A Long, Long Travel Day

We stayed last night at Amana Colonies RV Park, and woke up this morning to the most beautiful Iowa morning!  The air was crisp and dry and cool, three things that have not been much in evidence lately.  A leisurely breakfast and a chat with the neighbor about motorhome problems killed most of the morning.  We finally got out of Amana about 12:30, just ahead of the federales who wanted us out of our super cheap camping site!

And just ahead of this little critter that seemed to live in a burrow right next to the table.

We followed Hwy 151 to I80 and headed east to Moscow, IA, the home of HWH Corp, the manufactures of the leveling jack system used on Nessie.  We have noticed an unusual noise when we first start the leveling procedure, and since we are in the area, decided to drive the 55 miles and have them check things out.  They have a large facility where they design and manufacture various leveling systems, slide-out mechanisms and a variety of specialty systems used in the RV industry.  With 3 locations, they have over 8 acres under roof, with a staff that includes 10 graduate engineers as well as a number of machinists and technicians.

We toured part of the facility after the day shift left, and got to know the night shift members.  A bunch of nice guys who gave us carte blanche to go whereever we wanted.  We noticed at least 80 CNC machines busy grinding rams and fittings for their systems.  What a machine shop!

One interesting area was the "test bed".  This is a motorhome (several years old, but complete with engine and generator and such) that is used to test new ideas for slides and jacks.

Because HWH manufactures and assembles 99% of their parts in house, there systems are very reliable. But stuff happens, and so they can accommodate up to 6 RV's at a time (more in a pinch), for service work.

They can lift the heaviest motorhome with their lifts.

We went into the town of Tipton for dinner at the Tipton Family Restaurant.  We had two choices: Mexican or American.  The idea of Iowa mexican food seemed a bit strange, so we opted for the American menu, with a Patty Melt sandwich and Pepper Steak served on rice the choices du jour.  A quick ride around town yielded several wonderful homes in the area where President Herbert Hoover is from.

Nessie will be in the shop at 7 am tomorrow, so we'll be homeless.  Maybe we can pick up a few bucks at the stoplight in town.....

Donna thinks I should hold up a sign that says "Will Not Work for Anything".  Hmmm.