Introducing the sassy, classy, ray of sunshine and 3X Keystone RV owner, Cheryl Kilroy. Cheryl has been one of our biggest advocates and friends since the purchase of her first Keystone Passport Hybrid in 2012. Cheryl and her husband Jack’s Keystone story starts like many other campers—they knew they wanted to start camping, but had no idea what type of RV they were looking for. The Kilroys ended up buying a 16 ft. hybrid camper that they found had many issues they could not ignore.
In search of a new RV with a similar feel, the Kilroys met Jeff Sumney with General RV. He introduced them to a Keystone Passport 19 ft. Hybrid travel trailer that had everything they loved about their previous camper, plus some. Since then, the Kilroys have purchased two other Keystone RV’s through Sumney, and the couple could not be happier. “Our love for Keystone comes from many great experiences, starting with our awesome salesman, Jeff. He is the type of person that is willing to go above and beyond for his customers,” Cheryl said. “Then there is the Keystone team that has been there for me through social media whenever I need you, and it’s because of your support that Jack and I keep coming back to Keystone,” she said.
Meeting Cheryl
Cheryl lives a short distance from Cleveland, OH where the Ohio RV Supershow was recently held on January 9th. Since our marketing department planned to travel out to the show, we decided it was the perfect opportunity to meet the amazing Cheryl and spend the day at the RV show with her. We called Cheryl up, and come to find out, she has gone to the Ohio Supershow as a tradition every year since the purchase of her first Keystone Passport, “when we first got our Passport Jeff asked us if we’d ever been to an RV show, and we hadn’t. So he gave us free tickets, and then every year thereafter. In fact that first year, not 6 months after our first Keystone purchase, we found our second Keystone, a 2013 Passport Ultra Lite Elite 31RE travel trailer and traded ours for it,” Cheryl told us.
We were so incredibly excited to meet her and she was equally excited to meet us, in fact, we were greeted at her door with hug and little gift bags which included fuzzy pink slippers for us to wear around our hotel room. She made us feel right at home with her bubbly personality and kind demeanor, telling us about her experience with Keystone, her current 2016 Cougar 327RES fifth wheel, and her love for the movie “Gone with the Wind.”
Ohio RV Supershow and Keystone Cougar
The Kilroys told us that when they were finally ready to upgrade their Elite to a fifth wheel, they spent of total of two years on the hunt. They finally they found the fifth wheel of their dreams in a Keystone Cougar 327RES. “We went to many different dealerships and tried several different brands, but we just kept finding ourselves coming back to Keystone,” Cheryl said. “Once when my husband was backing into the driveway with our Elite, he accidentally ran into the gutter and broke the window, Keystone had a new one ready for us within a week. So the question was, are we willing to sacrifice the quality and kindness we get with Keystone just to chance it with another manufacturer… No, we were not!” The Kilroy’s Cougar has been a standout addition to their family, so we were very excited to walk through the new 2019 Cougar’s with them and hear what they had to say.
Walking through the new 2019 315RLS, Cheryl was reminded why they ended up choosing Cougar as their first fifth wheel; “The number one reason we chose Cougar was the large shower. You don’t normally see space like that when it comes to an RV shower.” Cougar has kept with the “large shower theme,” being that the exceptional 315RLS has 30” X 50” residential size shower space with a seat. Cheryl also loves the ambiance of her fireplace and the abundant storage space that is typical of the Cougar brand, “when we are camping, we love hosting people in our camper and having them check it out—whenever they do, my grandson will immediately run to the fireplace, turn it on and show it off.” Cheryl has a running joke she uses when showing off her Cougar; “at any campground at any given time, there’s always a gaggle of women that visit each other’s campers and I typically like to start with ‘hey I’ll show ya mine if you show me yours!.’”
The Kilroys also love the many storage options the Cougar brand offers. During our walkthrough of the 315RLS, Cougar representative Joe Bertels revealed a cleverly hidden storage cabinet behind the 50” 4K living room television—a huge selling selling point for the Kilroy's was Cougar's "best-in-class" storage. In regards to Cougar’s new 2019 look, Cheryl said, “Keystone has stepped up their game with color schemes, layouts, floorplans and exteriors.” She loves the extra-large windows that massively brighten up the interior space, the new kitchen faucet and island.
Relax and Enjoy
The Kilroys agree that the best thing about their Cougar is that it grants them the ability to just sit back, relax and enjoy, “when we camp, there is no hustle and bustle of our everyday lives,” Cheryl told us. The advice she would give to new RVers or anyone shopping for an RV would be to talk to other campers or join Facebook groups, “they are some of the friendliest people around— very easy to talk to and always happy to answer questions.” Cheryl and Jack continue to “learn the ropes” by connecting with other RV owners. The Kilroys see themselves enjoying their current Cougar fifth wheel for many years to come, “she [the RV] is our home away from home, we plan on this being our last camper… But who knows, that could change in the future!” Cheryl said."Really it’s like towing along a small apartment. You have to think that you can basically go anywhere you want with the people that mean the most to you, and I wouldn't have it any other way," Heidi added.