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About Craig Dorsey

About Rallies

A Brief history of how it came to be

Hello and welcome to the Vintage Vacations Classic travel trailer website.
The idea for Vintage Vacations and this website was created in 1997 after I bought my first vintage trailer and wanted to find out anything that I could about these classic beauties.
After spending countless hours on the internet searching for any and all information that I could find on any type of pre-1950's travel trailers or campers with little to no luck, I decided to create a website that could serve as a home base and info site for the few fellow vintage trailerites that I had run into and became friends with along the way.
After months of frustration and trying to figure out the process for building a website, I was finally able to figure it out and was able
to load about 10 pages in the beginnig.

Once I had that part down, I started working on the design for a logo and a name for this new venture that would not only reflect the vintage past that I was so passionate about, but it needed to be something that could withstand the test of time and become an image the would be recognized as the icon image for what was about to happen with vintage trailers.

After searching through several vintage design, clipart and travel decal books, I was able to come up with a design that would work and had my wife Tamra use her graphic design skills and create the logo that is now recognized around the world as the first name in vintage travel restorations.

When I finally got the website loaded on the net, I thought that perhaps I might get about
5-10 visitors a month in the beginning. Much to my Surprise , I had 5 hits on the first day and was getting about 30 hits a day by the end of the first Month. After having the site up for about 9 months I realized that there was enough trailerites in the So Cal area that I was going to hold a rally. The following spring I held my first rally with 27 units in attendance and a visit from Trailer life magazine that ended up running a one page story on the event, and that is when it all started changing, My life that is ! What was a hobby was about to go into full blown obsession!

About this time I sold my second personal trailer, a fully restored 51 Spartanette to a good friend and bought several more to take it's place. Several more magazine articles were written about me and what I was doing with the preservation of trailers. Shortly after that I was contracted to restore a trailer for a couple. They wanted a quality restored trailer, but at that time no one was doing that for others. I told them that I would only be able to work on it on the weekend as I had to go to work.

Up until that point in time, I had spent the previous 10 years as an Art Director/Prop master in the film industry where I designed and built sets and wacky props for Television Commercials. With some 260 commercials and music videos under my belt, I was beginning to loose interest in that field and started looking more towards the trailers. One day during the time that I was doing my 2nd Client restoration in my driveway at home, I was working on a commercial shoot with a Director from hell that pushed me over the edge and I simply walked off the set and never looked back. 3 days later, I signed a lease on my first location. Within 1 month of that time everything took off for me, and I soon had 5 employees working with me to help get the huge amount of projects out the door that were lining up. A few months after that I got a chance to do my first TV spot for HGTV's Old Homes Restored and soon after had a big article in Los Angeles Magazine.

After about 1 year I outgrew that location and moved to a much larger location in Anaheim Ca where I am to this day. Bigger and better jobs starting coming my way as well as a lot more media coverage including a special with Huell Howser of "California's Gold" that was created and produced by my dear friend Phil Noyes, a fellow vintage trailerite and co-author of the fantastic book "Trailer Travel" The history of Mobile America.

Trailer Travel and Mobile America by Phil Noyes

The History Channel did a show called "Wheel Estates" that featured Vintage Vacations, myself and a bunch of my friends that I gathered for a rally for the event. The Travel Channel contacted me for an upcoming show that they were going to start filming called "The Worlds Richest RV's" and wanted to include a Vintage Vacation trailer that belonged to a Movie star!

When I told them that I was about to start building a very high end dressing trailer for the actor Billy Campbell, they got very exited and wanted to film the process. Billy agreed, and the restoration was filmed from start to delivery. What a blast!

To date, I have been very blessed to have had exposure on at least 7 TV programs, 25 major magazines, at least 40 newspapers around the country including "The New York Times" and a 1/2 dozen books.

Since the doors of the restoration shop opened in June 2000, I have fully restored, redesigned or visually altered about 40 trailers as well as doing repairs on just as many.

A lot has changed in my life in the time since starting the business including the type of projects that I prefer and chose to work on today i.e.: "High End" full alterations with all of the bells and whistles. That's not to say that I don't take on projects of a lesser demand, I simply prefer to built dream trailers from scratch that express the styles and needs of the clients wishes and reflect my talents and passions in a way that they can be shared and enjoyed by all who experience them.

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At this point in time, I have many great ideas on my plate that involve Vintage Vacations and the vintage travel trailer world as a hole. So many in fact that can't possibly get to all them. The first thing on my list is to get my parts and accessories website up and running.

I have been talking about doing it for 3 years now, but I haven't had the time to do anything more than what I have been doing with what little time I have? I think that made since!

You will be able to go to the new website soon @ vintage-vacationland.com and buy parts and trailer related items for you, your home and campground.

Thank you for your support

Craig Dorsey

Vintage Vacations