A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 187 miles from Rutledge, Georgia to Columbia, South Carolina.
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Travel from Rutledge, Georgia to Columbia, South Carolina
We drove our coach 187 miles, about three hours of driving, from Rutledge, Georgia to Columbia, South Carolina. The first of a series of new states for us.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading east:
An interactive map:
I was a bit concerned about leaving our site, as it was kinda steep:
But we managed without too much difficulty:
We left the park via Knox Chapel Road, to avoid a bad railroad crossing in downtown Rutledge:
We still had to go over an unlevel railroad crossing, but this was the best of the three options:
Nice new road surface:
Joining I-20 East, with an Eisenhower Interstate System sign:
Roadworks:
Fun with zoom:
A Southern swooper; we’ve noticed that Southern drivers tend to swoop in front of us, way too close for safety. Give some space before moving over, people!
We parked at a Love’s truck stop and went to the adjacent Waffle House for lunch:
Paladin waiting on the dash for us to return:
Entering South Carolina:
Paladin asleep:
Fun with zoom:
Exit to route 1:
Sesquicentennial State Park:
Entrance station:
Splash pad:
Campground entrance:
Our site:
Paladin on the dash while getting leveled in the site:
Replaced shower rain head
Our motorhome has a small shower in the main bathroom, with a somewhat low ceiling. It came with a rain showerhead, in addition to a handheld one. But unfortunately it was a bit short for me (I’m 6’ 1”), so I had to duck when having a shower, and was always banging my head on it. Here’s a picture from when we bought the coach; it was a concern then, but not a dealbreaker:
So I recently solved that. I got Dillon Massey of DC Plumbing in Red Bay to remove that horrible shower head:
The hole:
And install a new shower head and arm that I bought from Amazon. The rain head comes with an 11” arm, plus I bought a second arm to enable it to be positioned higher:
As a bonus, I also got Dillon to add a valve under the half bath sink on the toilet hose, so we can shut it off without having to shut off all of the water (especially useful when sanitizing our water tank):
Toilet valve:
Anyway, back to the shower; here’s the new arm and shower head installed:
So much nicer! Now I can stand under the rain head without hitting my head. I can’t believe I suffered with that old one for over two years.
Hard Labor Creek State Park
We stayed at Hard Labor Creek State Park in Rutledge, Georgia. (Campground Reviews listing.)
A nice quiet state park, but very unlevel sites, and no cell service.
Dates:
- Check in: 2024-04-21
- Check out: 2024-04-28
- 7 nights
Weather:
- Partly cloudy
- High temps 65-79°F, lows 42-61°F
- Negligible wind, gusts to 15 MPH
Noise:
- No road noise
- Distant occasional train noise
- Some neighbor noise
Site:
- #3, pull-through, gravel
- Didn’t need to disconnect toad, parked behind and in front of coach
- Extremely unlevel, high on passenger side and front; couldn’t use hydraulic leveling, had to use air leveling
- Gravel driveway about 230 feet long, though none of it flat
- No neighbor on passenger side, trees and grass about 270 feet to next driveway
- Trees and slope to driver-side neighbor about 35 feet wide
- Picnic table on gravel area about 35 feet wide by 10 feet deep
- Fire pit
- Lantern hook
- Clean site
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, conveniently located
- 30 PSI water, conveniently located
- Loose sewer connection, conveniently located (2 10-foot pipes needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- Starlink: 20-55 Mbps down, 7 Mbps up, 25 ms ping (obstructed, with frequent outages)
- Verizon: 7 Mbps down, 0.2 Mbps up, 140 ms ping (fairly unusable)
- AT&T: 0.3 Mbps down, 0.01 Mbps up, 80-150 ms ping (unusable)
- T-Mobile: no service
- Campground Wi-Fi: none (other than at trading post)
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpster by entrance
- Dump station
- Mini golf
- Walking paths
- Trading post
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Nice place to unplug
This was a nice, quiet state park amid hills and trees about an hour from Atlanta. There are many recreational activities in the park, and it would be a great place to get away from it all. However, if you’re working full-time from the road, you will have difficulties getting a signal. We have access to all three major carriers and Starlink. Cell service was negligible, and the heavy tree cover made Starlink very unreliable. The sites are nice and large but may be very unlevel. We had site 3, which was 230 feet long (not exaggerating), but none of it was flat. We tried multiple locations and angles but couldn’t make it work with the hydraulic leveling and eventually resorted to using air leveling, which isn’t ideal (it’s like living in a bouncy castle or being at sea). If you have a smaller camper and don’t have to work, this park would be perfect, but for us, it was kind of a mixed bag. We camped at Hard Labor Creek State Park in a Motorhome.
Tip for other campers: Madison is a cute little town about 20 minutes away. Definitely recommend “The Sinclair” for good coffee, croissants, and speedy WiFi….
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site was a very long pull-through, but extremely unlevel:
We put out our griddle, tables, and chairs, and enjoyed sitting outside on several days:
Utilities:
We were far to the left to try to find some level ground, unsuccessfully:
Entrance to the site:
When we tried to use our hydraulic jacks, one of the back tires was off the ground; not great, since they are the brakes on the coach:
So we ended up using air leveling instead of hydraulic, which isn’t as preferred as it is more wobbly, but at least we had that option (most motorhome and fiver RVs only have hydraulic jacks).
There was also no usable cell service, and Starlink was too obstructed for continuous streaming, so Jenn went to a coffee shop appropriately named “The Sinclair” to have a video chat meeting:
Trading post at the entrance of the campground:
Mini golf:
Playground:
Nature trail:
Picnic shelter:
Dump station:
Camper bathrooms:
Other sites:
A glimpse of a lake from the end of one of the camping loops:
The road by our site:
A nice campground, but I don’t think we’ll return, as lack of internet connectivity is a fatal problem for us, since we need it to do our work. If we did return, we’d pick a different site; the long pull-through was nice, but one of the back-ins might be more flat (though if you look at the pictures above, most seemed to have a slope).
Video: Red Bay, Alabama to Rutledge, Georgia motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 332 miles from Red Bay, Alabama to Rutledge, Georgia. Including some clips from the truck perspective, a branch falling from the coach roof onto the truck, and six, count ‘em, six attempts to get level at the destination!
Travel from Red Bay, Alabama to Rutledge, Georgia
We drove our coach 332 miles, about six hours of driving, from Red Bay, Alabama to Rutledge, Georgia.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading east:
An interactive map:
Water streaming off our slide topper as we brought in the slide, from recent rain:
Toading up:
We left Red Bay via downtown:
SR-19:
On to I-22 East:
A bathroom break at a truck stop:
Our coach in travel mode:
Paladin in his nest on the stacked dining chairs:
Fun with zoom:
I-65 South:
Birmingham:
I-20 East:
Fun with zoom:
I-20 East:
A large load:
Fuel and lunch stop:
91.717 gallons:
Heading to the parking area, with Paladin on the passenger chair:
Parked:
We had Popeyes for lunch:
A branch on the roof; we found it on the truck when we arrived:
Talladega Superspeedway; apparently there was a NASCAR race on:
Eisenhower Interstate System sign:
Fun with zoom:
Welcome to Georgia:
Entering Eastern Time Zone, where we’ll be until July:
Another bathroom break at the Georgia Welcome Center truck parking:
Atlanta:
SR-11:
I chose this route to go over this railroad crossing, as the one in downtown Rutledge has a very high crown:
Horse properties:
Hard Labor Creek State Park:
RV check-in area:
Trading Post:
The camp host happened to be in the trading post when we checked in, so she offered to guide us to our site; that’s the driveway on the right:
Paladin surveying our steep driveway:
Yeah, doesn’t look very level:
Video: Red Bay Acres and offsite vendor timelapse
A timelapse of our stay at Red Bay Acres for Tiffin services, plus a trip to an offsite vendor.
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. Our third stay here.
Dates:
- Check in: 2024-04-15
- Check out: 2024-04-21
- 6 nights
Weather:
- Mostly cloudy, some rain
- High temps ranging between 69-83°F, lows around 49-64°F
- Some wind, gusts to 30 MPH
Noise:
- No road noise
- No train noise
- Hourly clock tower noise
- A little neighbor and tech services noise
Site:
- #32, back in, concrete
- Needed to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
- Somewhat level; used air and hydraulic leveling at different times
- Concrete driveway about 60 feet long by about 12 feet wide
- Grass between sites, 15-25 feet wide on passenger side, 15 feet wide on driver side
- Picnic table on 10 by 12 feet concrete patio
- Clean site
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, conveniently located
- 60 PSI water, conveniently located
- Good sewer connection, fairly conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 50 Mbps down, 13-40 Mbps up, 42 ms ping
- AT&T: 190 Mbps down, 20-29 Mbps up, 80 ms ping
- Verizon: 25 Mbps down, 5 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 (from our first visit):
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:
We opted for a standard site this time, but requested a site range towards the back. We got a site next to the first site we had, perhaps the best of the standard sites — and next to a sibling coach, a 2018 Tiffin Allegro Bus 40AP (ours is a 2017 40SP):
They deliver packages to the site (most of the time; sometimes they call for us to pick up). But when packages are delivered before we arrive, we pick them up on arrival. Paladin thought they were a good place to sit:
The central pond:
Red Bay Yacht Club, where people can relax while their coaches are being worked on, or grab a bite to eat:
On our first night, we had chicken wings, pizza, and “cheese sticks”, that they had to clarify were not what most people would expect, mozzarella sticks, but basically cheese pizza cut in strips (but tasty dipped in ranch dressing):
Peach cobbler for dessert:
We ate half the pizzas, and took the remainder home, along with some Ben & Jerry’s ice cream for another day:
We only had one drive-to service this time. We went to Sparks Drive Inn for lunch during that:
Another day, we went to The Fish Place for dinner, with a super-slow drive through (we waited out front for over half an hour):
Tasty enough, though:
Another day, back to the Yacht Club, where we had the two Friday Specials:
Other sites:
Still a nice RV park. We’ll no doubt stay here again in the future. We might be back in December (though it might be too cold then?). But currently have no plans to be anywhere near Alabama in 2025. So we’ll see.
Video: Scott, Arkansas to Red Bay, Alabama motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 278 miles from Scott, Arkansas to Red Bay, Alabama.
Travel from Scott, Arkansas to Red Bay, Alabama
We drove our coach 278 miles, about five hours of driving, from Scott, Arkansas to Red Bay, Alabama.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading east:
An interactive map:
The tow bar was at a strange angle, due to toading up on a curve, but that’s fine (just need to pull forward slowly until it locks in place):
Don’t need the dump station on the way out this time:
I-440 East:
I-40 East:
Paladin in his safe spot next to the passenger chair… and saying get that phone out of my face:
Wide load:
Paladin asleep:
A lunch stop at a large Petro truck stop:
We were going go in to an IHOP, but decided we didn’t have time for that, with a long drive still ahead, so just ate in our coach:
I-55 Alt South:
Crossing the Mississippi River:
Tennessee welcomes you, unless you drive a truck:
Bass Pro Shops pyramid:
Only in Tennessee briefly in Memphis, then on to Mississippi:
“Orange You Going to Slow Down in Work Zones?”
I-269 North:
I-22 East:
Paladin asleep again:
Fun with zoom:
Paladin one more time:
Rest break at a truck stop we often visit on the way to/from Red Bay:
Fun with zoom again:
Our fourth state of the drive, Alabama:
Our destination, Red Bay Acres:
Our site next to a sibling coach (a 2018 Tiffin Allegro Bus 40AP; one year newer, and a different floorplan):
