Rich and Melba:

We are Rich and Melba and we live the beautiful little town of Cloverdale in Northern Ca. Rich is from Washington State and I am originally from South Carolina. When I was in the second grade my parent’s left family and friends to move to Oregon. We made many driving trips across the U. S and before I graduated from high school I had visited most of the lower 48 states. Our children are Rick and his wife Nicole, daughter Lynda and her husband Drew, and Lauri and her husband R.C. We have 8 incredible grandchildren, Ryan 13, Rachelle 9, Ashley 12, Nicolas 8, Derick 6, Brieana 3, Devon 8 and Derryn 6. (I promise I won’t drag out the pictures)
Rich is a minister and we been pastors of the same church for 30 years. I taught school until we had children.

FEATURED OWNERS QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

How long have you been a member of WorldMark? Where have you visited?
We have been member since 2001. We have visited Birch Bay, Palm Springs, Running Y, Angels Camp, Clear Lake, Windsor, Branson and the resorts in Hawaii We had a motorcycle accident in 2004 so that put a damper on our travel.

What is your favorite WorldMark resort? What do you like about it?
I don’t have a favorite resort because I like the individual “flavor” of each resort.

What things do you like to do when visiting this resort?
We like to explore the area, hiking and taking photos. We also enjoy meeting the local people.

Would you share some of your favorite vacation web links and/or photos from this resort and the surrounding area?
I google the area where we are traveling to find as much info as possible. Rich has some great shots of Maui so maybe he will add them.

Tell us about the people you travel with - are they family? friends? co-workers? If you have children, what are their travel preferences?
Rich and I travel alone most of the time. But when we have the kids they love Running Y in the winter because they like to watch in snow from the indoor pool. They like to explore the area around Angels Camp in the summer.

What is your most exciting vacation memory?
Our first visit to the Hawaiian Islands and our trip to Israel were some of our greatest memories.

Have you ever had some kind of "vacation disaster" threaten to ruin your trip? Tell us your story!
I believe when life hands you a lemon, squeeze it and make lemonade. We try to be flexible and work with every situation. But my husband is not a camper and we were at a big camp ground between Astoria, Or. And Seaside. Rich hates the rain and has clastrophia and he was in a mummy bag in the smallest tent. You can guess what happened. Yep, he wanted to make a hole in the top of the tent but went for a walk instead. He was walking around the huge park at 2 am with no id on him and it began to rain. He had visions of being arrested. He was not a happy camper! We left the next morning.

What activities do you and your family enjoy besides vacationing? (i.e. camping, walking, painting, etc)
Until 30 months ago we loved to ride motorcycles but we were in an accident and Rich is now walking with a cane. So guess the bike days are over. We love the ocean, photography and exploring new places.

Do you have a hobby? What is it and what makes it special to you?
We enjoy reading and photography. I love to make scrapbooks of our adventures.

Other than a WorldMark destination, what is your favorite place to visit for rest and relaxation?
I seem to be able to rest more in Hawaii.

If you could choose to live anywhere in the world, where would that be and why?
Well, Summer, Winter and Spring I would choose Kona but in the Fall it would be Lake Tahoe. I love Tahoe in the fall when the leaves are changing and the crowds are gone.

How did you choose to become a WorldMark owner? Or, why did you choose WorldMark over other timeshare companies?
We had been to several timeshare presentations and always came away saying “what a joke”. But in the late 90’s our daughter, Lynda told us they had bought a timeshare we did the proper parent thing---“you have got to be kidding, you can’t afford this on a teachers salary, you could stay in some great hotels, yada, yada yada.” She needed me to go along as the nanny for her son while she and her husband went to a coaching conference in Palm Springs. It was great to have a condo to chase a little guy in , instead of a hotel room. I was sold! But it took a trip to Birch Bay to convince my husband. After our goo in Windsor he decided he wanted to buy more points. We love the flexibility you have with WorldMark, the inventory specials and bonus time. We have met some great people, too.

What do you like best about this WMO website community you have helped create?
After awhile, you begin to feel like part of a big family. I enjoy being able to post without censorship from TW.

What suggestions do you have to enhance it?
Do we have a place to post suggestions for enhancements?

Do you have ideas for contests and giveaways that we could possibly incorporate in the future?
We could have a contest to design GOO wear. T shirts, hats and bags that have our logo on it but also has GOO incorporated into the design. Giveaways could be wmowners.com t shirts or hats.

Rich and Melba