"Doing things Differently"


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........