The weekend of February 16, 2008 our Antique Car Club drove about 50 miles in our Pre WWII cars to the Pioneer Automobile Campers, TIN CAN TOURIST 88th Annual gathering at the Manatee Lake State Park just east of Bradenton Florida. They began in Tampa Florida in 1919 and are still having fun with their trailers. Having seen the
segment on Travel TV about the Tin Can Tourists, we were anxious to go see them all.
They had about 40 antique trailers and RV's on display open to for inspection. What a treat!! Some were carefully restored and others were just preserved. Yes there were 3 Airstream Land Yachts in attendance. I learned that Airstream has quit the Motor Home production to concentrate
on trailers, so I guess we have another collectible.
There were many Airstream trailers in the 30 to 50 year old age bracket. Some of the Airstream Bambi 17' units shined like mirrors while other enjoyed the petina of age. There were many marques that didn't survive, like Airfloat, Mobilflex, a Mini-Winnie
on a VW bus, Mullins, Scotty, GMC, Spartan, etc..
Some of the older units (form the 30's & 40's) didn't have indoor plumbing, but they had what was considered essential to enjoy travel of their time.
Check out their Website at
Tin Can Tourists
I was invited to attend their show after submitting a 1937 Travelog of my Grandparents showing the country to my mother with a 17' Travelo Trailer when she was 20years old (now 91). I had re-typed the story and added photo's from the family album. It's a fun story to read, that's also posted on their website.
There was even an unrestored but towable and in process of a total restoration traler like Grandpa's Travelo at the Tin Can Touirst's Show.
Are our Land Yachts really collectible yet?
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