Finishing Up in Red Bay

 

As stated in the last post, we arrived at Custom RV Paint, Inc. (also known as Bruce Deaton’s Paint Shop) on Sunday afternoon, and parked in the lot in front of the shop.  All campground sites in town were full!

Monday morning, we met with Bruce and he checked the parts that he had ordered against the damage on the Bus.

The damage was on the PS rear of the Bus.

He ordered both of the doors new, and planned to repair the remainder of the damage, including the strap seal between the edge of the side and the end cap. 

Due to a death in the family last week, they were a little behind, and did not get us into the shop until Tuesday. 

On Monday, I also drove over to the Tiffin Service Center to see if I could get a couple of jobs done, and as normal, I had to fill out the paperwork, and wait.  I needed some wiring to the rear signal lights and brake lights because I recently found out that I did not have any feed to those lights when the headlights were on!!! 

It was some kind of communication issue between Tiffin and Spartan, the chassis manufacturer.  They called me at 1:00pm and told me to be at the Mechanical Bay ASAP.  That was a nice surprise, and it only took them about 45 minutes to repair the lighting issue and to install the new wiper arms in response to a Tiffin recall. The best part was that the work was free!

On Tuesday about noon, we went into Deaton’s shop.  It did not take long to get started!  Here are some progress pictures:

On Wednesday, about noon, after eating lunch at the local Piggly Wiggly, we left in the car to head to Tupelo to pick up a new wheel that I had ordered from the Honda dealer. 

It was only about 45 miles from Red Bay to Tupelo, but we got off of I-22 to air up the spare tire that we were running on, and when I headed back toward the interstate, I made a right about 50 yards too early, and therefore missed the freeway, and instead found ourselves on a rural road, which for a while, looked like the feeder road!  I rationalized that we were still headed in the right direction, so I continued on. 

Well……….. not the best idea that I have had!!!  About 80 miles later and after driving a while on the Natchez Trace Parkway, which we stumbled upon (we left the GPS in the Bus), we arrived on the ‘other’ side of Tupelo.  We always liked travel on the Trace, and here are some pictures that Patsy took, all the while lecturing to me about my ‘not too soft head’ for refusing to turn around.  I just don’t like back tracking back over the same road!!!! 

None the less, the wheel was the correct one, and I also had to order a new Honda valve stem, because the TPMS system for the Honda is built into the valve stem!!  To save $50 on the new wheel, I had to turn in the old wheel as a core.  They said they re-melted the metal!!  Before doing so, I took some pictures of the damaged wheel…….

Before we left Tupelo, we visited a Sam’s Club and a Walmart to stock up supplies.  When we returned to Red Bay later that evening, we were already in the paint booth, and painted.  It, as I expected, was a good job.

After spending the night in the paint booth, we moved over to a 4-space campground that Bruce has built in front of his shop on Thursday.

We will stay here to rest up for the night and get repacked, and on Friday morning, we will head the 140 miles to Southhaven, MS (Memphis TN) to a Discount Tire Company to have a new tire put on the new rim, and buy a second tire to install on the other side of the axle.  I don’t like mismatched tires on a vehicle axle.  Even though the tire was destroyed, Discount Tire will still honor the “road hazard” warranty that they give on all tires!!!

After overnighting somewhere in Memphis, we will head for the North Little Rock Riverside RV Park on Saturday where we will stay until Thanksgiving morning.  This will give us a good visit with our Daughter, SIL, and 5 year old granddaughter, Rachel.

We have to be back in Victoria by Saturday noon because 50 years ago, Patsy was in a wedding of a friend and she wants the whole wedding party at the celebration on Saturday evening!!!

More on the travel to Little Rock and our visit with Rachel in the next post.