Searcy Escape

Sulphur Springs, Tx – Thursday June 9, 2011

Wednesday June 8,2011 was a long day. We got the word early in the morning that the glass people would be expecting us and could temper our windows somewhere between 1PM and 5PM. With our luck it’s never the early time slot, it’s always the later one.

At 10:30AM we left with hopes that if we could get the windows tempered early enough we could get back to Searcy and get the them installed so we could make an early morning departure on Thursday.

We arrived in Memphis,TN at WDG the glass place, at 1:05PM. We immediately went to the receiving dock where everyone went on high alert. We were escorted to the front office where we were met by Gary, who took our glass. Apparently the receiving dock isn’t actually for receiving stuff. Gary told us our glass should be ready in 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Alright, we have time for lunch before we have to get to back WDG.

So off in search of a McDonalds and wifi we go. The closest McDs just couldn’t get it together and so we went a half block to a Burger King where the service was excellent and they had wifi. We’ve been disappointed with most of the McDs we’ve stopped at on this trip. They seem to be terribly mismanaged. Plenty of staff, but only one person taking orders and everyone else standing around.

We waited until 3:30 before we called Gary at WDG. Gary said they were having equipment problems but our stuff should be going in in about an hour. With more time to kill and wanting to go for a walk in some air conditioning, we set in search of the nearest mall. We found one that was almost vacant except for a Sears store and a Laser Tag business. We got our walk in, but it was sad to see a big mall like that doing so poorly.

At 4:45 it dawned on us that WDG probably closes at 5PM and we better find out what’s going on. I call and get the answering machine that says they’re closed for the day. I guess it was 4:30, not 5PM when the office closed. Now what do we do? We decide to head over to WDG to see if we can find anyone in the shop to let us know what’s happening to our glass.

On the way back to WDG we get a call from Gary letting us know that they were processing our glass as we speak and that it should all be done in 30 to 45 minutes. Whew!! We did NOT want to have to spend the night in Memphis.

The foreman of the tempering process was nice enough to give us a quick tour from the cutting to the tempering. The glass is cut by machine based on computer instructions. The only cuts that are done manually are circular shapes and odd cuts. After the glass is cut it is delivered to a tempering oven. Humans put it into the tunnel and and take it out the other end of the tunnel when it’s done. it’s a 3 step process. The first oven heats the glass to 700 degrees, the second oven heats to 1200 degrees and the cooling tunnel cools the glass back to ambient temperature so the humans can handle it again.

With glass in hand at 5:30pm we decided to take a different way back to Searcy . EJ routed us by Graceland and then downtown to Mud Island River Park via Beale Street. Everything was closed at Graceland, but EJ got out and got some pictures from over the fence.

Getting downtown wasn’t too bad, but once we got there we couldn’t get over to Mud Island. We drove around and finally ended up at the visitors center across from Mud Island. We got out and took a walk on the river and inside to see if we could find any information. No one was there , but found two nice bronze statues.

It was already 7pm and we had about a 2 hour drive back, so we hit the road. Arrived at RV at 8:50, tired puppies, but mission accomplished.

We left the glass outside the shop so they could start early Thursday morning and hopefully get us on the road quickly. Around 9am they came and installed the passenger window. This window used to open and had a screen and bar across the middle. We took the opportunity to change this window to a single piece of glass for better visibility. It was not quite to Frank’s satisfaction, so they had to fix the seal. The bigger driver side windows (3 pieces) took a little longer. They finally got everything done and we were on our way at 11:50. We now have a clear view of the road. Time for some road miles. Fairly uneventful day, we made it through Little Rock, AR and into Texas. Got as far as Sulphur Springs, TX (about 60 miles east of Dallas,TX) around 6pm and called it a day.