Day 1 Monday 1/1/2024
Happy New Year 2024. We started the new year by leaving on a trip at 7:15am New Year’s Day. We are headed to Red Bay Alabama to get the annual engine/chassis service done on our motorhome. Red Bay is where our motorhome was manufactured. We are not taken the motorhome back to the factory service center but to Bay Diesel, a company in Red Bay that only services motorhomes.
They have many years of experience and are very attentive to not only doing the necessary services but looking for any unknown issues. For instance last January they found two brackets that had serious cracks in them. If they had not found the cracks we might have been stranded on the side of the road sometime later.
The town of Red Bay is a small southern town with several small businesses that specialize in doing various repairs and services on motorhomes. Most are former employees of Tiffin Motorhomes which built our motorhome. Tiffin builds some of the most popular motorhomes in the USA. We will also have the roof inspection for any issues. I always did this a few years ago but now I am reluctant to get on the roof as I don’t bounce like I did 10-15 years ago. We will also get the motorhome washed and polished. I wash it during the year but it hasn’t been polished in a year and a half and a 41’ motorhome takes a lot of elbow grease to polish, plus they also clean and treat the roof with a UV blocker.
After about a 400 mile drive, we stopped outside of Rutledge GA at Hard Labor Lake State Park Campground for two nights. We had to drive across railroad tracks in Rutledge. There was a sign warning about bottoming out since the tracks were up higher than the normal level of the street. I took a chance and eased over them and we didn’t bottom out but was probably very close. I will look for another crossing when we leave here Wednesday.
We got there about 3PM and set up in site 3, a pull through site. Of course it was not level so we had to get our ramps out to put the wheels on one side to get it level.
Day 2 Tuesday 1/2/2024
The temperature was predicted to get down to 24 last night according to my weather app. I unhooked our water line before going to bed so it would not freeze. We slept in to about 8 AM since we were tired from our drive yesterday.
I was looking on my map app yesterday to see what was interesting in the area that we could explore today and saw a small town named Social Circle. Yep, you read that right it is named Social Circle. I think that is a rather unique name for a town. I wonder what is behind it being name that. We decided to drive there since it is only about 8 miles from Rutledge.
As we drove through Rutledge and we did find another place to cross the railroad tracks tomorrow that is not as elevated. There appears to be a fair amount of industry in Social Circle and it looks like a huge amount of farm land is being developed for an industrial park just outside the town.
Surprise surprise we found a coffee shop in Social Circle named Bread and Butter Bakery. It is in an old General Store. Really good stop as the Lattas were very good as was the Raspberry White Chocolate Cheesecake and Chocolate Croissant.
On the way back to the campground we stopped in Rutledge to take photos of the murals we spotted yesterday. Rutledge is an old town that was incorporated in 1871 but its history goes back before the Civil War. One of the land owners granted the railroad right of way back in the 1840’s and a depot was located here so the town grew up around the depot. There was a turn table built here to turn the train engines around to head back to Augusta GA since this was the terminus of the railroad line at the time. There is still a depot here but it is now a town community club building. The original depot and much of the town was burned during the Civil War by General Sherman’s Army on his march through the South. It is a small town and has some really nice large old houses as does Social Circle.
Day 3 Wednesday 1/3/2024
We pulled out of the campsite at 8AM in order to time our trip through Atlanta GA just after rush hour. Our timing was good and we had no traffic problems getting through there on I20
After stopping for fuel about 50 miles from Red Bay we arrived at Red Bay Acres RV Park in Red Bay at 1PM and set up in site 26.
Our friends Gregg and Judi arrived about 2:30PM for their annual service on their motorhome. They came over later and we chatted for awhile to catch up. We had not seen them since last January when we came to Red Bay for service. We will be together later this year on a RV Caravan trip.
Day 4 Thursday 1/4/2024
We had to get out early this morning to have the motorhome at Bay Diesel at 7 AM. Most of the businesses here in Red Bay start their day early. I think the Tiffin factory employees start at 6AM and get off at 3 PM.
Lena went to McDonald’s and got breakfast and brought me a coffee and biscuit.
Gregg arrived at 8AM for his service appointment. They finished ours about 8:45AM. There was not as much to do on ours this year as there was last year. I returned to the RV Park and Ashley’s Aqua Hot service came to do the service on our Aqua Hot system. This is the system that heats our hot water and also heats the motorhome. Our motorhome has three heat pumps, a fireplace and the Aqua Hot heating system. We only use the Aqua Hot for heat when the outside temperature is below 40 degrees because the heat pumps don’t produce much heat below 40 degrees.
Then about 12:15 I took the motorhome to Precision RV Repair to have them inspect the roof for anything that needed to be resealed. They found a couple of places where the top side roof rails are secured to the roof that needed attention so they recommended they reseal all areas that secure the rails to the roof. I agreed. It didn’t take but about 1 1/2 hours for the work and drying time. Then I returned to the RV Park.
The RV Park had a nice facility they call the Yacht Club that has a nice lounge area, limited selection of breakfast and lunch meals, cinnamon buns and free coffee and popcorn. Lena stayed there while I was gone and tried the cinnamon buns.
Gregg and Judi and us went to Halligan’s Pizza for Supper. We had heard they make a good pizza and they do. The pizza was very good. We had leftovers to take with us for another meal or two.
Day 5 Friday 1/5/2024
I went to the Yacht Club and got us two cinnamon buns for breakfast because I had to have the motorhome at Fowler Detailing in Belmont Mississippi about 8 miles away at 9AM for them to polish the rims and wash and wax the motorhome. My appointment was for 10AM but they contacted me yesterday and asked if I wanted to come at 9AM since they had a schedule change from another customer. As it turns out they didn’t get started until 10:15AM. Two of their employees didn’t tell the manager they had doctor’s appointments so they were running behind.
They didn’t finished until 3PM but they did take a 1.5 hour lunch break. They did a good job but not as good as the last time we had this done in Red Bay by another company. This company does have the advantage that they have a large building where they can put 3 Motorhomes inside and work on them inside. It would have been kind of tough washing one outside today when the temperature high was about 46.
Of course it started raining about 6:30 on our nice clean/waxed motorhome. At least it is not snowing. It rained most of the night.
Day 6 Saturday 1/6/2024
We had nothing scheduled for today so we decided to try the new Coffee Shop in town named Lost Pines Coffee Shop. They open at 8 AM on Saturday and we got there at 8:05 and they were not open. We decided to wait about 5 minutes and if they didn’t open we would go onto Tupelo Mississippi like we had planned to after having coffee here. The owners showed up in about 5 minutes and apologized for not being open. The person scheduled to open this morning called in sick so the owners had to come open the shop. We had a good Latte and muffin each.
Then we drove about 40 miles to Tupelo Mississippi to check out the birthplace of Elvis Presley. We have been to Graceland but never to his birthplace in Tupelo. We paid our $15 senior discount price each and began the tour.
It was 43 degrees but with no sunshine and a slight breeze it was cold outside. Elvis’s home place was built by his father, grandfather and an uncle. His father borrowed the $180 it cost to build the shotgun style two room house in 1934. It is still in the same spot but only the fireplace, wood cookstove and ice box are original. They sold most of their furniture when they moved to Memphis TN for a better job opportunity for his father Vernon. When the town of Tupelo was creating Elvis Presley Park they ask for donations of period furniture to furnish the house. Vernon came and showed them where furniture was located in the house.
The museum is small compared to most museums but was interesting as was the little house. The church the family attended was moved to the park grounds and it is also open as part of the ticket price but there was something going on inside at the time so we didn’t go inside it. There is an old Plymouth sedan on the grounds that is similar to what they drove to Memphis when they moved there.
We were getting hungry so we went to Just Love Coffee and Cafe for lunch. We got a stuffed waffle that was stuffed with a fried egg and sausage with a side of sausage gravy. A little different but very good as was the Latte.
Then we returned to our RV Park in Red Bay. Our friend Gregg and Judi that were parked in the site next to us were out in their motorhome. Judi was taking driving lessons from a motorhome driving instructor from Red Bay. She wants to be able to drive it just in case Gregg was to get in a situation where he couldn’t drive it.
We went over to their motorhome later when they got back to hear about how it went. She feels much more comfortable about it now.
Day 7 1/7/2024 Sunday
We left Red Bay at 11AM and drove about 45 miles to Muscle Shoals AL. We have never been here and wanted to checkout the Alabama Music Hall of Fame and Helen Keller’s home place and see what else might be interesting in the area.
We stopped at Jacks fast food place for a light lunch and to kill some time. Our checkin time is 2 PM and we got in town about noon. We went on to the Loves RVStop Campground and set up in pull through site 13. This is a different type of campground. Love Truck Stops is where we buy a lot of fuel when we are traveling since we are kind of big we need access to an easy accessible fuel stop so we use truck stops like the 18 wheelers do. We burn diesel and we have a diesel fuel discount card that is good at several brands of truck stops like Loves.
A couple of years ago Loves started building RV campsites at some at their truck stops. Some RVers will park overnight in the parking spaces at truck stops. We would never do this except in an emergency because that is taking up a parking spot a trucker might need. Truckers don’t have many choices for overnight parking to get rest except at truck stops. RVers can checkin to a campground to rest overnight but a trucker can’t.
You do your reservations online, pay online and they email you a receipt, instructions to checkin online once you arrive, which also turns your electricity on at your site, and a gate code to open the gate to the campground. This is our first time to use one of their RVStops. We don’t know about any others but this one is much nicer than many commercial campgrounds we go to for less money. The streets are gravel the site parking pads are concrete, and good spacing between sites that is thick grass. The hookups are really nice and located in the proper place. There are picnic tables at all sites and there is a bathhouse, dog park, community fire pit, laundry room, basketball and pickle ball court and corn hole boards. That is more amenities than some campgrounds have for less money.
It sure seems good the sun is shining today. First time in a couple days.
Day 8 1/8/2024 Monday
It is rather cold today and windy. Strong winds predicted for tonight.
Some of the places we planned to tour today are closed so we didn’t go anywhere. The weather tomorrow looks like rain so we will see what happens tomorrow. The Helen Keller Homestead is closed for two weeks starting today, of course. Did some laundry and a few other housekeeping duties. I did go over to the Loves store to pickup an item I needed and get two Lattas at the McDonald’s there.
