HOME AGAIN!!

What a wonderful trip. We finished up with a couple of days in Moab, where we did get in a round of golf, a nice last dinner in Magic and little wind!!

Thursday we turned into the neighborhood!! We had begged all the neighbors to eliminate the snow before we got home - they did a good job at the house, but still lots of the white stuff up on the mountains!! After emptying Magic and moving back into the condo - Magic needed a good cleaning from stem to stern. With all the wind and blowing dust we encountered on our entire trip, the dust in every nook and cranny of the bus was about an inch thick even though we were cleaning and dusting continuously. (A BIG THANK YOU to all our ‘part time’ neighbors for NOT being in town, as we used every driveway around to wash and dry all the ‘basement’ items!) Once done, Magic was taken to a new home (new storage facility) in Salt Lake for a couple of weeks rest. We will retrieve her and be on our way for a short trip to Las Vegas and CA at the end of May!

We can’t stop thinking and reliving our trip just finished. We travelled approximately 7600 miles and covered 16 states. BUT - It is definitely the many visits with family and friends that make these trips soooooo much fun:-) From the many rounds of golf with friends - the goat farm in Houston - visits with lots of family (Mothers, daughter, granddaughter, sister, niece, cousins, cousins and more cousins) - lunches with old friends - shuttle launches - Red Bay, AL - to those adorable, wonderful, miracle triplets - we have had a FABULOUS trip. A VERY BIG THANK YOU to all who took the time to visit and entertain us - we love you all!!!!

XOXOXOXO

Elizabeth & Gary

The Road Home

WOW - it has been a week since we left you! Don’t have any idea where the time goes - but, the days just seem to melt off of the calendar.

Fort Smith was not a big city and we both said it didn’t have a lot to see or do. Having said that - we both came away pondering how much we had learned! And, I might say, things we learned that did not necessarily make us proud:-(

We visited the Fort Smith National Historic Site, which has a most interesting past. The first of the two Fort Smiths was founded in 1817. The Fort was moved slightly and built a bit ‘stronger’ around the mid-1800’s. The Fort was the point of departure for pioneers, peacekeepers and outlaws.

Fort Smith Arkansas

Sadly, around the mid-1800’s (due to orders from President Jackson) all the southeastern American Indian Tribes, with their ‘nations’ in the areas looking to be settled by the whites (Florida, the Carolinas, Georgia, etc.), were herded to lands established for them by treaty in what is now basically the state of Oklahoma. Moving these Tribes into lands much smaller than they inhabited previously, with many diverse customs and cultures - they began fighting each other. Thus, the military was sent to Fort Smith (which they used as their base) to keep the peace amongst the Indian Tribes in their relocated Indian Territory. (NOTE - it was not to keep peace between the Indians and the pioneers.) As the west continued to be opened to ‘settlers’, the Indians continued to be moved/squeezed into different territory - ignoring the original Treaties signed with them. We have NEVER been kind to the American Indian:-(

Fort Smith was also used by the pioneers as they set off for ‘the west’. The surrounding area also became ripe with ‘outlaws’. So - Judge Parker (who you might recognize as “The Hangin’ Judge”) was sent to Fort Smith to establish frontier justice - and the Fort became the Court House. One of the outlaws that was jailed at the Fort was Wyatt Earp - a character that we met and told you about in our very first stop in Tombstone! He jumped bail, went west and never returned for his sentence. Instead he rose to prominence as a Marshall in the West. Go figure - sounds like our politicians today!!!!

Well - as I said - it seemed like a non-descript stop - BUT, we sure learned a lot.

Thursday we left Fort Smith and headed west - again trying to get as far as we could before dark. It turned out the next overnight was Amarillo. BUT, on the way we ventured through Altus, Oklahoma. WHY??? You might ask. It was Gary’s turn at nostalgia. He was stationed at the Altus Air Force Base, after returning from Okinawa, in 1967-1969 and wanted to see ‘the old place’. Needless to say - it had changed a bit ----

Was it really 42 years ago??

The flight line has changed a lot. New buildings, new planes.

Spent many a night walking security patrol around this type of aircraft. Now it is an exhibit in the City Park.

Friday we arrived in Santa Fe, where we spent quite a bit of time with friends Kathryn and Robert Clemens. We shared dinners, golf, conversation and good times with them.

It is time for us to head out one last time - as we make our final trek toward home. Tomorrow we will pull up stakes and head to Moab for a couple of nights and maybe a round of golf. We have been blown across the country and back - and our only wish is to get someplace with NO wind!!!!

Windblown Elizabeth & Gary

Return to the Mother Ship - The Tiffin Experience

Well, well, well - the last week has been quite an experience!! We have been ‘camped out’ at the Tiffin Allegro ‘Campground’ in Red Bay, AL having a few things done to Magic.

For those who don’t know all the finer details of our Magic Bus here it is - our coach was made by Tiffin Motorhomes, Inc - a family owned business owned and operated by Bob Tiffin and his three sons and based in Red Bay, AL. They now produce 5 ‘models’ - Allegro Bay, Allegro Red, Phaeton (this is our model), Allegro Bus and the Zephyr - and are producing 10 coaches a day out of the plant (this is their total production right now - the max is 20 per day and they went to 3 a day when things were really bad!).

Red Bay is a VERY small town - population of approximately 2500. Their main street is much smaller than our Park City Main Street - and NOT near as vibrant! Their main reason for being is Tiffin! There is one restaurant - Gabe’s Grill (which is very good) - no movie theaters (which means no other activities) - 2 grocery stores, a car wash, an RV wash, a hardware store AND TIFFIN.

We arrived at the ‘campground’ Tuesday evening to a sign posted at the check-in that said “FULL - DRY CAMP ONLY”!!

Notes of explanation. I keep putting ‘campground’ in quotes - this is for a reason. Bob Tiffin bought the Red Bay airport and turned it into his service/campground facility. The runway and taxiway made the camping areas (there were 100 full hook-up spots, about 15 electric and water spots, and about 12 ‘dry’ camp spots (no hook-ups - you are on your own!)) The ‘hangars’ were turned into service bays - 43 in all plus the parts warehouse, shipping, wood working shop and the service office which included a customer lounge.

Tiffin tower, this is 32 BUS, ready for take-off . (Note the major storm

clouds in the distance).

NOW - I go back to our arrival ‘greeting’ - FULL - all 115 spaces!!!!!

Gary and I looked at each other and said “What does that mean”???? We scampered into the office and asked the same question. Only to be told, we could have a place to park - we would probably move to one of the 15 water and electric the next day and one of the 100 full hook-ups the following day. The rest of the ‘good news’ is that our ‘number’ was 401 - we were to have our list of ‘issues’ back to him by 7PM (it was now 6PM) - Norris would review all the lists and start knocking on doors at 7AM tomorrow morning (Wed.) - and we would go from there. Oh by the way - don’t come back to this office because once we handed in our ‘list’ it was up to Norris and they had no more to do with the process until we checked out. Got it.

Off to our ‘dry camp spot’ to print our list (believe me this was already made out and growing day by day on our trip!). After handing it in we made our walk around the lot. What a trip - never seen so many Tiffin’s in one place!

Wednesday morning we were up bright and early just in case we were one of the first doors that Norris knocked on (what incredible wishful thinking!!). Never thought that our number of 401 and the fact that we were parked out on the ‘dry camp’ spots might mean that we were NOT first in line! Anyway - about noon I did make a trip back to that office to say - “I know we aren’t to bug you - and you said Norris starts knocking on doors at 7 - BUT, what time does he stop knocking on doors?!?!?” Response - “OH - with your number of 401 he will not get to you today!” Now - Gary started working the system and I retreated with my head hung low. By the end of the day we had a ‘promise’ that Norris would be knocking on our door at 7:30 the next morning (Thursday). Wednesday night - another trip around the lot - this time talking to people. AND - found that some people had been here for 3 and 4 weeks! NEVER going to happen - I would go MAD after 2 weeks here!

Thursday morning we were up bright and early for Norris’s visit at 7:30. At 9 - Gary went back to the office to say we really wanted to do the factory tour at 10 - BUT, wanted to talk to Norris before we went - any chance of that?!?!? Then - there was Norris! Gary and I went thru our list - Norris said he would let us know when we had a service bay. Probably Friday or Monday:-( Gary and I went to the factory tour.

THE FACTORY TOUR - this would NEVER happen in California (or many other parts of this country)!! We were issued a pair of protective glasses and a headset so we could hear our tour guide in the factory - then headed to the assembly line in the factory. We saw the whole process from the bare chassis coming in the back door to the final product (short of the exterior paint) out the front. We walked right up to the chassis - examined it - asked questions of the workers who were nailing, glueing, soldering, etc - looked at the various components lined up ready to be installed, etc. - FULL ACCESS!! It was most interesting to see our Phaeton from the bare bones up. Now we know what all is under/over/through the floor/walls/ceiling to be able to understand how things work or what might be wrong when they don’t. Incredibly interesting and informative -

82 year old Red is leading the factory tour

They start with a Freightliner chassis

Then they fabricate the floor

The side walls are lined up for mounting

Now they are ready for the slide-outs to be added

Boy there are sure a lot of wires in this thing!

Everyone (our dealer, factory rep we saw in FL and various other owners we have talked to - as well as the campground office and our tour guide) said that Bob Tiffin is very ‘available’ and after the tour we should go over to his office and talk to him. SO - our next stop was his office. Gary had a few ‘suggestions’ for him.

Bob Tiffin WAS very assessable! He spent about 30 minutes with us discussing everything from Park City (which he had visited and loved) to the factory tour and the campground. Then Gary gave his suggestions after asking if he was open to such a conversation. This led to our problems - blah, blah, blah.

It is very interesting that by the time we got back to the campground - we had an appointment for 7AM Friday morning. Don’t know if Bob made a call - but we were VERY happy:-)!!

SO - this is how it works. You are assigned your time and bay number. At the given time you line up and wait for the bay to open - when it opens you pull in and disappear. Then the work begins. In most of the bays you are able to watch and even be in the coach while the work is done! And, you move your coach from bay to bay for the different types of work to be done. Again - a very interesting experience -

7 am. Jockeying for position at your assigned service bay.

Ahhhh. Happiness is being in your service bay.

OK Billy Bob let's see if we can get these leveler

hydraulics working correctly.

These guys are amazingly well organized.

By the end of the day we had all the work done except the body and paint work - which we determined could be done Monday ‘off campus’ (by a local paint and body shop that does contract work for Tiffin - all ex-employees that worked for Tiffin for 10-20 years then left and started their own businesses assisting Tiffin with their excess work).

This meant we had the weekend to play and investigate the area. We packed our bags - left Magic at the campground - and visited the largest town in the area, Florence with our Marriott points! There are 36 holes of the Robert Trent Jones Trail in Florence that we thought we would take advantage of. Silly us! We spent the weekend ‘dodging’ tornado warnings, which means in and out of ‘safe places’ in the hotel. On a very serious note - we were very fortunate as someone was watching out for us. With all the deaths and flooding in nearby areas, each wave of storms and tornados seemed to move just north of us and more importantly north of Magic! We really did escape a couple of bullets!!

We had Magic at the body shop early Monday morning to get the rear back panels that tried to mate with a yellow pipe looking like they did originally. This meant we had another day to ‘investigate’. So - we were off to Tupelo, Mississippi (just had to spell that out as Deme has just learned that spelling and thought it would be fun!) and the birthplace of Elvis Presley. We travelled a portion of the Natchez Trace Parkway from Red Bay to Tupelo - which is a beautiful road that closely follows ‘trails’ that were originally used by Indians and wild animals as much as 8,000 years ago to get from the gulf coast to the Tennessee valley.

As we entered Tupelo, we made a stop at the Tupelo National Battlefield (another stamp in our National Parks passport!), the site of the last major engagement of the Civil War in Mississippi.

Battle of Tupelo, War Memorial

Then - on to Elvis. We stopped at the Tupelo Hardware store, which is where Elvis’ mother bought him his first guitar. At the age of 10 he wanted a 22 cal. rifle for his birthday - but that is NOT what his mother wanted him to have. So - the salesman showed him a guitar and let him play it for a while (he didn’t really know how to play - he had just seen his minister at his church play one). I guess the rest is history! Gary and I both stood on the very place where Elvis stood while pleading for the rifle - no divine experiences while there:-( You may be asking - how does one know all of this really?!?! The hardware store is a family owned business and the daughter came down to talk to us and give us the story. Also, the salesman has documented the story for all to read. By the way - his name is Forrest L. Bobo - really.

Next stop - his birthplace. Elvis was born in a very small two-room house built by his father, grandfather and uncle. I always forget that Elvis was one of identical twin brothers. His brother, Jessie Garon, was stillborn and is buried with him and his parents at Graceland. The church where Elvis spent his early years - and where the pastor was who played the guitar and taught Elvis to play preached - was acquired from down the street and moved to the birthplace grounds. The area is very small - but, very moving.

Elvis slept here (actually he was born in this house)

Life size statue of the 13 year old Elvis (That's him on the left)

Hmmmm. The Presley loo.

It was time to return to Red Bay and retrieve Magic - which looked as good as new (except for all the dirt from the various storms!). One more night at the campground and we would be on our way to begin our trip home. It was an evening of saying good bye and good luck to our companion campers - especially those that might be there a little longer:-(

Tuesday we planned to drive until dusk and see where we ended up. Noticing that I-40 ‘brushed’ by Cotton Plant, Arkansas - we thought a slight detour might be in order. So - here it is -----

Biaett roots

We made it to the Fort Smith, Arkansas/Sallisaw, Oklahoma area and are now off to investigate Fort Smith and all it has to offer.

All in all - we have to say that Bob Tiffin has a wonderful, organized, efficient organization and we are happy to be a part of it via Magic;-)

Happy Campers - Elizabeth & Gary

Family, Friends & Worn Out!!

Well - it has been 5 days since we left the Byrne family of five - AND we are still exhausted!! We had a GREAT deal of admiration for Bethany and David before - but it grows every day as we realize how worn out we were/are after being there a week. Taking care of triplets IS A LOT OF WORK!!!! Definitely need to be younger than we are to do it - and again - GO BETHANY & DAVID!!!

We left Beaufort and headed to Atlanta to ‘park’ at the Stone Mountain Park and to see cousins Dodge and Jeanie. What a FUN couple of days. We LOVED Stone Mountain Park. The fact that we had a beautiful camping spot did not hurt - the campground was fabulous (one we definitely want to return to). We were in the trees with a lake view - BEAUTIFUL --

The view from our living room window

Of course, the highlight of Stone Mountain is the mountain itself and the ‘carving’ in the granite - a Confederate Mount Rushmore, which consists of the twenty-times-larger-than-life figures of Robert E. Lee, “Stonewall” Jackson and Jefferson Davis carved into an 800 foot high hump of granite. In the evening this carving ‘comes to life’ via a laser show and fireworks:-))

The Stone Mountain Sculpture

Also on the grounds of the Park is the Antebellum Plantation, which is a collection of original buildings from around the state of Georgia, built between 1783 and 1875. They were chosen for their authenticity and historical value and represent the diverse lifestyles of 18th and 19th century Georgia residents. Each building was moved from its original site and carefully restored at Stone Mountain Park. Of course, the highlight for us was the Dickey House (circa 1840).

The Old Dickey Antebellum House

Touring the Antebellum Relics with Dodge and Jeannie.

We did make our way out of the Park and into Atlanta to see the Atlanta Cyclorama & Civil War Museum and the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site.

The Cyclorama is the world’s largest oil painting - the “Battle of Atlanta” - and is presented ‘in the round’ and comes to life with music and the story of the battle as you sit and rotate very slowly around to see the entire circle of the painting. Incredibly interesting to see! The museum also displays the “Texas”, one of the steam locomotives used in the Great Locomotive Chase in April, 1862.

The MLK, Jr. NHS includes a four-block area that holds many important landmarks in the life of Dr. King, including his birthplace, the Ebenezer Baptist Church where he, his father and grandfather all served as pastor, and his tomb engraved with the words “Free at Last, Free at Last”. There is also a visitor center with information, exhibits and films on his life and this sad period in our history.

All of our investigation and touring was done with our cousins - Dodge and Jeanie - who were wonderful tour guides! We also spent lots of hours visiting, eating, drinking and much more visiting for the three days we were in Atlanta. A BIG thank you to Dodge and Jeanie:-))

Tuesday (April 27) it was time for us to hit the road again - and we were off to Red Bay, AL to Tiffin, the manufacturer of our Bus. On the way, we made a stop to see a childhood friend of Elizabeth’s - Art Molter (and Wendy Fletcher). Art & Wendy recently relocated from NM (we saw them there on our Spring trip last year), so we got to see their new home, have a yummy lunch and a VERY nice visit.

With all this activity - you can understand why we have not had time to recover from the triplets. I think we plan to spend the next couple of days ‘vegging’ on the Tiffin lot. LOTS more about what that means in the next post. So - stay tuned -

Worn out - Elizabeth & Gary

The Byrne Family of 5

WOW!!! What a week we had in Beaufort with the Byrne Family of Five!!

After leaving the Everglades, we made one quick stop in Titusville (near Cape Canaveral), played a round of golf and rested up for the triplets - so we thought.

We arrived in Beaufort on Friday, April 16, just in time for the March of Dimes 5K on Saturday. Gary and I thought it would be a lot of fun to join Bethany, David, Olivia and George (YEAH - Samuel is home but this walk would have been a little much for him) on this fine Saturday morning to support a good cause. Little did we know we were walking with ‘royalty’. The morning started with Bethany taking the award for ‘top individual money raiser’. AND - Everyone in Beaufort knows the Byrne family - so it took us a little time to get going, as everyone had to come up and talk. While we are experienced at these walks - we have never pushed a TRIPLE stroller in one before. That in itself is a novelty - then you put these cute little ones in it - and you have quite a show stopper!

The March of Dimes walkers getting organized

George the preppie one

The Byrne family team hits the road

David, Bethany, Olivia and George at the halfway mark.

Us too

The rest of the week we just had a BLAST!! We played, danced, went to the park, played - in general, we enjoyed Olivia, George and Samuel - and Bethany and David!

The pictures can tell the story.

Finally figured out how to hold Samuel without knocking his trache hose off the connection (which we did 3 times in the first ten minutes:-(().

Olivia finally decided that Gary was not an ogre (this took the whole week!).

Olivia staring Gary down.

George's "Argh" face

Hmmmmm, I guess the big guys is okay

Olivia's swinging encounter.

I like this slide thingey

What a great week - Thanks to the Byrne Family of 5 for sharing with us:-)) As always - it was very hard to leave, but all good things must come to an end. We promised to make this an annual event and to return Spring of 2011 - if not before.

Next stop cousins Dodge and Jeanie in Atlanta.

Worn out by the triplets - Elizabeth & Gary