RV/MH Hall of Fame, Elkhart IN

On the second day we made our first sightseeing stop at the RV/MH Hall of Fame in Elkhart, Indiana. My father-in-law had given me a magazine clipping about this museum a few years ago when we were just getting started on our trailer and it's been someplace we've wanted to stop by ever since. If you're interested in old trailers this is the place. It's a lot like going to a vintage trailer rally, but it's a little odd that there are no owners with each trailer to tell all their stories. It was amazing to see some really old stuff built by Covered Wagon, Schult, and Spartan in person. There was one Shasta in the collection, a 1954 model that was pretty similar inside to our '63 considering that it's 9 years older. I've posted some more photos from the museum in a set from our trip on Flickr that I'll keep adding to as I get to it. If you are ever traveling through Elkhart the museum is a an easy stop, it's right off the interstate and worth making some time for!

Pokagon State Park, Indiana

For day 1 of the trip our focus was on getting some distance between us and home, however we won't ever cover as many miles as a lot of folks. I plotted the entire trip using google maps and spent a lot of time looking at paper maps for each state. My wife cashed in on our AAA membership and gave me a huge box of maps, tour books, and camp books covering every state we might touch during the trip. Over the course of several months I revised an itinerary that ended up with no single day's drive being over 6 and a half hours according to google and this put us just over the Ohio border into Indiana on the first night. The days travel went extremely well with only a half hour of torrential rain just before we got to the campground but no issues with the trailer. Pokagon State Park looked to be a pretty nice place, but in honesty we pretty much just slept and ate there. It was a rainy Sunday night and campground was empty, the tall trees in the wooded sites made the Shasta look pretty small. Three weeks later on the return trip we would discover that Pokagon is more popular than this first impression made it seem.

4,200 mile Road Trip!

We are now back from a very successful three week 4,200 mile road trip with our Shasta. Starting in Western New York we travelled through 12 states with longer stays in Colorado and South Dakota. We spent time visiting with family, took in 3 National Parks, saw several National Monuments, and made stops at a bunch of other interesting places along the way. We camped in 11 different campgrounds ranging from small to large and covering the entire gamut of styles. The trailer held up great with only a few minor issues with one cabinet door and the jack late in the trip. My plan is to try and post a little bit about some of the locations that we visited on the blog as I dig through our bazillion photos.

Dinette - new table

Dinette - new table
Originally uploaded by dwstucke

The new table is a little bigger so that it can support the foam cushions when set as a bed, but it's the same shape as the original. Seating works well without feeling too cramped because the foam cushions are a little bit shorter and softer than the original box-spring seats. No more dragging an extra piece of plywood around to set-up the front bed! After much looking decided to go with the VirrVarr formica pattern, I have enough to do the countertop and upper storage doors to match if we decide that it's right. VirrVarr was a best seller in the early 60's so while it doesn't have gold flecks like the original table it's from the right time period and looks like it belongs.

custom jack stands

custom jack stands
Originally uploaded by dwstucke

Tired of having the aluminum jack stands be about 3 inches too tall for most set-ups I finally just built some new bases out of plywood. I searched on eBay and other places for months but never found anything that would work as well as I hope these do.

Tin Can Tourists 2010 NE Regional Rally

I haven't posted for a while because all our campering time over the last few weeks was spent getting our Airflyte back together in time to attend the 2010 Tin Can Tourists NE Regional Rally. We made a lot of progress with everyone in the family pitching in, and all our efforts over the last couple of weeks (and years) really paid off as we came home with plaque that says "Best in Show" on it! A huge thank you goes out to everyone who voted for us!

This was our second year attending the Northeast Regional TCT rally and again it was held at Sampson State Park on Seneca Lake, the largest of New York state's Finger Lakes. This year there were 54 trailers and the variety of makes, condition, and renovation/restoration approaches seemed broader than last year. Another big thanks goes out to Bill Fletcher who does a really great job running this rally, if you're in the Northeast you should consider attending next year. When we first got our Shasta back on the road we were intimidated by the apparent seriousness of the TCT rallies, but I can assure you that if you show up with any kind of vintage trailer you will be welcome and folks will be interested in it. Two of my favorite trailers at the show had just enough work done during the last month or so to make the trip, I can't wait to see the progress on these ones next year! The open sharing of knowledge and experience at these events is just amazing. If you want to see some of the other trailers that were there I've posted a bunch of photos from the rally in a Flickr photo set here. (now fixed)

I also highly recommend attending smaller vintage trailer rallies. For us attending one of these small events gave us of the comfort factor that we needed before registering for the larger event. If you enjoy sitting at home reading about what others are doing with their vintage trailers just imagine how great it would be to sit around a campfire and talk about this stuff in person!

Always something more to polish..

The drawer pulls are now polished, some are pitted fairly badly but overall they look pretty nice. I noticed that there was a design patent number on the back of them so I looked it up, it includes the designers name, assignee (manufacturer), and notes that the ornamental design was protected for 14 years starting in 1958. As for what's next.. the plan is to shellac the last 1/3 of the interior tomorrow, then hopefully on Sunday to put the cabinet doors and drawers back in. At that point we'll be able to camp again and can focus on some smaller details and props as we prep for a vintage rally.