A tin cup or a gilded goblet, a hut or a castle, wobbly bicycles or a Bentley -- to wherever and by whatever means, my love, our journey is splendid, our cup is full.
We've been here at the Tiffin RV Service Center for a week now, so its probably time that we provided an update.
We arrived last Thursday at Tiffin's Allegro Campground after a short drive from Tom Sawyer RV Park in Memphis. Since they were pretty busy, we only got a spot on the "runway" -- which really is an old airport runway, and is used for campground overflow, i.e boondocking -- camping with no electricity, sewer, or water hook-ups.
Fortunately for us, things moved quickly and late in the day we were assigned a site with power and water, while awaiting a full hookup site. Friday, with many folks leaving after their service was complete, saw us move into full service site 39 (which will be our site until we leave), and the wait started for us to get in for service -- our appointment wasn't until Wednesday, the 8th, but we thought there might be a chance of getting in early.
While we were waiting, we had Chris Berry, a TRV furniture maker, over to look at the several additions that we wanted done this trip. He took some measurements and will be putting some cabinets and furniture enhancements in the coach before we leave (we'll post pictures and detail of that in a later blog). We also purchased an external antenna for our Verizon wireless broadband access card, and had it installed on the roof on Friday night by Joel, one of the TRV service employees, who moonlights by doing those type of additions.
On Saturday we took a short tour of Northeast Alabama, and stopped at the Coon Dog Cemetery about 20 miles outside of Red Bay. It is the only pet cemetery in the world for registered Coon Dogs, who are bred and trained specifically to hunt raccoons.
We also went by the Alabama Music Hall of Fame, but only stopped and looked at the fountain at the entrance. We were particularly encouraged by the brick for the Blind Boys of Alabama, since we'd seen them before . . . . . .
One of our pictures of the Blind Boys at Bumbershoot Festival in Seattle in 2004 . . . . . we had very good seats in about the 6th row -- it was a wonderful concert.
On Sunday, Manuel and Connie had Mark, Sue, Mandy and me over for a wonderful breakfast of migas, a traditional Tex-Mex breakfast of eggs, sausage, peppers, onions, and cheese -- all served with salsa and tortillas. They were wonderful, and started our day out right!
On Sunday, one of the couples in the campground organized a Hobo Stew get-together. Everyone that was planning on attending provided some meat and/or vegetables by noon, and he put it all together in a huge stew pot over a propane burner. After about 3 hours we had some wonderful stew, which was served with lots of bread and some good desserts. About 50 people from the Allegro campground attended, and it was good to meet with and speak with other Tiffin owners.
Things cranked up here on Monday morning, but there were no early spots to be had in the service bays, so we didn't get in until bright and early 7 AM Wednesday morning. We were assigned to Nick and Duane, and you would not be able to find a greater pair of service techs -- they patiently went through our list of 60+ items with us, and promptly began on a number of them -- picking the easier ones first.
Its now Friday and we've had a number of repairs and adjustments made, but it looks like we'll probably be here for at least another week to 10 days -- just guessing at this point, but after they complete the "normal repair bay" warranty items we have some minor shower fiberglass repair as well as external paint issues -- both of which have to be scheduled separately from the normal service. We also just found out that we need to spend some time in the welding bay, since our propane tank needs to be replaced -- the interior float mechanism which measures how much propane is in the tank is broken. There also is a bit of re-welding that needs to be done for one of our basement doors which does not seal properly -- no problems, as its better to catch it now while TMH fixes it for free.
In addition . . . . . . the news that we'll be here for a while will probably be in our favor, since we have also made arrangements to have all of our day/night shades in the living area and bedroom replaced by a new type of roller shade, which combines a sun shade (to use for privacy during the day) with a blackout shade (used at night). It will probably take at least another couple of days to get the window valences modified and then get the new shades installed, but we're sure it will be worth it after seeing these new window shades on several 09 Phaetons, and also seeing the results of these being retrofitted to earlier coaches such as ours.
A late Friday update: we got our bedroom valences back with the new shades, and we re-installed them this afternoon, and are very pleased with them. We can't wait until early next week when we get the rest of them. We'll post pictures of them on our next entry.
With apologies to Willie, we're out on the road again and feeling much better to have gotten the wheels turning and the road in front of us.
We left Adventureland (Altoona, IA) early Monday morning, after being rained upon all Sunday night. Mandy and I, and Mark and Sue got moving at about 6:20 AM (!!!) and headed south toward St. Louis. The rain had stopped, but the roads were still pretty wet, and combined with the several detours we had to take through southern Iowa, our white Odyssey toad looked like a chocolate hearse by the time we hit I-70 and headed east.
Due to our early start, we reached the outskirts of St. Louis by about noon, so we continued on down I-55 toward Memphis. We finally decided to stop for dinner at Lambert's in Sikeston, MO about 5 PM (see them at www.throwedrolls.com). Mandy and I had mountainous salads, and Mark had a chicken fried steak (with trimmings) that came in its own frying pan/plate -- needless to say, we had enough to eat!! After a 500 mile day, we crashed at the nearest Wal Mart, knowing we had only 130 miles to go to get to Memphis.
We had reservations at our favorite park in the Memphis area -- Tom Sawyer's RV Park -- and pulled in there about noon. Its right along the Mississippi, and you can watch the huge towboats going upstream and downstream day and night. After we said hi to our friends Richard and Patsy, the first order of business was to wash the 10 pounds of dirt and debris off the car. The Phaeton didn't look too bad (although its probably dirtier than its ever been), and we figured it can wait until we get to Red Bay for its wash job.
That night we all had a great meal of fajitas, thanks to Richard and Patsy, who brought some excellent fajita meat with them from Texas. We also met their friends (and Phaeton owners) Manuel and Connie, who are also heading to Red Bay for a service appointment.
On Wednesday, we headed into Memphis to say hi to our friend Brian Gipson, at Davis Motorhome Mart, who sold us our Phaeton just about a year ago. Even with the slow market, Brian is doing well -- and we'd highly recommend him to anyone who is in the market for a Tiffin Motorhome.
We also spent a number of hours at Mud Island River Park in Memphis, touring their excellent museum, and exploring their 5 block model of the lower 1000 miles of the Mississippi River. As the name implies, the park is on an island adjacent to downtown Memphis, and is reached by a walkway over part of the river -- or by a 90 second cable tram which runs on rails under the walkway (we walked and took the tram, just to try it all!) For us west-coasters, it was a really interesting display, and we enjoyed Mud Island immensely -- we'd encourage anyone who is visiting this area to see it.
This is the Hernando deSoto Bridge over the Mississippi -- also called the Bridge of Lights, as the span and girders are lit up each night. It carries I-40 across the river, and is named for the explorer who was the first European to see the Mississippi in 1541.
This is the I-40 interchange in Memphis just before it goes over the Mississippi north of Mud Island. Behind it is The Pyramid, built by Memphis for their basketball team, but which is now abandoned, since it was poorly designed -- it looks impressive from the outside though.
After our time at Mud Island, we met up with Mark and Sue, and Richard and Patsy, and did a walking tour of Beale Street, and the blues clubs there. We ended up having dinner at King's Palace Cafe, since it had a "Cajun Feast" on the menu -- the atmosphere was great, the music was very good, but the food and service were only so-so, so we'd not recommend it or go back to try again.
We'll drive a leisurely 150 miles tomorrow to get to Red Bay, AL and the Tiffin Motorhome Service facility, and get set up for our service appointment to take care of our one year "punch list. We'll probably be there about two weeks, and we expect to be able to explore the area more completely than we did last year. Stay tuned as we'll be adding those adventures to the blog next.
Now that we have lots of time during the week, in addition to getting a whole list of motorhome "to-do" items completed, we have been seeing more of the Des Moines area, and having some great fun taking advantage of the beautiful fall weather here.
But first, we want to give you a preview of a beautiful new addition to our coach. Sue has been working all summer on a painting for us to put in our coach, replacing the metal sculpture which was installed by Tiffin on the slide wall adjacent to our dinette table. She finished it this week, and its a beauty! It really adds a colorful note to our living space, and we are very proud to have it.
We had a great time earlier this week going on an afternoon sailing adventure on Saylorville Reservoir just north of Des Moines. One of the managers here at Adventureland has a 28 foot Hunter sailboat that he moors there, and he looks forward to taking Adventureland staff out for an afternoon of relaxing sailing on the lake. As you can see from the pictures, we had a great time.
Yesterday we took the opportunity to visit Pella, Iowa again. We'd been there earlier in the season, and enjoyed it a lot, so we decided that a return visit was the thing to do on a beautiful fall day. As you may know, Pella is the headquarters of the Pella Window Corporation, one of the premier thermopane window and sliding door manufacturers in the world.
Mark, Sue, Mandy, and I went with John, Sharon, Terry, and Vicky, all of who we work with in the rides department here at the park. We went to the Dutch bakery and the nearby meat market to pick up a few things, and also took the tours of the Dutch Village and the landmark 30 meter working windmill, all of which border the beautiful town square.
The windmill tower also includes a floor where various artists in Pella have constructed a miniature traditional Dutch village from the 1850's. Over one hundred buildings and architectural features have been constructed in miniature, all along traditional Dutch canals -- also showing both winter and summer seasons. It was a very impressive display, and we spent some time looking at all the detail.
We also explored the restored Dutch village, which charts the history of the development of the town since the middle 1800's, and well as seeing the beautifully restored Opera House. It was really a great day, and we had a blast.
Yesterday afternoon Mark, Sue, Mandy, and I took advantage of a beautiful evening and linked up with our friends Chuck and Phyllis, and drove about 25 miles south of Des Moines to the Summerset Winery in Indianola, for a Friday night wine tasting. They have a great venue with live music (which was a great local band - the Flying Silos), and we spent the evening relaxing with good wine, having a few snacks, and listening to a good group.
We'll be working this weekend, and then using next week to prepare for hitting the road again and heading south. We will finish out the season here next weekend, and will hit the road on Monday, the 29th, traveling with Mark and Sue, and heading for the Tiffin factory in Red Bay, Alabama, where we have our one year warranty appointment on October 8.
We'll stop on the way to spend a few days at one of our favorite parks -- Tom Sawyer RV Park in West Memphis, Arkansas, right along the mighty Mississippi River -- meeting up there with fellow Tiffin owners Richard and Patsy, and Manuel and Connie. From there, Richard and Patsy will be heading for the northeast, and the rest of us will head east across northern Mississippi to Red Bay -- with Mark and Sue anxious to watch the birth of their 2009 Phaeton at the factory, while the rest of us have our warranty fixes taken care of.
We plan on heading for Texas as soon as we get finished in Red Bay, hopefully arriving just in time for the birth of our new granddaughter. After spending a month there with our growing family, we'll head west on I-10 to Yuma for the rest of the winter.
We also made a purchase this week which will enable us to electronically keep in touch more consistently -- we have purchased a Verizon cellular broadband modem, and have installed it with a small wireless router, and made a "hotspot" for our computers in the motorhome. This will give us the ability to be on line anywhere we have a Verizon cell signal (some places faster than others) and be able to stay in touch will all our friends. For more details see www.3gstore.com .
