ACA Rally – Day 3
Like yesterday, today started out with a breakfast buffet, but with a slightly different menu from yesterday. It’s nice to not have the same thing everyday.
At 9 am the Board of Directors convened the General Member’s Meeting.
It was good to hear that although membership had declined in the recent past, it seems to be climbing again. They also talked about changing the rally schedules to make it easier for families to attend.
Then at 10 we had a presentation from Fleetwood American Coach’s National Sales Manager Jason Humphries, who told us that the industry is slowly coming back. He also talked about how new EPA regulations for 2011 are causing a big price jump on some diesel models. Engines made to meet the 2011 rules will cost between $50,000 to $60,000 dollars more than 2010 engines. That’s just the additional cost for the engine! That means that the 2010 Eagle I showed yesterday that cost $564,000 will now cost over $610,000, or more. WOW!
However this only applies to engines MADE in 2011, and is not based on the coach model year. So coach manufacturers bought up as many 2010 engines as they could to use in 2011 coaches until they run out. So they’re telling people that if you are thinking about a new 2011 coach, get it now before there are no 2010 engines left.
That may be why they announced that someone else at the Rally had bought an Eagle like the one I mentioned yesterday.
After lunch Jan had craft class where they made fancy beaded bookmarks. Very nice.
Heading back to our coach I took a picture of our Doppleganger, about 3 spaces away. Here it is,
and here we are.
The only real difference is that they have a satellite dome on top and we have an open dish.
They also have two cats just like we do.
Then later, about 5:15 we headed back over to Energy Hall for the BBQ dinner.
Once again the meal was top-notch. And this time we had wine with our meal.
After dinner, we had entertainment. His name was Joe Miller and he’s from Deadwood, SD. He looks a lot like Kenny Rogers, and he did a great tribute performance covering Roy Orbison, Marty Robbins, and Elvis. And he was very good, very entertaining.
By 8pm we were back in the coach and getting out the electric floor heaters. It’s supposed to be in the mid 30’s tonight.
Well, al least it’s not snow…not yet, anyway.
More later…
