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.