Interesting Week End

Well, it's been about 3 weeks since I posted so I will update y'all on the events.  We left Lazy Day RV  Park in Danville, MO and headed to 370 Lakeside RV Park we in St. Peters, MO.  It was only a 58 mile drive but we made it with no issues.  We stayed there for a couple of nights before heading to Dam West Campground at the COE park at Carlyle Lake, in Carlyle, IL.  This is really a nice park, but only offers electric.  I would come back here again if ever in the area.

Lazy Day RV Park

370 Lakeside RV Park

Dam West COE Park

The reason we were in the we were in the Carlyle, IL area was for me to attend my 50th High School Reunion.  We had a good time and it was good to catch up with some of my class mates.

We had a get together on Friday night a Main Street Brewery, an micro brewery and eatery.  Debby and I had dinner and then went out to the Beer Garden to meet with other class mates.  We had a really good time and it was good to see every one.

The next day, Saturday, we toured the "old" school.  Many things have changed as when we went there, half of it was high school other half was junior college.  Now it is all high school.  They have about 2500 students currently enrolled.

After the tour Debby and I met with my cousin, Pam, who I had not seen since before I graduated from high school for a light lunch.  It was really good to catch up with her.

Then Saturday evening we attended the main event, the actual reunion.  It was at a great venue and had a really good band.  The band was a little loud where we were sitting, so talking while they were playing was difficult, but they were really good.  The reunion was held at Gateway Classic Cars.  There were MANY classic cars for sale there, but, in my opinion, very over priced, but enjoyable to look at.  It was good to catch up with old friends.  Surprisingly we only had 46 that were no longer with us, but several could not be found.  The folks that put this  together should be praised for their hard work!  They really did a great job!

On  Sunday, we made the trip to Effingham, IL to visit with Dorthy Combs, a friend of ours from State Farm, who hired Debby at State Farm.  She seems to be doing well and enjoying her retirement years.  She  worked for State Farm for 55 year.

Next we went to visit with my son and his family.  My how the grand kids have grown!  We don't  get up this way to visit with them very often, but it was good to see them.

That'a about it for now.  We head north tomorrow and I will update you later.

Travel Safe and I'll type more later.

Forgotten Pictures

I forgot to post some pictures of W.A.C.O air museum and the Jack Daniels Distillery.  So, here they are.
                                                            W.A.C.O.

Jack Daniels Distillery 

I'll try to remember the interesting pictures next time.  

Travel Safe, and I'll type more later.

How Time Gets Away!

It is hard to believe that it has been so long since I updated y'all.  We have traveled A LOT since I last posted.  We left Red Bay and went to Natchez Trace Thousand Trails Preserve.  Our site as nice an level, but it took forever to get to it from the entrance.  We had to drive to the rear of the preserve and the roads were/are THE WORST we have encountered in the Thousand Trails system.  I filled out a survey and told them if they don't do something about them, someone is going to have some MAJOR damage to their coach.  They responded by saying they are planning to repave some of the roads when the money gets available.  They had several loads of rock that they put into "seasonal and annual" sites, I told them they should at least be putting some of it in the pot holes.  They also seem to cut the grass when the sites are vacated, and evidently ours had been full A LOT!

We left Thousand Trails Natchez Trace and drove 47 miles (about an hour and a half) to our friends John and Jan Hartman's in Spring Hill, TN.  They have a beautiful place and we stayed in their driveway for a week.  We really appreciated their hospitality. I backed down their winding driveway to park, but with John's help directing me, I made it.  

Next we headed to the Dayton Hamvention.  There were 3 of us that traveled together the 380 miles to Troy, OH.  We stayed at WACO Air Museum where Lou Pauly used to volunteer at  They had 4 RV sites, of which 3 had 50 amp service and ours had a solid 20 amp service.  We managed with the 20 amp very well.  We enjoyed the Hamvention and, of course, we attended the gathering of the faithful of the I.O.O.K. (The International Order of Krazies)  I did spend money I had not  planned on spending, I bought a Heil Pro 7 headset.

When we left Troy, OH, Debby and I drove 288 miles to Okaw Valley Campground in Brownstown, IL.  This is a real nice campground privately owned and operated.  It is not very big, but it is a nice place to spend the night.  The next day we drove to Sikston, MO to attend Escapee's Escapade, a nice drive of 258 miles.  The bad part was going around St. Louis.  Interstate 270 helped A LOT.  I would not want to go through downtown, even on the interstate.  As you can see, we were once again on the coffee and doughnut team.  This means early rising in the morning to get everything ready.  Today was the last day of the Escapade so we will get to sleep in tomorrow morning.  The Escapade was held at the State Fairgrounds.  Full hook ups with 50 amp service.  The weather overall was nice, but we did have some rain and did have a couple of rigs get stuck.

Tomorrow we will head east again to Danville, MO for a couple of weeks and then to St. Peters, MO for a couple of nights.  We are headed back to Illinois to attend my 50 year high school reunion.  I'll try to do a little better on updating y'all.

Travel Safe and I'll type more later.

Service at Red Bay

Debby completed her cataract surgery and follow ups and got some bi-focals for reading.  She had a set of cheap reading glasses from Dollar General, but did not want to be driving and constantly putting on and taking off her glasses.  So, she had one of her old frames done in bi-focals.    She can see MUCH better now and I guess I'm lucky as she now can see how ugly I am and she hasn't left me yet.  I'm glad we were able to get that done before we left NAS Jacksonville.  Also before we left, I got the results of my sleep study.  It was, go for another sleep study.  I did that, and got an appointment with a sleep study specialist.  Long story short, they put me on a bi-pap machine.  While I was at the specialist, we discussed my long history of smoking (35 years by the time I quite) and my exposure to asbestos.  He decided I needed a x-ray, so I got that, and there was something amiss, so they did a CT Scan on my lungs.  We extended our stay at NAS Jacksonville for a few days until we got the results.  All clear, so we were able to head out. 
We left NAS Jacksonville on 28 March and drove 326 miles to Deer Run RV Park in Troy, AL.  This is a nice park, and after 326 miles, I was ready for a rest.  We stayed for 2 nights so I could get the rest I needed.

We left Troy, AL on the 30th of March and drove the next 258 miles to Red Bay, AL.  This is the home of Tiffin Motor home Manufacturer.  We had never been here before, but decided to come here to get a couple of items taken care of by the "builders".  We checked into the service center when we arrived, but the service center campground was full, so we drove around looking for a place.  We found a place to dry camp at Red Bay RV Park and spent the first night her dry camping.  We got to meet some folks here, and found that one was leaving the next morning, so we were able to move into their site.  On Sunday, the 1st of April, we got a call from Tiffin letting us know that there was an opening at their campground, but we just decided to stay where we are as when you'r done at Tiffin service, you must move out the next morning.  As we had an appointment for service at Bay Diesel, we were better off where we were.  Red Bay RV Park has a weekly rate, and Camp Allegro is a standard $25 per day.  On Monday, the 2nd, Norris, the first contact from Tiffin came by and went over our list, told us he felt we could have it all done in the 3 hours allowed at the express bay, and that we were 4 days out, so when we got a call on Wed. we were really surprised.  We got in on Wed and got the list completed, except the Spot Light (needs a bulb which is no longer available with Tiffin) and the jack problem we wanted looked at.  They felt that it sounded like we needed a new jack and they no longer have any in stock and will not be getting any more in as Atwood was bought out by HWH and they no longer make the jacks we haave.

We took the guided tour on Thursday, 5 April and really enjoyed it.  It is amazing how they put these things together.  We were also able to stop by the Tiffin store and buy some parts to fix some other items that we wanted to take care of.  One of the "biggies" we had taken care of at the Tiffin service center was the door window replaced.  It was getting dangerous to pull out as we could hardly see out of it.  It was NOT EXPENSIVE as we thought it would be.

While we were here, we had a slide out topper that was in REALLY bad shape, so we called the Awning Repair Guys here in Red Bay.  They work at Tiffin in the day, and work on the side from 3:30 to 8:00 PM.  They gave us a Really good price on doing all of our awnings and toppers, but with the price at Bay Diesel coming up, we just could not afford to have them all done now.  But what was done was done well, and at a reasonable price.

We go to Bay Diesel on Tuesday and will have the entire drive line serviced, so we have a base line to start from.  This will cost us more than we had hoped, but will be worth it to know what has been done and when.

I just wanted to catch everyone up on what we have been doing.  Going to camp in Arkansas when we leave here and going to NSA Millington for a week and then on to Thousand Trails for 3 weeks.  

Then we will go stay with John and Jan Hartman for a couple of days before we go into Dayton Hamvention.  Looking forward to that.  Then on to Escapade.  

Y'all travel safe and I'll type more later.