From our home in Georgia, we made the 3 hour drive over to Phoenix City, Alabama. We spent one night in one of our vendor's lots there before meeting with him the next morning. Later that morning, we headed to Montgomery, Alabama and got set up there with the expectation of spending two nights. We had two meetings scheduled the following day with a couple of Pepsi distributors in the area. They were our first two meetings and both went great!
As we were leaving the second meeting, about an hour and half south of Montgomery, the discussion turned to the storms that would soon be rolling in. Once we were in the car, we looked at the radar and determined that our campground in Montgomery was directly in the path of a tornado warning, so raced back to the campground, pulled the slides in, hooked up the Jeep and hit the road for Birmingham a day early. All in all we spent over six hours driving that. Combined with our meetings and the hurry to get out of Montgomery, it was a full day to say the least. Nothing like a little drama to start off a major road trip!
In Birmingham for three nights, we were able to meet with another of our preferred vendors and another Pepsi distributor. Let it be known that Pepsi has a hold on Alabama! Getting to meet these guys face to face and see first hand their distribution centers is already giving us a great deal of insight into their unique needs, which is the point of this whole trip to begin with, so we were off to a good start.
We took the following weekend to visit with some friends in Chattanooga, TN before heading over to Decatur, Alabama for a few more customer meetings in Huntsville. We really liked the park we stayed at while in Decatur as well as each of the restaurants we tried while there. Decatur was a win, win of a town but we had to make the move on to Red Bay, Alabama to have some punch list items on our motorhome taken care of.
As with any brand new home, there is always a punch list. A rolling home is no different and as Jeff has put it, with over 4,000 parts on this big old thing, if 99% of them are good, there are still approximately 40 that could use some fine tuning. Fortunately, we made our motorhome purchase based on Tiffin's outstanding reputation for customer service and warranty work.
Tiffins are manufactured in Red Bay, where they also have a huge service center, complete with a 90+ site campground. As we pulled into Red Bay, we knew we were in for an experience! Since there's no way to really tell how long service work will take, they don't make appointments or take reservations for the campground. You basically show up, give them your list of work to be done and then you get put into the que. Fortunately, because we're in a brand new unit, we had a wee bit of priority, so we were in a service bay on Monday after arriving the previous Thursday.
Ultimately, we spent 12 days in total in Red Bay. While it was a huge learning experience for us both, neither of us are anxious to get back there anytime soon. The town of 3,200 people is an hour away from the nearest cities, which are Tupelo, MS and Muscle Schoals/Florence, Al. The campground was built around an old run way, and outside of the strip was just a worn out gravel parking lot. It was either a mud pit or a dust bowl, depending on the weather. The major bonus for being there was getting to meet so many other full time RVers and learning about their experiences on the road and with their coaches.
In addition to the new friends we met there, we were able to spend some time with some some friends that we'd met in Melbourne just before we made our coach purchase decision. Susan and Eric Schilling, live full-time in their RV, while he flies out to wherever his work in the recording industry sends him. They have a house in Rockledge and one in Orlando, but were staying in a coach just in front of our house for a couple of weeks back in the fall. Having been looking at similar units, Jeff knocked on their door one day, and immediately became fast friends with Susan, who was the only one home at the time. Both she and Eric, became a wealth of knowledge for us as we were finalizing our purchase and we were thrilled when they just happened to be in Red Bay for service work at the same time!
We had day trips to both Tupelo and Muscle Shoals on the weekends while we were there. The routes were scenic two lane roads. On the return trip from Tupelo, we were able to jump on the Natchez Trace Parkway for a historical look at the region. We stopped at an Indian Burial Ground, the Pharr Mounds, which were built prior to 200 CE. In Muscle Shoals, we checked out the famous recording studios and had lunch at the Marriott that had a great display of photos from the hey day of the music recording industry there. Being able to do that with Eric and Susan, who are "in the biz" as they say was a real treat!
My primary take away from Alabama is that it is R.U.R.A.L. As we covered much of the state either in the RV or by car, I kept being really surprised how much undeveloped land there was. Like Red Bay, many of the other towns we visited for were a significant distance from any major commerce. The rolling hills of north Alabama and pine trees in South Alabama were much like home to me, so it was the perfect place for us to begin our adventure.