Overall, the RV lifestyle is pretty safe, in spite of our encounter with the burglar in December. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t have to use common sense and exercise caution. Sometimes bad things do happen to good people. Unfortunately, I have another crime story to report, and frankly, this one scares the hell out of me!

I got a message from a couple whom we met a few years ago at the Western Horizons campground in Casa Grande, Arizona. They said that last week they were in Louisiana, and stopped at a campground near Lafayette for the night. About 3 a.m., the husband got up to go to the bathroom and discovered that someone had slid open the window next to their door, unlocked the deadbolt on their door, and entered the RV while they slept!

They said that all of the overhead cabinets were open, the medicine cabinet in the bathroom was open, and probably most terrifying, the burglar had actually come into the bedroom where they were sleeping, and taken the husband’s pants from the hook where they hung on his side of the bed! They said that a couple of satchels were found outside the RV, and one of their cats had gotten out when the door was left afar, but nothing had been stolen. And this happened in a regular RV park!

Any criminal so desperate that they would come into an occupied RV, and even into the bedroom where the owners were sleeping, scares me a lot more than the thug we caught ripping us off!

Crime isn’t the only thing we have to be aware of. Last weekend, a couple camping at an RV park in Texas were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning from their propane heater. Here is a link to a newspaper story about the tragedy. Folks, be sure your equipment is in good working order, and that your carbon monoxide and smoke detectors are working and have fresh batteries.

We have used a catalytic heater for years, and have never had a problem. But we always make sure were have a couple of windows cracked for ventilation, and we check all of our detectors regularly.

I have had several e-mails from folks who want to know if the Verizon USD 760 air card I upgraded to a couple of weeks ago works any better than the older USB 720 I replaced. Unfortunately, we are still experiencing frequent periods of very slow, and sometimes non-existent, service here in the Mesa/Apache Junction area of Arizona. I think there are just too many snowbirds here overloading the available cell towers. I fear that as more and more people are using cell phones and wireless communication devices, the problems will only get worse in some areas.

Now that we have the new issue of the Gypsy Journal in the printer’s hands, I need to put all of my efforts into the rally, which starts in just a little over three weeks. There are always a lot of last minute details that have to be dealt with, and many of them just can’t be taken care of too far in advance, such as the details for the pizza party, buying supplies, and printing name tags for the rally attendees.

Of course, Bad Nick never slows down. Check out his latest Bad Nick Blog post, We Need A Moat, and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Every sixty seconds you spend angry, upset or mad, is a full minute of happiness you’ll never get back.

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It figures. We left cold, rainy Alabama and went to Texas, where it was just as cold and rainy. So we left there and came to Arizona, where it was in the 70s, with plenty of sunshine. So guess what the weatherman says we can expect this coming week? Temperatures in the low 60s and up to seven inches of rain by the end of the week!

It’s that darned cloud that hangs over my head. I managed to outrun it for a few days, but it’s caught up with me. Like they say, I can run, but I can’t hide.

After having some of Miss Terry’s delicious homemade bagels for breakfast yesterday morning, we celebrated our anniversary by wandering through the huge Mesa Marketplace indoor swap meet. It took over two hours to see everything, though after the first row or two, it was pretty redundant.

There are a lot of vendors, but most of them seem to get their merchandise from the same wholesalers, because stall after stall had the very same things on display. The same sunglasses, the same clothing, the same CDs, the same kitchenware.

We were looking for a Pegs and Jokers game, having gotten hooked on the game when Ron and Brenda Speidel introduced us to it a few months ago at our Ohio Gypsy Gathering rally. There were a dozen or more vendors selling Mexican Train and several other games, all the same at every stall, but nobody with Pegs and Jokers.

Terry did wander through a couple of kitchenware booths and found a few things that she’s been looking for. I get bored pretty quick looking at spatulas and sifters, so instead I stood outside and watched the girls go by. But I didn’t complain, because I know an artist like Miss Terry needs the proper tools to create the delicious food she does, and I get to eat it. And besides, some of the girls strolling by were very pretty!

After doing a little more shopping at a couple of other stores, we stopped by Terry’s parents’ house and spent some time visiting with them. Then we went out for dinner to celebrate our anniversary, and talked about all of the good times we’ve had together, and all the good times we look forward to sharing in the years to come.

We appreciate everybody’s e-mails and blog posts congratulating us on our anniversary. You all make us feel very special.

Today is the last decent day we’re supposed to have for a while, and we want to try to install the engine bay fire suppression unit and refrigerator compartment fire extinguisher we got from Mac McCoy at Fire and Life Safety. You’d be amazed at how many diesel coaches are destroyed every year by fires that begin in their engine bays, and in their refrigerator compartments. We want to prevent that from happening to our motorhome!

Thought For The Day – Life may not be the party we hoped for…but while we are here we might as well dance!

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Terry and I broke the cycle of getting up early that we had recently fallen into, and slept in yesterday morning. Now that was nice! Somebody chastised me the other day because I said we like sleeping late, but you have to keep in mind that I do most of my serious writing after 9 p.m., and we seldom get to bed before 1 or 2 a.m. So we still only get seven or eight hours of sleep a night, like most people. It’s just the schedule that works for us.

We had a relaxing day, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t get a lot accomplished. Terry tackled a backlog of paperwork that had begun to accumulate since we left Texas last week, did some chores inside the motorhome, and got some laundry out of the way. Meanwhile, I worked on the schedule for our Arizona Gypsy Gathering rally in Yuma, as well as answering a lot of e-mail, and doing some research online.

I always enjoy a good laugh, and if you do too, check out this link that a blog reader e-mailed me about the honey wagon. But set down your coffee cup first, I don’t want you giggling and spilling anything on yourself. I’m not McDonalds, and you won’t get anything if you burn yourself and sue me anyway.     http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/general/columns/story?id=3515749

If you like good music, I know you’re going to enjoy the evening entertainment we have lined up for the rally. Michael Hargis will be presenting his excellent Rolling With The Flow concert, and I’m really looking forward to it.

Late in the afternoon we went to Terry’s mom and dad’s for a while, and then took them out to dinner. It was nice to have time with them, telling them about our most recent RV adventures, and listening to stories of their own time as fulltime RVers several years ago. On our way to the restaurant, we stopped by our motorhome so Terry’s dad could see the Winnebago. I think he was ready to take it on a road trip right then!

Today we have more of the same planned. I want to wash the motorhome, we have some orders to put together so we can mail them out Monday, and I just may take an afternoon nap, if the spirit moves me. Of course, we may scrap those plans and do something entirely different that comes up on the spur of the moment. Then again, there’s something to be said for just sitting outside and soaking up some of this Arizona sunshine, and feeling sorry for all of our friends who are stuck someplace cold right now.

Bad Nick has been kind of lazy lately, but yesterday he got off his rear and wrote a new Bad Nick Blog post titled Every Kid Should Go. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying “I will try again tomorrow.”

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I’ve had a few e-mails from readers who noted that we are currently staying at a Thousand Trails preserve and wanted to know if I felt that  Thousand Trails membership was a good investment.

As I have said many times before, like anything, a campground membership can be a good investment if you use it enough. If you don’t, it’s a waste of money. I know Thousand Trails members who get a lot of value from their memberships, and others, like Terry and myself, who really don’t use it enough to justify the annual dues.

We knew going in that it would take us some time to free up our schedule enough to really take advantage of our membership, and we got it cheap enough that we can handle that.

We have stayed at Thousands Trails and NACO campgrounds in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Tennessee, Texas, and Ohio, and visited preserves in several other states. Most have been more than adequate for our needs, but overall we have not found them to be the idyllic resorts that the fancy brochures the marketing people put out depict.

This is our third visit to the Colorado River preserve in Columbus, Texas, and the first time that we have not had problems with electrical power (so far). As in past trips, the electrical posts at several RV sites are covered with plastic bags and inoperable, so even though the campground is supposed to have 94 campsites available, a number of them are out of service. Nobody ever seems to get around to repairing them.

This lack of maintenance seems to be a common theme at many Thousand Trails/NACO preserves across the country. We have been to some preserves where interior roads were in poor shape, and others where swimming pools and hot tubs were out of commission. There have been a couple that we have not even visited, because of the poor reports on them posted at the Thousand Trails Yahoo group.

Despite maintenance problems at some locations, every preserve we have visited or stayed in has been very clean, and the staff have always been very friendly and helpful.

Be aware that this system was designed for family camping, so in the summertime you can expect lots of kids, bicycles, smoky campfires, and such. If this isn’t your thing, like us, you will probably want to avoid the preserves when school is out of session.

Many Thousand Trails members have expressed concern over the growing numbers of RV sites that are leased out on a seasonal basis, taking them out of the pool for traveling members. These are usually the most desirable sites in the preserves. Given that, we still have always been able to find a site at any Thousand Trails or NACO campground we have visited.

What really burns me up is the fact that they have hired an outside company to handle annual dues payments. This company is also a collection agency, and there has been a lack of communication between them and the Thousand Trails office a couple of times in terms of posting payments.  Twice the dweebs at the outside company have called us and acted like we were deadbeats, when in fact the payment was already made, but Thousand Trails had not updated the records they share with them.

If you are interested in a Thousand Trails membership, be sure to get a nationwide one, with the NACO package included. And be aware that no two Thousand Trails memberships seem to be the same. It’s all about how good a negotiator you are and how hungry the salesman is, as to pricing and what added benefits your membership may have.

You can come to a preserve and sit through their sales spiel, but be aware that like all campground membership sales reps, some of the folks hustling these memberships are very much into the hard sell. A new membership will cost you thousands of dollars. Or, like us, you can buy a used membership.

There are tons of folks out there who have Thousand Trails/NACO memberships who just want to get rid of them and stop paying the dues. You can find a used membership for anywhere from free to about $1,000. Some people ask a whole lot more for them, because they believed the salesman who sold it and told them they could always get their money back.

When we decided we wanted a membership, I simply put a post on the Escapees forum and was swamped with folks wanting to unload theirs for anywhere from free to $5,000.

We got our membership used for $100 plus the $750 transfer fee, from a lady whose husband died and she wasn’t RVing any more. We can stay at any Thousand Trails or NACO park nationwide for fourteen days, and go directly to another one with no days out of the system. The original owner wanted to give it to us, but my attorney said to give her $100 to make it a binding contract.

Our annual dues are $500, which gives us 50 nights of camping, and after that, we pay $5 a night. If we wanted to pay higher annual dues, we could stay in Thousand Tails/NACO parks 365 days a year. So it can be a good bargain if we used it enough, which we hope to do, now that our schedule is not so complicated.

If you are considering a used membership, always call Thousand Trails and give them the contract number and ask what it includes, and if there will be any changes if you buy it. Here is a link to a website where you may be able to find a good deal, if you are looking for a used membership  http://www.rvparkstore.com/campground_memberships.htm

And while you’re online, check out Bad Nick’s new blog post What Does It Take? and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – A cloth is not woven from a single thread.

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Christmas morning we were up early again, and it was chilly enough that we really had to force ourselves out from under those warm covers. We really need to break this new habit of getting up so early! Mark and Sue Didelot were getting ready to go to a family Christmas celebration, and we wanted to see them off, and then get on the road to take advantage of the light holiday traffic through Houston.

In spite of the cold, I walked down to the boat launch at White Oak Park to take a couple of photos of the Calcasieu River. I’d love to come back someday and kayak here, but only when it’s a lot warmer! I quickly took my photos and headed back to the motorhome.

We were on the road by 9:15 and enjoyed an easy drive west on Interstate 10, crossing into Texas and sharing the road with only a few cars along the way. I always dread driving through Houston, but this time around it was a piece of cake. There were a handful of cars and a couple of other motorhomes, but not enough to even mention. I don’t think we encountered one eighteen wheeler all day long.

On the west side of Houston we pulled into the Flying J truck stop for fuel, and wondered again who designs their RV islands. Whoever it is, he or she obviously has never driven anything bigger than an SUV! I wanted to get propane, but the only way to do so would have been to pull so far past the fuel island that we would have had to back up to get to it, which is not recommended when towing a dinghy. I decided (again) that we’d wait until we get someplace more convenient to get propane.

Back on the road, it was only another forty miles or so to Columbus and our turnoff. We took State Route 71 north about four miles, turned left on a local road, and arrived at the Colorado River Thousand Trails Preserve about 1:30 p.m. We chose a full hookup RV site with 30 amp electric and got settled in. They have a few 50 amp sites, but none are full hookups, and we wanted to be able to take long showers, and Terry needed to catch up on laundry.

This is our third visit to this particular Thousand Trails campground in three years, and as much as we don’t like falling into ruts, it’s beginning to feel that way. But if you’re going to be in a rut, this is a pretty nice one! The campground is located on the bank of the Colorado River, and pecan trees at many of the campsites give visitors the opportunity to collect enough nuts to make some delicious treats.

A large herd of deer live at the campground, and they have little fear of humans. They graze around the RV sites and pretty much ignore people, unless they get within a few feet of them. I couldn’t resist grabbing my Canon Digital Rebel and getting a few photos of our four legged neighbors.

We really, really need some downtime, and we don’t plan to do much the next couple of days except sleep late, watch TV, cruise the internet, and relax. Lucky me, Miss Terry considers baking peanut butter cookies, pecan pie, and her world famous cinnamon rolls very relaxing!

Thought For The Day – A man has reached middle age when he is cautioned to slow down by his doctor instead of by the police.

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