I have always been a big believer in setting goals. Jim Summers, my favorite high school teacher and a dear friend as an adult, always referred to me as his Number One Son. When I was a teenager eager to get my driver’s license and my own car, he told me that I needed to […]
Benjamin Franklin Stone was a young man born into poverty. Part African-American and part Irish, he was born in 1874 to a society that considered him an outcast. As a young boy, Ben and his older brother Tom were placed in an orphanage in Toledo, Ohio. Though conditions at the orphanage were far from perfect, […]
I bought my first motorcycle when I was 15 years old, a much used and abused Triumph Daytona. A summer of hard work at a gas station allowed me to buy not only my first car, but a better bike, a 1968 Triumph Bonneville. For the next 30 years there were not many times in […]
I try to be a nice guy, I really do. I hold doors open for other people, I smile and say hello to strangers, and I wish my Facebook friends happy birthday even if we’ve never met in person. But sometimes I just can’t resist pulling someone’s chain. Several years ago I owned a beautiful […]
If you’re a fulltime RVer, you’re probably going to tow something. You’ll either drive a truck and tow a travel trailer or fifth wheel, or else you’ll drive a motorhome and tow a car, SUV, or pickup, which RVers commonly call a toad or dingy. When it comes to towing a car, there are four […]
After pushing hard for several days to get the new issue of the Gypsy Journal finished and off to the printer, I was really looking forward to sleeping in yesterday morning. But at 7 AM somebody knocked on the door, or else I dreamed somebody knocked on the door, I’m not sure which. But whatever […]
Our old hometown of Show Low, here in Arizona’s White Mountains, was first settled by Mormon pioneers, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) still has a strong influence on the community. However, not everybody here is a member of the church, and I guess the owner of this Jeep wanted to […]
It’s just as well that I’m stuck inside working on the new issue of the Gypsy Journal, because it’s raining again. We had one mostly clear day Wednesday to give us a break, but yesterday it started all over again, with more rain forecast today. I know a couple of people who want to leave […]
Sunday we drove 35 miles east to New Bern, North Carolina and stopped at the KOA campground to drop off a bundle of sample copies of the Gypsy Journal, and to visit with our friends Barry and Jan Kessler, who are staying there a few days. We first met Barry and Jan soon after we […]
It’s September already? Where did summer go? I must have pulled a Rip Van Winkle and slept all the way through July or something! Here in northern Indiana it has been a cool summer most of the time. In fact, it has been down in the mid-40s the last couple of nights. Brrr! I think […]
Terry and I want to thank all of you who left comments or sent us congratulatory e-mails in response to yesterday’s blog about our motorhome purchase. To be honest, Miss Terry had some real misgivings, not about the Winnebago itself, but about what the reaction might be from some of our readers. As longtime blog […]