At 11:30, we were ushered into a beautifully decorated meeting room and treated to a lunch of turkey croissant sandwiches, chips, cookies and soft drinks. Nancy Lipton, Director of Public Relations/Events, gave a talk about Lighthouse for the Blind, the jobs it provides, and the products that are manufactured there. She showed us a jacket that is made for the Army consisting of 100 pieces. Her talk was fascinating.
Chris talked to us about purchasing office supplies, cleaning supplies and furniture from their catalog. A percentage of each sale goes to Lighthouse for the Blind to help them hire and train visually impaired or blind individuals, then help them to find jobs.
When the lunch meeting portion was over, we were taken on a tour through the factory.
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| Mike, CEO, explaining new chin strap for helmets |
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| Sewing new waterproof Army pants |
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| A cadre of people sewing |
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| Lining up fabric to be cut later |
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| An Army outfit that is sewn here |
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| Laser pattern cutter |
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| Intently listening to our tour leader |
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| High-tech sewing machines |
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| Delia, Lee (hiding behind Delia), Lynda, and our tour leader Nancy Lipton |
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| Finishing up the tour |
The hairdresser took way longer than I thought today. I didn't get to Bob's work until 5:35. (We had originally planned on me arriving at 4 pm.) That's when I found out our truck had been stolen. [See yesterday's blog for that story.]
After the truck was stolen yesterday, we made haste to Titan Factory Direct in New Braunfels, Texas, for our appointment with Vanessa, our Professional Housing Consultant. We went over the floor plan we liked and changes we wanted to make, then signed a contract for our new manufactured home. Earnest money was paid to Titan Homes to signify how committed we are to buying it.
Tonight we will start our drive north to Athens, Texas. On Friday at 11:00 am we have an appointment to tour the factory that makes the homes.
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| Sunset over Titan Factory Direct in New Braunfels, TX |
When we finished at Titan Homes it was sunset and we had to backtrack to Converse, TX, to fill out a police report on the stolen pickup. (The police department told us when we first called that all police were busy with a brush fire on Hwy 83 and we should come in later to fill out the report.)
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| Where we filled out the police report |
From Converse, we again headed north, past New Braunfels, on our way to Athens, TX.
Austin, Texas is known for its heavy traffic and we bought a Texas tag so we could use the toll road around Austin. However, as we approached the toll road, a signboard showed travel time on I-35 versus Toll Road 130. The travel time was shorter on I-35. It was about 10:30 pm and it was the least traffic we've ever seen through Austin. We sailed through in record time and skipped the toll road.
By 11:30 p.m. we were dog tired after our exhausting day. Bob pulled over in a small town south of Waco, Texas, and we spent the night in a motel.
This morning, we had breakfast at IHOP, then continued to Athens. What a gorgeous morning! Everything was so green. Bluebonnets were blooming along the road along with pink evening primroses and Indian paintbrush. We passed lakes, rivers, farmland and swamps.
A lady from our insurance company called us about 8:30 am. She gave Bob all the details about what we need to do.
I snoozed quite a bit on our trip to Athens this morning. We arrived at the factory a little ahead of schedule. That gave us time to figure out where we needed to go to meet Celous, our tour guide.
He took us through the manufacturing process step-by-step. We started where they build floors.
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| The floor of a single wide manufactured home |
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| We watched them put sheet rock on the walls |
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| Attaching the sheet rock on the walls |
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| Wall being put in place by overhead crane |
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| Cabinets being put into place |
The photos below are taken from a catwalk, looking out over the manufacturing plant.
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| Working on the roof. You'll notice the insulation is in the walls now too. |
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| A park model (under 400 sq ft) |
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| Park model on right next to manufactured homes on left |
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| Putting on finishing touches at the eaves |
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| Preparing a double-paned window |
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| Celous explaining window wraps to Bob |
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| Waterproofing and painting |
In the photo below, you can see rectangular cut-outs in the floor. Once the manufactured home is over those, the rectangles are raised up out of the floor to lift the manufactured home. That's when axles and wheels are added underneath.
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| Note the rectangles in the floor...those raise up under the manufactured home to support it while axles and wheels are installed. |
On the way home we did use Toll Road 130 to bypass Austin and avoid I-35, (which has the terrible traffic). On the toll road the speed limit is 85 mph. We made great time getting home!
Now it's late and it's time for sleep. We've had an exhausting two days.
Tomorrow, we're doing a 10k walk in the morning and then going to Six Flags Fiesta Texas in the afternoon. Another full day is planned.
Plus, we might go into downtown San Antonio tomorrow night to see the set of American Ninja Warrior. They will be filming the competition Sunday night, Monday early morning, Monday night and Tuesday early morning. (They like to film at night for the lighting, and I'd think also because it's cooler...our daytime temps are around 82 right now.) The show they film in San Antonio will air in late June.
Good night all!
