So, now let’s get on with the posting.
The 78th International Rally of the Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA) got started on Monday with seminars, the opening of the service center and the new motorhome displays. We attended a seminar on how to write and publish a “blog”. How about that! According to the instructors, I’m apparently doing it OK. We did pick up several tips and tricks that will eventually change a couple of things I’m doing.As soon as the service center opened (that’s the place to sign up for repair & service on coaches and their components, appliances, etc.), we were standing in line. Of course the most important one for us were the refrigerator folks. They took our information and told us they’d give us a call when our turn came up. They provide service on a first-come, first-served basis, regardless of the problem. Hmmm!
While at the service center, we also signed up to have an occasional glitch in our satellite TV antenna fixed, and to have new “house” batteries installed. Ours are original equipment and they’re just barely hanging on. Interestingly enough, these two vendors gave us appointments for Tuesday morning. I wonder why they’re different???
Tuesday morning we hung around the coach, and around 9 AM, the battery guy showed up. Fifteen minutes after that, the satellite antenna guy showed up, and of course there was no power in the coach at all. He said he’d come back later, which he did, in about an hour. He thinks he fixed the problem by downloading a new version of software into the antenna. But the dish wouldn’t malfunction for him, so it’s a guess.
The Holiday Rambler folks talked us into taking a test drive in a new 40’ Ambassador (our model, but 4 feet longer and 6 years newer) on Tuesday afternoon. Each of us drove for about 30 minutes, and wow, have they made changes. Lots of new features, lots more money! If someone would like to give us about $200K, we’ll be glad to upgrade right now. Seriously though, we might start looking for a used one in a couple of years. By that time, it will have lost from ⅓ to ½ of its value and might be worth another look.We spent the rest of the day wandering through the six buildings of exhibits on the grounds. It’s amazing how many things we didn’t know we needed. We made a few wise purchases, of course, but left more than we bought.
Wednesday morning I grabbed the laptop and headed for the wi-fi area to update the blog, but the connection was lousy and I couldn’t get the pictures uploaded and the blog published before a seminar we were particularly interested in, “RVing to Alaska” was to begin. We had just settled in when the cell phone went off and the refrigerator guy was on his way. Leaving Debbie to take copious notes at the seminar, I took off on my new folding bike (yes, that’s one of the purchases we’d made) to meet him. Our problem was a faulty igniter which was rapidly replaced. The tech checked the whole refrigerator and pronounced it in good shape, so I hopped back on the bike and got back to the seminar just after it was over!! We wandered around the exhibits again for a while, but it was really hot (about 92º) so we headed back to the motorhome to fire up the generator and get the AC running. As the sun went down, a nice breeze came up, and cooled things off for the night.
Thursday, the last day of the rally, we went back through the exhibit buildings and made a few more purchases we’d decided that we couldn’t live without. We sort of lost track of time, so I missed a seminar I’d decided to attend, but oh well, another rally will come along before long, I’m sure.Debbie’s decided we’re going out to dinner tonight (a rather common theme since we’ve been here) so we’ll miss tonight’s entertainer, Tony Orlando. Yes, he’s still around. We saw him at a rally about 4 or 5 years ago, and probably won’t miss much by missing his performance tonight.
Tomorrow morning we’ll hook up the car and head for home. It’s around 550 miles to home, so we’ll probably stop before we get to Redding, since it should be cooler in the Mt. Shasta – Dunsmuir area. Maybe we’ll find a wi-fi spot that works, and we can publish this and the previous post before we get home. We should have an easy ride home on Saturday.
Debbie’s back to work on Monday, and we can complete the planning for our next trip which begins a month from now.
