By Jon Walker, F268778
FMCA National President
March 2018
FMCA President
By the time you read this month’s “President’s Message,” Sondra and I will have been on the road since New Year’s Day 2018, serving our members. We left Elkhart, Indiana, in blowing snow, icy roads, and a windchill factor of 21 below zero. By the time we got to Chicago, our water lines were frozen . . . in spite of the fact that I had the generator going to power our fireplace, an electric heater in the water bay compartment, and an electric heater in the water tank bay. Plus, the Aqua-Hot heating system was going full blast, along with the dash heater. I don’t think most motorhomes are built to withstand such extreme temperatures.
By the time we got to Arkansas and close to immediate past national president Charlie Adcock’s house, the water was thawing out. The only damage to our motorhome was the shower faucet, which had broken from the freezing. Charlie called Ed and Lee at the RV Fog Dr. in Searcy, and a new faucet was installed in a matter of a few hours. I am not endorsing the RV Fog Dr., but it seems as though every time we start on a trip south, something goes wrong with our motorhome, or sometimes even our red pickup truck, and we turn to them. Thank you, Ed and Lee!
When we finally arrived at the Western Area Rally in Indio, California, the weather had changed to warm and beautiful. It stayed that way for the whole week. Sondra said she felt like we were in heaven.
I never stop being amazed by the wonderful people we meet on the road as we represent our FMCA members. On the way to Indio, I received a phone call from one of our longtime members, Gordon Collins, F73742. He told me he had read in my “President’s Message” that I would be at Camp Pendleton, which is close to where he lives. He invited me to join him for breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner while we were at Oceanside. I told him I would check with our social director, Claire Porter, wife of national senior vice president Rett Porter, to see when we could meet. As it turned out, both my brother and sister were able to come to visit us while we were there, but we still had a day free to meet Gordon.
What a great time we had with Gordon and his companion, Leona Martin. Gordon worked for Fleetwood Enterprises in Riverside, California, for about 10 years. He was their vice president of marketing. During his tenure, he saw Fleetwood grow from nine factories to 63 factories. You can tell by that statistic that Gordon was a “mover and a shaker.” I also found out that Gordon was inducted into the RV/MH Hall of Fame with the class of 2008.
In 2002, Popular Mechanics magazine was celebrating its 100th anniversary. Gordon had a friend who connected him with the magazine staff, who had the idea of popularizing this feat by putting a motorhome on the road and hitting all 48 states in the continental U.S. Gordon convinced Coachmen Industries to loan him a motorhome and put a Popular Mechanics wrap on it. He spent a year traveling all over the country meeting people and celebrating the magazine’s centennial, traveling 65,000 miles and making it to 44 states.
Gordon is a very big supporter of FMCA and the RV lifestyle. He is excited that we are now inviting all self-contained RVs to join our great association. Another one of Gordon’s passions is collecting antique Cadillacs. He has owned 27 Cadillacs and still owns a beauty at this time.
I asked Gordon what his current goals are, now that he is 86 years old. He told me that he has 189,000 miles on his current motorhome, and he wants to drive it until he logs at least 200,000 miles. He plans to visit his two grandchildren who own travel trailers and to sign them up as FMCA members.
He shared that his daughter died in 1983, which caused him to rethink his life and prompted him to decide to “enjoy each and every day, because you might be here today, but you don’t know if you’ll be here tomorrow.”
So, Gordon and Leona, it was nice meeting you, and you all “keep on trucking” as long as you can.
Later in our trip, we experienced another example of how FMCA members are connected. Sondra and I were starting to head east to Florida after attending a chapter rally and visiting the FMCA crew working at the Quartzsite Sports, Vacation & RV Show in Arizona. One morning while we were reading the papers and having our morning coffee, someone came knocking at the door. Sondra opened the door, and a woman was standing there with a copy of the FMCA magazine opened to my “President’s Message” column. She said she did not want to intrude, but she asked whether this was the FMCA president’s motorhome. Sondra invited her in.
What followed was one of the most interesting conversations I’ve had in a long time. As it turned out, we met a new FMCA member couple, Griff and Katy Pickard, F472837. They were on their third trip in their 37-foot Thor motorhome. We talked a little about FMCA, and Sondra and I explained many of our benefits. Griff and Katy had no idea how many benefits FMCA has to offer them. They both agreed that the benefits far outweigh the cost of membership.
Sondra and Katy shared the fact that both of them taught English. We also found out that Griff shares my love of flying, and that he and I are the same age and had similar experiences relating to flying and the Air Force. Griff tried to enter the Air Force as a second lieutenant and pharmacist, but they were only allowing doctors to enter automatically. They told him they were accepting pilots, though. He signed up for that, since his draft number was very low, but he had never touched the controls of an airplane. He worked very hard during his one year of pilot training and passed.
What is interesting is that he ended up flying air tankers and was assigned to one of the specialized refueling squadrons for the SR-71 Blackbird spy plane. That is the one airplane I have been in love with and have studied for many years. One of my best friends, retired American Airlines captain Rex Travelstead, and I had dinner one night, many years ago, at the Boeing factory in Seattle, with one of the most tenured SR-71 pilots, Brian Shul. We talked about the Blackbird all night.
When I met Lon Cross, FMCA national vice president, Western Area, I found out that he worked 27 years for aircraft designer Kelly Johnson at the Lockheed Skunk Works — on the SR-71. Even more exciting was that a couple of years later, Lon introduced me to an FMCA member who was on the Pratt & Whitney team that designed and built the engines for the SR-71. What a small world of experts in the FMCA fraternity!
Griff continued to fly after he got out of the Air Force. He started a home-building development company and flew a Cessna 421 high-performance twin-engine airplane to get from one job site to another.
We also learned we have more in common. My grandfather paid to fully equip my Piper Cherokee 180 plane with a complete IFR (instrument flight rating) instrument panel and paid for my advanced training to get my instrument, flight instructor, and multi-engine FAA ratings. Griff is now doing something similar for his grandson. Griff has a Cessna 414 light twin-engine airplane, and he is letting his grandson use it to get his instrument rating and twin-engine rating. What a small world.
Griff left us with this thought: “Now that I am retired, I’m just a private pilot for my wife. We take the slow version with the RV and fast version with the airplane.”
What an interesting couple. We wish you luck and enjoyment in your travels and your journey with us in FMCA.
Sondra and I truly enjoy meeting so many great people as we travel all over North America. I think I have the best retirement job in the world — being a good-will ambassador for Family Motor Coach Association!
I hope to see many of you at FMCA’s “Southern Charm” convention in Perry, Georgia, March 15 through 18. It’s not too late to join us! We’ll have plenty of room, so if you’ll be passing by Perry on your way back north, stop and visit us. If not Perry, make plans to attend FMCA’s “Wanted In Wyoming,” convention, set to take place July 18 through 21 in Gillette. Register online at FMCA.com or use the form that appears in this magazine.
Until next month, remember, it’s still all about having fun!