Murals of Red Bay

Thursday, 21 February (part II)
On the road to Maxwell AFB Famcamp — Montgomery, Alabama

The Phaeton gulped down 46.5 gallons of diesel for lunch; and we gulped down two PB&J sandwiches at the Pilot/Flying J on the outskirts of Birmingham.  You can bet that at $4.03/gallon (that’s 12¢ off the regular price with our RV Plus Card) Phae’s meal was far more expensive than ours.  Still, this being our only fill-up for February, it’s not bad.

Even better, we won’t be filling up again until mid-March since our move after Montgomery won’t be taking us far.  If we’re lucky, the prices will start dropping again by then … yeah, I know — a pipe dream.  (By the way, for those who track such things, the price we paid today was up from $3.81 when we filled up on January 31.)

I meant to write this in the previous post, but forgot to do so.  The Phaeton is driving like a dream.  Mui says there is a noticeable difference in the way she handles.  So good to see results from the maintenance work that put a dent in our wallet ;-)

We have an easy drive for the rest of the way to Maxwell AFB, so I am going to write a quick post about the murals of Red Bay.

I put off writing this because I had little information about the murals.  I had hoped that a visit to the Red Bay Museum would shed some light on them, but the timing didn’t work.  (The museum is open only Tuesdays and Thursday, and only from 1:30p to 4:00p.)

Some of them are true murals.  That is, they are painted directly on walls.  From the dates on them, I deduced that they were done to celebrate the centennial of the town in 2007.  Both murals were painted by Shawn and Dora Wallace.

The Tiffin Mural highlights the company’s history in this small Northern Alabama town.
Note how the mural goes from Sepia to color with the passage of time.
There are further small details … such as

… the rail tracks that change to …

… paved roads with the advent of motor vehicles.

Even the young man carrying supplies is partially in color to denote modernization.

I had hoped that the museum staff could shed some light on the various scenes that portray the history of Red Bay in the next mural.  If anyone has info, do share.

100 Years in Red Bay

One of the smaller details in the mural needs no explanation.

Other paintings I found in Red Bay are not murals in the strictest sense of the word.  They are not painted directly on a permanent structure, but rather they are hung on the sides of buildings.

Some were not in the greatest shape.  Nonetheless, they were interesting to me because they depicted some of Red Bay’s old stores and shops. Each one had information affixed to the front of the painting; too much to share in this post, but if you want to read the information, click here to go to my online gallery.

I shared the one to the left in an earlier post, but wanted to include it in this one as well.  It was on the side of a bank building and I would have missed it had I not stopped to photograph the Tiffin mural.  It’s one of my favorites.  I like the added detail of the young boy sitting on the barrel, making me wonder what mischief he might get into given the opportunity to do so.

I’m not going to share all of the murals/paintings we found during our meandering walk in town, but here are some of them.

The two narrow ones that are not featured in the collage below:
TD Jackson’s Meat Market and Red Bay Café, Bus Station, and Taxi Stand (next to the bench).

Clockwise from top left: The Style Shop, Red Bay School, White's Five & Ten, Wilson's Ready to Wear.
only the school remains; it burned down in 1967 and was reopened in 1969.

This wall has paintings of the Bay Theater, A.M. Nix Barbeque/Dairy Queen, Red Bay Ice &
Gin Company, and Yarber Grist Mill.  None of these establishments are around today.

Built in 1927, before Red Bay had electricity; some of the first “talking” movies
were shown here.  The building burned down in 2004.

The Yarber Grist Mill opened for business in 1933; located in a tin building in
downtown Red Bay, the mill closed in 1952.

And that’s a wrap for Red Bay.  Just in time, too.  We’ll be in Montgomery in about ½-hour.  We’re debating what, if anything, we will do while we’re at the Maxwell AFB FamCamp this time.  On the one hand, we want to go out and explore all the interesting things the area has to offer.  On the other hand, the whirlwind schedule of Red Bay is catching up to us and doing nothing seems very attractive right now.  I guess time will tell.

The Phaeton Gets Straightened Out … and We Go Sightseeing

Wednesday, 20 February (Part I)
Custom RV (AKA Brannon Hutcheson — Vina, Alabama
Temps: Lo 31F / Hi 40F (-1C / 4C)

Our last day in Red Bay dawned colorful, but cold.  Though there was no wet stuff falling from the sky, the gloomy day was damp, which made the cold feel worse.

Having done much of the prep for today’s early departure last night, we didn’t have to do much more than bring in the slides before we pulled up stakes for our short drive to Bay Diesel where we had a 7:00a appointment to get the Phaeton’s wheels aligned.

No sooner were we in the bay that David and Anthony got to work on the job at hand.  Mui had taken the Phaeton in for an alignment early last year, but it quickly became apparent that the job had not been done well.  It sure feels good when you can see the before and after results on the computer for yourself and know that the job is done right.

Bay Diesel uses the Hunter heavy-duty alignment system with the cordless sensors.
Each of the front tires got the sensor in the top right photo; and the rear outside tires
got the sensor in the bottom right photo.  The orange riser in the top right photo was
replaced with an alignment turn-plate, which I neglected to take a picture of.

I don’t get all this stuff about cambers, and casters, and toes,
but I do know that red is bad and green is good in these before and after photos.
We still have a problem, but it would require cutting into the chassis to fix it; we'll live with it.

We were done at Bay Diesel around 9:30a.  Before we could leave town, however, we had one more thing to do — top off our propane.  Yes, those cold, cold nights in Red Bay meant using the propane furnace quite a bit to not only keep ourselves warm, but the wet bay as well.

L&L Propane Gas, located just before the rail tracks when driving from Camp Tiffin into town, had been recommended by several people, so we went there.  At $3/gallon it turned out to be our cheapest propane fill to date.  Fourteen gallons later, we were on our way out of town.

The Phaeton gulping down 14 gallons (53 liters) of propane.

A 6.4-mile (10 km) drive put us at Brannon Hutcheson’s Custom RV just over the Red Bay/Vina town line.  We were way too early for tomorrow’s 7:00a appointment with him, but he kindly allowed us to leave our motorhome there so we could go do some sightseeing before meeting up with friends for one last dinner in Red Bay.

By 10:30a, we were on our way to Tuscumbia, about 50 miles (80 km) from Vina.

#2 on the map is Swamp John’s in Muscle Shoals; #3 is Ivy Green,
Helen Keller’s Birthplace, in Tuscumbia; and #4 is Mr. J’s Restaurant in Red Bay.

Grabbing a bite to eat at Swamp John’s in Muscle Shoals was first on our agenda.  We didn’t set out with the idea of going there, but since we knew from their Red Bay eatery that the food was good, it seemed as good a place as any for lunch.  With colorful walls decorated with modern art pieces, the atmosphere was quite different from the place in Red Bay — in a good way.  The food — my shrimp platter was good, but Mui’s po boy was more bread than shrimp … and oh boy … watch out for the horseradish!

Swamp John’s in Red Bay (top left) vs Swamp John’s in Muscle Shoals.

We made two sightseeing stops in Tuscumbia, just a couple miles away.  The first was at Helen Keller’s Birthplace — Ivy Green — and the second was at the Tuscumbia Railroad Depot Museum.  I’m going to leave Ivy Green for a separate post, and show you a few pictures from the latter.  Unfortunately, the museum, which is housed in the Depot (circa late 1800s) was closed, so I had to be satisfied with just wandering around outside.

In 1888 the Memphis & Charleston Railroad built the depot as a division headquarter
on the site of the first railroad west of the Allegheny Mountains, which began in 1830.

This station was abandoned in 1946 when the Southern Railway built a new station
about a mile north of Tuscumbia to serve the whole Shoals Area.

With the station house locked, this was the best I could do to get a picture
of the passenger salon; I actually like how the photograph turned out.

We returned to Brannon’s shop with plenty of time to spare before our 5:30p dinner date with friends.  After using the time wisely to set up for our overnight stay in front of one of his bays, we returned to town, where we had the best meal of our time in Red Bay at Mr J’s Restaurant.

This time our “Tiffin Gang of Six” included Karen and Steve (of GoneByRV), who recently arrived in Red Bay for their February 25 appointment at the service center; and Curt and Deb (no blog; sorry), who are hoping to follow on our “wheels” and leave town soon.  Sure, the thin crust pizzas were good, and we all had plenty of leftovers to take home, but the best part of the evening was, of course, the camaraderie born on the road of fulltiming.

Clockwise from my left: Deb, Karen, Steve, and Curt.

What a great way to wrap up what was a long, but productive stay at Camp Tiffin.

Ricky’s Wash & Wax … by Brandon

Tuesday, 19 February
Camp Tiffin — Red Bay, Alabama
Temps: Lo 34F / Hi 52F (1C / 11C)

After a night of heavy rain, we thankfully had a day of sunshine and blue skies for the wash and wax Mui had booked for the Phaeton.

Warmer temps would have been appreciated — especially by Brandon — but Mother Nature was being a little stingy in that respect.  Adding insult to injury was the breeze that cut through our layers and kept us chilled the entire day.  Oh well; at least it was dry!

Ricky Johnson’s wash and wax service is in his side yard.                         

Mui has always done the washing and waxing of the coach himself, but while in Red Bay he wanted to get a ‘spa treatment’ booked for the Phaeton.  There are a couple of guys who provide such services; he opted to book with Ricky Johnson, a Tiffin employee who has his own detailing business.

Since our appointment was on a weekday, Ricky’s associate — Brandon — provided the services today.  He came by our site at Camp Tiffin shortly before 8:00a and escorted us approx. 10 miles (16 km) on Hwy 24E to Ricky’s house.  Hooking us up to a 50A pedestal, he went to work outside with Mui looking on.  I opted to stay inside where a surprisingly strong internet signal gave me a chance to catch up on my blog reading.  I even surprised Mui — not to mention myself — by taking a nap ;-)

Brandon worked on the Phaeton for a good six hours.  He washed, he dried, he waxed — with Mother’s California Gold — and he buffed.  All by hand.  He also cleaned the windshield and windows, using a streak-free product called Invisible Glass that lived up to its promise.  After all that, I don’t know how he had the energy to take on another rig, but he did … he gave Maria and Nigel’s Open Road the same treatment this afternoon.

Time to buff out the wax for a …

… beautiful shiny finish!

We would definite recommend Ricky’s detailing services; you can reach him at 256-668-0211.

We returned to Camp Tiffin, carefully negotiating the water-filled potholes on the old airport runway that serves as the campground.  We didn’t get settled in, however, as we had plans to take the Phaeton back out at the end of the workday to get her weighed at the Sunshine Mills pet food plant.

Located on the corner of Hwy 24 and CR3 (aka 4th St SW), the plant has a weigh scale for its trucks.  Nigel had found out that we could use the scales as long as we did not interfere with the trucks.  So off we went.  Because there was plenty of space to maneuver, we were able to do a rough four-corner weigh-in.  We remain underweight, with the weight fairly evenly distributed … we plan to keep it that way.

The scales are to the right of the building on the left.

We’ll be leaving Camp Tiffin tomorrow.  Our first stop will be a return visit to Bay Diesel before taking the coach to Brannon Hutcheson’s shop for an overnight stay.  With a 7:00a appointment at Bay Diesel, we checked out of the campground today.  Because so much of our time here was for recall items, Wade Humphries (service center director) gave us a 50% discount off the $20/night rate at the campground.  Plus, we got a free night for doing the factory tour.  Goody!

When Mui returned from the office after checking out, he mentioned that all 93 of the FHU sites here at Camp Tiffin are filled; they’re starting to put people in the overflow area.  Time for us to move out and make room for someone else.

P.S. Mui stopped off at Lowe’s in Montgomery and picked up a couple of bottles of the Invisible Glass that Brandon used on the windows.  Our mirrors have never been so sparkly.  Two thumbs up.

Plant Tour: Where Tiffin Motorhomes Are Born

Monday, 18 February (Part II)
Camp Tiffin — Red Bay, Alabama

I started writing about our day and the tour in the previous post … if you haven’t read it, it’s worth taking a peek to check out the photos of a ‘76 Allegro, one of the early motorhomes built at the plant.

Now for the plant tour.  We joined four other people to see how a motorhome is born at Tiffin’s main assembly plant.  We started out in the cabinetry area, which is located in what used to be the cotton warehouse for the gin operated by the Tiffins.  As Harold put it, “they didn’t tear down the buildings, they just re-purposed them.”

I would like to have given you a step-by-step tour of the process, but that’s not how the two-hour tour went.  That was a tiny bit disappointing.  Nonetheless, it was interesting to see the work that goes into building a house on wheels.  So my photos will pretty much be in the order in which we walked through the huge facility.

Assembled coaches lined up and ready to go to the paint plant in Belmont, Mississippi.     

On the positive side, we were right there with the workers, not kept at a distance.  There were Phaetons and Allegro Busses on the production lines today.  And we saw one Zephyr, too.  Breezes were being manufactured on a separate line.  Each coach is assigned a number, and all the bits and pieces for that coach carry that same identifying number, including all the cabling that goes into the coach.  This ensures the installation of the right parts in a motorhome — especially important when specific options are exercised, thus changing the standard build.

From what Harold told us, it takes three weeks to get a coach ready for shipment — 5 days at the main assembly plant, 5 days at the paint plant, and 5 days in final finishing.  (I am not positive of the last five days, so if someone knows otherwise, let me know.)  That time frame changes to 3½-days x 3 for the Breeze.  If you order a Tiffin, you will have your coach in two months from when you place the order.  Another tidbit — the production rate has been brought up from about 3/day (during the recent economic downturn) to 12/day.  That’s a lot of coaches going out the door!

(You can click any of the photos to see bigger versions in the online gallery.  There are some additional photos in the gallery that I did not post here.)

Some of the 1,500 Tiffin employees are skilled carpenters responsible for building the cabinetry
used in the motorhomes.  On the left is the “Galley Cell” where the kitchen units are built.
On the right is where they prepare wood panels by gluing together strips of hardwood.

The “overhead cell” (left) builds the cabinets that are attached to the ceiling.
Pre-routed trim pieces come to this shop to be cut out and prepared for staining.

In addition to using Ford, Freightliner, and Spartanburg chassis, Tiffin manufactures the
PowerGlide chassis.  Only a few of these chassis are built because of the demand of production.

Prepping a Cummins engine for installation.

A closer look at a Cummins engine installed in a chassis.

All tricked out, these chassis are ready to placed into the manufacturing line.

Dropped in place, the plywood flooring is secured to the frame.

The foam insulation for the roof is bonded to luan paneling and grooves and niches
for wiring and aluminum frame pieces are cut out using a computer-operated router.

The top photo shows the luan paneling with the foam underneath it.
Bottom left is a Phaeton 40QTH roof with the wiring and aluminum frame in place.
Bottom Right is a roof with the skin placed over the insulation; the dome satellite,
AC units, antenna, and fans are already installed.

The tile flooring is in place; the lavatory is next to go in.
interesting to see that most of the interior elements are mounted
before the shell of the motorhome is put in place.

The shell is in place; lots more work to do!

One of the bedroom slides is ready to be installed, and we get to see it being swung into place.

The face cap … outside and inside.

One of the things not manufactured by Tiffin is the windshield.
They are made in Turkey, which has a big bus manufacturing industry
and the technology to curve the edges of these big windshields.

This department prepares the wiring that goes into the motorhomes.
The machine to the left of the woman cuts the wiring at pre-designated lengths.
She then loops them in bundles and places them on carts (one cart per coach).
The plastic jackets on the wiring are stamped with the ID of the coach they are
intended for, as well as the purpose for which they are to be used.

The coils of cables on the rack are laid out on a series of spindles with numbers on the
panel corresponding to  specific positions in the coach; the cables are then bundled together.

The protective diamond shield is placed on the front of the coach once it has been
painted.  Next, the air bubbles are squeegeed out to present a crystal clear finish.

I understand we could have stayed on after the tour to wander around at will.  We didn’t quite get that at the time, and thought Harold meant that we were welcome to go into the finished coaches that were at the various quality control stations, or those parked on what they deem the “yellow brick road” outside.  In any event, Mui was anxious to pick up our Phaeton from Bruce Deaton’s paint shop.  And I was overwhelmed by the “beehive activity” and noise around me.  So, we’ll do self-guided tour the next time … as I am sure there will be a next time.