Our travels have been mostly uneventful. Our departure from Colton RV in North Tonawanda was delayed because they “forgot” to install the new leveling jack we had been waiting for. Then when they did install it they discovered they needed another part! It arrived the next day – our departure day – and Tiffin had shipped the wrong part (or Colton Parts ordered the wrong part).  We left, determined not to use the affected jack until we got to Red Bay. 

We had a delightful stay with Malena and Dan and dinner at Con Mole (outdoors) Saturday night. Unfortunately Dan could not be with us as he had mounted Tivoly bareback pretty much to everyone’s surprise, particularly Tivoly’s. Dan’s “dismount” left him flat on the ground in some pain. He spent the next 16 hours in ER where he was “imaged” to determine that there was no serious damage and sent home, arriving at 5 AM.  

We left on Monday as planned. Dan was stiff and sore but otherwise in good spirits. Our trip was mostly uneventful save one crazed FedEx driver who forced me onto the shoulder and the usual car drivers who are unable to see a motorhome in their path. We stopped at Racoon Valley RV park a SKP park near Knoxville TN before continuing on to Red Bay AL., known to Tiffin owners as “The Mother Ship”.  

It was Tuesday before Thanksgiving and the campgrounds were at less than 50% and so was the Service Center. The normal arrival ritual is a visit by Norris to determine what services are needed and to estimate how many weeks to expect to wait. We had contacted Chris Berry, an outside vendor, to repair a cabinet. We expected to see  him no earlier than Wednesday, more likely next week and were surprised when he called to let us know he was on the way. The main cabinet work was completed  within an hour and he took off with a drawer that needs to be rebuilt.

Wednesday we were awaiting a visit by Norris when the phone rang at about 1:30 with instructions to bring the coach over to Bay 10!!!! Since we had set up for the long weekend, we had to do a rush preparation for sudden departure. I think it took us 15 minutes to get underway. There was more than the usual rattling of pots and pans as we rolled down the road with Carol following in the Jeep.  (check Ann Carol’s FaceBook page for a picture of what we found on our return) The coach was in the service bay no more than 45 minutes when a call came to come and get it. One of four minor fixes had been completed and the rest needed a different service bay, besides it was 2:45, closing time. Now we wait for a call to go to a mechanical bay on Monday any time after 7 AM.  Guess we will get up early and prepare to move the coach early. I don’t expect the work to take more than a couple of hours so we will be back on the site to receive our drawer and a cleaning crew  who we have contacted to deep clean the interior.  I still need to consider what other work I may want done while we are here.

Not sure when I will post again. the plan from here at this moment is to drive the Natchez Trace Parkway again, one of our favorite roads.  For a story from 2003 about the Trace click on this link and scroll down https://goldberg-online.net/journals-blogs-whatever/cross-country-2003-xc2003/