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Home Sweet Home

Our travels have come to an end; we're home now.  

This is the end of the blog. 

Until next time.

Minnesota

Finally our repairs were done and we made our way to Minnesota. Almost home! We had supper with the relatives in Albert Lea and will be spending the night in a Walmart. Home tomorrow!!!

Winnebago Industries

Winnebago Industries has a campground for its customers who are waiting for service.  We stayed with about 10 other rigs.  The technicians came and pulled all of us into service bays first thing in the morning.  While we were waiting we went up to the Visitor Center and signed up for the factory tour.  The visitor center has lots of information and history, and we saw a 20 minute movie before the tour.  Then we all got on a Plant Tour bus (a modified Winnebago RV, of course) and they drove us around the grounds.  It covers over 500 acres and currently employs about 2,000 workers.  We got to see the workers on the assembly lines in all stages of manufacture, from floors, cabinets, upholstery, walls, paint. and assembly. it was a very interesting tour, but no cameras were allowed so sad to say, no pictures.

Winnebago Industries Visitor Center

At closing time our rig was not yet finished.  It turns out a small water leak we had in the front left corner requires the windshield to be removed, resealed, and replaced, and they didn't have time to finish that today.  Also, they had done some damage to one of the inside walls while they were working and they will have to replace an internal pannel tomorrow too.  So, that means we will be staying another night in their campground.

While we were waiting for our rig we met and had a nice visit with Patty Steger, the owner of Steger Mukluks & Moccasins in Ely, Minnesota.  She had a new RV all painted up with graphics from her company.  She was traveling with her big sweetheart of a dog, Luke.

Patty Steger

Patty and Luke came over to see our home.  Marble came out of hiding to look, but would not come very close.  Very brave of her.

Luke and Marble looking at each other.

Forest City, Iowa

We have a service appointment in the morning at the Winnebago/Itasca manufacturing plant in Forest City, Iowa.  This is where our rig was made.  It's only a few miles off the road home so we thought we would take advantage of that and get some warranty work done there. Nothing serious, just a few small water leaks.  Maybe we'll be able to get a tour of the plant while we are here.

The plant has camping spots with electricity for it's visitors.  We parked the rig and took the car to visit nearby Pilot Knob State Park.  In the park we found a short hiking trail that took us up to a lookout tower on the second highest point in Iowa, at elevation 1,450 feet.

Tower Built in 1934 by Civilian Conservation Corps

 

View from the tower.  It's flat like this in all directions.  It was kinda overcast, but the sun did come back out later.