Lone Star Allegro Club Rally - Wednsday

Although we just got home last Sunday, we decided that we wanted to go to the Lone Star Christmas rally at the KOA in Columbus, TX……. about 80 miles from our home.  The rally starts on Friday night, but we decided to come a day early

Our RV’ing friends, Mark and Sue Didelot were going to be there, and we haven’t seen them since early spring.  They went to Alaska this summer, and then they have been working in Minnesota and Kansas, and just got back to Lake Charles, LA last week.

I had told Mark that if he would agree to do the grilling, I would bring some HEB fajitas.  We weren’t the only ones to show up early.  When we got here, the Lambe’s, Verderber’s, Bob Trout, and the Shonk’s were already set up.  Since we had a lot of fajita meat (Patsy bought both chicken and beef), we invited all to eat.   They, in turn, brought appetizers, dessert, and other food, and we had a good feast.  Here are some pictures, starting with Mark cooking…..

Patsy, VI and Betty visiting while Sue heads back to the food table…….

Janet getting more food for George (and there’s Sue at the table loading up again!!):

And then there is LJ bragging to Ray about how much he likes Tiffin and his Zephyr…….. especially after Red Bay repaired it!!….

Here’s George and Janet enjoying the food….. well, I think Janet is enjoying it!!

Since his wife wasn’t here, Bob made many trips back to the food table…….

Bob really hit the dessert……. Mark tried to warn him about eating so much pie, but he just said LeAnn wasn’t there and what she didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him!!!  Well, Bob, good luck on that one!!

After dinner, there was a lot of visiting.  LJ is still spreading the good word about how much he loves the Tiffin folks and his repaired Zephyr!!

Somehow, Ray doesn’t look like he is convinced!  That’s Ok, LJ, there are still three days left to get him convinced.

Matthew’s Road Trip – Day 10

We had planned to sleep until about 9:00am on Saturday morning, but it wasn’t to be with Matthew.  Even though he was up until 10:00pm on Friday night, he was still up by 7:00am!

We got up and put cartoons on the TV for him and tried to go back to sleep, but it did not happen.

We called Deanne, and she and Mike came out about 10:00am.  They took Matthew to the local Home Depot store for a kid’s workshop.  Matthew, with some help from Uncle Mike made a small wagon.  He was also given a work apron, recognition pin and a certificate.  Here are some pics…….

Patsy and I met them at The Purple Cow, a Dairy Queen type place, in West Little Rock for lunch.  While we waited on our burgers, Matthew did some coloring::

Matthew went home with Deanne and Mike to paint his wagon, while Patsy and I went to do some shopping.  We then went and picked him up, and drove back to the campground just before sunset so that Matthew could get in some playground time:

Later in the evening, we drove around Little Rock to see some of the Christmas lighting.  Part of it was a drive-through park in North Little Rock.  Here are some of the pictures that Mike captured……

Tomorrow, we head back to Victoria.  I think Matthew is starting to miss his sister, and his Mom & Dad.  I think they will also be glad to see him!!

Matthew’s Road Trip – Day 9

We woke up early Friday morning and headed to Mike Simmon’s Tire in Sheffield, AL for our 7:45am appointment for an alignment for the Bus.  I told them that I just wanted the alignment verified, since the Bus has 27,000 miles on it, and has never been aligned.  They told us it would take about 3 hours, so we took the car and found Matthew (and me) a doughnut shop for breakfast.  We then went to a Walmart to shop, and we bought Matthew and his sister, Aubrey, some new ‘games’ for their game boxes.  On the way, Patsy saw some trees that still had some colored leaves on them, and she wanted pictures with Matthew.

We went back to the Tire store at 10:30am, and they said it would take until about 1:00pm because the alignment was worse than I led them to believe!  I always thought it drove pretty good…. boy now I really had an expectation of an improved drivability!!

We left to shop some more and find a place for lunch.  We ended up at a Cracker Barrel restaurant, and on the way in, Matthew found the rocking chairs and the big checker board!!

When we got back to the tire store, another motorhome was in line for some work.  It turned out to belong to Roger Rekus, who we met when he was parked next to us at Red Bay on a previous visit.  He and his wife were watching the build of their 43’ Allegro Bus.  They got his rig jacked up and started the work before we left…….

We got the Bus back at about 2:00pm, and by the time we got the car hooked up, and hit the road, it was almost 3:00pm.  We then had to drive the 380 miles to Little Rock to visit our daughter, Deanne, and her husband Mike.

We drove hard and got to Little Rock about 8:00pm and parked at the Maumelle Park.

Deanne and Mike met us and we followed them to the park.  After we got set up, we visited for a while, and then we crashed!!

Matthew’s Road Trip – Day 8

  Thursday was our last day to be at Red Bay.  By Wednesday afternoon, all repairs and modifications were completed except the replacement of the second jack.  We had to be in the bay by 7:00am, and they got finished with us by 10:00am.  Matthew had seen the motorhome on the hoist earlier in the week, but this time, he got to see them put the lift jacks under the tires and slowly lift it up……

He is standing outside a welding curtain!

After we cleared the service center and paid our bill, which was $0, we went back to the campsite, and had lunch while Patsy finished the last load of clothes to be washed and dried.

As I was setting up the TV for satellite, it failed to connect, and whatever I tried, it would not hookup!!  Patsy suggested that I call Brannon at Custom RV, and he was able to work us in at 3:00pm.  I was lucky to be near Brannon’s, because our Kingdome dish had failed.  He had a used one for $200 and I had him to install it.  I don’t know where I would have gotten it installed in Victoria!!

Since we were waiting for the appointment with Brannon, Patsy decided to take Matthew to the playground at the park for one more chance to play.  He had as much fun playing in the rocks, as on the equipment.  Here are some pics…..

On the way to meet me at Brannon’s, Patsy took Matthew by the Red Bay library to take the following photos….

When we finished up at Brannon’s, we headed to Florence, AL where I had made an appointment earlier in the week for 7:45am on Friday with Mike Simmon’s Tire Company to get the wheel alignment on the Bus checked.  A lot of places won’t service a Motor Home chassis, but this place works on a lot of Tiffin motor homes, and has a very good reputation.

After we parked the Bus on a Wal-Mart parking lot for night, we headed to Rosie’s Cantina for dinner.  We wanted to treat Matthew to a Mexican Food restaurant that had a little atmosphere.  Here are some pictures in the restaurant…..

While we were waiting for our food, we called Matthew’s mother  Here are some pictures of what he does while talking on the phone…….

As we left the restaurant, I took some pictures for Matthew’s dad……

On Friday, we plan to head to Little Rock as soon as the Bus alignment is complete.

Matthew’s Road Trip – Day 7

Wednesday was a slow day.  We went back into the bay for cleanup of the roof job, and then found out that our base plate was not here, so we went back out to the campsite.  We were able to get the Bus picked up and Patsy washed some clothes to get us ready to move out of here on Thursday afternoon…. hopefully!

Duane stayed until noon, and then got on the road toward home.  He has to be back in Council Bluffs, IA on Friday for a board meeting.  Before he left, he got to see his motorhome progress to where it had all of the walls and roof on it, and most of the inside built.  What’s left is cabinet doors, outside bay doors, and detail work.

Again, I took some photos for Matthew’s mom.  Here he is eating dinner…..

Shortly after we ate, Matthew’s mom called, and while talking, he walked all over the Bus………….

Later this morning, we are going to drive over to Tupelo, MS.   They are now working on the last item on our list.

Matthew’s Road Trip – Day 6

Tuesday was a busy day.  Our goal of this trip was to get the damage from a roof leak repaired, get the 10K Atwood leveler rear jacks upgraded to 15K, fix a short in the central vacuum cleaner electrical system, and fix a chip in the edge of the kitchen counter. 

On Monday, we accomplished the vacuum cleaner repair, chip in the countertop, replaced one jack (because they only had one base plate!!) and they ordered the replacement roof.  They did place an overnight order on the base plate, but it did not come in on Tuesday!!

On Tuesday, they removed and replaced the roof section.  It was a bigger job than I thought.  Patsy took some pictures because I was at the factory with Duane to watch his Phaeton build and touring the other Tiffin facilities.  Here are some pictures of the job, with the first one showing the wood trim removed:

The roof is a composite of a metal roof, foam insulation, luan board, and foam-backed vinyl.  I expected them to leave the metal roof and remove only a part of the lower layers.  However, they had to remove the entire piece, which resulted in us being able to see the ceiling of the shop………..

Here’s a view from the outside with the new section waiting to be hoisted in place………

And, here are the Tech’s setting the section in place:

By 3:30PM, they had it all back together with only the cleanup needing to be done. 

Another job that we wanted to accomplish was to have a “couch cushion” installed by the Techs who work during the off hours ‘on the runway’.  Patsy had seen this cushion in someone’s else’s coach during a recent rally and wanted one for sitting on the coach while watching TV or reading.  Here’s a picture of it with the guy who made it……. Mr. D (aka Dudley Hall):

The following three (3) pictures show the cushion in place, ability to slide out for removal, and a side profile of the cushion.  Mr. D has modified the profile from previous designs, and I like it better.

Here’s a picture of Patsy enjoying her new seat!!

Regarding Duane’s coach, it went into the welding shop on Monday morning, and Duane got here about 9:30am on Monday.  We got to the factory in time to see it after it was all welded, painted with corrosion-proof coating, and wired.

Here are some pictures of Duane checking out his wired and corrosion-proofed chassis:

It is starting to get cold and rainy here.  On Thursday, we will get the second 15K jack installed, and that will finish up this visit.  I have made an appointment with a Front End Alignment facility in Florence. AL for 7:45AM on Friday morning.  This is an RV speciality that Tiffin uses on coaches with major problems.  I don’t have a problem that I know about, I just want it checked since it has 27,000 miles on it.  We will leave Red Bay on Thursday afternoon, and spend the night on the parking lot at the alignment shop. 

After that, we intend to drive to Little Rock, AR to visit Deanne.

Christmas Pictures for Mom

There will be followup of what went on at Red Bay later today.  Since Matthew and I promised his mom that she would get daily pictures, this is for her!! 

Duane, Matthew and I went to get a pizza last night, and on the way, we stopped at the local town square and took some Christmas light pictures.  Here they are:

The stranger in the last picture is Duane… who Matthew has taken a shine to!!