An eventful week in Red Bay

We've had an interesting week here in Red Bay, Alabama, the home of Tiffin Motor Homes.  We planned our annual visit here to get some warranty issues resolved, to get some custom work done, and to get the annual engine/chassis service.  So far two out of the three have been successfully achieved -- the details . . . . .
We arrived here Sunday afternoon in the middle of a pretty significant rainstorm, and got a partial hook-up site.  Upon arriving, we realized that the motorhome pulling in just ahead of us was Oscar and Penny's -- friends that we had met this summer in Custer, SD.  They are long-time friends of my brother Tom in the Boulder, CO area, and they looked us up this summer in the Black Hills as they were starting out on a summer trip to the Canadian Maritime provinces.  They are on their way back, and were stopping in to get a whole list of repair items taken care of. We spent Monday visiting with them and hearing about their eventful trip. 
Although we had our custom work scheduled at the end of our stay here, we called Brannon at Custom RV, and he indicated that he could get us in early as he had some schedule changes.  We went out his way on Tuesday afternoon, and in less than two hours, he had installed a ceiling fan in our bedroom, and put in a modified driver's shift panel in the cockpit.  We made arrangement to see him in a week or so to get a couple of lights re-located, and headed back to the campground.  We also made contact with our cabinet man, Chris, to have him do a few small changes when he had the chance -- wow, everything is falling into place. . . .
On Wednesday we went out to Bay Diesel to get our 24 month chassis/engine service, and all went well there too.  We got all of our items taken care of, and were pleasantly surprised to have Freightliner (our chassis manufacturer) cover the cost for a new exhaust pipe tip -- the stock one had become corroded and rusted -- and, although it sounds like an incidental item, the replacement would have cost over $300!  Life continues to be good . . . .
Thursday was our scheduled appointment day at the Tiffin Service Center.  Almost all of our items were carry-over items from our warranty service last year, and after checking with the floor supervisor, it was reconfirmed that they would all be covered by TMH under warranty -- just what we wanted to hear.  Given the work that would be necessary in several different service departments, it looked like we would be out of here in about a week. . . . . .
We drove back to our site at the end of the day pleased with the way that the week had gone, little realizing that Murphy was about to rear his head.  We stopped at our site, took the coach out of gear and put on the parking brake, and pushed the buttons to activate the leveling jacks -- they began to extend and level the coach, but after a minute or so, both the rear jacks suddenly sheared and collapsed.  The resulting drop of the coach on the rear suspension (after the air had been let out of the air bags) caused quite a jolt, spilling all of our hanging clothes off the rod in the closet across the rear of the motorhome, moving the nearby washing machine around an inch or two, and buckling the paneling on the bedroom wall.  We got the Tiffin techs out to look at the situation, and they helped us get things back in order, both mechanically and personally.  They assured us that they had spare jacks in stock to replace the damaged ones, and that all would be OK.  We were a bit shaken up, but realized that this was absolutely the best place for a failure of this type to happen.  We're right on the cusp of our warranty period for the jacks, so it appears -- at this point -- that we can get things fixed without breaking the bank.  We may have to spend a day or two longer here than we anticipated, but that's no big deal -- we hope.
On Friday we spent all day burning off our propane tank in preparation for Monday's repair of the tank float system which measures the level of propane in the tank, and Monday we'll go to the welding shop to get the tank and the jack repair done.  Still left to do is the cabinet work, and some work at the paint shop, as well as our remaining custom items with Chris and Brannon -- so we're thinking that we'll be here through most of next week.
We'll do a post next week with pictures of the repairs (the replacement of the jacks should be a good one) and the new items.  All in all, we can't complain -- life is still good (but the weather could be better here -- lots of rain and clouds) and everyone in the shop will be happy Monday, as Alabama beat Ole Miss this weekend, and the boss's grandson (Leigh Tiffin) kicked a near-record 5 field goals in getting the job done.

St. Louis and onward

After leaving our friends and the beautiful fall colors in Wausau, WI, we headed south through Wisconsin and Illinois in the general direction of St. Louis.  We're taking our time and trying to limit our daily mileage to less than 250 miles, and alternating our stays between Wal Marts and campgrounds.  We've not traveled through this part of the country, so we're trying to go a bit slower and smell a few of the roses.
We'd skirted the St. Louis area before on the west side, but had never stopped to see any sights.  This time we took the time to go into the city and tour the Gateway Arch and the associated museum.  We stayed at a park on the Illinois side of the river which was about 40 miles out of town, and took a day to drive in and wander around a little.  Here are some pictures of our visit on a beautiful fall day --

A couple of shots of the arch as we approached it










These are the little pods that you ride in -- with a supposed capacity of 5 people (but they all better be pretty small or very friendly people).  You crowd into these things for 4 1/2 minutes while the train of them crawl up the inside framework of the arch.  An interesting way (and probably the only one) to get to the top.


Some of the views of the St. Louis area from the viewing area at the top of the arch -- 630 feet up:

                                 







The mighty Mississippi











Looking straight down from the window









Busch Stadium - home of the St. Louis Cardinals









Downtown St. Louis looking West











They also had a great museum at the site and two theaters which showed several outstanding documentary films -- one about Louis and Clark and the other about the building of the arch.  We'd recommend the whole park -- its called the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, and is run by the NPS.
We'd wanted to take a bit more time, but there were a couple of weather fronts chasing us, and we'd decided to take another more easterly route, which would allow us to stop for a few days and visit Mammoth Cave in Kentucky before heading to Alabama.  We got ahead of the front, spent a leisurely night at a Wal Mart in Owensboro, KY and then rolled into Cave City on Wednesday.  We'd located a park (map) with very attractive rates -- and highly rated -- that was just outside Mammoth Cave, and would allow us to stay several days and explore the area.  We had a great 4 1/2 hour tour of the cave yesterday, and although it rained a bit last night, the sun is back out this morning and we're getting ready to get out and explore the Bowling Green, KY area today -- the Corvette Museum looks like it might be interesting.
We're only a couple of hundred miles from Red Bay, so we'll head out of here on Sunday and get to the Tiffin factory a day or two ahead of time and see if we can get things started early there.  We're having a couple of custom items done to the coach (new shift panel and a bedroom ceiling fan), along with some holdover warranty items and the 2 year engine/chassis service -- all at three different places -- so we'll probably be there for at least 10 days.

September update -- and on the road again . . . .

I know its been a long time since we've settled down and updated this site, and we apologize.  It took a week or so to recover from the crush of the Sturgis Rally, then beautiful fall weather settled in and the park was very busy over Labor Day weekend (and it impacted us even more since a number of the seasonal staff had left) and we were running everywhere.  We were decompressing from that and realized that we had only a little time left in the Black Hills, so our days off were spent hitting the sights that we had not managed to see.  At the same time, we got wrapped up with getting things ready to hit the road (which can be a bit of a task if you've been sitting for 3-4 months).
In any event, we've left the Black Hills and are on the road again, on our way to Red Bay, Alabama (where our Tiffin motorhome was built) to get some service done, and some warranty items taken care of.  But, before we get into that, here are a couple of the highlights of the last month at Custer State Park ------

My brother Tom and his girlfriend Trish came up from Boulder, CO in late August to spend a few days in the Black Hills.  We had a great time with them showing them the area and visiting some of the attractions that we had not seen yet.
Tom and Trish visiting us at one of the entry gates 









Clowning around at the fish hatchery in Spearfish












Mandy snapped this one while we were looking at a classic fish boat from Yellowstone which is on display at the Spearfish hatchery





We also took the opportunity to go to the Wild Horse Sanctuary south of the Black Hills with Al and Claire on one of our last days off, and had a great time taking the tour and seeing the wild horses that are being taken care of on this 14,000 acre ranch.
Looking down from a ridge above the Wild Horse ranch along the Cheyenne River







Some of the wild horses that are being cared for here . . .

About the same time, Mandy had her 62nd birthday, and of course you know that means her eligibility for the NPS Senior Pass.  Here she is proudly getting her "old folks card"  at the local Forest Service Office in Rapid City.








Our seasonal tour of duty was over at Custer State Park as of the 16th, and so the rest of our time during the early part of September was spent taking care of all of the things we needed to do to get checked out and to get the motorhome (and us) ready for some time on the road.  We left Custer and headed east on I-90 on Saturday the 19th with no real schedule other than our appointment in Red Bay starting on October 7. 




We spent our first night in Mitchell, SD at the Cabela's store, and then went downtown and toured the famous Corn Palace before we left.  They were having a weekend Polka Festival, and, since it was Sunday, we happened upon an interesting midwest phenomenon -- a Polka Mass.  Not one of our bucket list items, but it was unique . . . . .


After looking at the maps as we approached Sioux Falls, we decided to head further east than we'd anticipated, and visit Wisconsin -- we wanted to spend some time with a number of our friends from Yuma who are from the area, and are there for the summer.  We arrived in Wausau, WI on late Monday and have had a great time being tourists, and cycling and visiting with our good friends Mark and Faye, Carl and Judy, and Tom and Carol -- as well as enjoying the outstanding Fall colors which are showing themselves all over the place.  We hiked up Rib Mountain, just west of Wausau, and Thursday dug out our bikes and did a great 40 mile "colorama ride" (as Mark puts it), seeing a lot of the area around Wausau and enjoying the wonderful fall weather and colors.
 

Visiting the Spam Museum in Austin, Minnesota along the way








  
The "North Yuma Group" of the Yuma Foothills Bicycling Club enjoying a ride and the beautiful fall colors -- Tom, Judy, Pat, Carl, Mandy, Mark, and Greg -- (Faye took the picture)

 
Greg and Mark comparing their Merrills before the hike -- identical except for size (8 vs. 15) . . .











The North Yuma group upheld the tradition -- no bike ride is complete without a stop at a garage sale, a bit(?) of lunch, and an ice cream treat -- we had all three, in addition to our beautiful fall day in Wausau!!



As it looks right now, depending on the weather, we'll probably stay here until Saturday or Sunday (we're parked at the Marathon County park right in Wausau), and then began wandering south toward Alabama.  They have had a great fall up here, but it won't be long before the rains come and the temperatures begin to fall -- and we want to be out of here before that.  Fortunately, we'll get to take our time heading south as we still have a week and a half before our service appointment, and only about 800 miles to cover.  As of now we're thinking of spending a couple of days in the St. Louis area, and then following a non-freeway route through Tennessee to Red Bay -- we'll update our progress in a week or so.

Update:  We left Wausau on today (Saturday), as the weather was beginning to close in.  We're now parked at a Wal Mart in La Salle, IL (with excellent broadband internet reception) and looking at a forecast for good weather through the rest of the week.  We'll get down toward St. Louis tomorrow and then play tourist for a couple of days there.