Our Internet access was limited as we traveled from home to Florida via Concord, NC and Columbus, GA. This post has been delayed considerably, but we did keep a draft along the way. After arriving in Florida, the pace of activities further delayed maintaining the blog.
We departed Spotsylvania, VA Sunday morning, January 6, at 10:00 AM with Fleetwood Campground in Concord, NC as our destination that evening. The goal was to arrive in the daylight; we made it. The campground was virtually deserted and the man in the office was confused about where we should be located. We settled in after an uneventful and comfortable trip.
Tom Johnson Camping Center is where we bought the new coach in October. It is on Speedway Boulevard about a mile from Lowes Motor Speedway. We are here to get warranty repairs. Our service adviser, Paxton, had ordered a number of parts identified when we took delivery. We had also emailed him with additional needed repairs discovered after we went home. He had blocked out the week for our repairs.
We delivered the coach to the shop Monday morning. We were fortunate to have Bryan assigned to work on our coach. He is a very qualified technician and an excellent communicator; we appreciated his work and his desire to please us.
Receiving ordered coach parts is a continuing problem. Several items ordered this week will not be received before we leave. It is hard to pinpoint fault; there is plenty to go around. Major problems have been corrected; we expect to leave here early Saturday morning.
The daily routine this week is to deliver the coach to the service advisor at 8:00 AM and pick it up at 5:00 PM. Since we have nine hours to occupy between delivery and pick up, we had a leisurely breakfast each day followed by shopping, touring, movies, reading, and napping, in the car.
We had a most unusual surprise on Tuesday. During breakfast, Paxton called. He asked us to return to the shop to look at the new curtains before they were installed. We returned and liked the new curtains very much. As we were leaving, we told Paxton we would be back at 5:00 PM. Ralph walked into the service office just before 5:00 PM. Paxton’s desk was empty. Ralph asked another service advisor where Paxton could be. He answered, “He left earlier to go to Indiana to get a divorce.” It took a moment to realize that this was not a joke.
The service advisor then said, “What’s your name? I have some notes here that Paxton left.” By this point, Ralph’s jaw was on the floor as he realized that his only contact in the service department had left abruptly without a word although they had seen each other twice that day. Ralph asked the service advisor’s name, and then said, “Richard, you are my new service advisor.” Richard set a meeting the next morning with us, Byron, and he to review what had been done and what needed to be done. We are finished with Paxton.
Wednesday was a great touring day. We decided to see some of the NASCAR shops here in the Concord area. We began at Hendrick Motorsports. Hendrick drivers are: Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Casey Mears and Dale Earnhart, Jr. If you follow NASCAR racing you probably know these names. Hendrick has a huge plant composed of several very large modern building scattered over several hundred acres. This plant is similar to any large manufacturing facility. Visitors are welcome and accommodated. The shops are amazing. Cars are built from the ground up. Mechanics are assembling and disassembling assemblies Engineers are working on designs and innovations. The buildings are spotlessly clean and the work environment is extremely professional. One building is a museum chronicling the history and successes of Hendrick Motorsports. We could have spent many hours there.
From Hendrick, we drove to Lowes Motor Speedway for a tour. Seven folks loaded into a Ford van with a tour guide driving. We learned how much and the variety of racing done at the Speedway on its numerous tracks. The van enters the track with a 24 degree bank, accelerates to about 80 MPH, and circles the track twice at considerably slower than the 180-190 MPH of the NASCAR racers. We visited the winner’s circle, garages, pit areas, and heard the history of the speedway and its owners. We had a great time. There are several other race car teams located within a few miles of our location: Rouse Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing, Yates Racing, DEI, Ganassi, and others are nearby.
By Friday we had seen two movies, a race track, a NASCAR Racing shop, and too many several shopping areas and restaurants. We were ready to get on the road. Some parts arrived Friday; Richard promised we could leave Saturday morning. Temperatures throughout the week were low enough to use the furnace, and before leaving, we asked Richard to fill the propane tank.
Saturday morning we discovered we had no operating furnace or gas range. A call to Richard was enough to get Phillip to our site and get everything fixed. A vapor lock had been created when the propane tank was filled. Now we know what to do if it happens again.
We left Concord around 9:30 AM with Columbus, GA our destination.
