YOUR TURN

 

I finally took the time to start reading the book I won – Unbroken. Once I started I truly didn’t want to put it down for anything. It’s an amazing story of a man’s will to survive against all odds.

From the Olympics to WWII to being a POW and then freedom and the challenges that brings you will be totally involved in his world.

I am now ready to pass the book on. If you would like to read this book, please post a comment saying so on my blog. On September 15th, I’ll have Jim draw a name out of the hat. Good luck to everyone.

BACK TO HUMPHREY’S

Didn’t get moving too early today. But when I finally decided to get up, Jim fixed me one of his wonderful omelet and bacon bagels. What a great way to start the day.

Got our laundry done. Always a good thing to have that done for another couple of weeks.

Our group is slowly dispersing to all parts of the West and Mid-West. Jim and Jan left Saturday morning. Polly and Vern leave Sunday morning. I think the rest of us are here until Tuesday.

We wanted to have a goodbye dinner and everybody thought Humphrey’s sounded like a great place to go. So back to Hump’s for us. Had a fun time, a great waiter (Paul) and everybody liked their dinners. I didn’t get any pictures this time, so just use your imagination and picture 10 of us and the trouble we can cause.

I would like to address the comment made by Sam & Donna on my last post. Sam told about going to a Samboree and how rudely they were treated. Jim and I had the same experience at a Samboree (a Good Sam Chapter Rally) and vowed never, ever to go again. I have found Escapees to be a much friendlier group of people. But it’s also hard to meet people at an Escapade if you’re a newbie.

You need to be willing to step out of your comfort zone and start a conversation with someone who looks interesting. Not an easy thing for most of us to do. You will see groups of people sitting out and think that they don’t want anybody else to join them. But that’s not true. At least not with the groups I’ve run into. I can be very outgoing – even though it doesn’t come naturally for me. So I just introduce myself and usually have a great response.

I tried that at the Samboree and it went over like a lead balloon so it was a long time before I got brave enough to try again. One of the best things ever did come out of the Samboree – that’s where we met our really good friends, Jan and Bill. They are parked next to us here at Escapade and we make sure we see them on the road several times throughout the year.

At our first Escapade we came away with one very special friend, Paul. At our second Escapade we arranged a get together with all of our Class of 2009 attendees. The Class of 2009 is made up of those of us who are Escapees who hit the road in 2009. From there, the people we’ve met and become friends with has grown with each year we’re on the road.

So when you attend a Rally, try to put yourself out there a little bit. You just might be surprised at the results. Except maybe at a Samboree. I hope I haven’t offended anyone who really enjoys Samboree’s. Maybe those folks could make a better effort at welcoming newbies to their group.

FINAL THOUGHTS ON ESCAPADE

This is the third Escapade we have attended. Our first one, which was here in Gillette, included driving school for me, Boot Camp, as well as Escapade. We went to almost every seminar because we split up and Jim went one way and I went another. Learned so much about RV’s and life on the road. It was incredible. Spent lots of money at the market place. Had no idea there were so many neat (necessary) gadgets. I had almost as much fun there as Jim did. Did not volunteer the first year (which is what everyone recommends and I definitely agree with).

The second Escapade was in Sedalia, MO. We arrived for early bird parking but did not attend Boot Camp or any of the pre-event classes. We went to a lot of seminars again, spent money in the market place, and did a little volunteering by driving the shuttles. It rained and rained and the mud was incredible. People had to be towed out – especially motorhomes. They just are not off road vehicles. We spent more time socializing and getting to know more people. Other than the rain and mud we had a great time.

This year was definitely more about socializing and volunteering. We went to a couple of great seminars but most of them are basically the same ones that we’ve attended in the past and did not attend this year. Volunteered more of our time which was really fun. We arrived early so we could socialize more. Met some new people and caught up with old friends. A wonderful time.

All of the first timers we’ve talked to have nothing but great things to say about everything they learned. Most of them are a little overwhelmed by all the information but are sure glad they came.

 

We won’t be attending Escapade next year in Sedalia. But in 2013 they will be back here in Gillette and we just may feel like showing up once again. We don’t plan that far ahead so who knows what we’ll be doing.

The best part of Escapade is being with people who understand our lifestyle. Not everybody here is full timing in an RV. Many of them are part-timers or sometimers, who just want to learn more about their rigs and the RV lifestyle. But there are a lot of full timers and it is exciting to visit with others who enjoy being on the road as much as we do. Sharing travels, hardships, problems, innovative ideas for doing something in (or out) of the rig and lots of laughter.

Friday was a pretty laid back day. Didn’t get up until after 7:00. About half the rigs pulled out to head back out on the road. A lot of people did laundry but we decided to wait another day. Hopefully all the laundromats won’t be so busy.  Did some grocery shopping.

Friday afternoon we had happy hour and a potluck at our rigs. Jan and Bill had met another couple in the laundromat and invited them to attend. Tracked down a couple of other Chapter 45 members and invited them. Also invited Judy and Gary.

Great time, great food, great friends. And then it got cold and windy. Really windy. That brought the evening to an end.

ESCAPADE – FINAL DAY

I was hoping we were through with excitement about money but no such luck.
Started our day the same way – went to a couple of seminars, came home to let the girls out and have lunch. Decided to check on our accounts to make sure nothing was happening that shouldn’t be. Got a big shock.

Being a retired Fed, my pension shows up in my bank account on the first of every month. The money was there but it was almost $500 short! Talk about heart attack time. I am what they call a Civil Service Offset retiree. That means that I quit the government (after Todd was born), stayed home for a couple of years and then went back to work for the Government within a three year time period. During that time, the Government changed how they were handling their retirement accounts. So I ended up being covered under both the old Civil Service Retirement AND Social Security.

That’s all well and good, except that I had to apply for Social Security when I turned 62 which was this year. They didn’t have a clue what to do with me because of this offset business. They’ve been working on it for a couple of months and finally gave up and sent it to their regional office to figure out. The regional office took care of the issue but failed to let my case worker know. She, of course, then didn’t tell me. I called her in a panic and she was able to find out what the story was.
What this all boils down to is this: I will now get two deposits every month. One from OPM (the Federal retirement system) and one from SSA to make up the difference. Are you as confused as I am? Means I will, on the third Wednesday of every month,  finally get all my money. Now I have to rearrange bill paying.
Thursday afternoon were closing ceremonies. A few statistics:
679 rigs
1268 attendees
956 baby caps knitted and donated to the local natal ward at the hospital.
$3617 raised for CARE - a special “retirement” community for RVer’s needing help as they age or recuperate from a physical set back. They’re a non-profit agency sponsored by Escapees.
We didn’t win any door prizes. The grand prize sure would have been nice. An 11 day escorted tour to New Orleans. Oh well.
Thursday night was a dance party. Quite a few people attended which was a lot of fun. Here are a few pictures.
I’ll just let you figure out what Jim and Karen are doing.

Judy and Gary – I made them stand still so I could take the picture.

Judy and Jim – see what happens when you leave to go to the bathroom?
 
Getting instructions for the chicken dance.

I was going to post a video of the chicken dance but I can't get it to load. So you're plain out of luck.

GOOD FROM BAD – ESCAPADE WEDNESDAY

I thought today was going to be pretty much a repeat of yesterday. But think again.

We attended a couple of seminars in the morning and then came back to the rig to walk the girls and have some lunch before we had to go back and drive golf carts again.'

That all changed when Jim got a phone call. This is the bad. I’m sitting next to him and I hear him giving out his debit card information and I try to get him to tell me what he’s doing. But he shushes me. However, as soon as he hangs up the phone he gets a stricken look on his face and says, “I’ve just been scammed.”

He used his debit card this morning to get fuel and the phone call says it is from the Wells Fargo Fraud Department and that his card has been frozen. In order to verify the information he needs to give them the card number, the expiration date and his name. Which he did. Jim is not stupid and is very aware of these scams so this just proves how easy it is to fall for one of them.

He immediately calls Wells Fargo and they tell him that they had not contacted him. Off we go to the nearest Wells Fargo office. April is the banker who helps us and she is wonderful. This is the start of the good.

April cancels that debit card immediately and reports it as stolen so that it cannot be used. Whoever this is has not tried to use the card yet so we are now safe from them. April said to keep a close eye on the account – like twice a day for the next six months just to be on the safe side. I will be following her advise very closely.

We are much happier now. But it gets better. We had gotten a notice from Wells Fargo that they were no longer going to offer free checking and that we would be charged a $7 a month fee on two of our checking accounts. I figured we would have to bite the bullet and pay it. April was able to set us up on a different type of account that puts $25 a month out of each account into a savings account and that waives the $7 a month fee. Isn’t that just sweet.

After this excitement we decide to go out to lunch before we drive the shuttles. Asked April where we should go and she sent us to Humphrey’s. Fun place.

From their web page:

Once upon a college exam, a few guys got together drinking beer, eating food and watching reruns on the boob-tube and began thinking of what the heck they were going to do with the rest of their lives. So, realizing what they do best - which is drinking beer, eating food, and watching T.V. - they decided to open a place called Humphrey's. Now the only thing that stood in their way was designing the decor - it ended up being the easiest job, however. After a few garage sales, digging through basements and a couple of junk yards, Humphrey's Bar and Grill was born.

I had a burger and onion rings and Jim had the smothered roast beef (a hot beef sandwich on a hoagie bun). My burger was great. Jim’s was too salty but good. I would definitely like to go back here again before we leave town.

Back to walk the girls and then go drive golf carts. It was a pretty slow day so I took lots of pictures of clouds.

 

John, Karen, Polly (with her back turned) and Vern.

Wednesday night was Ham-O-Rama. Escapee’s Talent Show. Jim’s leg and back were really bothering him so he went home but I stayed for the rest of the show. Some good, some okay.

Jan, Bill and Jim.

ESCAPADE – TUESDAY

This is Mitch who helped us with our new Mifi.

 

Went to an 8:30 seminar this morning on Droids, Broadband, Aircards and More. Jim and I both went to this one. Once the kid (must have been all of 24 or 25) got started, I realized I knew a lot more than I thought I did about our phones.

He did an answer/question seminar and many people weren’t happy about that so they left. My opinion is that many of them didn’t understand a lot of what was being said because they were either newbies with smart phones or didn’t yet have a smart phone. But Pete, the kid, was so patient and was willing to answer every question and even invited you to come talk to him at the booth with your questions.

Judy, Jan and Bill

A bunch of us ended up at the Verizon booth with lots of questions. Some of us ended up buying new stuff. Jim got his Mifi and Judy got a new smart phone. Pete was definitely a good salesman.

After lunch Jim and I took over driving the golf cart shuttles. It’s a lot of fun driving the shuttles and you get to visit with just about everybody along the way. We’re on for three hour shifts so we drove from 3:00 to 6:00.

Don’t you just love the vests? It was quite windy, this is Wyoming you know.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After we were done driving, we went out to dinner with a few friends at Pokey’s BBQ. It was okay but we had to sit in two different booths and our waitress forgot about our booth. Gillette doesn’t have a whole lot to offer in the way of restaurants so we’ve been eating at the rig most of the time. No time to go out anyhow.

Home to bed because we’re exhausted and tomorrow’s another busy day.

ESCAPADE – MONDAY

There are lots of seminars scheduled, but since this is the third Escapade that Jim and I have attended, we are pretty selective on the seminars we want to listen to. We come mainly for the social aspect of the Rally.

 

On Monday morning, we worked the Popcorn Booth for three hours. We like to volunteer when we come to Escapade. It’s a nice change of pace and you get to visit with lots of the people. We had four of us manning the booth and we got our system down quickly. The popcorn is donated by Miller Insurance and is free. Our morning started kind of slow – guess not too many people want popcorn at 9:00 a.m. But by 10:00 we could hardly pop it fast enough. We were definitely ready for a nap when we finished up there.

There weren’t any seminars that I wanted to attend Monday afternoon so Jan and I went to Wal-Mart. Jim wanted to attend the LED light seminar and that kept him out of trouble for awhile.

He got back to the rig and a bunch of the guys stood outside talking about everything they had learned until it was time for dinner. After dinner, we headed back over to the Wyoming Center for the door prize drawings. Not sure why because we definitely don’t ever win anything, but never give up hope.

We have been riding the golf cart shuttles which is easier even though there is a lot of parking available. Jan and Bill were driving last night so Jim called Jan and we had our own “limo” pick up. Looked like a storm brewing over in the northeast and I hoped it would hold off until we got home. No such luck. It was a major happening about half way through the door prizes. Lightning was shooting off everywhere. Cloud to cloud, cloud to earth. And really close and loud.

I wanted to get back to the rig to check on Scooter and Skitz but they weren’t letting the golf carts run during the storm which makes sense. Bill had driven his pick up over so he offered to give us a ride back in the truck because he knew I was a nervous wreck worrying about the girls. We finally had a lull in the storm and he brought us home just before the next storm hit. It was a pretty wild night around here. Scooter’s little heart was certainly thumping rapidly and she was sure glad to see us. Skittz, of course, really could care less about the storm but was glad to see us cause that meant she got a treat.

We didn’t stay for the entertainment and several people told us we really didn’t miss anything. Tomorrow, a couple more seminars and then we volunteered to drive the golf carts.