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Prime Times Weekly publication of the Mail Tribune , Medford, Oregon "The first day when we're leaving home is bad for me. I'm tired from getting everything ready to go. After that it's OK." --Val Korner Photo by Jim Craven Don and Vi Korner travel around the U.S. delivering aircraft boarding ramps for Turbo Way Inc., the White City company that manufactures the ramps. The on-again, off-again work supplements their retirement checks and lets them travel expense-free. ON THE ROAD Don and Vi Korner of Sams Valley thought they were retired, but when a friend asked them to deliver an airport ramp for her company they found a new job and an offbeat way to see the country By BILL KETTLER A chance encounter with an old square-dancing partner put Don and Vi Korner on the road for fun and profit. Their dancing pal, Michelle Case, was looking for someone who had time to do a little driving for her new business. The Korners had the time -- Don had recently lost his job. A year after that encounter at a restaurant, the Korners have logged 50,000 miles delivering aircraft boarding ramps for Case's Turbo Way Inc. The Sams Valley couple have traveled as far as Florida, Arizona, Michigan and Utah delivering the ramps, which give handicapped people and wheelchair users easier access to small commuter aircraft. "We'd just be sitting home on our derrieres if we weren't doing this," said Vi. The job was a natural fit for Don, 62, a former over-the-road trucker. Photo by Vi Korner Airport ramps like this one are what the Korners deliver. They sometimes set up the ramps and demonstrate them at airline product shows. They sometimes visit relatives on their travels, and they've been to states as wide-ranging as Utah, Florida and Michigan. "I've hauled everything from eggs to glass," he said. "The only thing I haven't hauled is nitroglycerine." Now Vi, 65, tags along. "I sit and look at the country and look at the country," she said, "and fix my husband a sandwich, and watch the country." Case said the Korners' easygoing manner and natural friendliness makes them just the right couple to talk with the folks who work at small-town airports where the ramps are sold. "They're just so personable," said Case. "After you've known Vi for five minutes she's giving you a hug." Case (the wife of Medford airport manager Bern Case) designed the ramp and formed Turbo Way Inc. to sell it. She has sold about two dozen, and the Korners have delivered most of them. They also visit airline product shows to promote the ramp and demonstrate it at airports. Turbo Way pays the Korners' travel expenses on the road and a salary to demonstrate and assemble the ramps. Vi said the extra cash helps the couple's Social Security checks and Don's Army pension stretch through the month. On the road, they encounter the same conditions that over-the-road truckers face -- bad weather and the boredom that comes with the monotony of the open road. "When we were in Casper (Wyo.) we got in a real blizzard," said Vi. "You couldn't see as far as it is across this room," said her husband. In Peoria, Ill., they had to battle 50-mph winds when they assembled a ramp canopy. And during an overnight layover in Oklahoma, tornadoes swirled nearby. But unlike full-time truckers, they don't have a rigid schedule to follow after they deliver the single ramp their trailer carries. They've been able to visit relatives and renew old acquaintances along the way. Vi, who grew up in Riley, Kan., got to visit relatives she hadn't seen in 40 years. Don got to rekindle a connection with a long-lost son in California. There's time for fun, too. The Korners stopped to see country music shows in Branson, Mo., and visited Dolly Parton's theme park and Elvis Presley's birthplace. "They wanted $4 to take videos (at Presley's home)," said Don. "I said `He didn't mean that much to me. Goodbye."' Being on the road does have its price. Vi, an avid gardener, won't bother to put in her typical big garden this summer because she doesn't expect to be home enough to tend it. And she said their lawn got pretty unruly when they were gone for a couple of weeks this spring. Their big square trailer draws attention wherever they go. "I've had people ask `What kind of antique car do you have in there?' " said Don. "I tell 'em I'm not hauling anything but sailboat fuel." The trailer comes home empty, except for the treasures Don and Vi pick up along the way -- things like a concrete alligator from Florida and a cream separator Vi brought back from Kansas. She says people in many of the small towns they visit complain about problems that would sound familiar to many Rogue Valley residents. "They're concerned about the same things we are," she said, "things like growth and development taking all the farm land." Vi says getting started is the hardest part of each trip. "The first day when we're leaving home is bad for me. I'm tired from getting everything ready to go. After that it's OK." Time passes pretty quickly on the road, she says, except for the last few hours on the trip back home. "Coming back, when we're about 200 miles from home it seems like (that last stretch) is longer than the whole trip." Vi said the trips have made her grateful for what she and her husband have in Sams Valley. "You don't realize what's in your back yard. Traveling has made me appreciate my home and my family." Prime Times front page Mail Tribune front page Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA