Pekin Days Art Show

Take these ingredients: a pinch of history, sprinkling of an artist, a lifetime of wander-lust, a span of 19 years, mix well and you have “Gypsie”, a 1928 REO Speedwagon camp car. The restored Speedwagon is owned by Don and Theresa Paul of Edgeley, North Dakota and she will make her road-ready debut at the Pekin Days Art Show during the weekend of June 28 and 29 in Pekin.

The Pauls, who are sculpting and jewelry artists, purchased the Speedwagon in Sarasota, Florida in 1987 through a classified advertisement in a local paper. The couple was visiting in the states after selling their home on the island of St. Croix before leaving on a year’s tour of Europe, Great Britain and North Africa in a VW camper.

Don said they bought the vehicle as a future restoration project when they settled in their permanent home in Edgeley in anticipation of traveling around the states in the “camp car”.

Restoration on “Gypsie”, as she is affectionately called, began in 1989 in Don’s garage. It was a sporadic project over the next 19 years because the couple possesses wanderlust and leaves each year to visit family and friends and to pursue new adventures abroad and in the States.

Theresa makes use of their travels to purchase unusual beads for her jewelry and attend workshops. Don, on the other hand, spends the time thinking of the sculptures he can create with found objects.

As Don says, “Gypsie” would make one captivating storyteller if she could give voice to all her life’s experiences. He knows firsthand about some of her adventures as he had the opportunity to visit with one of her previous owners, The Great Arturo.

The Speedwagon was home to Arturo and his wife, Hedy, a high-wire acrobat team for the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus. In later years they performed in the Mills Brothers Circus and as an independent act.

While loading “Gypsie” for her maiden trip to North Dakota, Don was talking with Arturo and asked if she attracted attention when he drove into a town. Arturo thought for a moment and then replied, “Ahh, she was a parade all by herself!”

Today, “Gypsie” is completely restored and will once again bring immense pleasure to anyone that has the opportunity to view the camp car’s brightly painted exterior and highly polished interior woods.

Don says his commitment to the project is not over, but he leans toward a future filled with happy trails and adventures as he and Theresa travel about the states. “There are so few of these motor homes left, and this one has such an interesting history, I am happy she will soon be back on the road for many people to see and enjoy. It has been a great pleasure to return something most people would discard to its previous beautiful condition.”

The 1928 REO Speedwagon was made by the REO Motor Car Company that Ransom Eli Olds founded in 1904. The Lansing, Michigan-based company produced automobiles and trucks from 1905 to 1975. The Speedwagons were manufactured until the mid 1930’s.

In 1968 the name was borrowed for the REO Speedwagon rock band by Neal Doughty, keyboardist and founder of the band, after learning about the truck during a History of Transportation class at the University of Illinois.

If You Go

What: Pekin Days Art Show
Where: Pekin, N.D.
When: June 26-29 Thur-Sat, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m;
Sun, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Info: Brenda Bjorlie, (701) 296-4515

Weekend Activities

Jon Offutt, Glassblowing Demonstrations
Gypsie on display--Main Street
Fine arts and crafts in The Park
All artists and interested individuals welcome.
Judge: Rusty Freeman, Plains Art Museum
Musical entertainment
Kids’ games, bingo, horseshoes--Sat. only
Beef barbecue, 5 p.m.--Sat. only
Musical performance (no name band), 7:30 p.m.--Sat. only
Street Dance 8:30 p.m.--Sat. only
Pancake Breakfast, 8 a.m.--Sunday only
New Bohemia breakfast meeting 9 a.m. Sunday
Food available all day, both Saturday and Sunday