Overnight low was in the mid 50's. Today's high was 69. Its 56 right now and temperature is on its way up to a high of 73 tomorrow. The downside is that it has been raining, although lightly, since the middle of last night and its supposed to continue doing so all day tomorrow.
We drove the coach over to the shop next door and pulled it inside shortly after 8AM, another coach beat us inside by about 15 minutes. After going over a list of repair items we headed for Red Bay, AL for a tour of the Tiffin plant. I was surprised to see a full house, at least 20 people, there for the tour. The facilities are interesting from many viewpoints. Tiffin has grown a LOT since it started up in 1972, in a single building. As they grew Bob Tiffin bought adjacent structures and turned then into manufacturing facilities. He almost never tore down a building he purchased. Even a church was repurposed and integrated into the facility.
The tour was about 90 minutes long. We were in and out of building after building, in the rain. We got to see virtually every part of coach assembly except the actual final paint job. We were just about rubbing shoulders with the workers as we walked through the buildings, some of the workers smiled and waved at us. Our guides talked about the plant turning out as many as 13 coaches a day, I think that was during the first year of COVID. The economy has really dropped since then. Last week they had to lay off more people and were down to 8 coaches a day. This week only 6 coaches a day are on the schedule.
On our way back we stopped in Belmont, MS for lunch at Sparks Restaurant. You can order off the menu or go through a cafeteria line. We went through the cafeteria line. The food was good, but not great.
After that we drove over to J P Coleman State Park. It is right on the Tennessee River. Its actually more of a lake than a river at this point, since it is just upstream from the Pickwick Dam. The 113' tall, 7,700' long hydroelectric dam opened in 1938 and is owned by the TVA. If we have time we may go over to check it out.
After dropping the coach off at 7AM tomorrow we plan on driving down to Tupelo, MS, about 70 miles, to look around. Bryan, Lakeshore Custom RV, made good progress today but because I added some items to his list they may not finish tomorrow. That isn't a problem for us but he is so busy that I don't want to back him up so that he misses commitments to other people.
An interesting side point. During the tour the guide pointed out that they put the refrigerators into the coaches before they put the slides on. She said it was the only way to get them into the coach. I mentioned that to Bryan and he said it might be true from an assembly line perspective but they don't take slides off to change a refrigerator. They take out the big window in the sidewall by the driver. They also take the door/s off the refrigerator. Four guys can then manhandle a refrigerator through the window.
When we got back to Lakeshore Kathy took a nap in the car while I went into the waiting room and visited with a guy who was waiting on their coach. They have put 90,000 miles on it over the past 9 years. It is their 3rd new, 45' long, tag axle, coach. He retired in 2005. His wife grew up in Iuka. Once the repairs are complete they are headed toward Florida. They will spend the next 4-6 weeks stopping at different event venues they are familiar with. After that they will spend the remainder of the cold weather at a campground about 40 miles west of Orlando. They are/were members of a big Baptist church in Memphis. He had a CDL and often drove one of the churches four 45' buses.
God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours.
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