September 9-19, 2006 - Wisconsin

Wisconsin Photos

We left the Green Bay area and drove south of Milwaukee toward Racine, WI on Sept 9. We camped at a Yogi Bear Jellystone Campground. This is the second time we have stayed at one, and it makes us feel very guilty not having any grandkids with us to enjoy all that they have to offer! For those of you who are wondering, most campgrounds for a 40' motorhome in a pull-thru space charge about $30-35/night. I remember the days of $10/night being high!

We spent a couple of days doing paperwork and getting those last travel logs sent! On Tuesday, Sept 12, we had SO much trouble with the "lo dc" on the motorhome that we called another (6th!) repair center and drove the motorhome in for service. This time we only had to drive 10 miles down the road! Well, we finally found the right guy. This repairman started at the very beginning and had Mark work with him to isolate the problem. Within an hour they found that the ground from the batteries had never been tightened and was not making a connection. He tightened and tightened and tightened. It has now been 10 days and we have not had another problem!! Before that we sometimes didn't go 1 hour without a problem! Burlington RV near Racine, WI, if anyone wants to remember that name!

TREK Bicycles Assembly Plant
On Wednesday, Sept. 13 (the day of Brian's interview with Southwest!) we drove to Waterloo, WI, to tour the TREK assembly plant. They really had a lot of good stuff that they COULD have told us and a lot of good things to look at but the tour was very uninformative. The only way we got info was to ask the question! We saw the bikes Lance Armstrong rode in the Tour de France. A lot of the famous bike riders ride TREK bikes. They ride stock bikes, no fancy specially made bikes. You can order a bike (if you have lots of money to spend) made exactly the way Lance's bike is made. TREK does, however, make changes to the bike's design when Lance requests it. However, those changes stay in the line and are put on all of that model bike. The bikes can be ordered made entirely of carbon fiber, or a combination of carbon fiber and aluminum, or all aluminum. The carbon fiber is made in a mold and then two halves are put together. Where they are put together, they need to be sanded down to have a smooth transition. (They said they can't tell us about the carbon fiber -- it is proprietary information.) Threaded aluminum inserts are put into the carbon fiber to attach other parts of the bike. The more carbon fiber in the bike, the more it costs, but the lighter it is. They seem to think that there is a huge difference between a bike that weighs 15 pounds and a bike that weighs 18 pounds. One of the completely carbon fiber bikes was on display for us to pick up. I could pick it up with one hand and hold it with NO trouble for a long time. The bikes are not fully assembled in Waterloo. They are sent to another factory for wheels and final assembly.

Circus World
We continued on to Baraboo to Circus World. It is a tribute to the Ringling Brothers Circus. The Ringling Brothers grew up in Baraboo and the circus wintered there until they figured out that if they wintered in the east they could get to the lucrative eastern cities faster in the spring. There were 5 Ringling brothers involved in the circus and they never had a partnership agreement. Each did what he was best at and the others accepted what he did. (That sounds a little too-good to me but they say it is true...) They started with a small circus and continually bought out other circuses until they became big enough to buy out even Barnum and Bailey. They did a very nice job getting the story across and giving you a feel for each of the brothers and for circus life in general. The best part was their collection of circus wagons. There are a lot of beautifully restored wagons on display in a huge building. Their restoration division works on circus wagons now as they become available. As an aside, the winter quarters after Baraboo were in Sarasota, Florida. There is a Ringling Museum there also, but it is a museum of art that John Ringling collected. His home is adjacent to the museum and well worth a tour. Because of the financial success of their circus(es) the Ringling brothers became wealthy. However, when the depression hit at the end of the 1920's they lost everything. (From Mark)


Wisconsin Photos

GM Assembly Plant, Janesville, WI
On Thursday, Sept 14, we drove to Janesville, WI, to tour the GM assembly plant where they assemble the Tahoe, Suburban and Denali. The "attaching" part has a lot of robots to do the work. Most of the final work is done by real people. We were impressed (maybe not quite favorably) by the lack of a real "frame" for the car. The frame is really only stamped sheet metal. It would have been a WONDERFUL 2 hour tour, but they only spent 1 hour and took us by tram car. We didn't really have time to watch the processes.

We drove home through Lake Geneva. This is a really nice lakeside resort with a beautiful lake, homes around the lake, boats on the lake, park between the road and the lake. Lots of golf courses and other resort type activities. See photos.

Frank Lloyd Wright designed Administration Building at S.C. Johnson Co
On Friday, Sept 15, we drove to Racine to the S.C. Johnson Co. They have a tour of the Administration Building that was designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1939.

He designed it so that as your job increased in importance you not only moved up an invisible ladder but your desk location showed your new increased importance. All of the clerical workers are in the center of the bottom floor of the building. As an employee advances, he moves to the outside of the bottom floor, then to the second level which looks down over the workers on the first floor, and then to the top floor which looks down on all of the employees on the two floors below. There are no cubicles and the desks are all just lined up in the open area. On the edges, there is a little bit of separation from the center area with a little more privacy. The outside walls are round glass tubes laid on top of each other to let in light but not provide a "distracting view" of the outside! As with many architectural wonders, the roof has leaked for many years. Finally they built a new roof over the whole building and built a new ceiling inside so that when you look up you get the same feeling of light that you would have from F L Wright's original roof. We weren't allowed to take any photos of the building. You can see some comments on the photo of the Research Tower next to the Administration Building.

Frank Lloyd Wright also designed the office desks and chairs. (See photos) The desks look very practical and useful. The four legged chair also seems very comfortable and useful. However, as I have noted in the photo of the chair, the original three-legged chair was not so practical.

It is interesting that S. C. Johnson only makes consumables. Everything they make will be used up and you have to buy more to replace it. Good thought...

Case/IH Plant, Racine
On Monday, Sept 18, we went for a tour of the Case/IH plant in Racine. This was a three hour tour that really let you see everything! It was at least a "9". We saw where the castings that make up everything on the tractor such as frame, transmission, hydraulic pump, hydraulic valves etc. are machined by computer to exact tolerances. (The engines come from Cummins and are made elsewhere) We saw the assembly of the tractor and lots of its parts. The employees were very friendly and eager to explain to us what their job was. The body of the tractor (that the cab sits on) is incredibly strong, heavy and well made--not at all like the frames for the cars at the GM plant! We watched them build wiring harnesses, install windshields, install seats, check and align the doors, put the cab on the frame, put the roof on the cab. We got to see and actually WATCH most of the assembly process. There are lots of "inspection points" along the line so that any defects can be discovered and remedied before the bad part is enclosed and too hard to get to. Great tour!

After that we closed up the motorhome and headed south toward Chicago. We spent a night at a Wal-Mart parking lot so that we could be absolutely certain that our "lo dc" problem was fixed. We had no problem. That is a great relief!

I'll start the Chicago portion in a new email!

Love, Georgie