Trailer Boat, could be prototype of a 570 model.

Sue and I spent a week in California (a flying vacation) a week ago. With our new-found sensitivity to the shape of a teardrop we looked in vain for a TD siting while driving from SF to LA and back. No luck at all.

Then, while we were in Yountville CA for a dining adventure we saw this prototype of a 570 model Camp Inn at a classic car show held on Father's day each year.



(There are a few more images in the Image Gallery.)

Seriously, the Camp Inn lore is that at one point Cary tossed a magazine across a desk to Craig while they were both thinking about travel trailers and the magazine was open to a picture of an early teardrop trailer. The rest is history. But think about how history could have been different if Cary had tossed a picture of this beauty across to Craig. We would all be looking at the Camp Inn online store for fancy new oars.

 

That is a true story & I still have the magazine.

Don't mean to burst your bubble, but if that were the picture in the magazine, Camp-Inn might never have started. Craig was looking to build a camper for our 3 week tour of Route 66 with our kids. When he showed me the magazine, my response was "No way! You would never get me in one of those!" When he asked me why, I gave him several reasons, most of which had to do with my slight claustrophobia - i.e. needs to be 5 feet wide (no one was building them that size back then), have 2 doors (none of them were being built with 2 doors) and have LOTS of windows (a sunroof & front windows were non existent). Also, as I am short, I didn't like the hatch coming all the way down to the bottom of the trailer & having to lean in to reach the counters (like most of the original tears did)...Craig countered all of these reasons with "We could change that..." and thus the first Camp-Inn was born.

I never saw the teardrop until Craig brought it home 30 minutes before we were scheduled to leave for our 3 week trip. We packed it pronto & were off. How did I like it? Well,three weeks later, as we pulled into our driveway, I said to him "You know, I wish we could just keep going..."

And the rest is history...

Trailorboat campers are scarce and ones that still have the boat with them are even more scarce. The one in your picture shows up at a lot of teardrop gatherings. They are pretty neat.

About 5 years ago, Craig sketched out an idea for an amphibious motorhome...now that is an interesting concept!

 

$800,000 Amphibious RV:
http://terrawind.com/terrawind.htm

 

Betsy,
So the tear does have a woman's touch! I knew it had to have a little womanly inspiration when I saw the windows and the galley.

 

The one in the pictures is the $1.2 million model.

 

Pat,

"Inspiration" is a good way to put it, although to get me willing to use a teardrop, Craig might use different terminology ( "desperation" - "determination" - "challenging")

Actually, many of the innovations since #2 was built (the one we have now), have come from customer suggestions/requests.