A Call From Mel!

This is Mel Cordray. Remember Mel? I introduced him to you back in August of last year.  He found  our Motorhome for us.  He did an excellent job of handling all the paperwork and helping us get acquainted with our new Foretravel. Out of the blue, Mel called one morning last week.  He asked “How are you guys doing”? He said he was thinking about us and thought he would give us a call to see if everything was going OK. 

Mel is by far the nicest salesman I have ever met. He is a fine, young, respectable family man....one of those guys it’s a real treat to meet and deal with. Mel went on to tell us that he reads our Blog regularly and wanted to call to make sure we were doing alright and  to let us know that if we ever needed any help or had questions or problems, we could call on him. Isn’t that remarkable? It's been over 6 months and he still treats us like "family".  If you are in the market for an RV, we highly recommend Mel and Motorhomes of Texas .  You won't be sorry.

These are the new Splash Guards I put on the Silverado front and rear the other day at the dealership. They should be a great help and I like the way they look..

The front ones will keep “stuff” from splashing up onto the running board so bad….

Another item that I had installed was the rear wheel inter-panels. The rear wheel housing was wide open and “stuff” could splash way up into the upper inside of the quarter panel. Not good but now this is how it looks inside and above the real wheels. A much cleaner, filled in look and it will do a good job. I felt the truck should have come with these but it seems when you buy anything anymore, you have to add all these items to make it complete. Fortunately, this one came with the running boards but most don’t.

The last item I had Lamb Chevrolet install for me was this deflector on the hood.  The final thing on my list is to Line-X the truck bed.  That will about finalize any and all accessories I want or need for our new Silverado that we are enjoying so much.  

I mentioned in my last Blog that Larry and Geri Gustafson, newly retired and former owners of the Broken Arrow Campground in Custer, South Dakota, are here visiting us. Here is a picture of their new Raptor 5TH wheel Toy hauler on our "guest lot".  Wow!  It is a beautiful 36’ rig and has a 10’ garage in the rear that is totally separate from the living quarters. This garage area,  if needed, can be converted into a nice bedroom, eating area, etc. 

Just lower this big door and you have a nice deck and a ramp to load your toys. Just can’t get any better than that. They carry 2 ATV’s and a motorcycle back there (plus 2 bicycles and many other toys).

Since they are newly retired and don't have a house anymore, they are also brand new "Full-Timers".  They purchased this nice, brand new one ton Dodge Dually diesel truck to pull their new home and toy hauler.  We are so happy and proud for them. They started the Broken Arrow Campground from scratch and on a gamble. They worked really hard, doing almost all the work themselves.  In just 4 years, they built a business that was prospering and growing in leaps and bounds. They had a customer base and following that was out of this world. Their Campground was always totally booked for the summer months ahead of time.  They had to keep adding sites every Spring to accomodate their growing customer base.

We sent many of our friends to their campground when they first opened, mainly because it was so close to our place. Each and every one of them were very impressed with the place and with Larry and Geri’s superb “hands on” hospitality.  The word soon spread that it was the BEST campground in the Black Hills. We were surprised how pleased the folks we sent there were and how they praised Larry and Geri. We hadn’t even met them yet so one day we stopped down and introduced ourselves. I could see why our friends liked them so well, they are an extremely friendly couple. I will never forget the first thing Geri said to us was “Do you guys know EVERYBODY”? She said so many people told them that we referred them to their place that she thought we must know everyone. I told her no but we had been RV'ing a long time, long enough to meet a lot of people and make a lot of friends.  I told her we were glad we had a such a wonderful campground to refer them to that is close to Custer State Park and close to us. 

                           Larry and Geri at their Campground back in June of 2009. Hard at work,even during Happy Hour!

Since that first meeting we have become closer and closer and cherish the wonderful friendship we've developed. Their hard work and popularity paid off and it attracted many potential buyers....one of which recently made them an offer they just couldn’t refuse. Larry and Geri have told us that the new owners are from Denver, CO and are great people.  They have promised Larry and Geri that they will continue to run it just as they did. Meanwhile, it is so good to see them having so much fun and enjoying their new lifestyle so much. 

They invited us up for a bowl of Larry’s Chili the other night.  They told us they loved their campground  business very much because they have met so many wonderful people but they feel like a HUGE LOAD has been lifted from their shoulders.  I can imagine!!   The last 3 or 4 winters, Geri’s phone would be ringing like crazy with folks making reservations for the summer. She has happily turned that phone number over to the new owners. :-)  It does Ms. Pat and my hearts good to see two such wonderful, young successful people so happy!!  Good Job Larry and Geri!!! Way to go!!

It started raining early yesterday morning and rained over 1/2 inch before midnight and it's raining again this morning.  We are very glad to see the rain....we really need it.  It has been terribly dry and dusty in the desert.

That’s about it from here at the Ranch.….It was a GREAT WEEK!!!!

Thanks for stopping by as we continue to thank the Lord for all he provides for us.

Mike

This Blog is Published every Sunday and Wednesday..