And now for something totally different...

I was returning from Michigan on a trailer recovery this weekend. It was too far to drive all the way back, so I thought I might take my buddy Ace Goldberg up on his repeated offers to come crash at his place. Unfortunately Ace was not home this weekend, but invited me to join him where he was camping. After a very long day I headed for Coopers Lake Campground and asked for a site with the Scotty group.

Just like Airstreamers, they have a club. 

Just like Airstreamers they like to park in a wagon wheel and those that don't scatter them selves around.

It must be a camping club bylaw that potluck is served. From what I understand, they actually have judging of dishes. There is a dutch oven class, an Ovenette class, a salads class, and desserts. The food was real good and I was super hungry so this potluck was a welcomed treat.

Awnings are very popular. These trailers are fairly small at 13, 15, or 17 foot long so an awning makes for much needed living area.

Ace walked me around and told me all the models and years. It did not digest too well, for I forgot it as I write this. The thing I can tell you is these are cool little trailers. They are compact and light weight.

This is a 1958. A "silver sides" I remember that because it was my neighbor and I liked it the best. I have a thing for shiny aluminum over painted.

I also remember this is a "Highlander" 17 foot long this is the biggest. I like the clearstory window up front.

uhm, hello, Christmas is more than a few months away....

But low and behold, there were folks I know. The Weimers were here camping in their Scotty. They are double agents. Beckey and Mark are smart enough to know that Airstreams are very cool, but so are other trailers. They own two Scotties. Mark has been working hard at getting his ready for camping and has done a tremendous job. Please enjoy the following photos of it.

This trailer stuck out of the crowd, like Michael Jordan in China. The owners had a tree fall on their Scotty so they brought their Shasta instead. What a sweet trailer this was. Everything about it was perfect. The owners were very nice too. They should be very proud of this gem.

The birch cabinets were very nice with tight, even, uniform grain and color.

I would love to sit down at this table and eat my breakfast. Fried eggs would taste real good sitting there looking out at the lake.

These are brand new units. A dealer brought them in for people to look at. I thought they were cool. When I made that statement to Ace he replied, "But they are NOT vintage."  I guess some notions are universal.

From what I understand this is one of the very early Scotties. I talked to the daughter of the owner. She was explaining, very excitedly, how another owner has taught her to polish using SOS pads and Mothers polish. I tried to explain the difference between polishing and sanding the surface. The entire time she was looking at me like I was an alien. I explained about removing surface versus healing the pores. I explained compounding and buffing. I explained polish and rouge and compounds, but in the end she pointed at the scratched up shiny area and said "but it looks good don't it?" 

you meet the nicest people at these things

At every rally I attend I meet the nicest folks. The Madison International was no exception to this trend.

I was fortunate to have visited him at his shop in Michigan, but David Winick was in the house. When I snapped this photo he said " you can't take a picture of me, I am an enigma..." A very true statement, but none the less, the photo came out. David was aluminum tenting it in his personal trailer he is in the process of building. That is a 1948 Wee Wind and they do not come much sweeter than that. David does only the finest quality work and I am inspired to be just like him. If you want the best, David Winick is the man. You can see more of his work at:  www.vintagetrailering.com

Some more great folks I met were Tina and Michael Lambert. They came down from the great country known as Canada. These two were the nicest people you will come across. Very open, very welcoming, and extremely generous.

Now I like all Airstreams, but have been known to make jokes about 1970's rigs. No joking now, their trailer was the bomb. As a good friend would say, "that trailer is tits!" The shine was flawless and so was the interior.

The Lambert's went for the custom approach. They pulled it off very well to say the least. Some of the original stuff was used and some new improvements made.

The surf, Hawaii, retro look just worked so well from one end to the other. Now this style is not usually my bag, but man did it look good.

Neon, who does not like neon?

Most of the 70's trailers have very uncomfortable bathrooms. Not this one. Michael rearranged it to flow well. I like how he got rid of the plastic vanity.

Can you hear Hawaii Five O theme song playing in your head?

I think my parents had this same juice set back in the 1970's. The entire decor just worked from front to back.

Very nice built in bar. The frosted glass was a sweet touch. They used a lot of blue boomerang laminate. So much that it is almost invisible.

So tacky they are beautiful. 

With a masters degree in art, I am not easily impressed by most paintings I see. I have never seen Airstream paintings that I thought were worth a second glance. But Michael's paintings blew me away. The composition was flawless and the technique superb. I am going to be saving my pennies and quarters for one of my own. He gave Dale Schwamborn this one and Dale was very touched by the gift. If you want to see more of Michael's art please go to this link: www.art-stream.ca

Michael wanted a door with in a door, but his year did not come with one. He did the next best thing short of cutting one in. He made a faux door with in a door. Very cleaver idea.

More cool people coming up soon.

Addendum to "on the road with the WDCU and others too"

One of the main reasons for going to Jackson Center Ohio was to see the place where Anna was born over 47 years ago. I did not realize it, but the original factory is across the street from where the trailers are built now. Dale explained all this to me while we were on route to Elkhart Indiana. Lucky for me he had gone on a hike alone to visit some of the places he had last visited in 1966. One of those places he visited was the original factory. Thank you Dale for sharing these photos with me.

I wonder which door she rolled out of. Was it the one on the curved roof building? The one to the far left?

Was it this one?

Thank you Dale for sharing these with me. 

Up and over the hump

We bugged out of suburbia and headed for home on Sunday. With a two and a half year old, there are just so many miles one can cover in a day. We opted to stop for another night in far Eastern Ohio. My wonderful GPS, also known as my wife Beth, scanned the road atlas and found us Barkcamp State Park and we headed there. Being the end of the Holiday weekend, we found the park wide open and with many open sites. 

Our site was at the end of the last loop and we had no neighbors around us. Many of the weekend campers were kind enough to leave big piles of fire wood for us to burn and we settled in nicely.

We went down to the lake to swim at the beach. The water was clear and refreshing. Ava jumped right in and Halle played until her lips turned blue.

Part of the park was an old farm. Instead of tearing the buildings down, they recycled them into park use. The camp store is a beautiful log cabin.

There is also a few old log structures scattered around. 

A very nostalgic barn to say the least.

There is nothing like a good old fashion two holler. I don't know why it was locked up. It looked plenty inviting to me.

We had a nice candle lit dinner as a family. Food taste so good when cooked in a camp site.

After breakfast we headed East again. Anna sailed across the Ohio river and into Pennsylvania, then West Virginia and back into Pennsylvania again. The states all get confusing here in this region. I always wondered why West Virginia sticks way up into the side of Pennsylvania like that. 

We rolled into Maryland and it was a wonderful feeling. The truck seemed to run stronger, the trailer tracked straighter, and we got a strong second wind. Before we could make it home, we would need to cross the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Allegheys, and the Appalachians. From West Virginia it is all down hill. We crossed Keyser's Ridge 2880 foot, Negro Mountain 2740 foot, Meadow Mountain 2780 foot, The Eastern Continental Divide at 2610 foot, Big Savage Mountain 2800 foot, Haystack Mountain 1240 foot, Martin Mountain 1636 foot, Polish Mountain 1246 foot, Green Ridge Mountain 1040 foot, Town Hill 940 foot, Sidling Hill 1264 foot, South Mountain 1200 foot, and our last big climb was Braddock Mountain 985 foot.

It was so nice to see the Piedmont before us. After two weeks, it was nice to be coming home. 2596 miles round trip. 412 SOB trailers passed, but I was passed 13 times by SOB trailers. Six states and 14 days on the road. Good thing I did not count the gallons of gas, but it must be close to 288. Glad to be home, but itching to go tow Anna again.

Back on track

We left Madison and drove two and a half hours. This took us to Central Illinois. Beth got on the Blackberry and found us a nice state park to stop at for the night. Unfortunately, Shabbona State Park only had one empty sight and it was first come first serve. We were 45 minutes out when we called and the lady at the park said come on down and hopefully we would get there first. When we pulled in there was a huge diesel pusher at the check in. I just knew he was there before us. Sure enough, he got the last spot. However when the rangers saw Anna sitting there, they said "we will find you a spot, no problem". 

Turns out that there was a handicapped space in each loop and they must be held until 8 p.m.. None of us are handicapped, but thank God for National Disabilities Act. It worked out well for us. What a great site we were given. The entire park was beautiful. Totally wooded, nice semi private sites with clean pit toilets a short walk away. The shower house was also a short walk away.

Turns out a few vintage trailers were there for the weekend. They were on their way to Indiana for a vintage trailer rally. Real nice folks. This is a 1965 Tag-a-long.

Not sure of the make, but they told me it was a 1966.

And a 1965 Shasta.

I was up at sunrise. I let the girls sleep a bit longer and headed down to the lake to enjoy Mother Nature waking up. This was a great campground and it was such a treat to stumble upon it. I highly recommend anyone passing through this region to stop in.

Farmers are turning to some alternative crops in Illinois. This guy has a very healthy field of windmills.

I find these windmills to be very beautiful and enhance the the landscape in a way coal fired power plants could not.

We passed into Indiana and changed over to a blue line highway. Actually it was a thin red line and the choice was perfect. The road was dead flat and as straight as an arrow. Along the way we found this sculptor. 

He turned old farm implements into whirlly gigs and flowers.

Finding things like this is what makes the trip worth the effort.

"Days Gone By"... a very good day for sure.

We are now parked in front of my Sister in Law's house for a few days. Anna looks out of place in the midst of suburbia, but maybe the natives visiting will come away with a touch of aluminitis.