Monaco Mecca - Day 2 & Day 3

The blog is a day behind. We are writing this on Friday about what we did on Thursday. We have a good wi-fi connection here in the customer's lounge, so we will try to stay current as long as we are here.

Early morning get-ups are standard here. Kim was at our coach at 6:30 AM yesterday to confirm our work order and to discuss our repairs. She is a cheery and confident woman who is excellent at her job. Soon after she finished, Dirk, our technician, arrived to take the coach into the service bay. Dirk is pleasant and we hope competent. He likes Yeungling beer. When he noticed we are from Virginia, he said he would have ordered a couple of cases had he known we were coming. He can't buy it here. We told him we have about six bottles in the fridge. He's motivated.

Breakfast is easy here. The Cock-a-Doodle Restaurant is about a mile from the service center. The food is good and the prices are reasonable. It is a working man's place and we will be regulars there before a week is over.

Plant tours are at 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM. We found our way to Wakarusa for the coach tour. The lobby was crowded with RV owners when we arrived who also wanted to see how Monaco does coach construction. At 10:00 we moved into the shop. Fortunately, we were provided ear phones so we could hear the guide as she talked over the shop noise.

This plant makes Monaco Monarch, La Palma, Knight, and Diplomat; the Holiday Rambler equivalents, and Safari coaches. Windsors were once made here, but now everything above Diplomat is made in Oregon. Clearly, the only difference between these Monaco and HR coaches is the labeling.

The coach tour began with floor building. This is a laminating process that bonds multiple layers of wood, insulation, and vapor barrier, about eight layers. The finished floor is picked up using overhead material handling equipment (MHE), turned over, and attached to the chassis rails. The chassis is moved through stations within the plant and the coach begins to take shape with woodwork, walls, appliances, etc. added as it moves along. Refrigerators are installed by one man who carries it to the platform with overhead MHE, drops it in place, and bolts it down. There are a lot of solo workers doing amazing things. The hold process is fascinating to watch.

At the end of the line we were able to walk through several of the finished products. From flooring to finished product in an hour. We didn't see anything in the new coaches that we had to have. The guide was asked about quality control during the construction. To no one's surprise, she said, "Supervisors at each station check the work and sign off on the work". There was a collective sense of disbelief by the owners on the tour.

We skipped lunch after such a big breakfast. We tried the customer lounge and found a mix of disgruntled folks who had been here longer than they had expected, a few new comers who are still optimistic, and many others who were sound asleep or just bored. Everyone has a story.

By 1:30 PM we were on our way to the afternoon tour at the chassis shop. Tom, our guide, was superb. There were three of us on the tour and Tom took as much time as we wanted at each station. We saw how the raw steel is made into parts for the chassis, How wheels are added to axels which are made at the plant, how the rails are assembled to the wheel-axle assemblies, how the engines are attached to the chassis, how the air, electrical, steering and electronic systems are added to the chassis. This tour was far more informative than the morning tour primarily because Tom was so competent. Finished chassis are sent to the coach plant every three days.

Our coach was back in the lot and hooked up to power when we returned about 3:30 PM. We relaxed for a couple of hours. Amish cooking is usually good ,and we decided to drive east toward Shipshewana for dinner. About 14-miles later we came to Das Dutchman Essenhaus. The food was good, too good. By the time we returned, we were well fed and ready for a quiet night. There is a real danger of over eating while we are here.

This morning Dirk arrived at 6:40 AM to pick up the coach and we headed for Cock-a-Doodle. We are sitting around in the lounge talking to fellow lounge lizards and exchanging stories. We met a couple that will celebrate two weeks here next Tuesday. Among other issues, their stove exploded. Another couple is having their Beaver coach ceiling replaced. He says he is leaving tonight whether repairs are done or not. Our items seem insignificant compared to these.

We are not sure what we will do over the weekend, but we have several options. We do plan to sleep in past 6:00 AM if nothing else. We learned there are several Memorial Day parades in nearby communities. That could be fun. The weather forecast is clear and warmer until Monday night. We will try not to be bored.

We'll tell about it later.