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Rally beckons the roadbound
By TERESA BURNEY, Times Staff Writer BROOKSVILLE -- Diane Gouge has a real house. "But I don't stay there," she said. Home now for the 62-year-old widow is where she parks her 40-foot motor home, her Dodge Dakota king-cab truck, her Honda Shadow motorcycle and her Zodiak inflatable boat. On Thursday, home was the tarmac of the Hernando County Airport, where more than 2,000 motor coaches gathered for the Family Motor Coach Association's four-day rally. Gouge travels the country with a pack of other single RV'ers who are members of either the Southeast Happy People singles group or International Singles. She never thought of giving up life on the road when her husband died three years ago, just like she never thinks about giving up riding her motorcycle, even though she has "laid it down" a couple of times. "The open road, the wind in your face. You can see everything, smell everything. It's freedom," she said. Freedom and the ability to go anywhere in the country and still wake up in your own bed seems to be the thing that can make a person sell their house and spend $150,000 to $1-million plus on a motor coach. "You know what we RV'ers call ourselves?" asked Marge Brown. "Semi-affluent street people." "We were affluent before we bought a motor coach," quipped her husband, Ron Brown. Motor home devotees insist they are buying more than a motor coach, they are buying a lifestyle. "When you leave home, you leave your troubles behind," said Jim Owen, another rally participant who drove down from his Kentucky home only to park next door to his neighbors. But troubles might be the only thing motor home owners leave behind. Gail Diamond and her husband arrived at the rally this week with two dogs, one cat, one fish, one rosemary plant, one French lavender plant and a pot of clover. The fish made the trip in the RV's kitchen sink, his bowl cushioned with towels. "That is why we got a motor home, so we could take our pets with us," said Diamond, a retiree for one week. "And I couldn't bear to leave the plants at home." Rally participants don't leave modern conveniences at home either. Many motor coaches have more luxurious appointments than the people have in their stationary homes, including leather furniture, solid-wood cabinets, Corian countertops and every electronic gadget imaginable. Televisions hooked up to satellite dishes capable of finding a signal anywhere, some even while driving down the road, are common. Some coaches even have tiny television screens that show them what's going on at their back bumper. Almost everyone has a cellular telephone, many have laptop computers with Internet access, and walkie-talkies are common on belts. Still, the rally participants spend a lot of time in the vendors tents acquiring even more things. In two big tents you can buy everything from a $3,000 satellite tracking system to a $3 bag of peanuts. There are a variety of items that you'd be hard-pressed to find anywhere else. There's the special plastic disk designed to turn an RV's steering wheel into a side table, for instance. You can have an "invisible bra" plastic film added to the front of your motor coach for $995. Then there is the $29.95 handbag that allows you to carry your toy poodle over your shoulder like a fashion accessory, tail and head sticking out each end. But the brand-new recreational vehicles are the big draw. Manufacturers from across the country brought scores of vehicles to the rally. Lazydays R.V. SuperCenter in Seffner brought 75 and they expect to sell about 40. The vehicles range in price from $60,000 for a big van conversion to $1.1-million for a Prevost bus converted into a luxurious moveable apartment that includes every convenience and luxury, from Corian countertops to a combination clothes washer and dryer. Motor homes seem to be addictive. People keep trading up. Some rally participants said they have owned as many as six in five years. There's a lot of keeping up with the Joneses involved, said sales representatives. "There are guys who come in after a friend trades up and say, "I've got to get a bigger one. . . . What do you have that is bigger?' " said Lazydays salesman Jason Cohen. Sales of recreational vehicles have been up ever since Sept. 11, said Cohen. "People don't want to fly," he said. The company sold 1,300 in January alone. The flood of baby boomers are also becoming RV buyers, said the sales people. "Somebody turns 50 every eight seconds in our country," said Russ O'Connor, a top Lazydays salesman. "That is what we have going for us."
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