Here we are, on the road: Still in Red Bay

Sunday, March 14, 2010 Lorraine’s report

I just finished a week I wouldn’t wish on any one. Last Sunday we spent the day going to lunch with the gang at Belmont Café. We came home and finished the blog. Connie and Manuel made fajitas, red beans and rice for everyone, while Joanne brought her green chili cheese dip, and Sue and I brought dessert. We played pass the love; I think Mark was the winner.

That afternoon was the last time I felt good for the next week. I’ve spent the week in bed, sleeping, being ill. Chuck kept our appointments with the various workers here in Red Bay. He moved us into a motel in Russellville when they had to keep the coach for two nights in the paint shop at Bruce Deaton’s. He’s taken me to an Urgent Care, where there was just a nurse practitioner and to the ER here at Red Bay Hospital. The doctor there wrote me a prescription yesterday that helped me a lot. Hopefully I’m through this latest bout of stomach flu and will start eating again, I’m tired of Gatorade, Jell-O and toast.

In the mean time, Mark/Sue, Connie/Manuel, and Bob/Joanne were in and out getting all their work done. They all left Saturday morning, with Connie/Manuel, and Bob/Joanne going to eventually end up at Key West, FL; Mark/Sue headed home to Lake St. Charles, LA. They all enjoyed each other’s company, going out to eat, shop etc and I felt badly I couldn’t be out there with them. Next time.

We have to be here in Red Bay this week; we still have work to get done on the coach. We had one day of sunny warm weather, but I was too ill to enjoy it. Since then it’s been cold, windy, wet and just plain nasty. Kinda reminds me of Bellingham in the winter.

I want to wish Chuck’s sister, Corliss and brother-in-law, Phil a very Happy Birthday, today. We hope it’s a good day for you both.

That’s it for me….Be well……Lorraine

3/14/10 Chuck’s report

Another week has gone by, this one a bit slower than the last few. Lorraine has been sick most of the week, she went to a walk in clinic on Thursday and to the emergency room Saturday morning. Sometimes she seemed to be on the mend then gets another round. Sure hope she’s over it today, she hasn’t eaten much this week and doesn’t have any stamina. She is disappointed she didn’t get to spend more time with our friends before they left but she really wasn't up to it.

We spent two nights in a hotel in Russellville, about 30 miles away while our coach was in the paint shop. We had an appointment with a body shop downtown, not at Tiffin’s but he does warranty work for them. So on Wednesday we went to the shop in the morning, packed a few clothes and headed off to Russellville and the hotel. We didn’t do much while we were there as Lorraine was pretty ill those two days. It turned out to be a good thing we were at the hotel and didn’t have to move the coach back and forth each day as she probably couldn’t have done it.

Friday afternoon we got the coach out of the shop and set up back at our site. We then had our last group dinner before most of our friends left. They had all their repairs completed and wanted to move on, can’t figure out why ,there is so-o-o much to do here in this thriving metropolis of Red Bay, Alabama. In fact, Mark wanted out of here so bad he took our scheduled appointment at Bruce Deaton’s, had the techs at Tiffin give him one of our window replacements I had ordered and all around slowed us down so he could get ahead of us and out of here. What a guy!! Well, truth be told, he was able to get into the paint shop the day before our appointment and the window he got was one we didn’t need but I have to give him a bad time about it, don’t I?

So for the upcoming week we are planning on more repairs on the coach. We are scheduled to return to Bruce’s for the final painting and buffing on Monday. After that, I have to wait until the tech in Bay 9 gets free (hopefully on Tuesday) and then we return there for a couple of day’s or so work. After he is finished we wait for our turn in Tiffin’s paint shop for some paint repairs on the front end where the plastic protective shield was removed. We had this shield installed two years ago, had a lot of trouble with the installation then and even after three tries it wasn’t installed very well. They agreed to redo it but it will require us to stay here for probably another whole week, yea. Sure hope we get it right this time.

We also are changing out our front television while we are here. We have had some problems with it in the past and we’ve already picked up the new one. The cabinet maker is coming over on Monday afternoon/evening to redo the cabinet and install the TV. I’m going to install the old one in the basement compartment sometime later this spring as that one has a broken cable inlet connection.

The weather around here finally broke this week, it seems spring may have been here. It got up to the low 70s one day but it started raining again on Saturday with a cool wind all day. We had two good thunder and lightening storms the two nights we were in Russellville and there was some hail here in Red Bay during the storm on Thursday night. They don’t get too many tornadoes around here but they do get some good winds, rain and hail this time of the year, guess I need to get our weather radio out and set it up.

We are starting to talk about life after Red Bay but nothing has been finalized yet. I did make reservations at two 1000 Trials parks, one for Memorial Day (Chesapeake Bay in Virginia) and one for Fourth of July (Hersey, Pennsylvania). We usually don’t make reservation but for holiday weekends it’s a good idea and if we aren’t in the area, we can cancel easily. We are considering going to Washington, DC for a couple of weeks this spring/summer but haven’t worked out any details on that portion of the trip yet. And, we are planning on being back in Bellingham in August for our annual doctor’s visits and checkups. Whew, makes me tired just writing about it!

So with that, I will close and add a few pictures. I don’t have many to post as we didn’t take too many this week.

More get-togethers with our friends, sometimes at a restaurant and sometimes in someone’s coach .