Eugene, OR - Jul. 30 - Aug. 7, 2010
We arrived at the Eagles Lodge in Eugene, Oregon in late afternoon and were greeted by the Chassis on the Green Rally host. After parking we gathered for cocktail hour with fellow Monaco owners, and later joined them for dinner at the Lodge.
The next morning we attended an introduction by Source Engineering, the rally sponsors. Source Engineering was developing a new suspension system designed especially for the eight-bag Monaco coaches. They also arranged for representatives to respond to questions regarding various coach operating systems, and, important to all rallies, lots of entertainment. In fact, more time was devoted to entertainment and golf than the more sober pursuits.
At the conclusion of the rally we moved to the beautiful Armitage County Park on the McKenzie River. This park with its easily maneuvered roads and spacious sites was definitely designed with big motorhomes in mind. We were pleased to find that Ruby and Bill, whom we had met at the rally, were parked just down the lane from us. One day the four of us toured the Monaco/Navistar and the Marathon Motorcoach Factories in Coburg. We were quite awed by the Marathon tour - as we should be. Marathon coaches start in the $1-million-plus range, and since they are custom built for the movie, rock and sports star set, there is no price ceiling.
While in Eugene we stimulated the economy by investing in new tires for the Honda. Bill and Ruby seriously gave the economy a boost by having ten new tires installed on their Monaco coach. We will be looking at that investment a couple of years down the road. Fortunately, we only have six tires to replace, but just the same - Yipe!
We had plans to rendezvous with Sheri and Allen for a bit of fishing in the Cascade Mountains, so on August 8 we hitched Kermit and his bright shiny tires to the motorhome and headed east to Wickiup Reservoir.
