August 20, 2023
Well this week we didn’t get much touring done as we were busy hauling the RV around Red Bay getting the things done we wanted to do. We did get to do a lot of visiting with other Tiffin owners and made some new friends.
8/21- We hung around Red Bay today waiting for our RV to be finished. We were hoping it would be done first thing this morning so we could go do some touring, but the finish-up work took a little longer. We headed over to Casa Fiesta Mexican Grill in town for lunch and by the time we were done the RV was ready to go. Bruce Deaton from Custom Body and Auto Shop did an amazing job! The back of our RV looks as good as new. We moved it over to Red Bay Acres which is a great campground. The Yacht Club clubhouse they have on site is a great place to hang out while waiting for things to get done. Comfortable seating and nice and cool. Especially appreciated as it has been pretty hot and humid here.
8/22- We had to take our RV to Davidson RV in Belmont, MS this morning. So we were up and ready to go very early. Got over there and hung out in their nice customer lounge with Teddi while they cleaned, lubed and adjusted our slides. It was a quick job so we were able to take the RV back to Red Bay Acres and head out to do some touring.
Today was a very musical day. We started off by visiting the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. We had no idea how many artists where from Alabama or recorded their music here either at Fame Studios or Muscle Shoals Studios. They honor artists who say all genres of music from pop to country to jazz. https://www.alamhof.org/history
We wandered around and explored the museum. We got to walk through the group Alabama’s old tour bus and even see Web Pierce’s 1960 Pontiac convertible “Golden Country Car” that has more than 500 silver dollars and 12 silver guns mounted in and around the car. The creation was topped off with Texas Longhorns mounted on front!
Then it was off to visit Fame Music Studio which was started in 1959 above a drug store in Muscle Shoals. https://famestudios.com/our-history/ A wide variety of artists recorded there from Donny Osmond to Mac Davis to Paul Anka. Lots of country stars recorded there including Tim McGraw, The Dixie Chicks, George Strait, Joe Diffie, Martina McBride, Travis Tritt, Sara Evans, Cyndi Thomson, Aaron Tippin, Billy Ray Cyrus, and Alabama. Unfortunately they had finished tours of the studio for the day so we could walk in the door and look around outside the studio but we didn’t get to see inside. Frank was able to pick up a couple new tee shirts to replace ones that had worn out.
Next we headed to Muscle Shoals Sound Studios which was opened in 1969 by Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (also known as the Swampers) – David Hood on bass, Jimmy Johnson on rhythm guitar, Roger Hawkins on drums, and Barry Beckett on keys. https://muscleshoalssoundstudio.org/pages/history They were known for their funky sound and had broken away from Fame to start their own studio. Just a few of the artist the Swampers played and recorded with were The Rolling Stones, Cher, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bob Dylan, Duane Allman, Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Bob Seger, Staples Singers, Rod Stewart, Leon Russell, Willie Nelson, and Cat Stevens. We saw an invoice for The Rolling Stones for Studio Time.
We arrived just in time for a tour so we got to go into the studio explore and learn about the artists that had recorded there. Our guide was wonderful and the hour long tour went by so quickly.
The last place I wanted to visit was Helen Keller’s home. I think because I had worked both as a reader to the blind and an interpreter to the deaf I have always been interested in Helen Keller’s life. https://helenkellerbirthplace.org/ We were able to tour where she was born and grew up and learned sign from Anne Sullivan.
It had been a long day and we knew we had an early morning tomorrow so we headed back to Red Bay Acres to relax for the rest of the night.
8/23- Today was another early morning. We pulled into First Class Glass in Red Bay at 7 am. They hooked us up so we could stay in the RV and relax while they worked on replacing our cracked windshield. We were amazed at the equipment they used and how smoothly they were able to remove the cracked windshield and replace it with a new one. While they worked I decided I was so exhausted I would go lay on the bed. Unfortunately instead of climbing into bed I just went to lay on the end of the bed. Next things I knew I was sliding off and landed hard on my right hip, shoulder, and elbow. My left hip is the one that gives me trouble and I have to favor it, but now I had two hips that didn’t want to walk around so that meant we just laid around in the RV all day and took it easy so I could recover.
8/24- Since we couldn’t move our RV for 24 hours after the glass was replaced we got to spend the night in First Class Glass garage with another couple who had also had their windshield replaced. We were plugged in to electric so we just stayed in the RV and took it easy as I was still recovering from my injury. By noon the next day they had finished our windshield and we headed back to Red Bay Acres. Josh Stanley came and did some measurements for some cabinet work we are having him do. Then we headed out to Muscle Shoals this evening to get out haircut and I got my nails done. Then we enjoyed dinner and cheesecake at Sweet Pepper Deli before heading back to Red Bay. Saw the most spectacular sunset on the way back.
This afternoon we got a call from Tiffin telling us that they had a bay available for us at 6 am tomorrow morning. We have odds and ends we wanted them to work on. Since we have to get up and going at 5 am tomorrow we made it an early night.
8/25- Got our RV into the Tiffin service bay early this morning and Scott started working on it. He told us we had to go have breakfast in Belmont, MS at Sparks and he was right. Frank enjoyed some biscuits with chocolate gravy that he said was fantastic. Scott was amazing, not only did he fix odd and end things he also explained things to us on how everything works and what maintenance needs to be done and how often to do it. While he was working on the RV we hung out at the clubhouse in Red Bay Acres with Teddi. We got to visit with other people who have had a lot of work done too. Scott was not able to finish everything on our list so he asked us to bring the RV back at 6 am Monday morning.
8/26- Today was a full day of Josh Stanley working on our cabinets. We had several projects for him to do. Our RV has 4 TVs and two are in the living room area. So we had him remove our front TV and put in some more shelves. We also had him turn our pantry into a pull out pantry and put some pullout drawers in the upper cupboards. The big thing was to have him put our rear TV on a swing so we could store stuff behind it. Once he went home for the evening we ran over to Russellville to do some grocery shopping at Wal-Mart.
8/27- Josh was back today to work some more on our cupboards and it was just another day of hanging around the RV for us.
I know this week wasn’t a very exciting week with a lot of adventures but we sure got a lot done and we were happy with everything that was done.
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