Post-rally Relaxation

September 22, 2007
Fairview, Oregon

We had a great time at the Rally in Salem. This rally is an annual event sponsored by Monaco Coach Corporation, the manufacturers of our motorhome brand. They have rallies on the east coast and the west coast, and a couple of years ago decided to combine the rallies for all their brands (they manufacture four main brands of motorhome) into one big one. We think it’s been pretty successful, although some people seem to think that the owners of the different brands don’t like to mingle. This year’s rally was fairly well attended (given fuel prices and the general economic situation) with about 500 coaches attending. About 25-30 new coaches were sold over 4 days, which is pretty good as well.

In addition to catching up with our friends Wayne and Eva Gilbert (and their Yorkie, Abby), we “hung out” with two other couples that came up from Harrisburg with them. Vicki Jones and Casey Clemmons have been full-timing for years and are rally veterans, and Kees and Trudi Hotting are originally from the Netherlands and learning a lot about motorhoming in the US, and how to operate and maintain their relatively new coach.

I was also able to catch up with several people who “hang out” on some of the motorhome- and travel-based Internet groups to which I belong, some of whom I’d never met in person before. It’s always nice to put a face to a name, especially with people you only know online. I caught up with John Fraser, who I’d met at the Indio rally last January, and Stan Kurzet, who I’d met at the Monaco Service Center last March. In addition, I met Chuck and Mary Boros, Bob Rea, Dave Ostrander, and Dave Rudisill. I also got to spend a few minutes with Roger Berke, who moderates a Yahoo group on our heating systems.

The vendor attendance was a little sparse (although I’ve heard it was better than some other recent rallies), but we were able to get pretty much everything we needed (bags for the central vacuum, a new cover for the tow bar to replace the one that got chewed up trying to back into Dave Thompson’s driveway up north, a dimmer switch I can install for “mood lighting” in the dinette, a set of water filters, etc.). Bill Adams was there selling satellite internet systems and, as usual, was a great help in resolving a problem we’d been having over the last couple of weeks getting a signal.

The evenings were fun, with cocktail hour and salad bar from 5:00-6:00, dinner from 6:00-7:30, and entertainment from 7:30-9:00-ish. The opening night musical group was OK but the focus on “oldies” wasn’t quite our stuff. The comedian on the second night was the same guy as last year, as was some of his material, but he was OK, too. Lee Greenwood was on the last night, and he was much better than expected, with a repertoire that wasn’t completely “countrified” and a show that moved right along. The food was good every night, as long as you set your expectations for being part of a 1,200 person group getting food in the space of 20-25 minutes. The wines were all plonk, but we brought wine from the coach for dinner anyway.

The rally wrapped up on Thursday night and we had to vacate by noon on Friday. We did a lot of packing up Thursday afternoon, so we had a relaxing morning on Friday. We said “so long” to Wayne and Eva mid-morning; they were headed to the Oregon Coast for a while. We decided to spend the next week in the Portland area, so we headed north on I-5, took the I-205 loop to the east side, and stopped in Fairview, about 5 miles east on I-84. All told, it was only a little over an hour’s drive, quite different than our cross-country journey. We thought about staying 3-4 nights and then heading toward the coast ourselves, but we decided that we need to relax for a while and there’s plenty to do around here. We’ll stay for a week, heading back to the Eugene/Harrisburg area on Friday. We have an appointment at Les Schwab Tire in Junction City on Friday morning to get a tire monitor sensor replaced, then at Pacific Power in Coburg on Monday to have the engine software updated before we hit Monaco on Tuesday for a couple of maintenance items. We’ll see if we can check into the (free) Monaco campground on Friday afternoon; if not, we’ll dry camp or check into a local park.

We thought we’d missed seeing other friends, Paul and Dorna Kuhn, who were staying in Washington along the Columbia River and are heading south on Monday. Much to our surprise, when we checked in, we found that they had moved to this park a few days earlier! We caught up with Paul last night and Dorna today. She’s participating in the “Race/Walk for a Cure” event in Portland tomorrow, and they’ll head out on Monday.

Last night, we both had a hankering for beef, so we found the local Wild Oats gourmet grocery and picked up a few things. I got the grill out and we had a nice home-cooked meal. We thought about eating outside, but it was actually getting too cool. I guess fall’s here!

Today, we had a chance to sleep in, take our time getting going, and decompress. We walked the pups a few times, stopping in to spend a few minutes chatting with Paul. In the early afternoon, we headed for Portland, where we’d read about the Portland Saturday Market, a weekly craft sale encompassing a couple of blocks in the Old Town district. We had a snack, poked around in the stalls, compared it to open-air markets in NYC, and checked it off. We then headed to a neighborhood (Sellwood) about 5 miles south of downtown, right along the river. We had a late lunch at the Muddy Rudder Public House. It’s owned by a long-time friend of Paul Say’s (Melisa’s significant other), and Melisa recommended that we stop there if we were in the area. We’re really glad we did, as it’s a neat place with good food, beer, and atmosphere. We chatted for a bit with Jim, the owner, who’s a nice guy. He’s really got a nice place.

With a late lunch, we were able to avoid a heavy dinner, so we’re starting to get back to normal. Tomorrow, weather permitting, we’re thinking of a day trip along the Mount Hood Scenic Byway/Loop.