8-5-04
Got up this morning to 64 degree temps. High temperature today
ended up
about 80 degrees. Nice. We left the Wal Mart parking lot and
headed for Horizons RV manufacturing plant. We entered the office
and standing inside was the owner. He recognized us from the time
we spent talking to him at the Harrisburg, Pa. rv show last year.
Surprisingly enough, the owner himself took us on the plant tour.
We started in the welding shop, where the initial steel frames are
assembled and welded together, (remember that King of the Road wouldn't
even let us in?). After explaining the basics of their framework,
and showing us where the sidewalls are welded together (same shop), we
headed over to their woodworking shop, where the cabinets are made for
their rigs. Full cabinet shop right down to a couple of
planers. The next area was where the floor is put on the frame,
and where an electrician was running the wiring through the walls
before the walls are installed onto the frame of the 5th wheel.
All of their wires are numbered, so when you want to add something to a
circuit, it is easy to trace which circuit would be carrying the load,
and make sure that it would not be overloaded. Insulation is a
type of styrafoam instead of the usual fiberglass, which will usually
settle over time, obviously limiting it's effectiveness.
Carpeting is residential quality berber, they now have flat floor
slides, thermo-pane windows, residential quality faucets, vitreous
china commode instead of the usual plastic. These 5th wheels have
fiberglass all the way around, including the roof. Makes for a
very high quality rig. Many options including automatic leveling
system, lp generators, solar system, power entry steps, and on and on
and on. The rigs have an excellent track record for durability
and longevity. Ok, enough of that. We left there and headed
east on I 70. On our trek through Missouri, we saw an ad for a
50's nostalgia store and decided to stop. Spent a while looking
in there. We kind of enjoy looking at stuff like that.
Didn't spend any money, but had a great time looking at all the stuff
that used to be the "in thing". They had anything from, t-shirts
with 57 Chevy's on them, to pictures of Elvis, Betty Boop, Coca-Cola
items, Pepsi items, pictures of movie stars, including the Andy
Griffith gang, the 3 stooges, etc. If you like looking at old
stuff from that period of time, it is a really neat place to
explore. We left there and headed east again on I 70. We
stopped at another Flying J in Warrenton, Missouri for the night.
After getting permission to park overnight, we closed the curtains, and
had a snack, and I starting writing this. It's about time to
upload this for the evening, and take a break before going to
bed. That's the news from P.U. (paddleupstream).
Later........
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