By: Bob Gummersall

LEAVING MONACO FRIENDS – The most unanticipated part of this downsizing process was the emotions we felt leaving the Monaco Northwest FMCA Chapter friends and their reaction to our decision to downsize. We had only been members of this group for four years but in that time we made some very good friends. Monaco Northwest had a rally in Surry BC in September which we attended and when people found out that we were not going to downsize to another Monaco, it became very emotional. The first reaction was “are you guys going crazy?” Next was “What in the world are you thinking of, have you both lost your senses?” Then when things settled down a little and we explained some of the ‘whys’ that I have already written about, we were able to get back to serious friendship stuff. The Monaco Northwest members approached their leadership proposing a change in their by laws, so as to ‘grandfather’ us into the Chapter. This proposal will be voted on next summer. So the net of this emotional time with friends may wind up with no changes whatever. But even if the bylaws are not changed, we will still remain friends with all our Monaco Friends, meeting where ever and when ever we can.

OTHER GROUPS AND NEW GROUPS - We will remain active in the Northwestern Bus Nuts Chapter since their by-laws don’t require owing a bus conversion, just being interested in a bus conversion. We got started with the group years ago, when I thought it would be neat to do a conversion. My bride did not want to have that kind of a mess around so we wound up buying the Georgie Boy diesel and then the Monaco. Getting the GMC is a little like doing a conversion, in that we are rebuilding or restoring all the house and chassis systems. I look forward to all this restoration as a challenge that would have been like doing a conversion. This will be our RV for the next years, probably until we can no longer participate. I learned a long time ago never to say ‘this will be our last RV purchase’, but I am tempted to do it now. As I indicated in earlier writing, we are looking forward to driving our “new” GMC to our first GMC Cascaders Chapter Rally, later this year. We are on to new experiences that will bring us new RV friends and new experiences on the scale that we can now perform.

SELLING OUR MONACO - We are over 80 days into the process of selling our Dynasty. It is listed on about 8 low or no cost web sites. It is also listed with a Web Site in North Carolina that professes to have a significant number of buyers that register with them. They arrange insurance, financing and try to match up buyer with one of the sellers in their data base. This one charges 3% when and if they sell the coach. I have rejected several higher cost web sites that claim to have a significant ‘sell’ rate because I got very negative reports from owners that currently have their rigs listed on this site. They were excited to get and email but disappointed when they found out that I was just another seller trying to get information. During the Seattle and Tacoma RV shows the coach was listed with the local major newspaper in the classifieds and on their web site. We got three phone calls and one serious looker from this advertising. I also listed the coach on eBay two times, getting action much lower that we want to consider at this time. Listing on eBay costs about $40 for an unsuccessful auction and another $40 if the auction creates a real buyer.

EBAY PROCESS - For those of you who have no experience with eBay, here is how it works. The seller writes up a complete description of features and condition. One photo is included in the $40 and 5 more are available at $0.25 each. So for $41.25, thousands of people look at your item. There were over 2000 lookers each time it was listed. This action created 2 fairly serious prospects that contacted me after the auction was over. The seller sets a starting price and a reserve price and chooses whether to have a 7 day or a 10 day auction. The auction creates a sale when a bidder bids at or above the reserve price. Watching eBay in a very serious way makes me conclude that it is much easier to sell an RV in the $30,000 and below price range than one above that point. As I said, earlier I decided to try eBay initially because I watch a new diesel pusher produce a bid above its wholesale price. As of this writing, we have no serious prospect and are continuing to aggressively market the unit. We have evaluated putting the rig with a dealer on consignment, but have rejected this path at this time. If the coach does not sell by January, we will take our ‘winter trip’ to the southwest in the coach with a several large ‘For Sale’ signs on it. If we find a buyer, we will just load our stuff in the Honda and drive home.

REPAIRING THE GMC – The broken down GMC has been repaired and upgraded by an excellent repair facility in North Platte, Nebraska called Herbst Towing and Repair. It was a little scary to leave our new (old) motorhome with a person that I had only met hours before, but everything has turned out great. All the ordered parts show up and fit. Wayne at Herbst Towing and Repair has done a great job getting our rig road worthy again.

PAINTING - The ‘green machine’ is now the sand/black striped machine. It also sports a new paint job done by Keith at the local Chevrolet Paint and Body Shop. We are thrilled with how the coach looks and with the repairs. We looked at lots of photos of GMC’s to decide what paint scheme to us. Non were exactly as we want, so I photo-copied a line drawing of a GMC coach out of the Owner’s Manual, which is turning brown with age and has tattered pages. We drew up the design we wanted on that line drawing and I scanned it into the computer so that I could email it to Keith. We went to an auto paint store to select colors, there are thousands to pick from, and decided on “mica Sand” with mica Black stripes which are both 2001 Mazda colors. I will have a digital photo to show later.

WE WAITED A WEEK TOO LONG - We are at this writing, picking up the rig to drive it home. We waited one week two long, and the weather caught us. The first snow storm of the season, hit North Platte the day after we arrived. Driving from Mercer Island, Washington to North Platte with our Honda tow car allowed a one day stop in Pocatello, Idaho to attend the funeral service for my 92 year old Step Mother. It was very nice to see family and friends and great that we did not have to make a special trip. The GMC sports new disk brakes in the rear replacing the less effective drum brakes. It has a rebuilt air suspension system, new shocks, new headers, new exhaust and 6 new tires. We will wait here one extra day to let the snow melt and the weather improve.

The next edition of our Odyssey will describe our trip home...