Forest City, Iowa. Population 4400 and around 2400 are employed by Winnebago Industries.

We arrived fifteen minutes before the Winnebago Factory tour started and spent our time checking out the classic trademark motor home on display inside the reception area.

We were the youngest people there for the tour aside from Rod, our tour guide. Rod had taught and coached high school for thirty-seven years and had retired a couple years ago. One of his side jobs is tour guide.

The tour starts with specific instructions that there are NO PHOTOS ALLOWED and with a twenty-five minute video which has you feeling like you just got roped into a timeshare sales pitch more than a look at the history and manufacturing processes of the company. After I was thoroughly convinced that Winnebago is the super-duper, bestest, best ever RV manufacturing company in the whole wide world we loaded on a bus to start the tour of the over six hundred acre factory facility. Comprised of a series of warehouse type buildings that house everything from roto-molding, fabrics and furniture to manufacturing to welding, aluminum extrusion and paint. We first stopped at the fabrics and furniture building and walked through the production where the workers were assembling, sofa seat cushions and comforters. Winnebago has a number of patented tools developed for their manufacturing processes. It was interesting to watch raw materials be turned into a finished product. Next we toured the building where the coaches are assembled and painted. Up a flight of steel stairs to a catwalk which spanned six production lines. Each line was specific to the type of RV and one was specifically for paint. It was cool and frustrating to look down on the production line where the Windryder5 was assembled. Every now and then I spotted the person working on the portion of a coach where ours needed repair and couldn’t help but think that was the guy or girl responsible for cutting corners or doing a poor job on the line. Frustrating because I am the one doing the repairs now. We all gained an education from the tour. The kids biggest lesson learned is that not one of them are are interested in working on a factory production line.

Late in the day we headed to nearby Macintosh State Park.

 

 

Almost dark by the time we arrived we picked out the easiest pull through site in the small park. The park is a short walk from Clear Lake where the locals were pulling in perch by the hundreds. I found out the following day that this was the site of the tragic plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P Richardson, aka “The Big Bopper” back in 1959.

The kids were behind in school work thanks to my previous long travel day and the Winnebago tour so we spent the next full day hunkered down in the coach. It started raining so we didn’t miss much except some good fishing. There were only a few other campers in the campground as their season pretty much shuts down after Labor Day. The fellow campers are mostly there to catch as many perch as possible. They were pulling in about fifty per day per angler from their aluminum boats. Every fisherman we spoke with has their own secret recipe for breaded, fried fish. Reminded me of the scen from the film Forest Gump where Bubba describes the different ways tpo prepare shrimp.

The rain revealed a larger issue at hand with the coach, a leak on the front windshield that was coming inside. There were some telltale signs when we inspected the coach for purchase but we did not dig deep enough into the issue to reveal that the windshield needed to be resealed. So here we are with a potentially expensive fix that takes a few days to complete. I’m not really interested in pursuing the expensive re-seating of the windshield so I opted to attempt the repair myself. Unfortunately I had to wait when we had a couple of days of good weather. For a temporary solution, I opted for an old school fix. I know you are probably thinking “duct tape”.  It’s a solid choice if you don’t care about having to clean off the adhesive it leaves when you pull it off. However, duct tape on your motor home is kind of like duct tape on your ski pants. A bit of a dirt bagger solution, but it works for the short-term. Still a dirt bagger solution,  I opted for blue tape as it comes off easier.

Especially since I knew I would be getting to a better fix shortly.  It did a good job of keeping most of the water out.

From Forest City we headed up the 35 toward Minneapolis where we had planned on meeting up with some family friends and an old buddy of mine from my bartending days at Shooters in Costa Mesa. Unfortunately we were in Minnesota for less than thirty hours which didn’t leave enough time to see everyone.

However, we were treated to a wonderful dinner by Janet and Mike.

Their daughter spent a bunch of time with our family and my kids at my folks house in recent years as she was my nieces college roommate at Chapman University. Over that time she had become part of the family. My kids view her as another cousin who they love and adore.  We had the good fortune of getting to know her parents and her brother a little better when they came out from Minnesota for graduation. After spending an evening in their home, we completely understand why their kids are so great. We were treated to an evening of great food, great hospitality, great company and a great time.

It was hard to say good night as we wanted to spend more time together. It was so nice to be in their home sharing an evening together. A HUGE THANK YOU to such great hosts.

We originally intended on heading from Minnesota over to Racine, Wisconsin to visit an old friend from grade school. We reconnected through Facebook and recently had the pleasure of visiting over coffee when he was in Newport.

I texted him from the road and when he heard I was actually driving the Windryder and the Gregory Party of Five to park in his driveway, he promptly let me know he was going to be out of town. (Just kidding Eric). He happened to be heading out on his annual Kite Surfing trip to Hatteras. I have to thank him because if he had of been in town we would have taken our planned route which took us down through Wisconsin through to Illinois and across Indiana to Ohio. Instead and upon his recommendation we traveled across Wisconsin, only stopping at a Walmart in Shawona to spend the night and continued up into the “U.P.”, Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The Shawona Walmart offered one of the best Walmart camp spots we have had to date. The spot was well lit, out of the way and came with a forested setting on one side and the parking lot on the other. Despite the bright lights the Windryder is equipped with Vegas style black out curtains, so anytime can be night time.

Eric gave us great advice to go through the Upper Peninsula rather than down through Wisconsin to Illinois. As we crossed the state line from Wisconsin to Michigan I had noticed a small free standing restaurant a few miles from the border. As it was near lunchtime it crossed my stomach to stop but kept on driving.

As we entered Michigan we pulled into the visitor center less than a mile from the border. We picked up a visitor guide with all the pertinent information for camping and points of interest. However it was more frustrating than helpful as the campgrounds had a great description with directions but they were not mapped out. The directions seemed to be from landmarks, none of with which I was familiar. As we were getting the info I struck up conversation with a man and his son. He was born in the town and had since moved about five hours away. He gave me a local tip, “Hey, if you’re hungry, there’s a great spot in Wisconsin named Mickey Lu BBQ. It’s a free standing building about three miles from the border”. I asked him to tell me about the place and proceeded to let me know that all the food is fired over coal. They go through about two hundred pounds per day and start the pit fire at Six AM. Serving mostly burgers but also a few signature sandwiches. Their bread is made on the spot and most all of the food is cooked over a BBQ grill four feet wide by three feet deep. He said he had been eating there for forty years and now drives five hours just to eat lunch then spends the night, buys twenty burgers the next day and drives five hours. At this point I decided to go get some lunch. Lesson learned, “listen to my inner foodie”.

We headed back to Mickey Lu BBQ. As we walked into the door it was apparent this place has not changed in the forty years that guy had been going there. With an L shaped counter, booth and table seating for maybe forty, Mickey Lu was definitely part of the fabric of this community. The place was busy with locals and tourist alike.

The grill, central to the space and the first thing you see when you walk in the door. The menu simple and cheap. The food, simple and tasty. Their shakes and malts reminded us of times when going for a burger and a shake were entertainment. Burgers served thin and the puffy homemade bun flattened down dressed with mayo, mustard, ketchup and pickles. The staff knows they have something special and take pride in the service and food. It’s old school, it’s simple and it’s Americana.

After an hour down the road we were wishing we could visit Mickey Lu BBQ again.

While we missed Illinois, Chicago and some friends there, (next trip), we drove through some of the most underpopulated and amazing territory in the United States. Although the drive seemed long to some of us…others made

the most of it.

The lakes here are incredible and there are so many.

We stayed at Indian Lake State Park located about half way between the Wisconsin, Michigan border and the Mackinac Bridge connecting the Upper Peninsula to Lower Michigan. We scored warm weather and a lake front campsite.

The campground has a couple hundred sites, is well maintained and should be a destination for any road traveler. It was the weekend and I knew with the warm weather it would be a good time to repair the leaky wind shield. But before I could get the coach set up in our campsite our kids were already connecting with new friends.

I had a short window of daylight and hurried to unload the paddle boards from the top of the coach. After a short paddle, night time came quickly. Before I could get settled the kids had their new friends over and Laurel was making plans with their mother to hang out next to our campfire. Next thing I know there are three boys plus mom & dad, chocolate cake and red wine next to our campfire. The family is here from New Zealand traveling the country in a fifth wheel trailer. Their two older boys are close in age to ours and their two year old latched onto Kyra and was her buddy the entire stay. We had great conversation and great company sharing our stories. Turns out the couple met in North Lake Tahoe where I spent several years. We had a lot in common and shared experiences of life and times in the Sierras.

Saturday came, clear and sunny skies, a perfect day to take the boat out and to repair the leaky windshield. Over the summer we had purchased a twenty four year old, thirteen foot long, Achillies brand inflatable boat. Plenty large enough to accommodate our family in calm waters. Since I had never really set the entire boat up it was taking longer than expected and our new friends were soon pitching in. With all hands on deck and only a couple of hurdles, a quick view of a Youtube video we had successfully assembled the boat. We attached the motor and took our maiden voyage. A cruise around the lake shore and out into open water gave us confidence our vessel was water tight. I headed back to shore to pick up our Kiwi friends for a cruise. They have three young boys all with polite and enthusiastic personalities. With a bit of speed under us we were having a great time. However I did have to interrupt the day with the windshield repair. I let the kids know that once I was finished I would pull them around behind the boat in an inflatable tube.

Not wanting to work all day I made good use of my time to caulk around the windshield with enough material for a successful repair. Since my ladder was not tall enough to reach the top of the windshield our helpful friends allowed me to use their pickup truck to stand on as a scaffolding. He pulled it up close to the front of the Windryder and it was perfect. I could walk back and forth along the bed railing and access all of the windshield. I took advantage of the height to clean the bugs off the area above the windshield too. A job I try to delegate to others but always ends up on my list.

Soon we were back on the water pulling all the kids around the lake in the tube behind the boat. We had a great day and a better evening as the families came together to have a fantastic dinner. I was amazed that ten of us fit comfortably in the Windryder. The following day we exchanged info, said our goodbyes, packed up and headed toward the Mackinac bridge connecting the Upper Peninsula to Lower Michigan.

On the road again.

Cant remember where we saw this but I was happy one of my favorite bands are commemorated on a road sign..

I feel like the Me-No-Monie Barron after every fuel stop.