Relaxing at “Camp Monaco”

October 2, 2007
Harrisburg, OR

Since we arrived at the Monaco Service Center several days early, we essentially had the weekend to ourselves. Since it was raining on and off, we didn’t try to accomplish too much but rather took the time to relax. This was especially important since time spent getting things serviced tends to involve alternating spells of boredom and frustration. Boredom, because we get to “vacate the premises” by 7:30 AM, sit around all day trying to keep the pups occupied, and watch the clock for 4:00 PM when we get our “house” back. Frustration, because nothing’s ever simple, parts are always needed from somewhere inaccessible, and if you don’t keep on top of the techs things don’t get done or get off track. I’m not complaining, mind you, just speaking from experience.

Over the weekend, we did a little shopping, and I stopped at the local Verizon store to pick up a broadband PC card. We’ve had several situations lately where we were “off the net” because the dish was blocked, so the broadband card should allow us to “fill in the gaps”. Another advantage is that we’ll be able to access the net while moving down the highway. Last, it’ll be a good backup for when things go south (like when the router failed a few weeks ago). Love the new technology.

We caught up with Bob and Jane White for a few minutes as well. We met them at a rally a little over a year ago, and have run into them a couple of times since. We also saw Vicki and Casey, who we met a couple of weeks ago; they arrived for service over the weekend.

Yesterday morning, I took the coach over to the local Detroit Diesel shop to have the engine codes read and the software updated. I picked up fuel and oil filters for the next maintenance cycle (no sales tax!) while I was there. Back at the Service Center, we were able to get the write-up process out of the way so things could start first thing today.

We did have a little excitement yesterday, but it sure wasn’t pleasant. We had a few minutes of sunshine, so we decided to have sandwiches outside at the picnic table near the laundry room. Unfortunately a) a coach pulled up near us and the owner got out and b) I didn’t have as good a handle as I should have. This resulted in Merlin and Maya Lynn running over to said coach owner and say “Hi”. For Maya Lynn, this is fine. For Merlin, not so much. When the guy put his hand out to Merlin, he got a nice puncture wound in his palm for his trouble. And a nip at his pant leg for good measure. We apologized profusely, especially me, since I was the one with my hand on a sandwich instead of the leashes. Fortunately, we were able to smooth things over and the injury wasn’t life-threatening. As it turns out, they have two dogs themselves, both of whom are a handful; they terrorized the customer lounge several times today. We still feel bad, but not quite as bad as yesterday.

Today was actually a pretty productive day on all fronts. We left the pups in the car and hung out in the lounge. I tried to stay close to the work without getting in the way. No matter how well you try to explain something to a service writer, it always loses something in the translation. I was glad I spent time re-explaining things to the techs. They were able to replace the driver’s window (this was the last of the warranty items left over from prior visits – yeah!), lubricate one of the slide mechanisms (it had squeaked forever, and they explained how I can lube it in the future), and fix a nagging hydraulic fluid leak that’s been there since we got the coach (there was a hairline crack in the cast aluminum filter housing). Overall, progress was better than I’d expected. If tomorrow is as good as today, we may get sprung early. I hope that’s not jinxing anything! Seriously, I’m thinking that things are going to bog down tomorrow, since there was already talk of not having some of the necessary parts. That’s never a good thing (they ordered the driver’s window when I was here in March and got it sometime in late-August). We’ll keep our fingers crossed…

This afternoon, we made a Costco run and I stopped at the Verizon store to pick up a battery for my phone. Yeah, I know, I should have done that on Saturday, but we needed the road trip anyway.