Escapees RV Bootcamp

We checked in at the Escapees Rainbow's End RV Park Thursday evening and found our site. We went for a walk, had dinner and had a pretty quite evening.

Friday morning I was in the middle of giving myself a haircut when a fellow 2007 Allegro Bus owner (named Randy) came over and we chatted. He has had his Bus for 7 weeks and is enjoying it. We invited him into the Roadrunner for a few minutes and we compared notes.

Randy bought his off the lot in Fort Worth at Vogt's RV Center. It was fun to hear his story. He is a CPA and still working. He and his wife Karen are also here for the Escapees RV Bootcamp.

Wow - I think the motorhome prices are finally starting to come down. Now appears to be a great time to buy a new motorhome. The prices are significantly different than we were ready to purchase at the beginning of the summer. I would be glad to share more on that and what we paid if you'd like to contact me.

We had time before the Bootcamp for a tour of the Escapees CARE Center.

Escapees CARE (Continuing Assistance for Retired Escapees) Center the only place of its kind for older RVers. Folks continue to live in their RV's and come over to the Center for meals, recreation and all sorts of activities. It is an adult day care center with two registered nurses and a full volunteer staff (5 to 7 couples) to serve the 37 residents.

After lunch, we went over to the Activities Center for the start of the BootCamp and

an optional seminar "RV Basic System Elective Course for New RVers". We were impressed from the start! Mark Nemeth, the Bootcamp Program Director and Escapees Technical Advisor has a great approach to instruction. He calls it "hosted videos'.

He shows a short video clip on three or four subjects, then pauses it and opens it up for questions. He follows this approach throughout his presentation and I found it to be very effective. Some of the subjects he covered in his three "RV Systems" presentations included:

• Electrical (Batteries, AC/DC Power, Inverters, Solar)
• Tanks (Water, Grey, Black) & Hookups, Dumping, Sanitation Tips
• Plumbing (How it all gets filled, maintained and drained)
• Site setup, teardown, checklists
• Heating/Air conditioning/Refrigerator/Propane
• RV Gadgets

The last session of the day was RV Driving Tips and Techniques by Dennis

Hill.

He gave some great information and some humorous stories. In addition to the presentation, he is at the rally and takes students on a personal 4-hr driving lesson. Those that have taken the $300 course said it was well worth it.

We have been to three types of these type of instructional events now and some of this is starting to make sense! There is a lot more to learn so I'm sure we'll do more. If you have never been to an RV bootcamp or rally to get some info on these type of subject, I highly recommend it.

After dinner, there was a campfire but we opted for a short evening and went back to the Roadrunner. It was a good day with a lot of good information.

Thanks once again for join us on our adventures and the Roadrunner Chronicles. If it has been a while since you have left a comment, or have never done so, those are great.