March 30 - April 1, 2009 - In search of warranty repairs for
the trailer (the stove burner knobs became immoble under
high heat and the pocket door to the bedroom had come off
its track), we drove north from Arkansas to Kansas. We felt
the warm air of the southern spring quickly slipping away.
Our beach days in Pensacola, just two weeks earlier,
seemed a lifetime ago as we drove north into a ferocious,
freezing headwind. A nasty blizzard blanketed much of
southern Kansas and northern Oklahoma two days before we
arrived, killing some 3,500 head of cattle in Texas.
Remnants of the storm were visible on the roadside. We
hadn't seen snow piles in a few years, and this was about as
much as we wanted to see for many years more!
We had enjoyed our visit to Chanute, Kansas so
much the previous year that we were looking
forward to seeing the town again. We hoped to
hook up with some of the friendly people who
had made us feel so welcome at the NuWa
plant. News in the RV industry and world
economy had gone from bleak last year to jaw-
droppingly disastrous this year. We heard
rumors that Elkhart, Indiana, home of the vast
majority of RV industry manufacturers, had lost
some 15,000 jobs.
We had also heard over the winter that, after a 60-day temporary factory
shutdown, NuWa had decided to close its doors permanently. With
characteristic class and concern for their customers, they had set aside
enough cash to cover all warranty repairs on new trailers until the
warranties expired. To protect their shareholders' best long term
interests, however, they wanted to preserve what equity they had left.
This meant carefully liquidating their assets in an order that would keep
the company as attractive to prospective buyers as possible for as long
as possible. But no new NuWa trailers would be coming to market.
This depressing news came at the same time the big three
automakers' CEO's were flying to Washington, DC on their
corporate jets to plead for bailout money to plug holes in their
sinking ships. Plans for how the bailout money might save those
companies were nonexistent, but the wailing pleas were heard
worldwide. Meanwhile, NuWa had planned years ago for a rainy
day, and cash was available to keep their warranty service
department open for all recent buyers, like us, for as many years
as necessary.
So we were thrilled to hear the news that NuWa had changed
their plans and decided to squeeze service, production and
corporate offices into one building and resume production on a
much smaller scale as a more streamlined company in June.
When we arrived, the excitement at this prospect was
palpable. From the town's visitors center hosts to the skeletal
crew in the darkened hallways of the NuWa plant, hopes ran
high that NuWa would survive the economic calamity after all.
Chanute has a fun, quirky character beyond the NuWa factory and its steady stream of
RV-oriented visitors. Last year we enjoyed the Santa Fe City Park and its resident
ducks and geese and evening picnickers. This year we spent more time "downtown"
amid the historic buildings. The Safari Museum presents the memorabilia of former
locals Osa and Martin Johnson, travel adventurers who trekked to the world's most
exotic locales between 1917 and 1936. A giraffe statue outside the Tioga Suites made
a fun sidewalk companion.
Back at the NuWa plant, we accidentally bumped into Neil Ford,
president of NuWa, and he gave us a tour of the plant, explaining how it
would be laid out in the future. The enormous factory floors stood silent
and immaculately clean, a far cry from the beating pulse of machinery
and workers that throbbed through the plant last year. A new area had
been set aside as a showroom area, and a collection of beautiful trailers
stood ready for the new fixed-price factory-direct purchasing program the
company was implementing.
He sadly told us that their two excellent employees who
had taken such good care of us last year, Brett and
Russ, had taken positions elsewhere. So we were
delighted to see our friend Debbie was still in the NuWa
offices, and she gave us a wonderful, detailed tour of
each trailer in the show room.
The relationship between NuWa and Chanute is symbiotic, and
when one is ailing the other suffers as well. It was shocking,
after visiitng Bentonville, Arkansas, the thriving home of
Walmart, heart of the American consumer economy, to wander
through America's heartland of Kansas to Chanute.
Bentonville's spiffy town center fairly sparkled, with an almost
Disney-like flare, showing us small town America as it could be.
In contrast, Chanute's boarded downtown windows, rows of
"closed" signs, and endless stores for sale and for lease, made
us both ache inside. The leprosy of Pay Day loan stores was
creeping in too.
Ironically, during our stay, we watched a PBS special on the Airstream trailer caravans to Mexico, Central America and Africa that
took place during the 1950's. We were amazed to learn that Airstream owners shipped their precious trailers worldwide to embark
on mammoth overland voyages together. In Africa they traveled from Cape Town to Cairo! During the program we learned that
Airstream was the only trailer manufacturer, of 400, that survived the Great Depression.
Which RV manufacturers will remain after the current shakedown? Our hopes and bets are on NuWa. If they resume production
as planned, they may emerge from this economic disaster a stronger, leaner and better company, producing even more clever and
comfortable trailers for future RVers.
Perhaps, amid all the government bailout money for the many corporations that squandered their fortunes long ago, there could a
President's Hero Award for a small company that has tightened its belt and forged ahead, unaided by taxpayers, putting customers
and community first.
The wind shifted while we were in Chanute, and even though we retraced our route to the Oklahoma border, we found ourselves
fighting ferocious, freezing headwind once again. That headwind blocked us all they way across Oklahoma, Texas and New
Mexico, for three solid days. Our trailer rocked all night outside Oklahoma City, buffeted by the wind, and it was pelted so hard with
sand and dust all night in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, that it sounded like a driving rain. The wind didn't even begin to
show hints of letting up until we had been parked at Roosevelt Lake, Arizona, for a few days.