Red Bay, AL: Swamp John's Decision is My Fault

Up at 7am to have the RV ready for the service adviser's inspection. You don't know when he'll get to you just that he starts at 7 and goes to each RV that arrived the previous day. He arrives around 8 am, we discuss the items on the list until about 8:45 am. He asks if we are in a hurry and we tell him not really; he says he could tell we were not in a hurry from our relaxed attitudes (boy I love retirement). He tells us he'll get us into one of the service bays at the end of the week or by the first of next week; he then says we are done for the day.

MLA starts reading, trying to finish another great book she is engrossed with, and I start organizing some of the supplies & tools I keep in plastic boxes. Around noon, service advisor comes to the door and tells us he has a service bay that opened up sooner than expected. We quickly pull in the slides, retract the awning, raise the levelers, and scoot into Bay 48.

I go through the list with the service technician and then we head off to the customer lounge. The services techs work from 7 am to 3 pm. At 3 pm exactly a loud buzzer goes off and immediately a large number of workers emerge from various places and are out the door. Reminded me of high school, when the buzzer went off, people left regardless of what the teacher was saying or doing.

In any case, our service technician, Roger, had fixed several items by 3 pm and told us to have the coach back over there by 7 am tomorrow morning.

We decide to get an early dinner. Now there are not a lot of eating establishments in Red Bay, maybe 5-6 places. One establishment on the list provided by the campground hosts is a 'seafood' place called Swamp John's and was recommended by two other campers.
We go into what is obviously a former gas station converted into restaurant, except there has been a minimal amount of 'conversion'. Bars on the windows, accumulated grime from 50 years of servicing auto's, etc. MLA will go into much more detail if you ask her, much more detail, so don't ask unless you've got a lot of time on your hands....

Turns out 'seafood' is southern for 'catfish', fried of course and it's Swamp John's specialty. In any case, given the limited options for eating elsewhere and the fact Swamp John's was recommended by the campground hosts and two other people staying here, we decide to stick it out. Any other place that looked like that and we would have simply left.

As I said, the 'specialty of the house' is catfish and onion rings, so that's what I order along with some southern 'sweet tea'. All in all, pretty tasty. Not the best that I have had but pretty good. Much better than the environment would lead you to believe.

MLA's meal was not good. Actually, her meal would have had to be exceptional for her to get past the grime and the flies. It wasn't and she didn't. Based on her comments to me on the drive home I don't think we'll be going back to Swamp John's. Ever. I probably won't be allowed to drive by Swamp John's; she'll insist we detour around the place. She was not a happy camper.

As usual it was my 'fault' she had such a bad meal/time. She and I have an on-going joke that if something is not good or a problem comes up, it is my 'fault'. If something good happens, she is responsible. It's one of the secrets to a long and successful marriage. Too many people get into long and protracted debates over who is to blame when the final determination of who is to blame is already known. The male in the relationship is of course to blame. Either they did or did not do something. Just another example of how we divide the many domestic responsibilities of marriage.

Actually, makes it easier, when trying to determine blame, to have a default person who's to blame. Saves a lot of time, frustration and a lot of heated conversation that would have yielded exactly the same result: the guy's at fault.

We usually end up laughing at the contortions we have to go through to to establish something as 'my fault'. In any case, we have a lot of fun with it. Most times, I'll beat her to the punch by declaring something is my fault. Just saves a lot of time. Many married men can relate, I'm sure.

Tomorrow, we'll have the RV at the service bay by 7am and hopefully they'll be able to knock off many of the remaining issues.

See Ya!