Fall Camping in Watkin's Glen, and a Kimbo Experience

Our last camping trip of the year is usually a long weekend In early October someplace in New York’s Finger Lakes area. 

This year we were able to get out for an early October trip with the Avion to Watkins Glen in New York’s finger lakes region. This was a good test for how well Avion would work with little prep work, other than food and some clean clothes everything was pretty much ready to go from our previous trip. The weather was good, but we did make use of our Olympic Wave propane heater which seems just right for fall camping here in northeast US. We visited a few different wineries to do tastings, and bought a few bottles of our favorites to take back home. My brother was racing in a sailboat regatta nearby, and was able to join us for part of our visit and a nice hike in the gorge. The number of people hiking the gorge has been pretty crazy the last few years, if you go choose a weekday and plan hit the trail early in the day to avoid the crowds. 

While driving between wineries we saw a new Kimbo truck camper and pulled into a parking next to it and met it enthusiastic owners. We had some good conversation and then did quick show & tells to compare the two rigs. From a distance the Avion and Kimbo almost look like they might be related, but up close they are quite different. The Kimbo is a lot smaller allowing its use with a smaller half-ton truck, but the interior space is also significantly smaller. Inside the Kimbo has a very contemporary feel and has simpler water and power systems, and a multi-function modular approach that is more like a modern camping van, the Avion is more classic camper. One way to think about it is that the Kimbo is like a super fancy tent and Avion is more like a tiny home. Stepping into the Avion after looking at the Kimbo our camper seemed huge inside. We liked the removable fabric panels that the Kimbo uses on it walls, and the small mud-room floor area just inside the entryway. The tiny Dickinson propane fireplace/heater is super cool, so cool that we may look into to incorporate something like that in our camper someday. It was really great to have to chance to see a Kimbo in person, and meet its owners who host a website called Kimbo Experience. Hopefully someday we’ll run into them on the road again and can share more stories of our travels! In addition to Kimbo there’s several new companies, including Scout, Supertramp, and Radica Moonlander that are building small contemporary truck campers, and while we love the size of our Avion and being vintage. We also think this new bread of small truck campers is also very cool and relevant today, an amazing resource for these types of rigs is Truck Camper Magazine, check it out if you are looking for more info truck campers of all types.