Dumb Mistake!

 3/21 - 3/25/2022 Biloxi, MS to Bonifay, FL, 218 miles, Outback Springs RV Park, $47/day

About a week ago, I was taking my walk on a beautiful sunny morning along the Gulf of Mexico in Biloxi. I was about a mile from home, about to turn around, when I saw that the tide was out, exposing sand bars.  I though I’d like to explore for seashells and sand dollars.  The concrete side walk at this point was about 2 feet above the sandy beach, or so I thought judging from my new bifocals. It should be an easy step down, right? Wrong!

I misjudged the step and fell hard just to the left of my tailbone, an area I’d previously injured when I was about 11 or 12 years old.  A kid would have jumped up, brushed off the sand and say, “I’m fine!” And go about her day.  At 56, I was stunned.  I pulled my knees up to my chest, and whispered to myself, “I’m okay, I’m okay”, as I took deep breaths fighting the feeling that my vision was narrowing and I might pass out. No one came running to help, so I don’t think anyone saw.  I would have been mortified.  

I had my phone in my pocket, so could easily have called Bill, but this was such a dumb mistake. There were other places along the sea wall that had steps, or were even with the sand!  I convinced myself I could walk it off, and it would go away. 

I crawled onto the sidewalk, pressed up to my feet, and shuffled to the nearest bench, where I rested until my head was clear.  Sitting was more painful than standing, and the transition between the two was most painful of all, so I got up and gingerly walked from bench to bench, pausing when necessary to catch my breath, smiling and saying, “Good morning” to other walkers I passed.  

It seemed to take FOREVER to get back to the RV park. I pulled myself up the stairs and sat quietly for about an hour in the easy chair. The pain still was not going away. I finally woke up Bill and asked for help, breaking down and sobbing, all of my muscles quivering. He gently scolded me for not calling him sooner, helped me get undressed , shower the sand off, take meds and crawl in bed for the rest of the day.

The week has been a blur of pain meds,massages, Deep Heat, ice packs, hot pads, trying to find a position to sit and sleep in that didn’t hurt.  Every day I’m getting better, but it’s SO SLOW!  I missed everything that I wanted to do in this cool Gulf Coast area. Bay St. Louis is supposed to have a great historic downtown and cool art vibe.  Gulfport has an aquarium. They released turtles into the gulf while we were there!  Jefferson Davis’s home, Beauvoir, “Presidential” library and confederate grave yard was a block away. I had planned to visit the day I injured myself.  I walked like a mummy up to the deck overlooking the beach, and watched a few sunsets, but never got my toes in the water, or searched for seashells. 

Tomorrow is a long travel day.  I’m getting a donut to sit on!  We’ll have to come back another time. There’s so much to explore in this area!  Next time, I won’t leave the RV with my bifocals on. 🤓 

Getting there is half the fun!

 3/6 - 3/10/2022 - Red Bay, AL to Meridian, MS, 164 miles, Benchmark RV Park, 4 nights

3/10 - 3/14/2022 - Meridian, MS to Laurel, MS, 64 miles, Sleepy Hollow RV Park, 4 nights, $40.66/ night

3/14 - 3/22/2022 - Laurel, MS to Gulfport/Biloxi, MS, 8 nights, $420/wk + $71

We finished our RV maintenance a week earlier than anticipated in Red Bay, so we chose our day to leave, according to the weather (Bill hates driving in rain and wind), and went south through Mississippi. We stopped in Meridian to let the storms pass.  I didn’t explore much of downtown, but there was an historic train station and an Arts and Entertainment Museum, called the MAX, that looked worthy of exploring. We stayed closer to home and checked out the various flea markets/antique shops.  But the real star of this leg of the trip was Laurel, MS. 

I am a huge fan of the show, Hometown, on HGTV, and when I saw the opportunity to visit and see the renovated houses, I planned a few day’s stay. The first day we arrived, we went to the Scotsman woodworking shop and Laurel Mercantile, and got a map of things to see and do in town. Thankfully, the kind gentleman told me about the walking tour of the historic part of town that started from the Lauren Rogers Museum.  There is so much more to this town than the show!

The director of the museum was our knowledgeable guide. We strolled up one side of the road and down the other as he told us about the people who built these grand homes. 

Laurel was founded in 1883, when the railroad finally reached Laurel and made it possible to log the pine forests.  It became known as the Yellow Pine Capitol of the World and grew quickly as several sawmills were established by mid-west families. The first family to arrive, the Eastman-Gardiners, set the standards for those who would follow. They paid their employees in cash instead of company tokens so they could spend their money anywhere they chose. They wanted their employees to have high school educations, so they circumvented Mississippi law and created a vocational school for their black employees. 

Lauren Rogers was the only son, and heir-apparent to the business. But he died of complications from an appendectomy at the age of 23.  So the plot of land where he was building a house for his new bride became the library/museum that would never charge admission, so everyone could afford to visit. These families were part of the Guilded Age, so they expected THE BEST materials and craftsmanship on all they built, and it shows in the FLWright-Esque leaded glass, Tiffany lamps, and marble imported from Italy. There was also a large middle class. They were the ones who built the gorgeous cottages with porches that everyone wants today.

Contributing to Laurel’s success was the invention of the Linsey wagon - an eight-wheeled wagon that allowed logs to be hauled out of the forest, and a new invention called Masonite, made from the saw dust and bits and pieces left from the sawmills.  The Masonite company is still operating today, along with Sanderson Farms and Howard Industries that keep the economy going strong. Also, Leontyne Price, a Juliard-trained opera singer, is from Laurel, and Frank Gardiner Wisner, one of the founding directors of the CIA, was born there. 

We finally reached the beach at Gulfport/Biloxi, MS, on Monday.  I’m happily walking the boardwalk every morning and enjoying the beautiful sunsets every evening. 

East Coast Here We Come!

 2/12 - 15/2022 - Bulverde, TX To Caldwell, TX, Brazos Valley RV Park, $102 for three nights

2/15 - 18/2022 - Caldwell, TX to Greenwood, LA, Southern Living RV Park, 4 nights at $37.03 per night

2/18 - 19/2022 - Greenwood, LA to Canton, MS, one night at Movietown RV Park for $31.50

2/19 - 3/6/2022 - Canton, MS to Red Bay, AL, Convenient RV park, two weeks for $300

3/6 - 3/10/2022, RedBay, AL to Meridian, MS, 164 miles, Benchmark RV Park, 4 nights for $134.82

HAPPY SPRING!

We decided to head out earlier this year, just before the Super Bowl, so we could finally make it to the East Coast and do the trip we had planned before COVID hit in 2020. But we didn’t factor in the colder weather and storms that we’d encounter this early in the year. Driving in rain, especially high wind, can be be very challenging and scary so we stayed the first four nights in Caldwell waiting out weather on a good concrete pad, and got to see some rain/snow the first night!

Again in Louisiana, we had to stay longer than expected for another heavy storm, but at least we were safe, and weren’t trying to drive in it!

We hadn’t been to Red Bay for two years, since before COVID and since Thor Industries bought Tiffin, but we enjoy coming into town for maintenance because the townspeople are friendly and there are Tiffin motorhomes parked everywhere, in every tiny lot you can find, and people with the similar experiences and stories to share. So even though you are waiting in line (first come, first serve) to get work on your coach done, there’s always someone to hang out with. We met Laura and Kevin, another full time couple who’s blog Bill follows, and had dinner with them.  And we met our neighbors, Kevin and Chad, who were in Red Bay without a car.  They hadn’t been here before, and only had one small stress crack that needed repair and paint.  They were told it should only take a day to fix, but weren’t told about the wait.  We took them for groceries and dinner at a new-to-us place called Reeves Fish and Steak House, a 30 year old restaurant in an old house. Great crispy fried catfish and hush puppies and tasty steaks with a special Alabama spice blend found only in this state.

Unfortunately, we found many more unsatisfied customers this time - many Phaetons and Buses. Part of the problem is that they’re having difficulty getting parts.  Some coaches would roll off the assembly line with missing things, like chairs or ladders. So new owners are leaving them in Red Bay, dozens lining the service area, until they can be made whole. Part of the problem is that Thor is not as customer-focused anymore. Even though Bob Tiffin still works there, and his grandson is President, they are reducing warranty time and service. Rumor has it that Thor will be moving to a flat one-year warranty soon. There are still many “after-hours” shops manned by Tiffin employees who can get the job done, but they are very short handed. The tech working on our coach told us they would hire 100 people today if they could. So, if the quality of the product is waning and there are no people left to work on them,  Thor could easily pick up and move the company, and Red Bay could dry up. They still have a dog food factory (that runs 24/7, trust me we heard it), and a prefab home manufacturer, but SO MUCH of Red Bay is there to service motorhomes. Restaurants have already moved across the state line to Mississippi because they can serve alcohol. Enough said.

Even though we’d been here before, we hadn’t explored much of the area. It’s difficult to leave town when you’re worried about getting a call that says, “Be in Bay 11 in half an hour.”  We had planned to stay for three weeks, but got done in two, so we could choose our departure date, again depending on weather, and had a few free days. So, we took a road trip on a beautiful sunny day, and found Helen Keller’s birthplace in Tuscumbia, AL, the Rosenbaum House built by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1940, and a sweet historic downtown built on the Tennessee River in Florence, AL. It’s also a college town for the oldest university in Alabama called the University of Northern Alabama. The hostess at the restaurant told us the town was spared in the Civil War because they housed Union soldiers. 

Next up - Laurel, Mississippi (yes, I’m a Hometown fan) and the Mississippi gulf coast!