After the second class, Laura and I met Gaylord at his class room and walked with
him back to his trailer. For a man of 70 something, he cut a fast pace up the hill to
the grassy lawn known as “A lot”, where he was parked in his Class A
motorhome. I asked him how he got started in all of this, and he replied that he
and his wife Margie, had been campers for most of their lives. After a career as a
teacher, he retired to become a writer for TL Enterprises.
After 9 years he retired
again settling down in Deary, Idaho some 20 miles away. He felt that it was time
to contribute to his civic duty. He knew teaching, RVing , and writing, so He
called the University of Idaho in Moscow to see if he could teach a class in the
summer program on extended living RV. His first attempt was at the Moscow fair
grounds, in which he was overwhelmed by the response of the 80 some people
who attended. He then resurrected an idea he had proposed to TL many years go
about a college for RVing. With support from the University, he began designing
classes and calling on old friends, enlisting them as teachers. The first year there
were 437 students which was the limit for the auditorium they were using for the
general meetings. Last year, they moved the operations to the dome, and the
attendance swelled to 712 students, with enrollment being shut off by
Thanksgiving.
This year enrollment was limited to the 238 parking spaces
available for rigs. Included for the first time was 30 amp service. This was also
the first year that a phone bank was added next to the reception tent complete
with modem hookup. Some 550 people attended. Recently he created the Life on
Wheels Association, (LOWA) which has a membership, and is intended as an
information resource for RVs and RVing. It has a web site,
(www.lifeonwheels.com) with Brian Robertson as webmaster. Members can ask
questions about anything. I asked Gaylord where he would be going from here,
and learned that he would be attending a three day version of this conference in
August in Harrisberg Pa. After which, he will receive the Recreational Vehicles
National Service Award at the National RV Trade Show in Louisville KY, having
already been inducted in the RV Heritage Foundation’s Hall of Fame, in Elkhart
IN.
Beyond the information, classrooms and teachers, were the friendships that were
created as we mixed and mingled with those camped around us or sitting next to
us in the class rooms. Our notebooks are filled with names and addresses and
places where others we met will be going. I was sitting in my trailer one night
when this delightful young man came by looking for a story, as he was a writer
and photographer from Japan. He came from the small town of Ogata, on the
Island of Shikoku in the south west of Japan. He arrived a year ago, leaving a job
at the Seaside gallery where he worked in public relations. He was at the
convention recording the event for further use in creating similar programs. We
talked for many hours and shared many ideas. This is one of the greatest benefits
for such an event, the meeting of new friends and the exchanging of ideas.
