Gary:

I was born in a small town in Ohio, but my family moved to Phoenix in 1959 when I was 10, so I almost consider myself a native of Arizona. I love the hot Arizona summers and mild winters, and wouldn’t trade it for anything. I left home at the age of 17, put myself through my senior year of high school, then joined the Army as a Cryptologist and a Teletype/Tape Relay Operator, (computers were just starting to become popular, but were not being utilized too much just then). After leaving the Army in 1969, I went to school at IBM to learn computer programming. Unfortunately, most of the programming languages being taught then soon became obsolete (anyone even heard of COBAL or FORTRAN?), but the basics I learned then have helped me understand how things evolved, and basically enabled me to keep up with things as they are now to a small degree. (Emphasis on SMALL!!) When I was discharged from the Army I was at Fort Ord, California (real close to what now is the WM Marina Dunes resort), and after completing my computer schooling, I worked for a short time for the California Department of Motor Vehicles. During that time, I was married and two years later divorced. My ex-wife and I are still friends, and she is now a vice-mayor in a small town in California. After a couple years I became bored with working for the State of California, so I left and went to work for a produce company, which in turn led to me finding an investor, and we eventually opened our own produce company. We specialized in bulk shipments for a company that shredded lettuce for most of the McDonald's restaurants in Louisiana/Texas and surrounding states and were very successful. At the age of 31, I sold the produce company for enough money that I could retire, and once again moved back to Arizona.

The only problem was that I wasn’t ready to retire, and had never heard of WorldMark yet, so I had no reason to! Over the next few years, I invested in a number of businesses, some good investments – some bad, ranging from a restaurant, a (then) popular Disco (that did very well until disco died), a small computer store in the early 1980’s, and several small car dealerships both in Phoenix and Salt Lake City, Utah. Of all the businesses I’ve been involved with, the automobile business is the one I kind of enjoy the most – I LIKE being able to drive a new and/or different vehicle every week! In the early 90’s, I moved back to my house in Carmel California for a short time, but realized that the rain and fog wasn’t for me, so I sold everything and once again (for the last time) I moved back to Arizona. In 1996 I was diagnosed with cancer, and spent most of the next year in chemotherapy and having radiation treatments. Then, miraculously the cancer went into remission, and so far has not returned. I continue to dabble in the car business today, but mostly just as an independent broker for which I keep current a special wholesale Arizona dealer’s license. I am also currently an officer and CEO of a small corporation that owns a small retail used car dealership and a body shop that specializes in complete vehicle restorations, but lately I haven’t been too involved in the day-to-day operations.

In 2000 I discovered WorldMark the Club quite by accident, bought my original membership from Trendwest, and finally found a reason to start slowing down and thinking about a real retirement. I’m still “thinking” about it at this point, but now that I’m beginning to learn how to utilize my membership a little better (thanks to WMOwners.com) that day may be getting a little closer.

FEATURED OWNERS QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

How long have you been a member of WorldMark? Where have you visited?
I Have been an owner since 2000. I have visited WM resorts at: Spencer Street Las Vegas (7 times) the new Las Vegas resort (4 times) Palm Springs (1 time) Pinetop AZ (2 times) Rancho Vistoso (once) and the NEW Indio resort (once). I have been by the Bison Ranch resort when in the Pinetop area, but never stayed there.

What is your favorite WorldMark resort? What do you like about it?
Either Las Vegas resort is great, but I think I prefer the Spencer Street resort as a quiet place to retreat from the hustle and bustle of Vegas, After my recent visit to the new Indio resort, that may just become my NEW favorite

What things do you like to do when visiting this resort?
Actually, there is SO MUCH to do in Vegas, that no two vacations have ever been the same. New Years and the 4th of July are usually spent up on top of the Stratosphere Tower watching the fireworks - Vegas ALWAYS puts on a great show.

Would you share some of your favorite vacation web links and/or photos from this resort and the surrounding area?
HERE and HERE

Tell us about the people you travel with - are they family? friends? co-workers? If you have children, what are their travel preferences?
I usually travel alone, but during my longer stays I normally have various friends stop in (or fly in from different parts of the country) for a day or three (or four). They all love WM as much as I do, and enjoy my vacations as much as I do.

What is your most exciting vacation memory?
My very first WM vacation, pulling into the grand entrance to the (then) brand new WM Las Vegas resort. What a great first impression that was of things to come. I experienced nearly the same excitement just recently when I visited the newest WM resort at Indio. What a great view and a great location, situated right in the middle of (2) Jack Nicholson designed, professional 16 hole golf courses.

Have you ever had some kind of "vacation disaster" threaten to ruin your trip? Tell us your story!
Nothing disastrous, but having to stand in those stupid parking pass lines at most of the resorts now can definitely put a damper on any one's first impressions of a resort. They are "almost" as annoying as the calls to your room from TW Sales. Not something anyone wants to put up with while on VACATION!

What activities do you and your family enjoy besides vacationing? (i.e. camping, walking, painting, etc)
WORK? No, wait a minute, I don't enjoy that, it's just about the only other "activity" I seem to have time for anymore.

Do you have a hobby? What is it and what makes it special to you?
When I can find the time, I like to do various remodeling project around the house. Last summer I completely remodeled my kitchen, refinished all the cabinets, new appliances and granite counter tops. I'm now in the process of planning the redo of my master bathroom, but I am not in any hurry to start until every last detail is finalized.

Other than a WorldMark destination, what is your favorite place to visit for rest and relaxation?
Going to one of the various lakes here in Arizona (yes, there is water in the desert), or tubing down the Salt River with friends on a hot summer day.

If you could choose to live anywhere in the world, where would that be and why?
Where I live RIGHT NOW! I love the hot weather here in Arizona, we have NO earthquakes, not major floods, no hurricanes, just a little dust every once in a while. Years ago, I moved to beautiful Carmel, California - I had a very nice house near the Pebble Beach Golf Course on 17 mile drive, overlooking the ocean, and I was miserable the whole time I was there (I hate rain and FOG, and that area had both, all the time). I sold everything, and moved back to Arizona, where I grew up, and have never looked back.

How did you choose to become a WorldMark owner? Or, why did you choose WorldMark over other timeshare companies?
I was at the point in life where I was looking for a way to start taking vacations, and stumbled across a TW sales office one day. They offered me dinner for two and a TV to sit through a presentation, and I was hooked. YES, I bought my original membership from TW, and NO I don't regret it. Would I do it again, knowing what I know now? Probably not, but NOT because of the WM product - I'd just buy everything on the resale market this time around.

What do you enjoy most about being a WorldMark owner?
The great people I've met and gotten to know that probably would never have come into my life without the WM experience.

What do you like best about this WMO website community you have helped create?
I don't think I've ever run across another forum that can make you laugh, want to cry, laugh again, get mad about something, then all happy again in the space of just a few minutes. This is a most unusual collection of people and thoughts, ideas and ideals that would be hard to recreate anywhere else.

What suggestions do you have to enhance it?
The one thing that makes this forum work where others have failed, is the freedom to say exactly what you feel, right or wrong, about anything without censorship. How can you improve on THAT? I have noticed, though, that there continue to be quite a few "guests" members visiting the web site. Maybe they should receive some kind of pop up screen every time they enter encouraging them to join in on the fun. Maybe allowing them to see some of the topics (just topics, NOT any of the actual posts) under discussion in areas that they can't view as guests might encourage them to become active members. If they don't know what they're missing, they have no reason to become active! If they are here as "guests", then they must already have an interest in WM, and if they are already owners, WE NEED THEIR VOTES!

Do you have ideas for contests and giveaways that we could possibly incorporate in the future?
Let's raffle off the WM Outhouse! They haven't needed it since Carol Ann left! Maybe we can get Dougie to host a WM GOO there some weekend. No, on second thought, that might not be a very good idea.

Gary