Winnebago and Playful Dogs

Forest City, IA, is the corporate home of Winnebago Industries and the place where Winnebago branded products are made. The company owns several different brands, and manufactures and sells motorhomes and towable rvs under several different names and at multiple locations. At this location, however, about 2100 employees work to build between 22 and 25 motor driven rvs five days a week! Unlike other rv manufacturers, Winnebago assigns each worker a specific task each day....four motorhome floors, or seven roof structures, as an example. When that task is completed, the worker may clock out and go home, but is only paid for time worked. Sort of a screwy system, but it obviously works for them. The average wage at this plant is $16.00 per hour. Photography is strictly not allowed anywhere on the campus, so I don't have any photos. Take my word....it is a huge and complex operation!

Debbie and Larry are owned by a kick-in-the-pants Pug named Max. And he is! They hadn't been together for a moment before the fun began and it's been nonstop since!

We visited the Heritage Museum of Northern Iowa, an extensive collection of prairie homes, farm implements, and steam engines. The museum is normally open only on specified days, but we managed to find a knowledgeable mechanic/docent who gave the four of us a personally guided tour of the buildings. "Prairie Breakers", huge gas or steam engine tractors were stuffed into every nook and cranny. We picked our way through two buildings before admitting defeat....we could no longer process the tremendous array of implements.

Housing tractors from the 1880's to the 1970's, the buildings are a view into the industrial farm age.

They even have an old Cat Twenty orchard tractor just like the one I grew up with!

Some interesting names were used over the years...this probably wasn't as fast as a greyhound!

A mail-order house was moved onsite and is open to the public. A traditional "four square" two story home, it is another glance into our grandparents day. The most interesting thing about the house to us was the china gracing the dining table. This china is exactly like the set that Donna and I ate many meals on at her aunt's house over fifty years ago!

 Leaving the Heritage Museum, we drove out into the country near the rv park, where we found several electricity-generating windmills under construction. Pretending that we knew what we were doing, we embarked on a self-guided tour.

Larry and Debbie posed next to one of the windmill vanes, giving some perspective to its size!

Iowa is a huge electricity generating state, much of it coming from wind powered generators.

The size of these vanes boggles the mind. This is the end that attaches to the hub of the generating unit.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of wind machines scattered across the landscape of Iowa soybean fields.

Oh, and did I mention the cornfields...

Contrary to our original belief, there are several interesting things to see in the Forest City area. Tomorrow is another day!