Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario Canada

Recently we took our vintage trailer out of the country for the first time, spending a week in Canada's Algonquin Provincial Park. While it was only about a 6 hour trip from home it provided for some new experiences. Crossing the border early in the morning worked out well and went smoothly. I tried not to laugh too loud when the customs agent asked if we were "bringing anything" with us into Canada, perhaps she hadn't noticed the Shasta behind and the four boats stacked on the roof of the car. But after a few basic questions we were on our way again. Once into Canada we made a planned stop to pick up a few groceries that the customs guidelines had noted as prohibited to bring across the border. During that stop we noticed that one if the car tires was really low on air and ended up at a truck stop where I found a compressor with a hose long enough to use without requiring us to drop the trailer. I've got a small 12volt air pump but it's on it last legs and needs to be replaced. The rest of the drive up was uneventful as we drove from the outskirts of Toronto into more rural county. Algonquin park has several campgrounds suitable for small trailers and many more paddle-in sites for canoe camping. We were really pleased with our site which was on the water and quite private.  So private that our hard to not notice trailer got almost no attention which was nice. While we really like attending trailer rallies and showing off the Shasta, it's also really nice just to be camping. We launched another new kayak that I had built in the previous months and spent a lot of time paddling. We also hiked a number of short interpretive trails, checked out the visitor center, and visited the logging museum. We saw a bunch of wildlife including a black bear, fox, great heron, beavers, and got one brief glimpse of a moose that was so far off it was hard to say that we actually saw it. One thing we found interesting was that the park draws both english and french speaking campers from Ontario and Quebec which gave it a unique feel compared to places that we typically camp. Overall we had a great time and hope to make it back from time to time. The trip home was mostly uneventful except for some traffic and a tight corner out of the customs checkpoint coming back in to the US. Since the trip I've been spending some time looking at the map again and hope to explore more of that new country that we just discovered to the north.

Camping Reservations!

Not much activity going on with our Shasta over the winter, however we have been busy planning a few trips. It's amazing how early you have to make reservations if you want a nice spot in the words these days! So far we have two week-long camping trips booked and I'm working on plans for a few weekend trips closer to home. Something new that I'm trying to do is to have a few extra weekend trips somewhat pre-planned that we could easily do on the spur of the moment if we can get away. The summer weekends fill up fast but hopefully we will spend a little more time camping next summer than last. If you haven't made any camping reservations for the coming summer you might think about making some plans soon!

Back to Watkin's Glen and the Finger Lakes

For the fourth year in a row we returned to Watkin's Glen, NY  for our last camping trip of the season.  Some years we've found our limit for cold temperatures, but this year we were treated to an amazing Columbus Day weekend. The weather was so nice it was hard to believe that the campground was closing for the season on the following day. Over time we've noticed that each year seems there seems to be a different crowd at this campground. We've camped with vintage race cars during the vintage weekend, a Scotty rally last year, and almost no one this same weekend when it was cold. This year there were a lot of loud guests at the campground. There was a large extended family spread across as many as eight sites, and a group of sports fans who drained their car batteries while various games blasted out their open tailgates. There was still plenty of quite time, and I'm sure we will be back. As usual our vintage trailer stood out as being pretty unique. As for other interesting campers there was a pair of Toyota mini  motorhomes, a super cool Airstream Basecamp that turned out to belong to one of the kids teachers from home, and we got glimpse of another vintage trailer leaving the park on our last day. While in Watkins Glen we hiked the gorge and stopped at couple of wineries along Seneca Lake while we enjoyed the Finger Lakes region that we used to call home. We also spent some time just taking it easy around the campsite, something that we often forget to make time for. Now back home, the Shasta is back in the garage and tucked away for the winter. We didn't make a lot of trips out this year but enjoyed the ease of just going camping now that the trailer is finished enough to just pack some food and clothes and go.

TCT NE Rally > other Shasta's, and one that was not

There were several other Shasta's at the 2011 NE Regional TCT Rally this year as well a one trailer that looked a lot like a Shasta but was not.

In addition to the green 1960 Airflyte that was Runner-up for Best in Show there was yellow 1958 Airflyte that was also similar to ours.  The '58 was interesting as it had a bunch of original details that were different than our '63. The only jalousie window was on the curb-side at the kitchen. The front window and the rear side windows were hinged at the top and swung out similar to our rear window.  The interior cabinets also had nice oversize rounded edges on the exposed corners similar to the what we saw on the '54 Shasta in that's in the RV/MH museum in Elkhart, IN.

There was also another trailer that looked like a Airflyte until you looked closer.  This blue and white trailer was actually a 1960 Nomad.  The overall shape and interior is really close to to our Shasta and the '58 mentioned above, but Nomad was a separate company in competition with them.  The shape is only only slightly different than our Airflyte but lots of other details are unique. Note the wheel well shape, the front side window construction, the drip-rail and corner moldering that is screwed in from the top/front panel instead of the side. The interior has the rounded edge derails like the earlier shasta's only it's taken even further and feels a bit more deluxe. Interior details are close, right down to the magazine rack that has a cut-out  N instead os the S. From what little I could find online it sounds like Nomad opened it's first plant in 1960 and this Shasta clone may have been their product. I found some evidence that they made a smaller Compact size model as well.  The owner of this Nomad is interested in more info so if anyone can any more info it would be appreciated.

There were at least three other Shasta's at the rally as well, a more modern 1967 Airflyte (this one), and and two different generations of the Shasta Compact. You can see all my photo's of just Shasta's on flickr by clicking here.

Tin Can Tourists 2011 NE Regional Rally

Once again this year we attended the Tin Can Tourists Northeast Regional Rally.  This TCT rally has become something that everyone in our family looks forward to each year. Over the last few years we've made a bunch of friends there, and we look forward spending time with them and to meeting new ones. We also really enjoy the mac & cheese and chili cook-off as well as the pork roast / pot-luck dinner.  And... oh yeah, there also happens to be an amazing ever-changing collection of vintage trailers there.  One thing we noticed this year is that there are a bunch of participants that seem to always show up with a different trailer, Traileritis runs strong with this crowd!  Best-in-Show this year went to a 1957 Deville shown in first photo above and or the 2nd year in a row runner-up went to a 1960 Shasta that looks a lot like our twin. Honorable mention went to a really cool 1965 Ford Travel Wagon with a pop-up roof.  One thing that I've been starting to take more notice of lately are vintage tow vehicles, I don't know if we'll ever make that leap but the pairings of car or truck and trailer are really amazing. Besides the two pick-ups in the photos above there was a cool hot rod, several muscle cars, and a Model A Ford towing a tiny Cox tent trailer. Another unique attendee at the rally this year was the 1930's Graton Trailer which you can read about in the summer 2011 edition of the TCT newsletter Tin Can Tales.  I've posted tons of photos in a flickr set here, you might also want to check out the TCT group on flickr as well. You can also read more about the rally at the TCT Campfire blog. If you're interested in vintage trailers make time to attend a vintage trailer rally sometime, you won't won't be disappointed.

a week in New York's Adirondack Park

We are back after spending a week at our favorite place to camp in New York's Adirondack Park. We were missing this area after skipping it last year because we used all of our vacation time on our big road trip. For this trip we stayed at Rollins Pond for 9 days and paddled our kayaks through several connected ponds right from our camp site. We had heavy rain for several days and nights that tested our ability to set awnings and tarps, but overall the weather was decent and we had a great time. While there we also climbed Mount Arab near the town of Tupper Lake, it's an easy climb to a fire tower with some amazing views for such a short hike. During this trip we also launched a new skin-on-frame style kayak that I've been building over the last few months.

12 volt system continued...

With the basic 12 volt system now working well I decided to go ahead and add a few more items tin order to take more advantage of of the expensive battery and power converter. I added a duplex cigarette lighter socket and a simple 120 volt inverter. With the addition of these two items we can now charge our various electronic gadgets and cameras as well as run a typical household fan when it hot. I had been shopping for a 12 volt fan and found that you could buy a low end inverter for less money and just use fans that we already had. The inverter can't handle large loads and can run the battery down pretty fast but it's already proven to be a really nice thing for only $25.- Also we are back from a trip camping without an electric hook-up and I am happy to report that the battery showed no sign of weakness at the end of the week.