On the Go with John and Jessie

We had a lovely visit with friends Meredith and Brad in Byron IL and then headed west for Iowa. Western Illinois really is scenic.  The town of Byron is dominated by the resident nuclear plant’s cooling tower that can be seen for miles.

Jessie, Brad & Meridith

Before we left Byron, Brad noticed that the tail-pile hanger strap was separated, which I thought that we could address at our next stop, the Winnebago factory.  We could not, as it turned out, and this had consequences on the following day, June 17.

We arrived at the Winnebago Visit Center in Forest City Iowa late and got set up just as a “severe” thunderstorm arrived. It was rocking and rolling with wind, rain, hail, thunder and lightning. We abandoned our plan to cook outdoors and stayed glued to the weather channel. Although we had a tornado warning (a step up from a tornado watch on the Red Cross Tornado app I got for the iPhone) fortunately no tornado, although one hit Mason City about 12 miles from Forest City.

Tuesday morning we did the factory tour. It was interesting to see the scope and complexity of the mixed model production line. I’d like to get some information on the software that’s used to manage that. No photos in the factory but here’s one in the Visitor Center. It’s a 1967 model that was used for interstellar travel in Mel Brooks’ movie Space Balls.  Interestingly, the interior RV layout was about the same as our new model.