oplutz70
Posts 4
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March 5th, 2010 arrived as a beautiful but cold day in Florida. My wife, Linda and I (Otis) hooked up our tow car to our new 2010 Tiffin Phaeton and left our home to head to the FMCA Rally in NM.
We were to meet our traveling companions, Wayne and Brenda, on I75 in Florida. Our timing was great as we came together on I75 within 5 minutes of each other.
We, Linda, Wayne and Brenda Cassada and myself (Otis) are parked in a Sam's parking lot in Valdasta, GA for the night. We just got back from Bo Jangles where we had supper.
It was a great day for driving. Sunny but very windy with the wind out of the north (where else if one is traveling north). We plan to get up in the morning and continue on to Red Bay, AL where we plan to tour the Tiffin RV plant.
This trip will eventually end in Albuquerque, NM for the FMCA International Convention. We will give daily reports as to where we are and what we are doing. We are full of diesel and propane so are ready for the cold night and travel tomorrow.
The Phaeton is doing great. A little over 8 MPG today.
So long for now.
Otis
Day Two of our trip to FMCA in Albuquerque, NM
Got up and we had breakfast in the coach than we headed out on I75. Headed west and went to a little town that we were told was very interesting in GA. The town's name was Westville, GA and it was about as interesting as Jimmy Carters old home town.
We have not been burning up the road as we stop and look quite often and just enjoy the good old USA. The weather was great for traveling again as it was very clear, sunny and cool. The coaches ran just great and the mileage was good at 8.3 MPG and we were not on the interstate most of the day.
We are in a Wal-Mart again for the night just west if Birmingham, AL. Tomorrow we will arrive in Red Bay, AL to, hopefully, get a spot at Tiffin Motor Homes to tour the factory.
Everyone is fine and enjoying each others company. We hope to met up with Bill Loy in the next day or so.
Will report in again tomorrow.
Otis, Linda, Wayne and Brenda
Third day of Albuquerque Trip
Much more interesting trip today.
We left Birmingham and headed west to come to Red Bay.. We were supposed to exit on Rt 19 to come into Red Bay but took the exit before Rt 19. Then we relied on the built in navigation system and it sure took us through a lot of back roads. These roads were really rough. Attached is a picture that shows one of the rough roads we were on. WOW
Well we did make it to Red Bay and came to the Tiffin RV park. A real nice place with LOTS of full hook up spots. The folks here are really friendly and the number of Tiffins here for service and for the factory tour is quite large. Wayne said he feels out of place as he has a "SOB" (not a Tiffin) coach. He does like the "park" through. Don't know hpw long we will be here as we met Tom Eller and he told me he is having another basement slid out put in and when he told me it was only $500 installed I plan to get one installed also. That compares to a low of $1300 elsewhere.
We are watching the KY FL basketball game and the Gators are doing better than I expected them to do. I still expect us to lose. But, the Gator football spring training starts soon.
We will have more tomorrow.
Otis, Linda, Brenda and Wayne
March 8th
We are still in Red Bay, Al. Had a really beautiful day - shirt sleeve, clear warm and beautiful.
Started off about 8:00 going into the service department here at the Tiffin Campground and filling out the two items I was interested in getting fixed. One was to add a second basement slide tray and the second was to get the blue-tooth connected into my radio. I had priced the slide at Brooksville and was quoted a price of over $900. with a shipping cost of $259. I was really happy when the total bill, installed, was a little over $444. Installation of the blue-tooth was free.
We were at the factory for the tour while the coach was being taken care of. The tour leader was an 82 year old man who did a fantastic job. Two of the couples taking the tour with us are here at Red Bay to see their coach being built. Both couples found their coach on the assembly line (near completion) and we all went in to look at their very new coach.
This place is quite amazing. Here At the park they have about 50 service bays to service coaches as they arrive. Tom Eller of the SEA FMCA is here for service on his new coach. He is the one that alerted me to the slide for such a good price. He has some more service to be done and he said they have added a second shift to get all the coaches here completed. Everyone seems very satisfied with the service.
One thing for sure. Do not come to Red Bay to eat. We went to the highly recommended res-truant, Swamp John's, and agreed it was terrible by any standard of resturants in Florida. I think everyone we talked to decided if you want a good meal, eat in your rig.
Tomorrow we leave here as soon as Wayne gets some repairs completed on his counter. We will head west towards the diamond mine in AR. Where, of course, we will all get rich.
I have included a couple of pics for you to throw away.
Otis, Linda, Wayne and Brenda
3/9/2010
Hello all. This was a boring day. After the 2 days we spent in Red Bay this was an un-eventful day. We did have an interesting end. Wayne picked a Wal-Mart for us to spend the night and we no more than got set to put the jacks down and he decided we would go to another Wal-mart with better parking. We got there and did set up and he was talking to the security folks and they said that it was a bad neighbor hood. And, there was no security after 1:00 AM. SOOO, pull in the slides and stow the jacks and move 8 miles down the freeway to another WAL-MART. SO HERE WE ARE all set up.
Tomorrow will be much better as we have a short drive to the diamond field. There we will all get rich collecting diamonds off the ground.
Tomorrow we are to be 75 and a low of 48 tonight. Great day tomorrow.
All is going well and the coach is doing great. Averaging 8 MPG and the wind was against us all day.
Otis, Linda, Wayne and Brenda
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March 11, 2010
After I posted yesterdays news we had and exciting evening. The couple that owns the park we are staying at is a policeman and he came by and knocked on our door (it was raining quite hard) and said that we are under a tornado warning and we were invited to follow his wife in her cay and go to her parents house and stay in their cellar as it was a shelter. Now, was that friendly or what? We went over and the whole park and some other folks were at their house. Fortunately nothing happened and we came back to the park after about 30 minutes.
We had a quite night after the storms passed. Got up early to head to the diamond mine. We looked all day for diamonds. We did hear that there were a couple found. Really small, but diamonds. We did not get any. I think it was my brother Dallas's fault as he asked me to get big ones - like golf balls. The only ones I seen that were found we more the size of pin heads. In any case, we had a ball looking for them and I fell in the mud so that was a hoot.
We are all worn out as playing and walking in the mud was real tiring. We all felt that it was a good day and the weather was great. Tomorrow we are on to OK.
Otis, Linda, Wayne and Brenda
Mar 12
Time is flying by. We have been having a great time. Tonight we are at a casino off of exit 123 on I 40. We are east if Oklahoma City and north on route 81. We drove state routes all day and the roads were excellent. Except for the strong head wind (all day) we had excellent travel weather.
The casino has some RV sites which have full hook up with 50 amp service - FREE. WOW. We also received $10 each to play the slots. Linda won 1.95, Brenda lost her $10. and I ended up with $8.25. I would say they were quite liberal with their payouts.
It is 50 degrees here and very windy. Clear and cold.
The coaches are doing great and everyone is well and happy.
More tomorrow.
Otis, Linda, Wayne and Brenda
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March 13
Hello all. We are in a town called El Reno. It is about 30 miles west of Oklahoma City. It is very windy and the wind makes it feel really cold. It is 54 degrees.
This morning we went to the Alfred P Murrah museum. It was very moving. I can only imagine what the feeling would be like at the Twin Towers. I have some good pictures that I will include in this message. The picture of Christ has the simple title "Jesus Wept". In the field are 168 chairs that is arranged in 9 rows representing the 9 floors of the building and the chairs are arraigned in the location where each victim worked in the destroyed building.
We received word from Bill Loy today and he said he would be joining us soon. He plans to drive 800 miles in one day. That is 500 more than i like to do. Will be nice to see him and Wilma.
Gambling (or I should say, money donation) is on the menu for this afternoon. Last night we watched the Gators basketball team lose to Mississippi State. We played really badly. So much for basketball in the march madness.
We plan to be here tomorrow too. There is a Chisholm Trail Museum right up the road from us and I would like to explore that. Would like the gambling better if there was not so much smoke to suffer through. At $5.00 a pack you would think folks would quit.
Hope the Challenger's camp out goes well, as it always does. We will miss you and wish all a safe drive and good health.
Till Tomorrow
Otis, Linda, Wayne and Brenda
edited by oplutz70 on 3/13/2010
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