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.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally

More than once someone has asked me how they can get a press pass that will gain them free admittance to attractions, concerts, or whatever else they want to see. In the last month alone I have had three different people who have RV blogs ask me how they can get a press pass.

One lady who wrote recently said she just started fulltiming and launched her RV blog last week. She said she wanted a press pass so she could “Stay free at campgrounds, get free meals at restaurants, and have RV manufacturers give her rigs to try out, because she’ll be writing about them.” I replied and told her that I had no idea how to get such a golden pass, but I wanted one!

This lady needs a reality check. In truth, there is no one universal “press pass” that will gain you free passage to wherever you want to go. Many publications, television, and radio stations issue press passes to their reporters as a means of identification. All this does is tell the world that yes, you do work for such and such magazine or whatever. But nobody is required to honor the pass.

When I was in the community newspaper business, some police departments issued myself and my reporters press passes that allowed us access to crime and accident scenes to cover a story, but that was only at the discretion of the senior officer at the scene. If he (or she) felt that our presence was unsafe, or would hinder their investigation or jeopardize a criminal case, they could (and sometimes did) tell us we had to step back. I always respected this and had a very good working relationship with the authorities because of that.

As far as a press pass for an RV blog, forget it. These days everybody and his grandmother has a blog about something, and unless you can show that you have many thousands of daily readers, and can convince them that exposure in your blog will benefit an attraction or a company, they aren’t going to give you a thing. Otherwise, they would be overwhelmed with requests for freebies.

We do get free admission to most of the places we write about, and we don’t even have a press pass. What we do have is a very long track record, lists of references from other places we have written about, a website and blog, and sample copies of the Gypsy Journal to demonstrate that we are indeed members of the working press, and that we can tell thousands of readers about their company or organization. Even then, we sometimes have to jump through some hoops before we can arrange admission to some places, and we get told no sometimes.

When it comes to free camping, free meals, and RVs to test drive, in our experience that seldom happens. I think over the years, two or three RV park owners who have read the Gypsy Journal and liked it have invited us to stop by for a night or two as their guests, and a couple of equipment manufacturers have given us things to test and write about. Part of that may be because when they have contacted us, I always tell them right up front that if their product is good, I’ll tell the world. However, if I feel it is crap, I’ll tell our readers that too. You’d be surprised by how fast many conversations end after that!

As for those RVs to test out, I’m still waiting to hear from any company who wants us to hit the road in one of their units, but the phone hasn’t rung yet.    

Thought For The Day – Life isn’t supposed to be fair. It’s just supposed to be life.

Register Now For Our Ohio Gypsy Gathering Rally