Wednesday 20 December 2006

The Home of John Deere

No pictures for the time being but we've had a whistle stop tour of JD Headquarters, and then the Harvester Factory. This was followed by a trip to Waterloo (last night) early bed and then a trip to Engine Works, Transmission Works and then the highlight of the trip at the Tractor Factory. It was as clean as a doctors surgery, clinical, technical, automated and very sophisticated.

Our luggage has also arrived in the US, it's still 200miles away and we hope to pick it up in time to write some new tags and send it back to Heathrow! We do now have a complete new wardrobe, which may or may not be a good thing!


Here's the first picture. It is taken as you can see at the HQ of John Deere. We stopped here briefly for lunch and a look around the demonstration area before visiting the Harvest Works.
This is how it all started, John Deere originated as a manufacturer of plough shares, not tractors. The company purchased a small firm making the 'Water Loo Boy' tractors and the rest is history. Here we all are standing in the Moline gift shop with one of the few remaining 'Waterloo Boy' tractors.
Well the long drive back to Chicago will take most of the day then we have to do battle with BA about the retrieval of our luggage! (Oh and the compensation, after all we're in America now!)

No comments: