Motorhome Mecca

1/4/2020 - 1/5/2020 - San Antonio TX to Caldwell, TX (136 miles) one night at Brazil’s Valley RV Park $36
1/5/2020 - 1/6/2020 - Caldwell, TX to Carthage, TX (201 miles) one night at Carthage RV Campground $40
1/6/2020 - 1/8/2020 - Carthage, TX to Vicksburg, MI (217 miles) two nights at Ameristar RV Park, $32/night
1/8/2020 - 1/16/2020 - Vicksburg, MI to Red Bay, AL (278 miles) 8 nights at First Class RV Park for $150

Red Bay, Alabama is not what you’d call a destination.  But ever since 1972, when Bob Tiffin began manufacturing motor homes, owners have been coming to watch their RVs being built and get repairs.  Since then, they’ve built over 65,000 rigs.  Last year, Tiffin accounted for almost 8% of the motor home market.

We bought our Tiffin Allegro Open Road (a gasoline-powered RV) in 2018.  We were one of the last few who got to come hang out with the crew and watch it come together from the chassis, up.  It was amazing.  I thought I would be bored after the first day.  But each morning, we dragged ourselves to the production line at 5:30 am to take pictures, ask questions, and be a part of our build.  It looked like a carefully choreographed dance.  Each part had to be put in, in order, so the next could fit snuggly around it.  The plumbing, then the walls, the appliances, the fully-furnished slides, and finally the ceiling went on.  We marveled at the full access we had during the entire process.  We moved along the line as cranes ferried parts above us, and giant forklifts put parts in place.  We were even given a roll of green scotch tape, so we could mark things that didn’t look right, and headed off quite a few issues because we were there to question and get them fixed immediately.  We brought LOTS of candy, and shared personal stories with the workers that we got to know by name.  It was a great experience.  We even got to meet Bob Tiffin.

The reason this company has been so successful is because of this soft-spoken, kind, honorable man.   He was so in tune with his dealers and repair network, that he hand-wrote the names and numbers of the two best RV repair shops in San Antonio, which happened not to be the dealership. And he gave us his business card and told us to call if we ever needed anything.  That sounds hokey, but we have heard so many stories from Tiffin owners that confirm that he means it.  Like when two couples were traveling together.  One couple drove a Tiffin, the others didn’t.  The non-Tiffin owners broke down in a very remote area and could not get any help from their dealer or roadside assistance.  In desperation, the Tiffin owners suggested they call Bob.  Because of his connections and good reputation, he was able to get them the help they needed, and all he asked in return is that they consider buying a a Tiffin for their next RV.  That creates customers for life!

This tiny town in northwest Alabama has a multitude of businesses tied to the production of Tiffin Motorhomes.  Many people who work in the factory, paint shop or service center develop their skills there from 5:30 am to 2:30 pm, then run their own “after hours” after-market accessories shops.  And since Tiffin will not repair a rig over 10 years old, other shops in the area meet that need, too.

There are other businesses in Red Bay, like the Sunshine dog food factory, which you can smell all over town, and the Sunshine Manufactured Homes.  But, as Tiffin goes, so does much of the local economy.  Late in 2018, liability insurance did away with people being on the build line, so not fewer visitors come to Red Bay without an RV.  The result was that the Historic Red Bay Hotel closed down.  Which made me wonder, if the Tiffin family sells out to Winnebago, As rumors suggest, will they move the company?  Would all of these people lose their jobs?  I know as long as Bob is around, this won’t happen, but there are rumblings about his retirement.

Bill did a lot of research to guarantee that we got a quality RV we can call home.  I wish more companies had the same kind of commitment to quality and service as Tiffin. We are definitely Tiffinites, and As long as there is a Tiffin service center in Red Bay, AL, we will come back for our annual maintenance visit. Thanks, Bob!

Pecans and Deer

11/13/19 to 11/14/19 - Deming, NM to Van Horn, TX (226 miles) stayed one night at Mountain View RV Park

11/14/19 to 11/17/19 - Van Horn, TX to Ft. Stockton, TX (124 miles) 3 nights at Fort Stockton RV Park at $36/ night

11/17/19 to 11/21/19 - Ft. Stockton, TX to Junction, TX (185 miles) 4 nights at Pecan Valley RV  Park and Farm at $35/night

West Texas is vast and empty.  There is not much there but scrub brush, oil, and tumbleweeds.  But, it’s too vast to cross in one go in an RV.  So we broke up the drive and stayed at the Pecan Valley RV Park and Farm in Junction, Texas.  The north and south fork of the Llano river run through Junction, so this would be a great place to go tubing in the summer.  One of the RV parks on the river had been swept away in flood waters in 2018 and was still recovering.  The park we stayed at had a fork of the river running through it, but we were well up a hill from it.

The park was situated behind a commercial pecan grove and had many mature pecan trees scattered around the property.  The owners were happy to have us pick up as many pecans as we cared to gather.  If you’ve priced them in the store, you know how expensive they can be.  I was thrilled to do the work, so I’d have plenty for holiday baking.

Our neighbors were a group of family and friends from Louisiana who come every year to hunt on their lease.  They were well established in their spot and had a routine of hunting or picking up
/cracking pecans during the day, and attracting the local deer at sunset by scattering deer corn in the field next to their rig.  In the evening, 30 or more deer would shyly gather and feast.  It was an idyllic spot.

 

I scouted the place and chose the trees with the best pecans.  Even though they were small like most native trees, their shells were easy to crack.  The leaves had already fallen, so it took time to brush the leaves aside and focus on the nuggets underneath.  I spent a full afternoon hunched over, walking methodically up and down a hill, picking up pecans.  At one point, I felt the squirrels must be playing tricks, because pecans were dropping all around me.  One even hit me on the foot.  I picked up a good bagful by the time my back screamed for me to stop.

The next day, the neighbors offered their tool that looks like a slinky formed in a u-shape at the end of a stick and offered to help.  They even pointed out the paper-shell tree they’d been gathering from.  I didn’t mean to get so many, but by the end, I had almost a deer corn sackful of pecans.  I couldn’t wait to get them to my dad so he could crack them for me.

I hadn’t thought much of Junction before, but it’s certainly a place I could come back to, at least for a quick weekend getaway.  It’s just the kind of place that soothes the soul.  

More Desert

11/5/19 to 11/6/19 - Tuscon, AZ. To Bowie, AZ (115 miles) stayed one night at Mountain View RV Park for $17
11/6/19 to 11/13/19 - Bowie, AZ to Deming, NM (117 miles) stayed seven nights at Low-Hi RV Ranch for $114/week

Our Step Motor Died

One close-to-freezing morning as we were packing up to leave, we noticed the motor that controls the bottom two steps below the front door didn’t want to close.  Not good.  You can’t drive down the road with steps sticking three feet out into the next lane.  Bill was able to pull the pin to disengage the steps and we used zip ties to hold them shut for the day’s drive.  When we stopped for lunch at a rest area, we opened the door and heard the motor whining, so we cut the zip ties and tried for 30 minutes to get the pin back in so the steps would engage and close on their own.

We went several days with no issues, until we pulled into a Flying J for gas.  I opened the door to step out and heard the most awful grinding noise as the steps opened.  They worked one more time for Bill, then CAPUT!  Thankfully, this time they were closed, but the RV is TALL!  The first built-in step is about hip height, so we had to climb in to get to our destination in Deming.

We had heard stories about how often step motors died.  These are the same motors that control automatic windows in cars.  They’re readily available and inexpensive.  We had toyed with the idea of buying a spare when we were in Red Bay in June, but we didn’t think we’d need one so soon.  There was no one nearby who could install one, so Bill watched A LOT of YouTube videos, and fairly certain he could replace it on his own, contacted Tiffin, who Fedexed a new one.  Bill was so kind as to rig some steps with cinder blocks from our site so I could get in and out without hurting myself.  We extended our stay and settled in to wait.

Deming is a cute little historic town with some interesting history.  They have a Fred Harvey exhibit at the railroad depot turned visitor center and a great town museum.  I spent an afternoon learning about the military base that used to train soldiers to site locations for bombing and looking at the amazing pottery from the native Mimbres people of the region.  I love the geometric patterns in high contrast colors and the cartoony creatures that represented desert animals, like snakes, birds, goats and frogs.  Look!

Deming is also home to Rockhound State Park, a rare park where you can take away the jasper, quartz, geodes and thunder eggs that you find.  It’s easy to get lost if you get off of the trails, because your head is always down and you’re not looking where you’re going or where you’ve been.  We sacked a lunch and walked with picks and hammers looking for pretty stones most of one afternoon. Brendan loved this place when he was a kid, because he was really into rocks!

The RV Park we stayed at was called Low - HI RV Ranch.  It is the world headquarters for Loners on Wheels (the Low in Low - HI) an RV club for singles.  They have parks all over the country and allow couples in, too.  It was a great community in the middle of the desert.  They has mixers and Friday night socials and drove to Mexico to eat dinner every Tuesday.  The people were extremely friendly.  They suggested restaurants in town that we should try.

Now, New Mexican food is not TexMex.  Most notably, they have two sauces, red and green, that they put on everything.  Hatch, New Mexico is a town about thirty minutes away, known for the green hatch chili pepper. So I thought the green sauce would be hotter.  I ordered my meal with green and Bill got his with red.  The red sauce was way hotter.  Poor Bill had to scrape the sauce off his meal and work around this very spicy stuff.  I gave him half of my meal and tried to eat the red sauce-covered items, but even for me, it was HOT!

It took a week for the motor to arrive.  Bill had already taken out the old one, and had the new one installed in minutes!  He’s getting really handy:). We were on our way the next day, felling close to home and ready to reconnect and rest for a while.

New year, new road trip!

11/21 - 1/4/2020 - Junction, TX to San Antonio, TX (164 miles) stayed at TX 281 RV Park for 43 days, $350/mo plus 13 days at $11/night.

By the time we hit San Antonio for the holidays, I was done with blogging for the year.  But I still need to write about Deming, NM and Junction, TX, both really nice places to visit and ones I’d be happy to go back to.  I’ll get to those soon, but I wanted to say Happy New Year and look back at the past 6 months and almost 8000 miles.  We moved with purpose so we could visit family and friends before the cold weather set it.

Next year, we plan to take it slower.  We’ll head East for our annual maintenance visit at Red Bay, AL and then spend a month in Gulf Shores. I love the beach there, and we’re hoping it’s easier to get a reservation than FL.  We would like to spend some time in FL before we head north.  We want to spend a good amount of time in Washington, DC to see the Smithsonian, and go through Pennsylvania Dutch country on our way to see Brendan in Michigan.  I really want to go to Stockbridge, MA to enjoy the area where Norman Rockwell lived and worked and spend time in the Hudson Valley.  We’ll see how that goes.  Since we’re moving slower I’d like to get plugged into volunteer opportunities - maybe Habitat for Humanity or Red Cross.

We’re excited to get going and know that we are blessed to be RVing!

Sedona, AZ and Saguaro National Park

10/26/19 to 10/29/19 - Williams, AZ to Camp Verde, AZ (83 miles) stayed 3 nights at Distant Drums RV Park
10/29/19 to 11/5/19 - Camp Verde, AZ to Tucson, AZ (218 miles) stayed one week at Diamond J RV Park

High Desert to Low Desert

In the short drive from Williams to the Sedona area, we descended from 7600 feet to 3300 feet, thankfully.  Bill is really effected by altitude.  And as much as he complains about the humidity in South Texas, he cannot deal with humidity in the single digits.  And don’t get him started on the dust!  So, now we know, we could not retire permanently to the desert.

But there is a stark beauty about the desert.  Everything here has to work to survive, and is ready to defend itself with prickles and thorns.  You don’t dare accidentally brush up against anything out here.  And if you walk slowly and quietly, life reveals itself to you.

We stayed at a park near Sedona called Distant Drums, very near the Montezuma Castle National Monument.  This cliff dwelling has 5 floors and about 45 rooms.  It was built by the Sinagua people between 1100 and 1425 AD.  I love these ancient ruins and can imagine life along the creek, protected by the canyon, growing crops among the cottonwood trees.

Of course, there’s a Native American casino here, too, called Cliff Castle Casino.  This one was really well done.  Along with an attached hotel and conference center, they had a play room for kids, where they were safely supervised, a video game arcade for older kids, a full bowling alley, and Johnny Rockets, and best of all,  smoke free area to play slots.  Again, I’m not much of a player, but when the park gives you free play and a free shuttle, and you get more free play when you join their player’s club, it’s a nice way to spend an afternoon, especially when it’s too hot to be outside.

My favorite part was the drive to Sedona called the Red Rock Scenic Byway.  There were beautiful formations along the 30 minute drive and places to get out and walk/hike, if you had a day pass, which someone was kind enough to share as they were leaving.  The first time we drove to Sedona was on a Sunday, and it was packed!  We drove through town, didn’t find a place to park, and left.  We came back the next day and had a lovely time walking through shops and galleries without the huge crowd.  I understand the attraction, but wouldn’t want to live there on the weekends.
 

Somewhere on the drive between Camp Verde and Tucson, we began to see Saguaro cacti dotted throughout the landscape.  In Tuscan, they are like the trees of the desert, filling the rolling hills.  People landscape with them and form boundaries between properties, they are that prevalent.

We spent a whole week in Tuscon.  The first night I reconnected with a friend I haven’t seen since our first trip around the US. Then, we visited her in Portland, OR.  Now, she lives in Tuscon with her son’s family playing grandma to her grand babies.  It was fun to catch up, but kinda weird to start the conversation, “So, what have you been up to for the last 18 years?” We ate great Mexican food in a trendy downtown restaurant and chatted for hours.

The park we stayed at had trails winding around the back of their property.  They even gave me a map to help navigate, but I got lost once.  It was a little scary to not be able to see the RV and not know which way to go, and look for snakes, and scorpions, and tarantulas, and coyotes, and try to get back before the sun was totally gone! The sunset was amazing though.

We also drove through the Saguaro National Park.  There is such a variety of plant life that sustains the animals that live there.  I could tell that they had just bloomed after a recent rain, but I was too late to see them.  That would be gorgeous to see the desert in bloom.  Did you know that the saguaros don’t start growing arms until they’re over 70 years old?!

The Grand Canyon

10/21/19 to 10/26/19 - Las Vegas, NV to Williams, AZ (223 miles) 5 nights, stayed at the Grand Canyon Railroad RV Park.

Get your kicks on Route 66!

With a name like the Grand Canyon Railroad RV Park, you’d better expect that you’re going to be staying near active railroad tracks.  Williams, AZ was the last town on Route 66 that was bypassed by Interstate 40 in 1984, and still retains that nostalgic charm with a train depot, neon signs, motels and diners.  When you stay in Williams, you can take the day trip on the train to the Grand Canyon.  Those who went said it was entertaining.  There was historical information from the conductor and a staged train robbery - something for everyone.

We chose to drive the 60 miles, and got there much faster, so we could enjoy more time at the park.  It was a perfect day, and the crowds were very small - so much better than coming in the summer with sweltering heat and being packed in like sardines.  We had a picnic lunch and strolled along the Rim Trail at the Village.  It’s amazing!  You would think that it would get boring fast, but every view is a little different, especially as the light changes throughout the day. We met a couple who had taken the train up and stayed the night in the historic El Tovar hotel, so they could see the night sky.  That would be cool!  Fun fact - the El Tovar is the hotel that Chevy Chase robbed in the original “Vacation” movie.  We took a picture from the viewpoint just outside where he ran up to his wife, paused for two seconds to take in the view, and ran off.

 I love the architecture around the Village! Many buildings were designed by a female architect named Mary Colter in the early 1900s resulting from her relationship with Fred Harvey and the Santa Fe Railroad (a whole other story that would make a great middle-grade novel).  Her work helped define the Southwest style.  We got to go in and explore several of these organic-looking structures, like the Hopi House and Lookout Studio.  I also saw a gorgeous art exhibit at the Kolb studio.  I had a hard time framing photos to capture the essence of the place.  I don’t know how they were able to catch it in paintings.  They ranged from realistic to abstract, and the colors were beautiful!

Before we left, we drove to the Grand Canyon Visitor Center and Mather Point to the east of the Village.  This entire area was just reopened after after a massive renovation, and was VERY nice.  The crowds were definitely bigger and people were making questionable choices about where to stand to take their selfies.  There’s actually a book for sale in the gift shop called, “Death in the Grand Canyon.”  We played it safe and still got some good shots 😁

We easily filled our days walking down Main Street in Williams, window shopping and trying out the restaurants.  I got the feeling that places like this are dying off and it made me want to slow down and pay closer attention.  This is definitely a place we could come back to again, if it hasn’t disappeared.  

Lost Vegas

10/15/19 - 10/21/19 Leeds, UT to Las Vegas, NV (130 miles) stayed 6 nights at Hitchin’ Post RV Park, $38/night

Vegas, baby!

Bill was so excited to gamble in Vegas that I encouraged him to book six nights to thoroughly get it out of his system.  I don’t get the same thrill, but I go for moral support.  We stayed in North Las Vegas, behind barbed-wire fence and near Nellis AFB.  They run sorties every morning about 10 am.  There are always four jet fighters in the squad, and they roar right over our heads.  When I’m outside walking, it’s very cool.  When Bill’s inside sleeping,  not so much.  They loop round and round before landing, maybe practicing “touch and goes”.  There’s a pool, nice laundry facilities, a workout room and a nice restaurant at the Hitchin’ Post, so inside the compound, we’re set.  However, to get to the Strip, we have to drive south on Las Vegas Blvd, past Fremont Street and the Neon Boneyard, through a not-so-desirable part of town.  If you’ve never stayed off the Strip, you’ve never see this part of Las Vegas - trashy with lots of homeless.

The last time we came to Vegas, we were lured by a player’s club with a free night’s stay and inexpensive dinner.  This time, we could barely find free parking.  There are a few hotels that still provide it, but you have to research and map out where it is before you go.  Then, be prepared to walk.  We parked at The Venetian, and enjoyed walking through the Canal Shops, watching the gondolas float past and listening to the gondoliers sing.  We found the casino and Bill gambled a little, then we walked out on the Strip for about five miles, going through Ceaser’s Palace, gambling there, and reaching Bellagio just in time to see the dancing water show.  It took us so long to wind through the crowds outside, that we actually got to see the show twice, set to different music. The Strip is great for people watching, and they get weirder as the night progresses.  We enjoyed driving down the Strip, to see the neon signs.  Even Denny’s, McDonalds, and CVS have blinged-out neon signs.

One of the places I really wanted to visit was the Neon Boneyard, where all old neon signs go to die.  They are working to expand the exhibit in a nearby museum, but for now, it’s outside, about a block away from Fremont.  Unfortunately, there was a brand new Tim Burton exhibit opening the night we arrived, called “Lost Vegas”.  In order to get tickets, I would have to purchase them online a month in advance, ugh!  I saw a little from the road!

We did visit Fremont Street twice, once during the day, and once at night.  The street is enclosed by a vaulted video screen ceiling.  Even during the day, it lights up and plays music,  but it’s really spectacular at night.  We had to pay $20 to park, of course, but the bands playing along the street were free.  We stopped and listened to an 80s cover band for a while.  There was also a very loud heavy metal band playing down the way that we stayed away from.  Shops, restaurants and casinos line both sides of the street and there are multiple zip lines that run the length of the ceiling.  There are also street performers stationed along the street.  They rent a spot in a red circle painted on the floor for a certain amount of time, and pose as a statue,  do card tricks, play music, dance, or entice people to take pictures with them in their costumes for a price.  Some were dressed like the band members from KISS, some as Vegas showgirls, some had on very little.  It was quite a sight.  Bill made his final donations in a casino, and we had breakfast for dinner at Denny’s.  I’m relearning that he does not like crowds, loud noises, or walking long distances, so by the end of the week, we’d had our fill.  We’re looking forward to space and quiet.

If you go, consider taking in the Mob Museum or Zappos factory tour.  They were highly recommended.