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Volume 8
Private Motor Coach, Inc.
Celebrates 5th Anniversary
“We’re celebrating all year!” says Ed Lonsbary, President
and Founder of Private Motor Coach, Inc. “On January 25th
of this year, we reached a mile-stone. That date marked the
fifth anniversary of the founding of our entrepreneurial
travel company.”
“According to the Small Business Administration, most
businesses fail in their first five years,” notes Lonsbary.
“So staying viable through that fifth year anniversary is a
major achievement for any small business.”
The Private Motor Coach,
Inc. idea blossomed from Ed and wife Patty’s wanderlust and
a corporate goal: “To offer a life long memorable travel
experience and to develop a lasting friendship with each and
every traveler.” This goal and dream has taken the couple
and their customers to the far reaches of Alaska to the tip
of the Florida peninsula through Canada and even out West
some 85,000 miles in five years.
Traveling on board the motor
coach, house-on-wheels known as “Patty’s Charm,” has all the
comforts of home including a living room, kitchen, private
bedroom, and full bathroom. Charles Seaton, in writing about
Private Motor Coach, Inc. for Bus Ride Magazine, once said
that other companies could offer the same services and
amenities but they’d be missing an important element -
that’s Ed Lonsbary and he can’t be cloned!
What makes traveling special
aboard the coach is Ed himself. He drives and escorts
travelers with ease and his outgoing personality as “Red
Leader” leads to fun and often unexpected surprises.
Adventure, fun, miles and smiles await all that come aboard
“Patty’s Charm.”
Undaunted by rising motor
vehicle insurance costs and fuel prices, the Lonsbarys
intend to meet expenses and live their dream.
Reunion with Cirque
Éloize
Tiago Chasqueira, the
Head-rigger on the technical team, and others from the
Canadian circus troupe Cirque Éloize enjoyed a reunion with
Ed Lonsbary at the February 26th performance of
“Nomade – At Night, The Sky Is Endless” in Tyler, Texas.
The theatrical carnival of
song, dance and acrobatic feats came to this East Texas town
to perform a benefit show for The University of Texas at
Tyler. Tyler is a short 8 miles away from the Lonsbary home
in Whitehouse, Texas, so with a nudge from Patty, Ed sprung
for the tickets to the show.
This was not Ed’s first
encounter with the stage show. His first meeting of the
Cirque Éloize troupe came in 2002 when the circus artists
performed through Florida. Private Motor Coach, Inc. housed
and transported the technical team - the people responsible
for rigging the acrobatic equipment and lighting. After the
tear down of the stage and equipment following each show,
the technical team slept on the coach while Ed drove them to
the next show venue. He kept them well fed too as Tiago
reminded Ed with an appreciative embrace when they were
reunited at the Tyler performance. After the show, the
Lonsbary family – Ed, Patty and daughter Suzie – were
treated to a backstage tour of the set and many warm
greetings from all that remembered Ed and the Private Motor
Coach, Inc. ride.
Staying in Touch with the Sells
Wayne and Jane Sell of
Sarver, Pennsylvania wrote in February, “ We were very
excited to receive your postcard with our old motor coach
on. So glad to hear that you still have it and are enjoying
it. You are doing what you set out to do.”
The email from the Sells
was prompted by the celebratory announcement that Private
Motor Coach, Inc. reached its five-year anniversary. The
Sells are the original owners of the motor coach now known
as “Patty’s Charm.” The email went on, “We see you took the
coach to Alaska again," reminiscent of their own journey
there. As a sentimental token of that trip, the Sells’
souvenir suncatcher of a white polar bear still hangs on the
passenger side of coach windshield as a memento of their
trip to Alaska years ago. Private Motor Coach, Inc. made the
trip with travel enthusiast Mimi Cocks in the summer of
2003.
Private Motor Coach,
Inc. President Ed Lonsbary purchased the motor coach from
the sells in 1999 to start his luxury travel business.
National Bus Trader
Publishes “Private Motor Coach Goes to Alaska”
“Private Motor Coach
Goes to Alaska,” written by Vice-President & General Manager
Patty Lonsbary, takes readers along with the Lonsbarys and
Mimi Cocks as they traveled through Alaska in the summer of
2003. Patty’s story highlights transporting the coach on a
ferryboat, exploring a glacier and other interesting stops
along the way. The article appeared in the Annual Bus
Conversion Issue of National Bus Trader Magazine, July 2004.
Alumni Publications
Applaud the Lonsbarys
Nearly three decades
ago, both Ed and Patty enrolled in institutions of higher
education and now as alumni each received recognition for
their accomplishments through Private Motor Coach, Inc.
In the spring 2004 issue
of Fanshawe College Alumninews, Classnotes
applauded Ed for founding Private Motor Coach, Inc. Ed
graduated with the Manufacturing Engineering Technology
Class of 1971. Then, in the July 2004 issue, PITT Magazine
ran a feature story titled “Road Trip” about the birth of
Private Motor Coach, Inc. Patty is a PITT – University of
Pittsburgh – graduate College of Arts & Sciences Class of
1977.
One Happy Camper!
That’s the title of
feature story written by Cathy Grubman for the column
Rearview appearing in Destinations June 2004 magazine.
Cathy’s interview tells how Ed Lonsbary described as “a
harried executive gets out of the rat race and onto the
wide-open road.” Her light-hearted questions explore Ed’s
most memorable trips – a toss up between Alaska and a Civil
War battlefield tour – to his weirdest trip leading a convoy
of garbage trucks from New York to Pennsylvania. Ed confides
his feelings about the best and worst parts of running a
company. And, talks about why people chose this type of
personalized motor coach travel. The American Bus
Association publishes Destinations magazine.
Our motto is... "Anywhere
- Anytime"
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