From Maine to Alabama October17- November 2, 2019

When Wally and I chose to return to an RV for our 2019-20 winter travels this year, we were hoping to broaden our horizons. We wanted our day-to-day traveling to be a bit more care-free than life on a boat has been; we also wanted to seek out back roads to new places that we hadn’t ventured to in our previous 16 years of RVing… 1998-2014.  So far, our first 10 days of RV life have not been a disappointment.

The yellow line is our general direction with many deviations.

Along with delightful visits with family and friends, we have opened doors into new worlds. The Corning Glass Works and Museum was one of those special places. The admission ticket was good for two days. Two weeks might have been a more appropriate time frame in which to wrap our minds around the history of glassmaking. We were drawn to the “Hot Shops” where glass artisans were engaged in the techniques of blowing glass. We had become acquainted with Dale Chihuly’s flamboyant sculptural creations in St. Petersburg, FL, so the displays of his large, colorful creations in Corning made us fall in love with his work all over again. As the biographical write-up accompanying his works proclaims, ”His prominence in the field of studio glass is unmatched.”  Lino Tagliapietra was always an iconic attraction when he taught glassblowing at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts on Deer Isle, ME in the 1990’s.  In the Corning exhibition, he was described as “the best glassblower in the world”. We were quite impressed!

Situated in the Finger Lakes Region 0f New York State, Corning is in a lovely setting. The southern tip of Lake Seneca, just to the north, is home to Watkins Glen. Twelve waterfalls cascade down a gorge in the State Park in the center of town. The Watkins Glen International Speedway attracts its own unique clientele. Our Can-Am Spyder Roadster with its two wheels in the front and one in the back was perfect for cruising the area with stability and style.

With the campgrounds in the Northland closing for the season around Columbus Day, we had to make reservations well in advance of our trip. We ferreted out the few RV parks that were remaining open until the end of October. After that, we needed to be south of the Mason-Dixon Line. I celebrated my October 22nd birthday on a farm in southern Ohio with long-time RV friends and fellow volunteers Betsy and Robert and their family members. What a treat! They took a day to drive us through the Hocking Hills State Park with its hiking trails to several immense open-faced caves and waterfalls. We were also taken to the sites of the burial and ceremonial mounds dating back 2,000 years that abound in this area. We left with Kingston, Ohio apples and cider and lots of great reunion memories.

John and Wilma from FT Myers Yacht Basin

Betsy and Robert

The Sweptson family celebrating Darcy's Birthday

It was very apparent that job opportunities abound in southern Ohio. Abundant fields of corn and soybeans were interspersed with companies on the move. Kenworth was building a fleet of trucks expressly for Amazon Prime deliveries. Spin-off industries such as machines shops, muffler factories, etc. were clustered near the Kenworth plant. Farm families were carrying on their long-time traditions while new industries were flourishing.  Mainers, on the other hand, are staggering from the loss of many industry-related jobs. It was heart-wrenching to see how healthy Maine’s economy should and could be.

The Bourbon Trail between Louisville and Lexington, KY was our next stop. An enticing sweet smell permeated the region!  We got to compare the distillery practices of Four Roses and Maker’s Mark… and sample their final products. Eight million charred oak barrels of bourbon are aging in Kentucky at any one time. It takes six to fifteen years to complete the aging process.

Four Roses uses 5 different kinds of yeast...yielding different flavors

Hand waxing each bottle of Makers Mark

There are 2 million people in Kentucky and 8 million barrels of bourbon aging in warehouses like these

A significant figure in the Kentucky art community, Stephen Rolfe Powell, passed away recently. Maker’s Mark chose to honor him by displaying his vibrant, over-sized blown glass sculptures throughout their distillery facility. In specially lighted niches, the amazing globes reverberated color and form. How could we ever imagine that the lessons of Corning, NY would revisit us in Bardstown, KY?

Dale Chihuly's artist rendition of the Persian Ceiling

Persian Ceiling

Persian Ceiling detail

We are now in Red Bay, AL where our 2018 Tiffin Allegro Open Road SA Motorhome was built. We made a special effort to come here for the tour of the factory. It was well worth the trip. From the hardwood lumber destined to become stunning cabinetry to the show-stopping paint designs applied to the exterior body, the materials used to fabricate each motorhome are top-notch. The technicians working each station of the production line seemed competent, carrying out their work with pride.

It didn’t take long to realize that there is a second reason that hundreds of Tiffin Motorhomes are congregated in RV Parks all over town. They have come to get a punch-list of items fixed before their warranties expire. We joined the fray. Even though our RV is barely two years old and has had little use, we have discovered four or five features that don’t perform properly. We are in the queue to have 3 hours of service completed. That should take place in three days.

We love our Allegro Open Road. TheTiffin family is famous for creating elegant motorhomes. Ours is no exception. At 32 feet, she is one of their smaller coaches; her two 3-foot deep slides, however, make the living areas very spacious. We are delighted with the way our Allegro Open Road handles and with the way she affords us a lovely home. The Tiffin Logo “Roughing it Smoothly” says it all.