RVing With a Purpose

Sunday, August 5, 2018

Friday was another scorcher in Tuscaloosa with a high of 93 and high humidity. We didn’t do our morning walk because Anne had to be at the estate attorney’s office first thing. We have a contract on some of Mama Ruby’s apartments but are trying not to celebrate too soon. They aren’t sold until the money is in the bank. Counting down the days until our August 31 closing.

After taking care of business we did some shopping. After almost three weeks in Red Bay where there are no Walmarts or Lowes or Home Depots, it was time. We like patronizing the small, local businesses but after three weeks also appreciate the big box stores. We also had a little visit with one of the neighbors who is 94 years old and actually waited until after dark to do our evening walk. That’s the beauty of a well lit greenway.

Saturday we were on the road back to Blount County to check on the Aunts. We stopped at the produce stand on the way into town and got another watermelon, tomatoes and peaches. All grown by our neighbors in Blount County. Our county grows some good produce! The Aunts were doing the best we have seen in a while. True they continue their slow decline in some ways but in others they seem to be doing better. Helen’s mind was pretty clear this visit, even though she couldn’t remember things. Best of all they both seemed really happy. Helen doesn’t really want to go home but does want us to move into her house. After a good visit we headed back to the mountain to check on things and gather our mail. Max cut the grass while Anne dealt with two weeks worth of mail. She did not get through it all. After the grass was cut we did our afternoon walk with Barry and Donna. Great to see them again!

Sunday we met Barry and Donna for a really good breakfast at Huddle House before church. It was then on to worship. (click here to view the service) Since schools in Blount County start this week, Brother Beck had all the teachers, counselors and school staff come to the alter for prayer. We have a lot of members working in our schools across the county. Brother Beck then had the students come forward and lay hands on and pray with him for the teachers, counselors and staff. What a special time of worship! God was truly at work during the entire service, music, prayer, message and communion. Wonderful morning. After Sunday school there was a fund raiser brunch/luncheon for the Senegal mission team, another team soon the go out from our church. We are so blessed to be a part of the Lester Memorial family.

After church we went back to visit with the Aunts again and then shopped a little at the outlet mall before heading back to Tuscaloosa. Thankful for another day of safe travel a looking forward to a little play time this week. More on that tomorrow.  Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

Thursday, August 2, 2018

We were not up quite so early today with no 7:00 am appointment. We had no real schedule except we were suppose to be out of our camp site by 1:00. No problem. We were up for our morning 3.5 miles in the cool 68 degrees. Also had a little breeze. Nice walk. When we came back to our site we met our new next door neighbors and talked with them for a while. They had never been to the Service Center so we answered a lot of questions for them. We also talked to them about NOMADS. Then we packed up and hit the road back to Tuscaloosa. We had an uneventful drive and are back in Mama Ruby’s driveway for a few days. Anne has some more estate business to handle. We are making progress. Another shorter walk tonight. It is noticeably warmer and more humid in Tuscaloosa. Of course we are further south. Didn’t go to Cookout for a shake tonight but doubt we will let another 24 hours go by without that visit.

Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Great start to August! Beautiful day. Cool temperatures, high of 82 today. Lower than usual August in Alabama but not the 26 F indicated by the Red Bay pharmacy outdoor sign when we did our afternoon walk. A little respite from the heat today. Nice!

We were in the paint bay at 7:00 this morning and BJ went right to work. In case you have missed some earlier posts, the window at our computer work station was defective and couldn’t be repaired so had to be replaced. That meant we had to go to paint for the window trim to be painted. While there BJ also did a little touch up on a couple of other spots. BJ finished up about 1:30 and we went to the office to check out.

Our one year full warranty was actually up June 7 when we were working in Hattiesburg. We called Tiffin and explained we were going to be working spring mission projects and asked if we could have the last of our warranty work done a little late. We emailed them our punch list and they okayed us coming in anytime in the next 12 months for the repairs. It’s pretty amazing. We have been here almost three weeks. They took care of all of our concerns and even more. If they thought something needed to be done they did it even if it wasn’t on our list, like replacing all our LED lights. We also got a new air conditioner, new cabinet, new cabinet door, new awning LEDs, new window, two additional shelves for our pantry and full hookup site. When we went to the office to pay our total bill was $0.00. Wow! Reaffirms our decision to purchase a Tiffin product. They just try to do what’s right. No trying to do as little as possible. Without exception every interaction with every employee was a pleasure. While we didn’t really plan to be here but about two weeks, the extra days we were here this week were good. We made a number of new friends and handed out more NOMADS brochures.

After returning Fred to our campsite, we headed to the local pizza restaurant Hometown Pizza over in Belmont, for a late lunch. We had pizza and a salad and it was very good. Again we enjoy being able to support local businesses rather than the big chains. Met one of our neighbors having lunch there too. Back at the campgound we met some more people that came in today who were retired police officers. They had the grill on their rig painted with the police flag. It looked really cool. Some of our police friends might be interested in this.

It was a good day and a great Red Bay visit. We are getting ready to head back to Tuscaloosa tomorrow.

Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Today was a cloudy, cloudy day. Threatened rain a few times but not a drop did we see. It was cooler today with the high in the low 80s. Much nicer.

Unfortunately we went over to the paint department shortly after 7:00 and found that they had just received our paperwork and they didn’t think they would get us in today. They didn’t. They did come by the rig about 3:00 to see exactly what we needed done and told us to be at the paint bay at 7:00 am tomorrow. They think they will finish the paint tomorrow. Things always seem to take longer than we expect so we are hoping to be back in Tuscaloosa on Thursday. We shall see.

Since it was another waiting day, we did some laundry and then worked on the under-counter lighting for the galley area. We were able to run the wires while they had the cabinet out and they cut the holes for the lights when they built the cabinet so things went very nicely today. We are really pleased with the lighting. The dark work area is no more. We think we are really going to enjoy having this little addition to Fred.

This evening we met some more people who might be interested in NOMADS and handed out two more brochures. Working to spread the word. We also had a gathering of several of us that have made friends in our long time in Red Bay. Most of us think we will be leaving over the next day or two so we had a little good bye, safe travels time and Dean brought some key lime pie for everyone. Good times here in Red Bay even though we all get tired of waiting. Now it’s time to get things packed back up for another early morning appointment.