Archive for August, 2006

>Affinity Group Inc., a Ventura firm with 13 businesses that provide an array of products and services for outdoor recreation, has acquired another company.

American Guide Services Inc. of Port Angeles, Wash., was purchased for an undisclosed sum Aug 1 2006.

Owned by the same family for more than 30 years, American Guide Services publishes guest guides for campgrounds and recreational vehicle parks. Published in varying sizes, the guides contain directions to local attractions and businesses, as well as maps of parks and nearby areas, said Jo Daquino, Affinity’s multimedia vice president.

The promotional products, including rack cards, brochures, mailers and post cards, are designed to attract guests to campgrounds and get them to stay longer. Daquino called the acquisition a good one for privately held Affinity.

>The Wi-Fi network Google built for Mountain View becomes generally available on Wednesday, providing free broadband wireless access in this California city that the search engine giant calls home.

Google’s network includes 380 access points throughout this city, which has about 72,000 residents and covers a 12-square mile area, said Chris Sacca, Google’s head of special initiatives.

It will offer 1 megabit per second of throughput both upstream and downstream, and that capacity can be increased if necessary, he said. Full Story…

RV Emergency Road Service from the Good Sam Club

>Retired truck driver Jim Chaisson had just turned on the coffee maker one recent morning when he heard a strange sound coming from outside the motor home he shares with his wife, Jimmie, a retired nurse, on the grounds of the Fort Necessity National Battlefield in southern Fayette County.

A young, 200-pound black bear was outside, wrestling with the 4-inch sewer hose coming from the RV, trying to root out the food scraps inside.

Mr. Chaisson, of Greeley, Colo., a temporary volunteer at Fort Necessity, screamed and hollered at the bear, pounding on the side of the motor home to get it to go away.

“It didn’t do anything,” said Mr. Chaisson. “It just looked at us as if to say, ‘You’re infringing on my territory.’ It was not afraid of us. It really did not want to leave, but I was just enough of an irritant to him.”

The bear then lay down underneath a nearby tree for a while, before finally ambling off into the woods.

It was the bear’s second visit to the RV, but Mr. Chaisson’s first face-to-face encounter with one. Full Story…

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