FREE AT LAST......

We have cleared the paint shop and paid our bill for the work done on the coach that was not warranty.  All that is left is to pay our camping ground fees and check out in the morning and we will be headed across Mississippi to a casino right on the river that has an RV park.  Not excited about the casino part but there is nothing else in the area.  We will be headed back to Las Vegas with a stop over in Williams, Arizona to make a visit to the Grand Canyon and plan to be back in Vegas on Sunday the 27th if all goes well

In All Fairness

In all fairness to Red Bay, Alabama I have to say that today was actually a pretty pleasant day.  It only reached 75, no rain, reasonable humidity and a bit of a breeze.  I believe it will be our first day here without running the air conditioning or the fans once all day.  To make the day more exciting we went out for dinner at a little mexican restaurant in Belmont, Mississippi, the next town up the road.  Tomorrow we are hoping to be able to watch the Seahawks game so that will be the major Sunday event here for us.

On the motorhome repair front we learned yesterday that it will be Tuesday at the soonest before we get the last item taken care of - but more likely Thursday.  It is a full days work and then another half day of painting so we will most likely be here until Saturday the 19th for those who might be keeping track.  If we are lucky maybe a day or two sooner.

Yes, we are bored but at least today we are not miserable on top of that.  We did have a decent Thunder and Lightening storm pass through yesterday with a lot of rain.  It was preceded by some wind that stirred up the dust here so between the two the coach now pretty much looks like it did when we got here two weeks ago.  But we don't stand alone.  Pretty much all of the other 100 or so coaches here look about the same.

The red balloon is us.  This front stretched across about four states.

Big Job 2 of 3 done.

Today we got big job #2 (of 3) done.  Only one to go.  Today they removed the large slide out on the driver's side of the coach and replaced the floor which was delaminating.  While the slide was out we replaced the couch with two recliners and had them replace the carpet in the slide out too.  It feels really different inside now that we are back at our campsite with the coach put back together.

Slide hanging from hoist after removal from coach.

Laying the slide down on its face so the floor is exposed for removal and replacement.

Ready for new floor.  (Note back of old sofa still inside coach.

Old sofa removed and replaced with new recliners

New recliners inside after everything is put back together.

There is a small chance we could get the last job done this week but more likely the first of next week.  That job requires some roof work and some painting and there is a lot of rain in the forecast for the next couple of days so they may want to wait until next week for the weather to be more friendly.  We are ready to start working our way back west anytime.

Tupelo and Elvis' Birthplace

Took a break from Red Bay and went to Tupelo, Mississippi for labor day weekend which coincidently happened to be our 46th anniversary.  We drove down on a highway called the Natchez Parkway.  Here is a little trivia on the highway:

The Natchez Trace, also known as the "Old Natchez Trace", is a historic forest trail that extends roughly 440 miles (710 km) from Natchez, Mississippi, to Nashville, Tennessee, linking the Cumberland, Tennessee, and Mississippi Rivers. It was created and used for centuries by Native Americans, and was later used by early European and American explorers, traders, and emigrants in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Today, the path is commemorated by the 444-mile (715 km) Natchez Trace Parkway and Bridge, which follow the approximate path of the Trace,[1] as well as the related Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail. Parts of the original trail are still accessible and some segments are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Limited access and two lane all the way.  Lush just like these pictures.

Sign at one viewpoint.

 After spending the night in Tupelo we stopped and the birth place of Elvis Presley.  Just seemed like something we should do since it was only about a mile out of our way out of town.  (Thank you, thank you very much.)

That is our little friend and companion "Red" on the porch posing for his picture.

This morning (Tuesday) we received a call about 7:30 to be in a service bay as soon as possible.  We scrambled and made it there where they spent about 5 hours fixing an issue with our rear suspension that I had put off until we could get the coach here and have it fixed under warranty.  That leaves us with just two more big items to get resolved so we are now waiting for the next call which we hope will come soon.  It would be nice to get at least one more of the big ones done this week so we can be reasonable sure of getting on our way next week.

Almost as bad as having our boat out of the water on stilts for bottom painting.

Muscle Shoals and Coon Dog Cemetery

Today we drove to Muscle Shoals, AL to visit the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.  I was expecting exhibits of all the famous rockers who recorded here in the 1960's and 70's.  They were barely mentioned.  It was mostly (duh) about musicians from ALABAMA - thus the name I guess.  It was nicely done and interesting but not being a country music fan I did not know much of the names.  I was surprised to know that some of the ones I did recognize were natives of Alabama.

There were half a dozen artists I recognized.

Only had my cell phone camera so lighting was an issue.

Who's of thought Alabama was from Alabama?

Also was surprised there was not more about Elvis.

Jimmy Buffett - really?

I don't know whose car this was but....

...it was a little Over The Top

On our way back to Red Bay we drove a route that allowed us to visit the world famous Coon Dog Cemetery.  This is a place that takes their Coon Dogs very seriously.  I want to be able to go home so I am being respectful and I even capitalized Coon Dog just to demonstrate my respect.  I have no doubt that, as the sign says, it is the only one in the world.  Don't know if it looks like this all year but Labor day is their big annual celebration so I think things have been prettied up a bit.  We were sorry we missed the festivities but we will be in Tupelo, MS.

Father and Son

Progress

We are making some progress, although slow.  Last evening we got notification to be in front of service bay #35 at 7 am this morning.  We were there on time and two technicians began working on some of the more minor issues on our list.  We were out by 10 with all of those items completed and we even lucked out and found the area where we can wash our RV's vacant so before we went back to our assigned camp site we washed our very dirty coach.  Now we have three more serious items left to be resolved.  Each of those will take at least a day.  With the holiday on Monday I am expecting we might get one or two of them fixed next week if we are lucky.

This picture shows less than half the service bays in the complex.

Speaking of the three day weekend it so happens that our 46th anniversary is on Sunday so we are taking a break from the motor home and Camp Red Bay and driving 50 miles to Tupelo, MS the birthplace of Elvis Presley.  That is the towns claim to fame but for us the attraction (other than just a break) is better and more restaurants and some movie theaters.  We will spend the night there and maybe we will go see Minions.  I doubt we will seek out anything Elvis but it might be hard to avoid.

Red Bay Day Three

Hard to see here but the green line is Humidity as noted by the arrow above.

As we enjoy/endure the tropical feel of nearly 100% humidity during the day, along with temps in the 90's, we received some encouraging news today about the service backlogs here.  Although there is no guarantee it seems possible that we could be done and on our way in as little as two weeks.  That would be good news compared to the 4-5 weeks we were prepared for.  We have no control over this so all we can do is think positive at this point.

Tomorrow we are hoping to do the factory tour in the morning.