Sunday, June 1, 2003

Our first Factory Visit

We made our way to Sandy and Gerry’s house for a pre-factory weekend. They have a beautiful house in Spencerville, Indiana- a Victorian farmhouse with a huge garage for Gerry and a small office for Sandy’s business. It was quite a sight to see the Eagle and the Heritage parked side by side. We had some great meals at the local Greek restaurants and a huge family style meal on Sunday. On Sunday night, Gerry and Sandy led us over to Decatur to get us settled in at the factory. The lot was full- ready for the 6:00 am check-in on Monday morning.

What a way to start the week. At 5:45, John was at the American Coach service door- along with 20+ other people awaiting service. We met our service advisor and walked through the list of to-do’s. Then, the work started and we were “homeless”. American Coach was in the process of getting ready for a huge announcement so they weren’t having factory tours. But, as we found out, we were in the middle of motorhome central- all within an hours’ drive. So, we spent our days going on other vendors’ factory tours- Travel Supreme, Newmar and Monaco. It was a strange experience watching this cottage industry that resembled home construction rather than car assembly. It was also a learning experience. Between factory tours, we got smart talking to other owners and factory people. The Spartan factory rep was a wealth of information as were our ‘neighbors’ in the parking lot. We spent some time in the service lounge listening to ‘horror stories’ from other owners (stories of sliders falling out on the road-leaving a gaping hole in the side of their motorhome) and getting advice. We met a slew of interesting people- Doris and Dale next door to us, Sheri and George and Bob and Trudi. We also got a little taste of Americana in Decatur with places like Arnolds Drive-in- complete with roller-skating waitresses or the Whippy Dip Ice Cream stand. It was just like being back in the 50’s.
True to form, we found another way to spend money on our coach. In search of a cup holder, we stopped by a local craftsman specializing in custom cabinetry for American coaches, “From Trees to These”. In addition to the stock cup-holders and magazine racks, he also made custom cabinetry. We saw one of his dinette/office additions and knew we had to have it. So, we spent time with Greg sketching out the plans and scheduled a return date for late July.

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