THE FULL SCREEN, "STRETCH" BLOG TEMPLATE

Al of the "Bayfield Bunch" recently asked a few questions about our blog - specifically, how to "stretch" the blog to utilize the entire screen instead of the middle two-thirds as is common with most Blogger blogs. He is working on a beautiful redesign of Travel with the Bayfield Bunch, and when he mentioned to his readers that I had provided some useful information, several readers asked me the same question: How do you expand the width of your blog?

I use one of Bloggers canned "stretch" templates, two column templates where the "blog post" column is stretched across the width of two columns. I use Minima Lefty Stretch for Semi-True Tales (narrow column on the left), and I use Minima Stretch for We Called It Home (narrow column on the right), our blog of campground reviews. Fonts and colors of both blogs have been customized to complement each other.

Here is my advice if you are thinking of switching (double click on the screen shots to enlarge them; use the back arrow to return here):

First, go to "Layout", then pick "Edit HTML". If you haven't saved your current blog template recently (or ever), pick "Download Full Template".

This will save your current template as a file on your own computer, so you can upload it easily if you make any boo-boos when checking out new templates (I learned this through EXPERIENCE - ouch!).

Then, go to "Pick New Template'. Scroll around to find any of the templates with "stretch" in the name.

Click the radio button for one of the stretch templates, then click "preview template" (under the radio buttons). You will get a little preview of how your blog would look if you made the change.

Making the change itself is very simple, BUT you lose any customizing your have done - colors, fonts, etc. All your posts will be there, and all of your "widgets", I am fairly certain. If you have added any special bits of HTML code to your current template or widgets (for instance, I like my recipes to open in new windows, so I have added a bit of html for that), you might lose that. It is a change most easily made before you have done a lot of customizing to your blog - but it is always fun to try new "looks" for your blog.

By the way, I have the Geeks on Tour to thank for teaching me the very simple way to capture screens shots using Picasa: with Picassa open, use the PrtScrn button to automatically capture and save screenshots as "photos" in Picassa in their own special Screen Captures folder. SO easy. If you haven't already signed up for their free newsletter, think about it - I learn new things everytime the newsletter arrives in my mailbox, especially about Picassa.

MAIL FORWARDING: HOW DO FULLTIMERS GET THEIR MAIL?

After a windy (but short) drive on Wednesday, we settled into our favorite site at the Placerville Elks Lodge - which is actually located in Shingle Springs, California, about 5 miles from my parents' house. Only one other rig was here, so we snagged the site next to Luna's favorite rock, in the little garden between Scoopy and Jules.

Then we headed to my parents' house to visit with them and await the arrival of my sister Nancy and Auntie Carol, the Carol of Paws and Hooves Ranch, in Sunizona, Arizona. She is here visiting her brother (my dad). It was a fun, mini-family reunion.

Then it was time to tackle the mail.

One of the questions most frequently asked about full-timing is: "How do you get your mail?" Most full-timers use a mail forwarding service; of these, the two most well-known are the Escapees Mail Service in Livingston, TX (part of the Escapees RV Club) and Alternative Resources in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

In general, your choice of mail service depends on your choice of "domicile state" - the state that you choose to call home as a fulltimer. We chose South Dakota as our domicile state. We register our vehicles there, have SD drivers licenses, and use Alternative Resources as our mail forwarding service.

We try to have Alternative Resources forward our mail to us a couple of times a month, but that doesn't always fit our travel plans. Because we didn't know our specific itinerary between leaving Arizona and arriving in Sacramento, we didn't receive our mail for at least a month. Approaching Sacramento, we instructed Alternative Resources to forward our mail to my parents' address. We asked the Escapees Mail Service, the forwarding service for the Boomers (we handle the Boomer mail as volunteer Membership Coordinators), to send the month's accumulation of Boomer mail along, too.

We also placed several online orders for various goodies, and directed the packages to my parents' house: new lacings for my LaFuma lounge chair, a birthday present for Odel from his daughter, an order of Teavana tea, and some glow-in-the dark tape for my hoop. We had a heap of packages when we arrived to visit my parents.

Odel immediately opened his gift (a beautiful new golf club) and I checked on the orders - the fun stuff. That left our personal mail and the Boomer mail, two fat packages that represent NO fun!

When we lived in our house, getting home mail delivery was usually somewhat fun, a combination of (too much) junk mail, (too many) glossy catalogs, monthly magazines, bills, and maybe a card or postcard or some other bit of personal snail mail. Bills came in small numbers on any given day.

On Wednesday, our personal mail package included three bank statements to be balanced, two credit card bills to be checked, half a dozen medical billing statements from Medicare and Blue Cross (none of which we can figure out), the sickening statements for our investment accounts, half a dozen envelopes marked "Important Tax Information Enclosed" and a few RV club magazines.

With all the junk mail and catalogs tossed by Alternative Resources (a good thing!), the distilled essence of a month's worth of snail mail is an unhappy prospect, and I expect to spend the rest of today balancing accounts and tackling our 2008 taxes. A month's worth of Boomer mail (new memberships, renewals, checks to be deposited... even some cash!) took most of Thursday to process.

It's far better to get the mail forwarded weekly, or twice a month, which we will do for the next month while we stay in Sacramento. But now... into the mailbag I go.

APRIL 1: HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US!

Six years ago, on April 1, 2003, we drove out of our site at Cal Expo RV Park in Sacramento, CA, to begin our lives as full time RV'ers. The escrow on our house closed that day, and we spent the night in Bakersfield, California, full of curiosity and questions about our new lifestyle.

Fast forward to now... and we are still learning! Just a few weeks ago, we finally learned what the Batt Boost switch on the control panel of Scoopy does (uses the "house" batteries to start the engine if the "chassis" battery is dead).

Here I am (six years younger - the aging doesn't stop) standing in Lake Superior in August of our first year of travel. Each time we see this photo, we promise ourselves that we will get back to the Great Lakes sometime soon! But that happens with so many places...

This year, we're back in the Sacramento area on the anniversary of our departure - a first. Looking back over the past years, we've celebrated in beautiful spots:

April 1, 2004: Lone Pine, CA, in the Alabama Hills at the foot of Mt. Whitney off Hwy 395.
April 1, 2005: Grand Gulf State Park, Mississippi, still one our favorite state parks.
April 1, 2006: We hiked to the top of Wasson Peak, Saguaro National Park, Tucson, AZ.
April 1, 2007: Visiting Odel's family in Memphis, Tennessee - ummmmm, BBQ!
April 1, 2008: LBJ Municipal Park, Fredericksburg, TX, with our friends Buddy and Jackie.

Parked three sites from us here at the Lodi Elks is a couple who have been full timing for 17 years (or was it 18?). They love it and have no plans to stop unless/until health changes preclude travel. Hooray for them - maybe we'll be there one of these years.