Daytona Beach’s Bike Week is just about over, and even though I’ve owned a bunch of motorcycles in my life, I have to admit that I’m looking forward to a little more peace and quiet instead of the constant rumble and roar of motorcycles day and night. We live about 20 miles south of Daytona Beach, but so many thousands of bikers come here every year for the event that they spread out to all the local communities.
The other day when we were at one of Beverly’s doctor’s appointments at an office right on US 1 in New Smyrna Beach, the receptionist had to stop talking two or three times while bunches of noisy bikes went by outside. I told Terry it reminded me of the days when we were having our Gypsy Journal rallies at the fairgrounds in Yuma, Arizona, which was right across the street from the Marine Corps Air Station. Several times a day the noise of Harriers and other aircraft coming and going interrupted seminars. Like I told the folks then, that’s the sound of freedom. And if you ask any biker what attracts them most, they will tell you it’s the freedom of the open road.
I had a nice surprise yesterday when I turned on my computer and went to my Internet home page and saw an ad from Audible.com plugging the first book in my John Lee Quarrels series, Stillborn Armadillos. Somebody told me that the ads you see on your homepage appear at random, based upon your browsing history. I’m not sure how true that is because I didn’t see anything about boobs or pizza.
Speaking of John Lee Quarrels books, I had hoped to get another 5,000 words in yesterday on my newest one, but I got a late start and only managed to accomplish 2,000. The good news is I’m at the halfway point in the book and it’s coming together very nicely.
We had a real treat yesterday when Miss Terry made chicken parmesan for dinner. We invited our friend Jim Lewis over to join us, and everybody agreed it was absolutely delicious. Then again, I don’t think Terry could make a bad dinner even if she tried.
One of the things I always stressed to couples in my seminars at RV rallies was that both of them have to know how to drive the RV. You don’t have to necessarily be able to drive it coast-to-coast all by yourself, but you should know how to at least get to a safe place in the event of an emergency. The RV Driving School is a great resource to help anybody get comfortable behind the wheel, with lessons in your own RV given by professional instructors all over the country.
This came up last night in the Living the RV Dream Facebook group I help administer, and someone replied that his wife is well over 60 years old and never learned to drive anything bigger than a compact car, and that he saw no reason on earth to scare her to death or put them in serious danger by forcing her to learn to drive their RV while pulling a car. My reply was that she would be even more scared to death if something happened to him out in the middle of nowhere and she had to get them someplace safe. In our days fulltiming while we were publishing the Gypsy Journal RV newspaper, we knew three or four couples that encountered situations like that, including ourselves.
And who says a woman 60+ years old can’t drive an RV? It doesn’t take any great feat of strength to do it. We know many women in their 60s and 70s who do it quite well. Some of them are solo RVers, and others are married but have no problem getting behind the wheel. And then there is Miss Terry, who drove our motorhome over high bridges all over the country because I would freak out when I came to them. If I tried to treat her like some dainty little thing who couldn’t do whatever needed done in any given situation she would kick my butt all the way to the Georgia state line, then drag me back inside and drive me to the nearest emergency room without giving it a second thought.
And finally, here’s another chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.
Today is your last chance to enter our Free Drawing for an audiobook of Chesapeake 1880 by my friend Ken Rossignol, a tale of life in the Chesapeake Bay region as the industrial revolution changed the world forever. To enter, all you have to do is click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn this evening.
Thought For The Day – If your cup is only half full, you probably need a different bra.
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
I am the woman in our couple. I now do about 2/3rds of the RV driving. And YES, the woman needs to drive. The 1st year out, I had to put my husband in the hospital. I had to drive about 80 miles from a small town in the driving rain to get to the emergency room and then park the coach in a parking garage across from the hospital. Then I had to get the RV & car to a campground, pull in, hook up. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE ladies learn to drive & do everything else (hook up, unhook, dump, etc). You DO NOT want to have to be in a tight spot and not be able to drive the RV. Just remember you took care of the house, hubby and children for years even while some of you worked outside the home. You can do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don’t understand people who think someone, anyone, can’t do some task because of their sex.
Early in our full-timing adventure I attended Ladies Driving School hosted by our manufacturer, the Foretravel factory in Nacogdoches, TX. There were women in our group who were SO terrified that they had never even sat in the driver’s seat when the rig was parked! NO MEN are allowed in any of the sessions, you learn the coach systems, navigate various obstacle courses set up on the factory grounds, back into a parking space, and then take a drive around town in normal traffic. All this is done on coaches loaned by Foretravel for the event. At the end of the 5 day school, EVERY woman drove out of the parking lot on her own. EVERY one. When you go from driving a 42′ tag axle coach back to your own 36′, driving seems a whole lot easier! I never LOVED driving our 40′ rig … although I didn’t mind rest stop to rest stop on an interstate … but I knew I COULD if I needed to. When we downsized to a 25′ Born Free, I was as happy as a clam. Learning to drive is IMPERATIVE, in my opinion.