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| Owner:
Dennis Jennings 1057 R26 |
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| This
AVION has been in the same family since it was new. Dennis
believes that it is the 28th AVION ever built. He has all
of the original paperwork some of which is shown below. |
I
have included photos of our 1957 R-26 #528. My wife's
father (Gerald) and grandfather (George) bought it
in late 1956 but I don't know when they took delivery.
they owned the trailer park (now a mobile home park
owned by my brother-in-law). My father in law said
this was the 28th one built. #500 was a demo taken
around to shows where they saw it and decided to buy
one.
My wife's grandfather lived in the it as park manager
during the summer. In the winter he went south. He
traveled all over the southern US, Mexico and parts
of Central America with it. You can see he attended
a number of Avion TravelCades in the 1960's. As he
got older his grandson, who worked construction in
the summer, would pull the trailer for him. I think
the title is dated 1973 because it was not titled
prior to then since Michigan didn't require one.
In the mid 1970's my father in-law upgraded it as
he was taking it 'out west' for a summer vacation.
That might be why he got an official title since we
usually used any trailer plate we had. For a brief
period of time (like 3 months) a technique called
antiquing was in style so the cabinets were antiqued.
I still think about stripping them and returning them
to original. This was the last big trip the Avion
took. They pulled it through western Canada as far
as Calgary (for the stampede). They came back through
the northern US visiting the national parks on the
way back. I would guess that up to this time the Avion
had traveled hundreds of thousands of miles. My wife's
sister and husband used it in the 1970's for camping
in northern Michigan, mostly at Wilderness State Park
on the shores of Lake Michigan. When they bought a
sailboat they switched to tent camping and I could
use it.
My wife (Nancy) and I started using it in 1981 or
1982 and have been dragging back to Wilderness every
July since, except for 1995 when we took the children
out west for vacation. Right now it is waiting for
our trip this summer. It still has the original stove
and fridge (made in Germany). Both have worked every
summer but I pray before I light the fridge each year.
I have had to replace the floor in the front and have
added a booth for eating and sleeping. I have rigged
a portable AC unit, venting out the bath window, since
I wasn't sure if the Avion would carry a roof AC unit.
I haven't had to use it much the last two summers.
I found the Yahoo Avion Camping Forum last year and
am member dkjen2530. Nancy wants me to shine the Avion
up like an airstream and I just may try it this spring.
The folks at Wilderness we see every year may not
recognize us though. I pull it with a 1994 GMC Suburban,
the pretty blue one in the pictures. Last year Nancy
painted the 50 years on the road on the spare tire
cover. This year I suppose she will have to add OVER.
I added the screen to the awning last year, our second
attempt at screening in. The storms off Lake Michigan
have not been kind to our awnings. |
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