RV Hour Podcast - Episode 2 - VIP Camping Club Interview

Welcome to RV Hour Powered by Giant Recreation World. An honest talk about the RV, lifestyle, travel, costs, tips, and everything you need to know. Each week we'll bring you the best and most helpful info, travel hacks, and answer your camping questions. Now here's your host, Larry McNamara, CEO of Giant Recreation World, and we're off folks. We're hitting the road, going camping, and enjoying life just Larry's style. Hey, I'm CEO Larry McNamara.

With Giant Recreation World and before I start this wonderful podcast, Episode 2, I wanted everybody to know that we have 3 Central Florida locations. You know, now if you didn't know that, shame on you, because everybody should know about Giant Recreation World and everybody loves Larry, you know what I'm saying? So where are those three locations at? 11 is right here.

The home of the podcast in Winter Garden, FL on Hwy. 50 or now since they're highfalutin, they call it W Colonial Drive. And the other one, number two I would say would be in our Ormond Beach location. Now that's an I-95 frontage store right in the Destination Daytona complex, massive store and then it our biggest store is in Palm Bay, FL.

I-95 store again right on the I-95 and Palm Bay Road off of the Culver Rd. Kind of like the Frontage Rd. That one is 26 acres I believe and jam packed full of Rv's and deals galore. You know, so I have, I have I have a special guest or two included in in today's podcast. Really. What's going on today? Well, I have our VIP Camping club directors. Let's put it that way they.

Make the magic happen at our VIP camping club that I've talked about so many times. You know what I'm saying? Yes, Sir. We're going to get it though, which they do quite often. They do talk to our new customers and kind of fill them in with the the club and all and and what to do and how to do it and all that. So without further ado, I want to introduce Micah Gratton and Jim Gratton.

Actually, it's actually great. Tall because I think they're French, but I don't think they speak French. Welcome to the podcast, guys. Thank you. Thank you. All right. How about a little background story? You know what? I thought it was awesome. And you fit the bill so good. But you are fulltime RV ers. Yes, we are. That's fantastic. Yeah. Can you tell us a little bit about your experiences are being full time? Well, we started in September of 2018.

From Flagstaff, AZ. Did the whole West United States for the first two 2 1/2 years. Started making our way across the the lower States and we wound up in giant recreation world lobby. They looking found us for a job and we've been to run the club now for 2 1/2 almost three years very successfully I have to add because that's fantastic. I mean that club is growing and and.

I don't know how quick the camp outs once we publish them get full but it's pretty quick, very quick, you know. You know my normal spiel is we we have hosted camp outs. Tell tell us basically if I'm a new customer what are you going to tell me if I if I contact you and I just I just spent my $50.00 because I just picked up my new rig from Giant Recreation World and I joined the VIP camping club. Now the the F and I guy told me that.

The camping club is awesome and all that and some ancillary benefits just to to justify the 50 bucks is that you get 15% off of the in stock parts that are not already on sale and then you get 2020% off for $20 off a labor hour for anything you've done. So boom, one little job and that's pretty much pays for the VIP camping clubs. Now tell me I I don't know what to do, where to go, tell me what I do.

So we get you all logged in, send you your welcome e-mail and then you can start signing up for the camp outs. At that point we host 2 camp outs every month back-to-back weekends all over the state. We try to mix them up between old parks and new parks. This year we're going to three brand new parks that open this year. So to get, just get a wide variety of everything that is available for camping.

So when you show up to the camp out on your Thursday or Friday night, we have dinner on Friday night, play some games we have at entertainment during the day on Saturday. Or you can just go out sightseeing and do your own thing. And then we provide a meal on Saturday night and a game or entertainment after that too. Well, all right, how about like?

When I when I go on the website Giant Recreation World, you click on the the VIP Camping tab, correct the camping site tab and then you log in using the credentials you're going to send me. It basically tells you how to do it and it whether or not there's the campsites full or or the camp out is full or if I can enter a waiting list or whatever. But I know.

The management side of me, we only usually publish about six months worth of camping at one time because at one time we had a lot of the, the, the, the avid VIP camping members go ahead and book every campsite the the first week and the second week and then every month after that. And then they knew our policy that they had two weeks to cancel.

So then they would cancel and cancel and cancel when they couldn't go but they just wanted to make sure that they could go if they chose to. Well this kind of curb some of that it had. It still happens. No. So with that being said you that means people really want to go to the camp outs. There's so much value in them. I mean I know I try to to keep our pricing. I mean basically when I'm when I'm I go on & up for the camp out I have to pay for the days.

That I'm going to be there and I pay through the the the portal correct. Whether it be it with a credit card or whatever and boom, I I always try to keep that the the price of our camp outs competitive. If you were to just contact the camp out camp campground direct and and book it with your family just because I want them to see that the value is there because when we make bulk reservations we usually are able to negotiate a little better deal.

However, you know, in Florida, and as hot as the RV industry is, that's harder and harder and harder because they're full all the time. That's the thing to do. RV camping. Yeah, but but then throw into that the camaraderie that you get with the likeminded people, all giant Recreation world campers, the the the fun and games, the entertainment that we should provide, whether whatever, whether it be actual.

Somebody playing an instrument or whatever, or or music or even just a DJ, or even just everybody together talking around a campfire, doing campfires, do his stories. I know we do movies and movie night, whatever we can think of. We there's tournaments, there's competitive games and everything that's good for all ages and a little little in between that. We have some specialty trips we throw in there that are like just for I know we have one coming up for for spring break.

Right. That's geared for just kids that are on spring break. You know, we've done them for just motorcycle enthusiasts, people, if you have your bike, you know, go on a motorcycle, camp out. Oh, it's so we keep it all fresh. Now the campgrounds too that you guys have for like the the kids events and things of that, are they geared towards even the kids in that side And then if you go to older sides, they have more of the, the senior, I would call it. It's areas. Yes, we try to keep it available for all ages.

When we're going to Camp Margaritaville for the spring break. So it's really geared towards kids and then we have other ones where we geared, you know, towards the older community that like the pickle balls and the shuffleboards and so we in the cornhole. So we always try to keep it fresh for everybody that's involved And we will still have the pickle ball, you know, the cornhole and and horseshoes, you know at Margaritaville even though it's focused on kids because everybody can have something to do pretty much whatever these camp.

Camp outs or the campgrounds themselves, they're usually actual RV resorts. You know, whatever they offer, we try and find something in that camp campground to be one of our activities. You know, if they have shuffleboard, you know we'll do shuffleboard. If they have lawn bowling, we do lawn bowling, you know.

They have a pool. We have a pool party, you know what I'm saying? There we go. Those are the best. I'm just saying there's all kinds of stuff. Many of them have tiki bars, which of course I'm those are my favorite. Just saying. And I know my wife who is going camping this month with the VIP camping club without me. She's taking her granddaughter, she's, she's excited for the camp out and then she's going to the spring break one with the granddaughter too. Very nice. Yeah, very exciting.

Family entertainment. Yeah. Yep. Larry, we have an easy saying that says you sign up and you show up, we do the rest. Oh, there you go. That's pretty much it. I I try to let people know that it's it's just like when you're when you're on a cruise or whatever, all you do is you go to and you book your excursions. It's the same thing with our VIP camping club. All you have to do is tell us you want to go pay for the camping and we take it from there. Oh, there you go, Yeah.

And Jim and Micah being full timers, they know all the idiosyncrasies, the ins and outs of all kinds of things. So you they, they are a wealth of knowledge. You know, how do you guys pick the the new campsites that we've never gone to you have to go with now and again and just visit them and and whatnot. Yes, whenever we're out and about, we always make sure we pop into if we see a new sign or even an old sign and just go in and see if they can accommodate us and see how it works.

So we have found quite a few new camp out, new campgrounds using that method. How often do the camp campers themselves tell us about some possible good new new places that they enjoyed a lot so we get a lot of in from wealth, their wealth of information for us as well. That's awesome. Yeah, that is great. I've talked about how long the VIP camping club has been around and it's over 30 years.

Oh wow. Geez. And I've also talked about there's so many different members that have been in that group in the camp out or the VIP camping club for long, long, long time. I don't know if there's any more still that from the original, but there there might be a couple. Yeah, yeah. We talked on the last podcast about the different flags that go out front to designate the time you've been with the camping club.

So another cool thing you talk about the members that have been around for a while, something that Jim and I tried to do, is when a new member does come in, you know, pair them with someone who's been around for a while and say hey, you know, show them the ropes. You know, if you have any questions, you know they've been on well over 100 campouts. You know, you have a question with your unit, they probably somebody in this room knows how to help you.

And so that's been very successful of you know really bringing in the campus together. What new with the old that is great. It is it's the community, you know bringing all the people together, sharing stories, having a great time together. So what brings you back I don't know if I've ever really explained why we started the VIP camping club to to you folks but way way back Don McNamara during the we we were in the RV business and then the big fuel crisis came in this in the 70s, you know.

And people that he had just sold RV's to came back saying I'm not using it at all and I can't afford the gas and I just want to sell it back to you, Don. You know, boom, boom. And he was thinking, man, we work real hard to get these customers, you know, into the RV lifestyle and in the 70s, let me tell you, them RV's weren't that nice. They, we called, we called them wobbly boxes. So, you know, they were white knuckly blow all over the road billboards going down the road. So with that being said, that was, you know, it was hard to sell them.

And he'd get them sold and then the people wouldn't use them. They wouldn't know where to go, wouldn't know what to do when they got there. So he started a camping club and instead of us hosting them, we had what, wagon masters, you know, that would make the arrangements for their little clique. Usually they had maybe 10 or 12 campers or RV's in their little clique, you know? And if they started booking up, then we open, then we have a club 2 in that area.

You know, but all done by our dealership locations and the idea was that within 100 miles of a location have it just for a weekend. Starts on Friday evening where after work basically. And then all day Saturday and everybody packs up and leaves on a Sunday. But it lets the newbies it 1. It gives them a reason to use their RV, gives them an excuse then it teaches them how to have fun. And then.

They have fast lifetime friendships that they build and then they go on their own excursions. But let me tell you, they value that the what the knowledge that they learn in the VIP so much. I'd say it's our best, absolute, most beneficial benefit to purchasing from Giant Recreation World. There's only a couple of rules to that you have to live by like So what are those? You can't be in our VIP camping club member if you don't.

Have an RV you bought from Giant Recreation World and you can't go to the camp outs if you don't camp in the RV that you bought from Giant Recreation. Yes, I think I I might have mentioned it last episode and I'm going to say it again. I remember we sold a a a guy through the through all the cycle and he he he had bought the nicest RV we had and he just outgrew us. All of a sudden it became with $1,000,000 bus guys you know he's just had more money than.

Had sense, I'd say, But he missed the VIP club so much he purchased a cheap little Class C, An old one that was all. If you didn't know what delamination is, it had all the bubbles all over the outside of it. It was just a terrible, bad unit. But he camped in that sucker during the VIP Camp Club camping clubs just so he could go camping with the group. Oh, there it is. Yeah, man, it's awesome. Something incredible. That's a major testimony there. That's a fact.

I do think it's our biggest and best benefit. Where's the camp out this month? This month we are up in Ocala at a brand new RV resort called Champions Run. Yeah. So what do they got? A Champions Run. Anything specific? Any. They have a beautiful pool and hot tub that are heated. Oh, very nice. Yeah. And pickleball, shuffleboard, cornhole. I'm not sure about horseshoes. OK?

There might be a tournament or two going on. Very good friendly bet at least we'll side bed here and there. You're right. There's not going to be any drinking, though, right? This is a I'm kidding. I'm sorry. It's kind of like going golfing, you know? You heard my look, didn't you? Yes, I did. You know, those were daggers I was staring at and out of the coming of their eyes. Yeah.

Saturday night after dinner, we were playing left, right, center, but this time with little twist. We are playing with dollar scratch off tickets. So you need $3 scratch off tickets to play and you just pass the cart the dice around until one person ends up with all the scratch off tickets. Oh, that's fun, that is. That's a great twist on it.

See and and and if I was there I'd learn a new game because I don't know what the heck she's talking. Left right center is a very very fun game If you ever never had a chance we'll we'll have to play it online here we do a whole podcast playing left right side that I mentioned it's only 50 bucks to for people to join once they're.

Purchase an RV from us and you could have purchased years ago and if you still have it, you're welcome to join and start taking advantage of some of this fun and is that a per month? 50 per year? What is that? It's $50 a year. Fantastic. And to make it easy we have them pretty much laps after each calendar year. However long up until like September we'll give them that extra so it doesn't audit sudden lapse.

Gotcha. Yeah. So it doesn't mess anybody up there. So we're in the console the following December instead of or the December after the next one after the next if they buy in September, October, November. All right. So I think we're coming up on a break. Yes, we are. You know what? I'm having a ball.

So we're going to come back, we're going to talk about some more VIP camping club and maybe I'll tell you some more of the benefits. All right, all right. Stop waiting to take a vacation. You can take a safe, fun family trip anytime. When you've got an RV. Try before you buy a giant recreation world. Brand new RV rentals, drivable or towable, was easy. Pick up or delivery. Go for a weekend or go off the grid for a bit. With long or short term rentals, your unit will be fully stocked and turnkey. Plus you'll get trained up and a full time phone support if you need it. So stop waiting. Plan your next adventure now with a giant recreation.

World rental Visit the Winter Garden location or visit giantrecreationworld.com for more details. Welcome to RV Hour powered by Giant Recreation World. All right folks, we're sitting here cooking with gas. I'm talking to to Micah and Jim Gretton, the VIP Camping club geniuses. And they're they're regaling us with some of their knowledge and and talking about the VIP camping club and some of the the the awesome things that they.

They actually do very exciting stuff. They have such it's out-of-the-box thinking all kinds of different games that it's almost like they never do one twice, so it's awesome. But we talked about they they host monthly camp outs to at least every month, right. We also have some week long specialty trips. Can you tell us about some of those? Well, last year we went to the Keys and that.

Down, down by towards Key West and that trip sold out in six hours and by popular demand we added a second week. We're not doing that this year but we sold both of those weekends out within a couple of weeks. So the we're going back down there again in May and then in July we're going to Charleston, SC for a week and.

Another cool place we did especially trip to was a brand new park up in Milton, FL and the Panhandle and it's a big RV park at water park. So all the kids had a blast. And I think the adults did too. Definitely. Definitely they did. Yeah. How about our rallies? We do rallies too, right? Oh, do we do rallies. You know what no one does? Rallies like Giant Recreation World, the VIP Camping club, our our annual customer appreciation rally is our creme de la creme, folks.

I think we also have a big Christmas camp out. You can almost call that a rally. Almost. Yeah. You know, we had an Elvis impersonator once that was just near and near to my heart at one of those. And he sang Elvis Christmas music. Come on, it doesn't get any better than that, right? Nope. So what is the big plans for this year's grand rally? Anything Any ideas in them?

In membranes we do. We've already been working on the themes. This year it's going to be a movie theme. We're going to have every nightly entertainment dress up. We can encourage everybody to dress up as much as they would like to or not. We're. I'm drawing a blank on the themes. I was thinking like Casino Royale from James Bond and then into the 50s sixties, like a Grease movies, you know?

Join in that entertainment and very nice. There's so much to choose from. So I can see where you can get kind of flustered thinking about it. But again, that sounds like a ball, a blast. The top night is going to be The Great Gatsby. Wow, The Great Gatsby. That'll be fun. Very fun. Yeah, man, the casino. Like, I can't wait to go a quick little story. Let's hear this past rally I missed.

Oh, bum, bum, bum. We missed you, Larry. It was my first one in probably 25 years. Oh goodness, that I missed. So I was very disappointed. However, every year, me and my wife's anniversary is over the rally, you know? So this year I took her to Europe for for her, for our anniversary, and that was special. Oh, that is, Although we both still missed.

The VIP camping club who usually would raise a glass and toast our toast. The anniversary. Anniversary. Oh, that's special. You know when almost 1000 people do that, it means something because that's how big our grand rallies as a rule are. You know, there are hundreds and hundreds of people. Oh, that's awesome. And even this one, the the story, I wanted to bring it point out it was during or just after a hurricane hit and we still had fair turn out. It was unbelievable. I figured everybody would cancel.

But only probably 30% or maybe 40% cancelled. That's how much fun it is. Yeah. And the community and they still had fun, but they use it as as an escape. Just get the heck away from all the dead out of town. And you know, I know a couple of my friends got flooded out their house. They're still not in their houses. One of you know, there's living in their RV's and I, I and that's just people I know. So I'm sure it's pretty rampant.

Yeah, that's tough. Yeah, there's still people out there fighting for it. Yeah, that's for sure. The insurance claims, all that good stuff. Yeah. When she said we have catered dinners, we cater them ourselves sometimes, or we hire outside sometimes or we have the VIP members cook them themselves sometimes. But I mean, the food is just awesome. Yes. So yeah, I want to ask you, how is everything catered at the VIP rally when you guys do the the year rally?

The big year rally. Yes, everything is catered. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, Breakfast, lunch and dinner. Everything there. Oh, that's fantastic. Not to mention, we also have headline headliner bands every night with that are usually matched the theme. So this year one of our big entertainment entertainment was dueling pianos. Oh wow. And they played for three hours straight. Oh, that's tiring. There we go. If you're having fun, it's not as it is tearing up the rug.

So let me ask you on the monthly now, how do you do the cookouts and that on your monthly camp outs. So Friday night is more of a heavy appetizer to a light meal because people just been traveling all day and they're tired. So we just do something, something for them. We used to do potlucks, got rid of that. So now you know we can cater to them. And then on Saturday night we usually do the really the nicer dinner of a full course meal. I want to revisit that.

That potluck mix. Yeah. You know, no, no, no readers, no, no, no. I'll tell you some of the reasons why. The biggest issue was people would go and and not bring any, and then they'd have like a a, a plate the size of a tray and they would just clean the place out, you know. So we decided, you know what, let's not do that. You know, maybe, you know, bring breakfast or a.

Dessert items, But again, it's Friday evening, you know, so we try to do it kind of a little bit late for people that work and they can get there in time and still start, you know. But yeah, Saturday dinner is on us as a rule and sometimes we cook it ourselves, like she said, sometimes we hire a local flavor to cater it some some of the campgrounds can actually handle that for us if they do quality work, but.

I've had several free lunches from caterers that are coming to give us a little sampling of what they can do. So I enjoy those days, sample days. We also have a bar at the camp outs with that. We serve beer and wine and sodas and iced tea, sodas, iced tea, water and all that kind of stuff. Those are ancillary things people don't think about. But when we do like the, the, the, the.

Little finger foods or whatever we do on Fridays. You know what you have to have some life plates and napkins and and silverware throw away silverware and all that kind of stuff. Cups all of that people don't think about but they all cost money that they do you know So those are everything that Giant Recreation world offers and we're happy to do it. Yeah we provide that for them that is it's incredible you know Dwayne I'm looking at your at your.

Mouse pad and it says Rally 2019, VIP Camping Club. I don't have one of those. Yes, Sir. Maybe one of these days I'll get one. We'll see. We'll look in the back, see what we can find for you. All right. And since Micah and Jim are here, now that we went to our ASI show, which I talked about the whole year, So ASI stands for advertising specialty items just like that. We need to figure out what we kind of.

Cool things we can do for the I want to put together a kits, you know for the for the newcomer RV members, maybe a kit for the for the rally like we already kind of do. But we can pick what we want and do it ourselves. Like those really cool screwdrivers we had this year right. They are cool. Everybody loves that in the headlamps. Let me tell you personally, the headlamp, my personal favorite.

Well it during the. He lost power during the Hurricanes of the headlamp. Worked out real good for yes. Yeah. And those little things you put in the freezer, the little freezer pack things. Oh yes. Like a little muscle. The you could heat them up or you could freeze them either or to hold on little muscle spots and that that was nice too. Yeah. Right. Very stressfully. It's really hard though I I really feel for the for the gratins.

When they happen to make a camp out that is good for all ages, all ages, that is the toughest. I have another story. I I do remember now during one of our camp outs we we had a game like Survivor. I think we still do that don't we? A Survivor games. We we we have all the stuff. We haven't implemented it yet. Yeah, but we break people off in teams like six or seven or eight people. Everybody puts on their different colored scarfs, you know?

Usually it's at the beach, so it's all kind of beach kind of stuff. But you'd be surprised how funny it is to watch a 7080 or 90 year old man competing for that tiki running across the beach. Just don't go a nutso. Thank goodness we haven't lost anybody yet but the last time I went I had to you had to run out across the surf and and.

Put a ball in a floating pool out there and I remember running back and I just ate it, just ate it. I got, I got sand burn on my face. I mean I was down for the count and as one of those 90 year old guys just kind of jogged by me, went on past he's way in past me now. Yep.

It reminded me of the tortoise and the hare. So there you go, Mike and Jim, do y'all have any special little items you wanted Nuggets you wanted to share? Like I know you have to be politically correct. Well a story that made the keys trip for us as we have a member who has a nine year old son and they actually were on the first weekend on the camp out.

And we did a sunset dinner cruise out of Key West. Well, there was the steel drum player and he was just, he was just rocking it out and this little boy jumped up on a box and he was dancing like nobody was watching. It was the best. The whole ship just turned and watched him and he was videoed the whole time. He was just dancing away. So it that was the probably one of the funnest things is when you can see kids just let loose like that and and just enjoy the entire trip.

No, that's nice. Well, you know what? It's rare. That's what you get when you're around what you consider family. Yeah. And that's the business we're in, right? Yeah. We sell that. We entertain that. We walk the walk, talk to talk. Yes, Sir. And Micah and Jim being full timers, know how to do it. That's a fact. Yeah. That's true. Yeah. So I'm.

About I wanted to talk about the the the one specialty trip for the for the kids, for the for spring break. What kind of activities are you going to have for that and is it different age brackets that you have to work out? Well, a lot of that what we do is we get with the the park to see or the resort to see what they have going on. Most of the time they have an activities director they have, they have many, many games. Ken Margaritaville has done a fantastic job over the years really catering to the kids.

We'll do some things like on a Saturday we'll have some crafts. We'll have we did. We've done painting rocks, We've done, oh, tie dye T-shirts at different places. We'll also do a mini golf tournament with the kids so they have their own miniature golf course there. So we just do a putt putt tournament for them and they win age appropriate prizes. You know what else is something I wanted to point out?

You guys always solicit the camp campers to participate or to be organizers or help. Actually, everybody cleans up. Everybody helps set up everybody. I mean, it's a family affair. And with that being said is there's so much they own this club. It's buyin is what that is. You know when I say we, we do some of our own catering where we'll cook our own meals and stuff.

You you can't. It's elbow room only because everybody wants to help and we let them because you know that's what it's all about. It's hard to do just who getting involved. Yeah. Yes definitely our volunteers and our our campers that jump in they definitely make the club and then they they bring in new people and you know the new people all of a sudden step up and it's it's it's a great great RV and community that that's the that's the the term that I wanted to concentrate on community.

Community. The RV community is awesome. Yes, Sir. I think last segment we talked about the the Rv's are still super popular even though we're they were being warned about a recession, right. I don't think there is one, at least not for the RV business. Yeah, we're doing all right. Yeah. And Micah, how many, how many campers would you say go to an average weekly normal one. When I book a campground, I booked anywhere between 30 and 50 sites.

Wow. So how many campers people did that equate to? Anywhere between 60 and 100 people. Wow. See that, folks. It's incredible. Yeah, man. And we do that for two weekends in a row. Two weekends in a row. Oh, and also VIP campingclub.com. That's where we can go to see the schedule, find out about the events. Awesome. And. And of course you can see pictures and stuff like that, right. A previous camp out maybe. I'm sure we could always do better at that. Oh yeah, there's always more we could do for.

And also our Facebook page. Yes, it's rocking. I do get notifications all the time as I'm the owner of the Facebook page. So yeah, However, I do not get on there that much. Shame on me, but I'm still not used to the Myspace. Yeah, so but hey, and if you've ever been to our camping club, camp outs and you have pictures, you know, always you could send them into our website. We can upload them onto our Facebook, you know, we're always looking to share.

Share community images. Who do they send that kind of thing to? What? You could send it to their address. [email protected]. There you have it, folks. We we accept movies too, but nothing, nothing racy because this is we're a family owned and operated establishment. Family establishment. Yeah. No political stuff either. You know, we're in business. We sell to everybody. I don't care what you are. That's a different e-mail. That's a fact. Yes. All right, so.

Yeah. What else you got. I got all kinds of stuff Okay let's let's get something here. I still wanted to get more from from Jim and Micah. You know I think we're we're just touching on the edges. We're not we we haven't gone to the to the deep stuff yet you know. Yeah. Yeah. When she said she she we cater for people like 100 at a time during a weekend camp out.

I would imagine that could be very, very trying. You know, I would agree. Let me tell you some scenarios that I know that they probably put up with that they don't ever complain about. But I thought you were going to put me next to Pat and Mary. But, you know, sometimes the campgrounds make changes. Do they not? They do. Do they warn us about that? No, they do not. Absolutely not. And then do they believe us that we.

They didn't do it. No, they don't. So again, I'm going to call this little segment. There ought to be a law, you know what I'm saying? Because I know that to be the absolute truth when when people request to be by this or that person and all that in the sights, we always do that. We always try to do that unless it's too late in the camp, out, you know, in the reservation process.

Which I'm sure everybody who signs up wants to be the closest to their friends, but it's that or they want to be closest to to Jim and Mike's campsite because it's where the cool kids hang out. That's where the cool kids are. You know, we also have a the VIP trailer that I think we're getting wrapped. Yes, it's going to be very exciting, it's going to look cool, but it has an awning on it. It's got all supplies in it. The idea is now and again they have a little.

Pow wow around the outside of that meeting gathering place, you know, for everybody to meet up and and greet, meet and greet and stuff. I think that's nice, which I know we've done that in the past and it usually works out, but I think it's getting a little out of hand. The people might want to just stay there all night and and never go home. The Grants got to go to the bed, you know, they got to go to bed. But hey, we're coming up on another break. Thank you. We'll be right back after this short message.

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Welcome to RV Hour Powered by Giant Recreation World. Hey folks, thanks for waiting. We're here talking to to Micah and Jim, our VIP Camping Club directors about their their what they have to do to prepare and entertain during our VIP camping club outings. There's hosted outings at least two a month. We have specialty trips in there that take that like a for a week long.

We have rallies. All of this stuff is just a nightmare. And and you know, logistical nightmare, which we kind of just explained a little bit and they make it look so easy, though they absolutely do. And nobody knows that they're going through all this stuff. You know why? Because they're always a smile on their face. Always. Because I already did. I mention that they're full time RV years and they take advantage of that RV lifestyle.

Forever. So that's their life, folks. Life. And I got to tell you, I've I've talked about our camping before. The first thing that I do, you get to you get to the campsite, you, you undo everything. You set up everything. Then you put the awning out. Then you sit on the chair, you grab an adult beverage and just let the stress drip right off. You sit back and relax. That's one of the things that our VIP camping club members love about.

The the camping, camping that they that they go on because really they don't have to worry about anything. That's what unfortunately Jim and Micah are for, right. Larry, would you like another story? Yes. I would love one, Yes. So one of our camp outs last year we were in Saint Augustine and we're gonna, we had a couple hours, we're going to run around and grab some, you know, more tablecloths and whatnot that we needed and get check my phone and it was a message from the caterer.

Saturday morning at 10:00 o'clock got a message from the caterer. We will not be there tonight, so 10:30 in the morning. Jim and I look at each other and said OK, what are we going to do? And so we stopped, looked around and found the closest restaurant sat on the doorstep till they opened. Walked right in, asked for the manager and said I need 100.

100 chicken, 100 chicken dinners and Carrabba's did it. They got us the food and we were no one knew the wiser we were sitting outside cooking spaghetti because we always have to have try, try to do 2 separate entrees and everybody what was walking by our trailer and here we are cooking. Nobody had a clue until that night.

That anything could happen. See, that's awesome. And thank goodness you were by a place that actually does kind of catering kind of I think Cabela's you can order the big family style plate things, you know. So that's thank goodness, but great thinking, Good job. Yeah. And Jim, you were mentioning the new members. Yes, Yes. Well, it's, you know, a little overwhelming when you hit your first campsite and you know, when you go to your first VIP camping.

That you know, you pull in, you see these people and they have different flags and you're wondering what do I do, how do I do this? You know, like mentioned earlier is you know our theme is as you sign up for it and then show up, we do the rest. So you you show up for Friday dinner, we bring you up, we introduce you to the to all the fellow campers and if you're from like Melbourne area, you get your people cheering for you. From the Daytona area, they chair for you, you get presented your white flag which is your initial VIP camping club flag.

And then we let the campers know that you're in a room with 6070 eighty 100 people that have hundreds and hundreds of camp outs. You know, if do they have a question or how do you find this, How do you turn this on? How do you turn that on? Because you know, when they pick up their camper, they get a lot loaded on them and they they may forget, OK, so how do I scan my TV? How do I put the cable on or the regular antenna? And it's, it's not unusual. By the end of that camp out, they've got two or three people over there helping them out.

And then you see in the next camp out, now they're hanging out with some new friends and you know, it's just it's a great great like we said before, camping community that just it's constantly evolving, that's awesome. And you know what else we're going to do a better job of is letting all the clubs know of all the members that actually have businesses so that they can also maybe get a deal or at least, you know placate them or.

Hire them to do something that they need from somebody that as a friend, right. I know, I know the Gabbards are they're air conditioning people. They they, they handle our Palm Bay facility you know whenever we need to maintenance or whatever. But again they'll they'll come out and fix your air at your house or whatever. They they say the RV airs though they're just thrown away so they won't work on the RV airs in other words. And I kind of agree with you because it's.

I remember in the old days you could replace a compressor for a three or $400.00, but now you can buy the whole air conditioner for just about that, just over that. And you can't even service them anymore because they aren't made of copper anymore that you know, they're just China cheaper, you know. So just order a new one and we'll come to Giant Recreation World, three locations, Central Florida and we'll get it done for you. We cop, we keep most of them in stock.

Yeah. So I wanted to ask too at the, the yearly rally, is there a service member there in case you had something something like a small issue with your RV that somebody, somebody could help you with, that's a certified technician. There is, there is, it's kind of a running gun. And you, you get into the rally, you get to go to registration, you get your swag bag, you get your, your booklet, your, your, your list of what's going on and everything, your agenda.

And if you need service, we have we have at least two kiosks there that you can sign up and if it's a minor service something could be repaired shortly and and able to do. They'll dispatch a tech to your site and they'll give you a time frame and it's we've been watching it. The first year was a little leer is like, I'm not so sure about this but these guys step up and do it and they they bring their families so the techs get to enjoy the rally with their families and all that. It's been a great great time watching that all this come together.

That's one of the most unique things about our VIP camping club by the way our employees go on the camp outs. I I did mention my wife and my granddaughter, my brothers are all our beers as well as my sister and they go on the camp outs as well and they go to VIP camp. As a matter of fact, Joe said he was going, I don't know what day, but one of these days soon. So that's exciting. He's going, but they participate, we participate and at the VIP club rally.

We we supply 2 service technicians from each location, management parts, people and a cachet of parts. And then I do all the labor for free. So the idea is for them to buy some of the hot new options or accessories that we have on display at the VIP club and we'll install it for free.

That's a big benefit. Now it's not there to do warranty or anything like that. We'll do that in this course. But if you if you need some general maintenance or if you have a an issue which everybody seems to have one now and again we are, they are our viewers and I said it's not for the faint of heart. I mean you got to expect that these things are manmade not by robots. Things are going to happen and it does, but.

Isn't that nice to know that you can get some free labor now and again from an RV dealer? Unbelievable. A certified technician too. That's right. It's incredible. That's just one of the many, many benefits that I'm sure I'm skipping over so many. You know, when you go, we usually have people on golf carts to.

At the rally to to show you where your site is. So all you do is follow them and then I'll actually help you back it in and all that. Can you rent a golf cart when you go to these rallies? Absolutely. Sometimes we supply them for rent. Sometimes you have to rent them from the campground. I guess, you know, if the campground rents Rv's or rents golf carts, I'm sure they don't want outside golf carts coming in. Right. Right. Makes sense, which is understandable. Yeah, right. But yeah, our rentals.

Our rental golf carts are so much nicer than you can get at any of these places. That's awesome. I mean they're they're bright colors, they're high end, they got all the stuff, you know all the options on them. So they're they're well loaded and they're they're not already looking like a lot of the ones you see. And you can also mention that you know during the rally and all that usually the parks are bigger and we have shuttles that will pick people up and take them over to all the vendors and we have lots of vendors this year with the after the hurricane we lost a few but.

You know, serving there, they sell parts and service and backup cameras and lights and accessories and different things. So that's great. Yeah. And the shuttle drivers, we got four or five of them run around the park picking people up and dropping them off. We also supply or should I say we solicit a lot of our suppliers to come and do seminars, OK? And we do our own maintenance RV101 seminar every year, people really like. So a little education while we're there.

We we train you on how to drive or tow your RV safely. All kinds of cool things, CPR classes before learn how to you know, we do archery, all kinds of arts and crafts, You know, just it's so exciting. And yoga. We always offer our yoga every year. And you know what? I still haven't done the yoga, but I did get a massage at one time that was fantastic, you know, it was pretty nice.

Hey, Jim, you were talking about the flags. Can you tell us what the levels are, how many campouts you need to get from the white flag, which is just showing that you're a member, correct? I don't know what's the next color? So the next color I believe is it's 25 when you hit 25, I believe.

It might be Gray. And then the next one is 50, which is I think brown, then 75 gold, probably gold, gold. And then red is 100. And then after that it's why are you still camping, right. Well, we have too many the coveted handmade sign that some some campers have. We're we're working on reimplementing that and and make making that feasible. Whoa, whoa, let's talk about that. What is that? The handmade sign.

They can explain. I mean I feel like that. So we just, we just hit on something there. Go ahead, let's hear this one. It was once you hit over 100 campouts, they would give you this palm tree and they he would hand carve, hand carve the palm tree. It's made out of wood and put your name in it. Oh, there you go. And of course it was painted and very colorful and very professional. Oh, that's awesome.

So 100 camp outs, huh? Over 100. That's a goal. That's a goal there. Yeah. Well, we, you know, and we don't have anything over and above that yet. Yeah, you know, that's fair. We have some people who are close. I guarantee. Oh, really? Oh, yes. We talked about a Black Flag, but that that got blackballed. We're too woke for that, right? The pirates or something. Something. Some of our members, like we said, we love the members that.

Want to participate and help out and do things. There's a few of them who've been bringing their cricket machine and actually putting people's names on their flags for them. So at every camp out so she charges like $12.00 to put your name and she'll put it on vinyl on your flag. So as you walk through the campground you can start seeing who who's who so she's been at every camp out she's out she she offers that so that's been that's been awesome and.

I think she said she did about 60 of them at the rally. Oh really? Oh, that is pretty neat. I know a couple years ago it was the first year that we solicited the actual VIP members to host something that they are, that they do at their site, you know, and that was a really big success. I don't know if it happened last year because of the Hurricanes and stuff, but I know a couple years ago it was very success, like for instance, 11 camper and his wife.

They're always, they're known as the bartenders. OK, So they hosted A mixology. Mixology. Oh yes, Class at their camp, out the campsite, right. You know, wow. And it's all on the agenda.

And another one was, you know, if you if hook, hook and needle, you know, hook what? So. And stuff, Crochet, whatever, You know. Yeah. If you're. If they were an average fisherman, they'd come and give you some fishing, fishing lessons. OK, You know, whatever. Very nice. Anything that we can think of. Like that is another. And that was from the campers themselves, not us from the campers themselves. Oh, that's awesome. Again, back to the community. Well, what was it, the Dutch oven class? That was a big winner. Oh, really?

So they came, showed us how to you can make pizza in a Dutch oven. Did you know that? No, I didn't. There you go. Oh, that that group was fantastic. We actually had them cooked for one of our camp outs. They cooked for the whole, the whole crew, everybody's dinner and dinner dessert, the whole 9 yards in. In negotiations again, they may have upped their price. Was that was that the Yankee pot roast? Cuz Whoo, baby. Love that. I'm not. I don't remember what it was, but it was all good. There wasn't any leftovers that night. Other things that you can learn from all these experienced campers.

Are awesome recipes to cook you know that are ease that are RV friendly. You know I've said it before the RV cook stoves and stuff are small so it's it's hard to make a super huge like I wouldn't recommend trying to make a big Thanksgiving dinner at one of them you know. But I would recommend going on a camp out with a bunch of your your likeminded people and everybody make one of the part of it and then you all meet up together and you have the the best Thanksgiving ever. There you go.

Absolutely. So I'm gonna throw a little teaser out there. On our specialty trip we had a little thing that we call the dessert cart, so we'll have to talk about that on one of the next podcast. A little teaser for you. Very exciting. That sounds fun. I'll be looking even if y'all are busy or whatever during these. Just shoot me an e-mail, you know, and I'll give, I'll give y'all a shout out with with some new information for the listening audience. I would be remiss if I didn't say that poker this week.

Oh, yes. How'd the poker go? Poker this week I was even. Steven. Whoa. I think I made $1.00. Come on. So that was hours of fun. $1.00, S 1/2. That's what it is. Yeah, that's good way to start the new year. It was, you know, And then I I messed up. I told my poker buddies said, oh God, because they were talking about looking for a car, not new ones. They were looking for used cars. I said, oh, by the way, did you know that I can buy from the auctions?

Oh, my goodness. Now I've created a monster. That's you. I'm sure you have. I've created a monster. So I got that going for me. Yeah. There you go. That's awesome. Yeah. Is that a dollar fee for your service? Yeah. Is that what the dollar was? It's gonna have to be at least that. We haven't talked about the service fee yet, but two party. Two party. That's fantastic. Just like the way. Yeah. So tell us about your rig.

How is it holding up? Are you ready to trade out, get you a nice river stone or what? What are you doing? Not yet. Ours is paid for. Well, that's a good one. That's a real good one. But we're always looking. So how long have you had yours for? We have had it since 2018 and we've like I said, we did the whole western United States for the 1st 2 1/2 years and.

We've put some miles on it. We've probably put more miles on it in the five years we had it than most people do in a lifetime. Yeah, really. That's awesome. How often do you have to get your wheel bearings packed? Every year? And I hope I pay for that every year. Absolutely. Thank you, Larry. Everyone loves Larry. Everyone loves Larry. There you have it, folks. So what? Do you have any headaches or anything? Like here? Could you tell us some stuff there? Oh, my goodness.

There's got to be a You don't have enough time. Enough time, Okay. Next show. Next show. I apologize. I already did. I not say that. It's not for the faint of heart. That's true. I apologize. You know, in in one of the radio episodes, my poker buddies rented an RVA big class, a 35 footer, never RVD before, never drove anything that big before, right. So they find themselves going down this little mountain pass Rd.

And they come up to a bridge that they know is not high enough for this RV to go. So what's he do? He backs up, starts to do a three-point turn, goes through a little ditch then and he and he went all the way through it to his back. Wheels went through the ditch and guess what happened? It bottomed out in the rear and it was stuck right there. So you know in the middle of nowhere, they can't even hardly say where they're at. But they called the, they called it, you know.

Siri called the tow truck and they were there in 1520 minutes and got out without any problems. You know, that's awesome. No damage. But again, my my favorite phrase that they use all the time now is hey, because they called me and and I said I can't help you. I can't, I can't see you from here. So no, I can't help you there. But I said just remember folks, you're making memories.

And we all make memories. Some of them are great, like I regale sometimes when I'm talking about camping with my family when I was a kid or when I go camping with my granddaughter or my kids, you know, it's all awesome. I point out that are when you're RV and you you're outside more than you're inside, unless weather permitting. But being outside, kids do stuff. They get, you know?

They're talking about giving kids medication for being obese now. Did you know that? Did you all hear that? No. Jeez. Poor or or even liposuction kind of things. What? You know, what did did they have they never heard of outside play? Yeah, let's just go run around. I mean, I remember I was never sitting still when I was a kid. Guess what? Who was skinny? Who was skinny then? That was me too. Funny. All right.

So folks, had a great time. We're meeting with Micah and Jim, our VIP camping club aficionados. Thank you very much for being here. Thanks for having us. I can't wait to be on our next camp out. We'll see you then. Alright. The RV Hour powered by Giant recreation world.

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