Georgia on our mind

Dave Here:

We be sitting in the “Bird’s Nest.” One of the things I wanted to do if we got to Georgia was visit the Bluebird Wanderlodge Factory, and guess what? – it was right on the way! When we hit Fort Valley, GA and drove into the Blue Bird Coachworks, the guard at the gate just waved us towards the RV Park, called the Bird’s Nest. It’s about 35 spaces in an old pecan orchard. Pecans keep falling off the tree onto the top of the bus. Sam has been gathering them off the ground.

Emphasizing our belief in connection, this is what happened:

We stopped at the only private RV park in Columbus, GA, since we wanted to visit with our old friend Angelo, who I met on the cross-country bike trip. Many of you will remember him since he came out for OBR a couple of times. Anyway, the park did not have a commercial map, so we naturally signed them up. While Sam was talking to the park owner she mentioned our heading for the Blue Bird factory, Well, this lady’s cousin just happens to be in charge of tours here. She called her, and we were scheduled in for last Friday. We arrived at the appointed time and were treated to a personal tour by the head of product development. The factory doesn’t work on Fridays, so we had the run of the place, seeing how they build these babies, including, of course a visit to a finished coach.

Blue Bird like ours were built onto school bus bodies, but now they build them from the ground up, mostly of stainless steel. They don’t use another company’s chassis, for instance. They start with huge steel rails and build the chassis, then they add the body, which is a cage of stainless rails. They then put on the steel sides, stretched tight and welded to the rails so it won’t move in the cold or heat. It makes the sides extremely smooth, and the whole thing very strong. The top is also one sheet of stainless.

By the time the coaches reach the end of the line they have all the usual stuff most new coaches do such as slide-outs, plasma TVs and all the tricky electronics you can imagine from GPS to automatic blinds. Really nice. In spite of all this, they are still priced competitively with other luxury coaches. We figure we can make the half million for the small 38-foot coach in ten years or so of park maps, if we work full time. Yeah, that’ll happen.

The Bird’s Nest is a great little park. Every thing is free, including the laundry – there’s a first! They even provide lunch at the clubhouse Monday through Thursday. Who said there’s no free lunch?

It’s been great! Tomorrow we head north to work our first two state park maps, then back to Columbus for a couple of weeks. We’ll be in the Peach State for awhile. Still aiming for the Atlantic – we’ll get there yet.

Happy New Year,

Dave

Sam here, with just a couple of observations. Alabama is the New Mexico of the South – very poor. The roads are the worst we’ve experienced on all our travels. Not only pot holes and patches, but ripples, big ripples both up the road and side to side, and no shoulder. Our cupboards were a mess. The roads were fairly clean, though. We wonder if all the trash blew north during the hurricanes.

Dave has told me about the Kudzu he saw when he rode back here. He remembers lush green vines covering virtually everything, creating a dense blanket of vegetation. Well, A’ll tell you wot, Kudzu ain’t the same in the winter. It covers nearly everything, but it’s dead and it looks like hag hair, or a thick gray hair net, covering everything, bushes and trees alike.

We are just getting introduced to the south. Already we can feel that this is really a different culture. The Bluebird Factory is so large (the school bus part) – they are only making 50 motor coaches a year, now – they have close to 200 employees in the coachdworks. Since Fort Valley is so small, I asked the product manager if they had a problem finding housing for their employees. He told us most of their employees don’t live here. When I asked why, he replied that this is a black town. I couldn’t quite understand his tone, or his expression, although I noticed it. Later I got to wondering if it was in response to my expression. We had dinner tonight at a Mexican restaurant and everyone in there was white. Another learning experience: You can’t buy a beer on Sunday.

The old homes are so beautiful. The maintenance has to be horrific. Old homes are carefully signed with their history and age. We also see signs for the Sons of Confederate Vets, just as big as Daughters of the Revolution. Lots of flags down here and they all fly alongside the Confederate Flag. Lots of big hair, too, but I’m trying not to be in judgment.

We really enjoyed our visit with Angelo. He and Gracie, his beautiful Vizula dog, brought us a pizza and we sat around the Bird and shot the breeze. (Gracie is not hyperactive; I thought she did really well, sitting around watching us eat.)

We’ve been off work since Christmas. Time to get cracking!

Love,

Sam