtown, as well as a two room exhibit in the fabulous Garst Museum.

We have visited many small town museums over the years, and I can’t remember one that impressed us more than the Garst Museum. Besides Annie Oakley, the museum has an extensive exhibit on another local celebrity, Lowell Thomas, one of the best known writers and filmmakers of the 20^th Century. Other exhibits include Native Americans, military history, a re-created small town made up of storefronts from everything from a dentist’s office to a toy store, and an outstanding display of Currier and Ives prints.

Greenville is also the home of the Kitchen Aid company, and visitors can tour their factory on the north side of town. On the town’s main street, the Kitchen Aid Experience Center is housed in an old department store, and visitors can see and try out a nice selection of small appliances, and shop for bargains on mixers, toasters, blenders, and accessories. Being an accomplished chef, Miss Terry loves this place, and whenever we’re in the area she stops in to drool over the goodies.

Besides lots to see and do, Greenville has some of the friendliest people we’ve met anywhere. Everybody we talked to treated us like next door neighbors and friends. When you get away from the big cities and the Interstate highways, and get out on the two lanes roads, you’ll discover the real America, in places like Greenville, where the heart and soul of our country lives.

We had originally planned to cover some stories in eastern Ohio in the next few days, but the weather is not cooperating, so we are undecided about our next move. We need to get back to Elkhart to get the new issue of the Gypsy Journal in production, so we may head in that direction and hit some locations between here and there instead.

We’re enjoying the fact that we don’t have to be anyplace and have no commitments until our Arizona Gypsy Gathering rally in March! We’re finally getting some of that freedom that the fulltime RV lifestyle is all about!

Quite a few people have written to ask when Bad Nick will be posting a new blog. The little imp has been taking a hiatus while all of the Ohio rally activities were going on, but I have it on good authority that he’ll be posting something any day now, and he’s got lots to say!

Thought For The Day – If a turtle doesn’t have a shell, is he homeless or naked?

Friday our Gypsy Gathering rally ended, and after the morning coffee and donuts, I walked over to Dave and Jean Damon’s fifth wheel trailer, where Jean, a professional masseuse, gave me an wonderfully relaxing massage. Jean was trained in the Philippines, and by the time she got done kneading and prodding my sore, tired muscles, I was so relaxed that it was all I could do just to walk back to our motorhome.

Besides her massages, Dave and Jean were also selling 303 Products at the rally, and they did very well. We first met this nice couple when we were all vendors at the FMCA rally in Bowling Green, Ohio, and struck up an immediate friendship.

Back at the motorhome, Joe and Vicki Kieva stopped in for a chat, and as they were leaving a long series of visitors arrived at our door as rally attendees came to say goodbye before they hit the road. I tried to be good company, but I was so relaxed after my massage that I’m afraid at times it was all I could do to hold up my end of a conversation.

Friday night a bunch of us all went to the China Wok Buffet here in Celina, which I rate in the top percentile of Chinese buffets we have ever visited. It is so good that this was our third visit in the two weeks we’ve been in town!

Here is a photo Miss Terry took of some of our group. That is Nancy Hazelton on the left, and beside her is Mike Loscher, myself, Ron Speidel, and Ken Barker. On the right is Orv Hazelton, and in the background is Brenda Speidel. Elaine Loscher was camera shy, so you can just barely see her arms next to Orv. Billie Barker was off checking out the buffet line when this picture was taken. We all stuffed ourselves, and don’t be too surprised if Miss Terry and I don’t sneak back one more time before we leave Celina for good.

After a busy week of getting up at obscenely early hours, working hard to keep everything at the rally on track, and getting very little sleep, Miss Terry and I played lazy Saturday morning and slept in. Once we woke up, we lay in bed a while, just enjoying some much needed quiet time together, and talking about the week just past.

Once we were up, things got busy really fast. I had no sooner opened our front window curtain and the window shades before somebody was knocking at the door. We had a ton of paperwork to catch up on, as well as settling our account with the fairgrounds for the rally rental, but I’m afraid we didn’t get much done. But that’s okay, we wanted to be sure to spend some time with everybody we could.

Sometimes we feel pulled in a dozen different directions at one time, and we had to tell some people “I’m sorry, we just don’t have the time,” but there are just so many hours in a day. We love visiting with our friends and readers, and we really hate to be rude, but sometimes we have no other choice. We just hope that they will understand.

Today we will drive 215 miles south to Lexington, Kentucky, where I have my annual appointment at the V.A. hospital on Monday morning. As soon as that is over, we’ll turn right around and come back to Ohio and spend a week or so gathering stories for the next issue of the Gypsy Journal, which we need to get printed and mailed before we head south for the winter

Thought For The Day – Everywhere is within walking distance if you have the time.