A little catch up-Who's heard of Oak Ridge, TN?

I'm enjoying a little bit of down time in Bluewater Key.  This gives me a little time to catch up.  When we were in Pigeon Forge TN we had the opportunity to visit the birthplace of the Atomic Bomb.  If anyone has watched the cable series Manhattan, you may have taken note of the little trip to Tennessee the New Mexico scientists took.

A little background-

Oak Ridge was built in secrecy during WWII.  The US knew it needed a secret spot to work on the bomb that would end the war.  Oak Ridge was created in 1942 as a major site of the "Manhattan Project", a massive wartime effort that produced the world's first atomic weapons.  It consisted of 59,000 acres and at the time the area was populated by only 3,000 people.  These residents were bought out by the US government.  The site was chosen as it was near highways and railroads, but still isolated between valleys.  The further you go into the site, the farther from the real world, the deeper into secrecy you go.

The gate to get in

Even the roads don't exist

Albert Einstein wrote a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt expressing the views of several leading scientists and explaining the potential of such a weapon.  When we visited the Roosevelt Library in Upstate New York in October, we viewed the original letter on display.

This trip is like a woven tapestry of events as one place leads to another.  It has given me a greater appreciation of our nations history and timelines.

While the scientists in New Mexico were busy trying to build the weapon and how it would detonate, the scientists in Oak Ridge were busy separating the uranium 235 isotope from natural uranium in sufficient quantity and quality to produce the fissionable material for atomic weapons.  The X-10 is where the original graphite-moderated reactor was constructed as a pilot facility for the larger plutonium production complex in Hanford, WA.  The X-10 facility was closed in 1963 and is today a National Historic Site.  We were lucky to visit this site on our little tour.

Two other huge buildings were instrumental to the building of the bomb-the Y-12 plant and the K-25 plant.  both plants were built to separate the uranium 235.  The Y-12 plant borrowed $300 million worth of silver from the US Treasury.  The silver was used as a substitute for cooper in the fabrication of equipment for the plant.  The silver was all returned to the US Treasury in 1947.  Today Y-12 is still used to manufacture, process, and storage of special materials that are vital to our national security and continues to contribute to the prevention of the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

The K-25 plant was one of the largest scale-ups of laboratory equipment in history and involved process systems of unprecedented vacuum tightness and cleanliness.  The original K-25 plant covered more than 1,500 acres.  The site is currently undergoing massive site clean-up and environmental restoration.  We were unable to visit Y-12 and K-25 for obvious reasons.

The fascinating part for me is how they were able to maintain the secrecy required to do this vital work.  The population of the area grew to 75,000, the amount of electricity used was huge and yet only the President and the people working on the gadget knew about it.  With today's instant information and satellites we could never pull it off again.

A typical housing for a small family 

quaint little house. 

What do they do in Oak Ridge now?  The site is an amazing collection of brainiacs and scientists.  They have scientists from all over the world come to work on their experiments.  Oak Ridge is home to the second fastest super computer in the world - Titan.  Scientists earn time on the computer and we listened to one who is studying what happens when a star explodes and what is the effect on the Earth's atmosphere and the Sun's rays.  ORNL operates the Spallation Neutron Source, one of the world's foremost facilities for the study of materials.  An intense beam of neutrons is delivered to 25 instruments, providing much more detailed information about smaller samples of physical and biological materials than ever before.

Did I enjoy our visit? You bet!  I loved every minute of it, although most was over my head and I struggled to keep up.  I was fascinated by the idea of a secret city located in the hills of Tennessee that functioned entirely in secrecy for so many years.  After this I put White Sands NM on my bucket list of places to visit.  After growing up in the shadow of the Nevada Test Site, I guess this stuff just gets in your blood and bones.

Charleston and Parris Island South Carolina

 Lake Aire RV Park
Wet and mucky

We pulled into the Lake Aire Rv Park as our stop for Charleston, SC.  We wanted to spend a few days there playing tourists.  The RV choices are limited to two and we picked the less expensive and a little bit out of town for the quiet.

An old carriage step on the sidewalk

The theatre.  A Christmas Carol was opening on Friday.  It is a beautiful theatre

Charleston is a beautiful city at the Bay Front with old houses and row houses overlooking the bay.  The area is friendly and well taken care of.  We took a walking history tour to get a little bit of exercise and to hear more about this place.  The morning started off chilly, but the fog lifted and the sun popped out.

We wandered about for 3 hours and worked up quite an appetite.  I wanted some good low country cooking.  The guide recommended Slightly North of Broad.  He was correct is saying their food was really good.  I enjoyed Shrimp and Grits, Eric had Chicken Livers with Grits and collard greens.  All was so flavorful.  Yum.

The next morning we took off early for Parris Island.  Eric did his boot camp there 34 years as a young Marine Recruit.  We arrived just in time for a graduation ceremony.  Awesome!  These Marines are so young!  It was a nice foggy morning and we took it all in.  Afterwards we drove around the Recruiting Depot and found Eric's old barracks and watched recruits being run through their drills.  I am impressed at how they can mold these young men into Marines.

Eric's old barracks.  Looks like a prison to me!

We made a couple of stops on the way home-the first was to the Carolina Cider Company for Peach Cider, the next was the Carolina Tea Plantation, and the best was Firefly Distillery for vodka, rum and moonshine tastings.  The Lemonade Vodka and Mint Tea Vodka were amazing!

The only tea plantation in the States

A cool spider

This machine cuts the young leaves off the tea plants

Making my list at the distillery

I love roadside stops!

Next Stop-Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.  Can't wait for a nice clean park!

3 weeks in beautiful (?) Red Bay Alabama, home to Tiffin Motorhomes

We escaped from the Tiffin Service Center after three long weeks of repairs, improvements and just sitting around.  Boy is that all tiring!

We pulled in the day after Veteran's Day to learn there wasn't room, even though we had called and there was before we made the short ride from Tunica, Mississippi.  Even more disheartening was when they told us it would be 5 weeks before getting us into a bay.  We had a couple of emergency issues like our front propane heater wasn't working and the temps were expected to drop to the teens in the next day of two.  The first impression was not the best to say the least.  We started making phone calls to other repair spots in Red Bay as there are several that specialize in Tiffin repairs.  We camped across the street for $20.00 per night at Detail Depot, a unique use for an old gas station.  The Detail Depot has a few spots with hookups, an RV wash and wax service, a barber, a beauty salon, a pet groomer and sandwich shop.  You could almost live there!

Our list of repairs included a couple of cosmetic touch ups where we came into contact with immovable objects, haha.  So of we went to McKinney RV Paint Shop across from the Tiffin plant.  Not a bad place to stay when the temps were below freezing as we had to stay in the paint bay and the temp inside was a toasty 75.  The down side was the smell.  I turned on our air purifier full blast to lessen the effects of the paint.  It was weird sleeping inside but there was not an alternative.  

We got the heater mother board repaired and our new slide out toppers installed across the street at McKinney RV.  It took them less than two hours to complete the work and we returned to Tiffin Camp Service Center.  We waited patiently for an express bay to do the smaller work on the Beast.  I learned early on you could get lost in the 100 plus coaches waiting for repairs.  So every morning I would pop in to the scheduler to make sure I could schedule items on our list with the other facilities in town.  Finally after a week and two days we were in a bay!  

The Beast gets new headlights

Getting ready to install the new slide toppers

The headlights were a struggle, at one point we had 6 techs looking at them at once.

Tiffin has three 'silent recalls' going.  The cap rails, the wet bays and the driver slide out floors were not installed using proper materials and they have experienced several failures. Good news is if you can get to Red Bay, they will repair them.  Most only need one or two of the repairs, but lucky us, we got all three.  I was amazed at the organization of getting these major repairs completed.  

Getting ready to put the new cap rails on

replacing the wet bay floor with a plastic material instead of wood

This was our wet bay floor.  The wood just crumbled

Huge cranes lift the slides out and swing them away from the Beast

The Beast missing it's slide

The slide out on its side with the floor removed

lifting the slide back up

Getting the slide lined up to go back in

Bay Diesel was our (almost) last stop.  We wanted them to service the generator, check a vibration we had in the front and replace the shocks.  We also had them complete all the service items to get everything up to date and checked out.  While we had thought Camping World had completed all the checks, it was apparent they had not.  We had developed a flat spot on the new tires, so the recommendation was to rotate the tires and have them properly balanced and aligned.  We walked out of there with a hefty bill, but the ride and performance was noticeably improved.  Worth the investment I say!

We got into the paint bay for the cap rails which only took a few hours.  We were set free at 1:30 and on the road by 2:30 after paying our bill and checking out of the camp.  We drove on past Birmingham and even past Atlanta at 8:30 at night to avoid the traffic there.  That was a good move as we hit no traffic and breezed right through.  A night spent at a truck stop was worth the noise as we were tired and ready to sleep.  We usually don't do that, but if we want to avoid traffic or get past a big city sometimes it is the only place to stop.  

Next up-The adventure continues after that brief break for business.