Texas Trot Days 1-4

I keep thinking that pretty soon we’ll have most everything we need in Chuck and the schlepping will become less, but it hasn’t happened so far.  Between trips, we keep a bin in the office and throw things in that we want to take along.  Somehow the bin overflows and getting organized to pack always take a couple of hours.

The office at home as we get ready to go

Beanie doing his own packing.  Note the tail.  He worked his own way into the suitcase.

Next is the transfer from office to Toad.

Then, finally, on the road.  We left on Tuesday heading south to eventually pick Chuck up at his maker in Red Bay, AL.  A quick rest stop in central IL reminded us why we were heading directly south.

Central IL rest stop.

We stopped for the night in Paducah, KY; about 7 hours from home, for a well-deserved meal .

OK, we had ribs and a burger along with the peanuts.

Wednesday:  on to Red Bay, a 4 hour drive during which we manage to cover 4 states; KY, TN, MS and AL.  Chuck was washed, waxed, ready and waiting for us and we reverse-schlepped everything from Toad into Chuck.  A quick trip to the “Pig”, (yes, they have Piggly Wiggly in AL) for groceries and then dinner at the local Mexican restaurant and finally we collapsed for the night.  Beanie was very happy to be in the rig, rolling around on the rug and settling into his various beds without a catch.

Beanie-happy to be home in Chuck

 The next day we got up early to take the Tiffin (Chuck’s maker) factory tour.  It’s pretty amazing to see how these houses on wheels get put together.  Tiffin makes many of the components themselves including the cabinets, walls and wiring harnesses.  Local businesses do the upholstery, molded plastics, and other parts.  In a town of 3500 people, Tiffin directly employees 1200 and indirectly, many more.   It’s family owned and run and the Tiffin family has been in Red Bay since Red Bay existed.  If I sound like a commercial, it’s because we have a lot of respect and liking for Tiffin and their products.  Every customer is family to them and all of the employees we’ve encountered have treated us like family….like family they like that is.  They’re currently rolling 12 units a day off the line.  In 2008, when the economy really tanked, they were down to 4 units a day.  You can imagine the effect on the local economy.  

A chassis waiting for the rig.  It's funny to see the chassis driving around town.

Cabinet shop

Cabinet makers

Coming together

 

Bedroom slide-out ready to go in

Installing the slide-out

2-3 miles of wiring per coach

After the tour we got back to Chuck, hooked up Toad and headed for the Natchez Trace.  The Trace (as they call it around here) is a 200+ mile National Park/Road that is a historic byway.  It runs from Nashville, TN to Natchez, MS.  Our planned route started just west of Red Bay and went to Jackson, MS where we planned to head west to a campground somewhere over there.   

Getting on the Trace

My memory gets a little vague since, as typical, plans changed on the fly…for the better IMO.  We needed to get diesel for Chuck after about hour and the Trace is strictly non-commercial.  You have to get off and head into civilization to find fuel and food.  We exited in Tupelo, MS and started looking for diesel.  We looked and looked and looked.  36’ of Chuck attached to 14’ of Toad mean we need a pretty generous fuel island with easy in and out.  Oh yeah, and they have to have a diesel pump.   And the canopy has to accommodate 12’7” of height.  We’d see diesel in a skinny little station, or we'd see a great station and no diesel.  Finally, after about an hour of looking, we found a Shell station we could get in and out of, sort of, if we weaseled around a Coke delivery truck.  We weaseled and gassed up and by this time it was 3:00pm.  We were tired and frustrated and ready to get off the road.  Robin said, “I saw that there was a great little campground in Tupelo but I thought we’d want to drive farther”.  “I think we’ve driven quite far enough for today”, I replied,  “let’s find it”.  Turns out it was about a mile from the gas station, and yes, they had room for  the night and within an hour we were settled in to a lovely, level site with great WiFi.  Total mileage for the day: 65 miles.

The WiFi is important since it allows us to search out great food on the road.  So, with the help of TripAdvisor we evaluated our dinner choices.  The clear winner was the Neon Pig!  The reviews were great and it was only 3 miles from our campground so we headed there.  It lived up to its reviews:  great butcher shop with a counter where they serve tasty sandwiches and interesting beers, sodas and conversation.  We left sated and stocked with bacon and pancetta for future meals.

Neon Pig interior

Great pork belly buns

By now it’s almost Good Friday and being sort of oblivious to religious holidays and school schedules, we hadn’t thought ahead to how full campgrounds might be for the weekend.  Oops.  After some searching on the ‘net, we found Lake Bruin State Park near St. Joseph, LA.  We made a reservation for 2 nights figuring if we stayed until Sunday, we’d have a better chance of finding another camping spot by Sunday night.  Site reserved, we got back on the Trace headed southwest on Friday morning.   Driving on the Trace is very nice.  It’s pastoral, winding, tree-lined and very lovely.  One section was devastated in a 2011 tornado and the damage is very obvious but other than that, it was beautiful.  Lots of birds, a few deer and very few people were spotted.  

Red Buds blooming on the Trace

April, 2011 tornado damage on the Trace

We learned an interesting detail about traveling from Mississippi to Louisiana.  You gotta follow the route that will get you across the Mississippi River.  I know, it seems obvious when you think about it, but it means you can’t just look at the map and pick the most direct route from point A to point B.  You have to do a right angle sometimes instead of the hypotenuse.  So from the Trace we headed around Jackson, MS, then west to Vicksburg and over the river to LA.  It’s always stunning to cross the Mississippi.

Mississippi to Louisiana

Park reviews had warned us that campsites near the water at Lake Bruin were pretty close together and they weren’t kidding.  We had a tight back-in situation, complicated by a dead battery on Toad, dozens of small children running rampant and many fellow campers avidly watching (and presumably commenting upon) our efforts.  To make a long story less long, we managed with masterful guidance from the navigator, a battery charger, 50’ extension cord and a little bit of help from our neighbors. 

The park is on a bend in Mississippi river and the as the sun set over the river, we appreciated our site.  No gators or snakes in sight yet, but I’ve promised Robin that if we see either one I was pretty sure all I had to do was run faster than she could.

Chuck reflecting the sunset

Sunset at Lake Bruin, LA

Tomorrow-on to Texas.