Tishomingo State Park

Tiffin motorhomes can only be purchased through one of their dealers.  From following the Tiffin owners Internet forum, we had selected three Tiffin dealers fairly close to Red Bay that had excellent reputations for prices and honesty.  Before we left Red Bay, we emailed each dealer a completed order form for bids on the motor model and configuration we wanted.  We then drove about 30 minutes to Tishomingo State Park in north-eastern Mississippi to wait for the dealer price bids.  Tishomingo State Park is along the Natchez Trace and the campground is along the edge of a small lake.

We saw the little Green Heron a few times at the edge of the lake.

There were a few pairs of Canada Geese, most pairs having two chicks.

These strange little structures that were a couple of inches high turned out to be built by a type crawfish at the top of their burrows.

We named this pair the "Odd Couple".  We think that these were a feral white duck and a feral domestic goose.  They seemed nearly inseperable.

Tiffin Motorhomes 2016 Models

By the time our Solvang home had sold,  Tiffin Motorhomes had stopped accepting orders for the 2015 year models.  But information about the changes done to the 2016 model year were very scarce.  Since we were now ready to order, but wanted to be certain of what we would get, we decided we needed to drop into the factory in Red Bay, Alabama, and get current information.

For 2016, Tiffin had dropped two of the interior schemes that had been available in 2015.  But all we could learn about the new schemes were some online images of a board of fabric swatches.  Seeing a swatch and not knowing what it was used for did not really give us any idea of what a finished motorhome would look like.  Our primary objective for this visit was to find Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhomes that had been built with the new interior schemes.

One of the new interiors was called "Shimmer".  This one did not appeal to us.  This is an image of the counter and backsplash in the kitchen area.

The interior called "Bamboo" was still available for 2016, and this is what we decided to choose.

At the main plant in Red Bay, there are always several motorhomes near completion.  Most of these can be entered and looked over.

The Tiffin painting facility is a few miles away near Belmont, Mississippi.  Here we could walk past a number of freshly painted motorhomes to help us decide on a paint scheme.

It's fun watching the bare chassis being driven around the factory grounds.

Along the road to Red Bay, AL

Here are a few images captured along our journey to the Tiffin Motorhome plant in Red Bay, Alabama.

This male Red-winged Black Bird near Bodega Bay was trying very hard to get the attention of the females.

This Ladder-backed Woodpecker was spotted near Kartchner Caverns in southern Arizona.

We also saw some juvenile Vermillion Flycatchers.

I believe that this fellow called himself "Jack".

Elephant Seals

After selling our house, we spent a few days at an RV park in Buellton, California.  We then headed north to visit our son in Santa Rosa, California.  We decided to drive the section of California Highway 1 between Morro Bay and Monterey.  We stopped to visit the Elephant Seals which use the beaches near the Piedras Blancas Lighthouse.  During this time of year the seals are ashore to spend a month molting and growing a new layer of skin and fur.  Immature males spend a lot of time sparring to develop their beach dominance skills.

Molting Elephant Seals

Sparring Immature Males

Closing a Chapter

Some of you might not know that we have sold our house in Solvang, California and have embarked on living a full-time RV lifestyle.  Escrow closed on Friday May 28th and we are now traveling in our 26.5' Lazy Daze class C motorhome.  We will soon be heading east to visit the Tiffin Motorhomes factory in Red Bay, Alabama.  It is our intent to buy a Tiffin Allegro Bus diesel pusher class A motorhome for our fulltiming life.

Below are a few pictures of the emptied house to commemorate the end of that chapter of our life.  Future posts will get back to wildlife and our travels (now fulltime!).

Living Room

Kitchen Dining Area

Bedroom once used as our Office

Master Bedroom walk-in Closet

Workshop

Garage

Birds Outside The Kitchen

Every year we have California Quail that nest and raise chicks in our area.  Lately, we've often seen a male quail that sits on top of the hedge outside our kitchen while on lookout duty.

Also we have Scrub Jays that like to come and use our bird bath.  Here are a few images of a pair of jays recently in the bird bath.

New gear and playing with some old Equipment

I decided to upgrade some of my photo equipment this spring.

A new very high quality tripod (RRS TVC-34L)

With a leveling base (RRS TA-3-LC-HK) holding my BH-55 ballhead

Holding a new Canon 7D mark II body
and a new Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM II zoom lens

While cleaning out the house and getting stuff ready to sell, I decided I had better test the operation of my Superbright 2000SW ultraviolet lamp.


Here is a set of fluorescent mineral specimens under normal light.

And the same specimens under short wave UV light.