Sunday, Sept. 13th
As most of you have discovered by now, I have had some difficulty sending out my Travelogues through gmail. Since Verizon shut down their SMPT-client, I had to switch over to Gmail to send email. I can still receive messages using my original email address - landers at TFB dot com. So, if you send us anything, continue to use that email address rather than the new Gmail address which shows in the header of this message.
Anyway, we had a wonderful few days in Eugene, OR visiting with cousin John & Ruth Anderson. We shared some meals with them and go caught up on the family news. We also had the opportunity to visit the Monaco factory, take the tour, and see the changes that have been made in the manufacturing process since Monaco was purchased by Navistar. All the production is being done in the old Plant 17 with one continuous production line. There are almost 800 formerly employees that have been hired back and they are building one coach a day. Our tour guide was Kevin, a Monaco Salesman, who was rehired and took us on the two-hour tour. We were able to get right down with the production folks and talk with them individually. They are all very glad to be back to work. We were very disappointed that we didn’t have the time to see April Klein, Garth Herring, or even Kay Toolson. I suspect they were all pretty busy with the reorganization of the company. I did spot Enoch Hutchcraft as he was leaving the parking lot and he gave us a wave of recognition. We also saw Brian Weatherly, one of the sharpest Service Techs in the company. He was on his way home, but stopped to give Dottie a hug and tell us that there are three Service Techs working at the old Service Center in Coburg.
We left Eugene on Sunday morning, the 6th, and drove in a light rain to Florence, OR and the South Jetty Thousand Trails Preserve. We were able to get a secluded site with a good view of the southern sky for our satellite reception. We spent four nights there and visited the Elks Lodge and the Elks RV Park located four miles north of town. The RV parts store adjacent to South Jetty is closing so all their merchandise was marked down with a 40% discount. I found a couple of items that were too good to pass up, especially at that price. We had a quiet rest at South Jetty and enjoyed the peace and quiet. South Jetty Betty is still there and cooking meals. On Monday (Labor Day) she did a special breakfast and it was delicious!
We left South Jetty on Wednesday and drove south along the coast to the Brookings Elks Lodge. They had a great dinner so we took advantage of that and had dinner there. Right across the street is a Fred Meyers store and we did a little shopping and wandering. Their fuel is ten cents less than the rest of the service stations so we topped off on Thursday morning to get the last diesel fuel under $3/gallon. As soon as we crossed into California, the prices jumped up to $3.05-3.20/gallon!
Our next stop was Eureka, CA for a mini-reunion with some family members. John Anderson’s daughter has moved to Eureka from Moses Lake, WA and is Dean of Academics at College of the Redwoods. They have a beautiful home in the hills south of Eureka and several of her cousins and aunts were there to spend some time. We have had a wonderful time getting reacquainted with several cousins, eating some fantastic meals with accompanying adult beverages, and visiting some of the sights in the Eureka area. Cousin Paul Anderson, from San Jose, and I did a quick tour of a couple of the microbreweries on Friday afternoon and tasted some excellent brews. I was able to bring a few bottles back to the coach with me for future enjoyment. This morning we will visit the Samoa Smokehouse for a brunch as some of them need to start heading home. We will leave Monday morning and drive down to Russian River Thousand Trails Preserve in Cloverdale for four nights.
One of the fun things about the reunion is getting together with cousin Doug and Virginia Anderson from Mesa, AZ. Doug purchased a ‘96 Monaco Executive, almost a classic coach that was built when Monaco was really paying attention to quality and details. The coach is gorgeous with no slide-outs, but the M-11 engine and some eye-catching lines. We have had the chance to talk motorhomes and share some ideas and solutions to some of the problems of this lifestyle. I hope to get him involved with some of the Monaco rallies and social activities that we do with our Monaco friends.
That sorta brings you up-to-date with us. Hopefully this will get to all of you and not be dumped as a spam message by Gmail.
As most of you have discovered by now, I have had some difficulty sending out my Travelogues through gmail. Since Verizon shut down their SMPT-client, I had to switch over to Gmail to send email. I can still receive messages using my original email address - landers at TFB dot com. So, if you send us anything, continue to use that email address rather than the new Gmail address which shows in the header of this message.
Anyway, we had a wonderful few days in Eugene, OR visiting with cousin John & Ruth Anderson. We shared some meals with them and go caught up on the family news. We also had the opportunity to visit the Monaco factory, take the tour, and see the changes that have been made in the manufacturing process since Monaco was purchased by Navistar. All the production is being done in the old Plant 17 with one continuous production line. There are almost 800 formerly employees that have been hired back and they are building one coach a day. Our tour guide was Kevin, a Monaco Salesman, who was rehired and took us on the two-hour tour. We were able to get right down with the production folks and talk with them individually. They are all very glad to be back to work. We were very disappointed that we didn’t have the time to see April Klein, Garth Herring, or even Kay Toolson. I suspect they were all pretty busy with the reorganization of the company. I did spot Enoch Hutchcraft as he was leaving the parking lot and he gave us a wave of recognition. We also saw Brian Weatherly, one of the sharpest Service Techs in the company. He was on his way home, but stopped to give Dottie a hug and tell us that there are three Service Techs working at the old Service Center in Coburg.
We left Eugene on Sunday morning, the 6th, and drove in a light rain to Florence, OR and the South Jetty Thousand Trails Preserve. We were able to get a secluded site with a good view of the southern sky for our satellite reception. We spent four nights there and visited the Elks Lodge and the Elks RV Park located four miles north of town. The RV parts store adjacent to South Jetty is closing so all their merchandise was marked down with a 40% discount. I found a couple of items that were too good to pass up, especially at that price. We had a quiet rest at South Jetty and enjoyed the peace and quiet. South Jetty Betty is still there and cooking meals. On Monday (Labor Day) she did a special breakfast and it was delicious!
We left South Jetty on Wednesday and drove south along the coast to the Brookings Elks Lodge. They had a great dinner so we took advantage of that and had dinner there. Right across the street is a Fred Meyers store and we did a little shopping and wandering. Their fuel is ten cents less than the rest of the service stations so we topped off on Thursday morning to get the last diesel fuel under $3/gallon. As soon as we crossed into California, the prices jumped up to $3.05-3.20/gallon!
Our next stop was Eureka, CA for a mini-reunion with some family members. John Anderson’s daughter has moved to Eureka from Moses Lake, WA and is Dean of Academics at College of the Redwoods. They have a beautiful home in the hills south of Eureka and several of her cousins and aunts were there to spend some time. We have had a wonderful time getting reacquainted with several cousins, eating some fantastic meals with accompanying adult beverages, and visiting some of the sights in the Eureka area. Cousin Paul Anderson, from San Jose, and I did a quick tour of a couple of the microbreweries on Friday afternoon and tasted some excellent brews. I was able to bring a few bottles back to the coach with me for future enjoyment. This morning we will visit the Samoa Smokehouse for a brunch as some of them need to start heading home. We will leave Monday morning and drive down to Russian River Thousand Trails Preserve in Cloverdale for four nights.
One of the fun things about the reunion is getting together with cousin Doug and Virginia Anderson from Mesa, AZ. Doug purchased a ‘96 Monaco Executive, almost a classic coach that was built when Monaco was really paying attention to quality and details. The coach is gorgeous with no slide-outs, but the M-11 engine and some eye-catching lines. We have had the chance to talk motorhomes and share some ideas and solutions to some of the problems of this lifestyle. I hope to get him involved with some of the Monaco rallies and social activities that we do with our Monaco friends.
That sorta brings you up-to-date with us. Hopefully this will get to all of you and not be dumped as a spam message by Gmail.
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