Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Taking a detour on the way home

Friday, June 19

After a rather emotional closing dinner for our 50th anniversary Arc Light-Young Tiger reunion, this morning we packed up (in the rain) and headed South.

We are taking a slight detour on the way back to Beaufort - to the tune of an additional 700+ miles. I've been looking for an excuse to go to the Tiffin Motor Home Factory in Red Bay, Alabama.  Red Bay is in the Northwest corner of Alabama on the border with Mississippi.

We think we may have a water leak through one of the bedroom slide outs, and there's no better place to have it checked that at the factory.  Plus there are a couple of other minor items that need a little work.  And I want to go anyway.


Tonight, after a strenuous 6 + hour drive, we stopped just outside Mammoth Cave National Park in Southern Kentucky.  A nice little park, Singing Hills RV Park- just what we needed after the big days drive.

Saturday, June 20

My intent this morning was to go the the National Park, but it had rained all night and rained heavily this morning about the time we were in the area of the park, so we skipped it.  I sure hate to skip a National Park.  They are all special places.  But wet wins!

After an all night rain (which is supposed to be the remains of Tropical Storm Dan which came ashore in Texas sometime in the past week) and not a drop of water in the coach, it may be that our trip to Red Bay is just to see how a motor home is built.  Rather strange though, because we certainly had some wet spots in the carpet one night on the way up here.  We'll see.

We had picked a State Park in Alabama as our destination tonight, but as we were rolling along, I saw a sign for David Crockett State Park while still in Tennessee.

So, there was a fork in the road and we took it!

For those old enough, you'll remember the TV program some years (maybe some decades) back "Davy, Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier...."

In reality, David Crockett was a pioneer, soldier, politician, industrialist, legislator statesman, patriot and hero.  He was killed at the Alamo in Texas in 1936 while aiding the Texans in their fight for independence from Mexico..


Tennessee sure knows how to build a park.  This is among the nicer parks we've stayed in.  Nice cabins, a lake, a fantastic Olympic size swimming pool, lots of things for kids and adults and a decent campground.

Next to the Park there are some wide-open fields, where the cows and deer play




The original Trail of Tears runs through the park, and in some places the tracks of the wagons still remain.
The Trail of Tears was a series of forced relocations of Native American nations in the United States following the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The removal included members of the CherokeeMuscogeeSeminoleChickasaw, and Choctaw nations, some of whom chose not to assimilate with American society, from their ancestral homelands in the southeastern U.S. to an area west of the Mississippi River that had been designated as Indian Territory. Some Native Americans who chose to stay and assimilate were allowed to become citizens in their states and of the U.S.[1] The phrase "Trail of Tears" originated from a description of the removal of the Choctaw Nation in 1831.[2]
Many Native Americans suffered from exposure, disease, and starvation while going on the route to their destinations, many died, around 2,000-6,000 of the 16,543 relocated Cherokee.[3][4][5] European Americans and African American freedmen and slaves also participated in the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee, Creek, and Seminole relocations
After a good swim in that Olympic size pool, and a nice, relaxing evening, we're looking forward to Red Bay, Alabama tomorrow!

Sunday, June 21

After a short drive today, we are at the Tiffin RV Park in Red Bay Alabama.  I really shouldn't call it an RV park, it's more like a staging area for motor homes that are getting worked on or getting upgrades here at the factory.

Tiffin is known for serving their customers after the sale, and from the looks of the number of motor homes here, there's a lot of service after the sale.  They build a fine motor home, but it is a motor home - and it has lots of parts and pieces, and things do break.  There were 20 year old homes here as well as new ones.



We're planning on getting tile flooring put in the bedroom and get rid of the carpet.

Monday, June 22 through Friday, June 26

It’s been a long week.  Sometimes extremely frustrating and sometime okay.

Red Bay, Alabama is out there.  It is right on the Alabama-Mississippi state line.  It’s relatively poor country, hot in the summer and I guess mostly mild in the winter.  The only reason for coming here is it is the home of Tiffin Motor Homes.  Otherwise, I doubt there’s much visitation.  It certainly isn't a tourist area.

Tiffin is here because the owner, Bob Tiffin, who started the business is from here.  From the stories we’ve heard, there are at least four generations of Tiffin's that have called this home.  The current matriarch of the family, Bob started the Tiffin motor home business in 1972, and now there are over 70,000 Tiffins that have been built here.
This is one of the early Tiffin motor homes. This is a 1976 model that is sitting outside the entry to the manufacturing facility

The bedroom of the 1976 motor home
Tiffin is the largest employer in the area, with around 1,500 employees spread around the main facility and outlying facilities, plus lots of spin off businesses that cater to motor home owners.  The spinoffs do a lot of upgrades and specialty work, and they all started at Tiffin, developed the entrepreneurial spirit (or got tired of the low wages), and started their own businesses.  We’re using two of these spin-offs this week.

We checked in Sunday afternoon to what is probably the least desirable RV Park we’ve been in.  Of course, it’s not really a RV park – it’s really a waiting area for repair work that has hook-ups.  That’s okay, at least it’s relatively cheap ($20/night which may not even cover the electric usage – it’s hot and all three air conditioners are running just about 24 hours a day on our coach and everyone elses').

Monday we were introduced to the process.  First come, first served.  Someone comes around the first day (Norris) and goes over the repair items, then you're assigned either extensive maintenance or express service.  Thankfully, we have little to be done, so we're assigned to express service.

Then someone comes around to see how much of the work will be done under extended service contracts (we have one).

Then there are daily (sometimes several times a day) trips to see Wanda to see when we may get our work done.  

Mostly it’s just waiting.

On Tuesday, I did the factory tour of the manufacturing/production facilities.  It is a huge place with about a million square feet under roof and they’re expanding.  I really wanted to see how these things are built.  It is interesting.

This is where it starts with a Freightliner chassis which is brought in from Gaffney, South Carolina
Then it is driven to the assembly line
Here, the generator has been installed in the front of the chassis
The dash
500 Horsepower Cummings Diesel Engine
Flooring installed
Interior Walls and furniture are starting to be installed.  Basically, the home is built from the inside out.
Back of rear bathroom before the walls are installed.
Wall sides ready to be installed
Walls Installed
The rear cap ready to be installed
Slide for bedroom with bed in place
Slide for the living room ready to be installed.
Slide being installed
It's beginning to start looking like a motor home
Most of the glass is in place now
After painting and putting the Diamond Shield on the front
Ready for delivery
It takes about 5 days to build a motor home from start to finish.  They finish up about 12 - 15 every day!

Some people order their home at a dealer, then come here to watch it being built, then drive it out of the plant.  That must be a real good feeling.

While we’re waiting, we decided to take advantage of some of the specialty shops.  We wanted to get rid of the carpet in the bedroom and have matching tile with the rest of the coach installed.  We got some strong recommendations for Daniel (who had previously worked at Tiffin).  We contacted him and scheduled the work, hoping he could work around our timeline and those of the service department.  

The service department is huge – 32+ bays where the work is done.  They do everything in those bays that can be done.  It was amazing to see.

Wednesday afternoon we got into one of the “Express” Bays and in two hours, we were finished.  They really know what they’re doing and they do it quickly.  I only had three issues – an awning motor had to be replaced, some bolts needed to be tightened on one of the slides, and new, improved rubber gaskets on the bedroom slide where the water probably came in the other day.

Later Wednesday, TJ (another former employee of Tiffin) came by the coach to give us an estimate and took our order for a new cabinet.  We have a ridiculous number of TVs (4) in our motor home, and we wanted to replace the TV next to the refrigerator with a good spice cabinet.  Done! (or at least ordered – it’ll be shipped to Beaufort next week, then I'll remove the TV and install the cabinet).

Thursday morning at 7 am (yes AM, way to early), we dropped the coach at Daniel’s shop (which is in Mississippi) a few miles out of town.  It will take 1 ½ days to do the work and of course we can’t use the coach while the tile is being installed.

The bed is taken out and stored in the front
Everything comes out of the bedroom


Finishing the last piece of tile
The inspector is pleased with the work.
After we dropped the coach off at Daniel's, I decided that I'd do the tour again while Clara waited in a lounge at the RV park.

Earlier in the week, I had made a reservation for a cabin just outside town in Sleepy Hollow.  I figured a cabin would be much better than a hotel room – and I was right.  It’s not much, but it is a quiet place in the woods by a creek.  Much, much better than a motel room.



Lounging on the porch at Sleepy Hollow
Thursday evening we headed into town for dinner.  About a mile down the road, we saw a place that had been recommended to us earlier, Swamp John's. Thursday night is catfish night, so we stopped and decided to give it a try.  It is an abandoned and closed gas station that still has the gas pumps installed.  I’d hate to think what their sanitation rating may be, but the food was great.

Swamp John's

You can dine by the gas pumps if you want to.  It was a little to warm for that today.
Friday morning we get to Daniel's place around 9 AM and they've already finished, so we're ready to roll.  They did a terrific job - looks like it was installed at the factory.  After all the oohing and ahhing, we start heading East.

We've stopped at a terrific County Park about 60 miles West of Atlanta, Little Tailapoosa County Park.  We had a heckava time trying to find it because it doesn't show up on any of our RV park apps on our smart phones that we use to find parks.  We had to call the office three times to find it and it's only 6 miles off the Interstate.  It was worth the annoyance trying to find it.  It's one of those places we wish we could stay a couple more days.  There are miles of horse trails and hiking trails.  Some of the hiking trails are newly paved 6 feet wide.

Saturday, June 27

Now it's just a matter of slogging across Georgia and South Carolina to get home.  Tonight we're at Sesquicentennial County Park near Columbia, SC.

Sunday, June 28

We're glad to be home.  That's unusual for me to admit, but the last part of this trip has been rather tiring.

2040 miles.  The motor home averaged 9.2 mpg, which is better than we ever saw on our smaller motor home



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