All of you folks in Texas can quit complaining about the droughts. Nick’s here to make it all better for you! We arrived Monday afternoon under a bright blue sky and by evening it had clouded up and was looking ugly. Yesterday we had heavy clouds all day long, lots of fog, and a few scattered raindrops. Last night the wind kicked up and our motorhome really did some rocking and rolling during the night! We’re supposed to have thunderstorms and rain the rest of the week. But the good news is, it is supposed to clear up Saturday just about the time we are ready to leave Galveston Bay RV Resort.
We had a good time yesterday running around with Greg and Jan doing some sightseeing, a little bit of shopping, stopping for a wonderful lunch at Katz’s Deli in Houston, and just having a great time together. We topped off the day with dinner at King Food, a favorite Chinese restaurant of theirs that I’d be happy to go back to any day of the week.
There seems to be a problem with the PayPal link on the rally registration page for our Arizona Gypsy Journal rally. I have reset the link twice now and it still doesn’t work correctly. If you are trying to register for the rally and can’t get PayPal to work, you can make a payment directly by logging onto www.PayPal.com and making a payment to editor@GypsyJournal.net. The rally fee is $125, or $140 if you are coming in as an early bird on Sunday, March 4. If you register directly this way, please send me an e-mail with your names and contact information and I’ll get right back to you. Hopefully we will get this problem resolved very shortly, and in the meantime, I apologize for the inconvenience.
Good news on the rally entertainment! David Bradley, who performed for us two years ago and was such a big hit with the crowd is coming back and will be doing a concert for us on Tuesday evening. David puts on a fun show and we’re looking forward to having him back with us again.
If you’re into genealogy be sure to check out the online training videos link that my friend Roger Marble from the RV Tire Safety blog sent me. Roger presents genealogy seminars at our Eastern rallies and they are always very popular. Unfortunately, Judy Bayless won’t be able make it to the Yuma rally this year to present her popular genealogy seminars, and we’re sure going to miss her.
I have received several inquiries lately from blog readers who have been contacted by a company or companies that arrange RV swaps. As I understand it, for a fee you can register your recreational vehicle with these folks and put into a pool that other RV owners who are part of the program can use for vacations. The idea seems to be that if you live in Pennsylvania, for example, and want to vacation in Yellowstone but have limited time available, instead of spending most of your vacation time traveling to and from home, you can arrange to pick up an RV from another pool member who lives closer to your destination and use it. They, in turn, can do the same thing with your or another RV in the pool when they vacation away from their home area.
People asked what I thought of the plan and I see far too many negatives that outweigh any positives there might be. What happens if the person using your RV trashes it or gets into an accident? Who’s responsible? Will your insurance company cover you in such a situation? What if, when it is time for you to go on vacation, there is not a suitable RV available? Do you really want some stranger taking off in your RV? Not this kid!
Were going to start the day this morning with some of Jan’s fresh breakfast croissants, and then Greg has some clients to call on. When he’s done we’ll figure out what we’re going to do the rest of the day. We may go running around again, or we may just sit here and watch the wind whip the water in Dickinson Bayou into a froth.
Thought For The Day – Stop holding onto what hurts and make room for what feels good.
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
Nick, your orientation to RVs is quite a minority view. Your coach has nothing to do with recreation, it is your home, your kayaks are your recreation vehicles and even house swapping is not that totally uncommon. It is used around colleges like ND where football fans use someone elses home for a vacation or other event swap while visitors stay in theirs. The majority of RVers do not live even a majority of the time in their rigs and even most motorcoaches are not 40 foot buses. The companies who promote RV swapping do have rules and checks to protect the swappers. As in all activities of thsi kind caveat emptor is the rule but not the roadblock. All that being said, I would not swap my vintage coach as replaceability is a major issue.. AlHesselbart.
I agree with you on the RV swapping Nick. While Al does have a valid point, the RV is susceptible to far more variables than a house or apartment in a swap. It might be workable for smaller, vacation style rigs, but even then I would be very leery.
For just one instance, what happens if you fly across the country and the RV you signed up for is beat up and so dirty you would not spend a night in it – what would be your options at that point?
Al, I hear what you are saying but we are “safety first ” part time rvers and we maintain every aspect of our truck and trailer so we are confident in our equipment. We are not so confident that everyone else follows maintenance schedules…we may lend our rig but wouldn’t borrow someone elses. We won’t even rent a commercial rig for the same reason.
Years ago, we rented an RV from a commercial RV rental company. It was fine, and they covered any problems. Maybe that would be a better option.
I don’t think I could swap rigs with anyone – just too personal. Now, Left Brain on the other hand….
Or lets say you lived close to Yellowstone or Orlando and you got call after call from folks who lived on the south side of Chicago or east LA. Thanks but no thanks.
Anyone have any advice about a trip to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island? We will be going in via Maine.
Like Al stated this probably would be more for people still in the Corprate World and not so much for Full timers. Art commented about someone from the south side of Chicago or any big city for that matter. Many of those people have never driven or towed any kind of RV so the chances of getting your rig back like the Motor Home in the movie RV with Robin Williams.
No Thanks we won’t be putting our name into that pool.
It’s about time.
I have a 33 year old Scotty that I bought for less than two thousand dollars and I have had friends ask to borrow it and I have said no. I just think there are too many things that can go wrong. I would let somebody stay in my house if I wasn’t there, but not my camper.
We made the mistake of renting our RV to one of my husband’s coworkers and it turned into a nightmare. They banged the back end up against a campground utility post and mangled the utility bay door. If that was the worst that could happen, we could have lived with it. But they also filled the tank with gas instead of diesel and drove it until it quit on them. They told us they knew it was a diesel, but gas was cheaper! The result was a $700 tow bill to a shop and over $4,000 in repairs. And then they expected us to pay for the car they rented to drive home in! Never again will anyone drive our motorhome.
The link to the genealogy training classes is the same one product and training that I use. Legacy is a great product and I like the webinars as much as I like the Geeks! I would not want anyone else using our rig, it is our home away from home.