Tag: Tennessee

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.

Repair frustrations and more of the Natchez Trace

We are still sitting in the Tiffin Service Center parking lot. Sigh. We got into the paint shop on Friday, and today we had the paint finished up (buffing and such). They did a great job. I drove the coach back to our parking spot, hooked it all up, and 15 minutes later was asked to come to the cabinet shop. We only have one item left – a very poorly finished bathroom door. The very nice young man said the door had to be replaced, not repaired, and it would be two weeks! I nearly died. He saw my face, and said he’d go look to see if they had a spare one sitting around. Luckily, they did, and he said he’d get it put together and sprayed in “a day or two.” Yet another sigh, but not as big this time. We are hoping to get into Missouri on Thursday, but we will see what happens. Thank goodness I allocated lots of time for this trip.

On Saturday we took another trip along the Natchez Trace, this time heading towards Nashville. The pictures are from along the Trace.

This shows the old footpath and how it divides into different paths to go around what became mud puddles as the path as it wore down.

This is the Gordon house from 1818. It is t open for visitors, but it is pretty impressive anyway. The owner had a concession from the local Choctaws to operate a Ferry and trading post. He did just after the house was built, but his wife lived here until 1849.

This is the Inn (known as a “stand” in this part of the country when the Trace was active) where Meriweather Lewis committed suicide. Poor fellow was being stiffed by the US Government on a bunch of bills that he then had to cover from his own pocket. He was looking at bankruptcy, and was depressed. He is buried about 100’ away, his grave marked by a broken column indicating his early death. So sad.

Sunday we just hung around locally. I made some of the wonderful Instant Pot egg bites with sausage and cheddar cheese this time, and I also made an Instant Pot cheesecake. Both turned out wonderfully. I also got my sewing machine set up to get some work done on the quilt for the coach. Hopefully I will have all the blocks done before we go home for Thanksgiving.

 

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.