Several years ago my cousin Berni Frees and her husband Rocky spent the summer parked next to us here at Elkhart Campground. We were sitting under the awning of their motorhome one afternoon when somebody walking by stopped to ask if I was Nick Russell. When I admitted that I was, he asked if I would autograph a copy of the Gypsy Journal for him. This happens occasionally and I’m used to it. But Berni was really impressed. She had to call her sister in Ohio to tell her, “Guess what? Nick’s famous! People ask for his autograph!”
Yes, those were the good old days. If nothing else, I was a legend in my own mind. But apparently, as the words to the classic Elton John song go, I was just a candle in the wind. And my flame’s been blown out.
Yesterday our friends John and Kathy Huggins from the Living The RV Dream podcast arrived at the campground, and a couple of hours later and Charles and Chris Yust from C&C RV Insurance pulled into the site next to us. Everybody gathered together in our Winnebago for a visit, and pretty soon a woman named Joannie Webb came to the door asking if I was Nick Russell. I said yes and invited her in, but she wasn’t looking for me, she wanted to see John and Kathy. And when she found out that Chris was here too, she was thrilled. Me? I was just chopped liver, apparently.
Joannie and her husband Keith are followers of John and Kathy’s podcasts and between them and Charles and Chris, she felt like she was in the presence of royalty. So while they all visited I just sat off to the side basking in their reflected glory and contemplated my navel, remembering the good old days when I was famous too. 
Besides the folks I mentioned above, Keith and Donna Green also stopped in for a brief visit yesterday. Keith has dealt with some serious health challenges in the last couple of years, and it was a real treat to see him up and about. The fulltime RV community really is a huge extended family.
It’s Wednesday, and you know what that means. It’s time to kick off a new Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of Judy Howard’s Going Home With A Cat And A Ghost. All you have to do is click on the Free Drawing link and enter your name in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening.
Thought For The Day – Remember when we were young and couldn’t wait to grow up because we could do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted? How’s that working out for you?
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