Closing out the Year in Style

We made it to Birmingham, AL and spent a night in the Cummins Service Center parking lot.  They did a fine job the next morning changing The Bus’ oil and checking over the chassis.  From there we went to Red Bay, AL and let the technicians at Tiffin’s service center work our AquaHot system.  They worked on it for a week and THINK they have it fixed.  While there, we had the pleated shades and curtains replaced with modern easy roll shades and a one-piece power shade in the front.  I loose the ability to let the curtains fly out the driver’s side window as I roll down the highway, but I guess you can’t have everything.

I gave my employer my notice late October that I was retiring 13 Nov.  However, the project I was working on was extended, so I agreed to stay until 4 December and that turned into 11 December.   On 12 Dec, we drove the Jeep from Red bay to Muscle Shoals, AL where I sent the company back their computer via FedEx.  Liberating to say the least. We celebrated over lunch and then found the trailhead at Cane Creek Canyon Nature Preserve.  This private preserve is free to the public to enjoy and offers some beautiful hiking opportunities.

We departed Red Bay, AL on 14 Dec and checked in to a site at Stone Mountain State Park in Georgia the same day.  We stayed here three weeks and had to move three times as others had reservations for specific sites.  Fortunately, all our sites were well above the lake because it rained 8 days and many areas flooded.  We laughed that they would begin charging us extra since our site was suddenly waterfront.  Being masters of our own schedule and mobile allowed us to stay in the Atlanta area so Pattie could assist her mother who had eye surgery mid-December.  While she was doing that, I built a table top for The bus' steering wheel.  We had seen these in other motorhomes, but only found one plastic one when searching on-line.  I was able to make do with the few select tools I carry with us and it came out pretty good.  Pattie now has a place to put her seasonal decorations or a lamp.  

On Christmas Eve, our sons came over and spent the night in The Bus with us.   We have modified our floor plan to accommodate two people comfortable.  We had to get a little creative to sleep four, but we managed.  We opened presents with our sons and had a nice breakfast with them. Afterwards we drove down to Senoia, GA to see the outdoor set used to film The Walking Dead TV series.  Later, we took Pattie’s mom over to Pattie’s sister Nancy’s house and enjoyed a wonderful Christmas dinner with them and their extended family from Canada. 

Between Christmas and New Years, Pattie and I took time to hike some trails around the lake at Stone Mountain State Park and we climbed the mountain.  This is a really unique area and a must see for anyone visiting the Atlanta area.  We had no idea that the Christmas holiday is the park’s busiest time.  This is because they build large slides on the sloped field in front of the rock carving and make snow for people to slide down.  It is probably the closest place people from Florida can come to see snow.  We saw many Florida license plates and had to laugh.  We have lived in snow country and the little snow on the slide here was not impressive.

For New Years, we returned to Nancy’s house and celebrated with the Canadian family members who stayed over for Nancy’s daughter Margaret’s wedding on 2 Jan.  Our sons returned and stayed with us to attend the wedding.  Gordon and Margaret were married in the Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta.  The wedding was beautiful and the party went on until midnight. 

With no events on our calendar, we departed Stone Mountain on 3 Jan and headed southwest to Ft Benning, GA.  We heard the campground just across the river in Alabama was nice and we thought this would be a good location as it is close to Auburn if we want to see the boys and it has a 300-yard rifle range.  Some guys retire and want to play golf.  I like to shoot competitively.  Same thing, one is just a lot louder than the other.

Until next time, thanks for following us at keepingupwiththejonesrv.