Check out this
Denver Post article about the recent Rocky Mtn VAC rally.
Here is the text from the Denver Post article in case the link expires:
Taking a shine to highway icon
By Jeffrey Leib
Denver Post Staff Writer
DenverPost.com
Colorado Springs - Scott Scheuermann still remembers the day about 18 years ago when his mother and father decided to get rid of the family's
1960 Airstream trailer.
Someone had offered them only $500 for it on a trade-in.
"I said, 'Don't let it go; I'll buy it from you,"' Scott recalled telling his parents.
Better still, they gave him the 26-foot aluminum-clad Overlander, originally owned by Scott's grandfather.
On Saturday, Scheuermann, his wife, Lise, and their two young children, from Berea, Ohio, were among 80 owners who gathered at the Garden of the Gods Campground for the Rocky Mountain rally of the vintage Airstream club.
Airstreams, first built in 1935, are more than any mere trailer or recreational vehicle, their loyal users say.
They're a slice of Americana, with one of the 20th century's most recognized exterior designs and interiors uniquely dressed up by owners with a near-fanatical attention to detail and tradition.
With their aeronautical sleekness, Airstreams have a "coolness factor" other trailers can't match, said Rob Davis, who, with his wife, Shari, bought a
1964 Globe Trotter about four years ago.
Davis, a Denver architect, and Shari, a designer, have done up the 19-foot Globe Trotter's interior in a '60s theme of teal and turquoise.
Herb and Sidra Spies of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., were showcasing their
1963 Globe Trotter, which they bought from the well-known aerobatic flier Patty Wagstaff several years ago.
The Spies haven't touched Wagstaff's Route 66 interior design theme. But it's the exterior of the Spies' Globe Trotter that really gets attention. The brilliant mirror finish on his trailer's aircraft-aluminum shell helped it win a best of show award at a recent international Airstream rally in Missouri - and helped him win the nickname "Shine King."
For Ron and Doris Keisler, of Granbury, Texas, Airstreams have become a family affair.
"I used to look for oil and gas," said Ron Keisler, an ex-Marathon Oil executive, sitting outside their 23-foot Safari, a 1971 Airstream model.
Now he's on safari for vintage Airstreams and has acquired at least five.
Parked on either side of him at the campground were a 31-foot 1975
Sovereign and a 22-foot
1956 Flying Cloud. Across the street was a shiny
1964 Bambi II, one of the compact models.
The Keislers' friends, John and Debbie Key, now own the
Sovereign, and Doris' sister, Bonnie Conkling, and her husband, Eddie, own the Flying Cloud.
Rhett, the Keisler's eldest son, soon will take possession of the Bambi II.
This whole extended Airstream family gathered Saturday for Doris' 60th birthday.
"Next year," said Bonnie Conk ling, "we'll celebrate the Flying Cloud's 50th."
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