2025 - Vermont & New York's Adirondack Park

 

In 2025 we continued to do a bunch of weekend trips using the Avion, primarily in the Finger Lakes region of New York and also in Massachusetts. Again this year we made use of Harvest Hosts, and we had our first Cracker Barrel overnight which worked well for us due to location.  

We also did an extended trip to Vermont and New York's Adirondacks. While in Vermont we attended a family wedding and were able to camp right on the venue's wooded property for several nights. We then took the Avion on the Ferry across Lake Champlain to New York and spent time camping in a few different locations in the Adirondack Park. On this trip we took our pair of "nesting" pack canoes with us. I built these canoes specifically to fit inside the Avion so we can take boats with the truck camper without putting them on the roof. These boats are to a design by Brian Schultz from Cape Falcon Kayak who developed a variable system for building skin-on-frame construction canoes where you can vary the boats dimensions and shape to suit your needs. These small 12' pack canoes are super lightweight, weighing only 18lbs each, and one nests inside the other so they only take up the space of one boat when traveling. One of the places that we paddled was at the Great Camp Santanoni where we hired a horse drawn shuttle service from Newcomb Farms to haul our boats out the lake at the camp as the only other option was to carry them 9 miles round-trip. While we only spent one day on this excursion it was a great experience, if you are interested in doing this take a tent and spend a night or two at one of the campsites on the lake. 

We also attended 3 vintage camper rallies this year, one in  Little Valley NY, one in East Aurora NY, and one near Geneva NY. We've been attending rallies like this with our Shasta and Avion for 20 years and really enjoy spending time with old and new friends in the vintage camper community. 

2024 - Colorado via Iowa and Kansas

Obviously I have not been posting much on this blog over the last few years, but our vintage camper adventures have continued.  Here's a brief summary of some of what were were up to in 2024.

In 2024 we traveled with our 1965 Avion slide-in Truck Camper from Buffalo NY to Colorado and back. On this trip we mostly stayed at Harvest Hosts and saw some cool stuff along the way including the Iowa 80 Trucking Museum at he worlds largest truck stop,  a Quilt Museum and the Covered Bridges in Madison county Iowa, Monument Rocks in Kansa, the Gateway Arch in Saint Louis, and a bunch of over cool places. I've been posting short videos on YouTube showing some of these adventures here...  https://www.youtube.com/@dwsdws12/

In addition to this longer trip we have been using the Avion for lots of long weekend trips closer to home, camping trips in the Adirondacks, and attended several Tin Can Tourists vintage camper rallies. 

New Brunswick & Nova Scotia - quick tour

 

On the way to Newfoundland we travelled through part of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. For this trip we tried to maximize our time in Newfoundland because it's harder to get to, but we were able to take in some of the sites and enjoy some time in these two other maritime provinces. 

Our first night in Canada (entering from Calais Maine) we stayed at Fundy National Park. The bay of Fundy is home to the largest tides in the world.   Maybe more important than this is that on the way there we stopped at a roadside restaurant for lunch we had the best fish & chips I've ever had, and this is saying a lot as I grew up on Cape Cod and lived in Rhode island for 6 years. If you ever head into New Brunswick from Maine be sure to stop at Ossie's Lunch in Bethal - you won't be disappointed. 

We made super quick visits to several areas and hope to get back to spend more time at some point. We drove the Cabot Trail in Cape Breton Island which is sometimes called the most scenic road in Canada, however when we were there it was super foggy as it often is. We also visited the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Lunenburg. We also spent some time in Pictu and Digby where we got some of thier famous scallops that we took on the ferry then had for dinner while camping on a beach near Saint John.

I've posted a few videos from this trip on our YouTube channel here... D&B Let's Go Someplace!

At some point we hope to be back to this area, lots to see and and experience up there!

Newfoundland via Truck Camper - an epic road trip!

 

In June 2023 we took the Avion truck camper on our longest trip ever from our home in the Buffalo, NY area to Newfoundland. We drove over 5,000 miles of driving in total, which is even more miles than when we towed our vintage Shasta to Utah and back in 2013. We spent a total of 24 nights in the Avion on this trip, and best of all we only stayed in paid for campsites on 4 of those nights. We also didn't plug into electricity for most of this trip, making use of our trucks alternator and DC to DC charger to charge our battery and we used propane for heat and cooking. 

Being relatively small and self-contained we were able to boondock most nights within feet of the ocean. We easily found spots using various boondocking apps or just keeping our eyes open. Many of the small towns in Newfoundland welcome small C-Class RV's, Vans, and Truck Campers for overnight stays in town owned lots, but also the province is so laid back that as long as you don't cause trouble it seems that you would be welcome to park almost anywhere for the night. Many of the places we stayed would also accommodate a small trailer, but the roads are pretty rough so I wouldn't recommend a towing much in Newfoundland unless you plan to drop it in campgrounds during the day while you are out exploring with your vehicle.  

On the way to "The Rock" we took a ferry from North Sydney Nova Scotia to Port aux Basques that took 7 hours.  For the return trip we took a ferry from Placenta back to North Sydney that took a long 16 hours. For both passages we chose overnight trips so we wouldn't loose a day and slept in chairs in the ships lounge area instead of spending money to rent a cabin. Unfortunately you can't sleep in your camper. 

Our first day on the island we were able to get tickets for the Western Brook Pond boat tour that had just started running for the season a few days before. This pond is a former fiord and is located in Gross Morne National Park. The boat was was great and a great way to solidify the fact that we really were in a special place. Besides the pond we didn't see a lot Gross Morne saw enough to know that we will return with a plan to spend more time there hiking trails and seeing more of the park. 

We timed this trip to catch iceberg season and saw some amazing icebergs near St. Anthony and Twillingate.  You can see a log of icebergs from shore but we also took a boat tour out of Saint Lunaire-Griquet to see some of icebergs up close- it was definitely worth it.  Note that it's still pretty cold in Newfoundland in June and we found ourselves wearing winter coats and running the heater before bed and first thing in the morning almost every day. 

We hiked quite of a few coastal trails, these are well maintained and have spectacular views. Most of these were 3 to 6 miles round trip and not one left us disappointed. Some of our favorites included the Skerwink Trail, Chance Cove Trail, Rockcut Spiller's Cove, and a small portion of the East Coast Trail. 

Near Bonavista we boondocked at the most epic campsite we've ever encountered. Our spot for the night was at the edge cliff on the ocean with small icebergs bobbing around and larger icebergs off-shore. It was cold, wet, and super foggy (as was often the case on this trip) and there were free ranging horses roaming around, some coming right up to the camper. In addition we had bought some lobsters from a fisherman earlier in the day and enjoyed a great lobster dinner in our camper at this amazing site.   

Towards the end of time in Newfoundland we stopped at Cape Spear new St. Johns. Cape Spear is the most eastern most point in North America and the day we were there it was particularly cold, windy, and rainy and it certainly felt it like the edge of the earth. 

In addition to buying lobster right off the boats a few times and cooking it ourselves (be sure to take a large pot with you!) we got Fish & Chips from local restaurants several times it was always delicious. The local take on fish & chips is usually Cod which is softer and fluffier than the Haddock we typically have in western New York state. We also checked out a cople of the local breweries, Dildo (made famous by Jimmy Kimmel), and Port Rexton which was a great stop after hiking the Skerwink Trail. 

Overall we had an amazing time and will definitely return for another trip sometime. It's a big place and while we are very happy with how much of it we saw, there's still a lot to check out. Newfoundland has been part of Canada since 1949, and the residents are very friendly, and are proud to be Canadians - but it's also still a bit like it's it own country. We found it pretty amazing that a place this special was someplace that we could drive to - along with a ferry ride. Originally we had been thinking about a trip to Nova Scotia and some "well travelled" vintage camper friends from the Tin Can Tourists club told us flat-out, "go to Newfoundland" you won't be disappointed.  They were right, a good reminder to spend some time hanging out with other like minded travelers!   

There's some photo's from this trip in my Instagram feed here @dwsdws12

Maine Trip with vintage Avion truck camper

 

In the early fall we took the Avion to Maine for a few weeks to see some color and check out a bunch of places we've been wanting to see. We spent time on the coast as well as a bit of time in the woods, camping at 8 different locations that included campgrounds, boondocking, and some moochdocking. Our route took us to north to the Canadian border near Calais and we drove most of Route 1 along the coast between there and Portland. Some of the highlights included a stop at West Quoddy Head, the eastern most point in the US. Buying lobsters right off the boat a couple of times, and one time cooking them at campsite in a torrential downpour - our new awning is working great and proved it's worth that night! Checking out the giant Trolls at the Coastal Botanical Gardens in Boothbay Harbor - definitely worth seeing! Stopping at a lot of beaches to check out the rocks, including some that sing!  And camping on some public lands along a river and finding fresh moose tracks within a few hundred yards of our campsite - unfortunately no moose sighting though. Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor were much too busy for us largely due to a pair of cruise ships who's passengers were overwhelming the small town, especially after being in the woods. The first part of the trip was a little early to see much for fall color, but on our last few days the leaf peeping was great!  We also had two chance encounters with other vintage rigs during this trip.  At a campground near Boothbay we ended up on a site next to a 1964 Avion trailer named the Red Zeppelin, it was great to meet it's owners and very cool to see. We also ran in a nice couple with amazing looking mirror polished vintage Streamline at Jasper Beach, this trailer was similar to one we saw at Sampson a few weeks before but a shorter model.  Just before the trip I installed a new system that allows us to charge the campers house battery off the alternator while driving, it worked really well for a trip like this where we drive some at least every few days. All in all this was a great tip and also proved out the reliability of some new things that we recently completed on the Avion during our longest trip so far, driving 2,200 miles. 

TCT 2022 Northeast Regional Rally

 

Somehow this year we managed to get to three Tin Can Tourists events, our 3rd being the annual Northeast Regional Rally at Sampson State Park in New York's finger lakes region.  We've been attending this rally fairly consistently for about 15 years and enjoy catching up with a many vintage camper friends that we have made over the years. This years event was back to a full rally and had more attendees than ever.  Some of the first-time rigs at this event included a 1967 Travel Queen truck camper, a 1940's Higgins tent trailer, a 1966 Streamline trailer, and a super nice early 60's Shasta Airflyte that was being towed by a heavily modified vintage Cadillac.  One of our good friends was also there with an amazing new entirely homebuilt trailer based on a Metzendorf, but unfortunately I didn't get good photos of it.  I'm sure that I'm repeating myself from other posts, but these events are amazing!  

TCT Toy Town Rally

In August we helped host a small vintage camper event - the first ever TCT Toy Town Rally which was held in East Aurora, NY.  This rally had 23 campers that were manufactured over a period of 101 years, ranging from 1921 to 2022. The types of campers varied greatly including a wide variety of trailers, early tent trailers, several buses, a 2020 home-built trailer, and even a 1965 International Scout with a roof-top tent. The small size of the event helped foster a lot of sharing of camping stories and vintage camper know-how which was especially great for 10 attendees who were new Tin Can Tourists members. This was our first time helping to host an event like this and we are happy to say that it went well - largely due to the efforts of two other couples that co-hosted with us. We look forward to being able to do this again and and are thankful to the TCT organization for bringing us all together.