For sale: One Bearsmobile, complete with beer spigot, flat-screen TV
BY MITCH DUDEK Staff Reporter mdudek@suntimes.com February 24, 2013 6:34PM
The Bears mobile home. | Submitted photo
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Updated: March 26, 2013 6:05AM
If you buy JoAnna Juneau’s vehicle, expect giddy Bears fans to embrace you — and maybe ask for a beer. The 24-foot motor home owned by Juneau, a hairdresser from Itasca, has a beer tap and flat-screen TV attached to its side panels, which are painted in Bears colors and adorned with team logos. Juneau has owned the “Bears-mobile” since September, when she bought it on a whim after seeing it at an auction. “My boyfriend was looking for a hot rod, and I saw this and couldn’t resist,” said Juneau, who doesn’t have Bears season tickets but still hasn’t missed a tailgate by the lake since she bought the RV. But pre-game parking lot partying involves a lot of preparation. That doesn’t always fit in with Juneau’s work schedule, so she’s hoping to sell the RV. She put the retrofitted 1976 Argosy, which has about 95,000 miles on it, up on Craigslist, asking $13,500. “I’d planned on keeping it, but I’m a hairdresser, and I’m super busy,” she said. “If I sell it, great. And if I don’t, I’m OK with that, too.” One of four daughters whose father wanted boys, Juneau is a die- hard Bears fan who has made the most of her time as the owner of the Bearsmobile. A friend who doesn’t drink pilots the rig — dressed, naturally, in an orange fur coat. At one game, Juneau made a first-time tailgater from Nebraska swear allegiance to the Bears with one hand on a football. And she seated a couple of friends who are Packers fans in the toilet. Her two captain’s chairs are reserved for Bears fans. She does her tailgating in style. At the last one, held in December at the 31st Street lot south of Soldier Field, grilled pheasant, quail and duck were served. Her guests were hunters who understood one of the most important rules of the bus: Bring good food. Another rule: No throwing up. “That rule has never been broken. Not on the bus anyway,” Juneau said. The vehicle is a magnet for Bears fans. “The average reaction I get is ‘Holy s - - -!’ ” Juneau said. “I give about 10 tours to strangers who wander past every game day.” Juneau won’t be wheel-less without her Bearsmobile, though the wheels fit her much smaller other vehicle: a Mini Cooper. The license plate on that one reads “OOOH,” a nod to the ritualistic crowd response to the Bears PA announcer telling fans “There’s a time out . . . on the field.” Still, she has had second thoughts about doing without the Bearsmobile. “I’ll cry if it sells,” she said.
