Saturday night, August 27

Day 4 at Oregon Motorcoach Service We were up and ready for Chance to get the coach and drive it into the service bay. He needed to tighten up the water line for the ice maker and the outside water dispenser. Darrell, the cabinet maker, had to attach the wood trim and give it the finished look. By 3pm the job was completed, Chance had retrieved all the food we had stored in their employee refrigerator and placed it inside our new refer, and the coach was moved out to its parking spot for the night.

Bob Vinson told me they had run out of the filters he needed for the Annual Service, so the filters would be delivered first thing in the morning. We walked into the coach and were absolutely astounded by the quality workmanship that we observed! It was a beautiful job of adding the wood trim, matching the cherry wood, and making it look like it had been installed at the factory. Both my wife and I are impressed with their work.

Day 5 found us ready for Dave, another Service Tech, taking our coach back inside for the Annual Service. He changed the oil, changed all four filters plus the hydraulic filters, and calling me out to look at a problem they had discovered. Two of the rear Bilstein shock absorbers were leaking, and one of the front passenger side shock mounts had broken and the shock is pushing against the metal floor. As long as I’m going to have to replace the two rear shocks, they suggested I replace all of them. These are the original Bilstein shocks that have over 150,000 miles on them. Bob asked if I had ever dealt with Kaiser Brake & Alignment and I assured him that I had. However, if OMS could do the work, I’d prefer to come back and have them replace the shocks and repair the broken shock mount. He had Chance look at the broken mount, estimated about three hours of work to re-weld the mount, and told me he couldn’t get me in until Sept. 14th. I told him to schedule me and I’d get the shocks off the internet and have them shipped to OMS. I found a dealer in El Cajon, CA that sells the shocks for $85.00 each and will phone them on Monday with an order.

So the bottom line of the refer replacement was17 hours of labor (not the 28 hours actually used) for a total of $1785.00 and $137.29 in parts. The total amount was more than I had budgeted, but there was some major modification that had to be done. The finished product makes it worth every penny we spent! I would definitely recommend Oregon Motorcoach Service for any work that needed to be done. They have some outstanding techs, a great customer lounge, and a customer service attitude that makes it easier to spend your hard-earned money for truly quality workmanship!

We were done by 10:30am and able to get on the road by 11:00. We had about 47 miles to drive to Albany and get there in time to greet the other Parking Crew members as they arrived. All the Parkers arrived on Friday and we were invited to join Jon Katin, one of our Parkers who lives in Albany, at his house for a brisket dinner. We carpooled to his house, socialized, ate, and had an initial meeting to welcome the new ones and explain my expectations for the Parking Crew. It’s a great group of volunteers and we had a wonderful dinner.

Saturday morning we met at 8am and started the measuring and marking. We got the main parking lot completed and had time to rest by 2pm. Some of us met and drove to Calapooia Brewing Co. for dinner. It was a productive day and a chance to get to know each other and their working limitations. Tomorrow we will finish measuring and marking and get prepared for the rush on Monday morning.

Sunday, Sept. 4

The Rally is over and was a successful gathering according to most attendees. We were able to finish all of our marking with little or no problem, and were up early Monday morning to greet the early arrivals. Since this was a factory-sponsored Rally, there was no additional fee for arriving early. Several friends had contacted me about the best time to arrive at the fairgrounds. I told all of them to be lined up at the entry gate by 6am. We even had a group of 21 coaches that were parked across the street at a campground and wanted to arrive together so they could park together. The Linn County Fairgrounds has only 50 electrical sites, and they were to be sold on a first come-first served basis. And that would be the reason for arriving early at the gate.

Monday morning at 6:30am, I drove my golf cart to the Check-In Gate to deliver a canopy and table for the ladies that would be working out there. At that time I counted 24 coaches in line and waiting. I had set out cones on Sunday night to create two lanes for the early arrivals. Both of those lanes were full and the coaches were beginning to get close to the street, which would cause a major traffic problem for us and the Albany police. The crew for the Check-In Gate arrived at their position about 8:45 and we set up the canopy and tables. At 9am sharp we started checking in the attendees and directing them to their parking spots. Remember, all of these folks had paid $300 to attend the Rally, and now the electric was extra. Our price for 50-amp hookups was $70, 30-amp was $50, and I had an additional thirteen 20-amp hookups that I could sell for $50. I had intended to hold the 20-amp sites strictly as a backup. But it didn’t take long for the electric hookups to be sold out. So, I decided to start selling the 20-amp and sold all of them! By 10:30 all of the electric sites had been sold and the coaches were parked.

We then concentrated on getting the rest of the coaches into their spots. Due to the efforts of an excellent Parking Crew, we continued to park coaches in the parking lot all the way to 4pm. At that point I decided to let the Parking Crew secure and rest. I stayed ready to park any late arrivals and help them get situated. We left a sign saying to remain at the Gate and they would be parked the next morning. We had eight golf carts that had arrived on Friday, so I moved them to the Service truck for the Service Technicians to use once they arrived in the morning. We kept two for our use.

Tuesday morning we were up early enough for some coffee and Costco muffins. We talked about the problems from the previous day and what we had in store for us. I reduced the crew since we had only 26 of the 147 coaches remaining. We went to the Check-In Gate and found one coach waiting. The remainder of the day went very slowly. At 3pm we started taking down the canopy, collecting the cones and traffic barricades, and securing the entry area. We still had two coaches that hadn’t shown, so I was ready to get them parked if they came in late. Linda Clarkson, who headed the Check-In Gate, counted her money and balanced and I turned it all in. We had two arrivals after 5pm, so I drove the cart out and got them parked in time to join the Social Hour. It consisted of an open bar and a lot of tasty finger foods in the area of the new display coaches. The food was sufficient to act as a dinner and gave us an indication of the quality of the catering for the next few days.

Wednesday and Thursday we had catered breakfast and dinner. Our breakfasts were fantastic with home-baked cinnamon sticks that were amazing! Dinners were just as good and the catering was outstanding! On Wednesday night the entertainment was a band that really played to the audience. It was a four-piece band that had a great variety of music and there were very few people that were getting up and leaving. It’s amazing to see all the “old fogies” that were up dancing to the music! On Thursday night the entertainment was a magician and his partner. He was a bit of a disappointment after the band, but his show was only an hour giving the attendees the opportunity to return to their coaches and gather in groups for socializing and Happy Hours. The food and entertainment gave us something to look forward to for next year.

On Wednesday night, we had the chance to hear the new CEO of Monaco RV, LLC, Bill Osborn. The Service Seminar was led by five Monaco service folks and answered a lot of questions, and the seminar with Mike Snell, VP of Sales, was very enlightening. He stated that his biggest selling job is working on his wife and convincing her to move to Indiana (closer to the headquarter offices of Navistar). Monaco, like all big companies, is changing and many things from the good ol’ days is disappearing. It’s a sad fact of the economy and the new business world. Roughly 450 people will be losing their jobs with Monaco in Coburg, but there will be about 450 new jobs in Indiana.

Friday morning was departure day for us. We had reservations for South Jetty Thousand Trails preserve in Florence, OR. It is a 107-mile drive and arriving on a Labor Day weekend. We wanted to depart early to as to arrive at an early hour in hopes of getting a good parking spot. We and the Clarksons wanted to park near each other and have a site that allows satellite reception. South Jetty has a limited number of sites that can get satellite, so we were concerned about that. We left about 9am and headed south. We stopped in Coburg long enough to dump our tanks and refuel. We arrived at South Jetty about 11am and found two sites that adjoined and had satellite reception. We were relieved to find the spots after driving through this park on gravel roads that weren’t designed for long, large coaches like ours. We have enjoyed the park so far and went into town yesterday to do some shopping at the local Bi-Mart, Grocery Outlet, and Fred Mayer stores. One of our other friends, Gene & Darlene McDonough, are in the park, but will leave on Monday morning. We’ve seen the coaches of some of the folks that were at the Rally and will probably visit with them later. As I look out the window, I see a lot of trailers and coaches that are leaving. Many of them are carrying sand toys and heading for the nearby dunes. On Monday there will be a mass exodus of the folks returning home for the work week. And we’ll have the park to ourselves!

We are parked at the Whaler’s Rest Thousand Trails Preserve just south of Newport, OR. We had a terrific time while we were at the Pacific City Thousand Trails Preserve. After our shopping trip to Tillamook, we drove down to Lincoln City to check out the Grocery Outlet, Bi-Mart, and the Safeway stores. After we had done our shopping and browsing, we drove to South Lincoln City to find the Rusty Truck Brewing Co. We discovered a neat little microbrewery with a restaurant attached. They served typical pub meals and had their own beers that were much more reasonably-priced than the Pelican Brewpub in Pacific City. We had their lunch special - a bratwurst sandwich with fries for around $6. It was delicious! We talked to the son of the owner who was working the bar and tables. He told us that the brewery was a project that he and his dad started seven years ago. It has been accepted by the community and they have weekly band performances along with their food specials. He was a very likable guy that spent the time talking with us and telling us about their beers.

A couple of days later we all drove back up to Tillamook to visit the Tillamook Air Museum and the Tillamook Cheese Factory and go on their tour. It was a self-guided tour that enabled us to see the massive packaging line and see how the cheese is cut and wrapped for sale. We also sampled the famous Tillamook ice cream. They had more unique flavors that we have never before seen. The ice cream was delicious and was followed by a walk to the store at the end of the tour. Of course I walked away with four packages of cheese - sharp cheddar, hot habanero jack, pepper jack, and smoked black pepper white cheddar cheese. These are some REALLY good cheeses and taste wonderful with a tall glass of ale!

Fortunately for us we went to the Air Museum before we ate our way through the cheese tour. The Museum is housed in one of the largest hangars I’ve ever seen. It was built to house eight air ships (blimps) used by the US Navy during WW2. The original hangars were made completely of wood frames with concrete bases. The hangars are nearly 200’ high and large enough for a plane to fly through them. There is only one hangar remaining as the first one fell victim to a devastating fire and was totally destroyed. The concrete arches that held the doors are still standing, but nothing else remains. The second hangar houses the Air Museum and has several aircraft on static display. There are mock-ups of the life at a Naval blimp base and examples of the work that the blimps accomplished along our coast protecting ships from the German submarines. It was a very informative museum with a short film that explained the purpose and life of a blimp base.

That was a busy and tiring day! We had a great time exploring Tillamook’s attractions. On Wednesday we left Pacific City and drove some 50+ miles through Lincoln City, Depoe Bay, and Newport to the Whaler’s Rest Thousand Trails preserve. Dottie and I have been here before, but it was back in 2003, and we don’t remember much about the park. Andy & Linda led the way down the coast and we arrived at the park around 11:30. Once we checked in and found an open site, I tried to get satellite reception through the trees. I tried both the rooftop antenna and the portable dish, but was unable to get a good signal because of the height of the trees. I finally gave up and walked back to the Ranger Station to pay for the TV cable service for two weeks. There are almost 50 channels, so we won’t have a lack of TV selection.

We are looking forward to seeing some of the attractions around the Newport area. There are several museums, some fantastic restaurants along the bay front, and a couple of microbrew pubs that will have to be visited. We’ll be here until the 20th when we head back to Eugene to get the refrigerator replaced.

Thursday, August 18

Newport, OR is a glitzy little beach town that appeals to the Coast Vacationer. On the weekends the traffic is horrible! It is a bit larger than most of the Coast cities and has a Wal-Mart (soon to be a Super Center), a Safeway, and a Fred Meyer store. For those of you not familiar with Fred Meyer, it is a big department-like store very similar to the Super Wal-Marts. Fred Meyer has a pretty good selection of groceries and the associated departments include hardware, clothing, crafts, etc. They don’t seem to be as expansive as the Super Wal-Marts, but Fred Meyer is a welcome sight in those smaller towns where Wal-Mart hasn’t made a presence. All along the Oregon coast are little restaurants that claim to have the best clam chowder in the world. Frankly, I feel they all taste the same!

We have been to the famous Rogue Nation, home of the Rogue Brewery here in Newport. Rogue was founded on the premise that they truly are rogues in the brewing industry. They are best known for their Dead Guy Ale. They have received numerous awards for some of their unique brewing combinations. There are two locations in Newport - the touristy bay front area with the Rogue Public House restaurant and Rogue Nation, the location of their brewery also located on the Newport Bay. We visited the Public House and sampled some of their chowder and chili. Both locations bring a small sample of a featured brew as soon as you sit down. The Public House caters to the tourists that walk along the historic bay front area. Rogue Nation is the brewery and also has a small, reduced-menu restaurant. We took the tour through their facility and saw the brewery and bottling plant. We joined the Rogue Nation and received a membership card which grants us a 75 cent reduction on the cost of a pint of beer. Then on Tuesdays, if you wear a Hawaiian shirt, you can get a free beer at both locations. This started with the founder attempting to add some fun for his workers and has expanded to his customers. We also visited the Rogue Distillery, a very small plant next to Rogue Nation, that is producing small, expensive bottles of spirits. They are producing two gins, two rums, two whiskeys, and a vodka. These small bottles sell for $35-40 each! We were able to get a sample of their spirits - about a fourth of an ounce - and taste the product they are making. The whiskey is very tasty, but out of my price range.

We went to the Chowder Bowl at Nye Beach to visit a small restaurant with clam chowder. It is right on the beach and gave us the chance to watch the ”tourists” romp on the sand. That seems to be the big attraction in this part of the country. Whaler’s Rest, the park where we are staying, is used as a home base for a lot of the tourists since it is walking distance to the beach from the park. We have a lot of families that are having their last “hurrah” before school starts. The park is open to the public, for a price - about $45/night, and we are seeing many cars with stickers indicating they aren’t members of Thousand Trails. Equity Lifestyles Properties who own Thousand Trails have opened the parks to the public at a premium price. I personally would never spend that much money to camp in these parks, but there doesn’t seem to be a lack of families ready to spend that much.

We will be leaving the Oregon Coast tomorrow morning. We’re going back to Eugene to get ready for the refrigerator replacement on Monday morning. I hope to have the chance to talk to Stella Shelton, the coordinator for the Monaco Rally coming next week. We have a few things to discuss concerning the parking arrangement and other minor issues that need to be resolved. We’ll stay at the Oregon Motorcoach Services location over the weekend and be ready for Monday morning. Preparation will include moving my little refrigerator from the storage bay into the coach to use during the conversion. We have a lot of sorting to do to get foods ready to move into the little refer and some of the frozen food ready to go into their freezer for a couple of days. Hopefully we will have everything done by Wednesday afternoon and can restock our new refer with food before the Rally.

Monday evening, August21

We arrived on Friday afternoon in Eugene after a beautiful drive over the ”mountains” and into the Willamette Valley. We were able to meet with Stella Shelton, the Rally coordinator, after lunch at the Monaco factory. We went over the details of the Parking Crew and pretty much laid out our needs to her. The bad news is that we can’t get on to the fairgrounds until Sunday afternoon, which really puts me in a bind for getting the parking sites measured and marked. We are going to meet with the fairgrounds manager on Tuesday morning and explain our needs for the Parking Crew. Hopefully we’ll be able to get on to the fairgrounds on Friday or Saturday afternoon.

Day 1 - Oregon Motorcoach Services On Monday morning we were up early and ready for the service techs to move the coach into the building to start the work. Almost three weeks ago we stopped here for the night and had Bob Vinson, the Service Manager, look at the coach, measure the refrigerator opening, and help me determine which refrigerator would fit. We decided a Whirlpool 21.8 cu. ft. side-by-side refer would fit easily. Chance, the Service Tech, started the removal process of the Norcold refer by removing a window on the driver side of the coach over the sofa. Once he got it out, he started measuring the empty box and comparing it to the new refer which has been here for three weeks. He wasn’t really sure it would fit without some major modification. In the meantime, we drove up to Coburg to the Monaco factory and visited with Les and Wilma Jean Alexander, friends of ours who are also volunteering for this rally. Les and I both agrees that Stella is somewhat overwhelmed by the organizing of these two rallies - this one and another rally in Alabama in almost three weeks. We discovered that they were going to Albany with Stella on Tuesday, instead of Monday as originally planned. So I phoned Stella and asked if she’d like our moral support in trying to make some better arrangements. Stella agreed, so we will join them tomorrow on the trek to Albany. We continued on our shopping spree for new tires for the Kia. We stopped at Costco and then on to Walmart. We decided to buy our tires from Walmart and get an oil change while we were there. After getting the “new shoes” for the Kia, we returned to Oregon Motorcoach Services. About two miles away we got a phone call from Bob Vinson saying he needed to talk with me. Red flags all over the place!! We pulled in to OMS and he explained that the new refer would not fit! We were sure we had made all the correct measurements three weeks ago and I knew Lowe’s would give me a hassle if I tried to return this one. His cabinet maker and service tech got together and decided they could make it work, but the new refer would stick out a little more than the original. They have pondered the situation and have come up with a remedy that will make the new Whirlpool look like it was installed from the factory. It’s a huge relief for me! So, the old Norcold is removed from the coach and the new one will be ready to bring in after the cabinetmaker does his magic and builds the support and trim for the new refer. I can’t say enough positive about Bob Vinson and his crew. Bob was VERY concerned that I would be pleased with way it would look. Of course, I’m thrilled that the skill level is such that they will be able to make the refer fit!

We went out to eat tonight since our little beer refer is full, but doesn’t have food to eat. All of our frozen food is in three brown bags and in the freezer inside the building where the employees store their lunches. The next few nights we will be eating out until we have a functioning refrigerator in the coach. Chance is taking photos with my camera so I can download them into my computer and eventually upload them to the other Monaco owners that awaiting the results of the modification. Once it’s all done, I’ll have them available for anyone to see the progress - and the challenges they have overcome!

Tuesday, August 23

Day 2 at Oregon Motorcoach Service. We awoke and prepared the coach for the crew to get it and take it into the building. When they came to get it, we left the grounds and headed to a nearby McDonald’s to get some breakfast and pick up a dozen donuts for the guys. I got back with the donuts and Chance was already working on the coach. We needed to be in Coburg to meet Stella Shelton and the Alexanders to drive to Albany, site of the End of Summer Western Come Home Rally, and meet with the fairground manager. We met them at the Monaco office and followed Stella to Albany. Once we were there we met with Chris, the manager, and began a tour of the grounds. He assured us that we could come into the grounds after noon on Friday. That was a huge relief for me as we need to measure/mark the parking lot and figure how to fit 148 coaches into the allotted space. Chris agreed to everything that we needed and was very helpful in letting us know he’d be there to assist us in any way.

Also at the meeting was Jon Katin, who has been on the MI Parking Crew before. He was a great help in bringing up potential problems that I hadn’t considered. I think we’re ready and I’ve notified the other Parkers about the news and when to plan to arrive. After the meeting Stella bought us lunch at a local Red Robin. I followed her back to Monaco and got the box of supplies for the Parking Crew.

We returned to OMS and sat in the customer lounge for about an hour while they continued working on the coach. At 4pm the coach was moving out to the parking lot. I saw Chance and he told me that the coach ought to be finished by tomorrow afternoon. He has reinforced the platform that holds the new refer, expanded the opening, rerouted water and propane lines, and Darrell (the cabinet maker) will have all the wood trim done to finish the project. If time permits and they are able, we will have them perform the annual maintenance on the engine before we leave.

Two pieces of good news today is almost too much to bear! We can get into the fairgrounds before Sunday night and the coach will be ready tomorrow - what more could a person ask?

Wednesday, August 24

Day 3 at Oregon Motorcoach Center We were up early and ready for the Chance to take the coach into the barn. We asked about a good breakfast and he recommended the Prairie Schooner, a tavern that serves wonderful food. We drove over there after picking up a dozen donuts for the guys in the shop. The breakfast was fabulous - and reasonably priced! I had a Country Skillet that was a full meal. After we ate, we drove down to Northwest RV Supply. That’s a toy store for RV owners. They have all the left over parts and gadgets that the manufacturers no longer need or use. It is THE place for knobs, switches, gauges, etc., etc., and is fun to walk around and see all the goodies. After perusing all the neat things that I really don’t need, we drove back up to Junction City to get a haircut. The forecast was for 91 degrees today so we needed to be inside with Nancy to keep her from getting overheated. So we stayed in the Customer Lounge the remainder of the day.

About noon I walked out to check on the coach. The new refer was on a pallet on the forklift and was ready to insert through the window. Chance had already rebuilt the platform for the refer and had all the wires, LP pipes, and water lines rerouted. By 4pm the new refer was in its space and mounted in the coach. There is still some woodwork and trim that needs to be completed and they discovered a small water leak in the lines to the ice maker. That will all be resolved on Thursday! I’m hoping there will be an opportunity to get the coach into the shop for the annual engine service and we can be done by Friday morning.

The new refrigerator looks absolutely beautiful in its new home! It doesn’t stick out nearly as far as we thought it would. When the wood trim is finished and the new grate below the refer for the furnace is completed, it will look absolutely outstanding. These guys have done an amazing job considering the challenge they had to overcome.

Bob Vinson, the Service Manager, told me April Klein phoned him today and asked if he could be in Albany to do some on-site installs. He explained that he may not be able to send anybody due to their current workload. There are ten coaches here filling all the electrical sites and he has plenty of work to keep him busy. I plan to take some of his business cards to the Rally to pass out to anyone that wants a recommendation. I’ll know the cost of it all tomorrow, but I’m not expecting any surprises. We shall see…