We're Rolling

If Queen Mary fails we have the Camry. If the Camry fails we have the bicycles (click on the photo and check out the back of the Camry).


We left Wildwood yesterday and drove our miracle of modern engineering seventy-five miles to the Expo Center in Tampa for the Tampa Charity Horse Show. Mary is all fixed with a new awning and several of her mysteries are solved. We worked with a technician to answer some of the many questions that arose on our maiden voyage. Things are looking up...we did not consult the Bible once on our way here. Okay, I realize it is only seventy-five miles but still...I think this is progress.


We only had one minor near miss and that happened before we left the Monaco Service Center parking lot. The technician had the bus parked in front of a dumpster in the parking lot behind the shop building. I had just returned from a shopping trip to the largest Walmart in the country (in Wildwood...go figure) and once I finally found Mary in the sea of Monaco coaches I parked the Camry next to her and unloaded it. Our technician went to lunch so John decided to go ahead and hook up the car so that we could leave for Tampa as soon as the guy came back but he needed to pull her forward so that there was room for the car. I was sitting at my station (where I am now at the dining table) with the window shade open when he fired up the coach. I could see from where I was sitting that he was doing his pre-launch check of gauges and lights and bells and whistles. He had his head down and he was concentrating hard to refamiliarize himself with everything. I focused back on my computer and then something outside of the coach caught my attention. It looked like a tree was moving slowly by the window. I had a funny sensation...like we were moving but John was just sitting there. Then I heard it; a horn blaring continuously in the adjacent employee parking lot. Everyone at Monaco goes to lunch at 11:00 for an hour. They shut down the plant and they all go eat. As I was sitting there working on the computer I had observed that some of them go to their cars in the employee parking lot and eat their lunch. Well apparently it was Mary moving and not the tree (duuuhhhh Karen) and the employee in the parked car saw her heading for the big dumpster and laid on his horn. I hollered, "Are we rolling????!!!!!" and John hollered back, "NOT YET!" and I hollered, "I think we're rolling!!!" and I felt him hit the break.


We need to clarify terminology before we go any farther. "Rolling" means two things to both of us. One is; on our way, as in "We're rolling down the highway." The other one is; moving, as in "Toward the dumpster where we will put a nice dent in Mary's back end, tear up the tow hitch and scrape up the paint, not to mention what we do to the dumpster. Oh and more scheduled time at the Monaco Service Center to repair the damage."


We haven't discussed this incident. I think we both think that the other one didn't notice that it happened. No harm no foul. But I would imagine there was a Monaco technician that had a story to tell when he got back to work.


The Monaco Service Center is an interesting place. People drive in from all over the country to have their coaches worked on. They have a nice campground area where coaches can be hooked up and we owners can stay while the technicians work on our buses. It is heaven for John because he just loves to talk to people and especially Monaco owners to find out where they came from and how they got into coaching. He always learns something new or gets a useful piece of advice on coaching. From the outside it looks like a modern office complex with a large shop area on the back and green grass stretching in every direction. The first time we drove up to it to meet with Caroline Champion, our contact at the service center, I expected to walk into a demure, quiet lobby and find a receptionist who would call Caroline down from her office. John went in first and then he waved me in. I walked into the lobby and stopped short. It was wall to wall people, dogs, employees, parts, tables, televisions, vending machines, coffee pots, couches and...well...mayhem! The miracle of all of this is that it works. The employees of Monaco are all just wonderful people. They have created a family atmosphere where everyone feels so comfortable that we can use their lobby like a living room. No matter how stressed out people get (and we know how stressful this coaching thing can be) they always seem to walk out the door happy.


Yesterday morning we were planted on a leather couch in the lobby with Breezy snoozing at our feet waiting for the technician to finish hooking up the satellite television when an elderly gentleman began asking John questions about Breezy. He had been sitting at a round table for thirty minutes or so eating some pastry, reading the paper and drinking coffee. When I say elderly I would have to guess that he is about 85. It turns out that he had Saddlebreds when he was a young man and was familiar with Lexington so he and John chatted for ten minutes or so about horses while I read "O" magazine. Then John asked him if he had a coach and he said yes, but that he was considering selling it. When John asked why he said, "Cause there's always somethin' wrong with the damn thing! This is broken or that needs fixin'. Never ends." John held his head and said, "Oh I really don't want to hear that!" They chatted for another minute or so and then the gentleman excused himself, wished us a successful trip and tottered slowly out of the door.


A little later the receptionist, who apparently overheard the whole conversation, got up to fill her coffee cup and informed us that the man comes in every day just to eat his breakfast and visit with some people and then goes on his way. Then she told us that he drives a motor home nearly as old as he is. Actually the thought of him driving any coach was a little disturbing but my heart was warmed by the fact that the people at Monaco give this lonely man a nice place to eat his breakfast and don't fuss at him for trashing motor homes to their customers. It made me smile.


Today John is participating in the golf tournament that is associated with the horse show and I spent the morning cleaning up the coach and arranging things in the cabinets. Breezy is keeping me company. There is more storage space, nooks, crannies and cubbies in this coach than you can imagine. I found another one under the step this morning when I was cleaning. Yesterday morning I was stumbling around in the bathroom at 5:30 in the morning (it happens that way for me at that hour no matter the circumstances) trying to remember where I put a new bottle of shampoo. John was lying in bed watching television...and me apparently. Finally after I opened nearly every cupboard in the bathroom I heard him say, "What did you lose this time?" and smiled. I smirked back and then started to laugh. It is a constant scavenger hunt now but I suspect that once we get familiar with her I will be able to find anything in a heartbeat. Or I may be delusional and will be driven mad by never being find what I need when I need it. Time will tell!


If all goes as planned we are going to begin our trip to Arizona in the morning. Our first planned stop in Pensacola. At the moment the weather is heavenly but we will be watching it closely as we go across country. With internet, satellite radio, weatherband and a CB radio I think we are sufficiently connected to the world of weather. We will be blogging as we go!