BY IRENE RAWLINGS
The golden age of trailer travel, from the 1930s to the 1960s, was a time when Americans found it easier than ever to get away from it all while taking all the comforts of home with them. A new type of vacation was born that combined the adventure and economy of camping without requiring that anyone really “rough it.”
During the next four decades, however, people traveled almost exclusively by plane, overflying the national parks and roadside attractions that were a part of their childhood memories. At the same time, motor campers for those who were driving became more utilitarian but less interesting as wood and aluminum gave way to molded plastic and vinyl.
Now, Sisters on the Fly — the grown-up little girls who climbed way back when into the backs of those station wagons pulling the family’s Airstream on a cross-country adventure — are rescuing the vintage travel trailers from fields, ranches and farms. They are finding these relics through want ads, in junkyards and on the Internet. They are restoring their finds to their original glory and creating comfortable spaces in which to make new travel memories.
Back to the beginning
The group was started in 1999 by Maurrie Sussman and Becky Clarke, two real-life sisters. It soon grew to a dozen women who met in Colorado, Wyoming and Montana for fly fishing. That dozen has grown to nearly 3,000 women, each with a vintage trailer and a story about the trailer’s history.
The women range in age from 21 to 92. They are a diverse group — nurses, bookkeepers, kindergarten teachers, civil engineers, federal judges, bakers, pet sitters, artists, school bus drivers, small-business owners, housewives and mothers — from all parts of the United States and Canada (and there are even two dozen Sisters as far away as Australia).
“Self-sufficient women from every walk of life” is how Kris Woody (Sister #30), a retired airline attendant, describes the Sisters. “Sometimes they start out that way, but more often they become self-sufficient after being Sisters for a while.”
But not all of the Sisters are into fishing. Some simply enjoy buying old trailers — sometimes two or three — fixing them up, caravanning to a beautiful spot and camping under the stars with “a great bunch of women who are not afraid to get out and do things,” says Joyce Ufford (Sister #570).
Sisters on the Fly members camp in groups of 10 or more on the Oregon coast, in the Smoky Mountains, on the great Midwestern plains, in the Ozarks, in the Shenandoah Valley, in Texas Hill Country, on Tybee Island and in the mountains of Colorado. They drive the two-lane back roads in a cowgirl caravan, and when they stop in the little towns everyone comes out to look at their whimsically decorated trailers.
“There are nearly 200 Sisters on the Fly in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Nebraska and North and South Dakota — with the greatest number being from Colorado,” says Diane Smith (Sister #16), the proud owner of two vintage trailers. She lives in Fort Collins and is the “wrangler” for this seven-state region.
“That means I get to welcome new Sisters and organize many of the activities in the Colorado area,” she says. (Sister adventures all across the country are listed and described on the website sistersonthefly.com.) A favorite trip is the Junk Jaunt (September 28-30, 2012, junkjaunt.com). The Sisters caravan across Colorado to North Platte, Nebraska, and then shop 300 continuous miles of flea markets, tag sales, school bake sales and church bazaars. They travel country roads and wander through 35 small towns with old-fashioned names like Alda, Cairo, Elyria and Hazard. They stay in local campgrounds or, with permission, in meadows and fields. They are invited to farm lunches and church suppers, and end up sharing recipes with newly made friends. And, of course, each Sister will also have found the perfect vintage accessories to show off in her trailer.
Treks with trailers
Another favorite is the annual Rocky Mountain Hi (August 16-19, 2012) held in the historic ranching town of Steamboat Springs. Laine Perry O’Neal (Sister #1209), who lives part time in “the Boat,” has planned this event at the Steamboat Campground. It is a pastoral camping area (sometimes the neighbor’s black cows come to visit) right on the Yampa River.
“We have 80 trailers and more than 100 Sisters com-a trailer tour — like a home tour, except with trailers — open to the public with all the money going to Casting for Recovery, a national breast cancer support group. One group of Sisters recently raised $3,000, which, at $15 a pop, is a pretty impressive home tour by anyone’s reckoning.
The trailers are from the 1950s and 1960s, range from 12 to 16 feet in length and contain between 100 and 150 square feet of interior space. Models include the popular Shasta, Scotsman, Aloha, Airstream, Scotty, Holiday, Aljo and Empire.
If this sounds interesting (and who wouldn’t want to have her own life-sized dollhouse to decorate and take on the road) but you’d like to try it out first, you can try it out at Starlite Classic Campground (starliteclassiccampground.com), on Highway 50 just outside Cañon City.
Silvia Davids (Sister #2414) and her partner, Larry Hill (formerly of Retro Restoration), have vintage trailers for rent — like motel rooms only much nicer. They are from the 1950s to 1970s and Sylvia has decorated them appropriately to their era. Some are small and cozy (11 feet) but they range up to 40 feet. Think Lucy and Desi in their 1950s movie “The Long, Long Trailer.”
If you’d like to see what it’s like to be a Sister, you are welcome to attend an event. Look at the Sisters on the Fly website and contact the organizer of the event by email. Becoming a Sister is not difficult. You don’t have to fish and you don’t have to ride horses.
You should have a trailer but that, too, isn’t always necessary as most of the Sisters are willing to share. But you can be sure that before long you’ll really want to have your own little portable playhouse. So what does it take to be a Sister? Just one thing: You must want to have a Sister and want to be a Sister to some of the most independent, freedom-loving, warm-hearted and generous women in the world.
The Sisters’ motto is We Have More Fun Than Anyone. They also have a few basic rules: no husbands, no dogs, no kids (under 21) and be nice.
The husband rule is sometimes suspended (there are a few Sisters’ adventures they’re invited to attend) and sometimes dogs are allowed (when the girls are going horseback riding instead of fishing) but the golden rule —“be nice”— always holds true.
“We’re always doing for other people — kids, husbands, parents — and not spending much time on ourselves,” says Maurie (Sister #1), who looks at the Sister adventures as a temporary escape from her life as a wife, mother and animal rescuer. So when she says “be nice,” she also wants to remind you to be nice to yourself.
There are not many places where a woman can go to find that little girl who’s still inside of her, where she can be young again and act a little silly. There are not many people to whom she can say the things that she would never say to anyone … ever.
But for a few carefree days with Sisters on the Fly, these women get to be that little girl again. Sure, when they go home, they will turn back into judges, grandmothers, high school teachers and accountants, but for those few sunny days, life with a vintage trailer surrounded by friends is simple and good.