Yesterday was fairly uneventful. Donna went out on her bicycle and rode about 15 miles. I hung around the coach and puttered around. In the late afternoon, I stopped at a pub called Red, White and Brew. When we lived here before, it was my favorite place for a cold one after work. When we rolled into town last Friday, after new home shopping, I stopped at the pub and ran into a couple of friends there.

Last Friday, I had a draft beer (local brew, 8th Street Ale) and chatted with the guys a bit. When I was getting ready to leave, one of my old friends, Mike Hall, said he’d put my beer on his tab. Yesterday, when I stopped by again, I didn’t see any of the old crew. I sat at the bar and ordered a Hop Knot IPA. Heidi, the bartender said, “Hey, you left without paying the other day.” Apparently Mike neglected to tell her that he was paying for my beer. We had a good laugh when I told her what happened. Heidi worked here back in 2009 when I was a regular customer and remembered me.

Later, Donna and I decided to head down to the RV Resort community center. They had a Sloppy Joe buffet set up. I fixed a plate with a Sloppy Joe, cole slaw and salad. Donna skipped the buns and cole slaw. The people serving were from North Dakota and Iowa and they called the Sloppy Joe “barbeque.” Neither one of us had ever heard it called that before. But it was really good!

Once they finished serving, they started karaoke. There were some talented singers there and some not so talented. We didn’t hear anyone that was really bad though. Most of the song selections were from a time before my generation. We hung around for about half an hour and heard seven or eight songs before we left.

I’ve had a few comments on the blog and on Facebook asking about our new coach. As I mentioned before, it’s an Alpine Coach made by Western Recreational Vehicles (WRV). WRV started building recreational vehicles in 1972. They made travel trailers and 5th wheel trailers under the Alpinelite brand.

In 1997, they designed and built the first Alpine Coach. They designed and built the Peak chassis, then built the coach. Their approach was to build a coach with handling characteristics similar to a European touring sedan. Of course, no 31,000 lb (14,060 kg) coach will handle like a touring sedan, but it made good advertising copy. In comparison with other heavy-duty class A motorhome chassis, the Peak chassis offered superb handling with a smooth, but taut ride. When I drove the Alpine, I was struck by how smooth it handled without feeling mushy or wallow-y.

WRV built simple floor plans with high-quality components. For the most part, they stayed away from glitz and gadgetry and concentrated on building solid, reliable coaches. Their production facility in  Yakima, Washington mostly built travel trailers and 5th wheel trailers. Their coach production consisted of only a couple of models in various lengths from 34′ to 40′. The coach production averaged about 10 units per month from 1997 to 2008. The Alpine Coach registry shows a total of approximately 1,400 coaches built.

The last Alpine Coach was built as a 2009 model. I don’t know the actual date of manufacture. Many RV manufacturers suffered during the financial crisis and some good coach builders went out of business. WRV was one of them – along with Country Coach, Travel Supreme, National RV and others. People weren’t buying luxury coaches and RV manufacturers saw their cash flow go negative while expensive inventory went unsold. WRV had plenty of parts in stock when they closed their doors. These parts were auctioned off and spare parts are still available. Aubrey RV in Union Gap, Washington bought most of the parts.

Spare parts aren’t really a big issue. Most of the items in a motorhome come from outside suppliers. Most of these suppliers are still in business. For our coach, Dometic supplied the refrigerator and A/C units, Suburban supplied the furnace, Onan supplied the generator, Splendide supplied the clothes washer/dryer. All of these companies are still doing business. On the chassis, wear items like brakes, shock absorbers, ball joints, steering gear and axles all came from suppliers that are still around. We have a Cummins ISL diesel engine and Allison six speed automatic transmission and of course both of these companies are still in business, too.

I’ve been asked to post more pictures of the coach. I have some photos that the dealer took. I’ll wait to shoot my own interior shots when we have the coach and Donna has a chance to do some decorating and you can see what our home really looks like. Here are a few exterior shots from the dealer.

More to come. It looks like we’re on track to take delivery this weekend.