More San Diego County RV dealers closing but not us!

I just heard today that Camping World in San Marcos has closed its sales department and moved all its RV's away. It happened about a month ago - I don't know how we missed that news! The only large new RV dealers left in San Diego are La Mesa RV and Holland RV, next to each other off the 52 freeway in Kearny Mesa. Travelon in Santee closed last weekend and 10,000 RV closed a few weeks ago. Vacation Station and Beaudry RV left town months ago. Revolution RV went down with a scandal last year and many small RV lots have closed their doors since last summer. Another independent dealer in El Cajon is closing soon but is selling off what they can before the inevitable happens.

Rice RV is holding its own, partly because of our busy rental season, which gives us a cushion for the slower times, and also because our overhead is low. The dealers that have gotten into financial trouble took on large loans for "flooring" new units (encouraged by the RV manufacturers' strict purchasing rules). When sales slowed down, they still had to pay for those units. At this point, our sales are all consignments or units we purchased ourselves.

There is still a large market in San Diego for recreational vehicles (though not large enough right now to support the huge inventories some dealers took on) and, as the U.S. economy picks up, RV sales in San Diego will likely boom again, but with a very different business model than that previously run by the RV manufacturers, dealers and lenders.

Boating adventure on Mission Bay!

It was over 100 degrees in El Cajon on a Monday in April!  Dan and I couldn't take it anymore and closed an hour early so we could test-drive a boat we took as a trade in.  This is a 19' Bayliner fishing boat with a cuddy cabin.  We sent Nicholas home with Jeremy.  We launched the boat at Ski Beach on Mission Bay and drove out to the open ocean to see how it fared there.  This was a very smooth ride - not nearly as bouncy as taking one of the wakeboarding boats out to the ocean.   Back in the bay, we parked at the courtesy dock at the Barefoot Bar at Paradise Point and had dinner.  This was actually where we had our first date and, on that occasion, Dan had taken me for a ride in a boat he used to own (awww...).  Heading back to the launch ramp in the dark, we were stopped and boarded by the Coast Guard!  As it happened, we had forgotten to check for life jackets - not one on board! - and we did not have the registration with us.  But we chatted with the young men about our 20-year-old son who hopes to join the Coast Guard and they let us off with a warning.  How nice to live in a place where you can have this much fun and adventure after work!