Gettin' Ready for Another Road Trip

We returned home last Sunday, and right before we got here, we knew that we would be leaving again next week. We got an email from our salesperson at Sherman RV in Sherman, MS that Tiffin would begin building our motorhome on Friday, 02Nov2007.

It will all begin on Friday with a Spartan chassis being plucked out of the "field of dreams" as they nickname the storage yard for chassis prior to manufacturing. It will be driven as a naked frame into the welding shop for all the motorhome framing to be fabricated and assembled to the frame.

At 8:30am on Monday, 06Nov2007, it will be driven into the main building to begin 5 days of assembly in which all of the walls, roof, slides and all appliances and furniture will be installed. In fact, at the end of this period, it will be a completed, but unpainted motorhome. Tiffin allows owners to enter the manufacturing area with no limitations to watch. We will be able to stay every minute (if we want to), to walk along the line with it and to take all the pictures that we want.

From a previous visit, here is a partial picture of a Spartan chassis with a Cummins engine after being in the weld shop entering the manufacturing building:


Here's a picture of a Bus pretty far down the line. You can see the washer/dryer in the bedroom and the hutch in the kitchen area (forward). Note that the slide areas are cut out, but slides are not installed yet:



Here's a picture of a completed 40' Allegro Bus.......... ready for the paint shop.

Here's a coach after the paint shop:While we have been in Victoria this week, we have been working hard to get things completed, so we can leave with a clean list next week. We completed the following in 4 days:

• Washed RV and both cars
• Changed oil, filter and greased RV and tow card (Honda)
• Took the written and driving test with Texas DPS to get my drivers license upgraded to "Class B-Exempt" Commercial to allow driving the Bus.
• Removed read camera on Airstream and sent to Canada for repair
• Took Airstream to Chevrolet dealer for rear brake job
• Rewired Honda electric tow cord to dual RV 7-Blade to be compatible with the Bus
• Mowed yard and trimmed trees
• Patsy did a one day volunteer at Detar hospital
• Patsy did a 'neighborhood birthday luncheon' that she was obligated to do last Sept.
• Had blood tests and rescheduled Dr. appointments for next Monday to allow travel

Of course, we did a lot of other things, like visit the grandkids, but this lists was necesary. To take the driving part of the 'driver's license upgrade', I had to borrow a large motorhome. Luckily, I knew a nice guy that I used to work with, and he loaned me his Winnebago Vectra. Boy did it drive nicely. Not only did I 'ace' my written test, with this motorhome, I got '0' gigs driving it around town! Here it is:

We will be attending my nephew, John King's, wedding on Saturday evening, packing the RV on Sunday, completing our 3 month medical appointments, as well as my Mom's and Patsy's Dads on Monday, and then hitting the road for Red Bay, AL later in the afternoon. We plan to stop for the night at the home of our RV'ing friends, Mark and Sue Didelot in Lake Charles, LA on Monday night.

We expect to hit the Red Bay campgound on Wednesday morning, and do a little checking out before our rig starts fabrication on Friday morning.

More later..........