Wow, was it ever empty! Units began to leave on Thursday, Dec. 19th, and on Friday afternoon, almost all were gone. We were one of the few “Tiffinites” that were remaining, most left on Saturday or Sunday. So by Monday, Dec. 23rd, only 6-8 of us were left to hold down the ‘Fort’, (also known as Camp Red Bay, which is located on an old air strip).
Our coach in space #2 at the front of the ‘Fort’.
Looking toward the rest of the team that remained to defend the ‘Fort’!
A few unoccupied units were left near the service bays of the ‘Fort’.
So we just stayed warm and enjoyed the quiet mornings and evenings as there was no one next to us starting up their engine at 6:30 a.m. to get to an assigned bay for service. That wasn’t so bad if we had to get up too! At sometime during the 9 days, we had to disconnect the electric and drive to one of two locations on site to refill the fresh water holding tank, since the water was turned off shortly after we arrived for the winter. Think that was most inconvenient and wish they could have at least turned the water back on during the day time for us.
On Dec. 28 & 29 a lot of motor homes began to arrive and we lost our view of the end of the runway and also to the service bays. Our service work then continued on Dec. 30th and by the 31st all but rail caps were left to do. Had hoped to have the rail caps done on Thur. Jan, 2nd, but didn’t get an appointment until Friday.
Things got really cold and on Friday, Jan 3rd, we were told to report to bay 36 at 7am. However, couldn’t get the large slide in, as it was covered with a full sheet of ice. Two service employees came over and got it off for us. We were able to report to our service bay by 8am! BTW: the ice was 3/4” thick and there were still chunks of ice on the ground the next morning. So, although we had thought we would leave on Sat. the 4th, we couldn’t as the new rail caps needed to be painted.
Sunday, the Polar Vortex arrived. Brrrrr…. So we prepared by pulling in the large slide. Monday, we arrived at the paint bay at 7am. We were finished by 2pm! Settled up our ‘bill’ and as it turned out, it wasn’t nearly as bad as we had first thought it would be. Since the early morning temps forecast for Tue. were in single digits, & the highs in the 30’s, we postponed our departure until Wed.
Tuesday morning the low was 9 degrees. The photos below show ice on the inside of our front window! The entire front window was covered with ice. Decided that we could put one of the space heaters on the dash and let it oscillate to help it defrost…NO…de-ice! And It worked! Pretty isn’t it?
We also discovered that we had no water. Oops, the water lines located inside the water compartment of the motor home froze. So, Elwyn took the hair dryer out to try to clear them, but could only get the cold water lines thawed out. So, we were able to get the rig back to a service bay. By using heat guns, they were able to get the hot water lines clear. So glad that we hadn’t planed on leaving until Wednesday.
Yes, we survived 35 days at Camp Red Bay!
See you on the road…
E & J
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