If you said, "The boy band NSYNC, 2000, and arguably their most popular song," you get 25 bonus points. Today, it was time to say, "Bye, bye, bye," to the motorhome. A high-5 between Stephanie and me when we walked away from it for the last time, for a while...
While we do wear masks when indoors at the Winnebago facility, these masks were to heat the air up a bit before breathing it in our lungs. The snow hasn't hit, yet; I was happy to turn the coach over to them before it got covered in snow.
This is my new best friend Colton...
He is one of the techs that will be working on it. Bless his heart, when I asked about how difficult a job it is to replace the roof, he said, "That is one of my favorite jobs - it isn't hard, but it does take the know-how." He further set my mind at ease when he told me that everything in the roof will be replaced: meaning the padded ceiling panels and recessed lights (where water poured through in the worst of the hail storm) will all be replaced. The roof will be built on their assembly line and be replaced as one big single unit. It will be tested to assure it is water-tight, and road-tested to know it all went back together as it was originally.
I looked back at it one more time as Steph and I walked to the Winnebago Visitors Center...
Probably just me, but the gray day (typical before a snow storm) seemed appropriate.
We walked through the Visitor's Center; it is very nicely done, and shows the history of Winnebago Industries from the time they made that first little pull behind trailer to today. Winnebago also owns some other brands you may be familiar with: Chris Craft boats and Newmar (another quality manufacturer of motorhomes). It was interesting to take it all in, see a couple vintage RVs, and peruse a bunch of Winnebago branded merch, like: t-shirts, sweatshirts, jackets, stadium blankets, etc, etc. No, I didn't buy anything - we are traveling light for the way home: a roller bag and messenger-type bag for Steph, a back pack and a "murse" (man-purse, over the shoulder) for me. No room to buy souvenirs.
And now, we have a couple hours to wait for the shuttle that is scheduled to pick us up at the Factory Service Center at 2:30 and take us to our hotel for the night. I am hoping the flight that will get us out of here in the morning gets in this evening (yeah, one flight per day at this small airport); they are predicting up to 7" of snow to accumulate tonight... it may be an issue.
These gray days (I remember winters from my misspent youth in exotic Eye-Oh-Waa) just feel a bit gloomy. It may be having to leave the coach behind. Steph, ever the glass-half-full kinda gal said, "But, it's a happy time - you're getting your motorhome made like new again." That chipper attitude can be annoying as hell. ;-)
We got the coach here, and it held together. A lot of angst on my part getting to this point. Done!
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No Bye-Bye...
Steph and I both got the text at the same time: our flight out tomorrow morning is cancelled due to the flight in this evening (same aircraft) being cancelled due to the weather. So, we will be spending another day here in the frozen northland. Not sure what we'll do to entertain ourselves, but Steph and I are together and we aren't on the road in crappy weather.
2 comments:
Glad to hear of the successful conclusion of the trip to Winnebago's mother ship. I have checked in to watch. Hope you both get back home safely and smoothly via airlines (yuck). Alice is in Phoenix right now - long story - until DEC 18th.
Thanks, Earl. Coach is dropped off, but we are stuck here another day due to the weather and our flight being cancelled. Not sure what we're going to do, but we're together and we aren't out on the roads. Hope all is good for Alice and her Mother. Take care.
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