TAMPA, FLORIDA

We have arrived in Tampa and are spending the night.  Tomorrow we have an appointment to have our engine looked at and we should be home by tomorrow night.  We don't think we have a big problem with our engine but we need to have it checked before we store it.

THIS POST WILL END THIS BLOG!  WE HOPE YOU ENJOYED OUR TRAVELS WITH US THIS SUMMER AND THAT YOU WILL JOIN US AGAIN NEXT SUMMER.  WE'RE HAPPY TO BE HOME!

UNIDILLA, GEORGIA

This is the location of our home RV park in Resort Parks International, a discount club we’re members of.  It’s located on I75 south of Perry, Georgia.  We stopped here for a couple of nights on our way home. 

Nearby is Andersonville, which was the location to one of the most infamous Civil War prisons.  Because of the huge number of soldiers that died in the prison here, they decided to build a museum here dedicated to ALL prisoners of war from all of our wars.  It’s a neat museum that tells the story of Andersonville but also tells of the story of many different prisoners of war.  To understand how bad things were in the Andersonville prison you need to start by knowing that during the short 14 months the prison was open they had over 45,000 prisoners and 13,000 of them died in the prison (that’s an average of 31 dead prisoners every day the prison was open).  The stockade picture above shows just a small corner of what the prison would have been like because there was no housing for prisoners and they fended for themselves once inside the walls.   The commandant of the prison was later found guilty of cruelty and hanged but in reality all he was doing was following orders (no more, no less).  The north wasn’t much better with their prisoners.  The museum was very well done and very interesting.  In addition to the prison, there is a cemetery where many of the prisoners are buried and it has been designated a National Cemetery, where veterans of today can be buried.  It was an interesting afternoon!

HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA

 

Huntsville is the home of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.  They have a very large museum of space artifacts ranging from small moon rocks to complete full size rockets that were used to launch us into space.  They also have the actual moon rover that was used to drive on the moon and several real space capsules that were used at the beginning of our space explorations.  Also on display is one of the actual space shuttles that were used until just recently.  There are only a couple of them in the world.  This museum has been there for many, many years and, in some areas, it shows it’s years but all and all it’s a very interesting place.

LEXINGTON, ALABAMA

We always know we’re home when it’s time to visit our great friends, Jim and Sue Quillen, who live in this small northern Alabama area on their 13 acres.  We love our visit with them each year and use it to wind down from all our travels before we reach home.  They have been our friends for many years and I hope for many years to come.  While visiting them we really don’t do anything except relax and that’s wonderful.  It was great seeing them again this year.

RED BAY, ALABAMA - WEEKEND

  

Red Bay is in a dry county of Alabama and you have to drive about 25 miles to the next county, which puts you in the middle of nowhere.  Just across the county line a farmer has opened a bar on his 3,000 acres.  It’s called the Rattlesnake Saloon and it’s very neat.  It’s located in an overhang that makes it look like a cave.  To appreciate how large this place is you can see that they built the entire bar under the overhang.  They're only open on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights but they offer a band and beer only from 5pm to 10pm.  Because parking is so far from the bar, they have a pickup truck that they use as a “taxi” to and from the parking lot.  They also took three old farm silos and renovated them into condos.  They use them mostly during the hunting season to house the hunters.  I can’t understand where this place gets all of it’s customers but they seem to be doing pretty well.  I guess that’s just what happens when you’re surrounded by dry counties.  In any case, it was a fun evening.

RED BAY, ALABAMA - WEEKEND

There’s nothing to do in Red Bay during the week and even less to do on the weekend but when the work on your RV has not been completed you’re stuck.  In an effort to find something to take up time, you decide to visit the only tourist destination in the area….The Coon Dog Cemetery!  The cemetery is a very nice 21 1/2 mile drive out into the sticks of Alabama and there, nestled in the hills and trees, is the Coon Dog Cemetery.  This is not a normal cemetery and it is not a joke.  These folks are very serious about their coon dogs.  The cemetery was started in 1937 with the burial of “Troop” and has continued to the present.  It’s the only cemetery of its kind in the world.  You must prove that your dog is a full blooded coon dog before you are allowed to bury it here.  As you can see from the pictures, some people go all out with granite headstones and others use simple wooden crosses.  If you have any interest in more information or if you think I’m pulling your leg, check out their web site (http://www.coondogcemetery.com/).  They even have a little movie about the cemetery.

 

BELMONT, MISSISSIPPI – TIFFIN PAINT SHOP

We have never been to the paint shop for the Tiffin coaches but it is only about 5 miles across the state line in Mississippi and we decided it was time to see it.  What a place!  They say that a paint job on one of these coaches costs about $10,000.  Now we know why.  This place is big and beautiful.  They have three paint lines and each line has four paint booths large enough to handle the largest coach Tiffin makes (45’).  Tiffin is the only coach manufacturer that paints all of the intricate designs on the sides of the coaches.  Others use decals.  The process is really neat….In the first booth they paint the coach a solid color, then they take it out and put stencils on the sides (yellow in the photos).  In the second booth they paint the various colors in the design.  After the second booth, they check the coach for problems, which are all corrected in the third booth.  All of the colors so far are flat with no shine and that’s where the last booth comes in where they paint the clear coat shine.  The results to all of this is one of the best paint jobs in the industry.

RED BAY, ALABAMA

Red Bay is a very small town on the north western border of Alabama just across the line from Mississippi.  It is the home of Tiffin, the company that manufactured our RV and every year on our travels we return here for service.  It’s not that we have any major problems with our RV but no one is better at fixing what goes wrong than the manufacturer.  They have 50 bays to fix RV’s and they are always full.  Outside there is an RV park with full hookups that will hold at least 100 RV’s.  Each day you pull your RV in for service at 7am and pull it out at 3pm until the next day.  It’s a nice RV park and terrific service facility but Red Bay is about as boring as a town can be so you end up spending a lot of time reading in your RV.  It just has to be done!

TUPELO, MISSISSIPPI

On our way to Red Bay, Alabama for our yearly service stop, we had to go through Tupelo.  It would be a shame to drive through Tupelo without stopping to see the birthplace of Elvis Presley.  Elvis was born in a small, two room house in Tupelo in 1935.  The city has purchased the land around the house and now has a beautiful park and museum on the site.  Everything they do here celebrates the first 13 years of Elvis’ life because that’s when he and his family moved to Memphis.

TUNICA, MISSISSIPPI

 

If you’re like us, you’ve never heard of Tunica unless you lived in this part of the country.  Tunica is, however, a Mecca for gamblers from this area.  It’s only about 35 miles south of Memphis, right on the Mississippi river.  There are nine large casinos spread along the river.  Most have names that you would know from their co-hearts in Las Vegas (Sam’s Town, Harrah’s, Bally’s, Fitzgerald's, Horseshoe).  The little town of Tunica is only about 600 and the casinos employ about 16,000.  They, literally, bus employee’s in.  Sam’s Town has a very nice RV park at only $12.50 per night and we enjoyed our three night stay.  We’re not gamblers so the casinos didn’t get much of our money.  If you’re not standing on casino property, you’re standing in a cotton field or a soy bean field.  They are every where!  The last picture shows the story of the “Teddy Bear” which we found interesting (click on picture to enlarge so you can read).

JONESBORO, ARKANSAS

 

We stopped in Jonesboro, Arkansas for a few days visit with an old friend from the video business, Henry Turner and his beautiful bride, Mary Jo.  We’ve been friends for many years and it’s always great to see, and spend time with, both Henry and Mary Jo.  We spent a wonderful evening at their beautiful home and then played golf at the country club the next day.  What a shame that it was so hot it was hard to enjoy the game of golf but the course was simply beautiful.  Like us, Henry was smart enough to get out of the video business and today owns twelve tanning shops around Arkansas and is doing very good.  Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy!

BRANSON, MISSOURI

 

I’m constantly amazed when I mention Branson, Missouri to people and they look at me with a blank stare because they’ve never heard of it.  Branson has been a top mid-western tourist destination for over 100 years.  It’s situated in the rolling hills of the Ozark mountains, right on beautiful Table Rock lake.  It offers just about every kind of water sport and some fantastic fishing.  On top of that it is a major entertainment hub with well over 50 theaters offering just about any kind of entertainment you can think of.  They have shows at 10am, 2pm & 8pm to suit any schedule you might want to have.  While country music is certainly a mainstay, they offer comedy, magic, variety, rock & roll and Broadway and everything in between, along with tourist attractions such as the Hollywood Wax Museum shown above.  Unlike Vegas, with ticket prices over $100, Branson offers shows in the $25 to $35 range.  Over the years, Janie and I have seen most of the shows in town.  We try to see at least one show a day while we’re here.  We have yet to see a bad show.  Being country fans, our favorite is Clay Cooper, who no one has heard of and yet puts on a fantastic show for all ages.  We look forward to our time in the Branson area.  Everyone should give it a try.