Archive for October, 2006

>DES MOINES, Iowa — Motor-home manufacturer Winnebago Industries Inc. reported sharply lower profits for its fiscal fourth quarter due to product liability claims and a decrease in sales because of higher interest rates and fuel prices.

Shares of the company fell $1.08, or 3.14 percent, to close at $33.28 on the New York Stock Exchange.

The Forest-City, Iowa-based company earned $9.3 million, or 30 cents a share, for the quarter, compared with $15.4 million, or 46 cents a share, a year ago.

Sales for the quarter were reported at $205.4 million, a decreased of 11.3 percent from sales of $231.5 million a year ago. Full Story…

>Nick DiBlasi was never much for pitching tents. “If I wanted to go camping, I’d have joined the Marines,” says the 52-year-old former Navy officer.

Not that the alternative was any better. Longtime Harley-Davidson enthusiasts, DiBlasi and his wife, Sheila, had grown weary of sleeping in hotels every time they hit the road. So three years ago, they tried something they never thought they’d be caught dead doing: They bought an RV.

But the DiBlasis quickly found the view from behind the wheel of their 32-foot TropiCal motor home-which they picked up used for $20,000-wasn’t all that bad. Nor was the queen-size bed, the onboard shower, or the kitchenette. In fact, they were so taken with the idea of camping in style that they soon traded up-not once but twice-most recently to a plush, $150,000 model.

“It’s massive,” DiBlasi boasts of the couple’s 38-foot Newmar Kountry Star, which features four slide-out sections that accommodate dual facing sofas and a spacious master bedroom suite. “And it rides sweet, too.” Full Story…

>Thirty-somethings Kellie and Craig McHugh, and Lynne and Eddy Siroin (Kellie and Lynne are cousins) had what many would consider perfect lives — lucrative careers, young children attending fine schools and nice homes in suburban Texas and California.

They wanted more — more time with their kids and more freedom to see the country. So after some serious soul searching, the McHughs and Siroins either rented or sold their homes, quit their jobs to form a company that reviews RV campsites, bought top-of-the-line Newmar RVs, and are six months into what will be a two-year odyssey, crisscrossing the United States.

“It was very freeing and liberating,” Lynne Siroin said of the life change that included downsizing from a 2,100-square-foot home in Austin, Texas, to a 400-square-foot motor home. “It’s like the opposite of that saying, ‘He who dies with the most toys wins.’ Now it’s like ‘less is more.’” Full Story…
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