I got an e-mail the other day from a person who markets a well known product to the RV industry. He was unhappy with the comments I wrote about one of his products that he sent me to evaluate. He called what I had to say a “hatchet job.” While I wouldn’t go that far, I did say that I didn’t feel that his latest offering measured up. I’m sorry, but I don’t write puff pieces. I tell it like I see it, good, bad, or indifferent.

Of course, we also have the people who don’t even send a product to evaluate, they just send us a glowing pre-written review, and then expect us to publish it. I always tell these people that if they have enough confidence in their product to send a sample, I’ll try it, but that only gets them my honest opinion about it. If they just send a press release, I just send them back an advertising rate card.

I also upset an RV dealer who wanted to bring some rigs to the fairgrounds in Yuma to display at our rally. He insisted that these display RVs would be parked where we intend to put our outdoor vendors, so that everybody would have to walk past them, and his salesmen, to go from the indoor to the outdoor vendor area. I told him that wouldn’t work, and that I was not going to do that to our outdoor vendors (or our attendees), but I would let him park the RVs in a convenient and visible area.

The fairgrounds charges us for every RV on the grounds during the rally, in addition to the rental of the facility itself, and I gave him a price per rig that would cover our cost. He was amazed that I would consider asking him to pay. In fact, he expected us to pay him, because he felt that just having his units there would be a feather in our cap. 

A couple of years ago, we had a dealer who wanted to display RVs at our rally in Casa Grande, but he demanded that we supply him with the snail mail addresses, e-mail, and telephone numbers of all rally attendees for his marketing purposes.

Over the years, we have been approached many times by companies wanting to buy our mailing list, and we always tell them no. We never give out our subscribers’ or rally attendees’ personal information. We’re fulltime RVers too, and we don’t like junk mail, spam, or unsolicited telephone calls.

No, I can’t please everybody, but at least I can look at myself in the mirror when I brush my teeth every morning.

It’s time for us to order rally T-shirts, and we’re trying to get an idea of how many we’re going to need. Regular sizes are $15 per shirt, and 2X and larger sizes are $2 more per shirt. We don’t need payment at this time, but if you want a shirt, please e-mail me at editor@gypsyjournal.net and tell me the sizes, and how many you want.

We’ll send the new issue of the paper off to our printer tomorrow, and then we’ll turn our attention to Terry’s dad’s 80^th birthday party until Monday, when we’ll start stuffing envelopes to get them all in the mail. 

Thought For The Day – The engineer knows the glass isn’t half full or half empty: it’s twice as large as it should be for optimum utilization of resources! 

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Everything I have read and heard would lead you to believe that the RV industry is in awful shape. But it sure does not seem like the RV salespeople around the Mesa, Arizona area are going hungry, based upon their attitudes.

We were out kicking tires yesterday, checking out the used diesel pusher market. At one dealership, we walked into and out of one rig twice and poked our heads into a couple more. The only salesman we saw would not venture from his place under a shaded awning to talk to us, so I guess he had already sold his quota for the week.

We saw a 1998 Newmar Mountain Aire on another lot as we drove by, so pulled in for a closer look. The motorhome looked like it had been rode hard and put away wet. When we got close enough to see it, we knew we were not interested without even going in, just from the outside condition. Then the salesman told me that it was a steal at $69,995 firm, and we’d better put down a deposit fast, because the market is hot and RVs are flying off the lot. By then my BS tolerance level had been exceeded, so I climbed back in my van while he was in mid-sentence.

At a third place, Robert Crist RVs, we went into the office to ask about a diesel pusher, but the only two salesmen I saw were in an office swapping lies. They gave us a glance, and went back to their conversation without acknowledging us, so we left.

It put me in mind of back when we bought our first motorhome. We left our home in Show Low, Arizona one Friday afternoon and drove 180 miles to the big city to go RV shopping. At the first dealership, the salesman took one look at us in our jeans and sweatshirts and basically told us to go away. The next morning we bought a Class A motorhome from a nearby dealership, and back in my office Monday morning, I faxed a copy of the purchase agreement to the manager of the first place, and called to tell him why we bought from his competitor instead of his company. No doubt that salesman was hustling electric ranges or shoes the next day.

We did see one nice 2001 Holiday Rambler Endeavor on a small lot, and though the salesman was brand new and admitted he knew next to nothing about RVs, at least he was friendly and tried.

We’re not going to buy anything this week or next, but it’s always interesting to see what’s being offered, and also to see how different brands hold up after a few years on the road.

My friend Arline Chandler sent me a link to an interesting article on workamping on the CNN website. Check it out at http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-229587?ref=email for a look at how one working RV couple does it.

Arline is a former Life on Wheels instructor, and the author of Road Work II: The RVers Ultimate Income Resource Guide. She has a new book out titled Truly Zula, about her aunt, Zula Turney, who recently turned 90, and of her life, from growing up in rural Arkansas in the 1920s to teaching in a one room schoolhouse and the trials and tribulations of her times. You can read more about Arline’s new book at http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=80050&cat=1.

Thought For The Day - I could be unstoppable if I could just get started.

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