One of the few “planned” stops on our travels is Red Bay, AL. This is in the northwest corner of the state, just a couple of blocks from the Mississippi border. Our Tiffin motorhome was built here, and our plan was to return to take care of warranty items. One of the considerations in selecting a brand of motorhome to buy was warranty and service reputation. No question that Tiffin is at the top of this list!
From day one we kept a list of warranty items, less the ones I took care of on the road. After 3-1/2 months of continuous use we had compiled quite a list. Nearly all of the times were minor and many of those we could probably have lived with, but hey, it’s new only once, right?
Tiffin has a “campground” for both warranty and paid service or repair work. I don’t know of any other manufacturer that provides that sort of support.
We arrived on a Saturday and were in one of the 66(!) bays on Wednesday, 7 AM. Not bad for not having reservations. They had taken my list and transcribed it into their work order list. Our two techs were patient and methodical in their approach to the work being done, i.e., not in any rush. For a “city-guy” this slower pace was a little frustrating at first, but I kept telling myself that they were thorough and, really, there is no rush or immediacy, at least in our case.
It turns out that the lengthiest repair was due to some “mongo-work” by the selling dealer in California. The external tv door was damaged and had to be replaced. A couple of partial days was spent replacing and adjusting it, but a couple more days had to be scheduled to paint the new door. The paint tech’s original attempt at matching the swirls and paint fades was just not good enough. No problem at Tiffin. A new paint job followed and was deemed acceptable.
Since this is our home on the road, we stayed in the coach as work was proceeding, along with our dog Grayce, and the two cats. We got to know our two techs, their hobbies, (mostly fishing), and their food preferences. Laura would often go in the mornings over to the Ole Country Store in Belmont, MS. and bring back sausage and egg biscuit sandwiches, which were devoured.
So, there’s really not much around in Red Bay, or nearby Belmont. The Ole Country Store was suggested to us by others at the Tiffin campground, and is genuinely a “full service” convenience store. A gas station on first glance, with live bait tanks and a couple of picnic tables outside. Inside are a few rows of typical convenience store supplies, like chips, sodas, paper towels and so forth. A grill is located in the back corner, but there is no menu. “What would y’all like?” They will fix anything they have supplies for. For breakfast that is mostly eggs, bacon, sausage, cat-head biscuits (the size of a cat’s head – huge), fried baloney, gravy and chocolate gravy.
Two new to me things here, fried baloney and chocolate gravy. Of course I tried both. The fried baloney was a lot like fried spam, just not as strong tasting. Not bad. The gravy was basically a morning sausage gravy with a little chocolate mix in it. I am not a big chocolate fan but I tried it anyway. It’s a southern thing and mostly like biscuits and gravy with a little chocolate flavor. Clearly Laura liked it.
With time to spend, we went on the factory tour and watched numerous coaches being built. A few people followed the construction of their new RV. Pretty cool to have such access throughout the whole process!
We visited the Rattlesnake Saloon, a great cave like dining area with live music on most nites. Unfortunately, when we visited it was Karaoke nite.
We also visited Helen Kellers childhood house and learned a lot about this amazing woman. What she accomplished shows what potential we all have, and makes one rethink what we really have accomplished in life. Humbling.
Oh, and the Coon-Dog Cemetary, (yup, there really is such a place).
Some local sightseeing around Red Bay.
In all we spent about 3 weeks there, in spite of the polite and friendly nature of everyone there, we were ready to move on. Every repair was completed to our satisfaction, plus some improvements were made as well. Nicely done Tiffin!
