Tiffin’s the Place for Meeting Friends

I almost added “New and Old” to the title above. We have really enjoyed linking up with friends we knew before, and meeting some new ones during our stay at Tiffin’s service center campground here in Red Bay, Alabama. It seems like this happens every time we come here, and it helps to pass the time waiting for and getting service when we have friends to share conversation and laughs.

When we first arrived last week, we quickly found Jim & Donnalyn Vickers, and we’ve enjoyed spending time with them several times, including Sunday dinner at the Belmont (MS) Café.

Tom & Debbie Abernethy arrived on Saturday, and we had dinner with them Sunday night at the local 4th Street Grill & Steakhouse.

Last night, we finally managed to get together with the new friends we met through our blogs, Larry & Gerry Clark. Check Larry’s blog for a good picture he took of us, and read what he said about trying for several days to get together. It was so nice to finally spend time together and get acquainted. I’ll continue following Larry’s blog now that we’ve met and gotten to know each other a little, and because he’s an excellent writer. And we look forward to seeing Larry & Gerry when we’re in Benson, as they live in Tucson.

Because it was Memorial Day, most of the restaurants in the area were closed, so we went to Jack’s (a fast food place) and had yummy fried chicken.

While we were eating this gourmet dinner, guess who showed up? Tom & Debbie Abernethy! And it turns out that both the Clarks and the Abernethys are from Maryland! And Don and his late wife also lived there. So lots of stories were traded and conversation lasted far longer than it could have in a “real” restaurant.

Today we had to get up and start moving shortly after 5 am to pack up and move to the service bay to be ready for the tech to start working on our coach at 7 am. Almost all the punch list is finished now, so with a few things to be wrapped up tomorrow, we’ll have at least one more early rising.

We’re both happy to have the new electric reel for the 50A cable. And the lighter-weight cable is also easier to manage. Everything that was previously stored in that bay still fit, even with the new reel installed. We may figure out a better way to organize it, but for now at least it still fits. Also, Don installed a 50A female end on the old cable, so now we have a heavy duty extension cord for those few times that we need one, and we won’t have to use an adaptor to the 30A extension cord. We probably don’t need both, but we’ll keep them for now.

By the way, did you notice that all of our get-togethers have revolved around food? No wonder I can’t lose any weight! We’ve done most of the touristy things around here, and it’s hard to get away when you don’t know if the tech will need to talk with you, or you’ll need to move your coach. So, dinner is the best time to get away and have time to visit with friends. We still want to visit the Tiffin paint shop where they do all the full-body painting of new coaches, so we hope find time for that in the next day or two. The production plant is in Red Bay, AL, but the paint shop is in Belmont, MS, a distance of 6 or 7 miles.

A final note of a tragic event (some of you already know this). On Sunday my wonderful Motorola Droid Razr Maxx smartphone somehow flew out of my hand when I pulled it out of the holster clipped to my jeans and landed face down on the tile floor. It made an awful sound, and I knew the situation wasn’t good before I picked it up. I discovered the screen was cracked near the top and when I tried turning it on, there was nothing decipherable but a weird display of colors.

Due to the holiday, I couldn’t get a replacement shipped until today, but a new one is on its way to me and is expected to arrive by tomorrow afternoon. I’ve really missed the phone, and can’t wait to get the replacement. (How dependent have we become on new technology?) And then I’ll be busy for a while setting everything up and downloading all the apps I like to use.