Northern Illinois

Come explore and discover the beauty of the Amana Colonies! Plan to attend our Joint Rally with the Lincolnland Unit and you will have a great time. There are 7 colonies (villages) on the 17 mile loop that are home to many artisans and factories keeping traditional Amana handcrafts alive, as well as contemporary artists working in many mediums. The area is famous for its beauty, hospitality and old world German charm.

The biggest festival that weekend is the “Maifest” in Amana on Saturday which kicks off with a parade down Main Street at 10:00 followed by “Taste of the Amana” Food Fair and “Maipole” dancing at the east end of Main Street. There will also be German folk music, and lots of entertainment! Saturday night there is a 50’s-60’s band playing at the Festhalle Barn in Amana (next to the visitor’s center) for $8 a head. For a map of Amana buildings click here

Visit the Heritage Museum in Amana to see their video. Bring your WBCCI badge to purchase your discounted $4 admission ticket to their seven historic buildings on the loop tour. Do your loop tour of all the Amana Colonies on Friday or Sunday (depending on when you arrive) by traveling west on 220 Trail to the Communal Kitchen & Copper shop in Middle Amana, then the Art Guild in High Amana, Barn, Woodshop and Broom factory in W. Amana, Art & quilt shops in S. Amana, and then complete the loop by visiting the Store Museum in Homestead. Another alternative (if you have a cd player in your car/truck) is to buy the CD audio tour of the Amana Colonies loop for $10 at the Visitors Center. There are many more historic and interesting places on the loop. The association website is http://amanaheritage.org/museums.html
If you have Google Earth on your computer, you can take a virtual preview tour by searching for “Amana, Iowa”.

Other attractions in the area include: Pioneer Heritage Museum in nearby Marengo offers a variety of cultural, historical displays. Herbert Hoover’s home and Presidential Library/Museum and National Historic Site are 30 miles east of Amana. Plan to stay until at least Monday morning, so you can enjoy it all.

Shopping in the Colonies is a unique experience, but for something more modern, the Tanger Outlet Center in Williamsburg is just minutes away.

The Amana Colonies RV Park has 136 full service sites off highway 151 just North of downtown Amana. When checking in, mention you are with the WBCCI Rally to receive the group discount and be parked in our reserved area. Half the sites will be drive thru. Because the sites reserved have only 15 & amp 50 amp outlets, you will need to bring your 50-30 amp or 15 to 30 amp adapter.

Amana Colonies Website: click here
Amama RV Park Website: click here

If you are interested in attending, make a reservation by calling or e-mailing Carol and send a $30 deposit (check made payable to, “NO IL UNIT WBCCI”) to: Carol Dixon, 5009 Lake Dawnwood Dr., Johnsburg, IL 60051

Spring Luncheon - March 27th 11:30 AM - Old Country Buffet, Springhill Mall, Dundee, IL Make plans for your summer camping/touring plans with your fellow members. Call Carol to let her know you are coming.

Trial of Feb. Feb. Blue Beret online Here is the link to this new presentation method click here I would like as many people as possible to look at it with various computer systems and get back to Fred R with your impressions. Fred’s E-mail - radv1@earthlink.net

March issue of Blue Beret posted to Google Docs Click here to see and evaluate.

Airstream Life on line Spring Editon has just been published: click here
International President’s Message for March click here

Sixteen members attended our tour of the FermiLab Atomic Research Facility and luncheon at Harner’s Restaurant. The tour was very intereesting and quite technical, as we peppered the docent with questions for two hours. To see what you missed Click here for virtual tour At Harner’s many of the gathering ordered their famous chicken pot pie. New members, Mark Pankow and Brian McFarland, attended. Everyone had a great time.

Link to the Jan 2010 Northern Illinois Newsletter: click here
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Northern Illinois February Flier click here

Link to February Blue Beret on WBCCI.org site click here

International President’s February Newsletter click here

Twenty of our Northern Illinois snowbirds attended the luncheon at Travelers Rest. They shared stories of their adventures of the past year. Two potential members also came.

Airstream revised its product lineup for December Nashville RV Industry show. Llink: click here

January 23 - IBT meeting Proposals Link to the P& L summary for Madison Rally ($103K loss) and the proposed amendments to the Bylaws. click here

Summary Results of 2010 Mid Winter IBT Meeting
Proposal 1 - Name change Greater New Orleans Louisiana Unit – passed
Proposal 2- Accounting transaction to cover the $103,000 loss at Madison. Jerry Larson said, “In 2007 Madison would not book less than 1,200 trailers for $120,000.” Early reservations, in January 2009, showed we could not achieve this number, but the contractual commitments were such that, cancelling the rally would result in even a higher loss than continuing. He blamed the poor attendance on the poor economy. - Passed
Proposal 3- Make the Midwinter IBT Rally an Internationally sponsored rally.- Failed – It will remain a Region or Unit sponsored event.
Proposal 4 - Change Due date for International Rally Financial report – Passed
Proposal 5 – Provide 2 year budget planning – Passed
Proposal 6 – Make Financial statement conform to GAP – Passed
Proposal 7 – Unit Delegates to be appointed by Unit Executive boards – Passed
Proposal 8– cover expense of Incoming treasurer travel to budget meeting – Passed
Proposal 9- Correct Budgeting error – Passed
Proposal 10 – Correct accounting error – Passed
Proposal 11 – Correct accounting error – Passed
Proposal 12 – International Officers’ Expense budget – 25% reduction – Passed
Proposal 13 – Region Officers’ Expense budgets – 10% reduction – Passed
Proposal 14 – Increase member dues - $10 – Passed
Proposal 15 – Outlaw Proportional Voting – Failed
Proposal 16 – Reschedule IBT meetings to be within International Rally Dates – Withdrawn - Referred to the 2020 Committee
Proposal 17 - Marketing Budget - $5K this year, $15K next year - Passed
Proposal 18 – Grievance procedure changes – Passed
Proposal 19 – Grievance Probation Appeal – Failed
Proposal 26 – Reorganization of the Club into 7 Regions and make the International a rotating Region Function lasting one week. It would also remove 3rd International VP. – Rejected by IBT as improperly formatted and too big to tackle at this rally. Needs to be reworded into distinct proposed changes to the Constitution and Bylaws.- Withdrawn and forwarded to 2020 Committee for review and redraft.
None of the proposals that passed require approval at the Delegates’ meeting in June. All Bylaws changes become immediately applicable.

The Grievance committee expelled Leo Garvey from the club.

We held our Christmas Luncheon at D’Andrea Banquets, in Crystal Lake. Forty-two people attended and were treated to an excellent luncheon of Roast Sirloin of Beef and Chicken Marsala.

Before the luncheon, President Carol Dixon held a short business meeting to elect and install Jim Matkovich as our new Second Vice President.

After lunch, we were entertained by a 14 member choral group called “Voices in Harmony”. Everyone enjoyed their performance of Christmas music. We also had Carol’s twelve year old grandson, Robert Buccelli, play the piano for us before and after the luncheon. (This summer. he came to the Madison Rally.)

There were lots of table talk about the coming camping and touring season. Jim Kraner found out, from an Escapee’s notification, that the US Forest Service is proposing to reduce the Golden Age Passport discount from 50% to 10% at the majority of their parks. We are hoping the BLM and the Corp of Engineers do not follow their lead.
Henschen Axles, which were used in Airstream trailers since 1960, have decided to close their plant in Jackson Center and will no longer be making rubber rod torsion axles. Since 2004, Airstream has been buying their axles, brakes and frames from Dexter in Elkhart, IN. Airstream will be working with Dexter to see if Dexter can make replacement axles for the older units.

New members attending were: the Ewings, Bob McKee

Tom Collier’s (International President) - October Newsletter click here.

Tom Collier’s - Nov. Newsletter click here

Tom Collier’s - Dec. Newsletter click here

Vintage Airstream Club has a new website with new features -click here This link can also found on our links page.

We had rain for two days preceding the rally. This discouraged some people, but 11 hardy adventuring couples braved the rainy weather to bring their units to Amboy. The grounds were soggy, with up to 2 inches of standing water in some of our usual parking spots. People picked their sites carefully and many units parked close to the buildings on the gravel, without the benefit of water, rather than have the possibilities of getting stuck in the grass. Carol’s Friday dinner featured pork loin roasted in the Amboy oven and dessert cakes by Terry Chesnut.

The Executive board approved Carol Dixon’s trimmed down and balanced budget at their Friday evening meeting. The board also approved Wayne Kortum to be the Chairman of the Nominating Committee for 2010. Another item of discussion was the new membership flier.

For breakfast, Dwight and Lee Moyers prepared french toast to be served with sausage links. Seventeen more people decided to drive in Saturday to be with their friends. At the Saturday morning general meeting, we held the election for Carol, Terry, Anita, and Sue as the first item on the agenda. During an intermission, Bob Moyers, Region 5 President, officiated at the installation ceremony of the new officers. Carol Dixon, as our new president, resumed the meeting and presented a Unit Constitutional amendment to reduce the number of directors from 6 to 4. It passed. Carol showed the newly proposed Unit Membership Flier that will be designed and distributed to prospective members by Bob Koch, our long time Membership Chairman, and by members who wish to bring new people into our family.

After the meeting, we introduced our newest members, Deke and Tiffani Waters who paid their dues that morning. More about them later in the newsletter. We also served an Installation cake with a picture of an Airstream on it.

Dwight Dixon officiated at our shortened white elephant auction and raised almost $200 to help maintain our balanced budget. Kitchen preparation started immediately (led by Carol) for our Thanksgiving Banquet. Three turkeys were roasted this year in the Nesco’s. We had a total of 38 guests at the banquet. The food was great and abundant. Some of the homemade, “dishes to pass side” were amazing. Dwight brought in his newest acquisition, a commercial Soft Serve machine and people used it to make their pie a la mode. Six year old Christina Chesnut wanted hers in a large waffle cone. Some other members also opted for dishes or cones.

The evening entertainment included WBCCI DVD’s of the early Wally Byam Caravans using our new projector. Deke Waters saved the day when one of the DVD’s failed to load in the DVD player so Deke played it through his Apple Laptop to feed the signal to the projector. We watched one section of the, Vincent Price narrated, World Tour Caravan and the entire African Capetown to Cairo Caravan. It was very interesting and gave us a fresh perspective on their travels. Our little mud spots of the Lee County fairgrounds, this weekend, paled by comparison to the difficulties they encountered. They were a much hardier group than any of us.

Nancy Morrison conducted a short worship service Sunday morning followed by another luncheon buffet to finish up the left overs from yesterday’s feast. The weather had cleared by that time and the field had dried out. No one needed assistance to leave the grounds around 1:00.

Though out the weekend the hall was warm and filled with the sound of 42 people smiling, laughing, and holding conversations. A great time was had by all.

Five Northern Illinois couples enjoyed the weekend.(Whites, Whitsells, Mayos, Goykes and the Dehahns) The Hobo stew and chili dump came off well. They had some rain Friday night but Saturday and Sunday were fine. The Clarks and the Kraners stopped by for a visit on Saturday. Dwight came out to pick up the projector Sunday.

Five N. Illinois units attended the 34th Region 5 Rally at Hobo Haven, Brandenburg, Kentucky. Wayne Kortum stood in for our President. Jim and Bobbi Matkovich took charge of the Hobby Show/Swap & Sell. Wayne was also was Chairman for tables & Chairs. Bob Koch acted as the coordinator. Anita Koch and Lillian Kortum were Co-Chairs of the Door Prizes. Everyone helped distributing gifts including Ron and Mary Dahlberg. Our Legal Lady, Bonnie Nester, concluding many years of valuable service as WBCCI Parliamentarian, was in attendance as well. Did you know she took classes in Oak Lawn, IL (quite distant from Crystal Lake, IL) once a month to stay current?

We went to a Civil War site at Corydon, Indiana (the only skirmish above the Mason-Dixon line). We had a delicious chicken dinner buffet at the Overlook Restaurant (overlooking the Ohio River). Following the dinner, we went to the Scout Mountain Winery for some wine tasting. We stopped at The Red Barn in Corydon to do some “antiquing” on the way home.

The Southern Illinois Unit had the most new members by recruiting four AirForum members (an Internet Airstream forum). Bobbi Matkovich was 1st place winner at Joker.

The entertainment was 4 star quality - all 3 nights - Blue Grass 101; Jim Roberts, Humorist; and the Juggernauts.

Tom and Norma Collier invited us to “Explore and Discover” at the 2010 International Rally in Gillette, Wyoming. Our Region 5 President for next year, Louise Humble and her husband Jerry (the Lone Ranger) invited us to attend the 2010 Silver Bullet Shootout in DuQuoin, IL next September 15-19th. A good time was had by all 70 units attending. Submitted by Anita Koch

Eighteen of us ( 8 trailers & 1 bvan) met at the Goyke’s Oasis. The weather was perfect. Highlights included: food (cooked over an open fire with a tripod), croquet, and fireside chats. We saw a 72 cow carousel at the Fair Oaks farm, where 2,800 cows are milked 3X per day. Everyone who went saw a live birth. The Kochs got to see a twin birth. We also saw a 3D movie and got some delicious ice cream.

The corn festival was on in Hoopeston. It’s a steam engine operation with all the “Bells and Whistles”. A fantastic dinner was available a little further down the roast at “The Beef House”.

The Earl Park Fair is celebrated each year during the week before Labor Day. Since she had no children, when a wealthy inhabitant died she left her substantial property to the city,as long as it was to be used a park for the people.

Our video projector was put to good use. We saw “Welcome to Mooseport” on the side of White’s trailer and on the next we saw, “North by Northwest”, in “wide screen”, on Mayo’s new trailer.

A good time was had by all. A lucky few got to see the latest 4 week old kittens. Mama cat objected strongly. There are 11 cats at Goyke’s, but no mice. Reported by Anita Koch

This weekend was another one of extremes. We had 11 units come and go at various times. Most of the people that had endured the Kieler experience were there. Thursday night till Friday morning at 10:00AM we had 2.5 inches of rain in the campground. When the Sun came out on Saturday and Sunday, the temperatures soared to 98 degrees with humidity to match, because of the all the evaporating water sitting in the campground. Those with air conditioners were running them full blast.

Whites had 5 grand kids, of various ages, packed into their trailer. Kraners had brought their inflatable powered Zodiac boat to do a little fishing with their grandson. Kochs brought 2 grandsons. Dwight brought his kayak, while Monique Clark and Warren Dutton waded out to reach the deeper waters to do a little bass fishing. The Clarks and and many of the kids enjoyed biking in the park.

Houzengas bought 120 ears of excellent locally grown sweet corn and Dwight did his corn thing twice with a turkey fryer. Bob Whitesell had up to four ears at each setting. Friday’s wiener roast over an open fire produced some good eating. All the ladies out did themselves, providing mountains of food for the big Saturday evening Pot Luck feast. After the Saturday meal, president elect, Carol Dixon, brought us up to date on work she has been doing for the upcoming events. Due to the heat, the movie was canceled.

Many of our survivors from Kieler have made initial contacts with their insurance companies and are still in the process of deciding what to do after their initial emergency repairs. Dwight replaced the windows in their ‘63 and bought some equipment to experiment with trying to minimize the largest of the Kielers. For those with nothing to lose, Dwight showed how some of the dents could be minimized with a little work. Some of the largest ones were helped with the aid of a suction cup. Some of the smaller, but deeper, ones required the use of the “Ding King” hot melt adhesive and puller frame. Dwight worked a little magic on Whitesell’s, Dutton’s, and Jamison’s trailers. Timeless Travel Trailers, of Colorado, says that 70% of the hail damaged trailers they quote never get repaired, after the owners accept damage payments from their insurance companies. Many of our members, with more “seasoned” units, are likely to do the same.

Here is the link to the August- September newsletter click here.

Keiler, Wisconsin, July 24Th, about 6:45 PM, Golf Ball size hail driven by 100 mi/hr. straight line winds assaulted the 11 trailers and tow vehicles which came to the Rally. Whites’, Dixons’, and Humbles’ had their trucks windows shattered. Clark’s car sunroof exploded. Dixon’s’ two side windows on their 1963 trailer shattered. Miraculously, no newer model trailers, with tempered glass windows, broke. However, skylights in many trailers were cracked or destroyed. “Kielers”, too numerous to count, appeared on all the trailers. (”Kielers” are similar to “Bismarcks” but are larger, measuring up to 9 inches in diameter and up to 1.2 inches deep.) Tree limbs fell on other trailers. Of course, the power went out. Many people retreated to the barn basement. The skylight in the barn shattered and it rained in. I stood under the metal clad front porch of the barn holding the door shut, while watching it all unfold. Dave Clark ran to his trailer as it started, to close his vent and got trapped in the trailer as the hail battered it. The noise of the large hailstones breaking glass in the cars and trying to get through the metal roof was unreal. At the time, we were holding happy hour inside the barn after returning from a 50 mile long road rally scavenger hunt (sans trailers) and waiting for the rain to clear before starting our outdoor cook out. Needless to say, plans changed. Thankfully, no one was hurt.

After it settled down a bit we ventured out to survey the damage. It was extensive. This was a new experience for most and one we hope to never repeat. Plastic sheeting, cardboard and massive amounts of duct tape came to the rescue as people readied their rigs for their trip to the next destination.

Most people will be contacting their insurance companies today. The big concern is: how to get the trailers and tow vehicles repaired without having the insurance companies “totaling” them or raising the premiums through the roof next year. Dwight Dixon