WINNEBAGO TOUR AND TRAVEL INTO SOUTH DAKOTA

We drove west across Iowa and then north to Forest City, where our Winnebago RV was built over 5 years ago. On Friday morning we toured the Winnebago Factory.  In the Visitors Center museum, we went into one of the first travel trailers built by Winnebago and a "Brave" model motorhome built in 1975. It is difficult to imagine spending a weekend in in either model, let alone a vacation lasting a week or more. Barely enough room to turn around, beds that were no more than thin foam mattresses, refrigerators about the size of today's dorm room model and no TV's.  The slides that allow us to expand our living space today were not even on the drawing board then.

The tour included a stop at "Stitchcraft" where all the cloth goods are cut and sewn and several different stops along parts of the assembly line. Winnebago makes over 80% of all the components in their motorhomes necessitating sewing fabric for chairs, sofas, bedspreads, pillows, etc. They also custom cut the carpeting for each RV model. Cameras were not permitted so we can't show you any of these processes.  We also stopped at several assembly lines and were impressed when we watched the precision of the worker team as a floor "dropped" into place on a motorhome chassis.

Iowa, the pork place, so we thought we could not do wrong there.  Before leaving Forest City, we bought some Iowa pork chops at a local market which we later enjoyed for a delicious dinner. 

Next stop was Mitchell, South Dakota, which is about 80 miles west of the Minnesota border. Mitchell is well-known for the world's only Corn Palace, which we toured the following morning. 

The building is famous for the huge, colorful murals on its exterior walls which are redesigned every year. Twelve shades of colored corn are planted in a separate field to maintain color purity, and the very best ears are hand-picked by a local grower for use on the Corn Palace. Once the corn crop is ready, roughly 275,000 ears of corn are sawed in half lengthwise and nailed to the building following patterns created by local artists. Earlier in the summer, 3000 bushels of rye, oat heads and sour dock (an herb from the buckwheat family) are tied in bundles and attached to the sides of the Corn Palace. The edges (what looks like shingles) in the third photo below are framed in one of these substances other than corn.  

 The Corn Palace is used for concerts, banquets, sporting events and more. USA Today named the Corn Palace as one of the Top 10 places to play high school basketball games and called it the "Boston Garden" of the Midwest. 

Trivia fact: Florida Gator basketball fans may remember Mike Miller who was one of Billy Donovan's early recruits to UF. Miller was from Mitchell and played his high school basketball in the Corn Palace. 

 Yes, the walls inside the building are decorated with colorful corn as well. The one side of the basketball court contains a stage with all the seating on the opposite side of the court, from where the above photo was taken.

We concluded our visit to Mitchell by visiting Cabela's, one of the largest outdoor gear stores in the country. Their wildlife exhibit gave us a preview of what to expect when we get to Grand Teton National Park.