A timelapse of driving our coach between the Red Bay Acres RV park and Davidson RV for services.
Month: January 2024
Red Bay Acres RV Resort
We stayed at Red Bay Acres RV Resort in Red Bay, Alabama. (Campground Reviews listing.)
A nice full-hookup RV park in the hometown of Tiffin Motorhomes.
Dates:
- Check in: 2023-11-07
- Check out: 2023-11-18
- 11 nights
Weather:
- Partly cloudy, some rain
- High temps ranging between 63-80°F, lows around 41-62°F
- A little wind, gusts to 24 MPH
Noise:
- No road noise
- No train noise
- Hourly clock tower noise
- A little neighbor and tech services noise
Site:
- #31, back in, concrete
- Needed to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
- Level; used air and hydraulic leveling at different times
- Concrete driveway about 60 feet long by about 12 feet wide
- Grass between sites wedge-shaped, from about 20 to 35 feet wide
- Picnic table on 12 by 12 feet concrete patio; fire pit
- Clean site
- Lots of ladybug-like insects invading our coach; we kept finding them for months afterwards
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, conveniently located
- 60 PSI water, conveniently located
- Good sewer connection, fairly conveniently located (2 10-foot pipes needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 55 Mbps down, 18 Mbps up, 60 ms ping
- AT&T: 117-122 Mbps down, 11-16 Mbps up, 45 ms ping
- Verizon: 4-28 Mbps down, 9-12 Mbps up, 80 ms ping
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: not used
Amenities:
- Garbage pickup from site
- Package delivery to site
- Onsite restaurant
- Pond
- Hometown of Tiffin; local RV repairs
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Nice place to return to after service
This is the place to stay when in Red Bay for service. It is a beautifully maintained park, with all the sites facing the fishing pond. All the other parks in town were basic gravel lots. The one drawback is having to back in to the site when coming back from service each day, but that’s not a big deal. The concrete pad was nicely level and all the utilities were good. It’s also nice to have the Yacht Club on-site for a bite to eat at the end of the day. If you’re looking to get service done on-site, make sure to check the list of approved vendors. We camped at Red Bay Acres RV Resort in a Motorhome.
Tip for Other Campers: Lost Pines Coffee had decent coffee and baked goods for a midday pick-me-up. The Natchez Trace Parkway is fairly close and a very nice scenic drive.
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site was one of the Luxury sites on the corners, with more space and a fire pit (which of course we didn’t use):
Staying here was a bit different than most campgrounds, as we drove our coach to RV service companies in town on several days; waking up early and driving about 7 minutes to get some services done, then driving back to our site to spend the night. So we used air leveling and didn’t put on the Magne Shades on those days.
But we did have several days without any services in the middle of our stay, so we put on the Magne Shade and used hydraulic leveling then:
We boarded Paladin at a local vet during the first few days of our stay, since the techs needed frequent access to the inside of our coach during that period. So we were able to leave our entry door and screen door open; very unusual for us (though we didn’t leave it open long, to avoid bugs invading):
Later in our stay, there was an influx of Asian Lady Beetles, invasive ladybug-like beetles. We spent a few days catching dozens of them (and releasing them outside):
A nice sunset:
Other sites; since Red Bay is the home of the Tiffin factory, most of the people staying here were also Tiffin owners, also here for servicing:
The RV park features a nice pond in the center:
It also has an onsite cafe and lounge, called the “Red Bay Yacht Club” (because motorhomes are like land yachts):
We ate there several times, with pizzas the first night:
Loaded fries and wings another night:
Breakfast:
Sandwiches for lunch:
A view of the pond from the cafe:
Pickleball court:
The office and general store:
We enjoyed our stay, and have already booked another stay for when we visit again in early 2024.
Video: Memphis, Tennessee to Red Bay, Alabama motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 139 miles from Memphis, Tennessee to Red Bay, Alabama.
Travel from Memphis, Tennessee to Red Bay, Alabama
We drove our coach 139 miles, about 2 hours of driving, from Memphis, Tennessee to Red Bay, Alabama.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading southeast:
An interactive map:
“Welcome to Mississippi” sign (just passing through):
Building transportation:
Our coach at a truck stop for lunch:
Menu:
Breakfast for lunch:
River:
“Welcome to Sweet Home Alabama” sign:
Exit to Red Bay:
Hotel Red Bay:
Our destination, Red Bay Acres RV Resort:
General Store:
Heading to our site:
Our site (#31):
Replacing cover on light under sink
Under the kitchen sink is a cupboard with a big slide-out drawer, where we keep garbage and recycling bins, plus dish cleaning supplies and more.
At the top of this cupboard is an LED, and a switch that turns on the light when the cupboard is opened.
However, in our coach the cover of the light was missing. I’m not sure if it’s always been missing, or it was knocked off without our noticing early in our ownership. I only discovered the loss when something knocked the bulb out into the garbage. Fortunately, I noticed that and fished it out before taking out the garbage:
Anyway, to avoid that happening again, I wanted to order a replacement cover for the light. I found the light in the online Tiffin parts store, part number 5032143, “LIGHT WARDROBE BROWN LED”. Of course, they don’t sell just the cover, but the whole unit was pretty cheap:
I didn’t need to replace the light, so I just pried off the cover, and kept the remainder as a spare part:
The old light with the new cover:
Much better!
Steering wheel cover
To protect the steering wheel in our coach, we added a cover that fairly well matches the wheel:
Graceland
We visited Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley, in Memphis, Tennessee.
An interactive map:
Gate to the visitor center:
Welcome to Graceland:
We had a reservation for a self-guided tour of the Graceland mansion. We each had a somewhat trashed iPad and headphones with an audio and video guide for the tour:
Shuttle bus across the road to the mansion:
Graceland mansion:
Upstairs was not included in the tour; it’s private to the family:
Backyard:
The manager’s office:
More exhibits, starting with Elvis as a child and his parents:
Gym:
Horses:
The Presley graveyard, where Elvis and his family are buried:
Then we shuttled back over the road to the museum area, and lunch at Gladys’ Diner:
We of course had to have grilled peanut butter and banana sandwiches:
Gift store:
Elvis exhibits:
An interesting experience.
Graceland RV Park & Campground
We stayed at Graceland RV Park & Campground in Memphis, Tennessee. (Campground Reviews listing.)
An RV park right next to the museum for Elvis Presley’s Graceland.
Dates:
- Check in: 2023-11-05
- Check out: 2023-11-07
- 2 nights
Weather:
- Sunny
- High temps ranging between 77-79°F, lows around 54-59°F
- A little wind, gusts to 23 MPH.
Noise:
- Nearby road and city noise (sirens etc)
- No train noise (though might have heard one once)
- Occasional plane noise
- A little neighbor noise
Site:
- #7-17, pull-through, gravel
- Didn’t need to disconnect toad, parked behind coach
- Unlevel front-to-back and side-to-side; used hydraulic jacks
- Gravel driveway about 73 feet long by about 12 feet wide
- Nobody on driver side, grass about 14 feet wide
- Grass between sites on passenger side about 10 feet wide
- Picnic table on grass; no fire pit
- Clean site
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, conveniently located
- 67 PSI water, conveniently located
- Good sewer connection, too recessed (though I have a fix for that), conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 6-18 Mbps down, 17 Mbps up, 90 ms ping
- Verizon: 6-9 Mbps down, 13-16 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
- AT&T: 7 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up, 100 ms ping
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: not used
Amenities:
- Garbage pickup from site
- Seasonally closed pool
- Gate to Graceland
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Basic park on Graceland’s doorstep
This was a reasonably basic, no-frills RV park close to Graceland and the associated museum exhibits, which was our main reason for coming to Memphis. It was tough to get a reservation, not because they were full, but because it was impossible to get anyone to answer the phone. It took three days of calling multiple times a day before I reached them. Upon arrival, the office was closed (in the middle of the day), so we went through the extremely old-school check-in process of filling out a carbonless paper form and submitting our payment information through the “night” slot before going to our assigned site. A bit later, we noticed the office was open, so we went in and finished the registration process. It was a little confusing, but we got there in the end. Being able to walk over to Graceland made it all worthwhile. Despite being in the middle of the city, we found it to be pretty quiet at night. We camped at Graceland RV Park & Campground in a Motorhome.
Tip for Other Campers: Definitely plan on spending half a day in Graceland in order to see all the exhibits. Marlowe’s is like a BBQ version of Hard Rock Café, but with all-Elvis swag.
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site:
Utilities:
The sewer was a little too recessed, so I used a handy new extension for the first time. And the water faucet was in an irrigation valve box, which was rather unusual:
Other sites:
The park emptied out quite a bit the next morning (a Monday):
Office/store:
Bathrooms:
Picnic shelter and tenter cooking area:
Closed pool:
Gate to the parking lot for Graceland:
A basic but decent RV park, super-convenient to Graceland, and only minutes to downtown Memphis. We’d be happy to stay here again, and probably will, since we didn’t have time to explore downtown and the many other attractions.
Food bonus:
We went to Marlowe’s Ribs and Restaurant for an Elvis-themed dinner:
Jenn had ribs:
I had baked potatoes with pulled pork:
Our first time trying fried green tomatoes (we liked them):
Crispy Crème Banana Foster Sundae for dessert:
A swag shop in the restaurant:
Tasty food, and I’m sure we didn’t need those years it knocked off our lives.
Video: Hot Springs, Arkansas to Memphis, Tennessee motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 196 miles from Hot Springs, Arkansas to Memphis, Tennessee.
Travel from Hot Springs, Arkansas to Memphis, Tennessee
We drove our coach 196 miles, about 3 hours of driving, from Hot Springs, Arkansas to Memphis, Tennessee.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading east:
An interactive map:
Leaving the RV park:
Bubba’s, where we got tasty food during our stay:
An uncomfortably narrow lane due to roadworks:
A break at some truck parking:
I had fun watching traffic cameras to spot us driving by; yes, that’s our coach and truck in the right lane at the bottom:
Another traffic camera showing us:
And another one, showing us from the other direction:
Another snapshot:
Another stop at truck parking:
A snapshot:
A bridge over the Mississippi River into Tennessee; a big milestone for us, crossing this major river for the first time:
Dissapointingly, there was no sign marking the occasion. Probably due to roadworks (with uncomfortably narrow lanes again):
Our destination, Graceland RV Park:
The office:
Our site before parking: