I discovered a fun group of vintage trailer/RV fans a few days ago.
A colleague posted a notice on Facebook announcing the first ever vintage trailer show and shine in the village of Warkworth, Ontario. Seeing the photos of the charming retro trailers decorated in coordinated vintage colours and themes, made me eager to check the event out.
In 35 degree Celsius (95F) heat and high humidity, I spent the day on Warkworth’s main street chatting with the ladies who owned these trailers and gleaning many ideas for the future restoration of our 1975 Dodge Travco.
One idea I’m definitely looking into is downsizing my kitchen appliances. One of the trailer owners had taken out the oven/stove combo and replaced it with a half-size Dometic refrigerator with a microwave over top where a cupboard often is located. It makes a lot of sense to me, as I can’t think of any time I need a full size oven while camping. I do like the convenience of a gas cook top, especially when boondocking, but with the generator in the Travco I could make do with an electric frying pan or griddle.
The show and shine was organized by Raquilda van Zoeren. She is the owner of The Village Pantry kitchen shop in Warkworth. She is also a member of a very interesting and fun camping group called Girl Camp Canada.
Girl Camp Canada is for Canadian Women who enjoy the hunt for that perfect vintage camper-trailer. The GCC girl decides what Vintage is, and has the freedom to fix it up just the way they want. The group of Canadian Women is one of fun, friendship and being able to enjoy the safety and fun of vintage-trailer camping together, with or without the family tagging along.
The group organizes camping weekends across Canada. They recently held an event in Nova Scotia. Raquilda hopes to make the Warkworth show an annual event with more and more vintage trailers each year.
The event was fun and very valuable information and contacts-wise for me, but a bit depressing too. It makes me miss camping this year even more. Must get that Travco on the road!
I’ve added a few photos of the work these ladies have done on their vintage trailers. Enjoy.
totally travco travellers 
Pingback: Canadian girls love their retro RVs | Joanne Fralick's Words
this was so great thank you 🙂
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Happy to do it. We hope to do more with Girls Camp Canada and hopefully have our RV ready for next year’s show and shine in Warkworth.
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Nice article! As a member of the online group “Girl Camp Canada” myself…I feel the need to mention that many of those little trailers/rv’s at the Warkworth event should be referred to as “vintage” rather than “retro” rv’s. Retro generally refers to something imitative of the past. And by golly…most of those little cuties are the “real thing” as some are at least 50 years old qualifying them as true vintage gems. Way to go “Girl Camp Canada” gals!
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I agree, they are awesome trailers and so well restored! Thanks for the information on correct verbiage. I’m new to this and any help is appreciated.
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What a wonderful article you wrote in this blog! Joanne I hope you can come to the upcoming Halloween Haunt Vintage Trailer Event that is being organized by Raquilda and the GCC girls for main street Warkworth! Cheers, Karrot
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Not sure our RV will be roadworthy by October 31 but we definitely want to be involved! Thanks for your kind words of encouragement.
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Karrot Craig
I am trying to contact you about a vintage trailer for sale.
A friend in Cananda sent me a text this morning. It looks like a small Bailey. I can’t find any details on line though. This is what she sent :
http://www.kijiji.ca/v-view-details and your name. My search engine won’t take me there???
My email is lpeterbok@sbcglobal.net
My name is linda and I live in Chicago area. I would be so happy if you could contact me with information on how to see this camper. Thank you!
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I’ve passed this on to Karrot for you.
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