Our “winter” began with our arrival in Red Bay, Alabama at the end of November. It’s a small town not too for from Birmingham that is dominated by Tiffin, it’s largest employer and the manufacturer of our RV. The reason to got there was to get some work done that they could only do at the factory. We stayed in their campground/parking lot for several days while we waited our turn for service. Although they work on about 60 RVs at a time, there were hundreds of Class A RVs in the queue. Our visit was not the highlight of our 2018 tour, but we did get to tour the factory, see their latest RV tech, and got our “drooping cabinets” problem solved. I can’t say enough good things about the skills and customer service approach of the Tiffin people – this is the stuff that really builds brand loyalty. As for Red Bay ….. let’s just say it’s not a tourist mecca.
As a result of getting out of Tiffin several days earlier than expected, we had some time to kill before heading back to the Northeast for Christmas, we decided to spend some more time in Nashville. As was the case in 2017, we had a great time: live tunes on Broadway Street, food, and we even caught the Buffalo Sabres vs. the Nashville Predators (yes, they lost but it was still really fun). During the game the announcer asked the question: “what’s better Buffalo chicken wings or Nashville hot chicken ?” Needless to say the crowd was somewhat biased, but we needed to find out. So we went to Hattie B’s, one of the best hot chicken places in Nashville. Hot chicken is essentially full pieces of chicken made like chicken wings with a slightly different sauce. And like chicken wings, it can be really hot. Although I still pledge allegiance to chicken wings, hot chicken is fantastic – a “must do” if you go there.
Our last stop before our return trip (sans RV) to Rochester and Connecticut was Memphis, Tennessee. This was our first time there and we enjoyed it immensely, even though we were camped 15 miles out. Our stay included hiking in Shelby Farms Park, Blues on Beale Street, a brewery stop, museum visits, and prep to store our RV for a month. The most lasting recollections were formed around a couple of museums: the National Civil Rights Museum and the Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum. The Civil Rights Museum occupies the old Lorraine Motel and the adjacent building. This is where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot. The museum is focused on the Black struggle for equality in Memphis during the the 20th century. The Underground Railway Museum is quite different, but equally powerful. It is in large house built in the early 1800’s that was a cog in the Underground Railway and is preserved as it was during the Civil war. It is filled with artifacts, stories, and images from the period of slavery in the US. The thing that made the visit remarkable was the knowledge and insight of our elderly tour guide. She brought to life the real struggles and dangers that slaves had to endure in both captivity and escape.
In mid December we loaded up our car and headed to Rochester with a stop in Pittsburgh to see Lisa Peters. We spent a great week with the Herefords, made it to Buffalo to visit with Suzanne’s family, and had a great time a Debbie Elvy’s 60th birthday bash. After a week with our kids in Deep River and Middletown, CT we headed back to Memphis to collect our RV and get restocked for the “winter tour”.
The first destination of 2019 was New Orleans. Our RV park was right on the edge of the French Quarter (yes, it was expensive) and a reasonable walk to Bourbon Street and the Mississippi river front. We took walking tours of the Garden District, Lafayette Cemetery, and the French Quarter which were all interesting and informative. Also on the agenda were the mandatory activities in NOLA: live jazz, dining, as well as morning coffee and beignets at Cafe Du Monde. There were a couple of unexpected things: the excellent Katrina flood exhibit at the Presbytère (good) and the state of Bourbon Street (bad). Bourbon street was a mess with street excavation and looked a lot seedier than we remembered it. As a result, we spent very little time there and spent our “music time” on Frenchmen Street. Also, we discovered our new favorite appetizer at the Orleans Grapevine restaurant: a basket of crisp bacon ! Bottom line is Nawlin’s has it’s problems, but it’s still one helluva place to visit.
Next up was San Antonio. Suzanne had never been there and I was only there on business once 20 years ago. With the exception of some biking and hiking this was a tourist stop for us. We saw the Alamo, the Briscoe Western Art Museum, and the Riverwalk. IMO it’s a really nice city and a fun city to visit, but it’s really a” long weekend” kind of place.
We traveled to Silver City, New Mexico to see the Gili Cliff Dwellings. For the second year in a row, it was closed due to the government shutdown. Consequently, we ended up hiking and driving to see the City of Rocks. The “rocks” are uber cool. It’s an enormous patch of huge stones sticking strait up (see pics below) in the middle of nowhere. To top it off you can camp in and around them. Next year we plan to stay there and actually see the cliff dwellings.
Last year we stopped overnight in Yuma in on our way to San Diego and decided it would be a great place to hunker down for the coldest part of the year. Accordingly, we stayed there a month starting the 3rd week of January. Yuma is a small city in the desert on the Mexican border with a large population of RV-based snowbirds from the Northwest of the US and Canada. During January and February the weather is excellent: day after day in the high 60s/low 70s and sunny. We picked an RV resort that really is a resort, not just a campground. This was our longest stay in any one place since we retired and it provided an opportunity to get to know the area and the people there in more depth. Lisa Peters joined us for a week and we had a great time. Also, we met a number of interesting people with fascinating stories in a variety of venues at the resort. We saw a lot of Yuma, including most of the “sights” and really got to know the local golf courses, hiking trails, and biking trails. Day trips included the Imperial National Wildlife Refuge, the Cibola National Wildlife Refuge, and the Gold Dome Mine Ghost Town. The two refuges were on the Colorado River north of Yuma and had beautiful terrain and waterfowl with some nice secluded unpaved back roads. The Gold Dome Ghost town was a completely restored mining town that was last occupied in the 50’s. It had a large number of original artifacts, is well documented, and provided a detailed look at how miners in the southwest lived and worked in the late 19th and early 20th century. The Yuma reservations for next January are already made.
