Red Bay – TooBusyForWork

On the way home from Red Bay, AL

We are in our last night before getting to Iowa, spending the night (again) in the Walmart parking lot in Bowling Green, MO. We don’t have far to go tomorrow because we will be staying in Marion, IA while I take a quilting class with Kaye England! I am quite excited. I have followed her work for years, but I never anticipated being able to take a 3 day class with her. We are doing “Odette’s Journey” quilt using either Accuquilt cutting or some specialty angle cutters. While I have both, I know I will be using my beloved Accuquit. There is one odd piece I might have to use a ruler for, but I hope not. I will post my progress after the class.

We did get all kinds of stuff done in Red Bay. We had someone in Chris Berry’s shop remove our front TV (never used since our initial inspection!) and replace it with cabinets. They cut down the cabinet so it no longer is a head banger and put a shelf and doors on. Tiffin will no longer let you order custom cabinet doors, so the millwork is a bit different. I don’t think it matters overmuch though.

We also go our yearly motorhome service at Bay Diesel. They did fix a MIL engine light after discovering it was due to noise on a data line. The TPMS repeater Kevin had installed was noisy, and he had to move it to a new location. There were over 70,000 instances of the offending message LOL! We had already had it investigated, and we knew it wasn’t a big deal, but it is nice to drive the motorhome without a yellow caution light.

On Thursday we had Precision RV do a big inspection and preventative maintenance on the roof and slides. RV roofs have a lot of holes in them for things like vents and mountings, and Kevin just didn’t feel up to climbing on his belly all over the roof (I knew he was a smart man). They used 3 complete tubes of specialized caulking on the front cap seal where we had hail damage last year. Luckily we had no water damage, and all the rest of the roof looked good. We also had them clean out the undersides of the slides. Years ago we had some Corelle dishes break. While we got most of it, some small pieces had made it under the slide. With many years and many miles, they were completely pulverized into tiny pieces. Glad they got them out, and my slides don’t crackle as we open and close them any more.

Another thing we did was to remove the sofa in the motorhome and start converting that into a sewing area I can leave set up all the time! We are still figuring out the most efficient spot to put my sewing table, and we will be picking up a narrow storage cabinet before we head out after Christmas.

It’s not much to look at yet, but the black strap is the seat belt to hold it in place, while the laundry basket and plastic storage container holds the things I need for the class I am taking. Pretty much all of that will go in the storage cabinet except when i need to sew outside the motorhome. The machine is put up in its purple case ready to put in the car along with the rest of my things.

I actually did get quite a bit of quilting done. I cut, sewed, and pressed all but the border of a quilt for my son’s partner. I can’t show it yet, just in case, but I am quite happy with it! I will border it and quilt it at home. It was so nice to just be able to sew for shorter amounts of time without having to take things out then put them away each time.

I probably should note where all we stayed on this trip too. We left on Tuesday and stayed at the same Bowling Green Walmart we are at now. The next night we stayed at the Elks Lodge in Sikeston, MO. My oh my oh my did they have good food! The last Wednesday of the month is smoked ribs, and they were some of the best I have ever eaten. We stayed in at the Red Bay RV Park, a well graveled and graded FHU “campground.” The sites are pretty wide, and the place is well kept. We stayed there from Thursday, 24 September, until Saturday, 5 October, at noon when we headed to Ricky Johnson’s place for a wash and wax. The motorhome looks so pretty! That night we stayed at the Jackson, TN Walmart. We head to a reserved campsite at Wanatee County Park in Marion, IA. The kids and grandkids from Cedar Rapids are coming out for dinner on Thursday after the class, so it will be nice to see them too.

Back home from Alabama

On Monday 18 September, we got the rig detailed inside and outside. They did a pretty good job, but the exterior detail didn’t include any waxing which disappointed me. I think we will go back to the guy we used before next time. We left on Tuesday morning and spent the night at the Perryville Elks Lodge. It was a big parking lot that wasn’t very level, but we managed to get the rig in the best place possible and leveled with blocks. They had a 20 amp socket for electricity, but we didn’t need it, so we dry camped. I had planned on having a drink in the lodge, but it stunk of cigarette smoke so I gave up on that idea. Wednesday night we stayed at the Mississippi River RV Park in Canton, MO. It is run by the city. It was a great spot immediately below Lock and Dam 20. We got to see a few barges coming through, but the river is so low there wasn’t much traffic.

We decided to put the rig at Big Woods Park again to get everything cleaned, emptied, and winterized. It was nice to be home again. The cats seemed to agree, and they were running around immediately. While we were home in the first week I had a doctor’s appointment, met with our financial advisor, went to church and later choir practice, and got my COVID shot. I didn’t do any sewing at all!

We went on a charity UTV ride on Saturday, 30 September. It was for the Waterville Fire and EMS, a volunteer group. It was HUGE! They had three different groups starting at different times along different routes for a total of almost 600 rigs. The vast majority were UTVs, but there were a few ATVs in the mix. It is mostly on private land open only to donation rides like this. There had been a LOT of rain in the last week – 6+” – and the trails were wet and the creeks full. We got that figured out when our first creek crossing got people stuck! In the picture below the one in the back was buried to his axles. The two in front of him on the left were pulling him out with tow straps, and the one with the red lights went around the stuck rig on the right like we did. The water did come inside the RZR, but it is designed for that, and we were fine.

This is about the separation of the rigs on the trail. As you can see, the trails were quite muddy. But the rain made for some lush vegetation.

There were pre-planned stops every hour or so. I liked the view at this spot a lot. It is absolutely a classic view of the northeastern Iowa a landscape.

The ride was billed as the “Fall Colors” tour, but we were at least a week away from significant color.

“And the woods were lovely, dark and deep”

It was a 5.5 hr trip going only 39 miles with long stops, but that is to be expected with a large group. We had to wait for at least one rig with tire problems. We went on this same ride last year when the RZR was brand new, so it was nice to how much more comfortable we are with it this year.

Another thing we got done was to replace out dying maple tree with a new honey locust tree. Frost Tree Farm is great to work with. He took out the maple for free, planted the locust, added mulch to it and the elm, plus even pruned my crabapple tree in the front! He is retiring soon though, so these trees better grow.

As always, the posts will be less frequent while I am at home, and we will be here until after Christmas. I will be doing some sewing though, and I will post that as I finish the quilt tops I have ready for quilting.

In Alabama getting things done

It was an amazingly relaxing time at home. Maybe I should use a more appropriate term – lazy time! After all the running around, it was nice to just relax. I didn’t sew a single thing! We did have three separate get togethers with the kids since they are all so busy a single one wouldn’t work! Lots of cooking, but nice.

We left home on Friday, 8 September. Our first night we spent at Bowling Green, MO Walmart. I like small town Walmarts. They are generally not too crowded, quiet, and safe. We have stayed here a number of times.

We had a bit of excitement the second day when we spotted a blimp descending south of Cape Girardeau, MO. The Subway blimp was on its way to Kansas City, but took a breather here. The pictures are awful because we were on a highway with no place to pull over. Kevin took them out of the window. The front is supposed to look like a sandwich and the back is like a wallpaper with the words “Subway” in different fonts and sizes. Why does Subway need a blimp? I sure don’t know!

We spent Saturday night at the Elks Club campground in Cape Girardeau. Pretty, but I won’t stay again. They didn’t have the trees trimmed, and I had to go through overhanging branches that rubbed my roof. None of the were big, just little stuff, but they shouldn’t advertise they handle big rigs! Then the campsite itself took a lot of work to get level. Never again! We did have a pretty view when we finally got situated. The sky was overcast and gray, and the water was the same color with reflections. This is in the boot heel of Missouri, so the trees are only just thinking about changing colors.

We spent a lot of time getting the motorhome worked on. Monday we had a major motorhome service (oil, filters, transmission drain and replace, chassis maintenance, etc.) plus added a bunch of suspension upgrades. I haven’t had a lot of time with them yet, but it feels promising on the few roads we have had it on. The work basically reset the clock on all kinds of items so next year we are back to a Year 1 maintenance.

Tuesday we had a Shower Miser installed. This is a valve and plumbing where I close a valve in the shower, turn on the hot water, and the water flows from the water heater back to the fresh water tank until I open the valve. It saves quite a bit of water that would otherwise be wasted waiting for the shower to get hot. Obviously this isn’t an issue when we have hookups, but I am hoping it will save quite a bit of water when we dry camp and boondock. It works great! We also had a leaking Hepvo valve replaced (an alternative to a P-trap for RVs with limited space) and our black and gray tanks power flushed. We keep them in pretty good shape, but the gray tank is a bigger bother. Fats and food deposits accumulate on the sides of the tank, and we don’t have a good way to clean them out.

Wednesday Kevin installed a new rear view campers. Ours was just becoming intermittently bad. He checked all the wiring, so we just got a new one. So far it is MUCH sharper than the old one.

Thursday we got our old Schwintek slide mechanism in the big back slide (bedroom and bath) replaced with a Vroom system. This was the reason we really came down. Every time I opened or closed the slide, I had to pray it would work, and generally Kevin ahd to help it along from the outside. Turns out it was truly broken. We had it worked on two years ago, and I just wasn’t willing to do it again. So far so good! The mechanics of the slide are much more robust and the motor is more powerful too. I think the Schwintek was just not up to the job.

Friday we getting our lounge/bathroom wall slammed back into place and re-tied down. The wall was literally moving away from its position. Chris Berry had fixed it 3 years ago or so, but I think the Alcan Highway between Tok and Destruction Bay did it in. The screws Chris had put in were all either broken or gone completely, so this time he added backing boards, REALLY big screws, and even screwed through the tile grout to anchor the wall to the metal frame in the floor. You can see how far it moved away from the wall by looking at the ceiling dents. The soft fabric will eventually expand back. Oh, and on this trip Kevin had already slammed the wall back in place about 6 weeks ago.

Saturday we visited the Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center and the Shiloh National Military Park. What a sobering visit it was. We started at Corinth because that was where the major museum and interpretive center was, and it out the Battle of Shiloh and the Battle of Corinth in perspective. These were the battles that lead General Grant to control the Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers plus the major rail lines of the Confederacy, splitting it in two and severing supply lines. After these battles he headed to victory in Vicksburg where visited last year.

Pittsburg Landing is where Grant landed his troops.

And far, far, far too many never left the battlefield. Soldiers from both sides were originally buried in a multitude of mass trench graves. The Confederate soldiers are still there, marked by solitary large monuments. The Union soldiers were reburied at this national cemetery. Note the big monuments surrounded by smaller ones. The unit of the soldiers could be determined by their uniforms, but not their names. The vast majority were buried with their unit. The larger stones indicate the unit, and the smaller stones are individual graves.

The battlefield ranged over a few miles, and the liens are very well identified by the NPS. This shows a sample of the location of a particular artillery battery at a particular time in the 2 day battle. These types of markers were numerous.

The battle was named for this little Methodist Episcopal Church (a south), part of a pro-slavery split from the anti-slavery Methodist Episcopal Church. “Shiloh” means “place of peace” or “peaceful one.” The battle raged around the little church, and it was totally destroyed. However this faithful replica was hand built and completed in 2001 based on church records and other historical documents.

During the Civil War, the military units were mostly from a single geographical area. Many states whose units participated in the battle built monuments to their soldiers. This is the Iowa monument. According to the NOS records, 6664 Iowa soldiers were at the battle and 2409 were killed, wounded, or missing, the greatest loss of Iowans in any bottle of any war. This is one of the reasons I was always so furious with former US Representative Steve King who always kept a Confederate battle flag behind his desk, prominently displayed in any picture he took in his office.

This is the Confederate monument. Only 25% of Confederate soldiers were from slave owning families, but the other 75% fought and died to keep human beings as property.

The film shown at the Shiloh Visitor Center was one of the most sobering and heart-wrenching things I have ever seen. I cried. Such waste to support an unsupportable cause. We ended up eating at Cole’s Smokehouse with the most fabulous smoked chicken I have ever had. We come every time we visit Red Bay, and they never disappoint.

Sunday we took a trip to the Rattlesnake Saloon outside Tuscumbia, AL. It is in some type of natural cave with a huge opening, and it a fabulous place to visit. You park on top in a large lot, then they ferry you down a steep one lane road in a specially set up pickup to the cave. The food is just so so, but the atmosphere is what you go for. Well worth a trip if you are in the area. We even got some live local music this time.

Tomorrow we get the motorhome detailed and(probably) buffed, the we leave on Tuesday. Whew, I really should post more often so they don’t get as long!

Out of Alabama on the way west

We had a good trip in the Red Bay Area. Ricky McGee at Pro-Finishes touched up a bunch of dings and scratches, a few fairly big. Great paint match, and the guys were super interested at making us happy with the outcome. We also had good work at Precision RV where they found a broken slide slider, a fairly common problem, and one I have been surprised we hadn’t had yet. We are not gentle on this MH! They not only replaced the broken one, but let us buy a spare since it might happen on the other side of the slide in the future. We could find someone to fix it, but getting parts is what always takes a long time. They also discovered and fixed a leaky hydraulic line for the same slide, adjusted all the bay doors so they shut easily and evenly, installed a propane furnace igniter that Kevin had bought but didn’t want to install (the current one was only working intermittently), and re-tensioned the slide toppers. Hopefully the slide toppers won’t hold as much water after rains now. Then we had Rocky Johnson do a complete detail on the motorhome – wash, wax, put 303 on the roof for UV protection, inspect the roof while he was up there (everything is still good), and polished the wheels. The coach just gleamed, but of course it had to rain later that day. Sigh. At least the wax is a good protection.

As usual we stayed in Red Bay RV Park which is like all but one of the Red Bay area spots – a gravel parking lot with full hook ups. This time we had a particularly outgoing group, and we met some nice folks.

We ate at all the standard places – Stark’s for breakfast, Cole’s for the absolute best smoked chicken I have ever had (and fabulous white sauce!), Home Town Pizza for great great pizza, and Big Star Grocery for some of their specialty snacks. I even bought extra of their fruit cake cookies, and I froze them in sets of twos for future consumption. Each cookie is the equivalent of a big slice of fruitcake, so two is plenty for the pair of us.

We left Red Bay this morning a little after 8:00, and we are now in Morrilton, AR a bit west of Little Rock. We are spending the night at the Walmart here. It started out pretty noisy, but it gradually got nice and quiet. Monday is Shawnee, Oklahoma at a casino. I went to college in Shawnee, so it will be interesting to see how it has changed.

Yet another Red Bay visit (with a day trip to Huntsville, AL)

After we left Bowling Green, we drove Hinton RV Park in Sikeston, MO. Nice place. We had a huge pull through site with full hookups at $45/ night. We didn’t have to disconnect the UTV trailer from the MH, and there was still room for the Jeep. We decided to stay 2 nights, knowing New Year’s Eve is noisy a lot of places. This place was nice and quiet, mostly with a mix of long term residents and migrating snowbirds.

The night we arrived, 30 December, we went to Lambert’s Cafe, home of the “throwed rolls”. It was decent cafe food, but you don’t go just for the food; you go for the fun. Yes, they really do throw dinner rolls to you across the dining room! The servers were working hard, and they had other staff come around with additional standards like fried okra (a favorite or mine), apple butter, and fried potatoes and onions (another favorite).

On New Year’s Eve we just relaxed. I did cut a bunch of quilt components with the Accuquilt though. We got to try out the new Starlink system, and it is fabulous. A good 5G signal gives about the same throughout, but it is hard to find 5G where we go. We actually made it to midnight Atlantic time (aka 10:00 pm Central time). We wanted to get up early and drive, but New Year’s Day started out quite foggy so we took our time. We did get to Red Bay at a decent time, and we are settled at Red Bay RV Park. “RV Park” is a strong name for a very nice gravel lot with FHUs, but it is level and roomier than some of the alternative places.

Since we are going to be here a while, I pulled out the sewing machine and got lots of little blocks completed. It is nice to sew while listening to audiobooks, and I did that while Kevin messed around with the water softener and a few visits to hardware stores. We had our first repair appointment today with the paint folks at Pro-Finishes. After 60,000 tough miles, it was time to get some chips filled in plus we had a couple of big scratches on a slide. They got all that done while we went to the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville. Fabulous! Be prepared for incoming pictures.

We started in the main indoor section of general space “stuff” including training facilities for their Space Camp. Interestingly the exhibit started with a collection of space themed toys ranging from the 1930s to present.

After the toys were a combination of models are true artifacts.

Of course there were real artifacts too including these space suits

Please some concept suits for the future.

We then went to the Planetarium where we saw a presentation about the James Webb Space Telescope. Quite interesting! After that we visited the next museum building that was centered on rockets and manned space flights. Again, a combination of models and actual artifacts.

The inside of the second museum building emphasized manned flight. There was a docent who was giving a very interesting guided tour that we lucked out with. There was an actual Saturn 5 rocket inside this building, laid on its side (all 300+’ of it!), and I took lots of pictures. I will spare you those! This specific rocket was built for vibration testing, and obviously the designed passed. I will emphasize more on the manned capsules now.

The silvered thing in back was an actual training module for the Mercury

Damaged heat shield from the capsule – ouch!

There was even the sole remaining component from Sky Lab, the first space station. This was the only piece that didn’t end up burned up or lost in the ocean. You can see the insulating pieces of fiberglass that didn’t burn up.

We came back to check out the coach painting, and found a couple of spots they had to re-do. Looks pretty nice though! Tomorrow is a visit with Precision RV for slide check and maybe hydraulic pump repair, slide topper tightening, and replacing an igniter on one the propane furnaces. Of course they may find other stuff! Saturday is a full exterior detailing, then Sunday we head for Arizona. I can’t wait. It is so humid here that my towels don’t dry overnight, and we have to wash them every 3 days or so. Ugh. I want my nice dry desert again.

More catchup during COVID times

Since the last post got so long with just seeing things, I decided to add another post about travel and some other things.

We ended up taking a couple of short trips to a nearby county park for to be closer to Kevin’s cataract surgeon. Squaw Creek Park in Linn County, Iowa is one of our favorites. First, it has nice facilities (a FHU section with reservations and a W/E section with no reservations), and second, it is close to two of our kids. We end up doing a reasonable amount of our medical specialty work in Cedar Rapids, Iowa because we know the doctors there. It is about an hour from our house though, so we head to the campground if any overnights are needed. We stayed there in early October and mid-October for 5 days each time, just enjoying the weather and seeing family (outdoors and distanced of course).

We also ended up taking another trip to Red Bay. The slide topper on our big living room slide tore where it was attached to the roof, and the minor fix Kevin made just wasn’t going to last. While we could probably have found someone closer, we had lots of recommendations for a specific firm in Red Bay, so off we went. Of course it could have been just an excuse to get out of the state a bit too, as my oldest son laughed about. We did get gorgeous upgraded slide toppers on all four sides. We decided on a dark red Sunbrella fabric that matches the motorhome very well and which is much tougher than the original vinyl. I thought I had pictures, but I can’t find them. Too bad, because the color is amazing.

Kevin has spent all kinds of time doing things in the motorhome. He managed to fix the roller blind on the driver side with a free part from the blind manufacturer. Tiffin only wanted to sell the entire assembly for some $300!

He mostly has been busy making all kinds of 3D printed parts for organization, mostly at home. This is just a small sample. Every holder on the pegboard was printed.

Plus some Christmas things.

We didn’t put up a Christmas tree this year, just our 10’ long Christmas village. This little display fit right in. It is actually cuter than it looks since my camera isn’t great with white in bright light.

As for Thanksgiving, I was able to cook loads – roast turkey, pies, and stuffing. Kevin smoked a couple of turkeys that mostly went into the freezer in smaller portions. I then delivered to my daughter’s family (they just moved into a new house the weekend before!) and my son who is single. I delivered two portions to him because a workmate was also by themselves this season. We are having a virtual Christmas this year too, though I am not supplying food. Presents are being distributed today, and we are having a Zoom opening later today.

As for future travel, we have been back and forth for months trying to decide if we are traveling to Arizona. We just decided to do so a couple of days ago. Our original plan was to leave on 28 or 29 December, but a storm is rolling into the Midwest then. We now plan to leave on Sunday, the 27th. We will get to central Kansas somewhere on Sunday then head to Oklahoma City a few days where I have family. I am crossing my fingers we stay out of the snow belt, but if it happens, we will just stay put another day or two.

Slow going in the coronavirus era

I really haven’t felt like updating since we just haven’t been doing much. I wrote that, then I realized it was incorrect; we have been doing stuff, but the vast majority of it isn’t travel related, so I haven’t been posting. I was on the site of one of my favorite bloggers, and she said she was in the same funk. It isn’t really depression, just a bored funk. Hard to get motivated to write though.

We did take one trip on July to Alabama to get work done on the motorhome. The results are great!

Television lift and cabinet modifications to accommodate it.

Old TV removed and added shelves for a pantry.

The top pull is for the new prep surface.

Small cabinet to hold maps and atlases in the bottom with remote controls in the top. There is even a spot in the back to store our iPads.

New heather colored carpeting in LR and kitchen slides plus bedroom.

Oh, and we added a 12v and a USB port, but I didn’t get pictures. I am very very happy with the mods. It took a couple of weeks, but that is the way it goes. While we were waiting, we visited the Natchez Trace some, and we drove to the far eastern Alabama to see the very edge of the Appalachians. It was mainly just a way to kill time, but the country is pretty.

When we got back we just put the motorhome up, but that doesn’t mean Kevin hasn’t been playing with all kinds of things. He has now bought two separate 3D printers, one with one color only and one that can manage three colors. He is having a blast learning the software, a huge job actually. He has made a bunch of mask holders, the ones that elastic from masks slip,over to keep them from behind your ear. The school aged grandchildren all have multiple ones with their names on them. We bought a BlueFire data bus reader for the motorhome (fabulous BTW), and he not only made a custom dash board I canwatch while driving, but a custom holder for the iPad we use as a display head.

He also made all kinds of little custom holders for our cell phones, etc.

Holds phone, GPS, and TPMS on co-pilot’s side. Something similar on driver’s side.

While Kevin has bee printing, I have been sewing. I quilted 4 quilts for the local quilt guild. There are always lots of pieces, but not many quilters. I really don’t like the quilt tops, so I won’t show them! They are the worse type of scrap quilts, but I am sure the recipients will find them warm. I finished the Drunkard’s Path lap quilt for Kevin. The texture is luscious – wool batting and fairly loose quilting.

Kevin chose the layout. I call it “setting sun”.

All the corners match! I just did a gentle meander for the quilting and a decorative stitch for the binding.

I also did a small quilt using the design I am going to do for our bed at home – Jewel Box. I really like this one, and it will be a nice little baby quilt.

I am quite proud of the circles and scallop ruler work.

Also pretty proud of the straight ruler work!

I will be using most of the same quilting designs on the king sized quilt I am working on now. I have always had problems with getting my machine completely flat and level in its table. It was off just enough to make the rulers rock on the needle plate. I enlisted Kevin and his new printer, and he made custom pads to make it perfect! He used a micrometer to measure and then printed the right size of pad for each corner.

Oh, and like all the sewists in the world, I am still making masks. I wish I had kept track of how many, but it is between 350 and 400. Wow! Lots went to kids and grandkids since everyone really needs 7-10 to let them be replaced once or twice a day before washing. I ended up buying the mask die from Accuquilt in both the medium adult and the child sizes. They made the volume possible! I gave 60 to my grandchildren’s school and 45 to another public school.

Adult (red stars) and child size (snoopy and rainbows) for comparison

I have made dozens and dozens of masks with licensed University of Northern Iowa fabric. Those are so popular I bought an entire bolt. I figure masks will be needed until at least next summer, and I can use any left over for baby presents or home dec items. There is only one fabric store that has it (they did a special order from the supplier), and it was too far away to go often.

After writing this post, I figure I might just keep it up. We actually are doing things, even if I feel bleh.

In and out of Red Bay (again)

We drove into the Tiffin Service Center campground in Red Bay, AL on Sunday, 3 March. We got seen by the evaluator on Monday, and we were told it would be the middle of the next week before we could get into a service bay. That gave us some time to wander around, but it was so cold we didn’t enjoy it much. We did get to a small shop in downtown Red Bay and ordered a custom hand towel in the basic colors of the coach.

However we got a call early on Friday morning to head to a bay! We got everything we needed done by Tiffin early, a nice change. However we still had some woodworking to be finished by an outside vendor, and we had an appointment for diesel service and installation of a SafeTPlus steering system on Wednesday. The woodworking was done on Monday, and we got the diesel work done as planned by Bay Diesel. Since the service center work was complete, we moved to a private campground nearby, 1st Class Campground. It is another gravel parking lot, but at least the owner turned the water on a few hours a day. Pretty much all the other campgrounds had water shut off completely due to the freezing temperatures.

The diesel service went well, and I already LOVE the SafeTPlus. It makes driving much, much easier and less tiring.

Today we had the coach detailed, the first time it has been washed in months! We were scheduled for the 4 hour job to begin at 9:30, but just after we left it the water faucet they used broke due to the cold! The detail guy had to spend the first few hours replumbing the water line, so instead of being on the road by 2:00, we didn’t leave until after 4:30.

We had thought about gradually heading back to Iowa, staying at some Corps of Engineers sites for a couple of weeks, but I was so tired of the cold! Even Red Bay was getting down to lows of 20 or so, almost unheard of for March. Kevin found a campground in Gulf Shores, AL near the coast. We will be spending a week there, hopefully warming up. The forecast is for lots of rain though, so it is not an unmixed blessing. We are spending tonight in a Walmart parking lot in Cullman, AL.

Scenic south and Tiffin warranty service

We finally made it to the Tiffin Service Center campground on Monday afternoon. We got the call while we were on our way to Tupelo to visit Elvis Presley’s birthplace museum. Oops! Back to Red Bay to make the move.

We did get to drive just over 40 miles on the Natchez Trace on our way to Tupelo though. It is the oddest National Park I know. More than 400 miles long, but only as wide as the road in many places. Here is a view of the gorgeous heavy deciduous forest along most of the route. Obviously it is still late summer in this part of the country.

We did take time to walk part of the original Trace which was just a foot trail.

This section led to a small and lonely Confederate cemetery. There is a tiny Confederate flag someone left.

We also stopped to see the Pharr Indian Mounds, dating from 0-200 CE. Pretty impressive after 1800 years!

Once we got settled in the Tiffin campground, we just relaxed and watched TV. Kevin’s newly installed satellite is working great! This is not a campground for relaxing outside. Not only is it miserably hot here, but it is another parking lot, suitable for waiting for service but not camping.

Yesterday we decided to drive to Meridian, Mississippi to buy me a fold up sewing table. I have one at home, but forgot to bring it! We both figured it would be good to just keep this one in the coach. Kevin feels like death warmed over with his bronchitis though I am beginning to recover. It was 7 hours in the car because we took a “scenic” path. Not terribly scenic though since it was mostly just a road through lots and lots and lots of trees.

We did get with the service writer, and he said we had a couple of days wait to get into an Express Bay. That gives you two techs for two three hours to get most of our warranty items done. The final item will be in the cabinet shop, and that requires an additional wait. Sigh. Luckily the two days wait turned into a day and a half, and we moved into the Express Bay a little after noon today. All of our items were taken care of, but a ladder from the next bay fell against our coach and put a nice big scratch in the paint. Another sigh. They are hoping to get us into the paint shop tomorrow morning, but we will see. We still need the cabinet shop, but I am hoping they put us in the wait line immediately rather than waiting for the pain shop to finish. Oh well, the parking lot is free since we are under warranty, and it is full hookup.

i am also including a picture of cotton fields since they are everywhere around here!

Made it to Red Bay, Alabama

We left Iowa about 1:00 pm on Friday after running a number of last minute errands. We spent the night in the Walmart parking lot in Hannibal, MO. Nice quiet place. We got around Saturday around 9:00 and headed to Jackson, TN. We spent the night again in a Walmart parking lot. Like most small towns on a Saturday night, there were some young idiots in very loud cars cruising the parking lot, but it got quiet well before midnight. Since we only had 100 miles to go, we took our ever loving time getting out. We finally got to the Tiffin Service Center campground by noon. However we found out the campground was already full. Tiffin recommended we go to the Red Bay campground a couple of miles away. It is just a big gravel parking lot, but it has 50 amp full hookups. Cheap at $25 a night, but it would have been free if we were at the Tiffin site. Hopefully we can move in the next day or so. The roads all the way from Iowa we’re divided four lanes with the exception of the last 20 miles or so.

We have all our forms filled out for our warranty work, and some time tomorrow a Tiffin SC rep will come out to evaluate the time needed to complete our list. That will decide how long we have to wait our turn.

I admit this is a short post without pictures, but I should have more to post when we can get out and about. It is, unsurprisingly, very, very green here. It was also ridiculously hot today, almost 90 degrees! Should be better tomorrow, but I still miss my cool, dry mountains and deserts. All those folks who retired and moved to Florida – good for them! I can’t even imagine it.