Del Prado Vintage Trailer Mini Rally

The Pink Pearl and some of her crew

Wow, It's hard to believe it's been a couple of months since I last caught you up on the Pink Pearl and her adventures.  

In June we attended our first Vintage Trailer Rally at Del Prado regional park.  It was really great to meet the faces behind the names I have seen online for months.

A gorgeous owl that landed in a tree near us

I neglected to mention the wildlife we have seen on our adventures.  One of the perks of getting out into nature.  This is the second owl we've had fly over us and land in a tree.  It's really an amazing thing to experience.  Their noiseless flight catching you off guard as they swoop down and land beautifully.

eek a skunk (many many skunks)

I realize this photo looks like nothing, but the shining dots were eyes.

As all the skunks came out after dark it was interesting making our way around the campground.  They were everywhere!  Especially between us and the facilities.

We gladly learned so much from our fellow Vintage Trailer owners.  We were able to get many of our pressing questions answered, and some advice.  It was really a joy meeting fellow likeminded travelers.

 And the touring begins.
On Saturday we walked around visiting each others trailers and getting a tour.  It's amazing to see what others have done with theirs.  And how nice they are when fixed up.  Some are restored flawlessly to original condition.  Each has a personality of its own.  And a name to go with it.

Sadly I did not photograph every trailer that was present.  Including the beauty owned by a lovely young girl and her dogs who were next to us.  But here are a few shots of the lovely trailers I did manage to remember to photograph.  I also at this point cannot remember the years or makes of them which is a bummer, it's really cool to know the age of these beauties!

 

The interior of this one was gorgeous.  Redone by the lovely Gretchen
whom I enjoyed meeting immensely!

And her gnome who lights up at night. 

 

they just kept coming in

 

 

 

 

The lovely Chris and Cheryl Baas' Westerner
They organized this whole thing.  

One of the few I took an interior shot of.  The westerner.

The crew at the grub gathering

We ate with all the other Vintage Trailerites

 Saturday evening we joined the others for a delicious and varied potluck.  Everything was wonderful and the  company was great.  It was a good time to chat and get to know some of the others.

Larry even showed from cannedhamtrailers.com.  It was fun getting to check out his camping trailer. 

the now famous Larry's trailer
check him out at cannedhamtrailers.com

Here's one of his Youtubes on restoring a Vintage Trailer
He has an amazing and very informative website with many videos on how to restore these babies step by step.  

Later that evening one of the Canned ham dads hosted a movie projected on the side of his trailer for all the kids.  They really were a fun, and welcoming bunch!

and the sweet little toad I caught outside of the ladies room

Just another example of the beauty in nature that it's easy to forget is there.  Right at our fingertips.  

Hope you enjoyed this photo memoir of The Pearls first (Mini) Rally.  We can't wait to take in more in the future!

Shining Up The Pearl

This weekend was the final push for getting the butyl taping done before we once again need The Pearl to be seaworthy.  Fortunately it was a gorgeous day, and with many hands on deck we managed to get a lot accomplished.  

 First thing Erik did was set to work removing the other drip edge.  Thankfully this one was easy.  No black goo, or major work to be done on that side.  

 this is what it looks like under that drip edge.  The 60 year old butyl tape was not looking so good.  It had to all come off.

 so we scraped.....














                      and scraped...


                                                                         

 and scraped some more...  this was the drip edge itself being carefully scraped to remove it all. 


That all went smoothly and relatively quickly so I talked Erik into giving me a few window frames to start polishing up.

With her rear window removed I attempted to keep the junk out, but all the butyl tape scraping around the edges was messy.  Guess I should have taped off the window first...  I would say you live and learn, but I just jump into things no matter how many times I've learned the lessons...  Impatience wins every time...

this one's favorite job is swabbing the decks, and just about anything else she can reach.  Here she is polishing up Backstage.  We're not even started on Backstage yet...   

 Meanwhile Erik was replacing the tape on the side.  Here it is looking all fresh and new.

this is her front window.  I had hoped to get to it last weekend, but we ran out of time.   So we removed the eyebrow,  unscrewed about a thousand screws, and removed it.  More scraping and taping ensued. 

 I have no idea what this stuff was on the back window.  I attempted to scrape as much as I could off, but it was like asphalt or something, and some parts of it wouldn't budge.  

 One of the crew scrapes the actual window edges.

and at last the drip edge is done and replaced.  

 I neglected to take pictures of the difficult messy part of our day.  Partly because my fingers went numb and I thought my arms were going to fall off.  But here is the result of a heck of a lot of scrubbing those window parts with steel wool.  They had been previously painted silver instead of cleaned, so it took at least twice as long to get them to this state as it would have without the paint removal.  It wasn't til the end of the day when Erik came to help polish and commented that there must have been an easier way to deal with the paint....   

So we finished that up as best we could.  I was exhausted and he had no patience for sitting there scrubbing, so the front window did not get as shiny as these.

and the rear window, all shined up and with the screen fixed is put back in place with new tape around here as well.

he also managed to get to making some temporary replacement jalousies for one of the side windows which was missing a couple of them.  For now it'll do.

And finally, as evening approached, and most of the crew had mutinied and jumped ship the new front window went back in.  

On Sunday we tidied up a bit, and put all the gear from our last trip in their storage places. And it's amazing what a clear window can do for one's outlook.  At least a few of the crew rested in the sun in that window, one even took a nap.  

She's coming together nicely!  Next time I'll have to post pics of her cabin.  We've really got her in good shape and are looking forward to a beautiful, campy summer getting together with new Vintage Trailer friends.  Join us if you can.

Meet Backstage

Our weekend was spent driving.   We drove north to middle California to finally meet Jeff who had an offer we could not refuse, even if it took us half a year to get it together.   We just returned from our latest adventure, with our big announcement......  

and here it is.......

Meet..........................................................................................................................................................

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'Backstage'

Rose and Tippy showing us Backstage

 The latest addition to our family.  So this really nice guy Jeff contacted us last year about his Oasis, with a most generous offer.  He offered to bring us any parts we needed for the Pink Pearl.  It was a really generous offer, but when we realized that his Oasis was very similar to ours, and talked measurements and everything, we thought it would make more sense to go up to him and retrieve any parts as it was, shall we say, more than a few.


  Over the course of months my husband kept in touch with him, and finally, we were able to coordinate a trip up to his Mom's place to pick up 'Backstage'.   The plan now being to pick her up, take any parts we need for our Oasis, and then her long and useful life would pretty much be over.

This is Jeff, an all around great guy!  We learned all
about him from his Mom as well :)

We drove about 8 hours in anticipation of picking up the 'new Oasis' (we didn't know her name yet).  When we arrived at Jeff's Mom's home she invited us in and regaled us with wonderful stories of 'Backstage'. We learned that they called her this because she and her husband, David,  traveled all around the US and Canada in her doing their comedy act and later performing in other productions.  Rose, who holds the official title of "Mermaid Maker", sat at her table, and told us story after story of their adventures, and really their life in Backstage.

picture from sunbeamwindow.com

 Fascinating stories of a place called Camp Comfort where they spent some time.  Tales of travel, friendships, love and really a whole life lived in Backstage.   They told us how much of their early years together had been spent Backstage; and some really funny, interesting stories about their travels. The funniest one being the 'earthquake' they were jolted out of bed by while camping in the boondocks in Utah; only to wake up and find they were amidst a pack of wild horses and one of them was scratching his rear end on the jalousie windows, which were open.  I wish I had been there to see that!  Erik told her she should write a book, she had so many wonderful memories from so many interesting adventures.

It took us a bit to then get Backstage all hooked up and towable so I had the pleasure of standing outside enjoying the breeze, and getting to talk with David and Rose for a while longer.   David told me how Backstage was their love shack-  I think his exact words were "this is the most romantic place on earth, you'll see."  I still smile when I think about how sweet this couple is.  In the end we met Jeff's parents, his lovely wife, and his beautiful children.   Coincidentally they are also proud parents of a set of very cute twins!

It took us a full day to drive home with her.  All the way home we talked about what we'd do with her, about the wonderful friendly people we had just met, and really, really liked, and we laughed about the stories we had heard.  Erik and I are suckers for Romance. So on the way home we talked about how we are unsure now that we can just use Backstage like that, and not allow her to live on.  Remember my last post about age and wisdom, and beauty.  She had been such a huge part of this family's life and they had shared so many fond memories of her.  In fact just before we drove off we were saying our good-byes and David was standing at Backstage's front window peering in for one last time.  Ok, now I want to cry...

So as ridiculous as this may sound, we are now the proud owners of two Oasis trailers.  Both in our driveway.  Both needing some TLC.   And so the story begins....

Who's with me?

So I had so much fun camping this past weekend in the Pearl that I cannot stop thinking about all the potential.  When I first discovered Vintage trailers I thought this would be an excellent home away from home.  Or studio away from home.  This past weekend was a family thing, and we had much fun, but so much fun and responsibility that I had no time to do all the things I took with me to do.  No art, no crocheting, not even any serious reading was accomplished.  

It was pretty easy as far as setup and camping goes though.  I kept thinking I can see the appeal of a group like Sisters on the Fly, or the glamping group with the cute name, that I cannot seem to locate again.  But I don't fish, am not a cowgirl, and am not even sure I'd fit into the glamping category.  

See that's where you come in.  

First a few pictures...  

this is how I picture The Pearl when she is all done
except in Pink.  

such Cuteness!!!

these pictures were posted from http://www.tincantourists.com/-  this trailer is sold.  But here's another one


this ad says "roughing it, easy camping trailer for one"

Simply Adorable!!

And a porch swing!!!  What else do you need??

find the ad for it here.  

'66 Aristocrat Loliner 15.5 ft

Look at all the potential here!  It doesn't even look like it needs much

and the exterior

and it's in Burbank!  Close, close!  Find the ad for this one here

So, who's with me?? I'd so love to go camping, or glamping, or Gypsy caravaning, or Art caravaning, or really anything with someone...  Come on, you know you want to....  

btw there are ads everywhere, not just where I showed you.    Craigslist  has some, even Sisters on the Fly has ads.  Check em out!