A Life Well Lived

A Tribute to Arden Keller,

The Founder of Indian Valley Camping Center

Arden Keller recently passed away.  Since I have worked at Indian Valley Camping Center less than 10 years, I didn’t have the opportunity to work with him on a regular basis, as he had retired from the daily operations of the company several years before I came on board.  I did get to know Arden from his visits to the store, especially in the early years of my employment when he came to the store more frequently, and at some social meetings, but most of what I know about him, I learned from coworkers, his family members and the things I heard at his Funeral Service.  I learned many new things about him from the sharing at the funeral.  I would have believed this was who he was, just based on what I knew of him and his family, but to hear it confirmed from so many sources was very inspiring.  He was a man who truly had his life prioritized.  The order of priority may surprise many of you, since you only related to him as a business man, but business was at least 3rd on his priority list, and perhaps lower.  What I can say from what I've heard and seen, his priorities were;

1. His faith and belief in Jesus Christ.  He demonstrated this with consistent and long term dedication to the Lord's service in his working at the church, both as a Sunday School teacher and as an elder and Church Council member.  But he was not a "Sunday only" sort of believer, but acted out the principles of his faith on a daily basis, at his business and in his community.  Through his caring for his employees, he started a retirement plan that he worked as hard at developing as if it was his own money.  Practically unheard of in that time, especially in a small family business.  He obviously built the company on sound, honest and fair practices or we would not be here over 50 years later.

2. His family and first and foremost of course, his beloved wife Shirley.  Seldom have I witnessed a family that shows as much love and respect for one another, across the board, than the Kellers do.  That is something you can't teach in a book, it only comes through years of consistent example.  Arden and Shirley are to be commended for their strong commitment to each other and their children.

3. His business. Arden was already a success in the business world, and you might think his motivation for becoming an entrepreneur was simply to make more money, but even that decision was based on deeper values.  When Arden was looking to buy a camper to go camping with his family, he decided that it might be a good idea to buy 3 campers and then sell 2 to help pay for the one he wanted to buy, and Indian Valley Camping Center was born!

I want to thank all of you for joining me in sharing these memories of a man who lived a simple, ordinary life, and yet influenced so many.  My hope is that his life will continue to inspire people to stay true to their family, true to their convictions and most importantly true to their faith.

For any of you who would like to offer a remembrance of Arden, please leave a comment here on the blog, or on Facebook.  The family greatly appreciates all the love and support the community has poured out on their family and they look forward to serving you with the same dedication and integrity that Arden did for the next fifty years!

Most Important RV Tip

 

Well I'm going to start off with a bang here with the most important tip I can think of for the RV owner, and certainly the issue we spend more time on in our service area than any other.  That is keeping your RV from letting water into it.  Those of you that have camped for a while probably think that is pretty obvious and not much of a tip, but let me assure you that most of the folks starting out at camping don't understand this issue at all.  Some people don't understand why an RV would leak... ever!  Some are sure that for the first year they don't have to worry about anything because if a leak does happen, warranty will cover it!  They are in for a rude awakening!  It is rare for a manufacturer to cover damage from leaks in the warranty.  Leaks in an RV, even a new one, are considered maintenance issues and are not normally covered.  Most of them have a statement written in along the line of, "The owner is responsible to check all seams and seal/caulk as necessary, every 90 days"!  Seriously?!  Most the campers that I speak to seem to believe that doing that job once a year is more than enough!    When water gets in, it creates trouble almost immediately.  The ceiling and wall panels will stain and swell if not dried out quickly.  Carpet will get moldy and cause the underlying services to rot, and those pressed board facia pieces around the slide outs?  Forget about it!

 

So now that I've identified the problem, what's the tip?  Well aside from the inspecting and sealing that I've already mentioned, (Twice a year at least!) the two best things you can do for your RV are,

 

1.  Cover it in the off season. Many RVers have to park their units in a storage facility some distance from their homes, which means it can go weeks or months till they get to take a peak inside of them.  A lot of damage can already have happened if snow has been thawing and refreezing and trapping the water so that it pools up when it melts and looks for a way in.  A cover will not keep all moisture out, but it will shed most of it and a cover designed for an RV will also be breathable and let it dry out rather than sit there and get nasty like it will under the ubiquitous blue tarps!  You can click here to see one that we sell from our online catalog and at our store.

2.  If your camper has Slide Out Rooms, the next best thing you can do for it is to put Slide Out Toppers on them.  They are simply awnings, designed like a window shade that pull out when you extend the Slide, and roll up when bring it back in.  Click here to see one in our online catalog.  They will keep debris off of your roof so you will not have to worry about branches and other junk getting caught in the seal, but most importantly, they will help keep the rain from driving against the seals which can lead to leaks.  If you notice the seal falling off at spots or not flipping properly when the room moves, it should be repaired or replaced.  A Topper does not mean that you won't need to pay attention to the seals around the Slide Out Room, but it does provide extra protection to a vulnerable area of your RV.

 

Stay dry and Happy Camping!

RVs Are Us!

As you know if you've read my profile, I work for Indian Valley Camping Center in Souderton, PA.  Since this is my first post on this blog, I'm going to take a few minutes to introduce myself and Indian Valley Camping Center, or IVCC to all our friends, which include you now that you are reading this!  When I came to this area and business almost 8 years ago, I was totally new to the world of RV camping.  (Other than a couple of very memorable hunting trips in pickup campers with my brothers!)  I was living in Tioga County at the time, when I was attracted to this area because of a particular woman, that I wanted to get to know better.  As I was making plans to move to southeastern Pennsylvania, a friend of mine, Rob, said he knew someone from this area that he used to work for and that he would give him a call and see if he was hiring.  The person he called was Claire Keller, owner of IVCC, and can you believe it, they were actually thinking of hiring someone at that time and I got the job!  I was totally green and didn't know a hatch from a wiffletree, but the old graybeards took me under their wings and being a fairly quick learner, I stuck around!  (And the woman became my wife and we celebrated our 7th anniversary last year!) 

Since I enjoyed computers more than the other guys in my department, I started coaxing some undiscovered talents out of our business software and soon was moved into the parts department to oversee the accessories store and control inventory.  This also led to my current foray into the social media to try to bring IVCC into the world of Twitter, Blogs and smart phones! 

All this explanation to say, we are doing what we can to communicate with our customers on their level, but make no mistake, we are ALL about RVs and camping, not about tweeting, liking and friending!  We are here because it is the best way to communicate with you.  Like in the old days, there were no doubt some that wanted to continue using the telegraph when the phone came along and they probably thought the phone would never catch on and become affordable for every home to have one, but look what happened!  We don't plan to make the same mistake and get left behind, but please remember if our pages aren't as slick as some others or if we chop a head off in a photo or if we seem a little slow on the uptake concerning the lingo of this techie world, we are ALL about RVs and camping!  That's why we're here.  We want to help you have the best camping experience possible and we think for that to happen, IVCC needs to be part of the equation. 

So check back here regularly, go to our website at, www.ivccrv.com , follow us on Twitter @ivccrv and friend us on Facebook, but most importantly, come see us at 3400 Bethlehem Pike, Souderton, PA 18964, or call, (215-723-4852) email (sales@ivccrv.com) or even fax (just kidding, no telegraphing either!) and get your camping experience started with us!  I may be relatively new in the business, but trust me, there are a lot of guys around here with 20+ years of experience!  It's no accident that Indian Valley Camping Center has been in business over 50 years!  Come see why our slogan is, "The Symbol of Outstanding Service"!