Final Details on Extreme Makeover

Late yesterday TJC placed it's final RV for the Extreme Makeover:Home Edition Fayetteville. This motorhome was last in as it will be used by the special guest star arriving today to assist with the final build details. Activity was fast and furious yesterday evening working on the final details of the build in preparation for today's unveiling.

Watching the volunteers and workers this past week has been enlightening. It is very impressive to see what can be accomplished when everyone sets aside their differences and agendas and works together towards a common goal. People of very different stations in life worked and sweated in extreme weather conditions, side by side, doing whatever needed to be done to reach the goal of building this new home.

The Jubilee House is a great and deserving resource but it is just a start. There are thousands of homeless veterans in this country. The last best estimate numbered somewhere above 106,000. These were all people who set aside their everyday lives to join the military and serve our country.

As has been widely reported, First Lady Michelle Obama will be making an appearance to lend support to the efforts and also highlighting the Joining Forces initiative. Local VA offices are also a great resource for homeless vets. Many RV owners are former military members and are always ready to lend a hand to fellow vets. Lets all look around us and see if there is anything we can do to help. Its been an honor for Tom Johnson Camping Center to be involved in this effort and see so many individuals give so much of their time to this project.

Swiss Army RV

Tom Johnson Camping Center is back in Fayetteville, NC at the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition build and progress on the new home is astounding. The site is like watching an anthill of activity with siding going up in one area, decking going down in another, interior painting and finishing and all around the block area areas of volunteers assembling cabinetry and furniture. The designers hustle back and forth from the houses to the design/build areas and then into the TJC RVs to meet with media, sign promotional handouts and take a break now and then to work on other demands.

RVs are like the Swiss Army Knife, it’s a tool that does many jobs. Many people look to RVs as a way to go on family vacations and really that is just scratching the surface. With the abundance of campgrounds most people could break away for weekends all year long in addition to a larger vacation trip. Small breaks like these are great breaks from the stress of everyday life.

Many business owners who travel often will purchase an RV as an alternative to continued motel stays. With the advances in communications you can connect your computer to a wifi card and work from the road. You stay in your own home on the road, eat the foods you like and can even bring family and friends on trips to make it a multipurpose event. Many people also use their RVs to tailgate at sporting events, house guests who come to visit, for use at hospitals during extended medical treatments and more. Personally, we have used our motorhome as a rehab guest house for a relative who had a knee replacement and have piled in a group of friends for a day of winery tours.

RVs offer owners a world of uses when you start thinking about it. Visiting relatives and having your own sanctuary, taking kids to travel sporting events, running to the beach or mountains for a weekend getaway, even camping out in the front yard are just a few ideas.

Write to us from this link and tell us how you use your RV...

Extreme RVing!!

What do you get when you combine thousands of volunteers, a dozen or so RVs and one of the highest rated television shows?  A charitable effort between Tom Johnson Camping Center and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition!!

Beginning today, the Tom Johnson Campfire Club will head out on a different kind of RV trip here in North Carolina.  Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (EM:HE) today will announce and undertake a new build for a deserving family in Fayetteville, NC.  This build is being billed as one of the biggest undertakings to date requiring additional staff and designers which is where TJC and some RVs come into play.

There are probably millions of families across the country today who need a helping hand.  EM:HE has been providing a helping hand to families since 2003 and has been an inspiration to millions of people.  As the team at both TJC locations has worked hard to prepare RVs and make arrangements to help EM:HE I thought about why the show is so popular and why do I myself like it so much.  There have in the past been criticisms of the show but its core theme is what makes this country so great.  Even now, as the country and individuals struggle on a daily basis, where else can you find thousands of volunteers combining efforts with various business entities to volunteer time and resources to help a group of people they do not even know?

I realized that the coming together of complete strangers to help each other or one family is the same spirit you see in RV campgrounds across the country on a daily basis.  There has never been a time when I have been in an RV campground and needed help, that there was not someone there to lend a hand.  On our first ever trip with a fifth wheel at the end of 7 hours of driving we were trying to back this 38 foot Forest River model into an impossibly angled campsite in Disney’s Fort Wilderness with two dogs panting in my ear, my 2 ½ year old wanting out of his car seat and my poor Wife listening to me tell her she was crazy if she thought I could make an RV bend in half.  Out jumped our soon to be neighbor who was an owner of an RV dealership in Canada who provided me with the directional assistance to magically slide the fifth wheel into its site.  When problems developed with various motorhomes over the years there was always a collective pool of RV knowledge shared by owners camping around us to help troubleshoot and fix the problem.  And we too have provided the same kind of assistance.  Sometimes it’s as simple sharing marshmallows with a family who forgot to pack them, that keeps their kids happy and their vacation on track.  RV travel is an adventure combined with something lost in today’s world: community.

So today we head out to Fayetteville, and we send three RVs to GA for another EM:HE shoot because in the tradition of all RV’ers, we lend a hand when we can and we participate in our communities when we can.  And just like when camping at an RV park, it’s this shared, even if temporary, community in which we come together with complete strangers and share each other’s lives for a brief period of time.  Maybe this shared experience combined with a spirit of adventure is one of the reasons people love to travel with an RV.  I know it has enriched my life and taught my children valuable lessons they would not have gotten at home playing videos games.  Tell us your thoughts on this shared community of RVers and stay tuned for TJC posts from the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition build.