By Clint Cox

​​In July of 2020, I transported a Spartan Carousel (10x50) through Tulsa, OK. Knowing that the Spartan factory had been razed a year (or two) earlier, I decided to leave the highway and pull the trailer onto the factory floor (located at the south end of the western runway at Tulsa International Airport). I figured I could take some pictures for the new owner of the Spartan I had in tow. I wasn’t there all of 10 minutes when a car pulled up on the pad, and a lady jumped out and was in awe of the trailer. She introduced herself as Tonya Blansett, the executive director of the Tulsa Air & Space Museum (TASM). She asked if I could bring the trailer to the museum, to which I happily agreed. I opened the trailer up so that all of TASM’s employees and volunteers could have a look. In exchange, I was given a quick tour of the museum hangar, which houses three Spartan airplanes, including the last one built, an Executive! An instant friendship was made, and upon departing, Tonya casually mentioned that they had a flat, open field next to the museum, in case we ever want to organize a rally.

​The idea of a rally stuck in my head. I had been involved with Spartan trailers for about eight years since purchasing my own 1959 Royal Manor. It dawned on me that 2021 would be the 75th Anniversary of trailer production’s beginnings. I became excited about the rally idea and spoke with a few trailer restorers. They all felt that a rally in Tulsa would be a great idea. A Facebook page was started to gauge interest and Chance Ty, one of the group members, was a graphic artist, so I asked him to design a rally poster. Early in the fall of 2020, I posted the rally poster and announced that there would be a rally a year from now.  Ryan Rice, another graphic artist in our group, who had just purchased a 1956 Executive Mansion, offered to help me with merch. We designed hats, T-shirts, bath towel sets, and a beautiful commemorative blanket depicting five popular Spartan trailer models from 1946 to 1959. Read the entire article in issue #59 of the Vintage Camper Trailers Magazine. Click "Read More" below for more photos.

In a personal history sort of way, the Trail Along to Pismo rally most likely began to formulate in June of 1963. We spent our honeymoon camping in an “umbrella” tent in Sequoia National Park for a week. In those days, most regular folks did not go far from home for their wedding celebrations like they do today. We continued camping in a tent until we purchased our first new truck and camper in 1967. We joined a camper group and belonged to it on and off for about 40 years (became secretary-publisher of the newsletter/flyer for a few years) and eventually had a couple of different sized motorhomes while we raised our four children. Members of the club took turns planning these just camping (and dune buggy) type rallies. We still belonged to the club until just after buying our first vintage trailer in 1999, and then — there was no going back.
 
We attended the Newport Dunes Rally a couple of years before I voluntarily assisted with publishing its newsletter and events for the wagonmaster, Craig Dorsey. The following year, when it appeared it would not be happening, I asked the wagonmaster if I could do it, and it was a yes. Altho’ it regularly had 100 vintage trailers, we could only obtain 75 sites at such late notice. The staff at Newport Dunes was very helpful.
 
We began attending small rallies mostly in northern California, a couple in southern California and Arizona enjoying and exploring the vintage trailer world with the old-timers and the newcomers. We kept seeing Bob and Cindy Ross at many of the rallies throughout this time. One day I received a call from Cindy Ross asking me to join her and Bob and one other in planning and organizing an unnamed event at Pismo Coast Village. Cindy found Pismo Coast Village Resort on the internet and felt it was an excellent location to bring northern and southern Californian trailerites together in one place. We were used to hosting many teams, birthday, school, work, graduation parties, and receptions in our backyard.  I replied with a yes since I often organized events at my place(s) of work before retirement. Even though Chuck Miltenberger was not listed as a wagonmaster, he was always present, supporting and assisting with all aspects of the rally.
 
Bob and Cindy were, and still are the canned ham specialists. It seemed everyone either owned a restored trailer or had one worked on by them. Their specialty at Pismo was the number of trailer folks they knew which was essential in getting the first word out on Pismo. They were and still are highly respected and popular amongst trailerites. Planning began in 2007, and it took 3 or 4 months to fill the spaces. Later on, it took less than 24 hours. We went by postmark as we accepted checks by snail mail. We also did not charge any registration fee. We decided it would be the party we gave. The waiting list grew longer every year. The most challenging part was putting names on a waiting list, recognizing how badly they wanted to join the Pismo experience, and we wanted to share it with them, too.
 
Little did we realize at the time how this rally would take on a life of its own and grow and grow and grow. Cindy and I were concerned and anxious if we would even be able to fill the 100 sites we had. We ended up adding sites and think we had 125 sites that year. The following year it grew to 160. Then I think we had a year of maybe 225 trailers. Pismo notified us that they were giving 300 of their 400 sites to us; we had this number of sites for at least the last two years of the event.

September 1-4, 2017
By Ben Stiles, Ed.D.
 
What do you get when you combine, a 1962 Corvair Greenbrier van camper, a 1964 Airstream, a 1966 Serro Scotty, 13 VW buses, a small smattering of tents, and a fun-loving group of people to fill them with camping memories? One great campout: Kampers near Knoebels XVII!

For the past 17 years, we have hosted Kampers near Knoebels at Indian Head Campground in Bloomsburg, PA over the long Labor Day weekend. In the early years, the campout focused exclusively on camper vans (and VW bus campers in particular). Camper van conversions by such well-known companies as Adventurewagon, Dormobile, Travel Equipment Corporation, Turtle Top, and of course Westfalia have graced the group camping area over the years. Due to the changing interests of the host family, the event has evolved over the years to include owners of vintage camper trailers manufactured by Airstream, Apache, Burro, Compact Jr., Eriba, Nimrod (tent trailers), Serro Scotty, and Sprite. Basically the love of camping in most anything small denotes the current theme of the event.

The annual event logos are created by event organizer Lynn Stiles, who has a graphic design background. Each logo is based on a different ride attraction at Knoebels Amusement Resort, but with a twist. Camper vans and vintage camper trailers are integrated into each ride design, thus infusing the theme of the campout. Amusement rides such as the Phoenix roller coaster, Italian swings, train, bumper cars, carousel, ribbit, pony carts, and many others have been the basis for event logos over the years.
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