The Rest of the Story

A couple weeks ago I wrote about “My Daytona bucket list”. But I didn’t get to finish because of limited space in the paper. So, as Paul Harvey used to say back in our days, here’s “The Rest of the Story.”

While we were at Daytona with our “Race to end Alzheimer’s” car and working in one of the NASCAR work shops, I looked up from under the hood and lo and behold, there was a long lost cousin I hadn’t seen in over 20 years! His mom, my 93 year old aunt, whom I talk to fairly regularly, told him we would be racing there and he, being a devoted racing fan himself, drove a few hours from where he lives in Florida to come see us; I couldn’t believe my eyes!

We immediately began to relive past experiences and tried to catch up on 20+ years of not seeing each other, an almost impossible task but we triend nonetheless. In the course of our conversation I found out that he had an RV for sale at a consignment lot in Red Bay, AL that he was anxious to sell. in fact, he was so anxious to sell it because it had been sitting on the lot with no offers for approximately a year!

My ears immediately perked up for two reasons: 1. I’ve always wanted to visit the Tiffin RV plant in Red Bay ever since working at Blue Bird Wanderlodge back in the 80’s, and 2. the model and floor plan of his RV was exactly what I’ve had my eye on for the past year. So, as you might imagine, it didn’t take us long to cook up a deal. 

I offered to go to Red Bay (about a 6-7 hour drive) and ferry his RV back to Middle Georgia where he was plannig to be the first week of May for another race. We agreed that if it was indeed what we wanted, I’d keep it and he would simply drive his tow car back to Florida; if not, he’d tow it back home where he felt he’d have a better chance of selling it. Deal!

So here’s the rest of the story. Last Thursday afternoon, my son, David, and my wife, drove about 5 hours and stayed in a hotel about an hour east of Red Bay. We were up early and anxious Friday moring and drove to Red Bay in the northwest corner of Alabama where we arrived just about 9 AM as I told the consignment seller. By the way, the scenery in Northwest Alabama is stunning; worth a road trip if you get the chance!

As we pulled into the lot, the seller had the coach running and all warmed up. After completeting the paperwok and few minutes chatting, he offered to personally take us on a brief tour of the Tiffin plant and of Red Bay; think Blue Bird and Ft. Valley and you’ll have an accurate picture of what we saw. In the course of conversation we found out that Mr. McKinney, the consignment seller, was not in RV sales but also an avid motorsports participant and collector. He was also Tiffin’s very first employee when the plant started back in 1972. Boy, did he have the stories and hot rod car collection to drool over! No room for more details here though.

We left by about 10:30 Friday moring but didn’t get 10 miles down the road before the RV engine started to badly overheat ; I mean into the “Red Zone”! We were able to pull over before any major damage to the engine but with a lot of “What Now” perplexity! After a brief call to my cousin in Florida, we all decided to try again after a 30 mnute cool down wait in hopes that it might be just a stuck thermostat from sitting for so long; maybe it would open if we restarted it? And, that’s exactly what it did. Or so we thought!

At any rate with the temperature gage now back to normal, we continued on our journey home only to watch the temperature gauge undulate with every little hill and dale of the road. We knew we there was something more seriously wrong and we wouldn’t be able to make it until we got it fixed.

After nursing the coach about 20 more miles southward, we pulled into Taylor’s West 66 in Hamilton, Alabama. It ws a 4-5 bay shop with a mix of cars and trucks in the parking area. David and I walked into the shop and introduced ourselves to Cody, the shop manager and told him of our dilemma. He politely listened to us total strangers stranded in his driveway, and instead of telling us they didn’t fool with complicated RVs, he said “I know a knowledgeable guy who works near the Tiffin factory who can help us troubleshoot your problem.” 

So Cody immediately got Aaron on the phone and he indeed walked us methodically through a diagnostic procedure and confidently told us we had a defective cooling fan clutch. Not only that, but, though he normally does’t stock the part, he had one in invetory and he would hold it for us if we came to get it right away; as you might imagine, we didn’t waste any time in going back to where we started from and met Aaron who was waiting for us with the part.

But that’s not all. Aaron said “I’m getting off early this afternoon becasue we have the grandkids so I can come by the shop and help install it for you.” Remember, we’re perfcet strangers to these people!

Sure enough, when we got back to the shop, Cody had opened up the engine compartment as Aaron had directed him to gain access to install the fan clutch. I’m going to have to leave out a lot of details except to tell you that Cody and Aaron worked straight through until about 9 PM to get us strangers back on the road again. 

I want to publicly tell Mr. Brock Taylor, owner of Taylor’s West 66 that he has an incredible gem of an employee in his manager, Cody. And Cody has an amazing friend named Aaron, both of whom we are indebted to for not only our timely comfort, but our safety as well.

Thank you all for your Northwest Alabama skills, hospitality and willingness to go well beyond the call of duty to help a couple of stranded strngers! May God’s hand of blessing be upon you all!

PS… That was our prayer for these men all the time they were serving us and we thank God for his provison of the parts and people just where and when we needed them. We serve an awesome God!

That’s “The Rest of the Story!”

Thanks for reading All About Seniors…..see you next week!

Bill Milby is a Director of Visiting Angels® of Central Georgia, a non-medical, living assistance service for seniors. If you have questions or comments about this column you can reach him at william.mercylink@gmail.com or search for us at  https://www.facebook.com/VisitingAngelsofCentralGA