RV Service and FLW

When I last left off we were leaving the Chicago area on Monday, May 11 – we were headed to Forest City, Iowa for some recall work on our RV. We had one stop along the way. It was at a Harvest Host site in Sparta, WI. We had a neighbor who had forgotten their water hose, so we let them use ours to fill-up their water tank. The spot was up on a hill overlooking the valley to the west, so there was a nice sunset.

We had read that Sparta calls itself the Bicycle Capital of the World – it is the first place that railroad beds were made into bike paths. It is also the home of Deke Slayton, one of the Mercury astronauts – So yes, they have a Space and Bicycle Museum – quite a combo. It’s in the Masonic Lodge which was built in 1923..

The first floor is the Monroe County Historical Museum – lot’s of interesting artifacts. These figurines were cast and you would buy a kit and paint them. These were the models that were painted to be photographed fro the boxes.

There were plenty of bicycles of all kinds – including that two seater that was used in 1987 by Lon Haldeman and Pete Penseyres to set the record for transcontinental tandem crossing (who knew there was such a thing.) The pair rode from Huntington Beach, California, to Atlantic City, New Jersey, in a blistering 7 days, 14 hours and 55 minutes – covering the distance of 2,920 miles faster than any other cyclists in history (and it’s still the record.)

Then there was the Deke Slayton memorabilia – from pictures of his childhood, to his space suit, to the Stinger Airplane that he flew in 43 races – nothing told us how he did. Of course the Mercury astronauts only orbited the earth, so the piece of the moon is only in honor of Deke.

Trish found another place we had to stop at in Sparta – it’s the FAST graveyard. It is where the Fiberglass Animals, Shapes, and Trademarks Corporation stores its molds. With a sign that says you are there “at your own risk”, they let you wander through – lots of crazy things to be found. There were cats and dogs, fish and frogs, baseballs and butterflies and lots of others. Trish talked with one of the workers going off-shift. He said they do reuse the molds – just forklift them into the building and give them a good cleaning. As it says on the website, “The next time you see a life size elephant at a gas station, 8 foot high cheese mouse at the store, 6 foot frog water slide, 20 foot high flamingo, or 3-story eyeball you can bet the piece originated in Sparta Wisconsin at FAST Fiberglass.”

Some of the finished product on display.

Just to give you an idea if the size, and that is Ben Bikin, the World’s Largest Bicyclist – he’s 32′ tall, was created by the FAST Corp and is in a local park.

Crossing the Mississippi

Driving across Iowa on Tuesday, May 12 was probably the worst day of driving that we have ever had in our 10 years of RVing (knock on wood.) It’s very flat and the winds were constant at 20-25 mph, with gusts to 40 or 50 mph. That’s not fog in the second picture, it’s dust from the fields blowing across the road – the fields had been plowed but not yet planted. The Mercedes chassis that the motorhome is built on has cross wind assist. “Crosswind Assist detects strong crosswind gusts that can impair ability of your vehicle to drive straight ahead. A stabilizing brake application helps you to keep the vehicle on track.” It went off more times than we could count. Trish did a great job – though it took some time for her hands to unclamp and she needed a shoulder rub that evening! We eventually found the campsite area associated with the Winnebago Service Center and settled in for the evening.

The process for service is to show up at 7 AM the day your service is scheduled to start. You are assigned a service tech and they go over the repair list with you, take the RV back into the shop and then let you know what they think the timing will be for the completion of the work. And they give the RV back to you each day at 3 PM so you can stay in it each evening. We were mostly there for recall work. The awning had been tied shut for about two years, since it could deploy randomly – even when you are driving. There was a recall on one of the windows that could fall off. And there was something about the wiring for air bags that need inspection and possible remedy. Then a week before we were leaving a recall came for another mostly decorative piece that was detaching while driving – causing a hazard for other drivers. In addition, I wanted the seals inspected (and replaced if necessary,) a generator service done and our main door adjusted. Paul was our service tech and he took the RV back, and we settled in to the very comfortable waiting room to have our breakfast – we had bought some donuts the day before anticipating not having the time for much else in the AM. This is what the parking lot looked like at both 7 AM and again at 3 PM.

We had scheduled a factory tour for 9 AM, which started at the visitor center which was across the street. Besides being a gift shop (you might see me sporting a Winnebago T-Shirt at the Y) they had some information about the history of Winnebago, and some of the early versions that were created. Catch that 60’s color scheme. They also were showing clips from movies that had Winnebagos in them. No pictures allowed on tour, but we saw the sewing shop, where they cut all the materials used on couches, chairs, walls and floors and also sew the things like couch covers. Then we saw the Class C line – that’s the kind we have, built on a chassis from a van or truck manufacturer. They add the floor, we saw them assembling the walls, adding them, and almost got to see them put in a slide, but the lunch break came. They build “to order” and they have multiple models of Class C RVs, so it is interesting to see some of the differences along the line. They said they can finish 10-12 a day and we counted and it seemed there were 25 or 30 RV’s on the floor, so I guess that means about two days for the build.

After the tour, we went back to the service center and Paul told us that the part that could fly off was gone from our RV. I knew it was there when we left home, so our best guess is that one of the noises that we heard while driving the day before was that piece flying off – sorry to anyone who was behind us. At least we were in the right place to have it fixed. Maybe you can see the differences in these two photos. Left is with the piece missing, right it has been repaired.

Then we were off to explore the town and find a bite to eat. We ended up at Sally’s Home Cooking, where Trish had a $5 Egg Salad Sandwich followed by Chocolate cream pie, and I had Chili and a Grilled Cheese Sandwich followed by Coconut cream pie. It was as close to home cooking as you will ever get out! Here are a few shots of the streets of Forest City.

Then back to pick-up the RV and settle back into our spot. Thursday was another early morning to have the RV back by 7 AM, but this time we went to Sally’s for breakfast. We were there after the rush was over and so chatted with Sally and the waitress for a while. Heard some horror stories about folks who were there for two weeks while their RV was being repaired and enjoyed another great meal.

When we picked up the car in Mason City on Tuesday, Trish had seen that there was a hotel designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in town – so we made reservations for the 11:30 tour. After breakfast we drove the 35 minutes back to Mason City. We walked around a bit, found this frame, which shows the hotel in the background, a statue of FLW and a xylophone to play.

We had an hour before the tour, so we decided to drive around town and found the Stockton House, also designed by FLW. Our reading of the website was that it would not be open on a Thursday, but lo and behold, when we drove by, there was an open sign on the visitor center. In we went. We found out that not only was FLW designing in the area, but there was a whole area that was designed in the prairie style. This is a model of the planned community, designed with 19 houses, of which only 6 were built. We walked around the area and saw some of the houses. The deeds to all these houses continue to say that all of the lawns are common ground.

Then it was back downtown to get our tour of the Park Inn Hotel. Construction started in April, 1909 and FLW supervised until he went to Europe that October. (The official reason was to complete a book of his work for the European market, the other reason was to be with his mistress – they were both still married – he was a scandal plagued guy.) The hotel opened in August, 1910 but didn’t last long (it was in the middle of nowhere in central Iowa.) It went through many iterations of businesses and apartments, but it was completely run down and abandoned in the 70’s. It wasn’t until the late 90’s when folks realized it was the last remaining Frank Lloyd Wright-designed hotel in the world, of the six for which he was the architect of record. The town came together and it was totally renovated and reopened in 2011. Of course not much original, but plenty of research done to make it as close as possible, while adding some modern amenities. Of course the rooms are totally revamped. Originally the 42 rooms were 10′ x 12′ and two rooms shared a bath. Now the rooms are bigger, the bath is ensuite, and you get a flat screen TV. Here are some shots on the interior.

Turns out The National Bank building, which was next store, was also designed by FLW. It is now also restored and is used as the major function room for the hotel.

The building also housed the lawyers and bankers that had commissioned the building, and the law library is now a conference room.

Here is an outside shot of the bank. (It also folded in the 1920’s and the building was used for retail space. For some reason they raised the building up during this period. The 2nd picture is of them getting ready to lower it during the renovation.

We then had time for some ice cream for lunch and a walk down a different block, where I found this statue called the “Fish Story.”

We had time to go back to the Stockman House to get the 1:00 tour. No pictures allowed inside the house, but the museum had this model. It was typical FLW, with the compression areas opening up to more open spaces. Glad we did get to see it.

Then it was back to Forest City to get our RV back again. Paul had just pulled it around, and everything was done! Since most of the work was for recalls, the bill wasn’t too bad.

We stayed one more night in the Service Area campsite, and took off on Friday, May 15th to start our drive north. It was a much better day for driving. Not sure where this casino was,

Our destination for the evening was Damneara Farm in Minnesota – owned by Denise and Paul, and so called because Paul almost completes things. They greeted us when we arrived, and once we were set-up, we joined them for some conversation – we chatted for nearly two hours and then got a little tour. First of the Damneara Brewery.

Then we were off on the 4×4 for a ride out to the Damneara Airport. Yes, there is a little hill on the runway, but Paul said it was good for slowing you down if you were going uphill, and good for taking off if you were going downhill. I didn’t ask about how bad it would be in reverse.

When we got back to the farm, Trish helped “herd” the goats from the pen to the barn, and got to feed them some peanuts.

Then it was off to make some dinner and relax for the rest of the evening. Saturday, May 16th dawned cool but sunny. I was walking over to say good bye to Denise, when I saw the view from their porch. Needless to say, we all sat down and chatted for another hour. We were mesmerized by all the birds, including the most Baltimore Orioles we have ever seen at once – there were at least 6 and probably 8 or 9, both male and female. They came right over to the feeders, which were a max of 10 feet from us.