August 10, 2009

August 10, 2009

We read that Winnebago gives tours of their assembly line twice daily during the week. So we roll into the town of Forest City, IA in time for the 9am tour. We start with a movie that promotes the benefits of Winnebago’s product. From there we load onto a converted motorhome for a ride to three of the dozens of factory buildings. The manufacture of a motorhome starts with an empty chassis upon which a home is built. There is so much customization these days that the manufacturing is pretty complicated and labor intensive. Like the rest of the economy the RV business is in a slump and the local community is bearing the brunt. Production this year for Winnebago is 60 units per week, a third of last years rate. Employment is down to 1500, half of last year.

Back in the Visitor Center we learn a little about Winnebago’s history. Winnebago got started building trailers. In 1966 it introduced its motorhome and by the end of the year, Winnebago was the largest manufacturer. Sales skyrocketed in the next several years making millionaires out of many of the local citizenry. It was the Microsoft of Iowa. In the lobby is a mint condition 1967 motorhome. It looks surprisingly like our baby and I am amazed at how little has changed in motorhomes in the last forty years. All it lacks is a TV.

On our way out of Winnebago County we make a brief stop in Clear Lake. Clear Lake is where the music died in 1959. After playing his last gig at the Surf Ballroom, Buddy Holly died on takeoff along with Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper. Waylon Jennings luckily traded seats with Valens.

Continuing east we drive to the Mississippi River where we find a campsite at Pikes Peak State Park. After dinner we take a walk around this heavily wooded and hilly park. Stumbling upon a trailhead we take a short hike to the bluff’s edge where we get a good view of the River and a handful of Indian burial mounds. We linger a little too long and have to make our way back home in the dark. We must have been living with Alaska’s midnight sun too long. This setting sun is going to take some getting used to.