Hello friends,
Hopefully you and your family enjoyed a 
wonderful spring and are looking forward to fun summer adventures in your Marathon coach. I recently attended the Marathon Coach Club rally in New Orleans and it was a terrific event. It was great to see friends and experience the beauty, history and cuisine of The Big Easy. I especially enjoyed the guided Segway tour that stopped at many historic sites, where we learned a great deal about New Orleans origins, and its fascinating transitions and development over two centuries.
Marathon had three coaches on display at the rally, including coach #1243 with its innovative floorplan featuring the industry’s first air powered, pocket style, sliding glass shower door. Of course, this innovative shower has more than a leading edge door to offer. It features a quite spacious, full marble interior with custom framed feature wall with an integrated, eight-inch square, rain shower head in addition to its hand-held shower wand.
We are always excited to get together for rallies and show destinations with old and new friends, and this year has already proven exceptional. Of course, you know about the New Orleans rally, but we’ve visited more than The Big Easy. Our newest Show Coaches were well received at the Prevost-Stuff Coach Show, The Tampa RV SuperShow and Barrett-Jackson classic car auction in January. In fact, there was quite the buzz about Marathon Show Coach #1241. It seems that the subtleties of the ghost graphics within the refined citrine stripes and double layer of soft shadows of the onyx, garnet and pearl exterior paint was the talk of the bus conversion community. I’m always amazed with what our M Exterior Creations team comes up with next. We appreciate that you’re continually desiring the newest and best innovations in your Marathon, which continue to inspire our Marathon team to always stretch for new heights with our coaches.
Of course, we’ve been busy showing coaches in the nation’s finest RV resorts: Petoskey, Mich. and Breckenridge, Colo. last fall and Indio, Calif. and Webster, Fla. during the winter. We just hosted our VIP Twilight Lounge event in Las Vegas, Nev. and still have so much planned with upcoming events spanning Flathead Lake, Mont. to Blanchard, Idaho. You can see how some of these events turned out by going to pages 36 and 37. You can also visit our Periscope account at https://www.periscope.tv/marathoncoachhq to see saved footage from our “Twilight in the Desert” event. Be sure to check out this social media venue in the future as we’ll continue to do live broadcasts from many of our top events in the future. If you can’t make it in person, watching it live on Periscope is a nice alternative.
Speaking of successful events, if you attended the Québec City Marathon Coach Club rally, you experienced a Canadian Prevost homecoming like no other. Many of you met Rene Prevost, grandson of Prevost’s founder, and took a VIP tour of the facility. Of course, there was so much more to enjoy during this rally, from unique and exciting cuisine to historical tours and events, this rally was one of our best attended in recent years. I want to take a moment to thank Prevost for all of their support during this memorable rally, as well as all of the other rallies and events they support. Whether you attended or not, I guarantee you don’t want to miss our upcoming rallies, including “Magnificent Monterey” this fall and the “Fantastic Florida Keys” in the spring of 2017.
If you haven’t signed up for them yet, I encourage you to do so soon as both of these rallies have limited spaces available. What better way to spend some time than with your Marathon friends, enjoying the motorcoach lifestyle in some of the most stunning locales around?
Please join me in welcoming new Club President Kit Thomson. I have no doubt that the Club is in good hands with Kit and the slate of officers and other volunteers who make the Club the outstanding organization it is.
And since we’re on the subject of interesting Club members, you can learn more about Connie Portz and Betty Siegrist on pages 58-63. Did you know they first met when they were teenagers and later reconnected as adults only to learn that they both owned Marathons? This dynamic duo and their husbands Ed and Fred can often be spotted enjoying rally events and spending time with friends.
Talking about the coaching lifestyle,
I’m excited to share the story of Marathon Show Coach #1236, which starts on page 26. With other excellent coaches coming off the line now, I encourage you to visit the inventory page on our website to learn more, take a virtual tour, watch a video or peruse some photos. In addition, the pre-owned coach market continues to be strong and you’ll see that Marathon also offers a wide variety of quality pre-owned coaches at various price levels.
I’m pleased to report that all three of Marathon’s locations are off to a healthy 2016. We’ve hired more than a dozen additional craftspeople since our last issue to not only accommodate our production needs, but also our influx of remodels, upgrades and other service-oriented work.
Thank you, our Marathon family, for continuing to inspire and support us in creating the world’s finest luxury bus conversions. It is our true pleasure to serve you.
Warm regards and happy adventuring.
Steve Schoellhorn
President and Owner
