Finally, the episode of This Old Camper I’ve been looking forward to since I started on the remodel of the 1966 Aristocrat Lo-Liner my parents bequeathed us a few years back. The episode where the camper is moved from the spot in our yard that it was backed into 5 years ago, when we brought the little rascal home to whip it into camping shape.

I whip slow, but every episode has been a process of learning processes that only seemed to lead to yet another process of processes. Now the time is drawing near, the time to make a reservation at a campground, drag the comforts of home out to the woods, and hob knob with campground folk.

Our sixteen-year-old son’s suspicion of our fun family camping intent has heightened since noticing the camper’s ceremonious move from the backyard to the driveway. I fielded his first question, “Does that thing have an air conditioner?” by pointing out that it had seven windows that are all in perfect working condition, and that the air does change condition from being outside the camper air to inside the camper air when it passes through them. So yes, there is “air conditioning”.

When he asked, “Where do you plan on taking it?” he seemed to put a lot of emphasis on “you”, but, like any good dad, I’m quite adept at ignoring noise from my children that doesn’t fit into the family fun scheme. It’s for his own good. Maybe for the first outing I’ll leave the camper hooked up to the pick-up at the campground, then if he decides to make a break for the comforts of his electronics riddled room in the middle of the night at least we won’t have to call a cab.

This travel trailer has done a lot of traveling over the past 50 years. It began its journey in California, where it was manufactured by the I.B. Perch Company. They sold five different models, and ours, the Lo-Liner, was called such, because it came with a set of small wheels that you could put on the camper so it would fit in your garage. “Stores in your garage as an extra bedroom for guests, a quiet place to study for the student, a playroom for the children, or a comfortable office for the salesman.” Handy-dandy indeed.

Sadly the lo-liner wheels have disappeared over the past 50 years, but we have used it as a guest room from time-to-time, our daughter spent the better part of a summer sacked out in it as apparent preparation for her separation from the main house when she went to college, and I’ve used it as a man cave when man stuff needed to be pondered.

All of the owner registrations for the camper, since it was rolled off the lot, are in a drawer in the camper. A couple in California were the first owners in 1966, it made a jump to Powers Lake, ND in the 70s, then to Minnesota, back to North Dakota in the 90s, and now South Dakota. It’s been around, but it’s been well taken care of by all that have owned it, and we are quite pleased to have been next in line for the Lo-Liner.

I’ll keep you posted on the “Goin' Campin'” episode of This Old Camper. Tis' the season.