I'll start with the good news: we finally finished up with all
our business in Red Bay, AL and blew out of there at 0700 this
morning. We drove about 350 miles today – more than we usually
cover in a day, but we wanted to get far south enough to get out of
the cold. It's sunny and pleasant here in Amite, LA, and feels warmer
than the actual 60 that it is. We are enroute to South Padre Island,
TX and this is our first overnight stop. But back to catching up:
We left the moho in Red Bay at the
Tiffin Service facility on December 18, when we drove out to Conyers
GA, just east of Atlanta to spend a couple of days with my brother
and nephew. From there, we flew to Seattle and headed down to Olympia
where our son and one daughter both live, to spend Christmas with the
family. We had a lovely week, and as far as wonderful news goes, our
daughter Bethany got engaged over the holiday and is planning an
August wedding. We are delighted to welcome Matt and little Kylee to
our family – gee Matt, I hope you know how brave you are to take us
all on! It was a great week and we miss them all already.
We flew back to Atlanta and got back to
Red Bay on the 30th to find it was still really cold
there. Everyone kept telling us that it never gets that cold (30s,
even 20s overnight) but of course, we must have brought the weather
with us. Most of the work on the moho was done but we still had to
stay till the end of the week, since our cap rails needed to be
replaced under a recall. This is a 2 day project and with the plant
being closed for New Year's it put us having the work done on
Thursday and Friday. Luckily, most of what we were having done was
warranty work so that the big bill we were expecting never
materialized. The even better part was all the great people we met,
from all over the U.S and Canada. The customer lounge at the service
center is an interesting place, where people gather with their dogs
and cats while their rigs are being serviced, and there is never a
dull moment. A shout out goes to our new friends Kris and Bill, who
we hope to see again on the road, or maybe when we get back to Tampa.
Then there was the couple traveling with 7 dogs – that's right, 7
dogs. And not little purse dogs - they had 4 whippets and 3
terriers. In a motorhome! Yikes. There is much to be learned
from talking to other rvers, especially since we all have similar
rigs. Many of the people we met have been rving for years and had
much wisdom and information to share. We also caught up with old
friends Paul and Mary, who at one time were our neighbors back at
Pearl Lake. They have been full time rvers for several years and
happened to be staying in Hunstville so we met up at a restaurant
about halfway in between. But good parts aside, it was a long stay
between the time before and after Christmas and we were really
anxious to get out of the cold and head south.
On another interesting note, Red Bay is
in a “dry” county. This phenomenon is apparently common
throughout parts of Alabama and Mississippi. Not only can you not buy
a bottle of wine or a 6 pack of beer anywhere, but no restaurant
serves alcohol and there are no bars. We had dinner at a nice Mexican
restaurant one night, but couldn't have a margarita. Another night we
went to a steak and seafood place but couldn't have a glass of wine.
Are you getting my drift here? We were told that the Baptist churches
control everything down there and apparently they think Prohibition
was a great idea. We would make the trip to a neighboring county
every few days where we could pick up whatever we wanted, but that
was at least 50 miles each way. Geez...didn't make our stay any more
palatable.
In any case, I was able to put our
coats away today and this is going to get better as we continue on
toward South Padre. This brutal winter is affecting all parts of the
country to some extent and we don't expect 80s down there, but the 10
day outlook is showing mid 60s, day and night. We are planning to
arrive there on Tuesday so more on that to follow. Hope everyone had
a happy new year!
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