End of the year-December 31, 2013

Can you believe how fast this year has gone by?

Let me tell you before I sign off for this year, we are watching a series on television that said Kiln, Mississippi was once the moonshine capital of the world, not just the country. We are a stone's throw from Kiln. That's also the birthplace of Brett Favre, formerly of the Green Bay Packers. I am not hinting he was into that. No, indeed. I was only making a statement. Then they showed how they make and move moonshine in Waynesboro, South Carolina. We have stayed there and I figured those woods could talk. It is only a few feet from Asheville where Billy Graham has his retreat. My goodness, one never knows what's going on around us, do we?

As I reflect on 2013 I am oh so thankful for so many blessings. While we did not move around as much as last year, we still had a wonderful time. We went from the desert to swamps, from the mountains to the Gulf coast, through all kinds of weather. So many great memories. So many interesting people crossed our path. We enjoyed time with friends and family we would not have wanted to miss for anything. We are so grateful for a great year.

I hope and pray for all of you that 2014 is the best year you have ever had. I hope it holds much health and happiness for you and yours. Stay safe.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Another one of those days-December 30, 2013

When I say it was another one of those days, I mean that in a good way. It was gloomy so we wanted to be out and about. We drove around a little and then had a very late lunch at a wonderful restaurant in rebuilt downtown Bay St Louis. It is called 200 North Beach Restaurant. While we were relaxing and enjoying the really unique building I spotted a picture leaning against the wall. So I asked about it. The waiter brought it to me.

For once I was glad I had my iPhone to take a picture of a picture. This was the building just after Hurricane Ivan roared through the Gulf coast on August 29, 2005. I could not get it all in the picture so what you don't see is that the street is gone. Only the sewer and a few broken pipes were left standing. Everything else is gone.

 

A family named Tidwell bought the building and restored it as soon as construction was allowed and possible. They salvaged the beams of the damaged building, cleaned them and used them in the restoration. All of the wood they could save was cleaned and used in this building.

 

This wall is some of that recycled storm damaged wood. It was really very pretty.

 

As we sat there waiting on our meal we realized that we were sitting on a street that did not exist after Ivan blew through and we had actually seen it a few days afterward. We had driven to Ocean Springs to help friends, Brian and Carolyn, clean up after the storm. We took a break and they took us to see what we could. We drove to the point where the road ended and all that was there was a huge hole in the ground about 25 feet deep. All of the businesses that were there were non-existent. We stood by the Hancock Bank which is less than half a block from where we ate tonight. It brought back so many memories. We were amazed that this beautiful building had almost been lost to the ravages of an evil storm. Bless the Tidwell family for bringing it back to life.

 

I will add that the food was so delicious that it will remain a memory of ours for a very long time to come. There's no way to tell you how wonderful it was. What a great day. And oh so interesting. 



Park pictures-December 29, 2013

It rained cats and dogs all day yesterday. We thought we might start floating away. We finally felt like we had to get out or go nuts, so we went for a drive. What a waste. You could not see the bay or the Gulf, only fog and rain. But still it was nice to get away. These walls can close in when it's dark and gloomy.

Our long time friend, Ken and his parents drove down here from farther north in Mississippi so we could all have lunch at the hotel. We have not seen them in a very long time so we had to talk fast. We still did not get caught up but had a really nice visit anyway.

As we were walking back I was reminded to share some crazy Cajun pictures with you.

This was checking in as we returned home. Good looking coach. Great looking tiger. No,

it's not the Auburn tigers. This is a group called the Cruisin' Cajuns and we can probably

assume they are from Louisiana. Every coach that's part of that group has a tiger of some

sort on it. For the record, this is not a cheap coach. I bet the painting cost a pretty penny, too.

 

A closer look reveals LSU under the ladder. This is a real work of art, it is not a skin added on.

 

Two of the coaches have these tigers in the window. That is a really large plush tiger. Still

part of the Cruisin' Cajun group.

 

These tents always mean a huge wild loud party is in the near future.

No doubt about who they cheer for, is there?

 

And finally.........

A great play on words. I love it! I think the Cute Red Vehicle needs one of these.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trees and good news-December 27, 2013

Can you tell what this is? It's a bad picture, I know. These are the palm trees at the entrance

to this complex. That's a whole big bunch of lights and I would not have wanted to string them up.

Pity the person who has to take them down, too.

 

We were gone all day today TCB. That means "Taking Care of Business". We managed to get everything done successfully. On the way back we stopped at a Rouse's grocery market. They had their fresh King Cakes out and we were able to get the last Bavarian cream filled one. If you have never had a King Cake, I am sorry. And if you have had a King Cake, but not one made by Rouse's, I am very sorry. They have a great reputation for being the best you can taste. That King Cake did not disappoint. That was our meal tonight since we had a big and late lunch today. Then we went for a long walk in the cool night air. That was fabulous. The King Cake was our good news #1.

 

As soon as we got back, we went running into the office, a mere 5 minutes before it closed, and asked them to see if there had been a cancellation on the 31st. YES! They had a cancellation. That means we do not have to move out for one day. We can stay until we are ready to go. And we will be here for all the partying on New Year's Eve. That was good news #2. And that was fabulous news indeed.

 

The park had filled up a great deal today and they all appear to be LSU fans. If I can get some pictures of how they decorate I will. Evidently we are about to witness some of that wild LSU partying fun. We witnessed that one year at Breaux Bridge. And we will never forget it. We hope this is as much fun as that. Those crazy Cajun people know how to party. You could call that good news #3.

 

And how could I forget? We were able to purchase 2 huge bags of fresh Satsumas today. You know how we both love those. That is definitely good news #4. We feel like we have won the Lotto today. So many wonderful things happened to us.

 

As we were unloading the car, the couple across the street drove in and acted like they were going to run over me. He yelled out the window that we owed him $20 for parking here and laughed like a nutcase. So I had Jerry take him two Satsumas and tell him to put the $20 on our account, on account we never intend to pay him. A fun conversation followed and they are going to let us in on a secret place in southeast North Dakota where we can stay for the summer. Sounds very interesting. Not saying we will do that, but it's always nice to have info like that handy for future reference. Maybe we should count that as good news #5.

 

What a great day!!

Bay St Louis, MS-December 26, 2013

We arrived in Bay St Louis this afternoon. We had a good trip except for the few minutes we were on I-10 in Louisiana. The road was absolutely horrible. I'm surprised we have any teeth left in our mouths. Dreadful.

We discovered that this park is booked solid on the 31st, so we can stay til then, leave that night and return the next day. We are hoping someone cancels.

While we intend to have fun we also have business to take care of while we are here. We will get the first phase completed tomorrow.

I saw a dead mountain lion on the side of the road today in eastern Mississippi. They probably call it something else here, maybe a cougar, but it is the same animal. And this one was really big. That is the first time I have seen such road kill.

I forgot to share a picture with you before Christmas. I always let Rocky send his wishes.

We procured this nice piece of quartz from Derrick's back yard. We thought Rocky would enjoy the company but he was stone cold toward it. Sorry, I could not resist the pun. Ok, I'll say no more.

 

We are loving this gorgeous weather! Hope it sticks around a little longer.

Busy time-December 22, 2013

After hearing how horrible the weather was going to be during the night we are really happy to still be sitting on top of this hill this morning. It is raining but that has become a way of life for us. It is predicted to cool down a bit and stay cool for a little while. We are fine with that, too.

It is such a busy time of year, I will go ahead and wish all of you a very Merry Christmas now in case I do not have a chance between now and then. We will be moving on down the road on Thursday so I will catch up on the blog after we arrive at our destination.

And while I have your attention, I would also like to wish you a very blessed Sunday. Take time to be thankful and remember the reason for the season.


                   MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Police and Sunset-December 19, 2013

As you know we have had all sorts of City of Hoover vehicles in the parking lot seemingly doing some kind of maneuvers. This is what we had today.

Time for the city Police to do their stop and go routines. It appeared that they were being timed, too.

These vehicles are not cheap and at one time there were a dozen of them in line. I wonder where the money comes from? That's rhetorical. We all know.

 

My dear friend, Susie, whom I have known since we both started working for Ma Bell as teenagers met us for lunch today. It was so good to see her. However, it is annoying that she is not aging. Good genes, apparently. We had a little time to visit and try to get caught up. In this case it is great to have iPhones so we can share so many pictures with each other.

 



We have had a very busy day so it went by very quickly. It was another beautiful day. We are sorry the nice weather is going away as storms move in this weekend. I was pleasantly surprised to step outside the coach and see beautiful clouds all around us, not just in the west with the setting sun. You know how I love sunsets so if you don't want to see more pictures of such, make your exit now!

It almost looks like it's raining fire. Some more of God's handiwork.

 

This big orange cotton ball of a cloud was drifting all by itself. Loved it!

 

Reminds me of the Northern Lights.

 

As we put this day away, we are reminded to be grateful for all we have and for the beauty that surrounds us. All we have to do is open our eyes. 

 

 

The Met in Hoover-December 17, 2013

Today is such a gorgeous day that we just had to get outside. I thoroughly vacuumed the inside of the Cute Red Vehicle which still had mud and rocks from Red Bay. It looks really nice now. Jerry was really busy rearranging the basement. We have done our spring cleaning early. Then we still weren't ready to come inside so we went for a nice long walk.

As I have explained in years past this is an RV park attached to a baseball stadium. It used to be the home of the Birmingham Barons. They have now moved to downtown Birmingham. The Met in Hoover as this stadium is now known is used by mainly high schools now.

Entrance to the Met.

 

A view of the inside of the Met.



 

Standing on a hill, one side is the Met and the other side is the RV Park.

The Park has no extra amenities but it is nice and clean and quiet. We like it.

 

Last Friday the Met's parking lot was used for some type of driving course. It lasted all day long. Each person drove their own car and it was as if they were trying to learn evasive moves. Tires were squealing starting and stopping suddenly. As we were leaving that evening a car had jumped the median and run into a tree. Might one assume that person did not pay attention in class?

 

Then Saturday it was fire trucks that took up the parking lot. They started out early in the morning by honking their horns. We wanted to join in. Today there are fewer vehicles but they have the orange cones out and the trucks are practicing driving in circles in reverse. It is rather odd but entertaining anyway.

 

This truck caught my eye and my curiosity. I don't have a clue what constitutes a

technical rescue, do you? It has rolling sides like a beer truck.

 

We still have the door and windows open. This is just fabulous. Yes, we know it will not last but we are enjoying every second while we can. 



 

 

 

 

 

 

Catching Up-December 16, 2013

This Signature Series Monaco parked in this park for the weekend. It is only about half a million bucks. We thought about switching our coaches during the night and then figured they might notice!

 

 

Saturday we went to Full Moon barbeque with friends, James and Gloria. We had seen on television that it is in the top ten of barbeque places across the entire United States. It was excellent but we have had so much true Southern bbq that I am not sure we could rank any of it. It was certainly among the best we have ever had and we would happily eat there again, anytime. The food was great and so was the company.

 

Sunday, despite the fact it was supposed to be a day of rest, we finally had to dig out the things we had put away to have the work done on the coach. We were just lost. There is nothing on this coach we do not need so to move things to the basement and the car left us searching. Now we are about back in order.

 

Today we went to Mother's again. She is going to get tired of seeing us. We had pizza. In fact we had our first Domino's pizza and we were pleasantly surprised. It was very good. We're happy we had some leftovers.

 

I wanted to share with you something we bought in Tupelo. I am pretty sure Hannah will not see this blog.

 

This little Radio Flyer will be her second birthday present. It came from the same hardware store

where Elvis bought his first guitar, so it is extra special to us. Yes, we know she will never know who Elvis was, but we do. We are happy to carry it with us all over the country.



Shopping, rain and visit-December 14, 2013

I can almost skip telling you it is raining, can't I? It is supposed to stop this afternoon so we will go out and have barbeque tonight. We look forward to that.

Thursday we spent shopping almost all day long. Why? The people of Red Bay were nice and very friendly but we were suffering from lack of things we are used to. No bank. No Walmart. No major grocery store. No Sam's. No Target. Only one gas station. No restaurants except Jack's and McDonald's. You cannot imagine. Plus, remember, we had no running water. And it was so cold the coach was completely covered with ice as was the Cute Red Vehicle. It was risky just trying to get out the door. So, once we arrived here we realized we had a great grocery store, our bank, Target, Walmart, Sam's and lots of restaurants within a very short distance. Plus there's a Kohl's, too. And a huge mall. We are back in civilization! We went from one store to another. And we are still not tired of shopping. We may shop some more today before we go to eat. It's great to be back to normal.

Well, we're not completely back to normal. When we had the slide removed and repaired everything had to be moved. All the cabinets and drawers had to be empty and the furniture moved. So, we have things stuffed in the car plus downstairs. We still have not put everything back and it's tough trying to do without things that were so handy. We have promised ourselves we will get everything put back in place this weekend.

Yesterday we had a great visit with my Mother. We talked and laughed, ate Chocolate Ganache Supreme cake and made some homemade soup. We told her on our next visit we will get a little work done. Yesterday was just for fun and to catch up.

One of Mother's Christmas trees. It is a happy tree though it has no presents under it yet. My brother decorated this for her. He did a great job. He is the artistic one in the family.

 

Now to get ready to go shopping, again!

Free at last!-December 11, 2013

We escaped from Red Bay this morning. What a relief. It will take us a day to realize our lives have returned to normal. And the sun was shining when we arrived. We could open the door and windows. We could walk around outside without coats. It's complete shock to our systems right now. But we love it! The pomegranate tree is outside. It has been without sun for so long it really looks ill.

As we were taking the coach back to the paint and body shop to have the ladder reattached, the heavy frost that covered the top started blowing off. The sun was shining through and from my view in the Cute Red Vehicle, the coach was surrounded by a cloud of silver mist. It sparkled like diamonds. I reached for my camera and realized it was in the coach. So was my phone. That meant I could not take a picture of this stunning sight and I am so sorry. It was just extraordinary.

The drive here was pleasant enough. A man in the service center recommended a different highway to us. We should not have listened. We went through hills and hollows with woods so thick they are probably hiding very deep secrets. If only the trees could talk.

The woods were so thick we thought at first glance this might be a still!

Ok, I am kidding. I'm still trying to find humor so we can get beyond what we have been

through the last 26 days. We were close to being stir crazy.

 

 Let me see if I can explain this to you. When you need a refrigerator repaired, you call someone to come in and do the work. While they are working, you go about your business in your house. You can vacuum, wash clothes or watch TV. In our case, for many days, when a repairman wanted to work in our house, we had to leave our house with him. We had no place to go because there wasn't a place to shop. Red Bay has no form of entertainment and nothing was open beyond 5:00 PM. I'm not complaining. We needed to be there. But it is so different when someone takes your house away to work on it!! It's part of life on the road but it is really an odd feeling when you take your house to someone and leave it in their care. It is, thankfully, done. Or at least we hope it is.

 

I mentioned the pictures that I did not have time to post last night. We went to this unique place and found such nice decorations.

If I had to trim this tree, it would be so funny. I am not artistic.

But the person who did this one has a creative flair.

 

I don't know what this is called. It was hanging from the ceiling, obviously,

and it was very pretty. Not sure how it would be used in a house, but it was still nice.

 

There were two of these hanging and both were made of a type of ribbon.

They were quite unique. Again, I don't know how you would hang this in a house but maybe

if I had room I would give it a try.

 

This was a fun store and we enjoyed walking through it. I think it was called TMI and it was in Belmont, Mississippi. At the very least it put us in the mood for Christmas. 

 

 

 

 



Iuka and the Laundry Room-December 10, 2013

We had the coach at the paint shop at 7:20 this morning. It was projected to be completed by 5:30 this afternoon, so we had lots of time to waste. Since there is no running water we took some clothes to the laundry room. There was a lady who was ironing appliques for a quilt. She is from Canada. There was also a lady whom we had seen in the service building and knew she and her husband were from Louisiana. A couple we had visited with who were from Southern Florida left so we remained seated and did not interrupt the others. A third lady came in and she is also from Canada. They talked about cell phone service. Then one asked the Louisiana lady where she was from. She replied "Breaux Bridge, Louisiana and both of us without hesitation yelled "Yes!!!" So the conversation turned to food and music and how we love Breaux Bridge. We told all of them we had been to the Cajun breakfast and Jerry got out his cell phone to show the dancing at the breakfast. We were all cackling like chickens. It was hilarious. So, Oraline gave us her number and said to call so we can all go to breakfast together when we get there. We will do that. I'd love to learn to dance to that Zydeco music. Who would have thought you could have so much fun in a laundry room?

Even after we finished the clothes we had too much time on our hands. So, we hopped in the car and stopped at a "wholesale to the public" store in Belmont and looked at Christmas decorations. They were beautiful. I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow if I remember it.

Then we just decided to head for Iuka, Mississippi, about 21 miles down the road. As we normally do we found a restaurant that had a full parking lot of local cars and stopped and had a late lunch. It was good and always nice to get some home cooked food. Then we drove to the old downtown part of Iuka and found a wonderful old church.

Circa 1873. The Church of our Savior is still available for weddings. It is a board and batten Gothic building. And it's in really great shape. All of the older houses in town have a sign in front that tells the name of the house and the date it was built. That's an interesting thing to do.

 

Then we found Mineral Springs Park. We really didn't know what the meant but a nice man who was putting up Christmas decorations told us that the springs in the park are still running and are truly mineral springs.

 

We did not have to taste this to know it was mineral water. We could smell it. Not pleasant.

 



Across the street was a covered bridge. It is not one of the old ones. The homeowners built this one as an entry to their subdivision.

 

So you drive through this bridge and see this:

Isn't this nice?

 

We paid our bill today so we are officially out of here tomorrow. We have to go back to the paint shop for them to put the ladder back up and to touch up two new scratches we put on the back yesterday. If all goes well we should be on the road by noon. We have been here 26 days, that's about 25 too long! 



 



Third recall completed-December 9, 2012

I hope you can find time to read what will end up being a long blog. This was an unbelievable day. The last recall was completed today. This is the one that covers the floor on the largest slide, the driver's side, living room slide. It was not unusually complicated. The problem came at the end when several things happened. So here are the pictures.

Getting ready to remove the slide.

 

Selecting the correct replacement floor.

 

The slide is removed by crane.

 

This is the slide lying on its side. You are looking at the bottom which is what is being replaced.

 

Finishing the work on the new floor.

 

And the slide goes back in as easily as it came out. Fortunately for all involved.

 



The frustrating part came when the workers tried to replace the awning above the slide. There is only one way it goes back in place. Jerry knew how to do it but these guys did not. They claim they have done 3000 of these things but they could not put the awning back easily. They just kept bashing it with a hammer. Lucky for them they did not damage it that we can tell. Jerry and I took the awning off this summer by ourselves and we got it back in place without bashing the daylights out of it. It is spring loaded so there is only one way to reconnect it. The workers were running very late and only wanted us out of there. They had their coats on as we started out and closed the door when we had barely cleared it. Normally the guys are polite and assist us backing out. This was a very steep incline. We proceeded to back out while we each watched our mirrors and the back up camera. We have never heard the brakes make the noise they were making so we were really shaken up by that. Well, lo and behold, Jerry backed into another coach. Fortunately it was not an expensive one and all that was damaged was their ladder. However, it really bothered us that the other coach did not appear in our back up camera. It is what it is. We will call insurance tomorrow and give the whole situation to them to handle. We are out of here asap.

 

The interesting part of the whole bump-bump thing is that I had accidentally taken a picture of the man whose coach we bumped. Take a look.

 

You can tell by his demeanor he is not a happy man. In fact I would say he reacted like a real hothead. However, we did not deliberately hit his little coach, but he acted like we were picking on him. That's why we will let insurance handle it. Oddly, I had spent some of this afternoon talking to his wife. She is very nice and we shared some laughs over the problems with our coaches. They have had a problem with something damaging the paint on the front of their coach. So to take her mind off of it, we took care of the paint on the back! Seriously, only the ladder was hurt. I'm just looking for the humor in this day.

 

When they were putting our coach back together one of the workers asked if we knew our sub woofer was not connected? What? I told him we didn't even know we had a sub woofer. I ask you why we need a woofer that subs?? I also told him that we could not make the radio work so it really didn't matter. He said it was to work with the DVD player. I told him we couldn't make that work either!! So, he kindly reconnected it for us. Nothing beats a good working sub woofer!

 

Today had its fun time and it had its stressful time. There is warning for ice on the roads tonight. I cannot tell you how happy I am that we have to be in the paint shop at 7:30 tomorrow morning to get the cap rails painted. Then Wednesday we go back to have the ladder reattached and then.............WE ARE OUT OF HERE!! We hope anyway.

 

 

 

 



 

 

Miserable-December 7, 2013

While I know there are many people who have had much worse weather than we have, this is just so miserable we can hardly stand it. Bitter cold, wind, rain, no sun for a number of days and we are bound to see ice before long. It did not get above freezing today. If we were not so close to being finished here we would just pack up and leave. I guess we are just wimps. So, I hope wherever you are, you are warm and dry and you can stay that way.

Now I have to eat my words. Derrick just sent a text and said it was so cold on the wind farm yesterday that grease froze solid. Ok, it's not that cold here, yet.

Today is the commemoration of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Kids are not being taught anything about that and think it only applies to old folks. So sad.

I hope your day tomorrow is filled with blessings and sunshine!

Second recall completed-December 6, 2013

The replacement of the cap rails is now completed. You will be able to see from one of the pictures what a cap rail is. The story behind the replacement is interesting. From 2003-2013 all cap rails on all coaches built by Tiffin were made by Owens-Corning. Tiffin discovered there was a big problem when the cap rails starting breaking loose from the coach. They would not flex when the body of the coach moved from side to side. Defective product. The replacement on all of these coaches must be done by Tiffin at no charge to the customer. One might assume that there will be some type of litigation between Tiffin and Owens-Corning, maybe. The ones they use now are aluminum. They are black in color. Our coach is dessert sand in that area, therefore it has to be painted. We have chosen not to let Tiffin do the painting, so we will have that done off site and Tiffin will still pay for it. Right now that is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. Tentatively we are scheduled for floor replacement on the driver side slide on Monday. That's the third and last recall. Then we can leave. Yippee!!

I say if you have to line up while it is dark and raining cats and dogs, it's just not right. Jerry was so excited that he was first in line today. I don't see that as bragging rights.

 

Jerry was so relieved to get to drive into the bay.

 

This is not our coach, but I could not resist the picture.

Look at the size of those jacks! This tag axle bus weighs at least 30,000 pounds.

So, I say again, look at those jacks!

 

The next recall is a biggie. Wait until you see those pictures. Everything on the biggest slide has to be unloaded and moved. Everything. So, we have to start emptying cabinets and drawers on Sunday night. Then right after we get into the bay we have to move the furniture. Still it is only supposed to be a half day job. You cannot imagine how relieved we will be to have this behind us. Then we will know that this baby is in the best possible condition for one its age.

 

To add to the beauty of the day it has rained terribly hard all day and it was never above 39°. Nasty cold. It has just started thundering and now we see lightning. This is the warmer part of that bad storm crossing the country. Bless the people who are less fortunate.

 

We made our second trip to the Belmont Café in Belmont, Mississippi today. It's only about 4 or 5 miles from here. They have the most wonderful food. But the best part is the fabulous people who work there. I told Jerry they are so nice they make me want to be a nicer person. You don't find that very often these days.

 

 

Weather and recall-December 5, 2013

The cold front that's moving across the country is arriving here as I type. Temps are dropping and rain is pouring down. We are so excited. The water is being shut off permanently tomorrow at 5:00 PM. It will not be turned back on until spring. I am sure you can understand why we want out of here as soon as we can.

We just received a call telling us to report to bay #17 at 7:00 AM tomorrow. That will be for recall #2 which is the rails on top of the coach. It should only be a half day job. Should be. Once that is done we can make arrangements to get the entire top painted and clear coated. And then, and then, we can get out of here!!

The people next to us got their work finished about 1:00 today. They returned to their spot and immediately left. You could tell they were both in a panic over the weather. I asked where they were going and he said they had no idea, they just had to get as far south as they could. So, I suggested they not try I-20 which would put them through Dallas. Everybody knows what these storms do to Dallas. They were from Oregon so wouldn't they have understood storms? Or do they only have perfect weather in that state? I think not.

We'll see if tomorrow provides any interesting pictures. It may not, but I always have both camera and iPhone with me.

Stay warm!!

Castle, runway and recall-December 4, 2013

Remember this picture from yesterday?

I know the story behind it and I want to post it first because it is so sad.

 

The people who are building this house are named Woods. So, it is no one from the Tiffin family. This couple had a little girl who at 7 weeks of age was diagnosed with cancer. As the little girl grew she did not get better. She passed away about a month ago at 22 months of age. The little girl loved castles and her grandfather promised her he would build her a castle. He and the entire grieving family are keeping his promise. They are building a massive castle in the memory of the little girl. Her name sounded something like Meleah but I did not verify the name. I couldn't. I was too heartbroken . I hope and pray that this family will find comfort in working through their grief by building this monument to her. I cannot imagine, in my feeble mind, how on earth I could ever live in this building. So, now we know the story behind this castle. It is not at all what I expected. I must move on to another topic now.

 

Also remember I have been telling you that this was an old airport runway? I wanted to prove it.

 

We are parked on runway 8.

 

We arrived at our assigned bay early this morning. We had to wait for them to open the door. Our assigned workers introduced themselves and shook our hands. What a surprise. We knew going into this bay that the floor to the wet bay was probably in very bad shape. We had no idea. When they unbolted the doors we do not ever open, we nearly fainted, both with shock and embarrassment. The floor which Jerry had wired in and duct taped to get us here literally disintegrated. It just crumbled into one huge pile of garbage. And all three tanks sunk down to fill the space. Oh my what a sight. We were left speechless and after finally closing our mouths we just had to walk away for a minute. So much could have happened on our way here, but once again, Divine intervention allowed us a safe trip with no problems. God has been so good to us! The workers said they had actually seen worse but this was extremely bad. So, a four hour job turned into 8 hours. While neither of us did a lick of work today we were completely wiped out and terribly exhausted when we got back to our site. We are just sitting here like blobs.

 

We put our name back on the list for the third recall. That means we will need to be here until late next week. We still have more painting work to be done plus some clear coat must be replaced on the top. We had wanted to be out of here by the end of this week to avoid the nasty weather. But it isn't going to happen, so we will once again tough out freezing weather. If ever we get to decent weather we might not be able to move for a while.

 

We liked the way they jacked up the coach. Jerry was not allowed to drive up onto the blocks, but he could drive it off.

 

Not your ordinary jacks.

 

Another interesting fact.

Tiffin has most of their parts made locally and if not here, at least in the United States. However, all of their windshields are made in Turkey, of all places. This building had hundreds and hundreds of windshields for every Tiffin coach ever made. They are crated by year and model. We have no idea what Turkey can do with a windshield that no company in the U.S. cannot do.

 

We could have had tomorrow to rest and catch up on sleep but Jerry wants to see if Red Bay Paint and Body can do any work at all. Hopefully tomorrow we will get a call scheduling our second recall for Friday.

 

Oh, by the way, at breakfast this morning we discovered that the group of people we thought were local are actually full timers who are here getting work done also. They have all been going to the Baptist Church here. So, in came the pastor for that church. He stopped and introduced himself and talked to us for a long time. What an extremely nice man and very entertaining. One of the older men (Tommy, I think, probably in his mid 80s) in the coffee group was at the Iron Bowl on Saturday. So, he sat with us and showed us the video of himself at the game. He was so funny and we enjoyed visiting with him, too. He said it took them 4 hours to get out of the parking lot in Auburn. Unbelievable! What a day we had!

 



 

 

 





Paint, Tupelo and Elvis-December 3, 2013

We were at the paint and body shop at 7:30 this morning. It was tough but we wanted them to have plenty of time to finish the paint. When the man told us it would be ready at 4:30 PM, we nearly fainted. So, we had breakfast and talked about what to do. Back to Tupelo again. It's so close and it is a big enough city we can find every store we like except Target. On Hwy 25, there is a house being built that shocked us so much when we first saw it we did not believe our eyes. So, today I risked life and limb on a two lane road to take this picture through this morning's dense fog.

I really am sorry about the fog, but it's out of my hands. This house looks more like a castle than a house. In my unprofessional opinion I would estimate 10,000 square feet minimum. It sits a long distance off the road. At first we guessed someone in the Tiffin family was probably building it, but we have no way of finding out. As far as we know the entire Tiffin family except Bob lives out of town. And there is no way that Bob at his age would build a house this long. He'd have to have a golf cart inside to get from one end to the other. What must the construction costs on this thing be?

 

Then on to Tupelo and the hardware store where Elvis bought his first guitar. We were greeted by an elegant and charming older gentleman whom we suspect is the owner. We told him what we wanted and he took us to the Radio Flyer room where we purchased Hannah's birthday gift for next year. We'll lovingly carry it with us until we get there. Anyway, the three of us talked politics and health insurance and Elvis. It was a delightful experience and we enjoyed it so much. 

 

This plaque is outside the store.

This is the actual counter where Elvis and his mother stood when they purchased the guitar.

 

The nice man claimed this is where Elvis stood when he picked out the guitar. I suspect this was added for effect. After all, that was in 1946. Who is still around who knows where he stood?

However, it makes for good conversation.

 

This is the original building of Tupelo Hardware. It's under 4th generation ownership. It also occupies two large stores to the left of the main building. It's a great old store.

 

This is the courthouse behind the hardware store. This is one good looking old building

and I could not resist taking a picture of it. I'm sure there's history behind this building, too.

 

We stopped and had lunch after shopping at several other stores. We only managed to get one Christmas gift bought. Then we came back to Red Bay. The coach was still an hour shy of being dry, so we stopped at a small city park on Main Street. There I found a fountain that has no explanation. I do not know why it is there or what it represents but it's still nice to sit and hear the water hit the rocks.



 

Odd, isn't it?

 

While we were waiting on the paint to dry we got a call to report to bay #45 at 7:00 AM tomorrow for the first of the recalls. This one is wet bay floor replacement. Takes about half a day. When all of this is done I am going to sleep til noon one day!

 

I am most appreciative of Sirius XM giving us free radio these past few days. We have so enjoyed listening to at least 100 Elvis songs we did not know he recorded. It was on the Elvis channel which is 19 on the XM dial. It was just great fun. It's absolutely ridiculous to pay for Sirius XM when the Cute Red Vehicle is being towed and no one is inside to listen to it. But it was fun for the time we have had it.

 

 



 

 

 



Red Bay Christmas parade-December 2, 2013

There's so much going on with us right now I think we are going to pull our hair out and have a hissy fit. We went to the service foreman today and had to get a little firm. Note: I shut up and turned it over to Jerry. We cancelled everything we wanted done except two of the three recalls. We might be able to get those done by the end of this week. Nothing is carved in stone with these people and no one ever gets in a hurry. Another note: Tiffin sells four of the top five coaches in the entire country and it is because of customer service. We beg to differ. Anyway, we took the coach ourselves to Red Bay Paint and Body and are having all of the scratches and dents repaired and repainted. They did the basic work today and we have to take it back tomorrow very early for them to finish. Such nice people. Again, we were impressed. So far all the work that's been done has been on our own and off site. That's fine. I went to the "head water man" and asked him why we could not have water since it was 33 degrees above freezing? He relented and said he would turn it back on. He kept his word. However, it goes off again on Friday and will not be turned back on until next spring when the snowbirds return home. To add to the fun of this service center, they will close down for Christmas from Dec 20th to Jan 7th. No one on site except one office person per day. So, we want out of here ASAP. Then we listened to the weather and heard they expect 3-4 inches of rain on Saturday. I think we were both bummed. So, we decided to go to the Red Bay Christmas parade. Please understand this is a town of 3100 people so you cannot expect a Macy's parade. Still, it was fun. I did not have much luck with pictures, but I will still share a couple with you.

I believe this was possibly an H3 with an axle added to the front. Then they put a barrel on the front and did a little work to turn this into an adorable little train complete with a ringing bell and 3 cars pulled behind it. It was really cute. On second thought, I'm not really sure what it was.

This building façade is fake but still nice. It is in front of a business on main street. People were having their pictures made in front of it. In most big cities this would not be allowed. But people in rural Alabama are not afraid of showing their faith. In fact the best float in the parade was from a Missionary Baptist Church. It was truly fabulous and had lots of kids, all in red velvet, on it. And they were shouting "Merry Christmas". It was great.

 

The biggest shock of all is when the Red Bay fire trucks brought up the end of the parade. They had four enormous fire trucks. I mean big trucks and big $$$. It was such a surprise. Oddly they were all black and silver with a red stripe down the side. Good looking trucks. What we did not know is if all of those trucks were manned by volunteers or paid staff. Seriously, either the property taxes are very high in this little town or Bob Tiffin donates generously. Few little cities or towns can match what this little town has in size of trucks. It was a sight to see.

 

There was a huge spirit of happiness everywhere so it did lift our spirits to go. We were really down but now we are fine. We still hope to be out of here as soon as is humanly possible.