Westward HO!

We decided to leave Elijah Clark State Park on December 31 and begin our journey west to Arizona.  Our route would take us through Red Bay Alabama for some Tiffin recall work on our coach, then to Oklahoma to visit family and finally to sunny, (and hopefully warm), Tucson Arizona where more family awaits.

Traveling in the winter months can be a little dicey, so we checked the near term and extended weather forecasts daily.  We lucked out at Red Bay Alabama and had some good January temps.  We wanted to hit the Tiffin factory just after New Years to reduce our wait time.  Turns out it was good move.  We were in and out of the service bay in about three days and on our way to Tuscambia, AL to have our wet bay floor and roof rails replaced under the recall.

Good thing we had all this checked.  Our wet bay floor was totally rotten.  They ripped it out and replaced it with a composite floor in one afternoon.

Our old wet bay.

Shiny new wet bay!

Old floor replaced with composite

The next morning at 7:30 am, it was on to the roof rails.  The original fiberglass rails will crack over time and allow water in.  they cut them off, replace them with metal rails, (aluminum?), re-seal and re-paint everything to match in one day. 

Taking off the old rails.

Look close and you'll see the cracks.

The wet bay and roof rails were replaced on our 6 year old coach by Tiffin at no cost to us because they realized they used the wrong materials in the original construction.  I think this says a lot about Bob Tiffin and speaks well for his company and how they stand behind their products.  They even gave us half off on our campground fees because they felt it was their fault that we had to be there!

We pulled out about 3 in the afternoon from Tuscambia and headed for Mississippi. Traveling in the winter even in the southern states can present some unexpected challenges.  We had to change our plans to overnight at the Sam's Town Casino in Tunica Mississippi because their camp ground area was flooded!  No Problem. We traveled on down the road and boondocked in another casino lot that was on higher ground and continued on the next day into Arkansas.  The mighty Mississippi was over full!

Flooding along the Mississippi River

Two days later we arrived at Wes Watkins Campground near McCloud, Oklahoma where we would spend a few days visiting family before continuing on to Arizona.  Wes Watkins is a small city campground located on Wes Watkins Reservoir.  Sites are nice sized, and level with water and 50 amp electric available. No sewer hook ups but there is a dump station on site.  Since it was January, we had the entire place to ourselves, which was nice, and  also woke up to a little snow one morning, (which was also nice because it was gone in a couple days).

Our site at Wes Watkins.  A nice long pull thru.

Typical sites.

Brother in law's house on our snow day!

After four days in Oklahoma, the weather report looked clear for a few days, so we made a mad dash and drove due south to Texas and ultimately hitting I10 west to Tucson.  I say it was a mad dash because we covered 1066 miles in four days averaging 266 miles per day. We try not to go much over 200 per day  At any rate, other than a traffic tie up due to an overturned tractor trailer entering New Mexico, it was an uneventful trip.

Some areas have hundreds of huge windmills.

We ain't in Georgia anymore!

Welcome to New Mexico!

Not sure about the driver.  A load of lumber was scattered all over.

Fortunately, on arriving in warm, sunny Tucson, we were able to park in my niece's driveway.  This gave us a couple week to look around at the numerous RV parks in southern Arizona and find a place to spend the rest of the winter.  We ultimately settled on Picacho Peak RV Resort near Red Rock Arizona LINK .  Great facility, great people, and warm winters.  We might just stay a while!