I got an e-mail from a blog reader who is shopping for a new motorhome, asking me how important we felt our built-in vacuum cleaner is, because the salesman is telling them that RVers consider this an essential item. I guess they’re still too green to know that if an RV salesman’s lips are moving, he’s lying.

The only reason our coach has the onboard vacuum is because Winnebago built it in when the rig was new. We have carpeting in our living room and bedroom, and 9 times out of 10, when Miss Terry needs to clean something up, she reaches for her handheld Dyson DC31 Vacuum instead. It’s lightweight, sturdy, powerful, and versatile, and is much easier to get out and use than dragging out the hose for the onboard vacuum.

Our MCI bus conversion didn’t have any slide-out rooms, but ever since we got our Winnebago Ultimate Advantage, I have been collecting an assortment of scars and dents in my head from running into the bedroom slide. A couple of times I have hit it so hard that I knocked myself on the ground. Miss Terry got tired of patching me up and listening to my sniveling, so yesterday she bought one of those plastic pool noodles that kids use to keep themselves afloat, and cut it into short sections, then split them open lengthwise. They slip right over the corners of the slide, and will hopefully stop me from bashing my original equipment noodle. 

I got an e-mail yesterday from a blog reader in Nashville with this link to a couple of moving You Tube videos about the terrible flooding there. Ken reports that the Nashville KOA, which took the brunt of the storm, is closed. Everything at the KOA was underwater, including their office and store. The Yogi Bear Jellystone Campground also suffered some damage, but is up and running. Two Rivers Campground is high and dry, with no damage. Ken said the Nashville Camping World is also undamaged and open for business. If you are an RVer who feels the need to give something back to society, I’m sure there are plenty of folks in Nashville who need a hand right now, whether in the form of a donation check, or another pair of strong hands to help clean up the mess.

I’m an old car guy (that’s old car guy, not old car guy), and the fellow in the site next to us here at Happy Days Campground has this beautiful old 1951 Buick Roadmaster police car. How cool is that?

I was admiring the car yesterday, and he told me that he is a volunteer with the Apache Junction Police Department, and he spotted the old car sitting in the back of the department parking lot soon after he started. The sergeant said it hadn’t been started in years, so our neighbor took it upon himself to get it running again. He spent a month getting the old police cruiser roadworthy again, and now the police department uses it as a DARE car, in parades and at car shows, to spread the word that crime doesn’t pay.

It’s getting hot here in the desert, with temperatures predicted in the upper 90s the next few days, and higher after that. We are enjoying our stay at Happy Days, and we have a great RV site, but we don’t like excessive heat almost as much as we don’t like cold. We will stay here through the weekend, and then head back up to Show Low on Monday, where daughter Tiffany tells me it has stopped snowing, and is very pleasant.

Bad Nick has been too quiet the last few days, but never fear, the little imp is back again, with a new Bad Nick Blog titled Potpourri. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – A man’s reach should exceed his grasp.

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I stole comedian Ron White’s line for this blog, because it is so darned true. Sometimes I wonder how some people manage to get through life without drowning in rainstorms or bashing in their heads walking into walls.

I got a long e-mail Letter to the Editor yesterday from a fellow wanting me to help him tell the world about how he is getting screwed over by a Passport America affiliate RV park where he is currently staying.

The Passport America directory clearly states that the discount rate at this particular campground is good for two days only, and that it is not good on weekends. I checked that myself. The gentleman who wrote me also acknowledges that a sign in their office says the same thing.

But he has decided that he wants to stay for a month. The campground does not have weekly or monthly rates, and again, the Passport America rate is for two days only. But he still expects them to allow him to stay there at half of their regular rate. He told me that he wrote them a check, based upon the Passport America rate, and that the owner of the campground refused to accept it, so in his mind he has done his part, and he’s not moving. The campground owner told him that his two days will be up this morning, and if he doesn’t leave, they will call the police and have him removed.

Huh? How dumb can you be? I think I’ll wander over to the nearest Mercedes-Benz dealership and hand the first salesman I see a $500 check for one of those snappy little SLK 55 convertibles and drive it off the lot. In my mind, that’s doing my part, so what the heck?

I have had a series of e-mails over the last few weeks from a couple who are involved in an ongoing series of mishaps that began with them purchasing a used high mileage Fleetwood diesel pusher against the advice of myself and everybody else they talked to.

The day after they bought the rig, they discovered that the water heater didn’t work, the generator wouldn’t start, and that the speedometer didn’t work, so they have no idea what the actual mileage is. I asked them if it had worked on their test drive, but they never drove it, because the license plates had been expired for two years and the seller didn’t have insurance on it. But he assured them that it was just like new.

Now, close to a month later, they have shared a long litany of problems that include two blowouts, a rooftop automatic satellite dish that doesn’t work, a bad leak in the bedroom, a slide out room that won’t go out, and leveling jacks that are inoperative. And they still have not received the title to this lemon, in spite of the fact that they paid in full with a cashier’s check when they picked it up! Repeated calls to the seller have brought many promises of sending the title by overnight mail, but it has never arrived. On their last call, his number was disconnected.

Their latest tale of woe is that they have now been ticketed for driving an RV with expired license plates, and the Motor Vehicle Department in South Dakota won’t issue a title to a vehicle from out of state with no documentation. They said they do have documentation, a hand written bill of sale from the seller.

I told them early on that I wouldn’t consider buying a used Fleetwood myself, and I would be very leery of any RV that had been sitting still for at least two years. But they just “loved” this coach, so they bought it.

I also advised them that whatever RV they did buy should first be inspected by a qualified RV tech to make sure all of the RV’s systems worked, and then to take it to a garage and have it inspected to determine its mechanical condition. They replied that it would have cost them over $200, and they could not see wasting that much money, when the seller insisted the rig was “like new.”

Now they want my advice on what to do next. What can I possibly tell them?

Thought For The Day – You’re getting old when getting lucky means you find your car in the mall parking lot.

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