Nearly a Quarter Century Long Passion for All Things Country Coach

Adoption: That process where a family gives the name and place and privileges of a son or daughter to one who is not a son or daughter by birth...Like a new branch being grafted with intent and purpose into the family tree. We experienced that natural adoption first hand when Derek my son adopted Samantha as his own shortly after marrying her mother. Instant Grandparent, what a beautiful thing.  That word is also an apt description of what myassociation with the Country Coach manufacturer and my Country Coach Friends has felt like.

Nearly a Quarter Century Long Passion for All Things Country Coach, in fact. I was an industry newbie back in the early 1990s, a greenhorn really when I first went to work for Bob Lee and his company back in 1991. I knew very little about this great industry as a whole or the luxurious travel mode one enjoyed from the driver's seat of a Country Coach motorcoach! Then I was adopted into this Country Coach family!

Country Coach Inc. quickly grafted me into their marketing team and entrusted me with more and more responsibilities as a member of the Country Coach family. I was now one of the industry kids--and I loved it. There was the excitement of branding and marketing a company and its coaches, the fun of seeing Country Coach owners enjoy a rally experience that proved to be every bit as topnotch of a party as the coach they chose to drive. There I befriended colorful wonderful, passionate, gifted people like Don Fults, Doug Rutherford, Opal Hale, Ed and Nancy Read, Larry Sherwood, Heidi Force, Carol Taylor Clay, Becky Crowson, Jim Cooley, Amy Shaw Corcoran, Matt Carr, Pete Sutton, Carolyn Gsell, Star Wood, Julie Bothell, Rick Ramirez, Rick Engle, Debbie Hollembaek, Rick Blair, Karen Smith, Terry Keeler, Kraig Burden, Julie Otis, Opal Hale, Brenda Logan, Matt Howard and at least 50 other amazing people to whom Country Coach wasn't just a job. They shared my passion for all things Country Coach. I am thankful I didn't miss knowing them...and so many others unnamed here. Then there are the industry professionals with whom I’ve become acquainted as we co-promoted a great RV industry. I count each and every one of those special people as a part of my extended family of friends.

The Country Coach Owners …Now that’s a very unique “family” unto itself!

Over the years customers of the Country Coach company, those who bought the coaches, they became much more than customers. They said, "Come on Sherry, you're one of the family." They invite me into their homes on wheels...Like George and Josie Shallbetter, who lent me their couch any time I needed a few minutes rest during a busy rally in the Midwest. ....Or, Rosemary Mancillas, a single RVer, who spent one afternoon sharing memories she had captured of her motorcoaching travels through her gift of photography became a loyal friend. In fact, when my son was among the first National Guard units deployed to Iraq years ago, Rosemary helped fund the purchase of a Kevlar vest for his protection when we first learned the Oregon Guards were going "outside the gate" in body armor that was inadequate. She had read up on it, told me Derek needed the vest, and contributed the first seed money toward the purchase of it! “My people” were important to that Magna Mama (one of her email handles). 

...There’s Bob and Dee Pastorello--what great Country Coach family representatives, and what a party they presented at the Mardi Gras rally in Louisiana years ago. Just the other night my daughter and I were talking about that rally, and specifically the gators swimming by in the pond right outside the window of the restaurant where we dined one evening with Dee, Bob and 20 other friends! ....Floridians Bob and Betty Wells, the most genteel, kind, soft spoken Country Coachers I ever worked with on rallies.

...Bud and Anne Falk from the Northeast 'adopted' my daughter when she was club manager and they remain my favorite people on the east coast! He sends me great photos of his grandchildren and always promises to come and visit the Fannings soon...Lobo Joe Smith and his beautiful wife Bev, and Jerry and Geneva Keeton, who made Leslie May and I so welcome with Texas hospitality when we helped with the club rally the cohosted in 2010! Joe would send me email forwards just to stay in touch long after my affiliation with that particular club ended. What a fun loving group those Texan Country Coachers are.

 Bob and Carol Yount and Jim and Carol Palmer (they owned identical Intrigue model Country Coaches), the kindest foursome to ever own Country Coaches... There's Ted and Terry Wright; he still calls her "my lovely bride" and she calls him "the Big Guy" with great affection. Good friends, great Country Coach promoters wherever they go, and key contributors to club life until their retirement from motorhoming. The Fazios, my Country Coachers who are also motorcycling buddies..... Back through the pages of time, there were Gary and Pat Wallstrom, Deena and Don Page, Joe and Marilyn Mills, Jed and Robbie Orme…Then there is this couple, Vern and Phyllis Meighen, now there's a class act...Vern is such a good team mate and along with Phyllis we planned some super fun rallies, fun for us I mean, and hopefully for the attendees...back in the day those rallies had nearly a quarter million dollar overall budget!  

Bob and Terry Lee, the king and queen of Country Coach in my mind....The entire Lee family actually... Ron and Cookie, Kenda and Pat, Brenda. My dear buddy Blanche Miller, how she loved the club members and the lifestyle, and I'm so thankful she was my friend and family right up until her Homegoing..... Stop me now! SO many faces of Country Coach flashing through my mind...and all are 'extended family members" adopted over my two and a half decades working in the industry!

Country Coach Friends are a fun loving, loyal, loving, positive bunch! It's always a welcome surprise when a gorgeous arrangement of flowers will arrive...for my birthday, for a holiday, or as a thank you for something, sent from CC friends somewhere in the nation... Sherry and Jerry O Connor are family through and through. A pheasant dinner home cooked meal is always scheduled at the Fanning farm at each of the annual Country Coach Friendship Rallies...

Do I drive a Country Coach, no can't say that I do. Do I love the Country Coach brand, yep, probably more than anyone who doesn't actually drive one. Even fonder am I of the people who Drive those Motorcoaches.

Suffice it to say, I count my place in the Country Coach family and my small place in the RV industry to be among the things I treasure most in my professional career.
Adoption, it's a beautiful thing!