Mississippi – TooBusyForWork

Finally in Red Bay, AL again

No pictures in this post.

After the Elks Lodge we chose to stay at a KOA west of El Reno, OK for a night. We got some laundry done, cleaned the tanks, and generally reveled in the idea of unlimited water LOL! The next night was at the Grand Casino parking lot outside Shawnee, OK. We took a short day because we really, really needed to get the motorhome washed! There was a Blue Beacon on I-40 in western Oklahoma City, so we took the time to get it washed. It is always an hour or more, because they are always busy. But the Casino was an awful place to spend the night. We had been in such quiet places for months that all the noise and lights kept me from sleeping well at all. Ugh. I begged Kevin for no more parking lots, so we stayed the next two nights at Corps of Engineers campgrounds, one in Russellville, AR (Old Post Park) and last night outside Hernando, MS (Hernando Point). Both were lovely and quiet.

Hernando Point was where we found out the truck’s battery was 100% dead! Kevin tried to charge it with the MH and the battery cables we had, but they were cheap ones and didn’t do a good job. So off we went to the next bigger town, the metropolis of Senatobia, MS population 8,500. Of course it was 20 miles from the campground! We made it to an auto parts store, but they didn’t have the booster and cables Kevin wanted, so he ended up at a Walmart nearby. Hard to park a MH at the auto parts store, so I parked on the street and he walked to the stores. Got back to the campground well after 6:00pm, and we started the generator and the new charger to get things working. We didn’t want to leave the truck, parked in a closed boat ramp area, so the CG host said we could just boondock in the lot instead of the site we had reserved. By 9:00 pm the truck was 40% charged, and we turned off the generator. The next morning Kevin charged the truck a bit more, then he drove the truck to Red Bay while I followed in the motorhome. Once we got here, he was able to isolate the charging line error in the umbilical that connects the powered items in the truck to the motorhome. He will fix that first, then he’ll see about getting a new battery for the truck. It has been my experience that once a battery is completely exhausted, it is not reliable in cold weather or under loads. If we were in civilization all the time, I wouldn’t worry because you can always find someone to give you a jump, but that is NOT where we generally stay!

So tomorrow Kevin gets to rewire umbilical cords (dead one and the spare which was from the Jeep). Should keep him busy. I intend on getting a bunch of oven mitt blanks quilted, ready for cutting on the Accuquilt. He will probably finish first!

This next week is for getting hte motorhome worked on. We have some body work (oops!), getting some slipcovers for the pilot and co-pilot chairs, covers for our dining chairs, and replacing the headboard fabric. We will also get our yearly engine, chassis service, and generator service plus a real detail job on the MH. There are a few minor things we are getting repaired too, but just little nits and lice stuff. However we have to be at the body shop ten miles away at 6:00am! Shiver!

Scenic south and Tiffin warranty service

We finally made it to the Tiffin Service Center campground on Monday afternoon. We got the call while we were on our way to Tupelo to visit Elvis Presley’s birthplace museum. Oops! Back to Red Bay to make the move.

We did get to drive just over 40 miles on the Natchez Trace on our way to Tupelo though. It is the oddest National Park I know. More than 400 miles long, but only as wide as the road in many places. Here is a view of the gorgeous heavy deciduous forest along most of the route. Obviously it is still late summer in this part of the country.

We did take time to walk part of the original Trace which was just a foot trail.

This section led to a small and lonely Confederate cemetery. There is a tiny Confederate flag someone left.

We also stopped to see the Pharr Indian Mounds, dating from 0-200 CE. Pretty impressive after 1800 years!

Once we got settled in the Tiffin campground, we just relaxed and watched TV. Kevin’s newly installed satellite is working great! This is not a campground for relaxing outside. Not only is it miserably hot here, but it is another parking lot, suitable for waiting for service but not camping.

Yesterday we decided to drive to Meridian, Mississippi to buy me a fold up sewing table. I have one at home, but forgot to bring it! We both figured it would be good to just keep this one in the coach. Kevin feels like death warmed over with his bronchitis though I am beginning to recover. It was 7 hours in the car because we took a “scenic” path. Not terribly scenic though since it was mostly just a road through lots and lots and lots of trees.

We did get with the service writer, and he said we had a couple of days wait to get into an Express Bay. That gives you two techs for two three hours to get most of our warranty items done. The final item will be in the cabinet shop, and that requires an additional wait. Sigh. Luckily the two days wait turned into a day and a half, and we moved into the Express Bay a little after noon today. All of our items were taken care of, but a ladder from the next bay fell against our coach and put a nice big scratch in the paint. Another sigh. They are hoping to get us into the paint shop tomorrow morning, but we will see. We still need the cabinet shop, but I am hoping they put us in the wait line immediately rather than waiting for the pain shop to finish. Oh well, the parking lot is free since we are under warranty, and it is full hookup.

i am also including a picture of cotton fields since they are everywhere around here!

We own a motorhome!

We headed to Sherman’s RV in Sherman, Mississippi on Sunday. We made it to Holly Springs, MS before we gave up. Eleven hours of travel, and I hit my limit! Monday morning we made the last 45 miles, and we bought our new Tiffin RED 37PA. I love it, but it has been tedious getting it ready. The dealer was late getting started, and a few things still needed to be done. We also had our Jeep Grand Cherokee modified to be towed behind the motorhome, and that also took longer than planned. Sigh. We still don’t have everything done, so we are staying a second night in the dealer’s full hookup site. It is just a gravel parking spot, but it looks out on a lovely pond.

Here are some pictures: