Early Monday
morning, 13OCT (Columbus Day), we hit the road for several days of hard driving
to the Tiffin Motorhome factory in Red Bay, AL.
Why – because several minor things need fixing on the RV & we have
decided that since we would be driving by Red Bay we would stop at factory
service center & see if we could get in without appointment (see below BLOG
for our last visit & difficulty of appointments). The day was eight hours of driving & 450
miles covered. Beautiful scenery until
afternoon fog sets in for several hours.
Once again driving on Interstates in Pennsylvania is stressful, because
of road conditions, construction, heavy traffic, weather, etc; not to mention
many, many, dead deer on the road. The
KOA in Williamsport, MD, was definitely off the beaten track.
Tuesday’s drive thru
all of Virginia & part of Tennessee on I-81S was one of the most scenic
Interstates to drive even though we hate Interstates. Drive was another long one with one major
accident delay (not involving us) & couple of rain squalls – 440 miles to
spend the night in Dandridge, TN.
Wednesday, 15OCT, we
completed the drive into Red Bay, AL, after 350 miles driven. Even though Tiffin has greatly expanded the
number of RV sites at their facility, there was no room at Tiffin. But some the locals noted a business
opportunity & have created small RV parks surrounding the Tiffin repair
center. So we drove across the road to
McKinney RV, who has installed over 20 RV sites. See below BLOG for more about Tiffin repair
facility; & McKinney’s “relationship” with Bob Tiffin.
Thursday afternoon a
Tiffin rep came by the RV to go over our work list. The repair rep told us that it was at least
one month to get into a service bay! But
if we could live with a three hour service, something might be available next
week. (Apparently Tiffin is having problems with some of their newer models
including 2014’s? Our informal survey
indicates there are a lot of new & newer Allegro Busses, Phaetons &
Open Roads waiting for service.) So we opted
for the three hour service to address these three issues:
1) air horn system
that almost caused a fire as we discussed previously in the BLOG; 2) our GFCI
120volt circuit keeps “popping” for no reason;
3) our dashboard AC system stopped working almost one year ago & we
have had it looked at three times, each repair has lasted less than a week each
time.
Friday at noon we
moved the RV across the road to a Tiffin factory RV spot. After setting up camp Dan set-up the DISH
satellite since it looks like we will be here awhile? Saturday, 18OCT, we headed over to
Russellville, AL, for a flea market & WalMart. After returning to the RV, we moved it over
to Detail Depot for so they could repair some front window chips, & then wash/wax
the RV. (see above 2012 BLOG link for
more details on Detail Depot & our last visit).
Sunday just before
lunch we headed into Tupelo, MS, for a little exploration. First stop was the Natchez Trace Parkway
Visitor Center & Headquarters just north of Tupelo. While there we picked up info on Brices Cross
Roads National Battlefield Site, & the Tupelo National Battlefield
Site. Then we watched the informative 15
minute film on the Trace. At the visitor
center we also learned the following two major Civil War battles in the “local”
area:
#1) 10 June 1864 -
In 1863 Federal armies won important victories at Vicksburg,
Gettysburg, and Chattanooga. In the
spring of 1864 the Federal mission was to bisect the South from Chattanooga,
Tennessee, to the Atlantic coast at Savannah, Georgia. Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman wanted to destroy
the Confederate Army led by Gen. Joseph E. Johnston and occupy Atlanta along
the way as he executed his “March to the Sea”.
Sherman knew that his plan was vulnerable. To supply his large troop movement into north
Georgia, he depended on the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad. This line could be most threatened by the
excellent horseman of Confederate Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest’s cavalry
corps. Sherman needed to keep Forrest in
north Mississippi.
In June, Sherman ordered Brig. Gen. Samuel Sturgis and 8,100
soldiers to move out of Memphis and into north Mississippi for the purpose of
fighting Forrest and his cavalry corps of 3,500. Win or lose the primary goal was to keep
Forrest in Mississippi. Sturgis's forces
were crushed by Forrest on June 10 at the Battle of Brices Cross Roads and the
Federals retreated back to Memphis. Although
defeated, the primary mission was accomplished.
#2) 14 July 1864 -
In July, Sherman still needed
Forrest to stay in Mississippi. This
time though, Sherman expected better results on the field of battle. Sherman
ordered his commander in Memphis "to make up a force and go out to follow
Forrest to the death, if it cost 10,000 lives and breaks the Treasury." Now the Federal force was 14,000 strong and
led by Maj. Gen. Andrew J. Smith. The Federals
left Memphis on July 5 headed into north Mississippi, determined to defeat
Forrest.
On the morning of July 14, the Battle of Tupelo began at
7:30 a.m. when the Confederates began a series of uncoordinated charges against
the Federal position. These attacks were
beaten back with heavy losses. Failing
to break the Federal center, the Confederates attacked the Federal right, again
without success. After dark, the
Confederates made another attack from the south without significant effect. Although his troops had repulsed several
Confederate attacks, General Smith was alarmed. The heat was taking its toll on his soldiers. Also, due to bad planning, his men had little
but coffee and worm-infested hardtack (crackers) to eat, and their ammunition
supply was very low.
At 2 p.m. on July 15, after
skirmishing with Confederates on the western and southern fronts, the Federals
began marching north in the direction of Memphis. They marched four miles and crossed to the
north side of Old Town Creek and camped in the late afternoon. At 5 p.m., from a commanding ridge south of
Old Town Creek, Confederate forces surprised Smith's troops with artillery and
infantry fire. The Federals scrambled
and formed a line that pushed the Confederates off the ridge and forced them to
retreat to Harrisburg. The fight at Old
Town Creek ended the Battle of Tupelo & once again Forrest’s Calvary was
prevented from advancing on Sherman’s supply lines. Among the casualties was Forrest himself, who
was kept out of action for three weeks.
Our later exploration
of Tupelo showed a very nice downtown but everything was closed on Sunday? We did notice lots of painted steel guitars on
the sidewalks in tribute to Elvis, who was born in Tupelo. Lunch was at Woodys – no wild game as
advertised on their sign, but a very good Sunday buffet w/snicker raviolis
(selected as best Mississippi dessert two years ago?). Then we took the Trace Parkway for forty
miles back to RV – beautiful road that we took several days to explore &
drive the entire length of in 2004 in our first RV.
Monday,
20OCT, Corrie headed back to Tupelo & the Mall. Right at lunch Dan got a call from Tiffin
service that our three hour slot would start in thirty minutes & please
drive the RV to service bay 31! They
were able to repair air horn that almost caused a fire when the wiring shorted
out. But nothing else was done &
they wanted the RV back at 0700 the next day.
Tuesday morning the Tiffin electrician could not find the problem with
our GFCI 120volt circuit; it appears that the system has repaired itself? So it was out of the service bay to wait for
a technician to try & solve our dash AC problem that we have lived with for
almost one year.
Wednesday
morning we receive phone call to get over to bay 42 to have our dash AC system
looked at! The dash AC was supposedly
fixed by lunch time. So we paid our bill
& quickly hit the road to Houma, LA, & the kids & grandkids.
