Monday, August 9, 2010

One Week Ends, Another Begins

Not always, but many times, we really don’t notice the days of the week.  However, here at “Camp Red Bay”, it’s impossible to miss the end of a week, the week-end, and the beginning of the next week.

Fridays are happy days – the bank next door is busy with people depositing their weekly pay checks.  Folks are in a good mood.  And starting at 3:00 in the afternoon (when all work here at Tiffin is finished),  there is an exodus.  People whose work has been completed are out of here.  We suspect some people just get out of town for the weekend, too.

Come Saturday, and it’s quiet around here – until later in the morning when he rest of the people who are on their way out, either with their work completed or just for the week-end, crank up their engine and head out.

Sunday is even quieter,  at least until late morning when the next group of people start arriving to get a space in the campground.  By late Sunday evening, the campground is once again filled up.

Monday morning brings the usual parade – those who are already assigned to their repair bay have their diesels cranked up and warming by about 6:45 in the morning, ready to head over to their bay.   The new folks are getting their paperwork turned in and are waiting for the visit from Norris, the gentleman who visits each rig and determines whether we’ll be waiting for a “regular” bay, or assigned to an express bay.  The electronics guys are starting their rounds to see people who have some sort of radio or TV issue going on.  And so it goes at Camp Red Bay.

On Saturday, Jim decided to go ahead and make salsa.  He got started with all the “slicing and dicing” while I went in search of some different varieties of peppers, and maybe a breakfast sandwich.  I didn’t do very well with either of my assignments.  I found jalapenos, which we already had, and that’s pretty much all there is to be found in Red Bay.  And, Jack’s, one of the fast food restaurants available here, was jam-packed with a line out to the street.  So I came back home and we “made do” with what we had on hand for breakfast and salsa.

Not to worry, though, we came up with a batch of really good, hot salsa!  Jim even added a red circle to the lids of the 21 pints he canned, indicating this is a hot batch!  So, for our friends (Dortha) who have chips ready, hang on, we’ll be there with salsa as soon as we can!

We decided to get out and take a drive Saturday afternoon, so off we went to Tishomingo State Park across the state line in Mississippi:

Jim 002_1

The most interesting sight today was this fellow:

Ellie 014

But we enjoyed the Pioneer Cabin:

Jim 008

And the Swinging Bridge:

Jim 006

When we left the State Park, we decided to drive a little of the Natchez Trace Parkway:

Ellie 015 

After that, we came back home and relaxed.

Yesterday, we stayed home and did a little laundry and Castle cleaning.  Jim was pretty antsy all day – it seems that it is time for the Professional Football season to get underway – wasn’t it just a couple of months ago we watched the Super Bowl?  Anyway, he didn’t want to get too far away from the TV in case he got stranded or something and had to miss the first Cowboy’s Pre-season game.  All was well, though, and he got to watch the first kick-off of the season.  I think I was trimming my hair at the time, oh well.

This morning, we checked in with Jimmy Oliver, the fellow who is now in charge of scheduling here at the Tiffin Service Center.  We’re now up to #19 on the list of rigs waiting for a service bay.  Translated, it will likely be at least the end of this week or the beginning of next week before we get in.  But, there’s always a possibility that something will happen to move that time frame, so we don’t dare get too far away without checking with Jimmy.  Once we got that information, we decided to make a run to Fulton, MS to the Wal-Mart there, just in case they might have something different than the Russellville Wal-Mart.  We used the navigation app on the Droid, we call her “Mapzilla”.  She was in a strange mood this morning and decided to lead us on a wild goose chase instead of directly to the Wal-Mart.  Sometimes I think she might be related to “Matilda”, Doug and JoAnn’s Navigation instrument.  Strange sense of humor, these navigation tools!  Instead of directing us to Wal-Mart, Mapzilla took us  on the back roads to the ritzy neighborhood in Fulton, not anywhere close to where we wanted to be.  Jim had a few choice words about Mapzilla, so I turned her off to keep her from getting her feelings hurt – never know where she might take us just to get back at us.

We found the Wal-Mart, found a few items we thought would enhance our pantry and headed back home.   We got a good rain storm this afternoon, no hail, not enough wind to bother us, just a lot of rain.  While it rained, I fixed us some pork chops, potatoes and veggies for a nice, home-cooked meal.

As I was visiting with our neighbors later on this afternoon, I discovered they are also headed to the Gypsy Journal Rally and Escapade,  as we are when we get sprung from Camp Red Bay.  They are good friends with Nick and Terry of the Gypsy Journal – another “small world” realization!   It will be fun to get to see them again in a different setting.

Stay tuned for more Red Bay Adventures!

2 comments:

Mark and Dortha said...

And, life goes on at Camp Red Bay. Hope you move right up the list this week.

I have my chips ready!

See you real soon.

Tumbleweed Dee said...

It's good you get to see other places and not just sit waiting. Let's hope you're "sprung" and have more time for fun on the way to Escapade. See you there.