Seminar Program Suggestions for the RV Event Coordinator Classes Conducted by Bob Difley Biography Bob served as General Manager of Northern California for El Monte RV Centers, the nation's largest private RV rental company, before choosing to take to the open road as a freelance writer, photographer, and fulltime RVer. Bob and his wife Lynn, photograph and write articles for several RV lifestyle magazines, including Motorhome, Trailer Life, Good Sam's Highways, Coast to Coast Resorts, Woodall's Publications, RV Journal, Western RV News, and Camping Today as well as general interest, seniors, and exercise and fitness magazines. Bob also writes the Backroads & Boondocking column for Western RV News and teaches Window to the Natural World nature appreciation and environmental conservation classes at Gaylord Maxwell's Life On Wheels RV Conference as well as classes at the first annual Great American RV Rally in July 2000 in Gillette, Wyoming. SEMINARS Bob's talks and up-beat, humorous, personal experience stories will entertain as well as inspire RVers of all ages to get out into the outdoors, explore our parks, deserts, forests, and wilderness areas, and will show how to make the most of their RV and the RV Lifestyle. Boondocking As an RVer for over 30 years, Bob found that a self-contained RV opened the doors to many rewarding and exciting experiences throughout the nation's natural areas, on BLM and National Forest Service public lands, and in the broad expanse of our desert regions. This class compares the camping experience from no-hook-up national and state parks to coyote camping in wild areas with no services or facilities. Material will show how to use the full potential of an RV: how, why, and where to boondock, what is legal and illegal, how to find boondocking spots, how to stay out of trouble (getting stuck), and how to extend your hook-up free camping trips. Class closes with a question and answer session. A slide show will be included if adequate facilities are available. Window to the Natural World Most of us, by necessity of our jobs and careers, have had to spend much of our lives in urban or suburban environments, with paved roads, crowded housing developments, noise, air pollution, and traffic jams, along with stress-packed deadlines, meetings, commutes, and family schedules. When we dreamed of buying our first RV our visions were filled with bubbling brooks, wilderness trout streams, sun streaking through the trees in early morning, the fresh smell of a pine forest and the rustling of the needles in a light afternoon breeze, birds chirping, nights so quiet you could hear the stars twinkle, and deer quietly grazing in wildflower covered meadows. This session will encourage RVers to follow that dream, to not just park in a crowded campground and sit by a smoky fire. This country is blessed with expansive deserts, unspoiled wilderness areas, wildlife refuges, National Forests, lakes, bays, and shorelines that are magnets for hundreds of species of nesting and migrating birds and a habitat for native wildlife. America has preserved the natural beauty of more national, state, and regional parks than any other nation in the world. Attendees will learn tips for bird and wildflower identification, how to track wildlife, how to take better, more dramatic scenic and wildlife photographs, and how an RV makes all this possible. Slides shown. Snowbird Camping in our Western Deserts Snowbird areas of the Western states. Anecdotes on desert life, lore, and legends. Tips on finding desert birds, oases, tinajas, and springs. Watching and tracking desert wildlife, like the coyote, kit fox, desert bighorn, desert tortoise, and chuckwalla. Finding and identifying wildflowers, the enjoyment of the wide open spaces, how to use the BLM for free desert camping, what to expect from a desert winter climate, and practicing of good environmental camping practices. Photographic tips. Slides shown. The following classes are offered to event planners for rallies, club outings, or anywhere where RVers camp together for a few days to a week. Active Participation Classes Walks Morning and evening nature walks, identifying the flowers, plants, shrubs, and trees of the area. Watching for bird and wildlife activities. Birds are active at these hours and can often be observed going through their feeding, mating, and posturing activities. Photography Workshop We take a photography field trip into the outdoors using natural light. Subjects include framing, lenses, filters, using the RV as a blind, bird and wildlife photographing techniques, how to turn snapshots into great shots.
