Early news in my email inbox brings the shocking news - The Man burned, but not when he was suppose to. It appears that The Man, the wooden stick dude out at Burning Man, decided to do a little burning on his own last night (CNet story here). Arson? Terrorists? Spontaneous combustion triggered by the total eclipse of the moon last night? Rumors are abound, but I have my own theories...

A picture from Brad's Ideas. See more here.

Personally, I think it is too coincidental that George Bush flew in to Reno last night, and came directly to the Grand Sierra Resort. I think that Mr. Bush probably started asking around the hotel what all the oddly dressed people were doing, found out about Burning Man, and was taken out to the Playa by Secret Service so that he could see what was going on.

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We had to say goodbye to Oregon today. We will miss it - the beautiful scenery, the cool weather, friendly people, the bugs (ok, maybe not the bugs), the full-service pumps. It has been a nice visit, and we are looking forward to going back.

Crater Lake

Yesterday we buzzed out to see Crater Lake. We were suppose to go on Sunday, but we woke to rain, so we decided to postpone until Monday. Work has been a bit slow, so I worked in the morning, and we hit the road around 1 for a trip to the big blue hole on top of the mountains.

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The FMCA Rally in Redmond is over, and we have ventured down the road to Klamath Falls. The rally was a lot of fun, but Ang and I are glad to be off the crushed lava rock campground, safe from the dust. We traded dust, however, for bugs.

Sunset over the campers

One of the coolest parts of the rally was running in to our friends Ed and Larky - fulltimers we originally met at the Monaco Service Center in Harrisburg, then ran into again at Quality Coach Services in Eugene. They mentioned that they were going to go to the rally as day visitors, so we figured Eugene was goodbye.

They weren't quite that lucky...

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Ang and I arrived at the FMCA rally yesterday morning after a beautiful drive from Harrisburg to Redmond over Hiway 20. The drive ended up being very uneventful, but we were a bit nervous with all of the truck restriction signs during the beginning of the trip. Was it a warning for anything large? A warning because of tight turns and steep climbs? Nah - ended up being just sign of beautiful things to come...

The drive was incredible - awesome enough that Ang stayed awake for most of the trip! Another amazing factoid - we hit the road at 8 am!!! This was truly amazing.

More amazingness on the click...

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Alternate Title: I Met A Spice(r) Girl!
Alternate Title II: We Have A New A/C - That Works!!

Saturday afternoon finds us packed in to the Diamond Hill RV Park - again. This is much like being packed in at the fairgrounds during the rally, except that: there are a bunch of different brands of RVs, there are not seminars to go to, nobody is wearing name tags, and we can't look forward to an open bar and great food being served to us tonight.

The real Rally Heroes - Monaco Service Techs

People have asked me how I like the Monaco rallies. I tell them that I really don't have anything to compare them to, as we have only attended Monaco rallies. I think the real question is going to be - how do we like the "other" rallies? Our expectations are quite high, and maybe that will spoil the other large-scale rallies. Open bar, catered breakfast and lunch, lots of freebies, killer service techs that go to every coach in attendance and fix two items - regardless of how old the coach is, lots of the my-brand coaches to look at, and did I mention the open bar? My thought is that we are probably pretty spoiled, and the Monaco rallies have set the bar pretty damn high.

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Opening day at the Monaco Pre-Rally in Salem, OR. We have been here three days now, and today they finally decide to start this thing!

The start of the rally is a big deal - there are things to do now! Although we are not really rally-pros yet, we do know a few things: don't be late for a free cocktail hour, be sure to walk through as many coaches that you can't afford, and be prepared to hunt for a seat at dinner if you don't put out your little "reserved" tent.

This reminded us of Tom, so I had to take a picture

It appears that the Monaco-sponsored rallies are a bit different in that the cost of admission gets you some food and adult beverages. It doesn't seem that other non-manufacturer rallies do this. I suppose we will soon find out if this is the rule (or exception), but will enjoy the festivities as they are supplied to us!

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Today we actually started to become a bit anxious for things to get started at the rally. Its not really the reason you are probably thinking of. It is much more simple than that. In reality, without rally-type stuff going on, we are basically trapped in an asphalt campground with fifteen foot wide spaces (my coach is fourteen feet wide), surrounded by a bunch of campers with name tags around their necks.

Tomorrow is when things officially get started. The vendor areas will be open, we will get two meals a day in a big auditorium, classes and seminars, and free happy hour each day!

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Well, celebrity to me, at least.

We easily made the one hour drive yesterday from Harrisburg to Salem. Nice and easy drive up I-5, except for the missing-the-exit part. No good excuse for that - it happens. We got parked quickly in the "Electrical" section of the fairgrounds, so we have 30 amp service for the week. We were guided in between two beautiful Monaco Executive coaches.

Oh yea - the celebrity sighting. If you haven't figured it out from the picture above (and no - not Ang or Malabar), click More to find out...

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So how long have I been talking about the damn heat? This topic seems so played out. I wish it would just go away so that I can talk about something fun, like electrical issues, cleaning wheels, the difference between Tom driving the rental truck 1500 miles and me driving The Knight 1500 miles, etc. There MUST be something other than the heat and my lack of an air conditioner to talk about!

Hmmmm..... oh yea, theres that one thing... hmmm, no, it was hot then, how bout that other thing... no, it was hot then too...

Well, I guess there isn't. You get to hear more of "Trouble in Monaco Service Paradise".

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