The Vintage Travel Trailers From China

Look what we rounded up in the process of putting away Christmas decor and gifts.

It's a veritable trailer park from a multitude of retail sources--Hobby Lobby and Amazon among them.

What they all have in common is a little tag somewhere that says MADE IN CHINA.

Which has to make a person wonder, even if only a little bit, about the process of turning the growing interest in vintage travel trailers into a mass-produced product--one that's likely meaningless to the Chinese workers turning them out to the specs of some importer somewhere.

No political shadings intended. Just an observation made while a whole bunch of the vintage travel trailers from China were all lined up.

Camping It Up For Christmas Decor

For the trailer-obsessed (this is all of us, right?), the holidays are more fun than ever because we get a whole new reason to play with our trailer replicas.

Cookie jars, birdhouses, salt and pepper sets, favorite books, camping-theme ornaments...they all work just perfectly to put some whimsy into your holiday vignettes.

We love the tabletop easels that let you display a book, either closed or opened to a colorful spread. (This book, 'MaryJane's Outpost,' is by our friend MaryJane Butters and includes a number of photos taken at Girl Camp, plus a section on the 1929 camping trip taken by Girl Camping Girl's grandmother.)

You can even hang an ornament from the top of the easel, for that neat little trick of 'accessorizing the accessories.'

Anything you create on a tabletop will look even better with a little candlelight--this little rig gleams from a tealight in a holder that looks like a tiny crystal firepit.

As you pull out your regular Christmas items, like this ceramic cabin that lights up, your tiny trailers will inspire some new ideas. (This salt and pepper set has just-right dimensions for being parked in front of the cabin.)

You also could do an entire large tree in a Girl Camping theme. We're gonna give that a try this year and see how it turns out.

Maybe with a pink flamingo on top!

This 'n' That From Our Latest Road Trip

Your pal Girl Camping Girl has been away from home the last several days, doing the Idaho-to-North-Dakota drive to visit family.

This, of course, involves crossing Montana, and there are certain places where we MUST stop--the bakery at Wheat, Montana, being one of them.

It takes all day to drive the breadth of Montana, but since it's one of the best states ever for roadside trailer-trolling, we have no trouble passing the time. Old trailers are EVERYWHERE in the Big Sky State, tucked into alleys, pastures, and backyards easily visible from the freeway. Probably a good thing that we hitched a ride in a vehicle that's not set up for towing, or we'd still be haggling with some hapless trailer owner or another, between Missoula and Miles City.

Montana serves as the seasonal home for one of our favorite queens of the vintage trailer phenomenon--none other than Miss Debra Bolnik, owner of Montana Camps and Cabins. Located near Bozeman, this enterprise finds, repairs, and restores vintage travel trailers. If we'd had to means to snap up an old trailer while on this trip, we could have dropped it off with Debra's crew for a re-do.

Here is Debra at the steps of Annie Lee Rose, her most amazingly restored Kencraft. This photo is from one of our 2010 road trips.

We can't make mention of any Montana road trip without showing you the 'Woodstock Or Bust' rig that we spied a couple of years ago just outside of Glendive. Love that vintage bus!

Eventually, we made it to North Dakota, where our first stop was the Hobby Lobby store in Bismarck. Had to snap up one of the vintage trailer Christmas cookie jars in this year's lineup of holiday items!

From Bismarck, we went a few hours north--almost to Canada--for a little time at Mom's house. Had to make sure she has next year's dates for Girl Camp on her calendar, as she hasn't missed Camp yet! Here's her little house on the northern prairie.

Now, we are waiting for the sun to come up for a day of playtime with One and Only Grandson.

'What's that, Grandma? Did you say we can go CAMPING?? I'll bring the cookies!'