Northern Illinois Airstream Club

Kochs, Whitesells and Dixons caravaned from Elkhast Lake to  the Illinois Beach State Park at Zion,IL. Whitesells decided to spend an extra day there while Kochs and Dixons continued on to  Goyke’s Oasis in Indiana. From Goyke’s, Kochs and Dixons drove to Madison, IN.  The Milton bridge was under reconstruction, so we continued 30 miles upstream and crossed the Ohio at the Markland Dam.  That night we met with the other four NIU couples at Gen. Butler State Resort Park outside of  Carrollton, Kentucky.

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Caravan Writeup

September 19, 2010 – Sunday
The five northern Illinois Caravanering couples and two couples from other units left the DuQuion Rally shortly after the closing ceremonies and preceded to the Hill Top Campground in Graysville, IL. Hill top accurately describes this campground. The accent to the campground was a one lane gravel cover road up the side of a hill. A number of us spun our wheels throwing gravel, to get to the top of this densely wooded hill. We were thankful that there were no Class A motorhomes or 34 footers in our group of 7 experienced campers. They may not have made it. We found some level ground and 30 amp service. The only other people in the small park were the campground hosts. Most of the businesses and the only good restaurant in town were closed this Sunday afternoon and evening, but the church parking lot must have had 200 cars. We had some munchies from our trailers and reviewed the maps for tomorrow. We all decided to eat dinner from what we had in our trailers

We spent two nights at the campground South of Cicinnati. Cincinnati is an old river town that has seen major updating, but is still limited by high bluffs surrounding the smaller river valley and the tributaries that come together at that point in the Ohio River. We saw a really nice botanical conservatory from the 1930’s and a superb art gallery with world class displays. We were delayed in leaving by a major truck accident on the Interstate freeway.

We spend one night at the Airestream factory We had a nice tour of the factory. They seem very busy and are hiring back a few workers to add to the 400 they currently employ. There are Mercedes dual wheel Fed EX type delivery vans parked in the lot ready to be converted into $120K Interstates. This year, the Interstate will be a full ton vehicle with turbo. Airstream pays $55K for the chassis and feel they do not want to offer a cheaper version. There are also a goodly number of Chevy Vans in the lot waiting to be converted into smaller Bvans. There was a finished one at the end of the lot but it was moved by the time we finished the tour, so we could not get a look at it. They say the new small Sport model trailer is selling well. The more modern shinny aluminum interiors are selling better than the classic mouse felt interiors. The rear door 27’s are also hot sellers. The Terra port was almost completely filled when we got there at noon. and late arrivers had to park on the grass with no services. We double parked a Bvan into one of our slots. Appointments for service are not available till mid October. Thw next night, after a 170 mile run over some good freeways and some curly but good country roads, we parked at Kandel’s campground close to SugarCreek and were joined by another couple of trailers who wanted to early park with us. We convoyed the last 7 miles into Winklepleck Grove park Friday morning trailing 15 trailers.

Eight Northern Illinois couples participated in the caravan including, Bob Whitesell, our past president, and Norm White, our new incoming President. Other Northern Illinois couples included: Aarup’s, De Hahn’s, Dixon’s, Dutton’s, Mayo’s and Stuart’s. The caravan was led by Jerry and Louise Humble from the Southern Illinois Unit. Three other Southern Illinois couples came along.

The caravan started with a visit to the cranberry museum and a tour of the cranberry marshes in Warren, WI. The next day we traveled to Little Falls MN. to visit the Lindberghs’ home and air museum. On our way north on Interstate 94, we saw three Airstreams returning from the Alaska Caravan. It was Cristy’s, Koch’s and Matkovich’s. We waved but we were not able to reach them on the CB. We continued to Bemidji, MN and Lake Itasca, which is the source of the Mississippi River. We even walked across the stones at the very beginning of the river.

We followed the River east to Grand Rapids, MN. and toured the Forestry History Museum as well as visiting a mining museum and the Hull-Rust open pit iron mine, which is the largest in the world. Next it was a whirlwind tour of Minneapolis, MN. Five of us did the tour on Segway People Movers. The many bridges and multiple uses of the river make it an interesting old city with a modern flare.

The next stop was Wabasha, MN with its Eagle center. While we were camped in Wabasha, we also visited the Redwing Shoe factory and Red Wing Pottery as well as a day trip to Winona, MN for a guided tour of its colorful past. A midday stop in Prairie du Chien allowed us to tour Villa Louis and replace tires on Mayo’s and Whitesell’s Airstreams, which had gone flat. The next day we visited the Mississippi River museum in Dubuque, IA. Next, it was a day trip to Galena, IL and a guided trolley tour of the city.

Three couples dropped off the caravan after the Galena tour to return to work and other appointments. The rest continued on to Davenport, IA. Weather was great 95% of the time and the fall colors were at their peak.