News & Notes: June 2024
Visit Winnebago
Winnebago is offering free tours of its Iowa RV manufacturing facilities throughout the summer.
Factory tours of the Forest City facility, where Winnebago Class A and C motorhomes are built, happen Monday through Friday at noon and Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday at 9:00 a.m. Tours of the Lake Mills facility, where camper vans are produced, take place Monday and Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. All tours originate at the Winnebago Industries Visitors Center
and last approximately two hours.
A walk through the Stitchcraft area at Winnebago shows where soft goods such as seats, mattresses, draperies, and more are made.
During tours at Winnebago’s Class A and C motorhome manufacturing facility in Forest City, Iowa, visitors view the production lines.
Forest City visitors see the company’s Stitchcraft facility, where soft goods such as seats, cushions, draperies, shades, mattresses, bedspreads, and trim panels are made. The facility also has machines for embroidery and for cutting rubber used for steps, flooring, and more. The tour ends at the main assembly facility, where mezzanines provide a bird’s-eye view of the building’s two production lines.
In Lake Mills, a walking tour shows the complete build process, from the chassis’ arrival to finished units ready for shipping.
Reservations are recommended. For more information, visit winnebago.com/discover/factory-tours.
Jellystone Parks Add New Activities
Jellystone Park Camp-Resorts continue to add attractions. The Carver, Massachusetts, location thrills guests with a multilevel play structure that features water slides, water blasters, and a giant bucket that periodically dumps 750 gallons of water on anyone standing under it.
Multilevel “splashgrounds,” water slides, floating trampolines, snowless tubing slides, and mini golf courses are among the new attractions that families can enjoy at Jellystone Park Camp-Resort locations this year.
For instance, the Carver, Massachusetts, facility has a new multilevel play structure with two long water slides, two kiddie water slides, water blasters, water cannons, and a massive hydrostorm bucket that periodically dumps 750 gallons of water on anyone standing beneath it. The location also has an activity pool with water basketball and water volleyball and recently added a pizza kitchen and a new Ranger Station, which houses the camp store.
In Uniontown, Ohio, the park is installing a full-scale water play area for dogs that is expected to open in early June and will include an agility course and room to play with fire hydrants, tennis balls, and dog bowls with water that shoots out of them.
Jellystone Park locations also have developed new activities and themes to keep guests entertained and to help them create memories. “Wild West” lasso competitions, weekend hoedowns, evening glow parades and glow swims, and pet parades are just a few of the new events planned at Jellystone Park locations this year.
There are more than 75 Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park Camp-Resorts locations across the United States and Canada. For more information, visit www.jellystonepark.com.
Kentucky Allows Personalized Plates For RVs
Last year, FMCA’s Governmental & Legislative Affairs Committee learned that Kentucky did not permit owners to put personalized license plates on their RVs and that there was a bill before the state legislature that would change this. So, FMCA sent an email blast to all members in Kentucky informing them of the bill and suggesting that they contact their representatives to make their thoughts known.
On April 5, 2024, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear signed House Bill 68 into law. This bill amends Kentucky Revised Statute 186.174 to allow personalized plates for RVs and will take effect in January 2025.
Pets On The Go
One of the benefits of RV travel is that it makes it easier to bring along your pets.
The “2024 Camping Report” from The Dyrt, a camping website and app, revealed that 53.7 percent of campers brought their dogs to campsites last year. While dogs are by far the most popular pet to camp with, 5.8 percent of respondents said they went camping with cats. Other campers reported bringing along chickens, box turtles, guinea pigs, and parrots.
“We often run The Dyrt remotely from our camper van, and Brandy, aka The Dyrt Dog, is with us for every mile,” said Sarah Smith, founder. “Sometimes it seems like she has to pack more gear than us, but it’s so amazing to have her with us 24/7 as we work and enjoy campgrounds across the country.”
The Dyrt report indicated that property owners and campground managers worked to accommodate dogs as well as campers in 2023. Dog parks were the third most popular amenity to be added to campgrounds, behind Wi-Fi and pickleball courts. And nonhuman companions appear to be especially prevalent in the RV camping community, as RV owners were 20.8 percent more likely to camp with pets.
Each year The Dyrt presents its “Top 9 for K-9s” list of best places to camp with dogs, based largely on reviews and amenities “tailored to the tailed.” The 2024 list will be released in July. The Dyrt (thedyrt.com) provides 12 million reviews of 70,000 campgrounds, and some of them include dog- and pet-specific information that is helpful for planning camping trips that include four-legged friends.
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