Jim Gell

I am parked at the Goshen Fairgrounds. After MorRyde IS install, I went to Shipshewana Flea Market campground for a few days and had 8 hours of training by Glyn Carson of the RV Driving School. Then I migrated over to where I am now for the Boot Camp and am staying on for the Escapade. I backed into my 1st back in campsite on my first try without any re-positioning. That said, I know I need plenty more practice before I will really feel comfortable. I found out exactly how high the bottom corner of my bedroom slide is yesterday. It's an inch above my eyebrows...yes right there where that nasty looking scab is. Jim

I drove from Raccoon Valley SKP Park in TN to MorRyde in Elkhart Indiana yesterday. It was a long drive but fortunately uneventful. No slide outs coming out or anything exciting like that. The temporary camera I put in the rear window of the fiver worked great, at least until it got dark. Of course that was when I needed it! Jim Hicks had mentioned in a post that the infrared illumination would reflect off the glass, and it sure did. MorRyde is under construction and I got to a point that I could not follow GPS to find where I needed to park with electric hookup for the night. I left thee truck idling in the street with 4 ways on while I walked around looking. When I got back in the truck it smelled funny. Not an ozone electric arcing smell. I thought perhaps something under the dash was melting though. Then this morning I remembered from when I was under the truck the day before I had noticed what looked like soot staining the pipe from exhaust leaking in front of the muffler. So it was probably just exhaust fumes coming up into the cab. I had the exhaust converted to a weed burner in NH while the bed was modified. I will need to figure out how to seal that up. I have enough headaches with carbon monoxide to add to them. Jim

David, you probably don't remember me. My wife and I came to the 2007 ECR in Gettysburg. We were in the Trailmanor fold down TT pulled by a Honda Ridgeline. Thanks to you and others, that is where I caught the bug. Jim

Yesterday was an exciting day. It was akin to trial by fire, I would have to say. I left Raccoon Valley at 6 AM - Yes that was me. (Sorry fellow campers). Now, I had heard the old Volvo headlights were bad, but when I left before sunrise, I could not believe how poor they were! The high beams were OK, but for some reason, they would not stay on unless I was holding the lever back. I drove a ways before I remembered that when I pulled around the loop to leave the campground, I had put lights in the parking light position with headlights off. I was driving down the road using the flash feature of holding back the stalk to see where I was going. Dah! I drove to Blairsvlille GA across the Copper Road through the Cherokee National Forest. It was beautiful drive, but between the narrow curves and 18 wheel dump trailers running this gauntlet too fast in my opinion due to the cliffs, curves, guard rails, and rock out croppings right out to the pavement, I thought I would find a better route back with the trailer in tow. I stopped and asked some locals and they said that was the best road. I asked again in Blairsville, and they said it would be an additional 6 hours to go all the way to Atlanta to get on I 75 and miss that fun road. I got to the trailer about 10:30 AM. After securing the residential fridge such that it would not move during travel, I hooked up. This was the first of several firsts for me yesterday. It went fine until I tested the lights. First I thought there was no power to the 7 pin plug on truck, but my multi-tester showed there was power, just not coming through the proper wires. I ended up removing all the wires and reconnecting them to the proper terminals on the back of the plug. I would guess somone installed them to a mirror image of the way they should have been, but that would not explain why the center lead was wrong too. After a significant delay I finally got out of the campground in GA, towing a fifth wheel, another first for me, I was under 10 miles down the country road when I noticed the kitchen slide coming out the drivers slide. It was out about 6 inches, but with the narrow road was close to over the center line of the road. I was going a bit slow, and it looked like the 2nd car back in the procession was a police vehicle. I voluntarily found a place to pull over before being "pulled over". The electric motor would not run the slide in or out. With someone to help me, we literally pushed the slide back in. I blocked the inside lip of the slide from the outer wall of the trailer in a couple places so it could not slide out again. It was getting late and I knew if I drove all the way to Atlanta to get on I 75, I was not going to make it back to Raccoon Valley before dark. So I went back taking it slow through the valley of death. Miraculously, I missed all the guide rails rock out croppings, deep ditches, on coming trucks, and cliffs. I thought I was home free when I reached I 75 and headed north. Then with about 10 miles to go, I 75 was closed for bridge repair and I was detoured. OMG did the fun begin again! I am used to a GPS that maintains north being up on the screen. The GPS in the truck I bought reorients the map so you always driving up, or if your brain is not able to adjust, one could think your always driving north! Even though I knew I was being baffled by this electronic devil machine, I could not for the life of me figure out how to reroute myself to the campground. It did not help that the GPS wanted to turn me around on roads significant;y smaller than I would possible fit. Then when I took roads the looked big enough, it came up yelling "Warning! Warning!" and the screen came up indicating a 3 ton limit ahead. I stopped for directions at a gas station and found myself in position to practice backing the trailer (another first), with the added excitement of cars coming and going, to get in position of where I could pull back out onto the highway. I thought the road through the Cherokee National Forest was harry, but it was nothing compared to the small roads, heavy with traffic, I encountered getting back to Raccoon Valley. the worst part was the dips in the road with culverts under the road. The road would narrow and the guard rails were right on the white line. I felt so lucky to get to Raccoon Valley unscathed! Fortunately, I had a pull through site and plenty of great help getting parked, leveled up, and unhitched. Just in time for the rain to start. I have lived all my life in NY State, and we don't get many tornadoes. By the time i finished settling in, mostly moving some stuff from truck to trailer, enough to spend the night, it was about 10 PM and everyone else was turned in for the night, and office was closed. So what does one do when there is a tornado warning when they are camping? No one else was leaving there RV's, but from what I could fathom, not really knowing where I was, it seemed the threat of a possible tornado was real. I ended up listening to the weather radio most the night and formulating a plan. Should I go to the shower/laundry building or climb into the 3'x3'X3' storage compartment under the deck of my HDT, with some pillows, sleeping bag, blankets for padding if he truck was tossed around? Folks used to dealing with tornado warnings are probably laughing at my paranoia! At least I got the trailer out of a flood zone where it was. And I am glad my wife was not with me for this adventure. She promised to give the full time lifestyle at least a year to see if it suites us. I am glad this adventure was not part of that year for her! I am still smiling, but I do hope things get better! That is a long story, to say...I made it to Raccoon Valley with our new trailer! Jim

I am spending tonight at Raccoon Valley SKP Park in TN in my HDT. Tomorrow I will drive 3+ hours into GA and get our trailer and bring it back here and stay the rest of the week. Jim

I am contemplating staying at Raccoon Valley during the week of April 28th. Will any HDT'rs be there at that time? It will be the very first time I pull into a campground with a trailer behind my Volvo and I won't have my cameras installed yet and my wife won't be there to spot for me. I got the impression from another thread that the campground could be negotiated with my rig but not with much room to spare. A little help getting into a campsite from someone with and HDT would be greatly appreciated. I could stay someplace else. I will take delivery of the trailer in Blairsville, in northern GA, have my new wheels and tires installed probably on Monday 4/28. The next place I need to be is the MorRyde Service Center in Elkhart on Sunday evening May 4. I thought I would use that week trying to plan out where to mount equipment, route cables for WiFi antennae and cameras, think through tank monitors, solar, battery bank , and satellite dish installs, etc. Just the things that would have been great to be getting advice on at the ECR if my truck had been ready and I could have made it there. If anyone will be staying at any HDT friendly campground between Northern GA and Elkhart, and would not mind helping me a little as I get started with this lifetyle, please let me know. Thanks! Jim

Hope you feel better soon, Jim. Jim

It looks less likely we will be going to the Hershey Show. Our primary objective was 5th wheel shopping and it looks like we have already found the trailer we want. Is the show worth attending if we are not looking for a trailer to buy? I am going to try to come to the National Rally, but won't be able to bring the truck and trailer. Several reasons for that, including that I will still be a NY resident and I don't have a Class A CDL to legally drive the combination. So I will fly out, rent a car, and stay in a motel. I really want to learn as much as I can before we head out full timing. Jim

Cindy and Jeff, As it stands right now, Cathy and I are planning on spending a couple days at the RV show. I don't know if we would still go if we buy a 5th wheel before the show. But if we do go as planned, maybe we can meet up. Jim

I can't get excited about VWINX only because it is so heavily weighted in bonds. It's been a good fund, but looking forward I feel it may take a beating if/when interest rates go up. It just seems improbable rates can remain this low too much longer. But I have been thinking that for a couple years now. When the music does stop, I don't think I want to be in bonds at all. It's contrary to most profesional advice but I have always held much less in bonds than "appropriate" for my age. I am reducing my holdings in bonds as I feel we are getting closer to the Fed allowing interest rates to normalize. I also count my defined benefit pension as taking the place of bonds to help balance my portfolio. Again, let me say, I am an amature at this. If anyone can steer me in a better direction, I am all ears. Jim

First, let me say that I am a total investing amateur and should not be giving out any advice to others. I was only sharing my personal fear of stop loss orders because I have heard of some investors who lost real serious money with stop loss orders in place during flash crashes. Despite my fear, I did use them recently. I was planning a major purchase in a few weeks. I needed to liquidate some stock, but I hated to sell when the market had been going up day after day. I knew I wanted to sell, and the only question was sell today, tomorrow, or next week. So I placed trailing stop loss orders which automatically stepped up as the price went up. I was able to squeeze a bit more out of my investments before they sold several days later. I assumed the flash crash risk was small enough to take, but it did make me nervous, and I thought you (Derek) should not assume stock will always sell close to the limit you set in a stop loss order. Second, let me clarify that I think Don's strategy has a lot of merit and I do not disagree with anything he has said. I will be considering using his strategy myself with some of the stocks I own. And lastly, I want to say that in my humble and uneducated opinion, people who diversify like I do will never get rich investing in the market. I do have money in index funds! I wish I had the risk tolerance to put it all on that one stock that I was sure of, and leave it there when others say I am foolish, but I don’t. I am not saying you (Derek) are putting all your chips on Tesla, but I do applaud you for sticking with your convictions and I feel you deserve the rewards. Jim

Derek, I think you are doing the right thing, or at least your doing what I probably would do and hang on to Tesla, if I had the foresight and cahunas to get in early. History may show we are wrong, but you gotta be in it to win it. I have put a smaller portion of my retiremernt savings into some speculative stocks. In that group I have 3 pretty big winners that I am hanging onto for now. FUN, is an amusment park LP that is up over 162% including reinvested dividends since buying it once a couple years ago. It pays a big dividend, so I need to watch out for rising interest rates. And I own two 3D printer companies, one that makes printers, SSYS, and one, PRLB, that you e-mail them a 3D file and they ship you the printed object the next day. SInce I bought last year PRLB is up over 94% and SSYS is up 79%. I have had some loosers that I sold and some losers that I am hanging onto in hopes they come around. On average I am doing OK, about the same as my less speculative portfolio, and certainly better than any CD or other "safe" investment, and I am having fun doing it. I have used stop loss and trailing stop loss orders, but they make me nervous now that computer programs can send a stock crashing down in seconds or even milliseconds. Once a stop loss order is triggered, a market order is issued. By the time that market order is filled, it is possible for the stock to drop much lower than I would have wanted to sell at. The stock might drop most of it's value. A few minutes later when everyone knows it was a error of some kind, the stock price is back where it was, In the meantime a stop loss order could have wiped your position out. The same thing could happen when I place a market order, but I think the odds of it going into free-fall at the same time are much less. I say that because I think if a stock heads south and hits my stop loss level, it is already in play and seems more likely to be involved in a flash crash. I still hear financial pundants suggest stop loss orders, but I am not so sure they are still such a good idea with todays high speed trading. Happy investing! Jim

The infection was complete. Our intent to go to the dark side has not wavered since Gettysburg. It’s just a question of when. Thanks Henry!

Hello All, I have been lurking on and off for about 4 years. I did a few posts under a different screen name a long time ago to get general information, but I lost that screen name due to inactivity. As we are nearing retirement and being able to make our dream a reality, I am back, this time to ask more pointed questions. We met some very welcoming and helpful full timers at an East Coast HDT rally in Gettysburg about 3 years ago. I don't know if they would want to be identified, but one brave couple let me drive their Volvo into town and back. That experience cemented my resolve to join your ranks, and I will be eternally grateful to that forum member. Our plan is to buy a used autoshift Volvo, put a Smart on the back, and pull a used fith wheel. We have plenty of logistics and finances to work out, but I expect to be retired and on the road within a couple years. Jim