Elks and FROGs, Oh My !!!

We are in Elkton Indiana for The Forest River Owners Group’s annual rally.  This was an unbelievable even held at the Elkhart County Fairgrounds in Goshen, In. See:  http://www.forestriverfrog.com/

Goshen is adjacent to Elkton, which as it’s name implies has a large population of Elks!

Forest River is a very large  company that consolidated about 8 RV manufacturers about 5 years ago when the market was very bad.  We visited several of the companies and were impressed with their operations.  Each division has about 100 employees and works 1 shift.  Common to each company is that they make each unit to order, they do not field stock which lead to quality and financial grief several years ago.  All of their towed units use Lipert Frames {motor homes are Freightliner or Ford}.  After the frames are modified, they enter the building (on their wheels) and are built from the ground up at the rate of 5 per shift.  The internal cabinetry is made on site by skilled Amish workers, note the photo with the kitchen sinks.

 

I was surprised {and dismayed} to find that none of this work was done in I.S.O. 9xxx certified companies and that the 110v electrical was not engineered and/or installed in compliance with the N.E.C..  All the work is done in compliance with R. V. Industry standards which seem self serving.

Back at the Rally, Forest River was treating their customers like valued partners.  They had their factory crews on the grounds doing warenty repairs and repairs on several units that were long out of warrantee.  At our request they came and checked the operation of our slides, 2 man-hours at no charge.

 

The food was off the wall good, as you can see Serious back sliding here from me given huge Breakfast Buffets and rib eye steak dinners for 5 days.  Next 2 weeks we are at a C.O.E. campground in Ohio where I will struggle to get some off.

 

To make matters worse, we stopped at The South Side Diner, made famous by our friends at Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.  Yes, blackberry pie is served warm   Look here if you dare: http://southsidesodashop.com/

 

Entertainment included a surpsise visit by Barny Fife, who was in fact a good comic & skilled acoustical guitarist.

Last evening there was a concert that was heavy with great 60’s and 70’s music.

At the close of the event, Forest River had each rig ‘dumped’ which eliminated a huge congestion when 250 rigs left the site.

Now, we are off to Ho-Hi-HO…