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From the Omaha World Herald, 7 Sep 98

Creditors are Trying to Collect a Campground Company's Debts
From Customers Unaware of its Bankruptcy

By ROBYNN TYSVER, WORLD-HERALD BUREAU

Lincoln, NE - Thousand Adventures Inc. is dead.

The former Nebraska campground company that sported Lear jets and courted politicians now exists only in bankruptcy court after years of battling creditors and consumer-fraud lawsuits.

But the company that ended up with Thousand Adventures' property is accused of trying to collect money from campers who had signed contracts with the defunct company.

Doug Napier, the Fort Madison, Iowa, attorney who filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of Thousand Adventures' 70,000 members, says the collection effort being reported across the nation is an attempt to take advantage of senior citizens and would-be-retirees who dreamed of cruising from campground to campground in their RVs.

He said these campers are under no obligation to continue with the new company, Travel America Inc., unless they want too. " (But) It's never made clear to them that it's a new offer," he said.

Nebraska opted against a consumer fraud lawsuit after a Blair, NE campground company's bankruptcy caused grief for some campers.

Meantime, campers who bought memberships to 58 campgrounds now are left with 20 campgrounds - more if they want to pay added fees - and no assurances that those will continue to exist.

Napier and the lawyer for the Thousand Adventures bankruptcy trustee in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Dan Childers, believe it's only a matter of time before all the former Thousand Adventure campgrounds revert back to the bankruptcy court and are sold to pay creditors.

An attorney for Travel America, Michael Mallaney of Des Moines, IA, denied that Travel America obtained the campgrounds in violation of bankruptcy laws.

He said the transfers were made by Thousand Adventures subsidiaries in individual states to Travel America in exchange for assuming any debt on the properties.

He said the idea behind the property transfers was to keep the campgrounds open for the campers. One judge in Ohio has approved the transfer, he said.

Mallaney also said Travel America was not collecting on Thousand Adventure contracts but, as campground operator, was collecting membership fees.

"As I understand it," he said, "if former members of any of these subsidiaries want to use the Travel America camp system, those systems are available in exchange for what is called a membership fee."

A number of companies bought Thousand Adventure campgrounds for as little as $1 or the cost of property taxes owed after the Blair, NE, company was forced into bankruptcy last year, Childers said.

Gretchen Pettit is one of the unhappy campers who was unaware of the bankruptcy case.

We were led to believe that Thousand Adventures just changed its name," she said.

Bankruptcy Fiasco Comes at Expense of Campers

The Lincoln woman said she fielded a telephone call this spring from a salesman named Bill Jones of Weeping Water, Neb. The 64-year-old said that Jones demanded that she and her husband, Ivan, continue to make their $70 monthly payments.

Pettit is worried that Thornhaven, her favorite campground in Weeping Water, won't be open for long.

"He was very rude. He threatened me," Pettit said. "He said, 'We know where you live. Don't be late with your payments."

Thousand Adventures wasn't always Pettit's nightmare. The company had a hopeful beginning in 1982 when David Vopnford of Blair decided to capitalize on the RV craze by selling memberships to a group of campgrounds in 21 states.

For about $6,000, campers would have access to 58 campgrounds.

Childers said it appeared that Vopnford started the company in good faith but was consumed by debt. His mistake, Childers believes, was a penchant for luxury.

"The money spent on yachts and Lear jets, that was very imprudent to say the least," Childers said.

Vopnford's high style included two Lear jets and a $600,000 yacht, which is now the focus of a search by a lawyer hired by the bankruptcy trustee.

A Republican, Vopnford also was known to contribute heavily to GOP candidates.

Vopnford now is believed to be managing a Mississippi campground. He did not have a listed phone number in Picayune, the town where he was believed to be living last.

The good times began to come apart when Vopnford failed to secure a loan to keep the business going, said John O'Hanlon, his former Blair attorney.

For several years in the mid-1990s, consumer-fraud divisions in 21 states battled with Thousand Adventures, forcing the closure of campgrounds, forbidding the company from selling additional memberships and winning monetary settlements, said Ben Bellus, Assistant Attorney General in Iowa.

In 1997, the company was forced into bankruptcy. The campgrounds were then moved into Travel America, of which the exact ownership remains unknown, Childers said.

Because of the property transfers, Thousand Adventures was then able to claim only $1,600 in assets and $70 million in debt in bankruptcy court.

Childers believes the transfers were orchestrated by Vopnford's creditors. "It would appear Mr. Vopnford didn't get anything personal out of these transfers," Childers said.

The idea behind the property shuffle was to keep the campgrounds open as long as possible and out of the hands of the bankruptcy court in order to allow creditors to collect from campers, said Napier, the attorney for the class action suit.

He said Travel America knows it's only a matter of time before the campfires are extinguished permanently at the 20 remaining TAI campgrounds. "I still believe that's their plan," Napier said.

"They haven't been putting money back into the campgrounds."

Mallaney, Travel America's lawyer, said: "I think that's Mr. Napier's allegation and I think Travel America would deny that." Ray Novelli, president of Travel America in Irvine,.CA, could not be reached for comment.

Childers said there is testimony to support Napier's claim. He said two men - including David Vopnford - have testified that the purpose of Travel America was to make sure the creditors could continue to collect from campers.

The Bankruptcy Trustee would like to inform campers about the bankruptcy proceedings but can't because it doesn't have a membership list, Childers said.

Travel America has refused the trustee's request for a list of members, prompting the trustee to go to court to try to force the company to release the list, he said.

Meantime, creditors - whom Travel America also has refused to identify - continue to collect from campers, he said.

One creditor has hired Resort Marketing Inc. of Weeping Water to collect on the contracts. The company is owned by David Vopnford's son and daughter-in-law, Ken and Lynn Vopnford.

Lynn Vopnford said she and her husband are not involved with Travel America and are working only as contractors. She said she did not remember the creditor's name.

The creditor believes that although Thousand Adventures is bankrupt, the customers still have a membership with Travel America, Lynn Vopnford said.

"They're owed that money," she said. "These members still have a contract."

But several states, including Iowa, New York, and Kansas, have been aggressive in pursuing consumer complaints and have ordered that such collections stop.

In Iowa, for example, neither Travel America nor the creditors can collect unless customers willingly and knowingly agree to transfer their membership to Travel America as a result of a settlement with the state's consumer fraud division, said Bellus, the Assistant Attorney General in Iowa.

Bellus said this fall he learned about a letter sent from "T.A.I. Collections" of Weeping Water to an Iowa camper. The letter informed a couple that unless they paid on their Travel America contract, their Thousand Adventure account would become "due and payable."

Many people respond to such tactics because they fear that if they don't pay Travel America, their credit will be ruined, Bellus said.

Bellus said he quickly wrote a letter to Travel America and to Resort Marketing, ordering them to stop collection efforts.

"We are very well aware of Travel America and we are watching them he said.

Lynn Vopnford said she did not know of any such letter sent by the Weeping Water office. She also did not know that the company was not allowed to collect in Iowa and said she had not seen Bellus' letter.

Vopnford said the whole misadventure with the campground has been difficult for her family.

"We're trying to start over again," she said. "We lost a lot just like other people lost a lot. The hardest thing is everybody associates our last name with Thousand Adventures. You say your last name sometimes to people and they cringe. It's very, very tough."