1964 Avion Sportman Travel Trailer

My new trailer is older than I am. Here are pictures of her the day I bought her.

I began searching for the right trailer a few weeks ago. Reading all the different vintage trailer forums, some told me it might take years to find the right trailer. I though, "Sounds like procrastination to me." What is the point of waiting years to pursue a dream, when you can make the dream happen now? The trailer I eventually bought has some quirks to work out, but all things considered, she is quite lovely and perfect. She is 18 feet long, just right for scooting around towns and hauling across country roads. She has cushions and tables at window height, perfect for kitties to gaze at their own dreams.

She has a big water leak by the door. But I'm working on that.

I have named her Alice Avion. She has not been christened that name, no bottles of champagne were shattered on her beautiful bumper, but it seemed like the right name. When I was searching for what to call her, knowing she should have a name before my departure date of June 9, 2009, on a whim I googled "first woman to drive across the country." There, I found Alice Ramsey, a spunky 22-year-old who, with three friends, departed from Manhattan to San Francisco on a forty-one day adventure, June 9th, 1909. The coincidence was not lost on my Avion. No, Alice Ramsey's legend was already fifty-five years old when my trailer was born, but it seems equally marvelous for our journey together to take place on her forty-fifth birthday, and on the one-hundred year anniversary of that other woman's journey. (There is a remarkable woman performing a reenactment of Alice's journey, in the same kind of car and clothes, leaving Manhattan as I leave Indiana.)