The tour of the Buck Knife
factory was so popular that reservations were required - our reservation was
booked more than a week in advance! The
factory was in Post Falls, ID. It was
about a 45 minute drive and our route took us right by a Carl's Jr. It was a given we would have to start the
day with a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit.
Fortunately, we arrived a bit early which gave us time to look around.
The lobby was filled with
wild life trophies, including one huge grizzly!
Once again, I was reminded why camping in a motorhome is preferable to a
tent in the great northwest.
There was a pair of mastodon
tusks in nearly pristine condition in the upstairs museum. We learned later that you can have a knife
custom made with just about any material in the handle - even mastodon
tusk! This pair was too well preserved
to cut into handles. I shudder to think
what a mastodon handled Buck knife might set one back.
Mastodon tusks and molars found in Alaska.
While I was not allowed to take pictures on the
tour, I could photograph the facility from an observation window above the
floor. Just over 300 people are
employed in the 130,000 square foot factory.
I never heard them use the term, but I saw a lot of evidence of
"lean manufacturing" as we toured the floor. My favorite piece of equipment was the laser
cutter used on the harder steel. They
make some amazingly intricate knives using that machine. There were also quite a number of machines
that were WWII vintage surplus still in operation.
This place was enormous!
I took a lot of pictures of the mounted animals, but something about this one mountain goat fascinated me. Maybe I feel connected since that time I watched them high in the Rockies off the Beartooth Pass highway.
This was our tour guide, Brittany, who knew her knife history pretty well. Each of us wore a headset/ear protector so that on the very noisy floor we could clearly hear what she was saying. After the tour she worked in the gift shop where we had a few additional questions for her.
We spent more time than we
had planned at the Buck Knife factory, but we still managed to see the historic
downtown section of Couer D'Alene, have burgers and fries at the highly
acclaimed Roger's Ice Cream and Burgers (which was, unfortunately,
somewhat disappointing), picked up some things at Costco and collected official
paperwork from Banfield (our vet) on Sam's history, in case it might be needed
at the border.
When we got back to the
coach we visited our neighbors, Mary and Jim, across the street. They showed us the progression of building
on their property, from their motorhome pad, to the "bath house" and
finally to their beautiful house. As with
almost every location in this neighborhood a deck is a must to take in the
beautiful views.
Such a nice view of the meadow and distant hills.
They had one feature we had
never before seen - the bathroom linen closet included a "back door"
into the laundry room. You could take
towels out of the dryer, fold them and put them directly into the linen closet
without leaving the laundry room - I thought that was extremely clever!
This is a stroke of genius!
We spent a few very pleasant
hours discussing all sorts of topics (except politics, which everyone agreed
should be avoided completely).
We could just barley see the side of Jim and Mary's house from our lot.
Later that evening, as we were settling in for
the night, our little friend came by to say goodbye on our last night. The sound of us talking with the windows
open did not seem to bother him in the least.
He spent about 10 minutes just outside the front of the coach before
wandering off. Good-bye.
I'll miss seeing this cutie each night!
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