The giant camp-out in Forest City this week was more than a gathering of the faithful. Winnebago C-E-O Bruce Hertzke admits the Winnebago/Itasca Travelers Club Grand National Rally is a chance to show off the new models for 2004 to some of his most loyal customers. Winnebago is adding on to its Charles City facility, the company’s fifth expansion in the last five years. An estimated 35-hundred people gathered for the Winnebago-Itasca Travelers Club Rally, in the home town of Winnebago, Incorporated. Hertzke says he enjoys going to the big campground and meeting the visitors who’ve returned from 49 states. And when there’s a break in business, he plans to take off in one of his own products.He’s taking his own motorhome to Canada to fish and travel with friends, and earlier this spring he and his wife went vacationing in it. While he endorses his own products, Hertzke says it doesn’t take much to “sell” people on the joys of R-V travel and living. He says when folks think about it and see the lifestyle, it’s a “pretty easy to be envious of ’em.”
