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I had hoped to write our blog on Cinco de Mayo but I had so many wonderful birthday wishes to read and enjoy that there was no time. Thank you to each one of you who took the time and thoughtfulness to send me your welcomed wish. As you know, my birthday and Cinco de Mayo are on the same day...lots to celebrate! Well, as I keep aging and my numbers keeps increasing, I’m not sure I really want to celebrate too much on becoming an old lady. I’m double 7’s now....yikes! Lucky Lulu....she doesn’t age at all.
As you know, we are in Red Bay, Alabama to have some work done on our RV. We are very happy thus far as to how well the process has been going. Of course, remember....Mr.Lucky is onboard. We had one planned appointment which was only for a limited period of time. That was at Bay Diesel....the place that works on the chassis. Bright and early, we sailed off for that appointment on Monday morning. They changed all the fluids and filters. They completed a lengthy check list to note any on going or potential issues. That was okay. They changed SOME of
our clamps that looked bad but the rest they left. Remember we want all the clamps changed! They said our coolant reservoir was good for now but we would need a new one in a year. Of course, we want it changed now. You do recall our many coolant issues....don’t you? Because our appointment was only a squeeze in, limited one....we would have to wait for another time. They put us on the list if there are cancellations. We do have a definite appointment on May 20th with them.....which we will keep IF we can’t get in any earlier. The only issue we have that is a conflict, but one we can work around, is Cory is going to buy his Ford truck that he has been leasing at “home”. The transfer date is May 23rd. He called the dealership and he can just send them the money and it can be handled that way. So no big deal. You can remember....back in 2012....we spent a month here at Red Bay. Thus, a few weeks won’t be anything.....we know where to go and what to do to keep us all happy and busy. Don’t pack your bags and head home.
We’ll have fun. We guarantee it. Lulu will be so disappointed if you aren’t with us.
Whoops....we did have one incident that wasn’t any fun. After Cory paid the bill at Bay Diesel, he promptly got in the RV and drove back to our campground. FYI: the route going back and forth is just on small, residential streets. Red Bay may be a city(I don’t know) but the center of it is very small....we are located in the center area. Well, goody....he was back at the campground.....but where was I? I had been sitting in the car (we don’t hook up for these short trips), working on my IPad.....waiting patiently for Cory in the Bay Diesel parking lot. Eventually, a serviceman knocked on my window so I would move the car (it was blocking the area). Sure....but where’s Bucky? No RV...No Buckaroo. Crap. I drove back to the campground. On route, I passed Cory in our RV going back my way! For goodness sake! I waited at the campground but MR. WHEREAREYOU never came. So back to Bay Diesel, I went. I saw an RV like ours in their lot. I went in both the office and service bay...yes,
Bucky had been there but left. I went to the familiar RV.....it wasn’t even ours!! Now what? I headed back to the campground.....again, passing Cory in our RV on route. This time we stopped and hollered back and forth to meet at the campground....a pleasant, serene exchange. I got back there and again, waited and waited and waited for the fantom driver to show up. Eventually, he pulled our rig into its spot. Another pleasant exchange as we reviewed our sequence of events. Cory said he waved the paperwork at our car when he got in the RV to drive away. Like— did I see or know this with my head in a downward position working on my IPad? NO! He went back to the campground but I didn’t show up so he drove back to Bay Diesel (the first passing of our ships). Then, I left to go back to BD (the 2nd passing of our ships). Enough....it got old real fast! Anyway, we have been together since. And communicating in a pleasant and serene manner.
We went to a new customer lounge that is now located in “downtown” Red Bay. It used to be the Mason Jar
restaurant that we frequented in years past. The hostess at the lounge is the previous owner of the restaurant. Bob Tiffin’s son now owns the place. The coffee and pop are free.....courtesy of Bob Tiffin. It wasn’t very crowded so we didn’t hang around too long. We like to chat with lots of folks about their RV’s and issues. We checked out some of the stores in town....Big Star grocery has wonderful, homemade cookies. Jack’s is a fast food restaurant. There is a McDonalds in town, too.
Cory checked with the fellow who worked on our RV two years ago....he put in the new refrigerator, theater chairs, smart TV’s and a bunch of other stuff. He could squeeze us in for a short time first thing in the morning.....super! So, up and at’em on Tuesday, we drove 10 miles out of town to Brannon’s Custom RV shop. He and his crew fixed our back bedroom slideout that wouldn’t budge. It needed a new motor. They replaced my 2008 Whirlpool washing machine with a new Splendide washing machine. I love it! It’s a beauty. Our old one only gave us problems. I had to kick the door to make sure
it was shut.....Cory said I broke it doing that. The lighted buttons flashed like a Las Vegas marquee instead of staying on steady like they should. Sometimes the wash cycle dropped right down to the spin cycle....never washing the clothes...sweet! And....we always had to remain present when it was operating cause sometimes the drum would just stop and make a loud Rrrrrrrrrrrring sound. We would have to shut it off and try again....several times. It was time to get rid of this headache. On my birthday, I did our wash in my new washing machine. I was so happy. It was so special having something that didn’t require a magician to get it to work....just little, ol’ me. Happy Birthday to me!
Of course, I had a few more things on my list for Brannon but he just shook his head and said they didn’t have time to do them....another customer was coming in. Pukebags! Well, as God would have it....the other customer got delayed (boo-hoo) and Brannon and his two servicemen continued completing our list. Hallelujah! Just before leaving Tropical Palms, we found a leak on our big slideout....over our couch. Rats! Well, Brannon redid the whole strip
on the slideout and now all is well with that issue. Kisses & hugs to the team. For over a year, our outside steps have magically closed up at times......even though we have the switch on to keep them out. There was never a correlation with anything....they just did it. We had a couple repairmen look at them but they were puzzled too. Our dear friend and genius, Art, looked at them and we thought his plan of action would work....nope....the gremlins still had the steps going in. What Brannon did is put in a new “brain” box that controls the steps from the ignition, the door magnet, and its switch. We’ll see.... so far so good but sometimes it’s weeks before it happens again. Fingers and toes crossed anyway.
We left Custom RV and headed next to Nichols Customs. Here they worked and replaced our four toppers (marine grade canvas that goes over each of our four slideouts). Amazing.....they did it with our slideouts all in. Great job. Our old toppers had become worn and very stretched out. When the wind blew, it sounded like a heavy metal rock band drumming as loudly as they could.....quite unpleasant.....unless you
are into that type of music. We aren’t. Lulu surely isn’t ......she can’t hum along with their tune. While we were there getting the toppers done, a humongous bad storm came up. The rain was torrential. Thunder and lightning. Luckily, we were just parked and sitting in our car. It was like being in a car wash. On Sunday, it rained all day, too. They actually had a tornado alert. Some folks went to the storm shelter. We didn’t even hear the alert so we just stayed in our RV.....ignorance is bliss. A tornado did touch down in Tupelo, MS (birthday of Elvis Presley).....not too far from here.
Oh, my God.....I almost forgot the really best thing that happened with our repairs. Sit back down.....all this is going to take awhile. Cory said you don’t like these lengthy blogs. I can’t help it. I MUST share this stuff with you. It’s just part of my being. Work with me, please.
Some of you may know about my solution for dealing with some wear on the arm rests of our two captains chairs. In the beginning, I thought it was a good idea. We bought some elastic, nylon men’s
socks (tan color, of course) and slipped them over the armrests. Not bad. However, overtime, the socks have stretched and they are constantly slipping down and falling off. No good! Garters didn’t help. What to do now? We went into the Tiffin store and they had some brown, suede arm covers that you just laid over the arms....like big napkins. $20.00/a pair....$$$. We tried them.....they were huge. No way were they going to be the answer so back they went. We spoke to the cashier and she suggested we go to the upholstery departmental at Tiffin. Ok. We hiked over to the area and saw the women working away on their sewing machines. We were escorted to the boss, Heather. We told her our plight. She took us to where they had made the actual covers to our arm rests. Wow! Yes! Only problem....they didn’t have our exact color but we would make do. Then, wonderful Heather, took the time to show us how to take the arms off the chairs, remove the old covers and put these new ones on. Not too difficult but I kind of moaned and groaned and whined. Praise Heather! She offered to come to
our RV and do it for us. Oh, yes...Oh, yes! So, Cory paid for them (not cheap but so worth it) and we met Heather at our RV. She came in with the covers we had picked out. The color was not even close. She said to be patient.....she would go back to her department, search for material closer to what we needed (ours is an older color), make them up, return and put them on for us! We now called her Saint Heather! And sure, enough, she did just what she said. She had the new arm rests put on in a flash. They are perfect and looked marvelous. We couldn’t thank her enough. We gave her money for her time and trouble but she deserved so much more. We are going to go see Bob Tiffin and tell him what a special employee he has in her. She follows his style when he comes to excellent customer service. We took some cupcakes to her and her staff the other day. I am soooooo happy not to have old socks on our armrests anymore! Hip-Hip-Hooray. Socks be gone!
Cory has gone to the glass shop here at Tiffin.
We now have four of our windows that have fogged up. We have had other windows replaced because of this. It’s a fairly common problem with the coaches of our era. They are double pane and condensation gets inside of them....bummer. Anyway, there is a father and son team that replaces them after hours. They did our other ones and are coming tomorrow to do these four. Super Duper!
We have been most satisfied in how everything has come together for us.....in getting the work done we wanted. We are talking about putting in new backdrop risers for our interior stairs. We are trying to find someone who does them. If we have to wait for Bay Diesel, we should be able to get the stairs done during that waiting period also. We’ll see.
Cory wanted to take me somewhere special for my birthday dinner. Jack’s didn’t quite cut it nor did the new eating area at Piggly Wiggly. Someone on the Tiffin web site had posted a place in Fulton, MS. ...about 20 miles away. Looked good so we headed there. The roads to everywhere around here are so narrow, hilly, winding with no shoulders. It’s not
so bad within a car but let me tell you, the white knuckles come out when driving the RV on them. You DON’T want to break down....nowhere to pull over! Our destination on these treacherous roads was Guy’s Place on the Water. Yep! Our trusty GPS navigated us right to it. No way to ever find it if you didn’t have a GPS....absolutely no way! It was a long white house with blue shutters that had a big dining area at the end of the house with a deck attached that overlooked a marina. Most of the boats docked were houseboats. Cory and I gave a momentary thought to that style of living vs life in an RV. Hmmmmmm......would be lots of fun! The river that this marina is in is called the Tennessee Tombigbee River (The Tennessee–Tombigbee Waterway links commercial navigation from the nation's midsection to the Gulf of Mexico. The major features of the waterway are 234 miles (377 km) of navigation channels, a 175-foot-deep (53 m) cut between the watersheds of the Tombigbee and Tennessee rivers, and ten locks and dams.) We requested a table out on the deck. Perfect. The menu had many delightful choices plus
it was Ladies night so it was a 2 for 1 cocktail plus 20% off the entree. Cory took advantage of the cocktail sale. We ended up with their special: spaghetti and meatballs.....actually better than Olive Garden if you can believe that. We’ll go back cause I want to order their shrimp and cheesy grits! It was a wonderful evening. The best part was the person I shared it with: sweet Cory! Lulu didn’t join us.....her stomach was upset?? What stomach? It’s all in her head!
On a previous evening, we went to Belmont, Mississippi. We dined at Sparks restaurant. They had a $10 buffet but it looked like mostly various beans of all colors floating in some juice plus some unfamiliar meat. I had catfish and Cory had a chopped steak. It was good. On Sunday night.....our normal pizza night, we also were in Belmont again at a great pizza place. Their pizza was super....best we have had in a long time. Wish we could have shared it with our friend Melba but she’s back at Tropical Palms. We miss her. Hi Mel!
Unbelievable! We heard from a dear friend from our past! Unbelievable! Cory’s phone is
now connected to his hearing aides so when the phone rings (Cory, Cory Answer Your Phone), he just answers it by talking....kind of like a Bluetooth but it’s through his hearing aides. Anyway, as I sat wondering who was calling, he said “Well, Hi, Dr.Payne!” Dr. Payne? Could it be? Yup.....it was....Dr.Payne was our veterinarian friend who took such wonderful care of our blessed dog, Chip. We always said we would travel to China to take Chip to Dr.Payne if that’s where he was located. Now, he’s into acupuncture with pets so maybe we weren’t too far off with that thought. Anyway, he said he was cleaning up his desk and found the letter I had written to him after Chip died (May 24, 2012). His desk must have really been heaped high if our letter was still there! Nine years ago!! He said he has thought of us often...actually every time he sits in his rocking chair because we gave it to him. During our antique business, I had finished a rocking chair with a rush seat and back. We gifted it to this wonderful man. He wouldn’t start work on Chip until Chip kissed him....oh, my. Such beautiful
memories. Of course, it was Dr.Payne who helped Chip go over the rainbow as I held our dear pup in my arms. We both cried together. He loved Chip, too. He said he always hoped we would come through his door again with another lab puppy but that just wasn’t in our cards. It was terrific chatting with him again. He sold his big house and moved into a lovely cabin in the woods with his wife. He has our chair there. He is getting his Masters degree in acupuncture in animals. He never did that with Chip. He has five other veterinarians in with him and is looking for a sixth. He has such a successful business....all because of him! This call really made out day! It was on my birthday!! Happy Day!
You made it! You got through this current blog. It was okay if you had to rest and come back to it.....I did that writing it. More is yet to come but I don’t want to ruin the fun for you. Just wait and see. Until then.....if you are reading this, we hope that something great happens to you today. 23 photos for your perusal.
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DeAnne McKay
non-member comment
Cinco de meyo
Great adventure!! Fabulous way to spend your birthday!!!