Michelle has wanted a vintage trailer for a decade. We started receiving the Vintage Trailer Magazine (Rescue, Restore, Rally!) and drooling over the pictures of shiny Spartans, brilliantly painted canned hams and marveled at the people/outfits/decorations of the crowd hanging out together at vintage trailer rallys. This could be a fun crowd to hang out with now that the kids are out of the house.
We bought a 1964 Aladdin from Shannon’s sister in June of 2019 (and a new pickup truck to pull it) to see if we would like the experience. We pulled her around Washington, Oregon and Utah for three years while leaving it in Mazama over the winter to serve as an extra bedroom/office during the winter. She went to concerts at the Gorge, dropped off Jackson at college, and served as our home away from home at dozens of camp grounds. But, we never felt comfortable taking it to a rally – needed too much work! We had to make a decision on what to do with the Aladdin when we could see the road through the floor under the seats.
Michelle found Summer – a 1968 Frolic – on a vintage trailer classified ad and did the research. It had some work done already and was in good shape, had a bathroom/shower, original fixtures for the kitchen and two doors (very unique). We drove to San Jose and purchased the trailer and were hooked!
Originally Orange in color and decorated with hippy 60’s prints inside, Michelle set about to transform the trailer into her own. With lots of sewing help from our friend Sherri in Mazama and the work of Down River Trailers in Winlock Washington, she was transformed into a beautiful, comfortable and modern functioning trailer that we spent over 20 nights in during the summer of 2024.
Summer at Kim’s Fourth of July Hootenany in summer of 2024.
Summer of 2024 Travels
It was a packed summer with the trailer starting with a weekend trip with Tom Sciortino to Walla Walla for some wine tasting and celebration of Michelle’s birthday.
We then went on a 12 day road trip to Kim’s place for 4th of July, Diamond Lake in Oregon to hang with Michelle’s cousins/neices/nephews, Bend Oregon to stay and refresh with Greg and Jacquie for our anniversary, Spokane with Tom and then four nights in Montana camping up the Blackfoot river and going to the Jason Isbell show outside of Kalispell.
Vintage Trailer Rally’s
We attended our first two vintage trailer rally’s this summer. We were invited into the community by Jeremy and Rene from Down River Trailers (they also run the two we went to) and made some friends immediately. The first was Nile Valley Rally outside of Naches at the John Schrick Community Park. This was a small rally and the perfect way to experience the experience. The theme was Hatfields vs McCoys and we had a blast. About 50 trailers were there, we parked right along the river next to Fred and Tami (new trailer friends), got in some fishing/golfing and a LOT of fun.
Scott dressed up as part of the Hatfield’s at the Nile River Rally.
The big rally was up in Lynden, Washington the week after Labor Day. Almost 200 trailers attended and it was awesome! The theme was Mid-century Palm Springs so lots of flamingos, blow up pools, fun outfits. We met many more people and a lot of the same friends from the Nile River Rally. Barbara Fasser and three of her friends showed up to cruise the trailers and old cars. It was a LOT of eating and drinking and laughing.
What a fun summer with Summer! New places, new experiences, new friends.