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In January 2003, I decided to start producing a periodic newsletter Retirement Tips and RV Stuff. Below, you'll find a copy of the newsletters to date. If you'd like to get on the distribution for the next newsletter, send me email at rjhoffman@yahoo.com.
Table of Contents
If you're looking for a specific topic in one of the old newsletters, the Search box on the right will find it for you. It will also point you to other references to the topic throughout the website.
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Retirement Tips and RV Stuff Newsletter
Issue 2005.10 Oct 2005
Publisher, Bob Hoffman - rjhoffman@yahoo.com
Back Issues at - http://www.retirement-tips.com/newsletters.html
PRIVACY STATEMENT: This newsletter's email addresses are never sold or otherwise made public.
If this is too long to read in the email, go read it at - http://www.retirement-tips.com/newsletters.html.
If you're receiving this by email and don't want it, just email me and I'll take you off my distribution list.
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MARS, GENERATORS, AND THE COST OF TRAVEL
Here is it, mid-October, and I sat down to concoct my monthly newsletter. As always, I started by going back to remind myself what I said in last month's newsletter. Surprise! There ain't no last month's! Would you believe it? .. I guess I got busy last month and clean forgot to put out a newsletter. I'd have expected that you readers would have overwhelmed me with emails, asking where the monthly blab was, but no such luck. Not only did I forget it, but nobody else noticed either .. haha. Makes me wonder .. however, I enjoy doing it, I enjoy re-reading old newsletters now and then, and I occasionally get an attaboy from readers, so I guess I'll continue.
First, a couple of corrections. I made that big deal about how close Mars was going to be in August, quoting the email I got and mentioning that I hadn't checked it with snopes.com. Ruh-Roh! According to snopes, that was true in August 2003, but not August 2005 - old email, I guess. Hope you didn't spend alot of time in the yard, looking for Mars. HOWEVER, as it turns out, Mars will be passing fairly close during October. Not as close as back in August 2003, but closer than usual (43 million miles). You can read details about when and where on the Nasa Website. According to the Nasa article, "Mark October 30th as the best day of all: Mars will rise at sunset, hang overhead at midnight, and "blaze forth against the dark background of space with a splendor that outshines Sirius and rivals the giant Jupiter himself." That's how astronomer Percival Lowell described a similar close encounter in the 19th century." By the way, I've been out in the yard around midnight several times in the last week or so and haven't seen any Red planet yet - maybe you'll have better luck. I think I'm supposed to wait until the new Moon, so the Moon doesn't outshine Mars.
Second, in my RAMBLINGS in August, I was talking about staying at Walmart, etc., and I mentioned that I estimated that my generator burns about a gallon per hour. Turns out I was wrong. I came up with that estimate back in 1984, when I ran the generator in Las Vegas for about 10 hours, then looked at my gas gauge to see how much I'd used. One of my readers sent me a website that goes into great detail on how much various types of generators burn. I've lost the website URL, but it seems like most burn only about .4 gallons per hour. So, cut my overnight cost estimate about in half - I still prefer to stay in a half-price Passport park for $10-$15 than to burn gas at a Walmart - but that's up to you to decide.
Cost of travel: We took an RV trip to South Carolina in September to attend a little anniversary party and family get-together that my nephew and his wife planned. At first, I wasn't going to go because of the gas prices and problems after Katrina, then I decided I would, then Rita came along. Despite more fears of rising prices, Joyce and I decided to go anyway. Had a great time, well worth the trip. After I got back, I began to wonder about the cost of RVing vs other means of travel, so I checked with other relatives to find out about how much they spent on gas, airlines, hotel, etc. Here are some details: RV - We drove just over 1000 miles and stayed out 6 days, spent $382 on gas, $130 on camping. Flying - Flight from Melbourne to Charleston for two is about $1100, hotel at the special rate for our group was $59/night, so assume about $180 for hotel if we'd only stayed the three nights most others stayed. Car - Assuming vans full of people get about 3 times mileage that our RV gets (approximately 24 mpg vs 8 mpg), they'd spend about $130 on gas and the same $180 for hotel. So, we've got RV=$512, Flying=$1280, Car=$310. If they'd stayed 6 days as we did, that would have been $512, $1460, and $490. Plus, consider that we ate many meals in the RV, instead of paying restaurant prices, I think we almost came out ahead. Interesting? Is to me ... :) PLUS, I don't know many hotels that would accept 4 little doggies, so I think the RV is our only way, regardless of the cost. Just trying to convince myself it's not outlandishly expensive, which it doesn't appear to be.
Noticed something interesting on this trip. I was able to hook up to WiFi at almost every campground that we stayed in, several of which didn't even advertise WiFi. Several had cable TV and long-term guests, so I'm guessing that some of those hookups were to long-termers who had an on-site cable modem without any security protection set. At two of them, I was able to pick up the signal from the broadband used in the office, by using my 2.4GHz SMC card and antenna. Between the freebies and those I paid for, I was able to connect to the internet almost every night of the trip. My recommendation - when you pull into a campground, set up your laptop with the WiFi card and see what you can see - you might be pleasantly surprised. As far as I can tell (no research, just observation), DSL modems seem to come with protection on (like the one in my home), but cable modems are by default set with protection off (based upon my observations at a few campgrounds). Don't know why this is .. just an observation. Bottom line - never assume you can't get connected - try it first and see for yourself. Works best if you've got a strong WiFi card with antenna. Check my WiFi page for info on equipment.
September Travel: Up through Florida and Georgia to South Carolina and back. Not much sight-seeing, visiting two Outlet Centers (Joyce visits, while I watch TV in the RV), and stayed at several nice campgrounds. Saw gas prices from $2.70 up to just under $3. No problem getting gas, except just North of the Florida-Georgia border on I-95 - they were rationing, only allowing $35 per vehicle, to avoid running out of Regular, as some other stations had. No problem around most big cities along the route.
October Travel: None planned, unless Hurricane Wilma runs us off. I don't expect that to happen, as it's supposed to calm down by the time it reaches Eastern Florida.
Read on for notes on my latest site updates, some words about how I'd make some money if you guys would buy something off the website, WiFi News, Faux News, Poker Adventures, and wrapping up with my Ramblings on whatever occurs to me between now and then.
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LATEST SITE UPDATES
- Major changes to RetirementTips.com, none of which will be obvious to the viewer. I've upgraded to the newer website construction tool at Homestead.com, so I'll now have some new options. The more astute of you may notice improvements over the coming months, but let's just say that it'll make life a little easier for the webmaster (me).
- Added the Poodles in Paris Project to FauxByJoyce.com, as noted below in Faux News.
- Started a couple of new websites that I'm not ready to publicize yet.
- Minor change on my Cool and Unusual RVs and Stuff page. Wanna see a really, really long auto transport truck? Click the link!
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FEATURED WEBSITE
- If you're over 50, you might enjoy some of my recollections from 1955 that I'm doing on my high school class website, Leon1959.com. Back in June, I decided to do a month-by-month odyssey, starting when I graduated from Junior High in June 1955 to when I graduated from High School in June 1959. If you're interested, check out my Countdown to the 50th (our 50th reunion planned sometime in 2009).
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TRYING TO MAKE A FEW BUCKS
Here's a list of some interesting products, some of which will make me a few bucks if you need them and buy them here:
- Camp at Half of What Everyone Else is Paying! No home park, no monthly maintenance fees, no long-term obligation, just pay the small annual fee and camp for half-price. Check it out here.
- 50+ ways to get to the internet when you're on the road! Read'm at Internet On The Road.
- Amazon Books : Buy from Amazon through this link and I get a couple of bucks -- Click here to check them out.
- Dream Lifestyles to Go! Great electronic books for $12.95 that download to your computer immediately. All about How to Get a Life By .... whatever .. you fill in the blank. Check them out here.
- Dream Jobs to Go! Great electronic books for $12.95 that download to your computer immediately. All you need to know about How To Break Into ... whatever is your dream job. Check them out here.
- Earn Money While You Camp! Join WiFiRV as an affiliate, either a lead generator (tell us about campgrounds that need WiFi) or a sales representative (assist in the selling of WiFi systems). Go to my Internet On The Road (IOTR) / WiFiRV page http://www.wifirv.com/assoc/iotr/ to learn how you can earn hundreds for a few hours work.
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FAUX NEWS
While on our South Carolina trip, we stopped in to see my sister Lori and her family. Daughter Kara, 6, is really big into the Poodles in Paris craze. See photos at http://www.fauxbyjoyce.com/ : Poodles in Paris Project, where Joyce covered several of the walls in Kara's bedroom with poodle pictures. Turns out, Kara is the youngest "client" that FauxByJoyce has had, with Joyce's mother, 84, being the oldest. Recall that Joyce did her room at the nursing home in the Guntersville Project.
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WIFI NEWS
I've picked up on some WiFi news during the last couple of months, but don't have any neat links to the information. If you're interested, you can probably do a search and find some articles. First one I heard was that Google has contracted to provide free WiFi for the entire city of San Francisco! Amazing! The other is probably of more interest to WiFi nuts who understand protocols, etc. I was reading about the updated protocols 802.11n and Ultra Wideband (UWB), which are apparently two contenders for upgrading WiFi for use in the home wireless market to "unwire the home entertainment arena." Seems that they're both significant improvements in speed and range over the currently-popular 802.11b and 802.11g.
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POKER ADVENTURES
In August, I mentioned that one of the factors in deciding whether your gambling is addictive is whether it adversely affects your work. Then, in September, I forgot to do the newsletter. Uh-Oh - didn't forget to play Poker. Of course, the newsletter isn't really work ... and I'm not really obligated to do it .. just a thought.
If you decide to try Online Hold'Em (or any other brand of online Poker), be sure to take advantage of the special opportunities offered by signing up through an affiliate! Doesn't cost you anything and can actually mean extra $$ in your pocket. And -- guess what? .. I'm an affiliate at FullTiltPoker and at ParadisePoker. So, if you're going to join up at either of these, visit my Oldguy Poker Club page and use one of those links to join. You'll help me and you'll help yourself.
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RAMBLINGS
Once again, seems I've got a variety of topics, the first two of which is actually RV-RELATED!
Are you interested in seeing a strange Australian RV? Owner calls it Weird Off-Road Truck (WORT) and it's actually for sale! Visit http://www.robgray.com/motorhomes/ for photos and details.
Are you into Rallies? Sounds like there's going to be a nice one in Daytona Beach in April. I don't do rallies often, but that one's so closeby, I'll probably try to make it there. If you decide to attend, let me know and I'll look you up. Get Rally info HERE.
And a couple of computer notes: A few months ago, I started getting a large number of jokes from friends and decided to stick them into a "Jokes for Later" folder, with the plan to read them later when I had more time. Guess what? That folder now has over 500 emails and occupies 300MB of space in my email folders! Amazing! That's a lot of humor!
Another is just a note about cut-rate online buying. My printer takes a Canon BC-05 print cartridge, that's been available at Walmart for around $32 for years. Recently, Walmart's print cartridge counter seems to be over-run with HP products - a little payoff there? Went to three Walmarts and found the same situation at each - a bunch of HPs and no BC-05. I checked at Office Depot and found it for $48 - way too much for my taste. So, I went online and found BC-05 knockoffs for only $15! Great! Ordered one. Got a cartridge worth a little less than $15 - colors are bland, some are non-existent, there are little lines through each picture, etc. I don't know if this is representative of online print cartridges, but it's my last purchase. Finally, I wandered over to the new Target store across the road from our Walmart and found a genuine BC-05 for $32 - just as good as Walmart. Also, noticed the Target store isn't nearly as crowded as Walmart, sales people seem a little friendlier .. hmmm ... if I could get Sam's Cola, I might start shopping there more.
And one more RV note. Something I've noticed about myself recently. When I first got an RV, it was a thrill to just go anywhere in it. Just the idea of parking out in the woods and having refrigerator, water, electricity, was all very exciting. Over the years, however, I think I've moved into a mode of simply viewing the RV as a method of transportation. On our last trip, we really tried to do some "touristy" things along the way, but always found ourselves simply moving along to whatever our next overnight stop was going to be. I'm wondering if this is a natural evolution or if Joyce and I are different. Do full-timers lose the thrill and start viewing their RV as a means of transportation and a place to live? In reading Chuck Woodbury's weekly newsletter, it seems that he's somehow retained the "thrill-mode", even though he's apparently been RVing for a long time. Am I just getting old or do most RVers eventually feel this change? .. just wondering ...
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Email rjhoffman@yahoo.com to sign up for the next newsletter, coming whenever I'm in the mood again.
Permanent Mailing Address: R. Hoffman, 1033 Jacaranda Circle, Rockledge, Florida 32955.
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Retirement Tips and RV Stuff Newsletter
Issue 2005.11 Nov 2005
Publisher, Bob Hoffman - rjhoffman@yahoo.com
Back Issues at - http://www.retirement-tips.com/newsletters.html
PRIVACY STATEMENT: This newsletter's email addresses are never sold or otherwise made public.
If this is too long to read in the email, go read it at - http://www.retirement-tips.com/newsletters.html.
If you're receiving this by email and don't want it, just email me and I'll take you off my distribution list.
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RETIREMENT AND RVS
Retirement and RVs - the two topics of this newsletter. This issue, I've got a little to say about both. First, the retirement biggie! Further down, several RV-related topics that I bumped into in the last month.
I recently read an article The Broken Promise in the October 31, 2005 issue of Time Magazine. What an eye-opener! If you plan to retire .. ever ... or if you're already retired and receiving a pension or insurance benefits, you really need to read the article. I plan to put a copy of the entire article on my website asap, but have been trying to get Time's permission first. Have been exchanging emails with several of their departments for about 3 weeks now, but no luck yet. If I get their permission, I'll put the entire article out there - if not, I'll have to paraphrase it. I'd rather the former, however, because the article covers many topics and I don't think I could do justice to all of them without quoting directly from the text.
Basically, the article gives details about the large number of pension funds and insurance benefits that have been "taken back" by big companies since 1964. They tell several real-life stories of people who worked all their lives, counted on receiving benefits after retirement, then ended up living off Social Security because the companies didn't come through as promised. They talk about small companies you're probably never heard of, like Pacific Intermountain Express, and many large companies like Delta, Northwest, United Airlines, USAirways, Delphi Corp (8th largest auto parts maker), General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, NCR, Sears Holding Corp, Motorola, and Wal-mart. Even public employees in state and local governments, whose pensions are covered by taxes if the government runs out of money, may be in trouble. It seems that public employee pension funds in the U.S. are short over $700 Billion dollars! That means employees in the private sector will not only see their pensions disappear, they'll also be paying higher taxes to cover the pensions of the public employees. Did you know that the number of company-sponsored pension plans has dropped from nearly 120,000 in 1985 to less than 30,000 now, that the amount that companies are short-changing their plans has gone from $100 billion in 1995 to over $450 billion now, and that the government fund that covers pension fund defaults was in the black in 1985 but is now over $23 billion dollars in the Red? The article also goes into some detail about how congress is letting all this happen. Great article! I'll try very hard to get it on the website within the next couple of weeks - look for the announcement on the main retirementtips.com page. I'll also include some "tips" that I've come up with to try to avoid something like this hitting you too hard.
RV STUFF: Here's a tidbit I picked up from Chuck Woodbury's newsletter: "The Federal Highway Administration recently granted interim approval for states to display the RV Friendly logo on the nation's gas/food/lodging highway exit signs. A bright yellow circle with the letters RV alerts motorists of highway-side facilities catering to the needs of RVs at specific exits. Louisiana, Tennessee, Washington and Oregon." Neat, eh?
The other RV-related topic is gas prices ... again. Did you hear about the monster profits that the oil companies are making? ... like Exxon making over $10 billion profit in the last 6 months!?! Wow! I don't know what percentage that is, but it sounds a little excessive to me. I saw an Exxon officer on CNBC last week, explaining how 90% of their sales are outside of the U.S. or some such story. So what? If they're making big profits anywhere, they should be able to lower our gas prices! And he was talking about how the middle men control the prices -- hmmm ... It all starts at the refinery and expands from there. And right after those profits made news, we suddenly see the price of gas start to fall dramatically! Coincidence? I think not. Looks to me like someone is trying to get the heat off. Maybe if gas gets closer to $1 again, the heat will really be off. Until then, I'm still following the suggestion on my 2004 Gas War page and buying all mine at Murphy whenever I can.
October Travel: None - Wilma came and went, and we just stayed put. Actually, we kind of slept through it. Wilma was supposed to hit our coast late Monday, so I got up about 10:30 and started watching TV. Seems that most of it had already passed. We looked outside and watched winds blowing for several hours, probably in the 70 mph range, but nothing really dramatic here. I noticed yesterday that the wind tore up the awning on one of my RV slide-outs, so will have to replace that, but that's minor compared to what I've heard from Ft. Lauderdale and the West coast.
November Travel: Only travel so far has been to move my RV from OceanView RV Park (whose website I do in exchange for Summer storage) to All Brevard Storage (whose website I'm now doing in exchange for Winter storage). And SC friend Buckner is talking about another fishing trip - I'm ready!
Read on for notes on my latest site updates, some words about how I'd make some money if you guys would buy something off the website, WiFi News, Faux News, Poker Adventures, and wrapping up with my Ramblings on whatever occurs to me between now and then.
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LATEST SITE UPDATES
- NEW WEBSITE RV6.ORG: To find out why this name, go to ABOUT.RV6.ORG. On RV6.ORG, you'll find my vote for the top six RV-related websites on the internet, plus a place for you to put in your vote.
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FEATURED WEBSITE
- All Brevard Storage website is www.all-brevard-storage.com. The really unique thing about this place is that they have a building with over 48,000 square feet of space where they store RVs, autos, boats, trailers, and whatever else people want to protect from the elements. Their facilities are built to withstand winds over 140 mph, so here's the answer to protecting your RV or boat during one of our frequent hurricanes. When you visit the website, look closely at the photo on the main page - wait long enough and you'll see it change. And check out the neat scrolling effect on the Facilities page - a feature I just recently found in my Homestead SiteBuilder program. Probably more exciting to me as a website designer, than it will be to most of you ... :)
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TRYING TO MAKE A FEW BUCKS
Here's a list of some interesting products, some of which will make me a few bucks if you need them and buy them here:
- Camp at Half of What Everyone Else is Paying! No home park, no monthly maintenance fees, no long-term obligation, just pay the small annual fee and camp for half-price. Check it out here.
- 50+ ways to get to the internet when you're on the road! Read'm at Internet On The Road.
- Amazon Books : Buy from Amazon through this link and I get a couple of bucks -- Click here to check them out.
- Dream Lifestyles to Go! Great electronic books for $12.95 that download to your computer immediately. All about How to Get a Life By .... whatever .. you fill in the blank. Check them out here.
- Dream Jobs to Go! Great electronic books for $12.95 that download to your computer immediately. All you need to know about How To Break Into ... whatever is your dream job. Check them out here.
- Earn Money While You Camp! Join WiFiRV as an affiliate, either a lead generator (tell us about campgrounds that need WiFi) or a sales representative (assist in the selling of WiFi systems). Go to my Internet On The Road (IOTR) / WiFiRV page http://www.wifirv.com/assoc/iotr/ to learn how you can earn hundreds for a few hours work.
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FAUX NEWS
Nothing new on the website, except I finally got the Projects Page updated, so now it has a graphic for each of the 25 projects listed on the main page. Joyce has done a couple of nice projects this month, but nothing dramatic enough to be able to show well with website photos.
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WIFI NEWS
I guess the biggest news in WiFi this month is that there are snowbirds heading back to Florida for the Winter season and finding out that the park they're staying in still doesn't have WiFi! Can you imagine? If you're one of those, contact me and I'll visit your park manager and let them know how they can get this great amenity almost immediately and at a very low cost. We've had several parks where the amount they're receiving from user fees is actually more than enough to cover their installation and maintenance costs.
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POKER ADVENTURES
Joyce checks the horoscopes each day, often reading mine to me if it's interesting. She found a great one on November 2nd. The Taurus for that day read "It would be wonderful to spend the day playing online poker. But alas, such exciting (and potentially costly) pursuits are cheap thrills when compared to the business of taking one more step toward your goal." I wasn't sure what that meant -- about my only goal these days is to win a really nice amount, like $1000+, in a poker tournament ... so ... I spent the day playing online poker .. :)
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RAMBLINGS
Today's topic is "Hackers and Bloggers - good guys or bad guys?" Back in the 1970's, when I was a young programmer learning as much as I could about how to find my way around computers, a hacker was a person who really knew how to work with computers. We had a thing called a post-mortem dump (PMD), that involved rummaging through octal or hexidecimal listings of computer innards to try to figure out what went wrong in our last computer run. With today's interactive debug facilities, I doubt that anyone would want to read a PMD, or could if they wanted to. The people who could readily find their way around a PMD, as I could, or knew computer languages or processor idiosyncracies in enough depth to diagnose errors that eluded others, were often referred to as hackers. Being a hacker meant you really knew computers, not that you used your knowledge to steal from or harm others, as seems to be the case today. For a time, I referred to myself as the "world's oldest hacker", until I realized that the definition had changed and I really didn't want to be associated with the new meaning of the word.
The same thing appears to be happening to the term Blogger. In my mind, a weblog (or blog) is just the ramblings or opinions or chat that someone, like myself, puts on the internet for others to read if they're interested. Although I refer to this as a newsletter, it really is just a bunch of my thoughts, so actually could be considered a blog ... thus making me a blogger. Especially this section, RAMBLINGS, would qualify as a blog. I called it Ramblings because, back when I started almost 3 years ago, I wasn't yet familiar with the term blog. Since then, I've referred to it as a blog and myself as a blogger, but now I'm learning that the blogger label is considered evil in some quarters. For example, Forbes Magazine, on the cover of their November 14th issue, had the huge headline ATTACK OF THE BLOGS! You can read all about it in my new website blog at RV-Blog.RV6.ORG. That's right! I'm not afraid! I'm going to call it the RV-Blog and myself a blogger. But I'm one of the good bloggers - sort of like the good witch, I guess. I'm going to be careful to not obliterate any brands or companies or individuals, as Forbes points out is being done by those bad bloggers all the time. My first topic is When Are You Too Old to Drive an RV? Hope you check it out and enjoy it. I'm looking at the RV-Blog as a place where I can ramble in more detail than I have room for here. Maybe I'll hit one of your favorite topics in the future.
Here's something that doesn't really fit anywhere else, so thought I'd stick it here. Someone sent me this neat clock http://home.tiscali.nl/annejan/swf/timeline.swf link. Check it out!
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Email rjhoffman@yahoo.com to sign up for the next newsletter, coming whenever I'm in the mood again.
Permanent Mailing Address: R. Hoffman, 1033 Jacaranda Circle, Rockledge, Florida 32955.
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Retirement Tips and RV Stuff Newsletter
Issue 2005.12 Dec 2005
Publisher, Bob Hoffman - rjhoffman@yahoo.com
Back Issues at - http://www.retirement-tips.com/newsletters.html
PRIVACY STATEMENT: This newsletter's email addresses are never sold or otherwise made public.
If this is too long to read in the email, go read it at - http://www.retirement-tips.com/newsletters.html.
If you're receiving this by email and don't want it, just email me and I'll take you off my distribution list.
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SEASON'S GREETINGS!
It sure is that time of year, ain't it? Seems like we're about in the "dead of Winter", the shortest day of the year is on Wednesday, and everyone is scurrying around buying gifts and sending cards, etc. I sent a check to each of my kids last week and that just about takes care of my shopping -- all except for Joyce and I never know what to get her. She claims to want a Mitre Saw, but everything I've read tells me that's not a good spousal gift. Guess I'll keep looking.
Every year about this time, I start getting itchy to get in the RV and go somewhere neat. The main problem is that I'm in Florida and, thanks to the Weather Channel, I can see how the weather is everywhere else in the country. Ice storms in South Carolina, 40 below in Yellowstone Park, oooweee! On my browser startup page, I've got the temperature here and in Alabama, where we retired from 6 years ago. When I see the 30-degree temperature difference, I tend to want to just stay where I am. About the only other places nearly warm enough at this time of year (in the USA) are South Texas, Arizona, and California. I don't do California, mainly because it's too crowded and expensive. I loved living there, but it isn't a place I plan to visit anytime soon. Joyce won't even go to Texas, ever since that bad experience she had there on her 50th birthday (see my book for details). That leaves Arizona, which is FINE with me! Ever since my Quartzsite trip in 1999-2000, I've been trying to get Joyce to go out there with me around year-end and every year, there's some excuse for not going. This year it's Clay Aiken - his concert here is on December 28th and Joyce got tickets and she lo-o-oves Clay! No way we could miss that. I even suggested that I drive out and Joyce fly out and join me later, but she won't consider me missing one of the greatest concerts of our life. Maybe next year ... If you haven't read my Travel Log, Chapters 1-14, about my Quartzsite adventures, you really should. That was about the most exciting trip I ever took in an RV and I hope my writings express that. The chapters were produced pre-digital camera and pre- learning much about website-building, so they're a bit crude, but I think there's enough there to convince you that you should make the trip one of these days!
Right now, I'm seriously planning to just meander around Florida a little in January. My excuse would be to check out campgrounds that don't yet have a decent internet connection and to convince them of the glories of WiFi, but my ulterior motive would be to just get in some RV time. The problem with the checking out campgrounds without internet is that, while at those campgrounds, I ain't got no internet access, and that's traumatic! No email, no website updating, no late-night Poker? ... hmmm ... Even those parks that have the dialup in the office or rec center option aren't as attractive as they once were. Once you've sat in your RV and enjoyed the internet (high-speed) from the comfort of your dinette table, trudging off to the rec center and worrying about who else wants to use the connection is no longer a worthy option. I've been planning for years to get a satellite dish on my roof, but haven't gotten to the point yet where I feel good spending that much for it. I've been tempted a couple of times to get one of the set-it-up-and-put-it-on-the-ground systems, but then I see someone with a rooftop setup and decide to wait. Hopefully, at some point the price and my financial situation will meet, or I'll find some way to pay it through one of my many business ventures.
RV STUFF: Last month, I mentioned the RV Friendly logos going up in Louisiana, Tennessee, Washington and Oregon. Seems like I read somewhere that they also are doing that in Texas. Thought it was in Chuck's newsletter, but just checked and no luck. Anyway, I look forward to seeing those around the country. One problem when travelling is not knowing where it's ok to pull in. Nothing more frustrating then pulling into a parking lot and learning that there's no way out without backing up. Most RVs can't back up, so those logos should prove to be highly valuable in the future.
November Travel: None - Went fishing a couple of weeks ago, but didn't take the RV. Weather was so dicey that we just stayed at our house and drove down to Sebastian Inlet. First day, caught 5 really nice dolphin (Mahi-Mahi) and second day, brought in the largest Sailfish that Buckner says he's ever seen. Was somewhere around 8 feet! Took some photos, but none really spectacular. Got him right up next to the boat, he looked distainfully at us, shook his beak and slipped the hook, then slowly slipped back into the depths of the Atlantic. Almost a religious experience!
December Travel: None planned ... darn it!
Read on for notes on my latest site updates, some words about how I'd make some money if you guys would buy something off the website, WiFi News, Faux News, Poker Adventures, Blog Updates, and wrapping up with my Ramblings on whatever occurs to me between now and then.
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LATEST SITE UPDATES
- As in previous months, I've spent mucho time doing the websites of others and very little on my own. About the only significant update has been to my RV-Blog, which I talk about below in the BLOG UPDATES section.
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FEATURED WEBSITE
- www.ACohezio.com: I've mentioned it before, but now it's got to be mentioned again. Peter, the glassblower, and I have been doing a bunch of updates, adding in some photos of his creations using the machines that he builds. And he's been selling machines! To people who saw them on the website! That's exciting to me, because I often worry about charging people for my work, then them not getting any business as a result of it. Realistically, I explain to people that the website is really to have a place to send people to see your work, not necessarily a vehicle for drawing in new customers. Sometimes, however, the latter occurs and that's really satisfying to the webmaster. Another perk of being a webmaster is that I occasionally get a "sample" from a customer - like the amazing glass oil lamps that Joyce and I got from Peter. Really beautiful and great with our Christmas decorations!
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TRYING TO MAKE A FEW BUCKS
Here's a list of some interesting products, some of which will make me a few bucks if you need them and buy them here:
- Camp at Half of What Everyone Else is Paying! No home park, no monthly maintenance fees, no long-term obligation, just pay the small annual fee and camp for half-price. Check it out here.
- 50+ ways to get to the internet when you're on the road! Read'm at Internet On The Road.
- Amazon Books : Buy from Amazon through this link and I get a couple of bucks -- Click here to check them out.
- Dream Lifestyles to Go! Great electronic books for $12.95 that download to your computer immediately. All about How to Get a Life By .... whatever .. you fill in the blank. Check them out here.
- Dream Jobs to Go! Great electronic books for $12.95 that download to your computer immediately. All you need to know about How To Break Into ... whatever is your dream job. Check them out here.
- Earn Money While You Camp! Join WiFiRV as an affiliate, either a lead generator (tell us about campgrounds that need WiFi) or a sales representative (assist in the selling of WiFi systems). Go to my Internet On The Road (IOTR) / WiFiRV page http://www.wifirv.com/assoc/iotr/ to learn how you can earn hundreds for a few hours work.
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FAUX NEWS
Nothing new on the website, but the big news this month is that Joyce is taking a water-color painting class. She's done about 20 or so paintings, some of which I think are really great. Her teacher has been very impressed with her progress. I'm planning to build a section on her website real soon, with her best paintings for display (and probably for sale). Look for it next month! (hopefully)
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WIFI NEWS
The company I work part-time for, WiFiRV, has sponsored 5 Roaming HotSpots. What's that, you ask? Well, about a year ago, I suggested to my boss that it would be a great idea to put a satellite dish on my RV, connect one of our WiFi setups to it, and let me go around from park, showing people how great the WiFi is. Well, he couldn't quite justify that much expense, especially based upon my limited amount of travel, but the idea was discussed and elaborated, until he and another WiFiRV manager came up with an alternative and decided to label them Roaming HotSpots. Their setup involves the type of satellite dish that sits on the ground, but can be set up in a matter of hours and costs in the $2k range, so is much more feasible than the original idea. They now have five of these wandering around the country, setting up at RV rallies and shows, visiting campgrounds, and really providing a great way to demonstrate an operational WiFi setup. Visit their website www.RoamingHotSpots.com for details.
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POKER ADVENTURES
I'm often asked if I'm still playing online Poker. Answer is yes! I get into a game almost every night, usually starting around 10 PM when TV gets bad and Joyce heads for bed, then playing on until 2 AM or so. I figure that as long as I enjoy it, I'll keep playing it. One major difference during the last month or two - I've been in play-money games instead of real-money. A couple of months ago, I had about a week of bad beats and got a little frustrated. I've since found that I get just about as much enjoyment out of the play-money "Sit and Go" matches and play-money tournaments as I do in the real-money. I've managed to run my $1000 up to just above $600,000 (play-money) and am having a ball. I'll probably do some real-money playing again soon, now that the house taxes, etc. are paid. One of the basic rules is to only play with money you can afford to lose and I ain't had none of that for the last couple of months. HOWEVER, don't sneer at the play-money games. Even though many of the players are idiots, and some are probably 12 years old, it's still a very good way to get practice in tournaments. As you get down to the last 10% of the players, the play becomes more and more like the real-money games. As always ... good luck!
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BLOG UPDATES
As I mentioned last month, RV-BLOG.RV6.ORG is the location of my RV-Blog, where I put extended ramblings that are too long for the Ramblings section below. My first topic was When Are You Too Old to Drive an RV? and I just finished my second: Different Strokes. Unlike my Ramblings section, I'm going to endeavor to limit my Blog topics to RV stuff only. In Different Strokes, I expound on the mistake that many avid RVers (myself included) make, assuming that everyone can be as excited about RVing as they are.
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RAMBLINGS
One of the topics I considered for the RV-Blog was roads. I think the beauty and importance of roads as "scenery" is greatly under-rated. A short while ago, I came to the realization that I love roads -- all kinds -- 2-lane, 4-lane, 6-lane, whatever. I guess that first became somewhat evident back when we had the 1990 1/2 Bounder. I mounted the camcorder on the dash, with a remote switch, and filmed miles and miles of highway. When my relatives watched it, they had a real laugh about Uncle Bobby's "road movies." I would point out, in my defense, that I was also filming the miles of beautiful scenery along the side of the roads, but they didn't really accept that. Later, I realized I like to watch the highways, no matter what's along the side of the road. One of my most exciting road memories was when I was 21 in 1962 and travelling around the USA in my "first RV", a 1962 Volvo with seats that folded down. One morning, I was up early and coming out of some mountains in Montana. This was back when the speed limit was "reasonable and proper," so I had the accelerator to the floor. I busted out of a mountain pass and down into a valley, hitting somewhere around 115, the top downhill speed of the Volvo. Such a feeling of exhileration and excitement! I never will forget that. On that same trip, I stopped once on a deserted highway in South Dakota, and took a movie (8mm) looking one way down the highway, coming down to my feet, then up the other way on the highway. I'd never seen such a long, straight, deserted highway in my life! So, even back then, I was filming highways and sending them home for the family to watch.
On my America Views website, where I include photos I've taken around the USA, I decided to do an entire section on roads. In that section, you'll find One-Lane, Two-Lane, Four-Lane, Eight-Lane, High, Low, Beach, Leafy, Tank, TrafficJam, 4WD, Cruisin', BigHorn, Autumn, and Balloon Road, and that's just scratches the surface. If you've got a road fetish, check it out! If not, check it out anyway!
Speaking of road fetishes, I found a guy who calls himself mapguy and has an entire website of highway ends. It's amazing! He has info on all current and historic U.S. highways (not interstates), with photos, details on changes over the years, etc. He also has links to similar info on state highways and interstates, all also dealing with highway ends. Another site full of an amazing amount of highway detail is us-highways.com, dealing with details along the highways, landmarks, cafes, whatever, from US 1 to US 830. Like the first site, it includes both current and historic info. For example, it tells all about the original Route 66 and how it evolved. Finally, if you're looking for some great Route 66 photos, visit Route 66 Photo Lounge, a site set up by Isao Saito, who visited from Japan in 1995. Really the best photos of the "mother road" that I've found to date.
And, now that I've divulged how really wierd I am, I'll end the Ramblings. Hope you enjoyed some of it.
And two more little tidbits: First, a really neat photo of Seattle – 1907 and now. Second, did you know that KOA recently polled campers about amenities they'd like to see? High on the list were cable and phone lines and wireless Internet access. I'm not surprised - I've been saying for some time that I look for Passport America, cable TV, and WiFi. Not sure why people need phone lines, though. Doesn't every RVer have a cellphone? If not, they should.
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Email rjhoffman@yahoo.com to sign up for the next newsletter, coming whenever I'm in the mood again.
Permanent Mailing Address: R. Hoffman, 1033 Jacaranda Circle, Rockledge, Florida 32955.
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Retirement Tips and RV Stuff Newsletter
Issue 2006.01 Jan 2006
Publisher, Bob Hoffman - rjhoffman@yahoo.com
Back Issues at - http://www.retirement-tips.com/newsletters.html
PRIVACY STATEMENT: This newsletter's email addresses are never sold or otherwise made public.
If this is too long to read in the email, go read it at - http://www.retirement-tips.com/newsletters.html.
If you're receiving this by email and don't want it, just email me and I'll take you off my distribution list.
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HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Can you believe that January is almost over? Wow! Time flies when you're busy. I often think of a little plaque that I saw in a souvenir shop once that said "The Hurrier I Go, the Behinder I Get!" And that says it all! That's certainly the way I've felt this month. And, I haven't even started worrying about the taxes, which are always a major headache - corporate taxes March 15th and personal April 15th. At least they're not due on the same day. Almost skipped this month's newsletter, then decided to put together a short one.
Just for kicks, I went back and looked at my newsletters for January 2005, 2004, and 2003. In 2005, I was talking about the Tsunami that had just happened and a bunch of revamping that I was planning on my websites and in my life. Got most of it done ... I had also just given away 10 free copies of my book and was planning a contest every month -- haha -- that didn't happen. In 2004, I had just finished the book and was beginning to get enthused about WiFi - hadn't even heard of WiFiRV yet, and now they're one of my major activities. Also in 2004, I noted that the Dow was just over 10,000, NASDAQ just over 2,000, and our old Lincoln had just passed 120,000. January 2006, DOW is still/again just over 10,000, NASDAQ just over 2,000, and the Lincoln is over 126,000. At least my odometer keeps moving! Wish the market would. In 2003, I had just incorporated Robert Hoffman Consulting, Inc. and was publishing my first newsletter. All of these Januarys, 2003, 2004, and 2005, certainly do seem like they're in the very distant past. I guess even though it feels like time is flying as I approach 65, in many ways it's moving slowly if these things seem so distant. Or is my memory just getting so bad that recent things fade faster? ... who knows ...
I was thinking the other day how I once thought life would be much simpler if we only had the RV to worry about and no house or extra cars. Last trip, the plate under my toadie where the towbar connects actually broke off the car! No real damage and didn't lose the car, but I certainly was surprised. I never considered the bolts on the towbar apparatus as something that needed to be checked periodically. A month before that, I had to replace the awning over the RV's slideout after Hurricane Wilma went through. Before that, it was something else. Turns out the RV is probably requiring repair more often than the house. I guess when you drive your house down the highway at 70 mph, things wear out, get loose, etc. Maybe it would be simpler to keep the house and sell the RV - Joyce would like that! ... LOL. But, then I'd eventually get stir-crazy and grouchy and we'd both regret it. Guess we should leave things as they are - they're working out fairly well. If we didn't have any problems/challenges, we'd probably just vegetate and wither away, eh?
RV STUFF: The last few months, I've mentioned the RV Friendly logos going up on our nation's highways. More on that this month - The Federal Highway Administration has decided to allow states to affix "RV Friendly" logos to Interstate information signs without the state having to gain approval first by the federal government. I guess they'll soon be all over.
January Travel: Usually, I talk about travel the previous month, but December had none and January did, so ... Joyce and I took a real nice little trip around the tip of Florida, doing some WiFiRV business and visiting son Steve in Ft. Lauderdale. A nice mixture of business and pleasure. Visited some nice campgrounds along the West coast, then back up the East coast, met some great people, and maybe even might make a few dollars from the business conducted while RVing. I'm also seeing that more and more parks are getting WiFi, some of which is working well and some that really needs help (from a company like WiFiRV ... :)
February Travel: May have a trip to the Biloxi area - details next month.
Read on for notes on my latest site updates, Featured Website, some words about how I'd make some money if you guys would buy something off the website, WiFi News, Faux News, Poker Adventures, and wrapping up with my Ramblings on whatever occurs to me between now and then.
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LATEST SITE UPDATES
- BLOG: I decided to kill the Blog section that I had last month and just put news of Blog updates here. As it turns out, there weren't any this month.
- www.AlmostNewRV.com: Made a change on my RV sales website - put a very nice Class B there, if you're in the market for a gas-economic RV.
- My Travel Log, Chapter 68: Wrote this chapter Barnages, RV Ports, RV Lots, RV Villas, ... a couple of months ago and forgot to mention it here. I've gathered most of what I know about neat places to park your RV in one place here, if you're interested.
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FEATURED WEBSITE
- www.Astrians.com: Here's a strange one for you! My metaphysical mystery writer friend, Virgil Wulff, and I are collaborating on a Science Fiction novel involving RVing, Las Vegas, saving Earth from itself, and aliens from the planet Astria. If you're an artist (or wannabe), check out our contest on the Astrians Home Page!
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TRYING TO MAKE A FEW BUCKS
Here's a list of some interesting products, some of which will make me a few bucks if you need them and buy them here:
- Camp at Half of What Everyone Else is Paying! No home park, no monthly maintenance fees, no long-term obligation, just pay the small annual fee and camp for half-price. Check it out here.
- 50+ ways to get to the internet when you're on the road! Read'm at Internet On The Road.
- Amazon Books : Buy from Amazon through this link and I get a couple of bucks -- Click here to check them out.
- Dream Lifestyles to Go! Great electronic books for $12.95 that download to your computer immediately. All about How to Get a Life By .... whatever .. you fill in the blank. Check them out here.
- Dream Jobs to Go! Great electronic books for $12.95 that download to your computer immediately. All you need to know about How To Break Into ... whatever is your dream job. Check them out here.
- Earn Money While You Camp! Join WiFiRV as an affiliate, either a lead generator (tell us about campgrounds that need WiFi) or a sales representative (assist in the selling of WiFi systems). Go to my Internet On The Road (IOTR) / WiFiRV page http://www.wifirv.com/assoc/iotr/ to learn how you can earn hundreds for a few hours work.
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FAUX NEWS
Joyce is still improving her water-color techniques, she's finished about 15 or so very nice pictures, her teacher says Joyce is her favorite student, and I still haven't gotten around to putting her work on her website! Shame on me! The hurrier I go, the behinder I get! And that's my only excuse.
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WIFI NEWS
I've been reading about, and actually getting involved in myself, discussions about the future of WiFi. There is a contingent who believe that WiFi is moving toward a time when it will be free, like radio waves. On the other side, me and some others, who believe the free providers will eventually go belly-up or find out that they can't afford to provide service of any quality or reliability for free if there hotspot is anything larger than a single building, and eventually start charging. McDonald's and Starbucks might stay free, because "lighting up" a small area like that is simple and cheap. Try an RV park, marina, or hotel and the cost and effort increase very quickly to a point that doing it free doesn't make a lot of sense. I contend that, within about 5 years, any decent WiFi HotSpots of any size will be charging. Sort of like 5 years ago, when ISPs, domain names, server space, website design tools, and just about everything else on the internet was free - ain't much of that out there anymore. I guess time will tell ... feel free to email me your opinions on the question.
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POKER ADVENTURES
Up and down, peaks and valleys. I'll win for awhile, get real enthused, then lose for awhile, get depressed and quit for a couple of weeks, then see tournaments on TV and jump back in and start all over. I think I'm just about even or slightly up for the two years I've been playing Online Hold'Em Poker. I still enjoy playing, but never enjoy losing, even in the play money games. I'd love to hear about the experiences of others who have played online for awhile - email me! Do you think the poker sites are honest? Some think so, many don't. I'm not sure, but still hold to the hope that they are honest. Opinions?
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RAMBLINGS
Well, my initial Happy New Year section above was actually a bunch of rambling, so how do I follow that? I've been saving this joke for quite some time, wondering if people who have English as a second language can read it. Also, wondering if this is true for languages other than English. Take a look:
Can you read this?
Olny srmat poelpe can.
I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!
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Eimal rjhoffman@yahoo.com to sgin up for the nxet nelttewesr, cmonig wenevehr I'm in the mood aiagn.
Pmrneanet Mnilaig Asedrds: R. Hoffman, 1033 Jacaranda Circle, Rockledge, Florida 32955.
