Thursday, August 17, 2006

BizMo Shopping

Showroom @ Fred's RV, near Sandy, Oregon
We drove out to Fred's on the Mt. Hood side of Sandy, Oregon, to check out the Class Bs (van body) and a few Class Cs (6 wheels), like Pleasure-Way and Kodiak. Steve steered us through the show room and to a few more in inventory. On the way out, Tara glommed on to a Tioga Montara, in-service, not for sale (she's always liked that over-the-cab feature).

Mentally, I was trying to connect to Microsoft Office, OpenOffice or whatever, seeing it on a screen in the mind's eye, wireless keyboard on some surface, and surrounded by more nautical decor (I'm put off by "grandma's kitchen kitsch" (grandma'd've liked more nautical too)). I was reminded of the time we toured Orlando timeshares and then asked about wifi. They seemed so shocked we'd be into it. Plus where would we put Dawn's oxygenator, which could run off the AC? We could envision solutions.

Anyway, I didn't bother Steve with any of these fantasies (except some talk about the oxygenator). I'm clearly a special case, and he doesn't need to know about all my language game puzzles. Still, you'd think there'd be more of a market for wireless offices on wheels already. But then, I think that about eco-villages too, and I don't see many of those out there, either (at least not on the channels Comcast lets me see).

The trip was tiring for Dawn, plus the $69-85K price tag seemed out of reach, for a life style we don't really have. I'm too young to retire, average middle class. Teaching philo/math on the road might be an honest living, but as for just making oil companies rich... I'd have to sell all my stock in BP (if I had any).

So it's back to the drawing board in a way. Tara found a 1995 Tioga and gmailed a link. Dawn is thinking maybe a Eurovan, something more volksy. She just wants some place to lie down if we drive any long distances. I'm the one with the big idea of doing teacher training in these roadshow circus environments, whole caravans of us sometimes. I'd like to get lost in a crowd of bizmos, all doing basically the same kind of thing, assisting affiliates, and maybe recruiting some new ones.

Tara liked the Tioga