We recently got the privilege to visit with Monaco’s Holiday Rambler owner group 419 in Elkhart, Indiana. What a great time we had! While we were there, Marisa made it a personal mission to find all the elk statues around town. In case you missed the photo documentary, you can see them on our Facebook page.
There are over two dozen of these elk statues placed around town, and the five surrounding towns. The elk are actually a collection of artwork called “Elk on Parade”.
According to the Elk Art on Parade website, “Elk Art on Parade will benefit Child And Parent Services (CAPS), Elkhart County’s non-profit child abuse prevention agency. It is a public art exhibition that places life-size fiberglass elk designed and created by local artists in county landscapes for the public to view and interact with. While the base elk sculptures remain the same, each of the artists were challenged to creatively convey part of the history of Elkhart County through their own interpretation of the elk as an object of art. Elk Art on Parade is funded through individual and corporate sponsorship’s.”. These works of art are really quite amazing.
Speaking of amazing, our very own James Files made the cover of the business section of the ‘Elkhart Truth” wearing one of our signature tie-dye rally shirts and while we were at the chapter 419 rally we were also able to meet up with some past customers, or as we like to refer to them, some old friends, and we also made some new friends. Even our very own Vice President, Curt Curtis was there serving up grits!
The wonderful members of chapter 419 are one of a kind. Literally. They all own a diesel pusher. But year after year these wonderful people stick to this brand not only because they have formed this ‘second family’ of close friends, but because they know Holiday Rambler is a brand they can trust.
One of the main focus’ of this particular rally is education. In fact they don’t even call it a rally, they call it a “Maintenance Session” and there are over 100 seminars on everything RV related! They like to keep everyone educated on the gadgets, warranties, safety, repairs, and preventative maintenance. And this year was exceptional. Bill Osborne (Navistar president) came out along with other Monaco and Holiday Rambler and Navistar executives to see what rallies are all about, and did a 2 hour question and answer sit-down with a large portion of the club members. They wanted to find out what these owners want in an RV. When is the last time you were able to sit down with some executives and discuss what you’d like to see in upcoming models? It was really great to see these two companies come out and do this.
And that isn’t all… As if we hadn’t had enough excitement, the first available 2013’s were here, straight off the production line! In case you were not aware, this is Holiday Ramblers 60th year, and we all witnessed the very first, brand new seal celebrating Holiday Ramblers 60th year. We all felt like we had been given V.I.P. passes to an extraordinary event. Wait.. We were!
We really had a phenomenal time with this great group of people, and we can’t wait to do it again next year! Until then, Holiday Rambler Chapter 419, we’ll be over here at RV Country – stop in and see us if you’re in the neighborhood!
