I headed South into Eugene to explore and locate the strategic necessities - Costco, Walmart, Home Depot, Harbor Freight, etc. Found them all and picked up some minor items. Suz and I will head to Walmart and Costco on Saturday for major supply additions. The bike ride was, as always, enjoyable and I found Eugene to be a most pleasant city. It is very clean and green given that it is located at the the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette Rivers. It is also the home of the University of Oregon (the Ducks and their green and yellow uniforms).
Returning to the coach, I fixed a mal-functioning taillight on the motorcycle lift (bad ground again), and repaired a bay door latch on the coach. The latches on these coaches are notorious for becoming loose and mal-functioning. I have had doors open while driving down the road!
I called Tiffin to determine how one would repair the problem. Jerry, the very helpful service tech told me that the only way to repair the latch was to drill out all the pop rivets holding the aluminum interior door liner in place in order to gain access to the latch. A major design flaw if I ever heard of one!!
He told me to call RV Coral in Eugene, a Tiffin dealer, and schedule an appointment to have the work done - on warranty. I called, no appointment available while we are here.I decided that I would try to fix the problem myself, since the only option would be to "duct tape" the door shut to prevent it opening unexpectedly on our way to Seattle. In this case, I found that a bolt that holds the latch in place had fallen out allowing the latch to fall out of alignment. Of course, the bolt was somewhere down in the bowls of the door, covered by the ubiquitous aluminum inner liner! Looking at the other door latches I figured out that the bolt was likely a 1" number 8 and headed down to Harrisburg to the hardware store for a replacement. Hurd's had the bolt and I bought 5 just in case! In the photo you can just see the threads of the bolt - not the head of course.
With one of the the bolts in hand, I tried to figure out how to insert it without taking off the inner liner. I decided that enlarging the hole in the liner was the only way, which I did with a pair of diagonal cutters - not the best looking job too be sure (as you can see), but, as it turns out, effective (I will get a pair of tin snips at Harbor Freight on Saturday and trim up the area).
With the larger hole I was able to put the bolt in place with needle nose pliers and get it started. Then with one finger, I worked it into the housing and did the final tightening with the pliers. Voila!! It worked! Bring on the next gargantuan task!!Success demanded a trip back to Junction City for Happy Hour! We located a new spot, Bugsy's,
a converted movie theater that is now a bar. Lucky for us, we ran into Gary Hansen, a local businessman who owns a Country Coach and was able to fill us in on the comings-and-goings (mostly goings) of the coach business in the Eugene area.The Beaver coach was built in Bend, Oregon until it went out of business and was bought Monaco, which is built both in Indiana (?) and in Harrisburg, Oregon. Marathon Coach and Country Coach, both top of the line coaches are (were) built in the area as well. Marathon is still being built here, but Country Coach is out of business. Gary told us the gory details from his personal experience as a friend of most of the coach company owners.
Now I told you that story to tell you this story. The hotel and campground we are staying in was built to service coach owners returning to the Monaco, Country Coach and Marathon factories for warranty and other work. When the companies went under, all such service work stopped, and the campground lost most of its business. Now we know why the campground is in such a poor state. In fact, Gary says he expects this to be the lasts summer it is open unless the coach business revives soon.
Returning home, we had a wonderful meal of Kraft Dinner and Wieners - one of Suzanne's specialties.
Saturday arrived with another spectacular cloudless, sunny day. After taking Dixie for her walk, I spied a few blackberry bushes along the campground fence line. With serving bowl in hand, I hit one of the smaller patches and filled the bowl to brimming with wonderful tasting blackberries, which we will have over (non-fat) ice cream for the next several days. I will hit the patch again before we leave.
As usual, the front of the coach was bug covered, so that was my next chore. Then it was into the coach to gather material for my Monday posting to clients. With Suz now ready to go, we headed to Eugene for a day of shopping. First PetSmart, then Costco, then Harbor Freight, then Walmart, then Camping World, then home. It then being 4:00 pm, we headed back to Junction City to "the theater." Hope Gary is there.
Well, Gary wasn't there, but we were able to watch the last part of Saturday's round of the PGA Championship.
We can't watch it at the coach because we can't get "local channels" on DirecTV, which means no CBS, NBC, ABC or Fox. Oh well, I'm tired of fighting with DirecTV.Bugsby's is interesting in that it has murals on the walls that depict the heyday of the movie era.
Suz and I had Happy Hour then returned to the coach. On the way, at 5:30 pm, the temperature was 103 degrees, rather hot for Oregon! It will drop to the mid 90s tomorrow.At the campground, the Freightliner Chassis Owners Club members are starting to arrive and we don't feel so "all alone." By tomorrow, the campground will be full and the rally will start on Monday. Until then, Cheers!
John, Suz and Dixie the Wonderdog.
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