Winnebago RV Rally
11-16-2015
Author: Blog Editor in Chasing Adventure- Coast to Coast
My wife and I just returned from our first Winnebago RV Rally. This rally was held at the Lazydays Campground near Tampa, Florida.
The rally was billed as a Winnebago Rally with Winnebago personnel on hand to discuss the latest and greatest of the Winnebago family of vehicles. We arrived on Thursday, checked-in with no problem and were assigned a very nice spot in the campground. The RV Park was quickly filling up with not only the rally RV’s but also people just out for the weekend.
Lazydays is a very accommodating RV sales and park, at least in m y opinion. A salesman, named Anthony Smith, whom we have purchased several RV’s from, stopped by our campsite and discovered there were two branches on a tree that prevented our awning from fully extending. He immediately called maintenance and they came out and trimmed the two branches allowing the use of our awning. It is service like this that reiterates how accommodating the entire Lazydays crew are, when it comes to customer service.
The first evening was a welcoming dinner, complete with a band; the music provided by the band was very entertaining and pleasant to listen too. They played mainly “Oldies” from the sixties and had many stories to tell between songs. Meeting a few people completed the evening of relaxation and enjoyment.
With the dawn of Friday morning we began the arranged program. It turns out the Winnebago representatives were there to boost sales not give lectures on their product. Instead, Lazydays utilized a couple who has many years of experience in the RV world. He and his wife run SUMDALUS-USA. If he said he was a RVIA/RVDA Master Certified RV Service Technician once, he said it a thousand times. I would provide you with his URL and reference his book, however, since I would not recommend him for a presentation or even for his books, guess I will just leave it out.
The first presentation was on the “Holding Tank”. It was very informative although his presentation was at times crude, a little childish, and perhaps a little disrespectful. We returned in the afternoon for a “Basic RV Electricity & Electrical Protection” presentation. Unbeknownst to us, the presenter was the same gentleman that gave the “Holding Tank” seminar. This briefing was presented in a manner that was degrading, he was talking down to the audience and wasn’t really that clear on his presentation. His presentation looked as if he had pulled it out of the “Cobweb File Section”, and gave it new birth. His initial statement when starting the electrical briefing was that, “You cannot run everything in your RV on just your generator”! I stated that I could! He responded that unless you have a 12,500 Watt generator there is no way. In his reply he was degrading, like look stupid you just can’t do that but, not to feel bad he was that way to every attendee! Needless to say, during the rest of the presentation he did not look in my direction!
I have an 8,000 Watt generator and I have run everything at the same time, including three air conditioners, fridge, microwave, and TV, without any problem at all. Just another example of how this gentlemen had a “Know it All” attitude. Overall, his presentation probably did not teach anything that we did not already know!
On Saturday, we had a presentation on “Cooking with a Convection Oven”. Wow, what a presentation! The speaker was Chef Perez, Lazydays Head Chef. What a tremendously wonderful presentation, full of informative facts, demonstrations, while encouraging an exchange of thoughts and comments. Chef Perez finished his presentation with a taste test of a dish he had prepared in class. At the end of his presentation we felt that now we can use our convection oven with confidence. Other attendees voiced the same opinion in reference to Chef Perez.
He left us with two URL’s that will assist in the use of the convection oven. www.cooks.com (for convection/micro recipes), and www.allrecipes.com. I cannot say enough how professional, enjoyable, and informative his presentation was for all attendees. One thing he mentioned, and actually provided a hard copy of, was a conversion chart for baking and roasting your favorite dishes in a convection oven. It turns out you cannot use the same time and temperatures as you do at home in your residential oven.
Our weekend ended with a dinner and dance on Saturday night and a farewell brunch provided by Lazydays on Sunday morning. Overall we enjoyed meeting a few couples yet, there is one thing about this rally that sticks in my mind. Lazydays is truly an accommodating sales and service representative for most makes of RV’s, why would they advertise the event as having Winnebago Representatives as exchanging ideas when it turns out they used a third party for seminars?. This was misleading and disappointing to many of the attendee’s! In addition, in reference to individuals or groups presenting seminars, Lazydays should avoid the opinionated, self-proclaimed experts! Over the years, I have taught many classes in my life time, my audience ranged from cub scouts to our military forces, who are very tough to teach because they demand their instructor to have the knowledge, and the ability to exchange thoughts and ideas. One thing for sure, I never talked down to my classes in the past forty-eight years.
In addition, I believe there is a “Stigma” associated to Rally’s, and this rally was no different! This “Stigma” is the need for titles like Director, Assistant Director, etc. Why? It seems to me that we came to a rally to have fun, to mingle and meet other RV enthusiasts such as ourselves. Not to be bossed around and told what to do or when to do it! This aspect is like a speed bump, simply because the various groups are more concerned about a “Rank” structure, and clumping at each presentation in their little “Click”, than mingling and enjoying themselves. It seems sort of pretentious and disappointing in my opinion. Another aspect of rally’s and RV owners in general, is that they identify their status with how great their RV is, in reference to manufacture, year and cost! Really! We started with an economical old used RV many years ago, and over the years have been fortunate and blessed to move into a new Itasca Meridian, yet we don’t look at it and think “Look at me with my RV”! In our opinion, if a person can afford an RV, no matter the make, year, or cost, then good for them. We actually had more friendly discussions with owners of some 5th wheels and class C’s than the Winnebago owners. They were down to earth and very enjoyable to meet and discuss various RV’ing topics. Perhaps the people with the big expensive RV’s should remember where they come from!
Our first rally probably deserves a grade of a C+, and that is being generous. We spent fifteen years sailing on a Catamaran, and met some of the most wonderful, memorable people over those years, we expected this rally to be the same way.
Until the next posting, may your dreams of RV travel be recognized, and may the Lord keep you safe in your travels.
About the Bloggers: Debbie and Mike Whitt are part time RV’ers who decided to give up sailing and begin a life on the road and enjoy the RV’ing lifestyle. With no idea of what type of RV they wanted, they began with a used 2006 Damon Challenger. Five RV’s later, they enjoy the RV life in their 2015 Itasca Meridian. They love the adventure, meeting people and searching for all the great seafood spots along the way. The RV life is somewhat different than the sailing world yet, it offers all the adventure they had hoped to find. Although adapting to the RV life has been a new experience, they enjoy the many trips that they have taken to discover the beauty of the USA. They are currently planning to be full time RV’ers by mid-2016. Follow the adventures of Deb and Mike and their two miniature longhair dachshunds, see where their adventure takes them while preparing to be full time RV’ers.
The rally was billed as a Winnebago Rally with Winnebago personnel on hand to discuss the latest and greatest of the Winnebago family of vehicles. We arrived on Thursday, checked-in with no problem and were assigned a very nice spot in the campground. The RV Park was quickly filling up with not only the rally RV’s but also people just out for the weekend.
Lazydays is a very accommodating RV sales and park, at least in m y opinion. A salesman, named Anthony Smith, whom we have purchased several RV’s from, stopped by our campsite and discovered there were two branches on a tree that prevented our awning from fully extending. He immediately called maintenance and they came out and trimmed the two branches allowing the use of our awning. It is service like this that reiterates how accommodating the entire Lazydays crew are, when it comes to customer service.
The first evening was a welcoming dinner, complete with a band; the music provided by the band was very entertaining and pleasant to listen too. They played mainly “Oldies” from the sixties and had many stories to tell between songs. Meeting a few people completed the evening of relaxation and enjoyment.
With the dawn of Friday morning we began the arranged program. It turns out the Winnebago representatives were there to boost sales not give lectures on their product. Instead, Lazydays utilized a couple who has many years of experience in the RV world. He and his wife run SUMDALUS-USA. If he said he was a RVIA/RVDA Master Certified RV Service Technician once, he said it a thousand times. I would provide you with his URL and reference his book, however, since I would not recommend him for a presentation or even for his books, guess I will just leave it out.
The first presentation was on the “Holding Tank”. It was very informative although his presentation was at times crude, a little childish, and perhaps a little disrespectful. We returned in the afternoon for a “Basic RV Electricity & Electrical Protection” presentation. Unbeknownst to us, the presenter was the same gentleman that gave the “Holding Tank” seminar. This briefing was presented in a manner that was degrading, he was talking down to the audience and wasn’t really that clear on his presentation. His presentation looked as if he had pulled it out of the “Cobweb File Section”, and gave it new birth. His initial statement when starting the electrical briefing was that, “You cannot run everything in your RV on just your generator”! I stated that I could! He responded that unless you have a 12,500 Watt generator there is no way. In his reply he was degrading, like look stupid you just can’t do that but, not to feel bad he was that way to every attendee! Needless to say, during the rest of the presentation he did not look in my direction!
I have an 8,000 Watt generator and I have run everything at the same time, including three air conditioners, fridge, microwave, and TV, without any problem at all. Just another example of how this gentlemen had a “Know it All” attitude. Overall, his presentation probably did not teach anything that we did not already know!
On Saturday, we had a presentation on “Cooking with a Convection Oven”. Wow, what a presentation! The speaker was Chef Perez, Lazydays Head Chef. What a tremendously wonderful presentation, full of informative facts, demonstrations, while encouraging an exchange of thoughts and comments. Chef Perez finished his presentation with a taste test of a dish he had prepared in class. At the end of his presentation we felt that now we can use our convection oven with confidence. Other attendees voiced the same opinion in reference to Chef Perez.
He left us with two URL’s that will assist in the use of the convection oven. www.cooks.com (for convection/micro recipes), and www.allrecipes.com. I cannot say enough how professional, enjoyable, and informative his presentation was for all attendees. One thing he mentioned, and actually provided a hard copy of, was a conversion chart for baking and roasting your favorite dishes in a convection oven. It turns out you cannot use the same time and temperatures as you do at home in your residential oven.
Our weekend ended with a dinner and dance on Saturday night and a farewell brunch provided by Lazydays on Sunday morning. Overall we enjoyed meeting a few couples yet, there is one thing about this rally that sticks in my mind. Lazydays is truly an accommodating sales and service representative for most makes of RV’s, why would they advertise the event as having Winnebago Representatives as exchanging ideas when it turns out they used a third party for seminars?. This was misleading and disappointing to many of the attendee’s! In addition, in reference to individuals or groups presenting seminars, Lazydays should avoid the opinionated, self-proclaimed experts! Over the years, I have taught many classes in my life time, my audience ranged from cub scouts to our military forces, who are very tough to teach because they demand their instructor to have the knowledge, and the ability to exchange thoughts and ideas. One thing for sure, I never talked down to my classes in the past forty-eight years.
In addition, I believe there is a “Stigma” associated to Rally’s, and this rally was no different! This “Stigma” is the need for titles like Director, Assistant Director, etc. Why? It seems to me that we came to a rally to have fun, to mingle and meet other RV enthusiasts such as ourselves. Not to be bossed around and told what to do or when to do it! This aspect is like a speed bump, simply because the various groups are more concerned about a “Rank” structure, and clumping at each presentation in their little “Click”, than mingling and enjoying themselves. It seems sort of pretentious and disappointing in my opinion. Another aspect of rally’s and RV owners in general, is that they identify their status with how great their RV is, in reference to manufacture, year and cost! Really! We started with an economical old used RV many years ago, and over the years have been fortunate and blessed to move into a new Itasca Meridian, yet we don’t look at it and think “Look at me with my RV”! In our opinion, if a person can afford an RV, no matter the make, year, or cost, then good for them. We actually had more friendly discussions with owners of some 5th wheels and class C’s than the Winnebago owners. They were down to earth and very enjoyable to meet and discuss various RV’ing topics. Perhaps the people with the big expensive RV’s should remember where they come from!
Our first rally probably deserves a grade of a C+, and that is being generous. We spent fifteen years sailing on a Catamaran, and met some of the most wonderful, memorable people over those years, we expected this rally to be the same way.
Until the next posting, may your dreams of RV travel be recognized, and may the Lord keep you safe in your travels.
About the Bloggers: Debbie and Mike Whitt are part time RV’ers who decided to give up sailing and begin a life on the road and enjoy the RV’ing lifestyle. With no idea of what type of RV they wanted, they began with a used 2006 Damon Challenger. Five RV’s later, they enjoy the RV life in their 2015 Itasca Meridian. They love the adventure, meeting people and searching for all the great seafood spots along the way. The RV life is somewhat different than the sailing world yet, it offers all the adventure they had hoped to find. Although adapting to the RV life has been a new experience, they enjoy the many trips that they have taken to discover the beauty of the USA. They are currently planning to be full time RV’ers by mid-2016. Follow the adventures of Deb and Mike and their two miniature longhair dachshunds, see where their adventure takes them while preparing to be full time RV’ers.
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