Let it be known that Christmas 2016 was truly an Avion Christmas. Thanks to Amazon, Ebay and of course http://www.VintageCamperTrailers.com among other places I was able to find some awesome things for Kevin (and me).
The Personalized Tee: I made this custom T-shirt for Kevin. This will be great to wear at rallies!it was easy to create on VistaPrint.com. More about the license plate below.
Another great source for gifts for Vintage Camper lovers of all types and “flavors” is VintageCamperTrailers.com. I have found some great things there in gift ware but they also have one of the better selections of things you need for repairs (both interior and exterior) hardware, exterior finishes, windows, electrical, etc. etc. The folks there are super nice too and unknown to me Kevin had actually gotten me a fabulous $100 gift certificate to the site so i am really looking forward to shopping for me over the coming months.
For Christmas, Santa brought Kevin and I a selection of all the back issues of the Vintage Camper Trailers magazine, which is available on their site too. These, along with great logo T-shirts was what i ordered. No doubt, the magazines are going to provide tons of winter reading as we hunker down in our Southern Adirondack NY winter…
These magazine are of a very good quality with full color pages and terrific photography of exterior and interiors of a great variety of vintage trailers. My only wish is that someday someone does a bang up great story on an Avion. The magazine is a great resource for calendar listings of upcoming rallies and vintage camp outings and shows.
A Christmas could not be complete without a few ornaments….trailers of course! Kevin laughs that perhaps the toughest thing for me when we eventually downsize to the point we are moving onto our RV full-time is going to be what to do with all my Christmas decorations. Well, I can tell you I WILL find a place for my vintage trailer ornaments for sure!
Even our NY Department of Transportation got into the vintage camper game this Christmas….delivered was our custom license plate we had ordered for the Pewter Palace. We figured if we got this, that a lot of the initial questions folks might have about our rig will be clearly answered just by reading the license plate as we are tooling along US highways, byways and back roads enjoying ourselves. So check it out !
Rounding out our fun holiday gift giving was this wooden sign that I found locally. It is a perfect saying for a camper trailer, and we had been looking for something to put in the little empty space just above the bathroom door in the Pewter Palace. I am hoping it fits,I did forget to measure that space before we put her into hibernation, but my eye says it will be a perfect fit. Time will tell!
Last but certainly not least, Kevin found these tin “A’s” which are awesome and will look great as non-breakable decor in the trailer. I especially love the battery operated one with little lights. Both were at Hobby Lobby. Also I found on Ebay a fellow who has reproduced the Avion Travelcade large stickers that our rig has on it but they are very old and in not so great shape. Actually, the one on the front is not in too bad a condition but the one on the rear of the rig basically disintegrate when we gave the rig a bath this fall. So these are excellent quality and will really look bright, neat and great on her. The Avion Travelcade was the membership organization that originally was associated with Avion Owners. The “travelcaders” as the members were called planned rallies and gatherings all over the USA and had signature hats, vests and programs for members. It was a great network and the numbers on the front and back of our rig indicate the membership number of the trailer’s former owners then they belonged. Sadly, the association fell apart after the Fleetwood Company bought the Avion company from the Cayo family back in the 80’s and they started allowing any Fleetwood RV owners as members too…I suspect it just homogenized the rally experience so much that the comaraderie fizzled out. Hmmmm do I hear opportunty knocking?? VBG
So that is a bit about our wonderful Vintage Camper Christmas this year! Looking forward to an amazing new year !!