Wednesday Q&A

I’m back with more questions from blog readers about RVing, my writing activities, what’s happening in our lives since we hung up the keys, and all kinds of other things. While I try to answer all questions individually, I also share some here occasionally.

Q. We are looking for a pair of walkie-talkies or 2-way radios to use on an RV trip where we will be caravanning with my brother and his family from Illinois to the Grand Canyon and back in May. I have a CB radio in my motorhome but he doesn’t, and the language can get pretty nasty on them sometimes. Any suggestions?

A. The truckers do sometimes use rough language over their CB radios but they are usually on Channel 19, and most modern CBs have 40 channels so there are plenty of others to choose from. I recently purchased a set of Midland – X-TALKER T51VP3, FRS two-way radios to communicate between vehicles when we were moving from Florida, and they were useless even if Terry was right behind me. I sent them back to Amazon for a refund. However, we used Midland handheld radios at our Gypsy Journal rallies and they were very reliable, so maybe these latest ones I purchased were sub-par for some reason.

Q. Are you going to be restarting your weekly drawings? I keep looking for them. I have never won one, but it was always fun trying.

A. I plan to resume the drawings this week. However, I am finding it more difficult to get donated prizes, so I am not sure what the future holds.

Q. When I read about your tornado shelter, I thought it would be a good idea. But I am terribly claustrophobic and don’t know if I could handle being closed up in one for hours. Do you know how people like me cope with something like that? I keep picture being inside and having the door blocked with debris and being trapped.

A. Unlike hurricanes, which can take hours to pass over, tornadoes usually hit and are gone in minutes. I think (hope) if a tornado was coming through, a person would be too busy worrying about that to feel too claustrophobic. I don’t know about all tornado shelters, but in ours the door opens inward so we can’t be trapped inside. Worst case scenario, we could open the door and dig our way out from any debris in front of the door.

Q. This is a rather personal question and feel free to tell me to mind my own business, but it seems like you are spending a lot of money on your new place, what with the new roof, gutters coming, storm shelter, etc. Did you expect all that or do you feel you maybe got took?

A. Not at all. We knew about the roof when we bought the home and factored the cost of replacing it into the deal and the sellers contributed to the replacement cost. We are making and will continue to make some other improvements as we go along. We never plan to move again, and we don’t mind spending the money to make it what we want.

Q. Now that you and Miss Terry live so close to your son and his wife, do your daughter and her family have any plans to move there, too, and have all of the clan together?

A. First of all, don’t say clan around here. People might get the wrong idea. 😊 As for Tiffany and her family, we would love to have them closer, but they still have kids in high school and they don’t think (and we agree) that it would be fair to uproot them at this point in their lives. As for the future, who knows? If you would have told me five years ago I would be living in Alabama, I would have laughed at you.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Thought For The Day – Manipulation is when they blame you for your reaction to their disrespect.