Kirk and Kevin with a small Salmon. Nice camper eh??
Circa Summer 1973
I started camping in the early 1970’s in South-central Alaska just about the time Good Sam Club was starting to take off. We didn’t have a Good Samaritan bumper sticker on our camper but my Grandfather’s love for the Great Land must have been apparent to all the people we met roaming the permafrost heaved roads of the last frontier. Grandpa had a great sense of humor, limitless knowledge of Alaska, and some great fishing holes that made for exceptionally fun fishing.
That's me! The station wagon is in the background.
And, Grandpa could tow a trailer!
Grandpa developed one of the early cruise control mechanisms for our yellow/brown Mercury station wagon. His solution was simple: he used a concrete block that he’d place on the accelerator. Grandma never seemed to appreciate Grandpa’s innovate use of technology but my older brother and I always giggled whenever he moved the massive concrete block into place. In fact, even before we got into the car Grandma was protesting the presence of this “thing.”
We were headed down to Seward one morning, and after passing the firing range just outside of Anchorage Grandpa moved the block into place. Almost immediately you could hear Grandma chime in, “Clifton. Clifton. Stop that Clifton.” Grandpa would start to recline and sweep his leg away from the gas pedal. It made my older brother Scott and I just breakout in laughter. Grandpa would just reply by saying, “Oh Helene.”
I’m sure the insurance company would have loved to talk to Grandma!
For Grandpa it was about comfort, and we – except for Grandma – felt protected. A concrete block wasn’t exactly serious RV protection.
I don’t know what RV insurance we had but if you’re looking for reduced rates or custom RV protection you may want to consider requesting a free quote from Good Sam VIP Insurance. Good Sam offers optional full replacement coverage of any RV for the first five years of the vehicle when most other insurers seem to only pay depreciated value if your RV is totaled or stolen. Even if you don’t own a new RV, there offer some great benefits. Here’s what got my attention:
=> FREE rate quotes
=> Automatic coverage of contents and attachments
=> Ability to pause coverage in the off-season
=> Special rates for Good Sam Club members (new customers average around $300.00 a year in savings!!)
=> Multi-policy discounts too for auto, motorcycle and homeowners coverage
=> Full-timer coverage
Our family took lots of trips down the Kenai Peninsula. In fact, Grandpa had a small boat at the Seward harbor so we always seemed to driving the three hours down to Seward with the trailer in tow. Today, I don’t think I drive on the Seward Highway without real RV insurance that provided serious protection.
Here’s a link for more information on Good Sam's VIP Insurance.
Talk to you soon!
Have you heard of biodiesel? Jones Soda has. In fact, they were powering their team RV this spring on the stuff. If you've never heard of biodesel then you're not alone. Apparently the stuff is just soy bean oil. That's right soy bean oil. Here's the National Biodiesel Board's official description: Biodiesel is the name of a clean burning alternative fuel, produced from domestic, renewable resources. Biodiesel contains no petroleum, but it can be blended at any level with petroleum diesel to create a biodiesel blend. It can be used in compression-ignition (diesel) engines with little or no modifications. Biodiesel is simple to use, biodegradable, nontoxic, and essentially free of sulfur and aromatics.
You can learn more about biodiesel at www.biodiesel.org. Plus the site also have a very handy map for locating service stations pumping the bio-friendly fuel. Expect to pay about $2.19 a gallon.
Before I wrap up, I hope you'll check out The Jones Soda Company blog. I really like how they have picturs of each of the drivers too! But it's the RV wrap that captured my attention especially after the seeing the Discovery Channel team RV. Here you go:
