May 20, 2015, Wednesday, Red Bay, AL
Day 20

I reported to the paint scheduler at 7 am.  I am assured we will be painted today and informed to go to the coach and wait for a call.  Next step is trying to get the earlier repair of the windshield wiper corrected.  Again told to wait.  Mid morning, got the wiper call and it is corrected.  At noon we get the all important paint call.  Arrive at the Red Bay Body Shop and lunch hour begins.  At 1:00 told to be back by 3:00.  We walk the complete downtown of Red Bay and sat for awhile in the “Central Park” of the “city”.  Decide to visit the Red Bay Museum only to find its hours are 1:00 to 4:00 Tuesday and Thursday only.  So sad we will miss this museum, NOT!  Walk back to coach around 2:00 and no work has begun. Told to come back around 4:30.  Walk to the Tiffin plant and visit some new coaches.  Hang out in a new 45 foot Allegro Bus, nice digs.  Walk back to coach at 4:30 and just in time to watch the paint dry.  While waiting, I get my ladder out and start wiping down the sides of the coach which is filthy after all the work of the last 3 days.  Finally depart after 6:00 and back to the campground exhausted and excited that this will be our last night in Red Bay.

May 19, 2015, Tuesday, Red Bay, AL
Day 19

Reported to the cap rail replacement bay at 7 am and then we became homeless for the day.  Found out that one day to do the cap rails really means two.  One day to replace the caps and then a second day to paint them.  Rats, we lost Memphis for the second time.  Having all day to wait, we head to the Tiffin Paint Plant in Belmont, MS, which is only 7 miles away for a self guided tour. Remarkably, we can wander anywhere throughout the plant except the paint rooms.  It is incredibly labor intensive to paint the designs on the coaches each of which is 4 colors.  Back to the service center to wait some more.  Cap rail replacement done about 3:15 and angered when I find out that we are not scheduled for the painting the next day.  That is a different “department” and the scheduler went home at 3:00.  Frustratingly, Tiffin will not schedule a second step until the first step is completed.  More frustrating is the Tiffin work day ends at 3:00 (and even earlier in some cases).  Planned to be at the paint bay at 7 am to beg.  If we don’t get painted tomorrow, we won’t ever get painted, unless we return to Red Bay in the future which is the last place I intend to return.  Well, I guess we can’t have fun every day.

May 18, 2015, Monday, Red Bay, AL
Day 18

Up at 5:50 am to get to Muscle Shoals about an hour drive away to get a new wet bay floor.  We watch as it seems as though our coach is being torn apart removing the old wet bay.  The fresh water tank comes out of the coach. Reciprocating saws destroy the old flooring and rotten wood comes flowing down.  Metal frames cut to bend out of the way. Wonder if it will ever get put back together.  Hope the engineer who okayed a wood floor below the wet bay was fired. The new floor which is hard plastic should last forever.  A good thing to come out of this is that I now know the exact location and configuration of my 3 tanks and the sensors of each tank which measure the fluid levels. About 3 ½ hours and the new bay floor is done. Back to Red Bay for another exciting afternoon of waiting.

May 17, 2015, Sunday, Red Bay, AL
Day 17

While the coach is stuck in Red Bay still, we have a second day to go play.  15 minute drive to the Natchez Trace Parkway, a delightful scenic drive of 36 miles to Tupelo, MS. Lunch at Sweet Peppers Deli then a visit to the birthplace of Elvis.  Afterward a visit to the Tupelo Automobile Museum.  A fantastic collection of 150 cars dating from the 1880's, some of which are one of a kind.   That’s me in front of a 1929 Duesy and one of two of the cars driven by Tony Curtis in The Great Race.  That’s Rosemary next to Elvis’s 1976 Lincoln Mark IV which he gave to the Sheriff of Denver as a gift.