Matthew’s Road Trip – Day 3

We slept in late this morning, even Matthew who is usually up by 6:30am, slept until past 8:00am!!

We had breakfast, and then we gave Matthew a United States map puzzle that we gave him to help him understand our travels.  He did pretty good putting it together….. it has an outline under the pieces!!

About 10:00am, it was getting pretty warm outside, so we got dressed, and went looking for a local playground for Matthew. 

My cousin, Duane King, from Council Bluffs, IA, ordered a Tiffin Phaeton motorhome after seeing my Bus in June, and his build begins tomorrow.  I wanted to take pictures of his chassis before the welding began, so I dropped Patsy and Matthew off at a playground, and I went to the factory to get the pictures.  Here’s Matthew leading Patsy to the equipment:

The guard told me that she couldn’t let me into the plant because it was closed……. so I asked her if she didn’t need to make a round, and that I would ride in the golf cart with her!!  She smiled and agreed!!!  I got my pictures!!  Here’s a couple of pictures:

After getting my pictures, I returned to the playground, and Matthew was having a good time.  The following are mainly for Mom and Dad (and Aubrey!):

Next to the playground, there is a skateboard park, and Matthew brought his scooter with him on the trip, so we went to the skate park:

As much fun that he had, he seemed to have more fun kicking large pine cones:

While in the park, we found a table that makes the monster that his dad, Rick, built in college look kind of puny!!

After playing, we drove around town.  We found a restaurant named “Ezzell’s”, Matthew’s mom’s maiden name, and we took pictures of Matthew at the signs:

Matthew was glad to see that there was no resemblance between him and the guy on the sign!!!!

We returned to the campground and we let Matthew run off some more energy!!

Matthew spotted this metal dog with his leg raised and peeing on a fire in someone’s front windshield!!

We will see what tomorrow brings.

Matthew’s Road Trip – Day 2

On Friday morning, I woke up at about 3:30am from a lot of noise on the Wal-Mart parking lot where we parked for the night Thursday.  I looked outside, and saw the “Black Friday” shoppers filling up the lot, so I decided I would get on the road before I got blocked in.  Patsy and Matthew continued to sleep, and I took off, as the streets in Denham Springs, LA where really coming to life!!

After about an hour, I pulled over to check on Matthew and Patsy.  Patsy was getting one of her bad headaches, and Matthew opened his eyes.  We asked him if he wanted to sleep, or go up front and ‘drive’ with Poppaw.  He jumped out of bed and ran to the front seat.  He and I drove until about 7:00am when we pulled off the interstate at a McDonalds for breakfast.  He got the 3 hotcakes and sausage, and woofed down all three pancakes!!

We got back on the road and drove until we got to the Flying “J” truck stop at Jackson, MS, and pulled over to get fuel.  That was about 10:00am.  After getting back on I-55, we took the Natchez Trace ramp just north of Jackson, and drove the Trace for the next 145 miles to Tupelo.  Here’s Matthew at the Trace sign:

In the earlier hours, Matthew and I continued to play our game of seeing who spotted big trucks in the on-coming lane first.  The Trace does not allow commercial vehicles, so Matthew got bored, and played with his game box.  Patsy finally felt good enough to get up, and took these pictures:

We did see some ducks and deer along the trace.  At about 11:00am, Patsy switched seats with Matthew, and while laying and looking at library books, he quickly fell asleep.  We arrived in Tupelo about 12:30, and decided to visit the local Wal-Mart Supercenter for a few things before we headed to Red Bay.  Matthew was still asleep, but we woke him up and we all went into Wal-Mart.  The traffic on the streets was very heavy and parking around Wal-Mart was a real challenge.

We finished our shopping, and headed the last 45 miles to the Allegro campground in Red Bay, AL.  When we got there, we found a new campground sign:

We also found the campground more empty than ever before.  Holidays, I guess, and surely by Sunday night, it will be full again.

After checking in, and before parking, we washed the bugs off the front of the Bus at the campground wash area.  Then we parked and set up.  It was nice to be settled after 850 miles in 2 days.  We cleaned up the Bus and ourselves and settled in.  Matthew watch a video before going to bed:

Tomorrow, we will find Matthew a playground in town, and check out the other Tiffin’s in the campground!!

Matthew’s Road Trip – Day 1

Our day started out in Cuero at the Ezzell’s (Laura’s parents) home for brunch at 9:30, and to pick up Matthew for the trip.  The brunch was very good, and filling.  We left there at about 11:00am, and headed toward Red Bay. 

After stopping for fuel at the Wharton Wal-Mart, It was non-stop driving until we got to the Denham Springs, LA Wal-Mart at 7:00pm, where we shutdown and I found the Texas and Texas A&M game on satellite. 

Patsy heated up the turkey and dressing that we had picked up at our local Furr’s Cafeteria for our Thanksgiving dinner.

Here are some pictures for the day.  The first set is Matthew and his sister, Aubrey horsing around before brunch:

Then, it was time for Mom to tell Matthew goodbye:

…….and for Grammy to tell Aubrey goodbye:

As we were leaving, Matthew thought his driving lessons were going to start today!!!  Later, boy, later……….

For his first day, Matthew was an excellent traveler.  For a while, he played with a game box…….

Other times, he rode shotgun and helped me drive and we played a game, trying to see who could be the first to spot on-coming 18-wheelers:

At about 4:00pm, he decided look at some library books and let Patsy move back up front.  However, within 10 minutes, he was out for a 1 1/2 hour nap:

I’ve been building this post during the football game……. and it’s a good one!!  We will spend the night here, and drive hard to get to Red Bay on Friday night.

Matthew’s Roadtrip

I was looking at pictures of my grandson, and found a couple where the special settings on my camera captured what he was thinking……

and he hasn’t even discussed the following with me.  I hope his mama doesn’t find out!

I am as ready as he is….. come on Thursday……….

Comments Now Working

 

Several folks sent emails to tell me that the comments section on this blog was not working.  I went into the set-up, and made some changes.  Now, it appears that the comments are being posted.

 

We leave on a road trip on Thanksgiving Day with our grandson, Matthew.  He is 5, and it is his first solo trip with us.  I will try to post every day.

Bus Modifications

We have been home about two weeks, and we have finished two modifications to the Bus. 

The first revolves around a TV antenna modification that we had Brannon Hutcheson of Custom RV, Inc in Red Bay complete while we were there.  In 2008, Tiffin started putting an “omni-directional” TV antenna on the Bus as an option over the crank-up Batwings.   I missed that note, and we ended up with the Batwing!!  We had Brannon correct our oversight with the installation of a Winegard Omni-Directional  ( Winegard Roadstar RS-2000) antenna.  This one is fully automatic and tracks the station, so we can watch a channel while driving down the highway without constantly tweaking the antenna.

Brannon had mentioned to me that since the Omni-Directional is digital, it relies on “line of sight”, and at times, may not receive as many channels as the old batwing did!   I asked him to not remove the old batwing, and made plans to install an A/B switch so that we could easily use either antenna.  Here is a picture of the final installation of selection switch, which I installed in the cabinet in front of and above the passenger seat:

The second modification was the replacement of the fluorescent lights above the kitchen counter with round halogen lights……. exactly like the ones that Tiffin installs in the dinette hutch.

Here’s a picture of the change out over the kitchen sink (the first with the fluorescent and the second with the halogens):

Note that the single gang switch under the upper cabinets and to the right of the light fixture (to operate the light in the stained glass window) has been upgraded to a two gang to also operate the pair of halogen lights.

Here is a pair of pictures showing the difference in the lighting (without flash) of the new lights:

Here’s a couple of pictures of the other end of the counter…………..

The following picture shows the effect the two new pairs of halogens on the kitchen counter, and the original pair in the hutch with all other lights off:

Patsy likes the ‘white-light’ look of the halogens.  She has never liked fluorescent lighting!!

Our next trip is in about two weeks, and this time, we are taking our grandson, Matthew, on his first 10-Day road-trip.  We are heading back to Red Bay for some Bus upgrades.