September 21, 2012

River Bend RV Resort, Harrisburg, OR

The schedule listed today as a “free day” by there was still activities available for those that chose to participate.  Guaranty RV, a local RV dealer and repair service facility hosted the day.  We began with a seminar entitled, RV 101 that was very informative as well as amusing.  The two presenters, Warren and Tim, were very funny as they made their way through the topics ranging from batteries to black water tanks.  Guaranty RV sent transportation for those that did not want to drive the few miles to their facility.  We chose to drive as we had some other business to take care of later in the day. 

We hadn’t had time to have breakfast and thought we would have to wait until lunch to eat but to our surprise when we arrived at Guaranty RV we were offered a nice assortment of donuts, muffins and a cheese and cracker platter as well as coffee, water and soft drinks. 

 

At the end of the seminar we were told to take the raffle tickets we had received over to the Parts Department and check them against the numbers on a dry erase board to see if we had won anything.  Sure enough, Monte’s number matched and we found out we had won a chair.  It was a nice chair but too big for our already stuffed to the rafters coach basement.  So Monte asked if we could trade it for something else and the nice clerk agreed so we swapped out the chair for two LED lights.

RV Guaranty also hosted a BBQ lunch.  The dealership is quite large taking up a few streets.  We drove the mile to the building where the lunch was being held.  Hot dogs and hamburgers were served.  We were told to fill out a raffle form located on the table we were seated at and to my surprise I won.  The prize was a tote bag filled with goodies including a hat, tee shirt, mini dry erase board and a few other items. 

 

Monte had called the RV Corral yesterday to see if Keystone had come up with any solutions to our slide issue.  (We had spent the entire week prior to the rally in the parking lot at RV Corral.  The initial issue was that when we brought our big slide in the top seal was curling.  Knowing that we were going to be at one location for an extended time, we had called Keystone, the manufacturer of our rig, to recommend a repair place near the rally in Oregon.  They had referred us to the RV Corral.  We contacted them and made an appointment for September 12.  They had ordered the replacement seal which they installed the first day we were there.  The other issue we were having was the bracket for the slide was bending.  The techs fabricated a new bracket and installed it.  When they brought the slide in it was obvious immediately that the slide was out of alignment.  They attempted to align the slide but there was not enough clearance at the top which was causing the roof to ripple.  It was just a matter of time before the roof will rip if it is not corrected.  Starting on Tuesday, September 13, the techs were in contact with Keystone who requested measurement and pictures.  We were parked in the lot at RV Corral for the rest of the week with no more work being done while they waited for Keystone to give some guidance.  When we left to attend the rally the following Monday, we still had the slide issue.  We left off with RV Corral that we would return after the rally and asked that they keep us informed of the status and their communications with Keystone.  By Thursday we hadn’t heard anything from RV Corral so we called them.  They informed us that they hadn’t heard anything from Keystone.)

When we attended the seminar at RV Guaranty we were very impressed with the facility and the apparent knowledge of RV systems.  We explained our slide issue to Warren and he assured us that RCV Guaranty could probably solve the problem.  After lunch, we hurried back home to call the warranty company for some guidance.  At first they insisted that we stay at the RV Corral since the original claim was started there but when we stated we did not feel confident that they would be able to solve the issue they relented and gave the okay to take it somewhere else.  We drove to the RV Corral and settled up our bill.  We had a $100 deductable.  We have an appointment at RV Guaranty for Monday.

RV Guaranty planned a cocktail party for the RV Dreams Rally for 4:30.  Since we had a half hour to kill we walked around the lot and looked at the new 5^th wheels.  There were some really nice ones but nothing that I would want to trade mine for.

 

At 4:30 we attended the cocktail party.  I usually drink white zinfandel but since they didn’t have any I “settled” for Riesling.  I made friends with the bartender, Pamela, who made sure my glass was always full.   As a bonus we were given retro shirts that depicted different kinds of RVs.  Several ladies, me included, sported our shirts, and aided by some liquid courage, gave a singing performance.  We finally got the message that it was probably time to leave and returned to River Bend RV Resort.  Monte and I decided to build a fire and were joined by Kyra, a solo RVer. 

 Then Kyra and I went to some of the other sites to invite people to join us.  Monte had several TV theme songs on his IPod and we played, guess that tune.  It was a great night with very nice company.