We have known about this for a couple of weeks, but do you think we made it there on time?? NOPE! We were 30 minutes late! And we were all to blame.
1. The children. They just can't seem to settle down at night (it's 10:21 right now and they are still awake) and they are just tired and hard to get going in the morning. Let's blame the time change!
2. Myself- I am tired too! I did not want to get up! I was also messing with my contacts this morning and that didn't help us any!
3. Matt- He was in a phone meeting with his co-workers when it was time to leave. Can men do two things at once? I think not! (Sorry Matt) He also missed a turn while driving and listening to a meeting on his phone!
4. Our map. We didn't know where we were going and we were already late, so I looked up Forest River on my phone and put in the first address I found. We were supposed to arrive at 10:17 am. But then I was looking at some notes I had written down about the tour and saw that I had written down a different address and it was in a different town! I called the operator at Forest River again (I had already called to tell them we would be late) and asked them for the address. It was the second one I wrote down. New ETA- 10:30! Yikes! We eventually got there about 10:35!
We were going on a tour with another family and they were there at 10, we were very apologetic and thankfully they were not upset with us.
We headed over to the factory and this tour was amazing! They showed us step by step how they made Forest River campers. They make 35 everyday in this plant and today they were making a camper that was similiar to ours, but it had the bunks in the back and master bedroom up front. There was also an outside kitchen in the one they made today.
There are 48 different stations and about 2-3 people at each station. At each station, they add one or two things to the camper. They moved the campers to the next station every 15 minutes. It was so neat to see the campers go from a single frame to a complete camper! Except if you weren't careful, you would get hit. These workers did not mess around!
Here is the start of the assembly. See the camper frame behind the people? The camper frame enters the building and comes to this position. See the tires are on a roller? The wheels on the roller are perpindicular to the wheels on the camper, so it will actually move to the left in this picture. From here, it will go through the 48 different stations and by the end, it will be a complete camper. The guy in the white was our tour guide.
Next step was putting the floor on the frame. From here, everything was added.
A few stops down the assembly line and you have some cupboards and a bunch of wire. The tall shelf is the entertainment center and the middle part is the kitchen. Wow, it looks so familiar! My kitchen is set up the same way and my woodwork is exactly like this! The place where there is yellow on the side, that is where the fridge will go. Notice there are no walls on the camper yet, those came later.
We continued on the tour all the way through until the campers were completed. I could post a dozen more pictures, but Matt doesn't want me using all the bandwidth, but trust me, it was very interesting ot see and makes me appreicate my camper. I found it that everything was done by hand too. There were quite a few Amish people working in the factory, so it was nice that we could ask the tour guide questions about their way of life. It was neat that Forest River also has a little barn behind the factory so they can park their horses and buggies when they come to work. Our tour guide said that most of them have been riding their bicycles lately though.
After we got done at the factory, we headed to Das Essenhaus (http://www.essenhaus.com) and then went to an RV Museum here in Elkhart this afternoon. This was a huge room full of RV's from the past, the kids had a lot of fun climbing into them and finding the beds, bathrooms, kitchens, etc. They also loved pretending to drive the mobile homes. Recreational vehicles have really changed a lot in the last 50 years!
When Christian saw this one, he said, "Look mom, it's just my size!"
After our RV museum, we were exhausted and headed back to the campground. After some "quiet time," we headed to the pool for a swim and then ended the day with supper and some "America's Got Talent."
We are going to make one more stop tomorrow to learn more about the Amish people and then we are off to Ohio!
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