Throwing the Rolls...things that keep us connected

Years ago during my Country Coach days working in the Marketing department at 135 East 1st Avenue in Junction City, Oregon, the front desk receptionist at the time was Karen Smith. She and I were the best of  Country Coach friends and we shared the daily/weekly happenings in the Smith and Fanning homes. One holiday I was especially stretched thin and had far too much to accomplish at both work and at home.  Yet I was hosting a large extended family meal. Holiday morning it was a mad rush in the Fanning kitchen and there were too many head chefs and not enough support staff helping get things done…like basketing the rolls, and arranging table settings and a gazillion little tasks that all take time. I had a lot of onlookers in my children and spouse, but not enough doers in my opinion. At that point from across a 14 foot kitchen I ‘threw the rolls’ in a moment of “for goodness sake, if you want to eat then let’s HELP a little bit” frustration….My hubby ducked and looked at me like I’d grown a second head from my shoulders (and if you know me this is NOT my nature…) and zipped into road gear helping in any way he could. Throwing the rolls became an inside joke between Karen and I at work. “Oh you better not do that…or you better get that done like she asked you to…or Sherry will throw the rolls!”

I for my part have equally special memories of Karen stopping by the marketing wing one day to chat with her son while she was on a break; and she sat there helping her son collate brochures, a short term project we’d hired him to do for extra income. As Karen talked to her son at 80mph speed, she also stuffed brochures at that same rate of collation. “Mom, slow down! You'll work me out of a job!” her son exclaimed. We laughed so hard!

Fond memories are one of the lasting gifts Country Coach employees took away from Country Coach. I have mine as I’m sure 1800+ other employees who built those same “Country Coach family memories” together have theirs…

That “Country Coach Inc era” has ended, and the employees are scattered like seeds in the wind. We’re involved in new adventures, new places of employment, and new phases of our lives, yet  it’s great to stay connected to many of them still through ties in the RV industry, through social media, and just by living in a small community and still watching each other’s kids (and grandkids) compete in grade school, high school and college sports, etc.  Like checking out Carolyn Gsell’s gardening a weekend ago through photos on Facebook, or catching up through email on the how Country Coach friends are enjoying their winter homes, The O Connors in Indio, CA or the Meighens in Arizona... Or currently the fun of working with RV industry friends throughout the local community businesses as I'm scheduling events, seminars and activities for upcoming Country Coach Friends Inc club rallies in which those old friends are still key supporters….

We move along and we evolve with the changes we experience or instigate in our individual lives, but the constant is: we stay connected.  We build new memories, albeit sometimes via long distance, through social media, through phone calls, and through those cherished visits where we “catch up” face to face on our Country Coach friends lives.

I look forward to each time we have opportunity to catch up and find out “who’s been throwing the rolls” …and why!

Country Coach friends are the best...forever friends…  Pass the rolls.

THE COUNTRY COACH BUILD PROCESS: Roof, Wall, and Floors…

All good things begin with an idea. Like the Country Coach you own, for example. Bob Lee had a vision for a true luxury motorhome, one that was built as if your very own mother would be driving it. One that handled like a dream, boasted the luxury amenities that discerning motorcoachers would expect, was equipped with the finest materials, components and equipment, and was manufactured with innovation and engineering that would set it apart in the RV industry.  Utilizing a huge array of talents from engineers, designers, installers, assemblers, painters and wood artisans to purchasers, inventory controllers, accountants, marketers, and salespeople, people put their creative energy and abilities to the goal of putting the wheels under Bob’s vision, producing the world’s finest motorcoach, the Country Coach you still proudly drive.

In an earlier post I shared DynoMax chassis information from Carolyn Gsell’s (a favorite former CC co-worker) extensive “plant tour” information. My earlier post addressed the rugged, custom tuned DynoMax chassis upon which each motorcoach was built. Here, I revisit the process Country Coach, LLC employed, specifically looking at what went into building the Roof, Walls, and Floors in your Country Coach Motorcoach.  

Thanks Carolyn, for this wonderful information you put to paper about the coaches we both enthusiastically marketed during our “Country Coach” days.

Like the DynoMax providing the strong foundation for the motorhome house, your coach roofs, walls and floors were built incredibly strong, and “the box” was fused to the chassis to create an integrated structure.  Lamination and vacuum bonding were the two key processes providing the integral strength of the roof, walls and floors of a Country Coach.  Each roof, wall and floor consists of a welded tubular steel frame filled with high density foam insulation, sandwiched between some form of wood product, which varied depending upon the application. 

FLOOR
Heavy gauge wide tube steel borders the long sides of each floor, with square tubular steel welded every few feet across. The top side of the floor consisted of half inch thick marine grade plywood, a particularly good surface for a floor due to its strength and moisture resistance factor, provided a great substrate on which to attach flooring materials.  The under-layer is a protective 1/8” waterproof material called Trugrit© and then the 3/16” thick rubber sound mat is strategically placed beneath the engine deck (the same material as is placed on top of the steel chassis before the floor is attached). 

ROOF

A Country Coach is built strong, a full seven inches thick at the center, with a gradual radius supporting the protective fiberglass cover.  The roof’s tubular steel skeleton has welded steel trusses every few feet. Its perimeter is spanned with wide tubular steel.  Once the frame is set, dense foam insulation was installed, and wire harnesses were laid in channels.  Roof vents openings and other accessories were bordered with plywood.  #26 galvanized steel was applied to the surfaces where roof-mounted appliances, satellite dishes, and antennas were to be attached for that added measure of reinforcement.  A polyethylene drip tubing was installed from each air conditioning unit so condensation off flow through the tubes to the ground. All this eliminates the streaking seen running from the roof down the sidewalls on some coaches.  Finally, Unicore© board was laminated to the underside and Luan paneling to the top side of the structure.

WALLS

Walls feature tubular steel to provide the main structure, high density foam for insulation, and lauan paneling[1] (1/8” thick wood sheeting) to the interior wall and fiberglass mounted to lauan for the exterior wall.

Lamination was a sight to watch. A row of glue guns spans the entire width of each piece to be laminated. This quick action glue is activated by water vapor.  Laminators had to work quickly to make this process work. Once the glue was laid down, both sides have their laminated materials applied, the entire piece, whether it is a roof, a wall, a floor, or smaller sections to build the slide rooms, were slid onto the vacu-bond table which could be compared to a giant “Seal-a-Meal.” Vacu-bonding infused strength into the structural components. Once these components were out of the Vacu-bond tables, the process was completed by cutting openings in floors for ducting and pipes or applying wallpaper to some sidewalls, etc.  Then these assemblies were delivered to the production line.

High density foam insulation, as mentioned previously, but what does that offer you, the owner?  Carolyn shared that years ago a service technician actually ran an interior/exterior test on a Country Coach, comparing it to a similar sized other brand motorhome.  He measured the temperature on the roof at 145 degrees F.  He went in both coaches and measured ambient temperatures.  The Country Coach was 20 degrees cooler compared to the other coach. That’s insulation at work.

While lamination was being done on a specific coach, other assembly areas were busy building other components going into the completed coach.  The cabinet shop used select hardwoods to craft door and door fronts. They built face frames, window boxes, slide room soffits, trim flanges and other accessories to be installed in the coach. The solid surface group hand cut and polished all the various pieces, from galley countertops to the trim pieces for nightstands and windowsills. In the wire harness department long rows of wire harnesses were woven together, while at outer assembly tables the dashboards were getting components installed. In the meantime, the purchasing group organized the delivery of appliances and furniture to the assembly line.  Materials arrived “just in time” for installation. 

Take a look at your coach and just about every component has a coach number. This number is on the chassis rails, on the edges of drawer frames, backs, entry steps, storage tanks, sofas, dashboards and fiberglass assemblies.  Each Country Coach is unique and special, worthy of a sense of pride of ownership.

…More on the Country Coach Build Process to follow later. Until Next Time, Happy Travelin', Sherry

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!

Let's Go RVing! Just for the FUN of it...

Ask an RV enthusiast why they travel. You will hear many things. The joy in the journey seems to be a recurring theme. So much of our lives we spend motoring (racing) from point A to point B, trying to spend the least amount of time getting there taking all the shortest routes Interstates and multi-lane highways get us to that game, that appointment, or that job with the least amount of time possible spent getting there. Boy, that gets old fast. When it’s time to re-create, to pause and refresh, there’s nothing better than the RV lifestyle.

The Lure of the Open Road. What a great day, when you get to the point you can enjoy the journey rather than concentrating on arriving at the destination. The open road whispers “Slow down, take your time, throw the timepiece out the window, exit the freeway, and explore America’s highways, byways and backroads. Discover colorful people, off beat attractions, and the experiences you've been missing on the busy thoroughfares and interstates. Enjoy the panoramic view from the windshield of your wide-body motorcoach.“From California, to the New York Island, from the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters” as the song aptly states, this land was made for you and me! The scenery changes daily, but the delight in the journey remains the constant!

Feedom! In a motorcoach, you can simply say, “Let’s Go!” Cater to your nomadic vein, never let the grass grow beneath your feet. New places, new faces and the anticipation of what’s waiting over the horizon, the nomadic lifestyle provides freedom to go, freedom to stay, freedom of location, freedom from of schedule. Go where you want, when you want, for as long as you want.. 

Family Friendly. For those who can steal a week, two weeks, a even just a weekend getaway, the RVing lifestyle is family friendly. Cost effective, convenient, and easily coordinated, an RV getaway ensures you maximize your time with family. “I have to go to the bathroom.” “I’m hungry.” “Are we there yet?” You’ll hear far less of this as you enjoy the travel time to the campsite with the kids. Then extend the awnings, set out the patio chairs, the bikes, the balls and mitts, and get right to memory-making. Grill some burgers, pop some corn, get out the Scrabble board, the fishing pole, whatever works for you. Build memories for a lifetime with your children and grandchildren.

Comfort. For extended travel, when you load the Country Coach with all your must-have traveling essentials and head out on your next adventure, you’re traveling in a virtual condominium on wheels. How many times have I heard my motorhome friends say, “In my Country Coach I enjoy a 5-star hotel wherever and whenever I choose to park for the night.” And you’ll never feel like one of those three bears of fairy tale lore: “Who’s been sleeping in my bed?” That’s something you can’t say traveling by car and relying on hotels.

Friendship. “A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” I read that quote recently and I thought how true that is of RVers!  New friends at the next fuel stop, the next lunch stop, the next high-end resort you visit, and most especially at the next rally you attend are realities for RVing enthusiasts. Lifelong friendships are always found parked next to each other at a motorcoach rally. When people from all parts of the nation gather for several days of fun in a group setting at a rally-fun and friendship always follows.

Rally Round in Oregon!

There are many opportunities in 2012 to meet your motorcoaching friends somewhere at a rally. Many rallies are right here in the Great Northwest I am blessed to call Home. Like the Country Coach Friendship Rally July 24-28 at Riverbend RV Resort in Harrisburg Oregon. Four days of fun to dance, laugh, eat, drink and be merry with some of the friendliest people you’ll ever meet! The rally is open to all brands of coach owners and there are still spaces available! Visit www.countrycoachfriendsincorporated.com to learn how to get yourself registered for a rally to remember.

Turn your Motorhome toward the Pacific Northwest this year.  

Discover Oregon's high desert plains, tour the verdant Willamette Valley where some of the world’s greatest wine is produced,  linger on the unforgettable Oregon Coast. Come to Oregon for your motorcoach service, upgrades and renovation services. The very best motorcoach service facilities in the nation are found here. Just ask anyone you’re currently parked next to at a RV resort if they've been to the Great Northwest. If so, ask what sets Oregon apart from any where they’ve visited? To learn more about Oregon and specifically Lane County, visit Come2Oregon.com