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Our entourage of 5 Winnebago coaches arrived
in Forest City for our MILWIT (Military Winnebago-Itasca Travelers)
National Rally, followed a week later by the Winnebago-Itasca Travelers
Grand National Rally (GNR). That's a lot of partying for these two
old timers! Having been to our first rallies last year, this time
we knew what to expect. This time we also went in knowing a lot of
other folks that we had met at the rallies in Georgia and Illinois.
We also discovered The Grotto in West Bend, Iowa, about sixty miles from
Forest City. Gerry's sister, Ann, and two of her brothers and
their wives worked in Iowa nearly seventy years ago. The pictures
we have of them at the grotto, being in black and white, did not do the
place justice. It was an incredible experience. The Grotto
of the Redemption was built by a Catholic priest who spent more than
forty years working on. Then, another priest and the original
priest's helper continued the project for another forty years.
Stones and rocks of all kinds were brought in from all over Europe and
all the states over the years. We
played in the WIT golf tournament again with Jack and Millie.
Millie had the longest putt of all the women. The rest of us were
just glad to finish with a decent score. Plenty of entertainment
was lined up for GNR. With Jack, our own Willie Nelson, and his
new karaoke equipment, we made our own entertainment. Did we
mention food? There were breakfasts, and lunches, and social
hours, and dinners out and dinners in. There were vendors
selling anything rv-related as well as all kinds of jewelry for the
ladies. MILWIT had a fund-raising auction, with Wayne & Gerry as
auctioneers. Terry did not even have to hold her card up for Gerry
to tap her for a bid.
Forest City holds its annual Puckerbrush
Days with vendors on the square downtown and the kind of parade only
seen in small town America. Despite a flat tire on the way to the
start, our MILWIT guys and gals rode the float and threw out candy to
the kids, big and little. What a fun day it was!
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