Red Bay Chronicles, Wednesday August 8

I haven’t been taking a lot of pictures the past couple of days; this one was from our door yesterday morning when I came back from walking the dogs early in the morning.  It was a very foggy morning! 

Things are moving along for us here in Camp Red Bay.  Yesterday we were moved into a full hook-up site early enough in the day that I was able to do quite a bit of settling and cleaning.  Even though we don’t have our jacks to stabilize and level the coach, we’ve put our slides out. 

Jim gathered the laundry and took it over to the campground laundry room.  While he was gone I continued to clean.  We invited Dortha and Mark over for happy hour when he got back.  It’s certainly more fun to be here with friends!  We visited for an hour or two.  Then we all decided to go out to dinner at the local Mexican restaurant down the street from the campground.

For those of you who are familiar with Red Bay, we’ve noticed a few changes around town.  There’s a new Jack’s restaurant open, they were building it when we were here last fall.  The old Jack’s building is gone now.  The Dollar General Store has been spiffed up and is now a Market.  We haven’t been in yet, so will report on that later.  Gill’s Grill has changed to The Steak House; we’ll have to try that one day.

Red Bay has 2 grocery stores – a Blue Star and a Piggly Wiggly.  They have pretty limited choices, but you can supplement their offerings with the Mexican restaurant, Jack’s, the steak place, Swamp John’s (reportedly has great catfish) a pizza place, and a few other restaurants.  There are also some choices in some of the surrounding towns.

We’ve been here so many times that we’ve pretty much seen most of the “attractions” in the area, including the Coon Dog Cemetery (yes, it really is a Coon Dog Cemetery!), the Alabama Music Hall of Fame, Helen Keller’s childhood home, Tishomingo State Park, and a few other places around the area.  If we get a chance while we’re here (and chances are good we’ll be here long enough to have a chance), we’d like to take a day trip to the Shiloh Battlefield, about 60 miles from here.

Today we got a new windshield installed.  While we were in the shop, Jim talked to a few people and we have a little better idea of some of the repairs that will be required.  The jacks are “on the truck” but no one knows when the truck will arrive, and when it does, how long it might take to work us in their schedule.  When we do get in for the jacks, the mechanics will check everything they can to see what other damage might have been done.

We’ve learned about patience during our previous times in Red Bay.  When we talk about going to Red Bay for service, friends tend to remark, or offer an opinion about the “slow” service here, or how often we seem to need to come here.  We admit it is different than many other repair facilities, but we have come to understand how things are done here.  Yes, the motorhomes “should” be built so they don’t need repairs, (doesn’t every brand need service sometime?) and yes, we “could” go to Tiffin dealerships in other parts of the country when we do need service.  However, Tiffin builds these coaches here, and they know how to fix them here.  Typically, the cost of repairs is less here than it would be at a dealership.  All of that notwithstanding, we really don’t mind coming here or being here.  We like the slow pace and the small town atmosphere. Our schedule normally includes a stop in this part of the county either in the spring or fall anyway, so it’s not a big deal for us to be here.  Many people make appointments and come in one day, have their have their work done and leave within a couple of days.  The service facility schedules a limited number of appointments.  In order to make an appointment, there are specific dates to call, and appointments are made several months in advance.  Once the appointments are filled up for that quarter, they stop making them until the next quarter.  We choose to come in without an appointment and wait our turn in line, because we don’t always plan our schedule so tightly that far in advance, and like this time, we don’t know when something might happen to the coach.

So we are here and getting caught up with our rest, feeling a little more relaxed knowing that whatever’s broke can be fixed.  When I took the dogs out for their last walk of the day this evening, I noticed there are no rigs parked in the dry camp area.  The partial hook-up area has a few spots open, and I even saw a couple of empty full hook-up sites.  That means things are moving along at the Tiffin Service Center.

We know a few people who are planning to be here in a week or so, hopefully we’ll get to spend time with them.  For us, this is just another stop along the road and we either get to make more new friends or reconnect with current friends.  It’s all good.