Day 65 Tuesday October 8, 2024
We departed the RV Park about 9:30 for our 180 mile drive to Red Bay Alabama the home of all things Tiffin. We had a good easy drive and arrived about 1PM, checked in and setup in site 26 in Red Bay Acres. This is a nice RV Park, paved street, all concrete parking pad and picnic table/setting area pad and full hookups. It is U shaped with a pond in the center of the U. It cost more here than the other in town campgrounds but it is nicer and they have a nice building called the Red Bay Yacht Club that has comfortable recliners and couches to relax in, a pool table, other table games, etc., and they serve some light meals and have free coffee and popcorn. And the best cinnamon rolls around. Lena likes it here because she can come here when I take the motorhome to the shops around town to get our service and repair work done. Most of the repair shops don’t have waiting rooms.
After we got setup Doug Evans from Masters RV Service came to our site to clean our rooftop air conditioners and check the middle one for the vibration it has. That is the other nice thing about this RV Park they allow the mobile repair businesses in town to come to your site and do repairs and cleaning if they are on the RV Parks approved list. I assume the mobile businesses have to have liability insurance before they can be approved to work in the park.
There is a Piggy Wiggly and Big Star grocery stores in town. We have been to the Piggy Wiggly but not the Big Star so this afternoon we checked it out. We had heard they have really good big chocolate chip cookies. They must have a bakery in the back because they had a lot of different types of cookies, cupcakes, cakes etc. Of course we had to get a few of the cookies to try. And oh boy are they good.
Day 66 Wednesday October 9, 2024
This is going to be a busy day.
I took the motorhome to Bay Diesel for my 8am annual service appointment. I also had them check the dash air conditioner because it did not seem to be cooling properly. They discovered that the compressor was leaking Freon and needed to be replaced. Ouch!
They also did an alignment. We had this done last year but we hit a bad pothole on I40 in Memphis on the way to meet the RV Caravan and we were concerned it had caused the wheels to be out of alignment. It was off some but not too bad.
Then at 3:45 I took the motorhome to Nick Brewer’s shop to have him install a cell signal booster antenna on the roof. This should improve our cell service in the more remote areas we go to.
Then just after 5 we walked over to join three other couple that we were on the Mississippi River Tour with. They were having a shrimp boil and invited us. Lena fixed a salad to go with the main meal and the other couples brought dessert, etc. Like us they are here to get service and repairs done on their motorhomes. They all have Tiffin motorhomes like us. There is someone here in town that can fix almost anything wrong with a RV.
We had a good meal and good conversations about traveling with our RVs, both good and bad things that have happened to all of us.
I received word today from Tiffin Mechanical shop that we are #6 in the queue to get called in for our jacks repair so it will be next week before we will be called to go to the service bay.
Day 67 Thursday October 10, 2024
I had to take the motorhome back to Bay Diesel this morning at 7am so they could test drive it after the alignment yesterday and also to install the new inside grab bar at the steps that one of the guys accidentally broke when he went inside the motorhome during the wheel alignment process. He felt bad about it but I told him to not worry, things happen sometimes.
We had not had any breakfast yet so when I brought the motorhome back to the RV Park we went to a new coffee shop named Belmont Coffee Company in Belmont Mississippi. Red Bay sets just across the state line from Mississippi.
Then we took the motorhome to Sabrina Humphries so her and her crew could wash and polish it. It sure does need it. We have tried her and two other companies in town that does this and she is the best. She is a hard working woman. And her hard work has paid off because this year she bought a small 11 site campground across the street from Tiffin Motorhome Service Center and is having a large two bay building built there to accommodate her motorhome cleaning business. It should be finished in about three weeks. Then she can do her work out of the weather and not be in the hot sun and cold Winter weather.
We went to the Red Bay Yacht Club until we got hungry and then we went to the Piggy Wiggly for lunch and then back to the Yacht Club to wait until the motorhome is ready. We sure have been doing a lot of running around since we got here.
The motorhome was ready about 5pm. Sabrina was able to buff out the scratches we got on the sides of the roof when we pulled off the road several days ago into a parking lot that had some low hanging tree branches. The motorhome sure is cleaner after being on the road for 67 days.
Day 68 Friday October 11, 2024
Today is cleaning day, laundry, inside the motorhome and washing the Jeep.
One evening on our tour we were having a get together to pass along useful tips and Sandra told the group about a cleaning cloth called E-Cloth for cleaning windows just using water and the cloth. Sounded too good to be true but we bought the kit yesterday at Happy Hollow, a store across the street from the RV Park.
The window cleaning kit is two specially made microfiber cloths. You wet the waffle weave cloth with just water, squeeze it out, wipe your window, then use the other cloth in the kit to wipe the window while it is still damp. Well by golly it works the best of anything we have ever used to clean windows and mirrors and all you need is the two cloths and water. No chemicals.
We have three full length mirrors in the motorhome and it seems we always had streaks on them after cleaning with a cloth and window cleaner. Not anymore and we also cleaned the shower doors with the E-Cloths. I also cleaned the Jeep windows with the cloths.
They can be washed in the washing machine with no detergent and hot water and dried in the drier with no drier sheets 300 times. They are available on Amazon. They have them for glass and mirrors, counter tops and stainless steel. They come in sets, and are magical. We are believers.
We joined the three other couples that are here in Red Bay for motorhome service/repairs that were on the river tour with us again this afternoon for another pot luck meal here in the RV Park. There was also another couple that was not part of the tour that one of the couples invited to join us. We had a good meal, good fellowship and Eric lite his gas firepit and we set around it for a while. When the sun goes down the temperature drops so it gets kind of cool outside.
Day 69 Saturday October 12, 2024
Nothing going on today so after we had breakfast and did a few chores we decided to go visit the Worlds only Coon Dog Cemetery. It is about 20 miles from Red Bay out in the country down a narrow paved road. We visited it when we were here several years ago. Several new graves have been added since we last visited. Some of them are getting rather elaborate. You must get permission to have a dog buried here and it must be a coon ( raccoon) hunting dog. No poodles, shepherds, bulldogs, jack russels, etc. I signed the guest book and there had already been 4 or 5 visitors this morning and when we were leaving two more cars pulled up.
From there we drove to Russellville AL and stopped at Captain D’s for lunch. We have not ate at a Captain D’s since we lived in Virginia. Then a stop at Harbor Freight for me and a stop at Walmart for Lena before we returned to the RV Park.
Day 70 Sunday October 13, 2024
We slept late today to make up for all the early mornings recently. Then went to the Belmont Coffee Company for a Latte and muffin. Their muffin selection was slim this morning only pumpkin spice and one chocolate chip muffin. Then we stopped at the Big Star grocery store in town to get some more of their chocolate chip cookies. The selection was not as good as those at the Big Star in Red Bay last week but maybe they don’t do much baking for the weekend. The Big Star in Red Bay is closed for a few weeks due to a fire Friday morning in the back where they smoke their meats. After taking a few photos in the downtown area we returned to the RV Park for the day.
We had a nice sunset tonight.
Day 71 Monday October 14, 2024
Quite a bit cooler today with a predicted high of 73. I guess Fall is just around the corner.
We are still waiting to be called by Tiffin to come to a service bay so they can try and fix our jacks.
Day 72 Tuesday October 15, 2024
We are now #3 in the queue at Tiffin Service Center.
I was reviewing the annual service records on the motorhome yesterday and realized the crankcase breather filter had not been changed and was just a little past due. I called Bay Diesel to see if they could work me in today and change the filter. They said they could and was called at 10am to come in.
Aaron jumped right on it and had it changed in a few minutes and while he was changing it he noticed there were three small holes in the serpentine belt. I told him to change it. Better now than on the side of the road. He had to remove the front two belts to get to the serpentine belt. He changed the filter and put the new belt on in 45 minutes. The holes in the belt was caused by small pebbles being pressed between the belt and the pulleys on the engine. The belts are ribbed and make great places for the little pebbles to get caught.
I could have changed the filter but I would have had to remove a engine access trap door in the floor in the rear bathroom and they have been know to be really difficult to remove, especially with just one person. Aaron is really slim and agile and was able to shimmy up on top of the engine to get to the filter. I am not so slim and definitely not as agile as he is. And I probably would not have seen the holes in the belt because it is on the opposite end of where I would have been if I had gained access through the floor.
Day 73 Wednesday October 16, 2024
Very cool this morning, not sure I am ready for cold weather yet. We are still waiting on Tiffin to call us in to fix our jacks. We didn’t even leave the RV Park today, hoping we would get the call we are waiting on. But we didn’t.
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