Our new motorhome
Eugene, Oregon: It
isn't only a Duck football game that has us in Eugene this week. In March, we
ordered a new motorhome and it will be delivered in a few weeks. It has been a
long, and at times, frustrating process.
Our plan was to have the new motorhome finished in mid-August. We would work out
the kinks inevitable in a new motorhome, and then hit the road to follow the
Ducks to ASU and Cal... and then not come back to our home in Oregon for several
months - just wander around the desert for the winter. You know... do what
retired people with RVs are supposed to do - play!
Plans change.
Long Story Short: Remember good ol' March 2008? When fuel
prices were down and the stock market was up? In March, we ordered a diesel
pusher from Country Coach - the same manufacturer of our current (five years
old, 54,000 miles) RV. A delivery date of mid-August was arranged. Then things
started to get ugly. The price of oil rose to record highs. Unemployment went
up. The market went down. Banks failed. Houses foreclosed. People stopped buying
RV's. Country Coach slowed production and employees were laid off. No one worked
on our half-finished motorhome for six long weeks while Country Coach arranged
for a "cash infusion" to tide them over the slump. We had to face a reality that
our motorhome would never be finished. At the last moment, an investor came
through and Country Coach slowly brought their factory back on-line and work
began again.
Our new motorhome will now be delivered November 18th, (12 weeks behind
schedule) and we went to visit her today at the factory in Junction City, a
small town just north of Eugene, Oregon. (Buy Local!) The motorhome is
customized quite a bit in the living area to accommodate me (I am sight
impaired) and customized on the outside because we are huge University of Oregon
Duck fans.
GO DUCKS!
There is still a lot of work to be completed before we take
delivery in eleven days, but I will be posting photos of our new
home-on-wheels when we take delivery (and it still looks shiny and new...
before we mess it up with all our stuff).