Quoted From A Fellow Traveler:

Life is short, Break the rules, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly, Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably, And never regret anything that made you smile. Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we're here we should dance.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Talladega Nights And Ricky Bobby

Again we stayed off the highway on our trip from Red Bay to Talladega, Al. The road was smooth as silk and the scenery was great.
We passed this big lake and there were a lot of people fishing fro the shore.
We stopped at a Passport America Campground that's four miles from Talladega Super Speedway. Plenty of room here. Had to remove hundreds of bugs from the front, yuk!!!!
This is the old section of the town of Talladega.
I looked for Ricky Bobby but I was not able to find him.
Check out the old theater, I love these old towns. We will probably return after we do the tour of the track tomorrow.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

We Are Finished Here

Today was a productive day. We got a call at 10:30 to go to bay 39. They put the coach up on the lift and replace our one bad jack, then cleaned the rest of the jacks. We then went back to our site to do lunch. I was detailing the coach after lunch, it needed a good cleaning.
Just as I was finishing, we got a call to bring the coach in to bay 32 to complete the repairs I had listed. There are so many people here that they are working overtime to help reduce the load.
I had to have a shade, and a switch replaced. I also lost the heat to my rear view mirrors and that was just the wire that came unplugged.
So we were lucky to get everything done in one day. We will be heading out in the morning to our new destination, Savannah Georgia.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Tiffin Powerglide Chassis Shop

Took the coach in for 15000 miles service.
While they were working on the coach, we took a ride to check out how Tiffin manufactures it's Powerglide Chassis.
Pallets of front end components, all made in the USA!
These are the tag axles used on the 42, and 43 foot motorhomes.
Joyce stands in front of a set of wheel assemblies.
Rear and Tag axle are assembled to the chassis rails.
Then the front axle assembly.
Some of the Alison transmissions waiting for assembly.
A completed chassis.
We we fortunate to be able to spend about an hour with the chassis designer Gary Jones. He took the time to explain the chassis design and what the future plans are. It was a very interesting afternoon,

Sunday, March 28, 2010

It's Raining

A cloudy overcast day and no one wanted to come out to chew the fat so we went for a ride. Saw some old barns.

Then I stopped to pick my honey some flowers, she always like fresh flowers.
There were plenty growing wild along the back road. We finished our ride around the block and Joyce is taking a nap and it's raining off and on. Tomorrow I bring the coach down the street for 15000 mile service.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Not Much Going On

There isn't much to do at Red Bay other than socialize or see the local sites that we have already seen.
With yesterday being Friday, we did the fish fry at Swamp John's. We also went on the factory tour yesterday to see what changes are being done on the new models, and to get our free pens.
Today is suppose to be in the 70's so we have to get out and soak up the rays. People across from us also have a 36' 2009 Phaeton so we've been sharing info. on what we've learned.

The satellite guy stopped by yesterday to set up our King Dome to pick up sat. 61.5 so we can pick up our local channels around home. We can also call Dish Network and give them our location zip and they will reset us for that area. He also did an update which gave us our High Def. for HBO.

As for our repairs, it looks like we will be here till the end of next week.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

The Coach Is Home For Service

We left our camp in Daisy Arkansas at about 9:30 AM ahead of a rain storm. Passed through Tennessee, Mississippi, and some small towns with cool diners like this one.
While traveling through Mississippi, this coach passed us. He was running at about 75 MPH.
The strange thing is that it is a new Tiffin Phaeton that is not finished. Note the primer paint and the exterior side lights by the entrance door were missing with the wires for those lights flapping in the wind.
Whereas this new coach is so far from the Red Bay factory, I believe it may be one of the Tiffin family members out for a trek.
We saw this tug pushing 12 barges up the river.
Almost there, been a long day.
Seven hours later we pulled into the company campground.
Ten minutes after parking, the storm caught us. There were tornado warnings and we did get some small hail.
The storm passed through in about fifteen minutes and gave us a rainbow.
We are parked two spots over from where we were five months ago. We are here to have a few things fixed and have a 15,000 mile service done. We would rather have all service done at the factory by people that are familiar with the product. I don't trust the dealers to give the type of service I expect because of past experiences.
We do not have an appointment so we have to wait our turn which means we will probably be here till next weekend.
I have already run into a couple that was here with us five months ago. He pulled in today about ten minutes before us. Now we just need our old buddy Frank to show up with his dogs. Hey Frank, where are you????

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

A Day At The Diamond Mine

On our way to the Diamond Mine we passed this old barn and I had to get a picture of it.
Here we are. We were suppose to camp here but the campground is closed for renovations.
Over 28000 found!
Yes we are!
Joyce has her sifting screens and she's ready to go.
The way the mining works is there is this huge field that gets turned over occacionally to bring up fresh dirt and diamonds. You then have to dig in this dirt which is mostly clay and as hard as concrete. You put your dirt in a bucket and using your screens, you then sift the dirt on the screens and wash it in these large tanks of water in the hopes that diamonds will show up. It's really a BIG MUDDY mess but fun!
Last week was Spring break in Texas, this week is Sprint break in Arkansas. So keep in mind that there was a couple of hundred kids digging in the dirt and playing in the water. Joyce was having a great time. Your probably wondering how many diamonds we found.....0!!! We did have fun rolling the mud into mudballs and throwing them at each other. It was a warm beautiful day an we packed a picnic so we had a good time.
Diamond Jim!
Diamond John!

Video Of the Mining Field

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Daisy State Park Kirby, Arkansas

We back roaded it out of Texas and headed to Texarkana. This was our last rest stop in Texas on route 8.
The last bit of Texas History.
Then we headed north to the town of Daisy, Ar. and Daisy State Park which is on route 70. The road was smooth and the traffic was nonexistent. We also ran into some diesel for $2.76 so I filled up.
Daisy, Ar. population 118 and they have two Motels in the center of town.
I just backed in when Joyce took this picture. The ground dropped behind the coach and goes down to a large lake.
This is one of the many houseboats that were tied up.
Tomorrow we are going to dig for diamonds if the weather holds up.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Texas Motor Speedway

Whereas we are in the area, we wanted to see the NASCAR track.

On our way into the track, they have these cars and truck set up in the middle of this small pond. They represent the types of race events they hold at the track.
This is a condo if you would like to live right at the track.
The track side of the condo.
We toured the garage area.
Joyce at the start / finish line.
A shot from the pit area.
We weren't able to tour the track because they were painting the lines for an upcoming race.
This shot was taken from a box seat area.

We are now in one of the sponsor rooms.
This is FedEx's room.

After leaving the track we took a back road route and ran into this, The Great Wolf Lodge.
This place is awesome especially for the kids. There is a huge water park indoors, and another outside for warmer weather. There's also treasure hunts for the kids plus other fun activities. You must be a guest to use the water park but the Lodge is trying to change that so everyone is welcome.
The lobby looks like something from Disney.
This is what the water tubes look like as they pass through the exterior walls and extend outside to give a really big ride.
This big thing acts like a huge water funnel that you slide into from the tube shown in the picture.
The video shows some of the interior water park.

We are now packing up and getting ready to move on in the morning.