GNR bulletin board

Let's use this thread for GNR chitty-chatty - seminars you enjoyed, didn't enjoy, good (or otherwise) dining experiences, photos, tips, alerts, etc.

There might be some who remember our very favorite waitress, Jill who worked at The Lodge for a long time.  I'm not certain we saw Jill while we were at the 2008 GNR, but we found her when we went out for dinner last night!  Jill is now working at Shooterz Sports Bar and Grill, just a little north of town on the west side of hwy 69.  It was great meeting her again and we will have to go back for dining and chat a little more with Jill.  The food at Shooterz was quite good and they are running several specials through the GNR.  The attached picture is Jane on the left and Jill on the right.

While we're speaking of food...

Bills Family Foods (market/grocery store) has a great deli and will cook breakfast to order and serves a hot lunch, or you can use the salad bar.  Bills opens at 7am for you early birds.

The Lodge (now called Riverview or something like that) is open for meals from 8 am to 8 pm during GNR/pre GNR.  We haven't eaten there this trip yet, so don't know what to expect.

We will have to make our usual stop at the Branding Iron restaurant in nearby Thompson, IA for ribs or a steak.  Jane and I like Chinese food and have eaten at Sum Hing (downtown) several times in the past, but not on this trip so far.  Hopefully the food is still just as good.

Guys - if you want to visit an old-time hardware store, be sure and poke around Hansen Hardware (downtown), or for a Tractor Supply Store type experience, visit Bomgaars, immediately south of Bill's Family Food.

Winnebago Factory Service finished up with us about 3:15 yesterday afternoon after two full days of service.  We were staying at Oakwood RV park in nearby Clear Lake and had to get up quite early to leave for service.  Monday we had to have our Horizon at service by 6:30 am, and yesterday at 6:00 am.  They do this so there isn't a huge conglomeration of units descending on service at the same time.  Work still begins at 7 am and stops at 3 pm though.  The service process was running very smoothly and efficiently and everybody had a great attitude, service personnel and customers alike.  The other attached picture is a shot of the units at the end of the work day.  It looks like mass confusion, but it really runs quite smoothly.

We're parked in the Texas section (A) - we're the only Horizon with a roof air in this row 

-that's it for now-

..edit..

Be sure and empty your holding tanks and fill up completely with fresh water before coming to rally grounds.  Nearby Pammel Park has several dump stations.  There will be a honey wagon coming around for pump outs and there will be a hose going around on the rows to replenish your water

Hi John,

We are at Oakwood KOA tonight and will be tomorrow! Looking forward to it.  We may have a good storm tonight, then hopefully it will clear out by tomorrow.  See ya then!

We arrived at GNR Tuesday and have an appointment to install a new windshield tomorrow at 6:30AM.  Looking forward to meeting the rvforum group.  We are parked in the Florida section.

I arrived Tuesday PM. I am in the lower D section.

We're in Mitchell, SD. The fresh water tank is full and the black and gray will be emptied before we hit the road in the a.m. We are looking forward to bringing our Tour "home" and enjoying our first GNR. See you there!

We were going to eat at The Lodge last night, and one of our group quizzed a couple leaving the restaurant as to how they liked their dining experience.  It wasn't a glowing report.  The service was slow - an hour (only one waitress), they ran out of chicken and lettuce and had to send somebody to the grocery store for more provisions.  :   Guess we will pass on trying to eat there.  We went back to Shooterz and had another good meal and Jill was our waitress.  Yea.

On our list of places to eat is Mitchell's Bar and Grill in Leland, five miles north of Forest City on Hwy 69.

The pump out tickets (honey wagon) are now $20.  They were $15 at the 2008 GNR.

The attached picture is the view this morning from our coach roof - it's filling up!

You all are too fast for us, we left NE Ohio over a week ago for the black hills with the rally being our stop on the way back home. We will not arrive there until Sunday, leaving here tomorrow. Glad we have the rally to look foward to cause it will be hard to leave here with so much to see and do. Everyone have a nice time and look forward to meeting you.
Dar

Took a few pictures of the 2011 models this morning.  Winnebago had a big surprise - look at the pictures of the front cap of the Tour.  It reminds me a little of the Fleetwood Revolution and is strikingly attractive to me.  Wow.  I need to price getting Winnie to graft a 2011 cap on our Horizon  ;D.

Had a nice chat with Denise Yeager who divides her time between WIT jobs and the Winnebago marketing department (she's the WIT Club News editor among other duties.)  Denise interviewed Jane and me for the old Traveling Times magazine when we stopped by the factory for service on our return home from Alaska in the fall of 2006.  We found out later we were Denise's first interview and she was nervous - you wouldn't know it though.

A year or two later we took Denise Geocaching in preparation for another Traveling Times article, but before it ever went to print, Winnie pulled the plug on the magazine.

Edit:  forgot to upload a picture of a Winnebago 5th wheel!  First one I've ever seen (Winnie started life producing trailers.)

John Canfield said:

Took a few pictures of the 2011 models this morning.  Winnebago had a big surprise - look at the pictures of the front cap of the Tour.

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John,

Can you imagine what a new windshield for that Tour would cost the insurance company?

Richard

Yup - that is one large piece of glass  - the dash is much lower and the windshield quite a bit taller.  If you look carefully at the windshield wipers, the lower wiper is close to the windshield bottom.

As an aside, I couldn't figure out how to release the generator slide, but I didn't lay on the ground and look up.  Could be an inside release.

Thanks to Marty's (Sarge) comments about the differences between his '08 and his '10, I was looking for a gravity water fill on several 2011 models.  Looks like Winnie de-contented them out of existence  : ???  Hopefully Winnie product planners will realize this was a dumb idea once feedback starts coming in.

Tour certainly looks different!  Front looks more sleek but don't like the headlights.  Also, the rounded top of the front lets the door awning protrude past the coach a few inches....that looks kind of strange. 

Two roof AC's on a 40' Tour???

Funny you should mention the headlights - Winnie was wondering how well the headlights would be received.  Ah - the door awning extending past the cap... I have seen this before on other coaches and didn't particularly care for it, but Winnie thought it was important for the awning to cover the entire door.  I love the door (and cap) shape, so I suppose you live with it.

Two roof airs would at least equal or be more BTUs than basement air, so that's probably very functional.

Great pix! Keep them coming if you can! I love looking at all this stuff!! (In my next life, I'm going to design these things!) 

The first thing that jumped out at me is that the side mirrors look absolutely HUGE!! Maybe it's just the angle of the pictures...

It's definitely different, but I wonder if this look will age well, or look really dated in, say, 10 or so years.  On the other hand, I'm glad Winnie is taking some design chances. While I totally agree it's Revolution-ish, it doesn't look like anything else out there right now, which is cool!

Thanks for sharing!

go6car said:

The first thing that jumped out at me is that the side mirrors look absolutely HUGE!! Maybe it's just the angle of the pictures...

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I think they are a little larger than ours.  The side cams are installed between the top mirror and the bottom convex mirror which might add to the real estate.

It's definitely different, but I wonder if this look will age well, or look really dated in, say, 10 or so years.

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This is Euro-look which has been around for a long time across the pond.  I have always thought the European tour coaches were better looking than any comparable North American product - the front cap of the Tour/Ellipse closes the design gap in my opinion.

On the other hand, I'm glad Winnie is taking some design chances. While I totally agree it's Revolution-ish, it doesn't look like anything else out there right now, which is cool!

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I think it's a great design and I hope they sell a bunch of them!

Thanks for the photos and info John. If they show the new Tour 42QD please take some photos. We are very interested in the bath and 1/2 model.

Thanks
Jim

John, can you ask a question for me while at GNR? I would like to know if the rear end gear ratio changes when the towing capacity changes from a non tag axle 10,000 pound towing capacity to a tag axle 15,000 pound towing capacity.

Thanks Again,
Jim

I'm enjoying this thread alot...thanks John!

jimandsue60 said:

If they show the new Tour 42QD please take some photos. We are very interested in the bath and 1/2 model.

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Jim - here are a few pictures.  I'm not sure it is the QD, but it does have a rear bath and a 1/2 bath.  The interior is very, very impressive (and humongous) and I was delighted to see the very popular (but expensive to produce) pull-out galley island has returned, but maybe 2/3rds the size of ours.

I'll see if I can find out about the differential ratio.

I looked around the Journey Express 34Y (I'll have to double check the model) and I was amazed at the floor space for a 34-footer.  Loved the layout - I'll try to get some pictures up of this one.

Hey Mark.. you're very welcome - it's fun being here.  At the opening ceremony Doug Formanek (WIT manager) announced we had 1238 units here (12-something anyway) which is a better turnout than I thought.  The number attendees is slightly higher than last year.

Friendship hall was packed (as expected) after the doors opened at 9 am.  The attached picture is the left side of the hall at about 9:15 am.  The gentleman on the bottom right of the picture in the red and black striped shirt is Dave Townsley, head kahuna of MCD Innovations.  Every time I walked by the MCD display, it was totally packed with people (and more waiting) even with Dave/Carla (Carla is Dave's better half) and Jim/Peggy (reps) working.  I wanted to say hi to Dave - I'll have to catch him later in the week when things slow down.

Thanks John, that does appear to be the 40QD model. I assume it was a tag axle.

Jim

Edit I meant the 42QD.

For sure!  I'll go back there with my Nikon (it has a wider angle lens) and take more pictures.