GUMTREE FESTIVAL…TUPELO, MS

Saturday, May 8 – Drove over to Tupelo, MS, to do some shopping (Red Bay doesn't even have a WalMart) and to see the Gum Tree Festival. Tupelo is a pretty nice town. They had a very nice shopping area with one of Marsha's favorites – Kohl's. We purchased a few things and headed down town Tupelo.

City Hall

Courthouse

Main street

The 39th Annual  Cellular South GumTree Festival and get together at the Lee County Courthouse  square. It was an outdoor celebration of the visual arts, music, and writing, with lots of good entertainment, food, and fun. The were tons of people. Lots of great food vendors and so many booths that catered to the kids. We were gone most of the day. Marsha kept wanting to buy Christmas gifts for the girls. I said…You mean you want to carry these all across the country for 7 more months. She finally came to her senses…Women!

Wooden crafters

Patio decorations

Pottery

Paintings

The adults made  these cute hats out of tissue paper, and then the kids were decorating them with stickers, string, etc.

 

Food everywhere

Going to get down in the 40's tonight....brrrrr. We been having amazing weather. Highs in the 80s and lows in the 60s at night. Great for sleeping! The real plus is the humidity in the low 20%.

Sunday, May 9 – Marsha went to the First United Methodist Church in Red Bay.

Picture courtesy of FUMC website.

First United Methodist Church was featured in the National Geographic Magazine related to the North Alabama Hallelujah Trail. This trail’s thirty-two churches stand as landmarks in North Alabama and provide welcome and shelter for all who enter regardless of belief. Each church is at least 100 years old, on its original site, and is still holding services today. The trail winds its way through sixteen counties in North Alabama.

The rest of the day was sit back and relax. Happy Mother’s Day, Marsha, and all you other Mothers out there.

All for now. Y’all come back again real soon.

TIFFIN MOTORHOME PLANT TOUR

Tuesday, May 4 – This morning was our tour of the Tiffin manufacturing plant.

Tiffin has a reputation for going the extra mile to service their customers. That's is one of the big reasons most people buy a Tiffin Motorhome.

We met Red Davis at the welcome center.

Red has been running these tours for his friend, Bob Tiffin. for a number of years. Red is 82 years young and gives two tours per day! He's lived in Red Bay all his life. It seems he knows just about everyone working for Tiffin Motor Homes.

We dawned our safety glasses and audio hearing devices (so we could hear Red's description in the noisy plant) and headed into the plant. This was the craziest tour I've ever had. We walked right among the workers and were free to ask them questions and look over their shoulders as they worked.

And work they did. They seemed like a hard working bunch. I was surprised to see a $500,000 Zephyr come down the assemble line right behind an $100,000 Open Road. Diesel Pushers right next to gas motor homes. The workers give each MH the same attention regardless of the eventual selling price. They know which parts go with each model.

First, there is the chassie and frame with all its wires and

Side walls

 

Most of the interior carpeting, cabinets, washers & dryers, electronics, and furniture are put in place before the walls are assembled. All the cabinets are hand made here in the cabinet shop.

Even the windows are now built in a Tiffin window factory. They use to purchase from an outside source for their windows, but they weren't holding up. As a matter of fact, that's why we are here. We're having five of our windows replaced.

All the walls are laid out on huge tables then welded together and then the inner skin and outer fiberglass skins are vacuum formed into a finished wall that is then lifted and bolted to the MH frame.

Below:  Slabs of polystyrene foam are cut by CNC (Computer Numerical Controlled) routers to hollow out slots for the aluminum frame.

 

I was amazed to see the entire tile floor being lowered in ONE PIECE to the plywood sub-floor.

The roof is formed in the same way and lifted onto the finished walls.

Then the fiberglass nose and rear caps are lifted into place. It was weird seeing these fiberglass front ends and rears sitting out in the plant storage area on pallets.

Then comes miles of wiring, plumbing, and HVAC that come together in the completed unit. It seemed like mass confusion with workers making sub-assemblies and parts in every corner of the plant. And then they bring everything together to form the motor home. Absolutely amazing!

Now for the slides. They are built and then installed.

We spent over two hours on our tour. This is a tour I would suggested everyone take…if you owe an Tiffin or not.

Eight miles down the road is the paint shop. It's in Mississippi. I can't explain why it is not part of this sprawling facility. We will tell you about that in our next blog.

Before we leave, let us introduce you to our new friends, Don and Cathy.

Cathy is a retired school teacher and Don is still working for a medical supply company. They still own a house in Cincinnati. They are headed for Tampa where Cathy will have back surgery. We met them on our tour, hit it off and spent a part of each day with them. They left on Friday afternoon. We send our prayers their way for safe travels and a success surgery for Cathy.

Here is a picture of a group of friends at our campground. Everyone is waiting their turn. Is Marsha sitting down or is she just that short?

Thanks for stopping by. See y’all real soon.

RED BAY, ALABAMA

Monday, May 3 – We pulled out of Vicksburg at 8:00 am. Boy, is I-20 between Vicksburg and Jackson bumpy....at one point I slowed down to 45 mph and put on my emergency flashers for about 5 miles......Kawabunga !

We fueled up at Pilot in Winona, MS – just north of Jackson- paying the most we've ever paid, $3.22/gal for diesel. Luckily we average over 10 mpg today.

We drove about 50 miles on the Natchez Trace Parkway between Mathison, MS and Tupelo, MS. The 444-mile Natchez Trace Parkway commemorates an ancient trail used by animals and people that connected southern portions of the Mississippi River, through Alabama, to salt licks in today's central Tennessee.

In the 1800’s, it was the main return route for Ohio Valley traders who, rather than fight the Mississippi currents, sold their flatboats for the value of their timber in Natchez and walked home via the Old Trace. By mid-century, steamboats made the dangerous track unnecessary, and the Old Trace disappeared and was replaced by the New Trace. There are campgrounds, wayside exhibits, almost 400 types of wildlife and over 2,100 types of plants.

It was a great day for a ride.

The last 20 miles into Red Bay, AL, was on a two lane road, US 23,  that twisted and turned through the Alabama countryside. I can't believe they don't have a better road into this city. Granted it is a small city of about 3,000 population, but Tiffin Motor Homes is a one of the leading producers of motor homes in the country. They're building twelve motor homes per day and that means dozens of semi trucks bringing tons of parts. That doesn't include the over 170 MH in their campground waiting on service.....Jeesh!

Anyway....end of rant.....

In retrospect....Marsha & I took a ride today (Thursday, May 6) and we see they are building a new divided highway into Red Bay. They must have heard me ranting...lol !!!!

We were sitting in the “over-flow” camping area of Camp Allegro, the Tiffin Motors campground. The Tiffin campground, adjacent to the service facility, has full hookups and is available for owners awaiting service. Depending on the nature of the service or repairs, owners can stay in their coaches in the service bays while work is in progress. We have to boondock until a site is available. The camp host said we should get a full-hook-up site tomorrow or by Wednesday at the latest.

When checking into the campground, they give you a service number if you're there for repairs. We turned in our work order, so now we wait our turn. Appointments are not available. They are completely booked for the entire year! We are on a first come, first served basis at the Express Bays. These bays are set aside for people unable to get appointments. They have over 45 service bays in this huge building.

The campground is built at an old airstrip, so it is all gravel, except for the main campground road which is the old asphalt runway. You can still see the runway numbers painted on the asphalt....ha ha!

Runway number.

 

I'm sure they hate to risk hiring and training more service techs and adding additional service bays in this very slow RV economy, but they need to do something to keep their customers happy!

Tuesday, May 4 - About 2:30, the phone call came.....we were moving from our temporary boondocking site to a full hook-up site. Ahhh.....electricity.... which means air conditioning....that's nice in Alabama! We're hanging around the MH the rest of the afternoon because the service writer may stop by to write up our order. They said not to worry, if he doesn't see us this afternoon he'll catch us tomorrow....crazy. Being two former teachers, we are not accustomed to this southern laid-back style!

Our site….not much to write home about.

Can you guess where Red Bay got its name?  Here are two hints…

That’s right….from the red clay dirt and the Bay tree. Good Job!

Some sites around the city…

City Hall

The park

We did some shopping at a place called McKinney RV. McKinney RV is a full-service RV Dealership and RV Service Provider. It is right across the street from the campground. We were looking for several items at a good price. We bought a sun shade for the driver side for $75. We found it at anther RV dealer for $200. I’d say…that is a pretty good buy.

Tons of tables and chairs and booths.

Need new stairs?

How about new wheels?

New couch?

Warehouse

Thanks for stopping by. Next post….Tiffin plant tour.