Vintage Camping Trailer Open House - You're Invited

The third vintage camping trailer rally that Rick and I are hosting is happening this weekend. This year we have 27 rigs - mostly vintage - that are coming from Wisconsin and northern Illinois. We are excited that the number has nearly doubled from last year. Because many of you who read my blog may be interested in vintage trailers, we'd like to extend the following invitation to you: 

All of us would love to show  you what we've done with our vintage trailers. Spread the word. Invite your friends and anyone who is interested in this little slice of the past!

Birds & Bovines II - Vintage Camping Trailer Rally

Rick and I couldn't have asked for better weather than what we had the first weekend in June for our second annual "Birds & Bovines" vintage camping trailer rally. Fourteen other rigs and their owners were part of the weekend's festivities at Ledge Park near Horicon WI.

Our mascots - the Bird and the Bovine. Our name for the
rally is because Ledge Park overlooks the Horicon Marsh
(Birds) and it's June Dairy Month (Bovines).

Friday night we played "Trailer Trash Bingo" to get to know each other at the group cocktail hour. We now know who in the group goes winter camping or plays the piano or has been on television. At next year's rally, the test will be to see who remembers everyone's name!

Here's Rick with the "birds" and "bovines" at our site. He's even wearing a few!

The big hit of the rally was our Open House on Saturday afternoon. People who were camping in the park as well as others from the outside stopped by to see our trailers. Everyone has a story. Hearing those stories and seeing how lovingly restored those trailers are is so much fun. Vintage folks aren't the least bit competitive. Rather they're full of helpful tips on materials and techniques to use if you're restoring or rebuilding a vintage trailer.

Kay and Jim's Shasta. They're from Glenwood City and came the farthest.
It's always easy to spot a Shasta - it has wings.

The Shasta's interior with its vintage-color cushions.

Bill and Anna (from Freeport IL) have a Shasta that they've dubbed the "Cowboy Camper."
It's a work in progress. The "barbed wire" fooled us. It's actually plastic!

Great saddle on the outside. . . 

and cow print cushions on the inside. (The cushions came
from a trailer that Rick had. Bill and Anna purchased
just about all of it - in parts - from him.)

It's always fun to see the accessories that vintage trailer enthusiasts add. I've seen a number with ironing boards for a table on the outside. Makes sense. The right height and easy to fold up and store.

Tammy from Marengo IL has this cute Trailblazer. It was made in Spencer WI.

And now for another Trailblazer that was at the rally. . .

If the trailer has shutters, it's probably a Trailblazer. This one belongs to
Dave and Monica from Baraboo.

Dave did some of the best work on the inside that I've seen.

He even made the modern flat screen TV look vintage!

We were pleased that so many from Illinois were at our rally. Always good to show our neighbors to the south what great parks we have here in Wisconsin.

This is George and JoEllen's Avion - from Elgin IL. Most Avions usually have a matte metal finish.
George polished this one up so many people mistake it for an Airstream.  

Speaking of Airstreams, the iconic shiny silver bullet, we had two at the rally but these were of the painted variety. The Argosy brand was manufactured by Airstream only in the 1970s. 

Rick's Argosy is a "Minuet." I think the last two letters
should be reversed. The trailer is minute because it was
built for the European market and is extra narrow.

The other Argosy at the rally was a motorhome, built in 1976 and owned by Liz and Dave from Okauchee WI. 

This was our only motorhome at the rally.

LOTS of orange on the inside - and it's all original!

BJ from Johnsburg IL has been hosting spring and fall vintage trailer rallies that we've attended for a couple of years now.  The outside of her Trotwood had these great lights.

Not just one - but a string of ten. What a great garage sale find!

This Layton is owned by Jon and Veronica from Rio (Wisconsin, that is, not Brazil!)

Two doors - you don't see that too often.

And a few more. . .

Jay came from Waupaca WI with his trailer. He's here because of our friend, and his, Linda.

My apologies to Dave and Joan from Racine. I did not get a picture of their Avion. Although they were in another section of the park away from most of us, they were good sports to walk up and join the group for all the activities.

And I don't want to forget Rick's son, Jon, who was at the rally with his two boys. They stayed in Rick's Frolic. The boys are great campers. We love it when they are able to join us.

Even though we billed ours as a "vintage" rally, we don't discriminate as to age of the trailers, nor of their owners. Here are a few that are on their way to becoming vintage.

Jim & Vicki's A-frame is amazingly spacious. They were the closest from
Hustisford WI.

It'll take some time before Skeeter and Donna's rig is vintage.

Sherry from Jackson WI can pull her teardrop trailer with a bicycle!

Someone has a sense of humor!

A complete kitchen in the back. Now that's livin'.

One last trailer - this one designed by Tammi out of cream cheese and veggies! Definitely the best-tasting trailer at the rally.

We already have the dates for next year's "Birds & Bovines III." Mark your calendars for June 4-7, 2015. By popular demand, we're adding an optional Thursday evening to the rally - especially for those folk who have a longer distance to drive. 

Spring Has Arrived - Finally!

We didn't venture too far from home over the Memorial Day weekend this year. Astico Park (another lovely Dodge County park) is about 30 minutes from Madison near Columbus and about an hour away for Rick. This time we brought "Frolie," the '65 Frolic vintage camping trailer. 

Here we are among the big white boxes. But several people stopped by
because they wanted to see our little rig.

Our site was on the Crawfish River so we saw a number of canoers and kayakers paddle up and down the water over the weekend. And the weather couldn't have been more beautiful. Good thing the rain held off until AFTER we were gone. 

The view from our camp site across the Crawfish River.

Another view of the river. Very peaceful since the campers
near us didn't have children nor were they rowdy drunks.

This year Rick has added a new piece of equipment to our camping gear - a propane fireplace. It's really neat. No muss, no fuss! None of that smoke to make your eyes water or smell up your clothes. Did I mention - a breeze to light? Rick figures that a canister of propane is probably about the same cost as several bundles of firewood that we would have to buy at the park to burn for the same amount of fire. 

We were listening to a podcast of jazz while we enjoyed the fire on
Friday evening.

While the sunsets weren't as spectacular as we experience when we're at Ledge Park, another Dodge County favorite, the evening sky was still quite beautiful.

The river was smooth as glass.

The only disappointment of the weekend was that most of the antique and vintage shops in Columbus were not open for the weekend. But that really didn't matter since we spent most of our time at our site watching the world go by or reading a book from the Little Free Library.

Kudos to Dodge County for installing a Little Free Library.
There's one at Ledge Park, too. I'll be dropping off a few books
the next time we camp there.

This was our second time out so far this season. The weekend before we were in Marengo IL for a "Spring Fling" vintage rally. Even though there were only a few of us at that rally, the quality of the company made up for it. I even learned a new game - Mancala.

We camped in the Argosy when we were in Illinois. Rick is pulling it with
a conversion van he bought last fall. He says with the van he can hardly
tell he's towing the trailer 

Rick and I are looking forward to next weekend when we will be hosting our second "Birds & Bovines" vintage trailer rally at Ledge Park. If you are in that neck of the woods on Saturday, June 7, stop by between 3:00 - 5:00 p.m. for our Open House. In the meantime, happy camping!

Power (and state parks) for the People

The last week of July we wandered up to Peninsula State Park in Fish Creek. But first, a stop in Maribel on Friday and Saturday nights at Devils River Campground.

This mill was on the campground.  Sawmills of the past became grist
mills rather quickly. The lumbering industry in Wisconsin never lasted as long as promised.

The Point Beach nuclear power plant was close by so we decided to pay a visit to the Education Center. We were impressed with the quality of the "museum." Lots of hands-on activities, for both kids and big kids. And, I thought, a well-balanced exhibit that included information about other sources of energy - from coal to solar to wind. Plus we learned from the staff person at the desk  that nuclear power plants - at least the ones in the United States - would not blow up. We're not Chernobyl.

The model of the assembly that contains the nuclear
fuel rods reminded me of the Empire State Building.

All the greats in the field of electricity, including
Ben Franklin, were shown along with an explanation
of their contribution to the field. Ohm, Watt, Ampere
have been honored by having their names attached
to an electrical term.

We learned that the spent fuel rods at the plant are being stored
on site pending the outcome of the federal government establishing
a permanent storage site. Funding for the Yucca Mountain site
in Nevada has been terminated.

Our other visit in the Two Rivers area was to the Rawley Point Lighthouse. We met up with at least three photographers that were taking pictures on an overcast day.

We were glad we had our Wisconsin State Park sticker since the lighthouse is in a "fee" area - the Point Beach State Forest.
  
One attraction in Maribel - unfortunately off limits because it's on private property - is the Maribel Caves Hotel. All that remains today is the stone shell of what was purported to be a haunted hotel - at least in days gone by.

Our next stop was Door County and Peninsula State Park in Fish Creek where we met up with Rick's son, daughter-in-law, and the two grandsons. Peninsula is one of the most popular of our state's parks. Not very crowded on Sunday when we arrived - the rain probably caused people to cancel or leave early. But a little rain didn't bother us. In fact, listening to the rain on the roof of the trailer is most pleasant.

We've added two more lights (at either end of the awning) to our rig.
Rick says that we can never have too many lights!

We were lucky because the next day was one of the most beautiful summer days we've had in a long time. A perfect day for picking cherries and touring Washington Island. But first, breakfast at Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant in Sister Bay.

It was a mechanical goat up on the roof this morning to cut the grass.

Next stop - Falcon Orchard where we picked a few buckets of cherries. I was glad the proprietor didn't weigh me before and after we picked cherries to charge me for the all the cherries I ate without putting them in the bucket!

I was told that the best way to pit the cherries was with a paper clip. It worked. 

We ferried across Death's Door from Gills Rock and landed on Washington Island to sunshine and blue skies where we took a tram tour of the island. 

The Stavkirke (stav, or mast, church) was one of the stops on our tour.
Rick's son and daughter-in-law had seen these types of churches when
they were visiting Norway a few years ago. According to Kari,
there were no lights in the Norwegian churches; this one had a few fluorescents!

Our four days were capped off with breakfast at Pelletier's in Fish Creek on Tuesday morning. We couldn't resist the cherry stuffed French toast - a specialty of the restaurant.

Calories don't count when one is on vacation!

Next time we travel to Door County, we'll do a traditional fish boil. Maybe next summer.

Close to Home II

This past weekend, we once again were at our favorite camping site, Ledge Park in Dodge County. This time Rick pulled the camping trailer with a new old truck. Of course, the combination is not as stunning as the Chevy panel truck and trailer.

Rick says that he hardly knows he's pulling anything with
the "new" old truck - an '89 Ford.

Original cuties.

On Saturday we paid a visit to our friend, Amanda, who had moved to Knowles earlier this summer. She and her husband, Troy, have a lovely home in this unincorporated community north of Mayville.

Gotta love the sense of humor in this community.

Sadly we returned to Knowles a second time that day. Troy and Amanda’s dog, Juvie, had died unexpectedly within a few hours of our visit. He was a rambunctious yellow retriever, a well-trained bird dog. I imagine that he’s still retrieving ducks and geese – in a place where hunting season has no beginning nor end.  

Rest in peace, Juvie.

We discovered a new place for breakfast on this weekend – Cindy’s Café in Iron Ridge. As the town's name implies, iron was mined here from the mid-1800s through the 1930s. The iron was used for cast iron stoves and other “modern” conveniences.

Cindy's food and decor is delicious - especially the vintage dining set.

Earlier this year we met Joe and Susie, our friends and managers at Ledge Park, at the Audubon Inn in Mayville. We had a delicious dinner and drinks in this lovely boutique hotel, originally the Beaumont Hotel built in 1896 and now on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Beaumont Bar inside the Inn has a great selection of martinis and beautiful stained glass windows.

We’ll be missing Audubon Days in Mayville this October because we’ll be at a vintage camping trailer rally that weekend. However, we hope to get in one more weekend of camping at Ledge Park before the season end.