Can you use NewSoftSerial for Serial Monitor output? The problem was that the Wireless SD shield connects the RN-XV directly into pins 0/1 (hardware serial) so I was unable to use the Serial Monitor.
I don't have any experience using the wireless SD shield, but after looking at it, I see what you are saying. It forces the connection on 0 and 1 and then has a switch to use when you need to program it? That seems like a silly limitation of the wireless SD shield. I use the Adafruit breakout boards for my Xbee's or wireless modules. You should still be able to use software serial to setup a debugging serial environment, so you can use Serial.print() etc. Here are some references:
I'll have to try that - I was able to use the Wireless SD shield to have a direct connection to the WiFly, but once I switched it back I was unable to use the Serial Monitor - looks like SoftwareSerial might solve that