Rally Tour Continued & Ended

We have been very negligent and have not done anything with this blog since Thursday night , October 18. There was a reason: Once we left for Greensboro, NC we had no Internet access until we returned home. Remember that Monaco Windsor we were so interested in? We bought it Thursday night.

Janice could not find a new coach with the kitchen she liked. The Windsor is the first one she has found that is close to the one she had in the La Palma. The Windsor has other attributes that were influential in our decision: two lavatories (like the La Palma); 400-HP Cummings diesel engine; two bedroom slides (much more room & a longer bed); air leveling; washer/dryer (Janice had it installed); 84-inch ceilings; and an impressive price discount.

We made a hasty punch list of items we saw needing service and the sales folks returned the coach to their Concord, NC store. We planned to get delivery the following Friday after the Greensboro Rally. Because we knew we were trading coaches, we headed home Friday morning. This gave us opportunity to off-load much of our baggage. Our plan was to dump everything we would not need in Greensboro. By Saturday afternoon we were on the road again headed to Greensboro, NC.

There is no stopping place along US 29 from Charlottesville to Greensboro. No campgrounds and few places to even pull off the road. Ms. Garmin advised of a Wal-Mart in Danville and we elected to spend the night there, if allowed. Janice called the store and was told, "Come on in. All we ask is that you check in with Security and park where they tell you". Ms. Garmin took us through the heart of Danville, but we eventually found the Wal-Mart. We parked on the edge of the parking lot well distant from the store. Security told us that was fine and that we were welcome to stay as long as we liked. What we learned later is that we were parked very near a race track, within the parking lot, where the young lads of Danville and its environs came on Saturday nights to show off their cars and their egos. By midnight the show was over. We had not been hit by any hotshot or hotrod and we had a good rest of the night.

Monaco America had thirty plus coaches going to Greensboro for the Monaco Harvest Coming Home Rally. We agreed to meet in a shopping center parking lot at 3:00 PM on Sunday afternoon so that we could caravan to the rally site together. We arrived about 1:00 PM, and we visited with several of the others from Urbanna. Soon after 3:00 PM the caravan began, and we did serious damage to Greensboro's Sunday afternoon traffic; 35 coaches take up a lot of city road space. It was at least 90 minutes before we were able to park at the Coliseum Complex; the travel distance was about a mile, but the parking crew was overwhelmed with most of the 400 coaches arriving on Sunday.

The Greensboro Coliseum Complex is a very nice facility and great for a rally. The only drawback is dry camping in an asphalt parking lot, which turned out to be no drawback at all. The show coaches were all inside; the seminars were in fully equipped presentation rooms; the vendors were well spaced in a huge assembly hall; and the dining room was more than adequate for the numbers we had there. Rain arrived on Thursday, but most folks kept going. Showers Friday morning ended early and by mid morning the parking lot was emptying rapidly.

One of the neat things Monaco does at these rallies is a "game of chance". If you buy a coach at the rally, you are eligible to enter a drawing the last night of the rally. We were pleasantly surprised to be included since we purchased our coach the previous week at Urbanna. Our dealer (sales manager) convinced Monaco officials that we purchased at the "pre-rally" and should be included. A table is set with one envelope for each coach sold; we had 42 coaches sold at the rally. Each envelope has a certificate in it to be redeemed for cash. Most of the envelopes have $1000 certificates; several have $2000 or $3000 certificates; there is one with a $5000 certificate, and one worth $10,000. We were happy to draw a $1000 award.

The Greensboro rally was much fun. Monaco does it well with excellent seminars, meals, entertainment and a party atmosphere. Obviously, treating your customers well encourages them to buy another Monaco. The service techs were busy all through the week. This is another customer service that has great value in customer loyalty.

We departed Greensboro Friday morning en route to Tom Johnson Camping Center in Concord, NC. Johnson's place is on Speedway Boulevard about half a mile from Lowe's Motor Speedway. Between the showroom and the race track sits a campground, about 200 yards from Johnson's front door. The sales folks had reserved two adjoining sites for us. On Saturday morning they brought the Windsor over, parked it next to us, and gave us as long as we wanted to transfer our belongings from coach to coach. Eventually, the La Palma was driven away to the used coach lot, and we were getting settled in our new coach.

Our plan was to live in the coach through the weekend and devote Monday to fixing problems we had found. By Monday, we had assembled our list. By mid day we had not heard from the service folks, so we inquired. A technician came to the coach and did some minor adjustments, but we had a major concern about getting the new coach equipped to tow our car. To do this required the coach to be put on a lift, and that could not be done until Tuesday.

On Tuesday we met with a service adviser who promised that "he would take care of everything". He was eager, animated. and clueless. By Wednesday, progress was being made, but the tow system was not finished until Thursday morning. Fortunately, it was done well. We have an appointment to return to Concord in January en route to Florida. Parts are on order and will be installed during that visit along with anything we discover between now and then.

We departed Concord around mid morning; seven hours later we had returned home needing a rest. The two week Rally Tour lasted three weeks. We are happy to be home and will be here until November 29 when we go to the Dogwood Rally in Williamsburg. Until then.