RE: Interesting article on camping

[NCSunshine]

 
Found this while doing a search at college yesterday,  thought some of you might would find it interesting too.
 
 Title:    Collector of Vintage Recreational Vehicles Promotes Camping for
 RV Industry   
 Source:    Blade (The), Ohio, 05/14/2003   
 Author(s):    Julie M. McKinnon   
 AN:    2W63786140455   
 Database:    Newspaper Source   
 Collector of Vintage Recreational Vehicles Promotes Camping for RV
 Industry    
 
 
 
 May 14--Roughly two decades ago, Californian David Woodworth packed his
 family into a 1928 Ford Model A that he gradually restored and outfitted
 with a 1927 tent trailer picked up for $200 at a garage sale.
 
 They went all over the United States, the portable accommodations
 allowing the youth pastor to share a journey with his two daughters he
 couldn t have afforded if the cost of hotel rooms were involved.
 
 The experience helped get the self-described collector and history buff
 hooked on recreation vehicles, especially the first ones, made from
 around 1910 to those built in the 1930s. Now, he has 37 antique RVs and
 1,800 pieces of camping equipment and memorabilia, the largest known
 collection of its kind.
 
 And, for 13 years, he has spent a couple of months a year traveling the
 nation with new and antique models, stopping along the way to promote
 camping for the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association. Yesterday, he
 and his wife, Sheran, were at Maumee Bay State Park with a 2003 Itasca
 Horizon on loan from Winnebago Industries and a 1916 Telescoping RV from
 his collection.
 
 " RVs ... have been the best way to see the country,"  Mr. Woodworth said
 while lounging on the Itasca s couch, the aroma of an apple pie baking
 in the convection oven wafting through the $350,000 model.
 
 " It really doesn t matter what income range you re in,"  he said, noting
 that modern RVs range in price from $5,000 to $1 million.
 
 This year, the RV industry expects sales to rise again, in part because
 driving vacations are increasing in popularity and baby boomers are
 entering their prime RV-buying years. Production is expected to be up 2
 percent this year to 316,900, after increasing 21 percent last year from
 2001 s, according to the association.
 
 About half of the people who visit with Mr. Woodworth during his stops
 are interested in the modern RV and getting camping tips from him. The
 other half are interested in the antique version he tows along, which
 this year was the 1916 Telescoping RV that bolts to a Ford Model T and
 originally sold for $100.
 
 The two models do have some similarities, said Mr. Woodworth, who has a
 Tehachapi, Calif., company that offers Model T tours.
 
 The 32-foot Itasca, for example, has two slide-out room extenders that
 double the size of the living room and master bedroom. The Telescoping
 RV is made up of boxes for a dresser and pantry that, when slid out of
 the expanding back end, make room for a bed.
 
 The Itasca has a fully equipped bathroom and kitchen; nature and an
 engine-mounted stove provide those accommodations for users of the
 Telescoping RV. Still, the 1916 model he bought 10 years ago for $7,000
 was the top of the line in its day, Mr. Woodworth said.
 
 " People don t realize that camping was really huge in the teens and
  20s,"  he said.
 
 -----
 
 To see more of The Blade, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
 http://www.toledoblade.com
 
 (c) 2003, The Blade, Toledo, Ohio. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune
 Business News. WGO,
 

[sandykayak]

 NCSunshine
that WAS interesting....i love looking at the oldies....there more like camping IMO.

[tlhdoc]

 NCSunshine
Thanks for posting this, it is very interesting.  I would love to see the old RV s.

[griffsmom]

 NCSunshine
Cool story, altho I m not so sure how truly similar the Model T s slide out is to the Itasca s![]