A Motorhomer's Day in Red Bay

If you've been a Chronicles reader for a while, you may know that we love Red Bay.  It is the home of the Tiffin Motor Home company and the mecca for Tiffin RV owners.  It is a small town with lots going on.

I realized many do not share our love for the town because it is a small town.  Years ago I responded to the notion, "There's nothing to do in Red Bay" with a post of "Nothing to Do in Red Bay?  Here's 101 Things to Do".
Not all the things listed are nearby and maybe not directly in Red Bay, but we love it here anyway.

We also love it here because we can get things fixed on our motor home.  The Roadrunner always senses when we head this direction and two days ago was no different.  We had a low air pressure gauge act up and the red light on the dash indicated an issue.  And the alarm was beeping!  So we have an appointment with Bay Diesel to get that fixed.

The issue presented itself in Oklahoma.  The red light and beeping and gauges would intermittently sound off.  Besides being a little unsettling, we wondered how serious the issue was and if there was some damage going on.  We took the Roadrunner over to the Cummins center in Oklahoma City and the tech assured us it was probably a loose wire or a controller issue and no imminent serious issue.  We continued on I-40 to Memphis, then down to Tupelo where we stopped in to see our friends at MCH Kenworth.

Their analysis matched those of the techs in Oklahoma City so we are looking forward to our appointment tomorrow at Bay Diesel.

Today we are scheduled into Custom Paint and Body to get new air horns on top of the coach.  Our current ones are pitted and rusting badly, so we are getting new aluminum ones.  Melody tracked some down for us at the Tiffin Parts Dept and Bruce or one his guys will install later this morning.

We also chipped/crack the corner piece (some call it an arrowhead) of trim on our DS front slide.  The trim piece is right above the bay door which can touch it if we are parked on an uneven site.  Most of the time I watch it carefully when I open that bay door next to the wet bay door, but a few months ago, the bay door 'touched' the corner piece and it cracked.  So Bruce will replace that and rivet it into place.  And give us an extra one in case it happens again.

Yesterday we had an appointment at Brannon's Custom RV in Vina, Al.  It was about a 20 minute drive from our campground (Red Bay RV Park at the edge of town) and Brannon and Jason went over our list.  We needed our Travl'r DirecTV satellite dish re-calibrated.  Our Winegard Rayzar Over-the-air TV antenna wasn't working, so we wanted them to check that out too.

We also had a problem with our Driver Side (DS) rope lights up near the ceiling.  A loose connection made them inoperable.  Our bathroom shower door was not closing correctly and we had a loose wire down below that we found in the bay area.  We wondered if that had anything to do with our low pressure issue.  We weren't sure but asked Brannon to check it out.

We also had a problem with the new/updated LED headlights.  We had those installed last fall but had a fail on the DS with one of the projector bulbs.  Brannon replaced that as well as the same bulb on the Passenger (PS).

Brannon is the best.  He gets the job down quickly and professionally.  He called about 10:30 said he had re-calibrated the DirecTV satellite dish and found the settings were not correct on the Razor.  He also repaired the rope light and was going to replace a couple of small braces on the inside of the shower door which was causing it to be a little uneven.

After lunch we picked up the coach at Custom RV.  Brannon confirmed the loose wire was an extra bay door wire and not related to our air pressure problem.  We left feeling great about that and the other things he fixed.  He always fixes things right and at a fair price.  We also asked about our AGM batteries.  They are about 6 1/2 years old and we wondered if they were nearing the end of their life.  Brannon said the rule thumb is 6-8 years of life for Absorbent Glass Mat (AGM) batteries and 4-6 years for regular batteries.

Yesterday after we dropped off the Roadrunner at Brannon's (at 7:00 AM), we went over to Belmont, MS, for breakfast at Sparks Restaurant.  It has the best breakfast in the area.  The ham and cheese omelet I ordered was larger than I expected so it was all I could do to eat it.  Pam had bacon and scrambled eggs and wheat toast.

Along with some coffee, we enjoyed the food and did some local people watching, The big table in the restaurant is where the daily locals come.  They had 8-10 good ole boys that obviously meet for breakfast and sit at their own table marked "SMART persons table".  ?  Not sure what that means but it is probably some private joke.  Or it means the things they talk about rise to the level of smart people.  I think they were probably solving most of the worlds issues.  It is a fun place.

Next we went over to the Tiffin Service Center.  We ran into Glenda and say hi to her.  She used to run the parts store but now does the cleaning with another lady.  Next I went back into the cabinet shop near bay 26 and said hi to Tanya.  She has been there 4-5 years and is liking the woodworking.  She and another fellow install the shades in the road runner back when she was doing that work.

We had time for the morning tour at the Tiffin Visitor Center.  Pam stayed in the car and took a little nap to help her get over her cold while I went on the tour.  I always love hearing the story and I learn something every time we walk through the many buildings on the tour.  The tour has improved over the years and is the best in the RV industry.  Bar none.  It is definitely worth the time and effort to come and see how these things are built.

After the Tiffin tour we went to the Piggly Wiggly market deli for lunch.  We had mashed potatoes, gravy and friend chicken with a small portion of cherry cobbler for dessert.  Next we went over to the Allegro Club at the Tiffin Service Center.  And we went over to the Parts store to find a few things.

Brannon finished up about 2:00 PM so we went back and picked up the Roadrunner and took it back to the campground.  Later I joined Gerri and Art for happy hour at their site where we talked with some neighbors and socialized for a bit.  Pam fixed a great dinner of fish and a baked potato with some steamed broccoli.

We watched the news and then some baseball before turning in.  It was a beautiful day in Red Bay.  We always enjoy coming here.  Not only for the people but also because we get things fixed which brings a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Last Few Days in Casa Grande

Our time in Casa Grande was filled with a lot of interaction with friends and family.  My brother Marty and wife Elena were a little over an hour away in Saddlebrooke which is a retirement community just north of Tucson.  We managed to spend almost every Sunday going to church with them and then out for Sunday brunch.

Marty and I got to play a lot of golf during our time in both Tucson and while Pam and I were in Casa Grande.  Golf is always a fun time with Marty.  He's an excellent golfer and always improving, though he sports a pretty strong 6 handicap.

Back at the Palm Creek Gold and RV Resort in Casa Grande, we had some projects around the Roadurnner to tend to and some serious hang out time at the pool.  One thing I really like is to be able to get UPS packages delivered directly to the campsite.  That was the case for our new porch light that we installed.

I got the idea of the light from Steve @GoneByRV and found that Art and Gerri had ugraded from the original to this brand.  So I figured I was in good company.  I reread the tutorial Steve posted on how he did his install, but had trouble finding it now.  But I know its there somewhere!

During our time in Casa Grande, we took a couple of day trips to the Tempe/Chandler/Mesa/Apache Junction area to have lunch with friends and to stop and see other friends one day which was fun.  Ron and Marta are from Albuquerque and are also full-time Rvers.  We are glad to connect with them whenever we are anywhere close to where they are.  Ron and Marta headed from Phoenix to Albuquerque where he was going to get both knees replaced.  Yikes!  Tough patch ahead but he'll be glad when they are done.
Other friends John and Greta were in Apache Junction and we had the chance to meet them for dinner.  They are friends from one of our early Habitat for Humanity builds in Brookings, South Dakota.  It was great to see them again after many years.  They recently bought a beautiful VanLeigh 5th wheel which we were able to see.  Fun to catch up with these folks.

Before we left Casa Grande friends Kirk and Susan drove from OKC to stay with us a few days and to play golf

Here we are with Marty at the Preserve Golf Club in Saddleback where Kirk, Marty and I played 18 holes.  It was a fun day.  While we played golf, Pam and Susan and Elena went to lunch, shopping and spent time at Marty and Elena's place.
One Sunday afternoon, we got to join Marty and his two sons (Matt and Rob) and Rob's wife Christine (with kids Jackson and Andy) at an Oakland A's Spring Training baseball game.  Matt is from the San Jose/Bay area.  Wife Sierra and 3 year old son William did not make the quick weekend trip.  Rob and Chris are from the San Diego/Del Mar area.  We haven't seen them in years so that was fun!

Next are photos of friends Bobbi and Paul.  They were nice enough to stop by (and pay the $$$) and visit overnight.  We met them in Santa Fe at one of our early Habitat builds in Santa Fe.  They are from Tehachapi, CA and were en route to their place at the Escapees Campground in Benson Arizona.

Palm Creek is one nice resort.  It is an actual resort, not one in name only.  We were lucky to have spent time there during March.  It is a very nice place with lots of nice things to do.  I especially loved the swimming pool and enjoyed it every chance I had.

That's all for this edition of the Roadrunner Chronicles!  On to Yuma and getting some dental work done...
Thanks for joining us today!

No Rodents or Elephants!

Over the past few years we have seen the increasing popularity of LED lights on RVs.  The lights on the underside of the main awning makes good sense to me.  The color lights, blinking light show, strobe lights never did.

Until I learned another reason for them. I have long said that you learn something everyday in this lifestyle.  There is more to the 'bling than meets the eye.  While engaged in conversation at an infrequent happy hour (for us) at Marj and George's. Rick and Cath talked about all the damage that he had on his truck due to rodents.

Some rascals crawled up under his truck and chewed on some wires and it was a mess.  Before it was all over, it caused several thousand dollars worth of damage.

The conversation moved to LED lights under the truck and how that would keep the rodents from climbing up into the harness and wiring and all.

Really??

I thought LED lights under the vehicles and rig were for cosmetic purposes primarily.

I was lamenting about our neighbors lights a few weeks ago while we were camped at Catalina State Park.  They were across from us with the majestic  Catalinas in the background.  I was prepared to enjoy the sunset bouncing off the spectacular Catalina Mountains when I noticed our neighbors had raised the hood on their car and hung a mechanics light.

And it was right in line with our sight of view of the mountains!

Ugh!  What was going on there?  So much for that idea!

Fast forward a couple of weeks later to our time here in Agave Gulch Campground (otherwise know as the Davis-Monthan AFB FamCamp, and we were at one of those infrequent but fun happy hours with friends.

Rick was talking about how badly some rodents had crawled up under his Ford F-150 and chewed us a wiring harness.  It was pretty bad.  As in $2500 bad.  It cost him that much to get it fixed at dealer.  Since then he and another friend we were with - George - have both used LED lights to ward off rodents.

I told my brother about it and he was a bit skeptical.  So much so that he said, "No rodents now and probably no elephants...?".   Right.  But then he wasn't paying to get the wiring redone on his F-150.

It got us to thinking and the light bulb went on.  After all these years, I thought the rope LED lights under RV's were just the latest bling on the market.  I didn't realize they served a useful purpose.

After coming to that realization we started talking about doing a rope LED perimeter for our coach to keep the buggers (and rodents away.  I started at Amazon and found a number of varieties.  Pam was a Costco and sent a picture of this to me.

We decided we'd get enough lengths to circle the Roadrunner and if we didn't like it, we'd return them.

I kept the boxes and the parts that came with it.  Each box had a bag of rope light holders to attach it to a surface like a fence or building or something of that nature.  I didn't need any of those to spread it out on the ground.

It also came with a controller and a remote.  I had a five foot extension cord to plug it into the pedestal and then connect the controller which was connected to the first rope light extension.  

Shortly before dark, we turned on the lights and set them to the strobe mode.  It looked pretty cool.  Pam looked out the window after about 30 minutes and notice the light beams bouncing off the side of our neighbors' RV's.  Not too sure how much they were appreciating that, so I quickly got the remote and set it to a constant light.

We were satisfied with the result and think we'll keep them.

Another consideration then became how to store them when we pack up and move.  We looked for some type of cord reel at Home Depot and came up with this:

I wound the entire connected length of almost 100 feet onto it and it fit.  It was a close fit, but one reel will work when it is time to pack up and move to another site.

Hopefully we will not see any rodents under the Roadrunner.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Quartzsite Three Times for the Roadrunner

This is our third visit to Quartzsite AZ since our Roadrunner adventures got underway in 2009.  Today's post tells a little bit of the story of "What do you guys do when you are out there?".

We find just like the RV lifestyle in general, there are thousands of ways to do this.  Our goals for Q were to see some friends, see what's going on at the RV Show, check out the large flea market, get one of the world's best cinnamon rolls and go by La Mesa RV and look through some Class C motorhomes.

We were planning to see friends at the Outside Our Bubble "OOBerfest".  Pam and I are not big rally folks (although we have been to a few) but we signed up for this one knowing we did not have to wedge into the large circle of the other 113 RVs.  We parked away from the main OOBerfest crowd off Plamosa Road north of Quartzsite in a space that was fairly open but only a few hundred yards away from the rally.

 I went over to the check-in tent where I met Brenda and over by the main area, I met Dave - purveyors of OutsideOurBubble.com.

Friendly folks!  And Dave had a great post in December about removing scratches from your RV.
The OOBerfest area was a large circle with a need to park beyond the circle.  Turns out of the 114, there were only 80 some that showed up.

80 plus rigs is still a large gathering and quite a testament to OOB's following.  Each year the event grows.

Over the past few months we had been in touch with friends from out Habitat for Humanity build in Sioux Falls SD.  Scott and Carole indicated they would be in Quartzsite so I got in touch with them.  Turns out they were parked about 500 yards from us!  That was a surprise!  We went over and chatted with them before the sun went down and saw new additions to their RV "Ripley".

On Friday, we went for breakfast with Scott and Carole at a local restaurant before they headed with a caravan of Xcapers to Mexico.

After a late breakfast we wandered around a big flea market for a few minutes before our lunch date with Bill and Kathy at Silly Al's Pizza.  We also met Ken and Kate, and Mike and Suzanne who are in Q camping with Bill and Kathy.

After lunch, we went found the RV Show tent area and located the Blue Ox maintenance set up area. At RV shows around the country, Blue Ox does standard maintenance and repair on their tow bars for a reasonable fee ($35).  The key is to get in line early so I didn't have to hunt around for it in the dark on Saturday morning.

On the south side of the RV Show tent, there is a row of canopies including a large presence of Redlands RV and Truck with 5 or 6 booths.  Four years ago when we were in Quartzsite, the Tiffin group had Redlands RV and Truck out to our campsite for a short presentation.  At the time, I remember they said, "...Koni shocks are the best $1000 you can spend on your RV".  They were right and a couple of years we had Bay Diesel install those shocks.  The ride is phenomenal and we have never regretted that investment.

Next to the Redlands booth was the Blue Ox booth.  Mission accomplished.  We found it, scoped out where to park early in the morning.

After that,  we found some Class C's that were open in one of the RV sales lots.

We may be in the market for one in a couple of years so its fun to see "what if...".

Our friends from lunch described where they were located in the desert east of town in the BLM area.  It took some doing to find them out in the boonies.  We kept missing the yellow boot hanging on the mesquite bush which was our direction indicator clue in the desert :).  I guess this was like a geocache adventure only with less clues.

With a couple of cell phone calls and more directions, "Across the second wash to where you see the flag on the Winnebago, etc" we found our friends and their campsite.  After a short visit, we returned to our own campsite on the other side of town.

We built a small campfire and took in the beautiful weather and nice evening.

We had dinner of Cornish game hens went well with the color-filled sunset.  The great view of the setting sun changed over the course of 30 minutes.

The next morning I was motivated to get over to the Blue Ox and get in line for service.  I know that there are a lot of early birds so I wanted to get their soon enough to get the tow bar back the same day.

Sure enough, I left the campsite at 6:15, had no problem finding a parking place and was in line at 6:40.  No one knew exactly when they were going to open up but it turned out to be 9:00 AM.  One guy had dropped his off earlier that me and Robert.  Robert was sitting there in the dark and I didn't even see him!  I jumped out of my shoes when he said, "Good morning!".  He was number 2.  I was number 3 in line.

I had bought a piece of luggage in Tucson at a thrift store for $2.61 that had wheels so I didn't have to lug the towbar around.

After I removed the tow bar from the back of the Roadrunner, I put two bands of pink duct tape on it to identify mine from the many other tow bars that were going to get worked on.  The tape worked great.  The wheeled luggage was adequate but not great.  Bigger wheels would have been better times but in most place it rolled along fine.  I was only about 200 yards from the booth when I dropped it off.

The line was long by the time they opened up at 9:00 am.  

Next, it was over to the RV Show.  We did a quick walk through of the vendor tables to see if we could find something we couldn't do without.  Or if there was anything new that was interesting.

It was very crowded in places and other places it was not too bad.

These guys were selling a bean bag set up.  We stopped and looked at a couple of LED light set ups.

One for the lights in the bays, and another over the front door that had a motion detection capability.  We didn't have the old bulb from the bay lights, so didn't want to guess.  And we thought we could probably find the light on Amazon when we get ready to replace it.

We also saw a BOGO offer from the guy selling yellow handled rug and floor foam/rubber sweeper.  The same one we bought four years ago!

It was still selling strong.  I think we used it twice before we got rid of it.

We did the complete loop and up and down the aisles and didn't see anything else that caught our attention and made it over to the Cinnamon Roll stand.

I have been waiting for this for years.  In 2014 when we were here and the experience had me quickly claiming it was "The World's Best Cinnamon Roll".  I had never had a better one anywhere.

This time I made a bad life choice and chose the plain one instead of the version with icing.  Should have gone with the icing.  We found a spot at the small picnic table with two couples from Utah and had a nice chat.  And had the cinnamon rolls for lunch.

Then we took our time and wandered around the outdoor flea market.  We came across this gentlemen who made walking sticks and knives.  Pam was interested how he made his walking sticks since she also makes them.

We found one large tent that had a few game trophies including these couple of bison.  They were selling well at $999 for the small and $1499 for the larger one.  I think it would be pretty scary to hang in the mountain cabin or where ever one puts these things.

We also found a nice sweatshirt for Pam here.  

To finish up our busy day we went over to La Mesa RV.  They were prepping for a visit from Bob Tiffin on Monday and repositioning the Tiffin line of RV including the new Wayfarer Class C and a couple of VanLeigh 5th wheels his grandson and son are behind (Vilano and Beacon models)

The visitor center, known for feeding customers free breakfasts and lunches had a free soda fountain and popcorn.  That is always a nice touch!

Outside, we made our way over to the row of Class C's and looked at half a dozen.  We probably need something at least 30 feet so that narrowed our search.

We are just getting started on this search and have no hurry.  We are still a couple of years out of doing the downsizing thing, if we even do it then.  We'll see, but there is no sense of urgency to move forward on this -- just a curiosity at this point and a 'maybe' down the road.

We also walked through a Winnebago Grand Tour and an American Coach.  Interesting but not our style.

We drove back over to our Plamosa Road area and saw friends Art and Gerri who are also attending the OOBerfest.  It was fun to catch up with them.  They have a similar Tiffin model only bigger.  We've known them since our first trip to Quartzsite in 2010.

Having done pretty much all we wanted to do in Quartzsite, we decided to leave a couple of days earlier than we'd planned and head west past Yuma.  We got up and finished packing up and went over to the RV Pit to dump our tanks before we drove south to I-8 toward Yuma.  We ended up west of Yuma and loved the drive.

We found "The Pearl of the Desert" (Naval Air Facility at El Centro) to be exactly that.  Nice campground with open sky and plenty of sunshine.

On weekends the chow hall is open to retirees so we went there for dinner.  More to see what it was like vs trying to get a great meal.  The food was fine, leftover meat, rice, carrots and peas, salad bar, coffee and yogurt ice cream for desert for under $5.  Its a small base and reminded me of what it was like 40 years ago at some of the places we were stationed.

The campground is friendly and we have full hookups for and sewer for $22.  That's a recap of our time in Quartzsite this year.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!