Day 16
Left Tiffin property and had our new awning installed. I ordered black but got gray. Still looks good and works fine. Learn that the awning does not come with a hook so we can’t actually use it until I pick up a hook at the parts store which is closed on weekends. Back to the campsite again. Hit the road in the Honda for a day of fun. First stop, the Coon Dog Cemetery near Cherokee, AL. Out in the boonies, not well kept but lots of artificial flowers. Definitely not a must see. Next is the Helen Keller birthplace in Tuscumbia, AL. It includes her childhood home and the well pump where the “miracle” took place. I did not realize that Helen had a 160 IQ which contributed to her accomplishments she made in her life. Home has original furnishings and many photos and articles concerning her life. Next stop, Florence, AL, a town of only 39,000 but it felt like Manhattan after Red Bay. We eat lunch at Yumm Thai & Sushi, our first meal out since we got to Red Bay. To give you a feel for Red Bay dining options, it includes Piggly Wiggly. After lunch we visit the Frank Lloyd Wright Rosenbaum house. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon walking along Florence’s downtown. We stopped at The Wine Seller & Tasting Room and bought a few bottles.
May 15, 2015, Friday, Red Bay, AL
Day 15
Talked to the scheduler first thing this morning. Told we are at the bottom of the list but will definitely will be late today for the welding. We prepare to head to Belmont to visit the painting facility thinking we have plenty of time. Just before we leave, the call comes to report to the mechanical bay. The job takes maybe 45 minutes tops. We go back to our campsite and decide to stay put. We bought some of the new insulation that TMC uses at the part store. I spend the afternoon insulating all of our cabinets which our neighbor with our same model had done and seemed like a pretty good idea since we are heading to the desert areas out west. We also buy an awning to add to our driver side windows (the shade also helps keep inside cooler) and hire a couple techs to install on Saturday morning off site. Got a surprise call from scheduling, our 2 warranty items will be done Monday and Tuesday. Hooray, Memphis is back on. My mouth is already watering for the BBQ. Bad news is the wet bay is 8 am Monday and is done in Muscle Shoals, an hour away. It will be an early morning but no complaints here.
May 14, 2015, Thursday, Red Bay, AL
Day 14
Got surprising news this morning that our express service will be sometime this afternoon. We hurry over to the plant to see if we can meet with Bob Tiffin, the President and founder of TMC. We have heard the has a reputation of being very customer service friendly. We met Mr. Tiffin and he definitely lived up to his reputation. He was incredibly warm and spent a good amount of time talking to us. He also agreed to remedy the thermostat problem and also another problem we pointed out concerning our bedroom emergency window. Both Rosemary and I left the meeting with such an excited good feeling it is hard to put into words. I concluded that as long as I am motorhoming, I will be a Tiffin customer. Our express service starts at 1pm and by 3 pm it is done except for one item which requires a mechanical bay for some welding. Also, stumped the techs with one item concerning a feature on the theatre system which I can’t figure out. Neither could a few of them.
May 13, 2015, Wednesday, Red Bay, AL
Day 13
Tiffin having told us nothing doing on our coach today, we head to the manufacturing plant for a tour of the Tiffin Motorhome Company (TMC). Tour lasted about 90 minutes and was fantastic. Multiple buildings creating the cabinetry, and prepping the chassis and then 19 stages on the assembly line and that does not include the painting which is done in Belmont, MS, about 7 miles away. The final inspection and testing is done back in Red Bay. They turn out 12 coaches a day. On display was a 1976 Allegro 21 foot motorhome with primitive equipment and lovely avocado green shag carpet which brought back memories of my folks first motorhome, a 1973 Winnebago (which I lived in for a year while in law school). Back at the coach for lunch and Norris shows up. Norris has been with Tiffin 40 years and coordinates the items we want to address and he determines that we qualify for express service (that is 2 men for 3 hours). While talking to him, he orders an inspection of three items on our coach which apparently are under “secret” warranty due to problems with these items. We failed 2 of the 3, the cap rails (which join the roof to the sides) the fiberglass of which has cracks and needs to be replaced with aluminum (a full day job) and the wet bay floor. The floor base, which is covered by a “waterproof” layer on top, was made out of a material that definitely was not waterproof. The inside of the bay looks fine but when the inspector tapped a screwdriver from underneath it went through the floor (a half day job). Panic mode sets in when we realize we have lost Memphis, Little Rock, Hot Springs National Park, Crater of Diamonds State Park and Dallas and still may not have enough time to get everything fixed before we absolutely have to be in Austin to pick up our son, Aaron, at the airport on May 23. Aaron will join us for a week in the coach. We then learn that our express service will take place Friday and the 2 warranty items will be sometime next week. We calculate that we have to leave by May 22 to make it the almost 800 miles to Austin so there is a chance everything may not get done this trip, ugh! Our evening entertainment is a trip to Piggly Wiggly and then Big Star which are the only 2 groceries in Red Bay. Still could not find everything on our list. At least we got a full hookup site at $20/night at Tiffin’s campground after a night of dry camping since there were no vacancies when we arrived yesterday. And we got one free night for taking the tour. A bonus, the folks parked next to us have the same model and year coach we have. These folks have had a design flaw corrected on their coach which 3 years ago Tiffin indicated there was no fix. The flaw was locating our front thermostat on the slide which can’t function properly when the heat hits the slide. Will have to add that to our list of repairs to be done, hopefully before we leave Red Bay.
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