[A/S] Knoxville, WBCCI and Airstream

[hhamp5246@xxxxxxx]

Hi Gang,

Yesterday as I was driving from Nashville to Knoxville I remembered why I 
like this area of the country so much.  Trees and grass.  The west has all 
those long distance views, it's bigger than life with the mountains and the 
"big sky".  But I like grass, the green carpet now srinkled with orange, 
brown and rust leaves is so much nicer than desert and sticker paws.  The 
fall color in the foothills is almost over here.... but many leaves are still 
clinging so the winter death look is still a few weeks away.  

I am a little depressed.... I feel like my big adventure is over as I am 
thinking about buying a cabin.  Ironically, Bruiser's odometer hit 36,000 
miles on the same day as the adventure ended, so my warranty ended also.

I arrived at the West Knoxville campground about 1/2 mile off I-40.  It's 
near a friend and near the realtor.  It's a pretty grungy campground, I was 
shocked when I heard the price.... 3 nights, $96.00.  That's more than the 
KOA at Jackson Hole, WY!  

I drove back to pick a spot, not easy to do as not one them are close to 
level.  I saw a 32' Airstream with Wally numbers and decided to park next to 
it.  No tow vehicle in sight, but two Ragdoll kitties were closely watching 
from their neat little wire cage attached to the side of the trailer with an 
escape through one of the under the bed compartments.

I dropped the trailer and went to see my friend.... got my October mail from 
Escapees and picked up all those real estate books from the grocery store.

About 20 minutes after I got back, my Airstream neighbors returned.  The man 
came right over and knocked on the door and introduced himself.  We chatted 
for a few minutes and he left, one minute later the wife came over and 
invited me over for a drink.  YEA!  

They are Frank and Colet Schmidt, past pres and first lady of the WBCCI.... 
fulltimers from Huntsville, AL.  They are two of the nicest people I have met 
since this trip began.  He's here for a course on building concrete form 
buildings.

I told them about the recent discussion about dealers dropping Airstream.  He 
thinks Airstream (Thor) doesn't treat dealers very well... first they won't 
let them carry parts or repair unless they have a certain number of new 
trailers... then, when they order parts they don't get 30 days to pay which 
is the norm for any supplier but they insist on payment before the parts are 
shipped.  Odd.

Colet is very worried about the future of the WBCCI.  Members are dropping 
like flies.... they are either too old to pull a trailer and participate or 
too dead.  She said for a long time the WBCCI had so many members that they 
did nothing to recruit new ones.... now very few people are joining.  The 
future looks bleak.

I didn't overstay my welcome (c:  Came back and read my mail and the real 
estate books.... I keep thinking how much I enjoy life in the little 
trailer... so why am I looking at real estate?

Hunter