Our first tour was the Safari plant just north of Coburg.  In all fairness to Safari, they had just been purchased by Monaco and were getting ready to move most of their manufacturing to the Monaco facility in Coburg.  We arrive there in the early afternoon and along with three other folks, spent about two hours wandering through their old facility.  We were amazed at this operation.  Safari has such nice looking coaches. The interior cabinetry is especially attractive in these rigs.  After touring their plant, however, we crossed them off of our list of future homes.  The process is very manual at this plant, maybe it will be more automated when they get settled at the Monaco factory.  Safari was still using wooden trusses in their roof structures when we toured the plant. I didn't realize that any manufacturer was still doing that.  They did use an interesting process for bonding the rubber roof material to the substructure.  The put the material over the assembled roof before it goes on top of the rig. Then they place the whole roof and material over a big vacuum table. The table sucks all the air out of the roof and the rubber and bonds it to the copious amounts of glue they place on the   covering on the roof.  It looks like a pretty good process for bonding the roofing material together, even if it does have a wooden truss to support it.  The Safari does not have air bags, a surprise to me.  I thought all the big coaches were equipped with air suspensions systems, but Safari is something different, more like the suspensions I see on low end delivery trucks.  The chassis is a Magna, built just a few miles from the Safari plant.

Next we toured the Monaco plant in Coburg.  (right across the street from the Marathon bus conversion factory).  When we arrived there were about 25 people already in the lobby waiting for the tour.  We chose to tour the high line coaches, Signature, Windsor, HR Navigator etc.  The plant was pretty noisy and we couldn't hear everything the tour guide said to us, but it was an impressive place.  Lots of activity, a pretty good explanation of the semi monocoque chassis, and a tour of the completed coaches made our day pretty enjoyable.  We really like the basic design of the Monaco/Holiday Rambler lines.  The chassis seems to be a well engineered piece of hardware.  I really appreciated the way the plumbing and electrical systems are all laid out and neatly labeled.  I think the Roadmaster chassis is a pretty nice design and test drove one later the next week.

Our third and last tour was the Country Coach plant over in Junction City.  Most of the workers in the factory were at the CC homecoming which was taking place in Eugene.  Thus, the plant was pretty quiet.  Just Libby and I made up the tour group.  We had our own personal tour guide who was very knowledgeable.  He toted us around in a van from place to place at the CC manufacturing facility.  We were really impressed with the Dynamax chassis made right on the premises at CC.  The semi monocoque design was made of all steel members welded on a jig so that the walls were all the same on each coach.  They had 3 inch steel headers over all the openings and  a 3 inch steel plate to hold the table up. No support legs on the CC dining room table.  It takes CC 90 days to build a unit.  This must be about the longest build time in the industry.  They have a book that starts with the chassis and follows the coach to final completion.  Each step of the manufacturing process is detailed in this book and the craftsman has to sign each stage.  CC keeps this book and can tell you who did the "whatever" years down the road.  We were duly impressed with all of this.

After the CC tour, the tour guide arranged for us to go to Guaranty RV in Junction City to test drive an Allure.  I drove this rig about 10 miles.  I have always told RVers that the speed limit signs in curves were made for us. Not so with the CC.  The sales guy had me going through 40 mph curves at 55+.  It was really hard not to hit the brakes when doing so, but he finally convinced me and the rig never wavered as we did a slalom course of S turns at 55 mph.  Pretty impressive.  In any case, we like the rig, but the price tag was a little steep.

We had intended to tour the Marathon plant also. It is right across the street from Monaco, but they were having a big rally and we figured we would just be in the way.  Besides, we cannot afford one anyway!

After Coburg, we drove east across the mountains to arrive in La Pine, Oregon and the C2C park there.  Our friends the Emonds caught up with us there as did the Turneys and the Calderas.  We had a mini reunion with these folks.  We also ran into some Ham radio acquaintances, Temp and Karen Titus, W4HZV and KG4IQX.  We met them on the air several years ago and face to face at Lazy Days in Tampa last winter.  They were coming back from Alaska and on the way to the FMCA in Redmond as were the rest of us.

The C2C campground at La Pine is a nice park, but it sits right on the main highway and also is very close to a railroad track.  The trains ran all night and did a wonderful job of waking us up several times during the night.

We did some local touring while in La Pine.  We visited the Obsidian flow in the crater of a dormant volcano just east of the campground. What a site! We hiked the big trail through this obsidian flow and took a few pictures.   We also did a mile walk into and out of a Lava Tube and the National Volcanic Monument just south of Bend.  This cave is a constant 45 degrees.  It has no light source, so you take in lanterns or flashlights.  We chose to rent a coleman lantern from them, even though we have our own (ok, so we forgot to take ours).  Three bucks and we had our own light source.  For a period of time, Libby and I were the only people we could see and with only the lantern for light, it was pretty eerie down there.  On our way out, we ran into the Emonds who were coming in.  We also drove to the top of a volcanic cone in the park. From up there, one could see many other volcanic cinder cones dotting the landscape. It is quite amazing to realize how geologically active many parts of the country are, even though it is not readily apparent when you are driving along many times.

Along with the Emonds, we played golf at the local nine hole golf course in La Pine.  This course is rated as the second best nine hole course in the country.  I should say, Rich, Diane and Libby played golf.  I should have stayed home.

On Saturday, we all caravaned up to Redmond for the FMCA.  What a site.  By the time everyone got into the fairgrounds, there were 5200 coaches including the dealers.  Everywhere you looked there were motorhomes.  It was very interesting, but also very hot during the day.  Since the U.S. Forest Service Oregon Flight Operations are located at the airport at Redmond, we spent a lot of time hearing and seeing airplanes taking off and landing.  Many fires were burning in Oregon and the surrounding area.  The tankers started leaving at dawn and flew until dusk.  Smoke Jumpers came and went.  At times, it seemed as if the planes were leaving tire marks on our roof!

 Several days during our stay in Redmond, the smoke was pretty thick, obscuring the mountains.  However, it was not a problem for us at the fairgrounds.  One interesting event took place, reaffirming our affinity for small towns.  We needed to get our tires rotated on the Tracker.  One morning, Libby and I drove over to the main street looking for a tire store.  We chose a local tire company, asked to get the tires rotated.  They said no problem, took our car for about 20 minutes and charged us a whopping $12 to move 5 tires around.  I doubt that would have happened in a big city.

We attended some of the entertainment at FMCA,  but it was hot and crowded in the hall, so we only stayed for part of one night.  The seminars were very good.  We learned a great deal about the FMCA emergency medical evacuation plan and some other benefits that we had questions about.  John helped the FMCA radio club administer some exams and Rich Emond was one of the successful testees!  Rich now has his own Amateur Radio callsign, KD5PPD.  Nice call Rich and congratulations.  At the same testing session, our friend Frank  upgraded to general class.

The last day of the rally, Libby and I were walking through the vendor booths and came across a Safety Plus vendor.  This is something we had been talking about getting for some time, so we bought one.  The fellow came out to the rig that evening and installed it for us.  Safety Plus is a big shock absorber that is connected to the steering assembly of the rig.  It helps to dampen road shock, helps tire wear and most importantly, is supposed to keep the rig under control in the event of a front tire blow out.

We also bought a new type of sewer hose.  This hose is pretty pricey, but collapses to a little more than 36 inches, extending to 12 feet.  It is very heavy duty and carries a five year warranty.  We bought two of them and are pretty happy with them so far.  Most of us who fool with these things, know that they tend to have a life of their own.

After the rally ended, the Emonds left with us and we traveled east to U.S. 395.  U.S. 395 is a special road to me.  When I was in high school in Escondido, California, back when the earth was cooling, I learned to drive on a freeway on U.S. 395.  Of course, the road in eastern Oregon, is nothing like the road in southern California.  This road is two lane, not too well maintained in many places.   It does go through some very interesting terrain. We passed a couple of very nice lakes, including Goose lake, which  straddles the California, Oregon border.  In the northern part of California, we stopped in a small town, Alturas, and spent the night at Sully's RV  park.  The manager led us to our site on his bicycle.  We later found out that he was about 90 years old.  I sure hope I can ride a bike when I reach that age!

The next day, we rolled on south, arriving in Carson City, Nevada in the afternoon.  We stayed at a Pinon Plaza Casino.  This is a casino with an Rv Park again.  Cheap food, nice park, although a little crowded and I came away from the slots about $10 ahead!

Now for the bad news!  We were ready to head out on Monday the 20th and Rich and Diane were ready to go to Las Vegas where they had reservations to see the Cirque show O.  I was outside and ask Libby to bring in the slides, bring up the jacks and fire up the engine.  I stood outside for quite some time and nothing was happening.  I went to the driver window and Lib told me the dashboard was dead.  Sure enough, no power at all to the dash. This meant we could not bring up the jacks, nor could we start the engine.  I checked the batteries, looked at fuses, nothing seemed to be wrong except we had no power on the dashboard.  I called Lazy Days Customer Service, which of course, is CoachNet.  They sent me to a tech.  He and I talked for a while and he determined that I had already done everything I could do.  He dispatched a road tech to come to the park.  Rich and Diane very considerately waited to see what was going to happen.  The tech showed up within the hour.  He did all the same checks I had already done and then I gave him my copy of the coach wiring diagram.  He said an "huh uh" crawled under the back of the coach and found an overload breaker just upstream of the batteries that was blown.  He tried the local NAPA dealer, but no parts were available.  He ordered a new part for us overnight.  We jumpered the breaker, fired up the rig and the next morning drove it to the tech's shop.  Rich and Diane left after they knew we were going to get fixed, but it was almost noon on Monday before they got away.  I felt bad that they got such a late start, but it was very nice of them to wait to see what was going to happen.  They drove all the way to Vegas from Carson City, which is a long, long day for us fulltimer folks.

The part arrived as ordered, costing $32 for the part and $50 for the overnight shipping.  The shop charged us an hours labor for diagnosis and replacement, so the whole repair cost us about $200.  Coachnet paid for the call out, which was really an hours labor. ($110)  In any case, by noon on Tuesday, we too, were on our way.

We headed east on U.S. 50, known as the loneliest road in America.  It is!  We drove to Eureka, NV, pulling into an RV park late in the evening.  The park was full and the owner had his exit drive blocked while he was doing a repair to the cattle grate that was out by the main road.  Since we couldn't pull out, we got out to unhook and turn the rig around.  The owner came over and said, no way.  He had some kids move their cars, backed us in by the office and we plugged into a hidden outlet, settling down for the night.  The owner came over and we chatted for about an hour.  His daughter brought us ice cream from their freezer.  His wife was busy with her hair salon that existed in the RV park office.  All in all, a typical small town RV park. Nice folks, not too pricey.  I believe the park was called Silver Sky and is on the east side of Eureka.  We highly recommend it.

The next morning we headed further east.  We drove for almost three hours before anyone passed us going in our direction. A few cars passed us going the other way, but to drive for that long without being passed should give you some idea of how little traffic existed on this road.

We pulled into Delta, Utah just before noon on Wednesday the 22nd.  Our new home park, Antelope Valley is there.  Since this is our Coast to Coast Home park, it didn't cost us anything to stay there.  We planned on spending 5 to 7 days here.  There appears to be a lot do to.  A huge coal fired power plant (tours were available before 09/11, but I doubt that they are now) some gem hunting, golf etc.  Vince, the owner of the park, came over as soon as we arrived.  We have referred a lot of folks to Antelope Valley as members of the steering committee for the RV America BB and the RV America Coalition.  Vince is a very nice guy and the park is just very well maintained.  If you are looking for a great home park at a not too high price, then look them up.  www.antelopevalleyrvpark.com.

The first night we were at Antelope Valley,  we got an email from a friend in Blairsville, Georgia telling us that our mutual friend Pappy Doughty K5PRE, was in the hospital with heart problems.  Pappy had three stents put in arteries and also had angioplasti done.  We called Pappy while he was in the hospital in Atlanta that evening and told him we would hustle back to Georgia.  Pappy owns an electrical/heating/AC company and works everyday.  He will be 69 in October.  Due to the stent placement he was told that he could not lift anything over 10 lbs nor could he climb ladders.  Since we had nothing important to do anyway, we agreed to get back to Georgia and help him for a couple of weeks until he was ok on his own.

Accordingly, the very next day, we rolled out of Delta, Utah heading east.
We spent our first night near Breckenridge, Colorado at the Tiger Run RV park.  This is a destination park, $42 a night.  Lots of big rigs and not our usual overnight stop, but it was about the only park we could find.  The next day, we stopped in Aurora, Co at the Flying J to tank up, eat and get our email.  We met a couple at the fuel island who had just bought a new motorhome and were in the process of selling their house and hit the road fulltime.  We ate lunch with these folks, who are retired from Qwest by the way, and then headed on east.  Our second night was spent in west central Kansas at Wakeeney, at their  KOA.  Then we moved on east on I 70 stopping for the night in central Missouri.  Our next night out was at Lebanon, Tennessee.  The next day we moved a little over a hundred miles to the SKP park Raccoon Valley in Heiskel, TN near Knoxville.  Pappy was doing much better, so he decided that he was going to go to the Shelby, NC hamfest.  We agreed just to meet them there.  We left Heiskel on Tuesday, the 27th of August and arrived in Shelby about 4 hours later.  Pappy and Cecile got there about an hour after us.  We had a terrific reunion, hugs and tears all around.

We spent six nights at the Shelby fairgrounds, playing Ham radio and meeting and greeting old friends.  On Labor Day, we followed Pappy and Cecile out of Shelby and headed back southwest to Blairsville, GA.  We arrived at our old stomping grounds, the Lake Nottely RV Park in Blairsville in the afternoon of Labor Day.  We are now sitting on the same lot A5, that we have been on the last three autumns.   When we leave here in October, we will have spent about 5  months on this very lot in the last three years.

Next month, back in the work force for a little while!

Fuel for August                        $536.10
Camping Fees for August        $344.40
LP for August                          $19.91
Repairs/Maintenance               $200.00