Guest Author - Dennise Ziaja

We are still on the road this week, leaving Key West and heading back to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. We stopped in the Naples and Tampa areas and then headed to Gulf Shores Alabama and a few days at the beach. Gulf State Park is a beautiful state park that has a fabulous campground with over 450 full hook up sites. It is a great place to relax, visit the specialty gift shops, sample the wonderful local seafood and just enjoy the spectacular white sugar sands of the Gulf Shores area. Put Gulf Shores, Al in your "to visit" file...I am sure glad we did!


The RV world lost a great friend last week. Gaylord Maxwell, 83 years young, the creator and founder of the ground breaking "Life on Wheels" Lifestyle seminars passed away on September 20, 2008 after a brief illness. Mr. Maxwell had a varied career in the RV industry and was a respected and popular member of the RV industry. A former teacher, Mr. Maxwell was a successful RV dealer for many years in Southern California, a respected author of numerous books about the RV lifestyle and wrote columns for industry publications such as Motorhome, Trailer Life, FMCA Magazine and Good Sam’s Highways. The very first book I purchased and read and reread over and over, Fulltiming, An Introduction to Full-Time Rving was written in 1991, and even through it was a bit outdated, the information I gleaned from this knowledgeable gentleman’s own experience was invaluable.


I found this great little video while net-surfing. Check it out here. Talk about great images of the past!


Here’s another of my favorite websites. Just look at the left side of the page for a few other great helps for the RV kitchen…I especially like the conversion tables. I never was good at math!

The epicentre


And finally, this week I started looking for some inexpensive little table decorations and cute little take-home treats for an upcoming Halloween party. I know that I always enjoy a "freebie" or some little tchotchke that I can put in the rig that takes up very little space. I love having some seasonal stuff around but hate to store a lot in the rig where space is at a premium. I found this cute little idea and there is even a video for those of us who can’t follow written directions very well! Easy pumpkins video. I love these little guys…they are easy and really inexpensive. I also have a great idea for tin can pumpkins I will post next week, so save all your veggie and soup cans for this craft.