Area Covered:

The Illowa Gulf Streamers met June 5 – 8 at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. Several went a day early and tried out a restaurant that the group might like. We didn’t like it, so we made a change of plans. Friday we had our usual delicious potluck. We had six rigs and two guests – Robert Warnick and Marge Winters. We had a tense moment when George Parsano had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance due to awful low blood sugar. Saturday afternoon a group met at the Iowa Wesleyan College Library and met with Lynn Ellsworth, the Historian there. She gave us a tour of the Harlan House where Abraham Lincoln’s son, Robert, and his family lived for a while.

There were many pieces of furniture from that time including a globe that showed that Iowa was in the Louisiana Purchase land. The foot pump organ was torn apart and is being restored piece by piece. There was also the mourning veil that Mary wore at Abraham Lincoln’s funeral. Also a piece of the coat he was wearing when he was shot.

In addition to the tie-in with Abraham Lincoln’s family, Mt. Pleasant is noted for many historic firsts. Iowa Wesleyan College graduated the first woman lawyer admitted to the bar in the United States. The women’s organization PEO was started there. They had the first black woman graduate from an Iowa College. They also had Camp Harlan where soldiers trained for the Civil War.

During the time of our rally, Mt. Pleasant had the Great Gobble Festival in Central Park. The theme was turkeys. You learned all the facts about turkeys. They had live turkeys in the park and turkey bowling where you throw frozen turkeys at bowling pins.

Saturday evening we all enjoyed dinner at The Pizza Ranch. When we got back to the campground we had our meeting. President Conley called the meeting to order. We had the Pledge to the flag followed by secretary and treasure’s reports. Due to the loss of Marvin Dieleman, we had a moment of silence. President Conley tried to get someone to take Vice President but had no luck. President Conley suggested having the spring rally the 2 nd weekend of June and the fall rally the 2 nd weekend of September. We discussed holding two rallies in Illinois and one in Iowa due to more members in Illinois, gas prices, and age of their campers, etc. Carl and Donna Siefken are selling their camper. We will sure miss them as they were such good workers helping out in so many ways.

Well, time to pack up and be on our merry way. Here’s wishing everyone safe travels, and we hope to see you in September.

June 23 we had nine rigs go to Back Home in Indiana. What a wonderful time we had with good food and good entertainment. Les, Jean, and Bonnie bend over backwards to make our stay enjoyable.

God Bless,
Frances Krause #3800 News Editor
Sandra Conners #7999 Secretary/Treasurer