Yikes! Unscheduled detour from Buffalo, New York to Red Bay, Alabama!

Note:  This is a "blast from the past" post as we work our way backwards to catch you up on our previous destinations. We recently hit the road again and are working our way toward Denver by way of Las Vegas, Phoenix, and New Mexico. We will not be doing any "real time" posts until early March when we visit Kansas. Kansas will be the first of 19 new states that we will visit this year in the final leg of our adventure.

 

August 15 - 27, 2020

By Marty 

As we wrapped up our visit to Niagara Falls and Buffalo, NY we were to head east toward New England. Regrettably we had to change our plans and make a 900 mile detour to the Tiffin Motorhomes Service Center in Red Bay, Alabama due to a repair issue with the Beast.  The total detour was 2,100 miles because from Red Bay we then drove 1,200 miles to Massachusetts to return to our previously scheduled route!

The repair issue was with the rear driver's side slideout. The slideout has been cranky recently. At setup it was coming out cattywampus and getting stuck after extending just a few inches. I could muscle it a bit from the outside while Janell operated the controls on the inside, but it was getting worse. I feared having the slide fail in the extended position and leaving us unable to drive anywhere.

Before taking the drastic measure of driving 2,100 miles round trip for the repair I did the following:

- researched Youtube and RV repair forums for solutions;

- took the Beast to the Buffalo Tiffin dealer's service department (they were unable to diagnose the issue);

- called Tiffin service center phone support in Red Bay (they couldn't advise me on a do it yourself fix either); and

- called Tiffin dealer's service departments in New England (none of which could get us in for 6-8 weeks)

RV repairs are the bane of the RV owner's existence, at least for those that aren't talented "do it your selfers".  The typical RV dealer service department competence level is generally low and the demand for service is very high. It is the norm to wait a month or two for a service appointment. When you live full time in your motorhome this can be a problem!

Tiffin's service center has a great reputation and efficient process so, to get our issue fixed correctly and soon, we decided to take the Beast back to the mother ship.

I'll tell you more about Tiffin's service center in Red Bay below.

We drove 900 miles over two days, stopping for one night at the Two Rivers Campground in Carrollton, Ky. The map above, which is on our refrigerator, reflects our passing through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee on our way to Alabama. We did nothing in those states, but they still qualified for a sticker. While in Red Bay we also visited Mississippi.  More on Mississippi below. 

Funny anecdote about this map:  We got it for the outside of the Beast before starting our travels. The map background is magnetic. When I went to put it on the motorhome it promptly slid to the ground. That's when I realized that the entire skin of the motorhome is made of fiberglass, not metal!  So we bought a new blank adhesive map, which is the one you see in the side panel of this blog.

Janell had the great idea of taking the magnetic map, cutting it in half, and putting it on on the fridge. Now we can follow our travels from inside and outside the Beast! If you look closely you will see that Willie is monitoring our travels too!

 

We stretched our legs at a rest area in Ohio on our 500 mile day one drive.

The Kentucky river was not far from our one night stand in Carrollton.

A favorite of Janell's, we played this song as we crossed into Alabama:

Sweet Home Alabama

After our two day grind we settled in at Red Bay Acres.  No sign of Oliver or Lisa!

At Red Bay Acres it's all Tiffins all the time!

A beautiful Alabama sunset beyond the Red Bay Acres restaurant and office.

Perched on the bridge railing is a camera shy heron. I couldn't get very close for a photo without scaring him off. I'm not as close to him as it appears in this photo. I used my digits to enlarge it.

Pretty Alabama clouds

 

This beautiful butterfly touched down on Little Red just long enough for a photo. 

While in Red Bay we had time for some sightseeing. Our first, and my favorite, excursion was to Muscle Shoals and the Muscle Shoals Sound Studios, about an hour northeast of Red Bay. 

This sound studio is legendary. No, really, it is legendary! The studio existed for only nine years in this location after it's 1969 opening. In that time over 75 gold and platinum records were recorded by artists  such as Bob Dylan, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Paul Simon, Bob Seger, Rod Steward, Cat Stevens, and Willie Nelson, to name a few!

In 1969 the Rolling Stones slipped into town and recorded "Brown Sugar", "Wild Horses", and "You Got to Move". The Stones were in the middle of a USA tour that year which culminated in December with the infamous Altamont Speedway Free Festival.

For more history on the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio read this:

 

Muscle Shoals Sound Studio History 

 

The studio closed in 1978 and was occupied by two different non music related businesses before being abandoned in the late 1990's.

The building was later purchased and eventually restored to it's original studio condition and reopened in 2017 as a museum while also operating as a recording studio.

This is a trailer for a great documentary about Muscle Shoals and the incredible music that came out of this small Alabama town. The documentary features Fame Studios, Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, and the common link between the two: The Swampers. Curious?  Check this out:

Muscle Shoals documentary trailer

Just a few miles from Muscle Shoals, in Tuscumbia, AL we toured Ivy Green, the Helen Keller Birthplace museum.

Who, of my generation, could forget this scene from "The Miracle Worker", starring Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke:

A clip from the Miracle Worker

The water pump is intact outside the house. Regrettably I failed to take a photo of it!

Instead you get this bed and beautiful quilt.

If you want a quick refresher on Helen Keller and her remarkable teacher, Anne Sullivan, here you have it:

Helen Keller bio 

Ms. Keller was not a tall woman...

Janell made a friend while touring the Ivy Green grounds. This kitty followed us around for some time.

Red Bay is in the far northwest corner of Alabama and our RV park is only about 200 yards from the Mississippi border.

Red Bay is only 45 minutes from Tupelo, MS.  We heard there had been multiple Elvis sightings in Tupelo so we headed over to check it out.

Our first Tupelo stop was for lunch. I opted for southern fare and it was delish!

Our first Elvis sighting!

 Elvis sighting #2

You may have figured this out by now, but Elvis was born in Tupelo. Cool story above about Elvis' first guitar.

Elvis #3 is three dimensional(ish)

The Elvis Presley Birthplace has a nicely done museum and the restored home in which he was born. Elvis lived in Tupelo until age 13.

No, that is not Elvis. It's a nice lady who was there to tell us a few things about the home and Elvis (and make sure we didn't steal anything.)

Elvis at 13

Two statues known by one name - "BECOMING", symbolizing the transformation form Elvis, The Boy to Elvis, The Entertainer.

 

So, back to the purpose of our 2,100 mile detour... 

 

I will explain how the repair situation works at Tiffin. If your coach is under warranty (1 year or less) you can "camp" for free in the Tiffin Allegro Campground above  It is adjacent to the service center and consists of two rows of gravel sites with full hookups. It holds around 90 coaches.

If you're no longer under warranty you fend for yourself at one of the dozen private "campgrounds" in Red Bay. The going rate is $25/night for a paved or gravel parking lot with hookups.  We sprang for the brand new "real" RV park, Red Bay Acres, which cost $50/night with full amenities and, most importantly, wifi.

The Tiffin service center has 53 bays!  

 

There is a catch though:  they don't make appointments. It is "first come, first served", so you arrive in Red Bay, register at the service center and then wait a few days or longer before you get into a bay. Each morning Tiffin publishes a list to the waiting coach owners showing you where you are on the list. If you are low on the list you can run around and see the sights. When you get near the top of the list you need to stay local and wait for a phone call that could come at any point in the work day. When you get the call you quickly prepare your coach for travel and drive over to your assigned bay. Once you are assigned a bay it is yours for as long as it takes to fix all of the items on your list. Each afternoon you pick up your coach at around 3:00 p.m to go back to your RV park. You bring it back again the next morning if there is still work to be done. Repeat this daily until the work is done.

 

In addition to our "emergency" repair we already had a list of minor items for Red Bay. We had planned to visit Red Bay over the coming winter when we toured the southeast.  The work on our coach took just one afternoon and a good part of the following day.

 

The Beast is in bay 34 above and below.

A partial view of the 54 bay service center

This is a short clip I took of the service center interior:

 More Beasts

Ken was was a good guy and our very able tech. About that emergency?  Ken fixed it in 45 seconds...

There is a control sequence on the main panel that will "synchronize" the two motors that move the slide in and out.  We were mildly flabbergasted (is that a contradiction?) that neither the Buffalo Tiffin dealer nor Tiffin phone support were aware of this fix.  See what I mean about poor competency in the RV service industry?  Oh well, what's the big deal about a 2,100 mile detour at 9 miles per gallon?

After Ken solved the issue we asked him to show us again so that we could video it for our reference in case the issue occurred again.. Here is that 46 second video: 

How fast would one have to drive to embed 40' of your motor home into a brick wall?  Haha!

This is one of the RV "parks" that are scattered around town. At any given time there are several hundred Tiffins and their owners scattered around this little town of 3,000 people waiting for service or in service. 

On Friday, Aug 28th we started our 1,200 mile drive to Boston, where my sister Mary lives, from which we will launch our New England leaf peeper tour.  This drive was to be done over three days. Tally-ho, right? Well, not exactly...

 

We encountered another challenge with the Beast and were waylaid at the Baltimore Freightliner shop for three days. We started to notice a vibration in the drive train on our drive from Red Bay and it was getting worse. The Beast's chassis is made by Freightliner so they do any repairs to the chassis (i.e., not Tiffin.)  It took almost three days for the Baltimore Freightliner shop, working with Freightliner corporate in South Carolina, to diagnose and approve the repair. 

 

It turns out the repair was a failing U-joint, which should have been diagnosed much more quickly. We had to fight with Freightliner to have the repair covered under warranty.  I called Tiffin, who leaned on Freightliner, and the repair expense was ultimately covered by Freightliner.

 

While Freightliner was dilly-dallying with the diagnosis we spent two nights dry camping in the Freightliner storage yard.  

 

That is the end of the repair detour saga. We are now ready to spend some time visiting with Mary and her family in Boston and then start our exploration of New England in the Fall.  

Niagara Falls & Buffalo, New York

Note:  This is a "blast from the past" post as we work our way backwards to catch you up on our previous destinations. We recently hit the road again and are working our way toward Denver by way of Las Vegas, Phoenix, and New Mexico. We will not be doing any "real time" posts until early March when we visit Kansas. Kansas will be the first of 19 new states that we will visit this year in the final leg of our adventure.

Visited August 3-14, 2020

By Janell

We originally had about five or six nights planned for the Niagara Falls/Buffalo area. Due to Covid however, we were unable to cross over into Canada for a visit to the Toronto area. Instead we tacked those days onto our Niagara Falls stay, making it twelve nights. This made time for a few trips to see the falls and time to get to know the city of Buffalo better than we had expected.

We all know about Niagara Falls, right? If you've seen one waterfall, you've seen them all, right? Wrong!! Niagara Falls is so massive that it's hard to take it all in. It doesn't even fit in one photo.

Niagara Falls is composed of three sections: American Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, and Horseshoe Falls. 

On the left foreground in the above photo, you see Bridal Veil Falls. Across Lake Ontario you see the city of Niagara Falls, Canada. Tucked in the middle between Bridal Veil Falls and Niagara Falls' skyline is just barely a glimpse of the mist from Horseshoe Falls. Horseshoe Falls is the largest of the three, and you'll see a better shot of it soon.

This is one of the Canadian tour boats headed for Horsehoe Falls. (They have red ponchos and a Canadian flag on the back.) I love that a rainbow graced us with its presence!

Here you can see much of Horsehoe Falls in the distance. This is a USA boat tour known as the "Maid of the Mist", and it's headed to the heart of Horseshoe Falls. 

Horseshoe Falls

The shots above and below were taken from our Maid of the Mist boat tour.

They give you plastic ponchos, but even so . . . you get wet! 

Below you can see our "before" and "after" Maid of the Mist photos.

"Before"

"After!"

Now for some fun facts about Niagara Falls:

• 3,160 tons of water flows over Niagara Falls every second.
• Niagara Falls' vertical height is over 176' in some sections.
• Four of the five Great Lakes drain into the Niagara River (Superior, Michigan, Huron and Erie) before emptying into Lake Ontario. 
• Niagara Falls State Park is the oldest state park in America. It was established in 1885 as the Niagara Reservation.
• Niagara Falls State Park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. (I'm sure many of you recognize his name as he also designed Central Park, Stanford University, and the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, to name a few.)

The fun at Niagara Falls doesn't end when the sun goes down. The falls are illuminated every night of the year from dusk into the wee hours of the morning. The colors change after several minutes. 

In a moment of weakness we bought the cheesy, over-priced photos that we usually try to avoid.

Now, about Buffalo. Can't say I'd ever given it much thought before. If asked, I could've told you that winters there are bitter cold (not from personal experience, of course), but I doubt I knew another fact about the city of Buffalo. We took a historical bike tour of the city and learned a lot while also having a good time.

This is Buffalo's City Hall!

In 1801, the city of Buffalo was just a small village. By 1901, it was the host of the infamous Pan-American Exposition, (where President William McKinley was shot - more on that later). Shipping, railroads, and the discovery of electricity pumped prosperity into the area.  

In 1875 the city built a monumental granite structure as their City Hall. It had three floors and a seven-story clock tower. (If you're paying attention, you can tell that we're not talking about the above building.)

By 1920 however, the Buffalo Common Good decided that in light of the city's growing population (it had quadrupled in the 45 years since the City Hall of 1875 was built), a larger and much grander structure was in order. By 1931, when the current City Hall was completed, Buffalo was a center for industry and tourism (thank you, Niagara Falls!), and the city was ready for its promising future. 

At 32 stories and 398' tall, Buffalo's City Hall is one of the largest and tallest municipal buildings in the United States. 

Buffalo's City Hall was "green" way before "green" was a thing. It was built with a non-powered air-conditioning system, taking advantage of strong prevailing winds from Lake Erie. Large vents were placed on the west side of the building to catch wind, which would then travel down ducts to beneath the basement, to be cooled by the ground. This cooled air was then vented throughout the building. Winds off the lake were usually strong enough to power air through this system. 

If you're interested, you can check out the link below for old photos taken during the construction of City Hall. It was quite the project!

Buffalo City Hall History

The city of Buffalo didn't quite grow into its grandiose City Hall however. The effects of suburbanization, deindustrialization and globalization, combined with the opening of the Saint Lawrence Seaway in 1959, lead to a decline in Buffalo's main industries and ultimately to a decline in its population. From 1950 to 2020 Buffalo lost over half of its population.

St. Paul's Cathedral, an Episcopal church, was built in 1851 and is a Buffalo landmark. In 1987 it was designated a National Historic Landmark for its architecture.

Our tour guide, and the founder of Buffalo Bike Tours, Marc Moscato, shared with us the details of the assassination of President William McKinley, which happened on this very spot in 1901. At that time this was the location of the Temple of Music at the Pan-American Exposition. Currently, this memorial marker is in the middle of a nice neighborhood; specifically in the middle of the median (is that redundant?) on a street in a nice neighborhood.

As always, we're on the lookout for cool murals, and Buffalo had a few.

When we were here there was a bridal party taking photos in front of this mural.

I bet they made for some cool pics, but we didn't want those people in our photo. 

We had lunch here on the back patio overlooking a freeway interchange, of all things! They had about 100 of these hanging flower baskets! Aren't they pretty? Somebody sure has a green thumb! 

To counter balance the beauty of the flower baskets, just take a look at the art at the corner of the rooftop! For a better view, or at least different view, see the photo below. 

Well, it is a brewery!

One more thing we learned on our bike tour: Buffalo wings started in Buffalo, or so the city claims. I suppose that makes sense. Since the tour guide gave us a couple of restaurants known specifically for their Buffalo wings, we thought we'd have dinner at one of them and check out the wings. They were darn good! But messy!

Too late! Now you know.

As I reported above, President McKinley was shot in Buffalo, NY on September 6, 1901. By September 10, doctors in Buffalo thought he was recovering. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt was encouraged to reassure the country by continuing with a planned family outing in the Adirondack Mountains. Before leaving Buffalo, he gave a copy of his itinerary to his friend Ansley Wilcox, at whose house he'd been staying. Three days later, upon returning from climbing the highest peak in the Adirondacks, he met a messenger bearing a telegram summoning him to return to Buffalo. A hired wagon carried him 35 miles through the night over rough roads to reach the nearest train station, and at dawn on September 14, he boarded a special train that took him to Buffalo. By the time of his arrival in Buffalo, President McKinley had already been dead twelve hours. Everyone was anxious to swear in a new president asap, so Theodore Roosevelt took the oath of office of President of the United States in the Ansley Wilcox House right there in Buffalo, NY. 

The Ansley Wilcox House is now a museum, known as the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site. Due to Covid, visiting the site required an appointment, and we were the only two patrons in the entire place! 

There are the usual historic rooms and artifacts one would expect to find in such a place, including the library where Roosevelt took the oath. One room however, is a recreation of Roosevelt's White House office. You can sit at his presidential desk and review some of the same pieces of legislation as Roosevelt. Using the computer, (which obviously was not on Teddy's White House desk!) you can make presidential decisions. You can strike a presidential pose, and press a button that operates a camera across the room. Then using the computer you can email yourself something like this: 

By the way, Teddy Roosevelt became the first president to have round the clock protection by the Secret Service.

One day we visited the Erie Canal in Lockport, NY, which is about a half hour's drive from Buffalo.

In the first half of the day we pedaled our bikes several miles on the Erie Canalway Bike Path, which as you might expect, runs right alongside the canal. It was very quiet; we only encountered a handful of people all morning. It was a very pleasant ride; although, I will say that it was hot and humid!

In the afternoon we took a boat tour through the Erie Canal locks. The tour company's website advertises that you can experience "Life in the Past Lane". It was a fun and educational tour through five of the original 1800's locks. 

Heads up! There's oncoming traffic.

I didn't know that private boats (or kayaks or canoes!) are allowed to go through the locks. We didn't see any kayaks or canoes -- just this one boat. 

Apparently, as a private boater wanting to traverse the locks, all you have to do is alert the lock operator by one of these methods: call ahead, use a marine radio, or signal with three horn or whistle blasts! Toot! Toot! Toot!

Then, once at the locks: wait for the green light; follow the directions of the lock operator; position yourself along the lock wall as directed (just like that oncoming boat above); and stay clear of the lock gates as they open. 

I wonder if we'd had this info ahead of time if Marty would've wanted to kayak or canoe through the locks?! 

Some folks are fascinated by the locks. These two . . . not so much! 🤣

Three million gallons of water will fill Locks 34 & 35, the only double set on the Erie Canal, and raise the boat 50 feet! 

Originally the Erie Canal was 363 miles long, stretching from Albany on the Hudson River to Buffalo on Lake Erie. It was completed in 1825, and it was the second longest canal in the world (after the Grand Canal in China). There were 83 locks at that time. 

In 1825 it would've taken you five days to travel from Albany to Buffalo via the canal. Seems like a long time, but contrast that to the same distance by stagecoach: two weeks!

If you'd like to see the locks in action and hear a bit of information about them, check out these two videos below:

We visited Frank Lloyd Wright's Martin House which is located in Buffalo.

It was a very cool house, and I wouldn't mind living there! There were a handful of these abstract lawn "decorations", but they were not here when the house was built in 1903-05.

We also took a Buffalo River History Tour. For 90 minutes we cruised the Buffalo River and out onto Lake Erie. The tour was narrated by a 4th grade school teacher, and she was fabulous! It was educational and entertaining. The kids in her classes are very lucky!

It was an afternoon cruise, and a server came around to ask if we wanted to order drinks, and so we did. She brought the drinks, and then another staff member came by soon afterward with a basket of cereal bars and such. I politely declined. But no, we were told we had to take one (and pay for it). What?!! Apparently, under the local Covid restrictions the boat tours could only offer drinks if they also served food! So, law-abiding citizens that we are, we each took a cereal bar.

This is not our tour boat.

Buffalo was the world's largest grain port from the 1850's until the first half of the 20th century, and it once had the United States' largest capacity for the storage of grain in over 30 concrete grain elevators located along the inner and outer harbors. This is one of them, obviously no longer in use.

Looking back at Buffalo from Lake Erie on a crystal clear day

This is Bird Island Pier: a 2-mile path to nowhere. Literally. You get to the end and then just come back. It's flanked by Black Rock Canal on the left and the Niagara River on the right.

Back at camp, and look what's for dinner!