[AT] OT shifting blame

[Ron Cook]

I think all RV's are a big pain in the rear and a money pit.  I lived in 
one for almost 30 years while spraying.  Just during the spray season 
that ran from mid May to a little after labor day and sometimes well 
into September.  At first I was broke and worked as a hired pilot.  My 
father had a 30 foot bumper hitch camper that he considered a Cadillac 
of campers.  He had bought that thing long after I left the farm to take 
my half siblings camping all over North America.  Lucky them.  It had 
sat for years, so I borrowed it from him to stay in while I worked in 
Minn as a pilot.  I spent a fortune fixing that supposedly Cadillac.  
Tires, brakes, furnace, new water heater, fridge, replace frozen and 
cracked plumbing, roof repair, air conditioner repair, rotten floor 
repair rotten sidewall wood repair, etc, etc.  Then as soon as I got it 
fixed up so it was livable and usable and I bought a pickup that would 
pull it,  he wanted it back.  Said my half brothers need a chance to use 
it.  NEVER HAPPENED!  He gave it to a bar buddy that parked it in S.Dak 
somewhere to stay in while he went fishing.  Dunno and don't care where 
it is.  All those people are dead.

Then when I got back into my own business, I got a contract to spray 
sweetcorn a couple hundred miles from home.  I bought a used Country 
Aire fifth wheel that had been all over, including Alaska.  It was set 
up as something I could use.  It was a well built RV.  It looked good.  
Everything worked perfectly  Of course the dealer had it clean and 
polished.  It was almost 10 years old, but that made it priced at 
something I could pay for.  I lived in that unit during the spray season 
for 23 years.  I towed it 500 miles a year for those years.  Now I tow 
it almost 500 miles a year to go to my Antique Airplane fly in and stay 
in for 3 or 4 days a year.  The rest of the year it gets to live 
indoors.  There have been some repairs.  Everything wears from use.  But 
this thing was truly a well built unit.  From time to time I have looked 
at some of the new units.  Like Dean's Montana, they are super nice.  
And very fancy.  And VERY SPENDY.  But to me they all look as if things 
have been cheapened up where they should not have been.  I do not figure 
on ever buying another.  Granted, the campgrounds probably won't let me 
in as my RV is too old.  I am not staying there anyway.  If they think 
like that, they are not my kind of folk.

Ron Cook, Salix, IA