Resident calls planning board ‘waste of time’

The  City/County planning board recommended that Richland County commissioners conditionally approve an RV park in Savage.

It’s relatively small compared to others, with just eight RV spots, but its owners, Bryon and Terra Stanford, will be among a select few owners whose establishments are legal under state law and the local subdivision regulations.

It’s a fact that Terry Klein, West Sidney Mobile Home Village owner, made clear to board members Tuesday evening. Klein brought with him a list of compliant RV parks in Richland County obtained from the state. Klein is no stranger to board meetings. He frequently urges officials at the city, county and state level to discourage developments that don’t follow the law. Officials are stuck between allowing the developments and shutting them down to force people out of a place to live. There are reports, however, that the Montana Department of Environmental Quality has begun a crackdown on violators.

Calling the planning board meetings a “waste of time,” Klein said the subdivision regulations system is “flawed.” “Maybe it was all right when there was nothing going on, but it’s flawed now, and unless you can figure out how to fix it, you may as well quit,” he said.

The combined board is all volunteer composed of residents appointed by Sidney City Council, Fairview Town Council and the county commissioners. Those from Sidney review applications within city limits; those from Fairview review applications within Fairview’s limits. Combined, they review applications for the rest of the county. Upon review, the board issues recommendations to the appropriate governing bodies (i.e. city/town councils or county commissioners). At times members of the board are missing, which cause delays in the process; when there aren’t enough members, there can’t be a quorum for discussion or to make decisions. On Tuesday, there weren’t enough Fairview members to discuss proposed annexation rules and impact fees, which the Fairview council wants to pursue.

Among its review of subdivisions and proposals, the planning board considers other decisions. Last week members recommended approval of the 2012 amended fee schedule that significantly raises the costs for developers.

The amended fee schedule is as follows:

• Nonrefundable examination fee from $150 to now $200.

• Nonrefundable preliminary plat review: one lot from $250 to $500; two-five lots went from $350 to $800; six to 15 lots went from $500 to $1,000; 16-25 lots is now $1,250; and 26 or more lots is $1,600; it used to be $800 for 16 or more lots.

• There is now an amended plat review fee of $500, whereas it used to be covered under the examination fee of $150.

• The final plat review has changed the most. Rather than $50 per lot, the fees are: one lot $250; two to five lots are $350 plus $50 per lot; six to 15 lots are $500 plus $50 per additional lot; 16-25 lots are $800 plus $100 per additional lot; and 26 or more lots are at $1,000 plus $100 per additional lot.

The board approved the fee schedule, voiding the third-party subdivision reviewer fee; the county commissioners agreed to pay the difference between a consulting firm’s fee and the county planner Marcy Hamburg’s fee to cover both the city of Sidney and county applications. The consulting firm’s fee is double or triple that of Hamburg. She now has two consultants operating in western Montana who review applications and charge by the hour.

The board said it was counterintuitive. “We all feel there should be more planner hours,” board member Ray Trumpower said. Some said they want another planner.At the moment, Hamburg said she has about 14 subdivision applications under review.

Will High Fuel Prices Keep RV’rs From Shooting for the Moon?

Lee and Joyce Madrazo (and TeddyBear) with their Newmar Dutchstar

we’ve had 2 Mountain Aire motorhomes, this has all the same amenities…we like the this (Dutchstar) better.

Ft. Myers, FL (PRWEB) May 09, 2012

Ft. Myers, FL– With diesel prices up over $4/gallon, money saved during the initial purchase of an RV could go a long way…literally. By saving roughly $140,000 dollars on the purchase of a 2012 Newmar Dutch Star motorhome vs a 2012 Newmar Mountain Aire motorhome and getting roughly 8 miles to the gallon, someone could either drive their RV around the world roughly 5 times (about 24,000 miles each trip), or they could roughly drive it to the moon (about 285,000 miles)..one way that is!

However, there is nothing ‘rough’ about traveling in the all new, 2012 Newmar Dutch Star, luxury, class A, motorhome. Another bright star in the 2012 Newmar lineup, the Dutch Star is their premier mid-line coach that embodies luxury yet gives buyers choices about where to spend that ‘leftover’ cash. While it makes for good headlines, fuel price increases seem to make little difference for RV buyers. North Trail RV Center in Ft. Myers, FL is currently celebrating another record breaking season for RV sales along with award-winning service.

Lee and Joyce Madrazo, of Greenville, South Carolina just purchased their third Newmar motorhome from North Trail RV Center in Ft. Myers, FL and they decided on a gently, pre-owned Dutch Star. Their two previous coaches were both Moutain Aires. “We’ve had two Mountain Aire motorhomes previously,” says Joyce, “this one has the same amenities and we like it better!”

While the Mountain Aire is one step up from the Dutch Star in the Newmar product line and is now produced along side the high end Essex and King Aire, the Dutch Star holds its own with many of the same features, and gives luxury buyers a choice in the middle.

According to Dave Garl, Regional Account Manager for Newmar Corp., “With the 2012 Dutch Star, it’s the best thing on the market out there. There is a lot of coach for the money here.”

Featuring an upgraded, exterior paint job,Newmar’s patented Comfort Drive system, residential sized appliances, state of the art electronics, Corian and porcelain finishes, custom hardwood cabinetry, and even a walk in closet with laundry room, the Dutch Star won’t disappoint.

So, whether buyers choose to spend their hard saved money on fuel or moonrocks…with the 2012 Dutch Star, they won’t have to sacrifice luxury.

North Trail RV Center is the world’s largest Newmar dealer and has been for the last 8 consecutive years.

For more information, please visit http://www.northtrailrv.com or call 1-888-819-9973.

About North Trail RV Center

With coast to coast locations, North Trail RV Center is South Florida’s largest RV dealer. With over 50 million dollars of inventory on hand, North Trail RV Center features the best rv manufacturers such as Newmar, Tiffin, Fleetwood, Keystone RV, American Coach, Pleasure Way, Winnebago, Itasca and Jayco. For over 25 years, this locally-owned, family business has grown to employ over 170 people in 3 locations throughout South Florida. With major facility expansion plans for 2013 in Ft. Myers, North Trail RV Center will continue to be South Florida’s top, full-service rv dealer for many years to come. ‘Like Us’ on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/northtrailrv

Media Contact:

Tim Lowry, Marketing Director

1-888-819-9973

http://www.northtrailrv.com

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I HAVE spent the night in a Walmart parking lot. I have driven through a national park with a trail of cars in my rearview mirror. I have learned how to dispose of my waste through a plastic hose, and I have filled my gas tank more times in one week than I thought was possible.

But this is to be expected when you’re driving a small studio apartment, or, as I began to call it, my “rig.” One man in a rural California border town even called it cute. He said it reminded him of a Doritos delivery truck.

The rig was a 19-foot-long, gleaming white, class-C motor home — an RV that I rented from Cruise America, the country’s largest recreational vehicle rental company; 800-RV-4RENT was prominently emblazoned across the exterior, as were colorful images of America’s national parks and natural patrimony.

It was a proverbial flag patch sewn on a backpack, and as someone who makes an effort to downplay the fact that I’m a tourist when I travel, this granted no disguise. And just as well: I had never driven an RV before, and for this I could say I had never experienced my own country as millions do every summer, and have for more than a century.

When I booked the RV online a couple of months earlier, I found myself signing up for not so much a mode of transportation as a set of desirable feelings. “With a Cruise America RV,” the Web site said, “you can roam wherever your spirit takes you, throughout the US and Canada. And with a full kitchen in your RV, you can skip out on endless drive-through menus and enjoy more satisfying meals and snacks.” Roam, spirit, satisfying meals: these are not the sort of words used to tout a rental car or an airplane seat. An RV road trip promised the distinction of freedom and flexibility, comfort and convenience: a travel experience unencumbered by the need for reservations.

I enlisted my friends Tyson and Angelina, and we mapped a vague plan: Oakland, Calif., to Oregon and back, in eight days. We’d go where we wanted to go, when we wanted to go. We’d tour less-visited national parks and rural towns and sleep wherever it suited us.

RVers constitute a certain tribe on the road, and I learned that thousands were converging in central Oregon for what was billed as the Greatest RV Rally in the World. On a July afternoon, after receiving instructions in the Cruise America parking lot on how to check the RV’s water levels and empty the waste tank, we headed off on Interstate 80.

Packing for an RV road trip is like preparing for a weekend at a cozy cabin. The luxury of space and the semblance of domestic life inspired me to carry things like candles and paprika, soft cotton sheets and extra pillows. I took sharp knives, folding chairs and musical instruments and put avocados and lemons in a bowl on the kitchenette counter. We hung up our coats in the closet, with hangers. As I drove the rig, Tyson and Angelina put away groceries.

A compact RV drives like a van, but its bulky size soon altered my personality behind the wheel. I paid close attention to the yellow speed advisory signs for a change, and I rarely switched lanes, feeling unusually content to cruise in a patient, linear fashion. (Abrupt turns would cause the drawers and cabinets to fly open, anyway, prompting a scramble for rolling onions.) From a higher perch the landscape appeared wider, more available. Once we joined Interstate 5 in California’s Central Valley I began to feel a closer kinship with the truckers on the road, especially that first evening, after we pulled into a Walmart.

OF all the things Walmart is best known for (low prices, litigation, the demise of mom-and-pop stores), an overnight stopping place for RVers is not among them. But drive any evening into a Walmart lot along a busy highway, and you’ll probably find parked motor homes.

RVers often spend weeks on the road: that road is long, and there are many Walmarts along the way. As the company sees it, RVs arrive with their own bathrooms, and their drivers are well positioned to shop: everybody’s happy. Searching online from my phone I learned there were three Walmarts staggered along 30 miles of Interstate 5 in Northern California.

Around sunset, I checked in, so to speak, at the store in Red Bluff. There was plenty of vacancy. Another motor home rolled into the lot after me; its driver, a middle-aged man, placed a footstool outside the side door and made himself at home. He told me he was a semipermanent resident there and commuted to a local community college. “I just came from the gym,” he said.

It was still early, so my friends and I patronized our host: I bought a power inverter while they picked up flip-flops and bottled water. We cooked dinner on the RV’s gas burners, and set up lawn chairs on the asphalt. All night long, the glowing Walmart sign flooded the motor home like pale rays of moonlight.

In the morning we branched east on Highway 44 into the volcanic foothills of the southern Cascade Range. The fertile single-crop fields of the Central Valley transitioned to a forest of spindly firs and pines and pumice rock. In Shingletown, Calif., I spotted a hand-painted sign: “Great Food. Bakery. RVs OK.” It began to dawn on me how the world not only looks different from the seat of a big vehicle, it also treats you differently because of this.

We also needed less from the world. Traveling with our own toilet, mini-mart and motel room left us open to make unessential pit stops with little concern for time. We could roam.

Down the road an eccentric roadside carpentry workshop caught my attention: “Paul Bunyan. Holiday Log Style Gifts, World’s Best Bird Houses, Benches, Teepees and More.” I pulled over and found a tall man holding a chain saw, wearing a hard hat and overalls with an American flag lapel pin on the strap. He introduced himself as Steven Pelloza, “a k a Paul Bunyan, and I certainly live up to that. We’re the Paul Bunyan Conservation Society.”

This was a pro-timber environmental group, Mr. Pelloza explained. “We clean the forest and build products, like the world’s greatest birdhouse, which that is,” he said, pointing to one carved out of pine, with two little holes. We chatted a bit longer about the area, and he told me stories about being a logger in southeast Alaska, after the Exxon Valdez spill. (“Truckloads of money. Total bonanza.”) As I made to leave, he reached for a birdhouse. “Here,” he said. “You take this one.”

The native Modoc people once called California’s sparse northeast corner “the Smiles of God.” Then in 1915, the area seemed to incur God’s wrath with the eruption of Lassen Peak, which blanketed the surrounding high desert in volcanic ash. One county’s official slogan today is “Where the West still lives,” although the area’s history is laid bare in boarded-up places like Uncle Runts Watering Hole, in Old Station, and abandoned homesteads.

Hardscrabble frontier life seems not to have eroded a sense of whimsy; the sidewalks in Alturas, a town near the Oregon border, are lined with stores like the Belligerent Duck (an outdoor outfitter); Skirts N Spurs (a hair salon); and Classy Lassie (an apparel shop). We passed signs on front lawns that read: “Land of the Free Because of the Brave.” Outside the Adin Supply Company (since 1906), in the town of Adin, we were advised: “Starbucks is 70 Miles Away. Our Coffee Will Get You There.”

Nearly every town seemed to have its resident hoarder with an antiques and collectibles shop. “Some people can’t come in,” said Sally B, a self-described “hard-core junkie” who owned Just Stuff, in New Pine Creek, Ore. “They just stick their head in and walk out. But others just get consumed by it.” As did my friends: Tyson, a musician, found an antique toy piano; Angelina walked out with a black leather jacket and beret.

Our meandering had taken us past dark, so we parked for the night by a stream a few miles up a national forest road.

RVs have long been bound up in the American myth of freedom and mobility and independence, with allusions to the covered wagon, that symbol of the Western frontier.

Recreational vehicles (which include motor homes, fifth-wheel trailers, folding camping trailers, travel trailers, truck campers and sports utility RVs) date back to the Model T. In 1922, The New York Times estimated that of 10.8 million cars then on the road, 5 million would be used for motor camping. Initially these “auto campers” just attached tents and other supplies to the outside of their vehicles, but eventually a few craftier individuals were affixing platforms to support canvas tents.

Solid-sided tents were built with cabinetry and wardrobes and also kitchens. Later, in the 1920s, commercial manufacturers began mounting “camp bodies” over auto chassis. During the dry years of Prohibition, even Anheuser-Busch built RVs, advertising in the pages of Field Stream magazine.

As the towing capacity of automobiles increased, so did the size of house trailers, which by the late 1930s contained built-in iceboxes, kitchen ranges and flushing toilets. Some even had front-mounted airplane-style propellers to drive a wind-powered generator.

Recreational vehicles promised to make vacations easier and cheaper. “ ’Home Sweet Home’ Wherever You Roam,” claimed a 1936 brochure for the Kozy Coach trailer. “Is there anything finer than ‘to get away from it all’ now and then? Out on the water. Hunting through the woods. Tramping over the hills, or just lolling under the open sky. That’s the life!”

Early auto campers were derided as “Gypsies,” “trailer trash” or “tin-can tourists.” In the winter of 1919, a group of 22 families parked their jerry-built mobile shelters at Desoto Auto Park, near Tampa, the first public campground in Florida, and founded the Tin Can Tourists of America, a fraternity of RVers that by 1935 had swelled to some 300,000 members.

Today there are many RV clubs and, of course, blogs. Some cater to specific RV brands, like the Wally Byam Caravan Club, for Airstream owners, founded in 1955, with 5,600 loyal members today. Others are for certain RV lifestyles, like Escapees, a club for “full timers.”

The Greatest RV Rally in the World, which is held three times a year in different parts of the country, was taking place on expo grounds on the outskirts of Redmond, Ore., and was put on by the Good Sam Club, the world’s largest RV club, with 870,000 member families. My friends and I arrived just as the 1960s crooner Bobby Vinton took to the main stage as the evening’s entertainment.

In the registration building, attendees had decorated a map of the United States with pins over their hometowns, which spanned from Hawaii and Alaska to the border town of Pharr, Tex. One RV came from Homestead, at the southern tip of Florida, a 3,191-mile drive away. A yellow Post-it affixed off the Eastern Seaboard read: Germany.

I splurged on a parking site with full electrical and sewage hookup. Many of the 2,500 rigs, sprawled across the sagebrush like a marina of yachts, had American and state flags flapping overhead, or fake flowers in vases that rested on artificial grass rugs beside the front door. Address placards hung in the windows, like “Grammy and Grumpy’s Motorhome.” One motor home in particular caught my eye, possibly the most gaudy vehicle in the lot — or the most awesome: a 45-foot, black-and-tan Country Coach Veranda 400, tricked out with a glass-walled outdoor deck that came off the side of the living room.

I found its owner, Steve Collins of Atkins, Iowa, perched on a leather bar stool on the deck wearing fuzzy bear-paw slippers and sipping a beer. A baseball game played on a 42-inch flat-screen television. The rig was a stunning McMansion on wheels. On the ground beside the motor home lay three electric skateboards, a golf cart, a remote-controlled toy helicopter and a plastic Nascar racer, all of which fit into spacious storage bays below the RV. “I feel like the luckiest guy in the world,” he said, offering me a bottle of Bud. “I’m in awe every time I look at it.”

Mr. Collins said he and his wife leave their RV parked beside their home, behind its own remote-controlled gate. Every so often they take to the road, packing their two Great Danes and a flock of parakeets, which Mrs. Collins had advertised for sale on a lawn chair. When they drive up to a convenience store, kids will ask Mr. Collins if he’s a musician on tour, which flatters him. The RV had a vanity license plate that spelled TOYZILLA. Mr. Collins explained that his wife wanted IGOTMINE, but he didn’t want people hating on him. “My first choice was PRIAPISM,” he said.

The rally featured nightly entertainment, including the country singer Vince Gill (“Howdy campers! Although RVing isn’t really camping.”) and Herman’s Hermits, the 1960s British invasion rock group. Before that show, I joined 1,798 of the rally’s 6,500 attendees in attempting — and, we believed, setting — the Guinness World Record for most simultaneous high-fives (it turns out that a group in Norway had bested the record a couple of weeks earlier).

I also attended a dog show one morning in a tent on the expo grounds. “The doggie swimsuit competition is up first, so get those suits on,” the M.C. announced to kick it off. “If anyone needs a cleanup bag, they’re behind the stage.” More than a dozen RV owners trotted out their pooches, colorfully outfitted in swim caps, plastic sunglasses, bikini bottoms and, in one case, nothing save a red paper crown and sign that read: Nude Beach Queen 2011.

“We’ve got some real canine bathing beauties here, let me tell you,” the M.C. noted. To a soundtrack of Paul Anka’s “Puppy Love,” a black Labrador passed before me in a pink polka-dot one-piece and swimming goggles, followed by a bichon wearing the retired Speedos of his master. There was a fluffy black poodle with pink toenails. Giggles filled the tent after one contestant in the “Double Vision” category (a dog/owner look-alike contest) introduced his pet Chihuahua shepherd. “I know what you all are thinking,” the M.C. said. “Chihuahua-shepherd sex is pretty funny.”

RV rallies have always been about both camaraderie and merchandising, and there were serious deals to be made at the Greatest RV Rally in the World. Vendors hawked RVs, RV awnings, satellite TV packages and concealed-weapons permits, and there were seminars, too, like “Green RVing” (not an oxymoron) and “Feel Better and Keep Energized While on Road” (drink green tea and exercise).

I met a retired couple from Maryland who were heading north to the Columbia River Gorge in Washington after the event. From there, they said, they would just head “wherever the wind blew.” A full-timer from Michigan told me how friends often ask how she could sell her house for a life on the road. “It’s just stuff,” she said. “The way we look at it, we’re home wherever we are.” I may have been one of the younger attendees at the rally, by about 30 years, and probably the only RV driver with a rental, but all this made sense to me. These were travelers inclined to roam, in the words of Cruise America, wherever their spirits took them.

AFTER three days at the rally, my friends and I blew westerly into the Cascades, passing by Crater Lake National Park, which was the magnificent blue hole in the earth that I’d always imagined. Friends had told me about undeveloped hot springs on national forest land down the road. I pulled into a gravel parking lot, beside an outhouse, with the sign: “NUDITY. Nude bathing is common at Umpqua Hot Springs. If this makes you uncomfortable, we recommend you not go into the area.”

Next to my rig was parked a 1966 cream-colored, vegetable-oil-powered Gillis school bus, towing a yellow VW van. Its passengers were milling about. One woman, with yellow dreadlocks, wore a quilted skirt made of leather scraps and a coyote tail. I asked the group where they were headed.

“We’re all Gypsies,” replied one man. “We don’t move on until we get moved on.” Another, who had “I may be lost but I’m Makin good time” scrawled on his pants, said he’d “been from where the wind blows since 1998.”

Their driver was a longhair named Manny, who told me that he’d just picked the others up at the annual Rainbow Gathering, in Washington State. Manny wore frayed overalls and a Grateful Dead shirt under a brown hoodie. His bus had a Family Coach Motorhome Association placard affixed to it, which I’d seen on many RVs at the rally. Just as my mind began to grapple with the cognitive dissonance of holding Manny in the same company as retirees at a Bobby Vinton concert, he said he was also a life member of the Good Sam Club.

“But they kicked me out of one of their campgrounds,” he said nonchalantly. “They said: ‘Your bus is too old. Other campers won’t want to camp beside it.’ Whatever.”

Umpqua attracted the kind of people prone to detour down the side road. Tubs were carved from the rock on a steep riverbank overlooking the misty hemlock forest. In one sat a Japanese family, wearing modest bathing suits. In another tub I chatted with a couple on their way home from a Kinetic Sculpture Race (a contest of human-powered amphibious sculptures) on the Oregon coast. As night fell, a group of neo-pagan women nearby, who had just met at a “summer witch camp” in southern Oregon, sang hymns.

HARVEST HOSTS is the name of a new program that allows RVers to stay free overnight at wineries and farms across the country. (As at the bakery in Shingletown, RVs are O.K., but cars in this case are not.) The annual membership fee is $35, and joining gave me access to a network of hosts, which is how I arrived the next evening at Hillcrest Bonded Winery 44, in nearby Roseburg.

The proprietor and winemaker Dyson DeMara was casual and welcoming. He poured us lovely wines; Hillcrest is one of Oregon’s oldest estate wineries, home to the state’s first pinot noir vines.

He then pointed out a grassy patch beside the tasting room where we could park the rig for the night. Next to it was a stone fire pit stocked with wood. “It’s in the spirit of wine,” Mr. DeMara told me when I asked how he’d become a volunteer host. “In the New World it’s a business, but in the Old World, wine is an open-your-doors kind of thing.”

We drove back across the California border and joined Highway 101 in Crescent City. There I spotted a man on a street corner slumped against a stop sign with a cane, thumbing it. The rig had room and he looked harmless, so I offered him a ride.

His name was Dan. He was 61, a former trucker from North Carolina, and spoke with a polite drawl. He was hitching his way down the coast, taking it as it came. A year earlier, Dan said, he was hospitalized after striking a deer on his Harley. Doctors gave him a short time to live, but he kept living, and figured he’d been dealt a second life. He jumped on a bus going west to Seattle.

Dan was roaming in the manner of Manny and his band of neo-hippie “Gypsies,” just like the Good Sam Club RVers and the Tin Can Tourists a century before them. My rig had brought me a similar freedom: something in which to wander “wherever your spirit takes you,” without reservations. An endless drive-through menu, after all.

Free Bed, But 11 Miles Per Gallon

A single number digitally displayed on the RV dashboard will cause some people discomfort: 11, the average miles per gallon of an RV. Add gas ($3.74 is the national average for unleaded regular) and surcharges that rental companies like Cruise America levy — for mileage, generator use, and so on — and roaming by RV becomes an expensive proposition, despite the savings that come with driving your own motel and restaurant.

As for where to spend the night, options range from campgrounds and RV parks, most of which offer full electrical and sewage hookups, to Walmart parking lots and remote public lands, which don’t. Many, but not all, Walmart stores allow recreational vehicles to stay free overnight in their parking lots, and some national forests allow free overnight parking.

Cruise America (800-671-8042; cruiseamerica.com) has 135 rental locations in 45 states and provinces. July and August are peak months for rates. A compact RV, rented for eight days in July and driven 1,600 miles, cost about $280 a day.

El Monte RV (888-337-2214; elmonterv.com) is another option, with national locations.

Harvest Hosts (harvesthosts.com) offers RV drivers free overnights at wineries and farms as an alternative to campgrounds and RV parks. There is a $35 annual membership fee.

ANDY ISAACSON contributes to The Times as a writer and photographer. His most recent cover article for Travel was on shamanism and culture in the Ecuadorean Amazon.

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Oakwood Camping World RV dealership wins Winnebago award

LINCOLNSHIRE, Ill. – Camping World RV Sales, the nation’s largest recreational vehicle retailer, says 22 of its RV Dealerships across the country, including the one in Oakwood, have been recognized as Winnebago Circle of Excellence dealers.

The Circle of Excellence award is given to dealers who have earned the highest rankings in customer satisfaction as it relates to the customers’ sales and service experience with the dealer.

“Being awarded the 2012 Winnebago Circle of Excellence for 22 of our RV dealerships is exceptional,” says Roger Nuttall, President of Camping World RV Sales. “We remain committed to the highest levels of customer satisfaction in every level of our business and it is rewarding for our team members to be recognized for their efforts.”

“Our plan is to work tirelessly to continue the level of excellence we expect from ourselves”, Nuttall remarked. “This achievement reaffirms our commitment to receive this award next year for 100 percent of our Winnebago and Itasca affiliated dealerships.”

Following is the complete list of the 2012 Circle of Excellence – Camping World RV Sales award winners.

ARKANSAS
Camping World RV Sales, North Little Rock (Winnebago)

CALIFORNIA
Camping World RV Sales, Bakersfield (Winnebago)
Camping World RV Sales, Roseville (Itasca)

COLORADO
Camping World RV SuperCenter, Fountain (Winnebago)
K C RV Centers, Longmont (Winnebago)

FLORIDA
Camping World of Fort Myers, Ft. Myers (Winnebago)
Camping World RV Sales, Tallahassee (Itasca)
Camping World RV Sales, St. Augustine (Itasca)

GEORGIA
Camping World RV Sales, Oakwood (Winnebago)
Camping World RV Sales, Savannah (Winnebago)

IDAHO
Camping World RV Sales, Meridian (Winnebago/Itasca)

ILLINOIS
Camping World RV Sales, Chicago (Winnebago)

NEVADA
Camping World RV Sales, Las Vegas (Itasca)

NEW HAMPSHIRE
Camping World RV Sales, Chichester (Itasca)

NEW JERSEY
Camping World RV Sales, Lakewood (Winnebago)
NORTH CAROLINA
Camping World RV Sales, Statesville (Itasca)
Camping World RV Sales, Hillsboro (Winnebago/Itasca)

PENNSYLVANIA
Grumbine’s RV, Harrisburg (Itasca)

SOUTH CAROLINA
Camping World RV Sales, Myrtle Beach (Itasca)
Camping World RV Sales, North Charleston (Winnebago)

TEXAS
Camping World RV Sales, El Paso (Itasca)

UTAH
Blaine Jensen RV, Kaysville (Itasca)
About Camping World RV Sales

MN firm building indoor RV parks to provide housing in North Dakota

A Minnesota company is building an indoor RV park to provide housing for oil workers in North Dakota.

The housing shortage in North Dakota is pushing developers to get creative.

Chad Lekander, a Minnesota contractor from Mahtowa, has formed BH Construction Cos. to build an indoor RV park five miles south of Watford City, N.D., Forum Communications reports.

Many of the oil workers who have flooded the state live in temporary housing, the so-called man camps some of which house thousands of workers. Lekander wants to create a safer option.

The park’a 10 buildings will accommodate 240 RVs with individual water and sewer hookup, ventilation, laundry, and even a common area.

“It’s basically care-free RV living,” said said Bill Triebwasser, president of NETA Property Management of Fargo, which will manage the park.

The first 48 units are expected to open July 1 with another 48 opening each month afterwards. Based on the project’s success, Lekander will expand to other areas in the state.

Several Minnesota companies are trying to figure out how to solve North Dakota’s housing crisis. A Rochester company is making modular homes in Minnesota and shipping them 500 miles to the Williston area.

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Trevor Bayne, Wood Brothers Would Put Potential $1 Million NASCAR All-Star …

Trevor Bayne was eligible for last year’s All-Star Race, but he missed out after he contracted a debilitating case of Lyme disease.

Bayne is back this year, disease free and with sponsorship from Good Sam Club and Camping World RV Sales. Like last year, he’s still eligible for the race by virtue of winning the 2011 Daytona 500, and will compete in Saturday’s main event without having to qualify through the Sprint Showdown.

“I’m just excited to be in the All-Star Race,” Bayne said. “The new format, I think, is going to be a lot of fun. Our strength this year has been on the short runs and this race will be a series of short runs. We were running in the top five our last time here and we ran out of fuel, so fortunately, there’s no fuel-mileage issues with this format.”

Bayne has again struggled to secure funding this season, having lost his full-time Nationwide Series ride and continuing to run a partial schedule in the Sprint Cup Series. The All-Star Race pays $1 million to the winner, a sizeable chunk to an operation still hoping to add more races to their 2012 docket.

Should he win the Sprint All-Star Race, Bayne said he and the Wood Brothers team are committed to spending their winnings on picking up additional races this season.

“Eddie and Len are the kind of owners who love being at the racetrack,” Bayne said. “This is their hobby, so it’s not like they take their winnings and go buy a new boat with it or something. They love racing and they want to be a part of it, so winning on Saturday night will definitely help us add more races.”

The team took a similar approach after winning Daytona and added additional races to their schedule as a result. Bayne’s effort remains on the Sprint Cup Series, but he will return to the Nationwide Series in August with support from yourracecar.com in the Bristol race.

“The Sprint Cup Series is where we’ve placed our focus,” Bayne said. “We’ve had two top-10s out of four races this year and that’s pretty honorable for a part-time team. I’d just like the opportunity to add on to that and keep working on it.”

Plans for Motorsports 2013 in Place, New Show Brochure Ready and New Show …

CONCORD, N.C. — On Wednesday, June 6 in tiny Rossburg, Ohio, stars representing NASCAR, NHRA, INDYCAR and the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series align in a big way with the Prelude To The Dream.

Eldora Speedway will once again play host to the all-star dirt Late Model race featuring more than 25 world renowned drivers as they battle for dirt supremacy on the half-mile clay oval where HBO Pay-Per-View® will present the event LIVE in high-definition to the entire nation.

Four-state Geotourism Initiative Launch Planned for June 2nd to Unveil …

Four Corners Geotourism Guide

“My office and the Utah Office of Tourism are very excited to have the branding of the National Geographic ‘yellow box.” Charlie Delorme, San Juan County Economic Development and Visitor Services

Monticello, UT (PRWEB) May 17, 2012

On Saturday, June 2, 2012,Aztec Ruins National Monument will host the launch of a major, four-state geotourism initiative that is a collaboration among National Geographic, the Utah Trail of the Ancients Scenic Byway and other nonprofit organizations, as well as local, state and federal government agencies—including the San Juan County, Utah Economic Development Visitor Services.

This event celebrates the release of two geotourism products. The first is a full-color, waterproof, tear-resistant map that was produced by National Geographic, titled the “Four Corners Region – Trail of the Ancients.” This destination map guide provides directions to and vivid descriptions of historic structures and archeological sites, scenic landscapes and wildlife viewing areas, trails and outdoor recreation, plus local cuisine, culture, festivals, events and artists. Essentially, the map highlights the people and destinations that contribute to the beauty and diversity of the Four Corners area, including San Juan County, Utah.

The second accomplishment is the official launch of the “Four Corners Region – Trail of the Ancients” interactive website http://www.fourcornersgeotourism.com, which is also a National Geographic production and offers even more detail about Four Corners and San Juan County, Utah geotourism destinations.

“My office and the Utah Office of Tourism are very excited to have the branding of the National Geographic ‘yellow box,’” said Charlie DeLorme, Director of San Juan County Economic Development Visitor Services. “The map will guide visitors to and through our region, which is one of the world’s most stunning destinations as well as one of the richest in diversity and cultural heritage,” he added. Delorme said that this map is the culmination of years of hard work and gives us another implement in the toolbox that Utah’s Canyon Country uses to attract visitors.

“We were delighted to support our Four Corners partners on this National Geographic map that is a one-of-a-kind and exciting information for our visitors,” said Leigh von der Esch, managing director of the Utah Office of Tourism.

Geotourism is defined as tourism that sustains or enhances the geographic character of a place, its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage, and the well being of its residents. More specifically, geotourism is an increasingly popular tourism niche that includes adventure and nature-based travel, eco- and agri-tourism, and cultural heritage travel.

The public and the media are invited to attend the celebration of the completed National Geogaphic Geotourism destination map guide “Four Corners Region—Trail of the Ancients,” and the launch of its sister website, http://www.fourcornersgeotourism.com on Saturday, June 2, 2012 at Aztec Ruins National Monument in Aztec, NM.

The full-day affair will be held at Aztec Ruins National Monument in Aztec, New Mexico. Plans include a presentation about geotourism and the map guide project by National Geographic’s James Dion Director of the Center for Sustainable Destinations; cultural performances by Native American ceremonial dancers and others; a fair that highlights map guide participants; VIP speeches and presentations from national, state and regional dignitaries; guided tours of Aztec Ruins, a World Heritage Site; and excursions to local geotourism destinations, including Salmon Ruins.

Located in the Four Corners region of the southwest United States, Utah’s Canyon County is the heart of the Colorado Plateau with the textbook geology that created its breathtaking canyons and majestic mountains. San Juan County provides a perfect, centralized base of travel to the world-renowned features that surround us. National Parks and Monuments, including Monument Valley, Canyonlands, Arches, Lake Powell, Natural Bridges, Hovenweep, Rainbow Bridge, Dead Horse Point and Mesa Verde are all within Canyon Country or easy driving distance. State parks include Edge of the Cedars Museum and the great Goosenecks of the San Juan River. All of this and more is easily visited from our excellent selection of motels, lodges, RV parks, campgrounds, and resorts. Fine dining as well as family restaurants complement the visitor experience.

For more information, please contact Jennifer Padilla

JLH Media

505 577 1347

jpadilla(at)jlhmedia(dot)com

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Food trucks rolling into Lazydays today

There’s a joyous truth to Tucson’s mobile food craze: It’s mobile.

That means those dispensers of glorious grubbing can roll up to a curb next to you, fire up the grills and get cooking.

Sometimes they travel in packs, sometimes solo, but they travel.

And today 16 of them — regulars to Tucson’s Food Truck Roundup scene — are gathering at Lazydays RV sales lot and resort from 5 p.m. to 8p.m.

In addition to food, the roundup will include a live action art show by Melo Dominguez,music by Son Y Sol and a special appearance by the Rockin’ Pinups.

Lazydays is teaming up with the roundup’s sponsor Dinnerware Artspace. Click here for details.

Lazydays is located at 3200 E. Irvington Road.

How to avoid fire risks for RVs and Campers

YAKIMA, Wash.– Summer is right around the corner, and a lot of people will be heading out soon in their RVs.

However, if your camper has been cooped up in storage all winter, RV dealers say there are some things you need to do before your first camping trip.

They say things like gas lines and electrical wires could get damaged over the winter, and they need to be checked out before you head out.

They also say every RV should have smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors, and fire extinguishers near all exits.

“Don’t just jump in and take off, but, you know, make sure that you’re getting some things tested and just looking to make sure you don’t have issues with anything,” says Aubrey’s RV Center Co-Owner Carolyn Gefre.

Problems with wires and gas leaks aren’t the only risk. RV dealers say you should also make sure you don’t have anything flammable stored next to a heat source.