Blog Post No. 201: A Few Thoughts from Girl Camping Girl

I can feel it…2016 is going to be an amazing Girl Camping year. A few thoughts on 'why the vibe.'



* Over the past dozen years or so, and especially in the last few, passion for vintage trailers and the VT culture has gone from obscure niche interest to full-blown social phenomenon.

* The hobby has become an industry, supporting a TV show ('Flippin' RVs'), a magazine in the U.S. and one in Australia, books,  rallies, social-media sites, repair and service businesses, and the re-introduction of vintage-trailer styling by the RV industry.

* VT iconography has been mainstreamed. You can buy a vintage-trailer birdhouse at Rite-Aid, VT-theme pajamas at Walmart, Target, Shopko and JC Penneys, VT fabrics at all major outlets, even flamingo cowboy boots with a vintage Shasta on the soles. If you want a way to flaunt your interest, the product range is there.

* VT interest is large enough now for many tribes to have formed, each with a specialty within the specialty. You can be into it for the restoration/rally award factor. You can join a camping club that admits women only, or one that only allows men. You can go co-ed if you'd rather. You can keep your camp trailer at home for the sole purpose of decorating it and sitting in it once in a while. You can become a vintage-trailer collect-o-holic. You can sign up for trailer-caravan trips and travel to cool places. You can trade your vintage trailer for a new one, or vice versa. Whatever clamps your hitch!

* Social media, Facebook in particular, have opened the hobby's doors like nothing else before them. Thanks to on-line photos and conversations, would-be campers and VT dreamers have a way to see into the hobby and learn from veterans before ever spending a dime. And let's face it: It's hard not to fall for the romance of a perfectly tricked-out vintage trailer. You see one in a picture, and before you know it, want one of your own. Then you go looking, then you find your trailer and your tribe, and then, well, here we are, both on this page together.

I said I'd keep Post No. 201 to a few thoughts, so I'll end here. There's much more to say, but I'll leave that open for you, in Comments!

More of the Fun from Girl Camp 2012

Girl Camp--it's both a place, and an annual weekend party for a group of bonded galpals who love to travel and camp together.

Girl Camp, the place, can fit in about 12 to 13 trailers--assuming Miss Patty is on hand to perform the valet parking task of squeezing them all in!

Once the gang arrived and set up for the weekend, the food and libations poured out of the trailers. (Girl Camp appears to be a non-diet zone.)

Check out these adorable cupcakes with tiny trailers on them!

The blow-up pool was a popular spot during the hot part of the day.

Some of the Girl Camp guests headed for the nearby reservoir, a beautiful body of water surrounded by towering firs.

Camp is really where it's at, though, because every guest had her own personal little world set up, expressing her creative side, and when placed side by side, they created a special place that no one really wanted to leave for very long.

As a distaff take on 'Man Cave'--the term used for shops, garages, and pole buildings used by guys--Girl Camp has the Girl Cave. It has a makeshift but very functional kitchen, vintage paint-by-number pictures on the walls, and a table and chairs for breakfast gatherings.

It even has an ironing board and an iron! This is Miss Mig, ironing letters onto her satin queen sash.

And here we have Miss Carolyn, dressed in vintage lingerie while sipping her morning java. At Girl Camp, there is no such thing as too much style.

The Girl Cave also serves as a place to do crafting. These faux gems and other baubles found their way onto the queen sashes created by the guests for Saturday night's Queens of the Trailer Park bash.

The back yard over at the Girl Camp Cabin was turned into a frothy, frilly Wonderland with yards and yards of white tulle, satin bows and pearls, fresh flowers, and hundreds of twinkling white lights.

Here is Miss Marie, making her grand entrance to the party zone.

Just how much fun did everyone have at Girl Camp 2012? The superlative to explain that may not yet have been invented!