RV Travels: Weekly Wanderings #40 – Red Bay
We completed our second week in Red Bay. Red Bay is in a very rural part of Alabama, right on the Mississippi border. There is not a lot to do and we are basically sitting on an old airstrip that has been converted to a “campground” for RV's waiting for repairs. There are 93 spots for RV's and at the moment the grounds are nearly full. October is a very busy month for them.
Without (working) wifi and nothing to visit in the area that isn't 1-6 hours away, it makes the days very, very long. The absence of Jessica is profound.
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For the first 5 days after Jessica passed away, Mr. Misadventures and I woke up early (we weren't sleeping well) and drove one hour to Tupelo, Mississippi. I didn't know when I wrote my blog post about Tupelo in March that it would become a haven. Each morning we drove to Starbucks with good wifi and spent several hours on our laptops and iPads before grabbing some lunch and then heading back to the very, very empty RV.
Our trips to Tupelo killed half the day and prevented us from staring at the empty corners of our home.
I did get to have fried chicken at Connie's, and really great barbecue at the Rib Shack and we drove on the Natchez Trace Parkway a bit.
It took 8 business days before we were called in a bay for maintenance work. We got called in the afternoon on Wednesday and we've been starting our days in the service bay at 7:00 a.m. and out at 4:00 p.m. since then. This is our new home for who knows how long.
The technicians are good, but they are as sssss-llllll-oooooooooo-wwwww as molasses! Mr. Misadventures and I are both Type-A personalities with lots of project and program management in our backgrounds. There are probably a 1,000 ways to improve the speed and efficiency here, but we're not here to start a revolution so we bite our tongues and hope for a speedy escape.
We have no idea how much longer we will be here, please cross your fingers for us!
Current location:
Allegro Campground, Red Bay, Alabama.
I love the white pepper gravy, they make in Mississippi. It is also such a beautiful state.
@Debra, it was my first time having that gravy, it was pretty tasty!
Hang in there!
Sorry to read about your new location. I hope you have some good books to read.
@Julie, I do, I finished three while we were in Red Bay!
You are breaking my heart. I grew up with dogs and have had them either with me (or back home with my mother when I was in college or just out of college) for my entire life, so I know this emptiness you describe. A pet isn’t just a pet — they’re a fixture. A source of simple, uncompromising love. I know it’s not healthy, but there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t look at my pups and think, with dread, about what my home is going to be like without them one day. And so I can’t tell you enough how sorry I am: about the fact that your trip is stuck indefinitely stuck somewhere you don’t care for, but mostly about the loss of Jessica. I smile a little, though, thinking about the adventure that lucky girl got to have before passing. You showed her a world much bigger than most domestic kitties ever get to see — and I bet it struck her with wonder, the way it does us. 🙂
@Katie, thanks so much for your kind words. Jessica was the first pet I ever had. I did get a puppy with my first husband, but he took him when we got divorced so I never went through the process of having a pet, it aging and passing on. I am such a pragmatic person I didn’t think I would get emotional when she passed, I was wrong. My baby girl and I had an incredible life together and I am happy for that. But I am not sure that I can do it again for awhile!
the home of the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley
@Arlene, yes!
That chicken dinner looks super delicious. I love reading about rural areas of the country that I haven’t visited yet.
@Wen, it’s pretty interesting to see how things change as you go from one region to the next.
I’m sorry about Jessica, Andi. I never met her, but I loved her and her unforgettable green eyes. I love that Tupelo sign, and glad you got some fried chicken. Traveling Mercies, jen
@Jen, thank you so much, you’ve definitely “known” Jessica for at least half her life 😉