The scene opens with an establishing shot: Four sleek RVs sit like grazing behemoths, their shiny noses inches above the gravel. Nearby a few humbler RVs offer profile views to the motorists whizzing up Crain Highway. No one stops; nobody at all populates this multi-wheeled jungle.
Cut to the interior: A lone customer prowls the store at Leo's Vacation Center. He's a retired Army sergeant with no need for another recreational vehicle, new or used, big or small. All he needs are two ice cube trays. That'll be $4.49 plus tax, thanks.
Here's where dealership owner Greg Merkel, a bear of a man, gazes into the camera, wrings his hands and curses the horrid economy for putting the RV boom on blocks and endangering a business started by his mother and father (Leo himself!) 37 years ago on this very spot in Gambrills.
Sorry, wrong movie. Cut!
Take two: Those RVs really do sit idle on the lot, and the ex-sergeant is the only customer for the moment on this Tuesday. But Merkel offers a sunnier assessment than you'd expect, given that his sales are off 25 percent since 2006 and national banks won't finance credit-worthy buyers, federal bailout and all.
Merkel starts by saying things are "overall not terrible." And, he insists, "I think they're getting better. Business has been off over the past year, yes. But there's still business out there."
In fact, last month's sales were 27 percent above January 2008's. With February a third over, he'd moved over a dozen RVs, never mind that most were pre-owned as opposed to new models like the 40-foot condos on wheels listing for $250,000.
He points out that the region's bevy of federal jobs has helped insulate Maryland's economy. Local banks like M&T and BB&T are making loans, he says. And no one on his staff of 26 has been laid off.
"We've been through gas rations, 20 percent interest rates, wars," Merkel says, ticking off the company's past challenges with a note of pride. (His father, 84, recalls growing up in Washington during the Great Depression, when his father painted the White House for a fellow named Roosevelt.)
"Even when times are bad," Greg Merkel asserts, "the avid RVer still RVs."
Among the avid is Richard Preston, a 68-year-old retiree from Glen Burnie who stopped by Leo's to check on his RV, which needs repairs. He and his wife enjoy taking their six grandchildren to Myrtle Beach, S.C., in the summertime. "You see more of the country when you drive like that," Preston said.
