Pilot Knob State Park, Iowa - April 21st to 22nd, 2022
Variety is the spice of life. In two days, we admired the old architecture of two small towns, went for a hike to enjoy nature, toured a factory, and consumed some local cuisine. We enjoy mixing it up.
Thursday was a beautiful day, slightly warmer temperatures and sunshine. On our way from Maquoketa Caves State Park to Pilot Knob State Park, we stopped for lunch in Cedar Falls. Strolling along the historical downtown section of Main Street, we stopped in Chocolaterie Stam and picked out a few pieces of their fine European chocolates. The Stam family created the Chocolaterie Stam in 1913 in Amsterdam, Holland. In 1997, one of the grandsons of the original chocolatier brought Chocolaterie Stam over to America.
Just off of Main Street on East 4th Street is an interesting little lunch counter called Maid-Rite. They serve loose meat sandwiches, fries and shakes. Although Maid-Rite is a franchise that started in 1926, the location in Cedar Falls started in 1947 and is still family owned. It is a cute little place, with bar stools lined up along a long counter. We had the Cheesy-Rite sandwich with fries and a drink. The sandwich is so loaded with meat that they provide you with a spoon so you can eat all the meat that falls out of the sandwich. It is a fun little place. They also serve pie, but we skipped that since we had our bag of chocolates from Chocolaterie Stam.
By the time we arrived at Pilot Knob State Park, it was too early to check in, so we headed into the nearby town of Forest City for ice cream. Scoopy Doo’s Ice Cream & More didn’t open until 3 pm, so we had half an hour to kill. We spent that time strolling up and down Clark Street downtown, admiring the old architecture of the buildings. The Winnebago County Courthouse looked like it had been recently renovated, but still had a lot of architectural details. Ann’s favorite building was the Aasgaard building for its unique details. The building was built in 1914 by Luther Aasgaard to house the Winnebago Republican newspaper.
Ann enjoyed Scoopy Doo’s better than Keith. Ann had two scoops of her favorite ice cream flavors in a waffle cone, mint chocolate chip and chocolate peanut butter. Keith had a small vanilla shake, but they made it with the soft serve ice cream instead of the hand-dipped. The milkshake was OK, but not his favorite.
When we arrived at the campground, we discovered the site we reserved was on soft, muddy grass - and rain was forecasted for the next day. We were concerned our Red Tail Lodge would get stuck in the soft mud. The word “move” was written on our reservation card on the site post, so Ann walked over to the campground host to see if we could move our site. Pam, the camp host, was very friendly and had already picked out another site for us to move to. The new site had more gravel and was a little drier. Thank goodness the campground was not very busy and we could move sites.
Before dinner, we needed to work off those ice cream calories, so we went for a short hike in the park. One of the trails went right by the campground. We followed a series of trails around the ponds and up to the observation tower. The sound of frogs, crickets, and birds created a very relaxing atmosphere. There were two trumpeter swans swimming on one of the ponds. At first we didn’t know if they were swans or snow geese, but the information on the Northwest Swan Conservation Association website helped us figure it out. The tower was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1934. From the top of the tower, we could see past the woods of the park to the farmland that stretched to the horizon in every direction, with patches of windmills for a little variety.
By the time we returned to the campground, we had gone 2.5 miles with 230 feet of elevation gain in one hour and 20 minutes. Even though it was a short hike, we counted it as hike number 9 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2022. Now we were ready to make dinner.
Friday was a rainy day, so we went on a plant tour of the Winnebago factory in Forest City. We met the tour group at the Winnebago Visitor Center at 8:45 am. Our tour was scheduled for 9 am. They supplied us with bright orange vests and safety glasses and loaded us into a small bus. The Winnebago factory in Forest City is the largest motorhome manufacturing facility in the world on 60 acres of land. The tour drove us around the grounds and stopped three times to go into two of the buildings. The first building was the Stitchcraft building, where they make all the soft goods that go inside the coaches, including such items as seat cushions, draperies, and bedspreads. Some of the machines were impressive, like the large cutting tables where half a dozen layers of fabric are cut out simultaneously using CNC-controlled cutting blades and the high-powered water jet saw that cut out material like wall board. However, most of the building was filled with rows of highly skilled employees sitting at industrial sewing machines.
The other building we entered at two different locations was the main production line building they affectionately call Big Bertha. It contains the Class A and the Class C production lines. A chassis enters the building at one end, is slowly pulled to the other end, where it comes out as a finished coach. The production lines are mixed lines, meaning one coach may be totally different from the next coach on the line. Computers keep track of all of the logistics of each coach coming down the line, so that all the needed parts to build it reach the appropriate place in the production line for the workers to install it in the appropriate coach. Big Bertha is a two story building, where most of the second story is a complex ballet of parts flying around like the doors in Disney’s Monsters, Inc. movie. Sorry, no pictures were allowed during the tour so we can’t show you what it was like.
Back at the Visitor Center, we spent some time wandering around the small museum and displays. The museum contained a few vintage Winnebago trailers and coaches along with the history of Winnebago.
The rest of the day we took care of business, like grocery shopping, taking showers, and working on blog posts and videos. For dinner, we drove back into town and ate at Ay Jalisco. It is a family run Mexican restaurant, the Fit RV’s favorite place to eat in Forest City. Mexican is not Keith’s favorite cuisine, but the food was pretty tasty. We both enjoyed it.
Our stay at Pilot Knob State Park was not fancy, nor did we partake in fine dining. But it was comforting small town hospitality with a nice range of things to see and do. Sometimes it’s the simple things in life that are the most satisfying.
Check out our related video: Pilot Knob State Park, Iowa
(Ann)