I had always wanted to restore a vintage trailer, but I figured I would get around to it “someday.” As the busy executive director of a nonprofit supporting education and interpretation in our state parks, someday never seemed to come.
Then I attended the Pismo Beach Vintage Trailer Rally to promote our own rally, “Stranded in Morro Bay,” planned for the following fall at Morro Strand State Beach. Get it—Stranded in Morro Bay!
While I was there, I spotted a cute pink, green and white trailer with a for-sale sign in the window. Inside were custom-made green cabbage rose curtains. Pink and green had been my favorite colors since I was a girl. At that moment, I realized that with my busy schedule, “someday” might never happen. I knew that little trailer had to be mine.
I named her Stella Rose.
My mom had passed away the previous winter. My friend Jean had introduced me to Sisters on the Fly and helped me plan our first vintage trailer rally. Not long after I brought Stella Rose home, my sister sent me our mom’s only childhood doll. I had never known about the doll before. Mom grew up during the Great Depression, when her family had very little, and she had named her precious doll Rosaleanne.
Something awakened in me. I began researching vintage dolls and fell in love with Madame Alexander dolls. Before Stella Rose, I had never had a place where I could unabashedly be a girl.
I painted the interior a soft chalk pink—even the curtain rods! Then I went all in with vintage dolls, lace, china, cats, jewelry and two vintage horse bridle rosettes. I made yo-yo flowers for strings of lights and added plenty of sparkle to the kitchen. My husband would walk by, admire my latest additions and say, “Nice rhinestones!” He even rewired a vintage light for the “bedroom.”
We have taken Stella Rose camping at many state parks along California’s Central Coast. My husband cheerfully camps among all the feminine touches. He says it feels as though he has been invited into the “boudoir.”
When we aren’t camping, Stella Rose lives beside my rose garden. My husband and I often take a glass of wine out to the trailer, sit together and talk.
Stella Rose is more than a vintage trailer. She is a place filled with memories, family connections and all the things that make me happy. She is also a reminder that sometimes you have to stop waiting for “someday” and make it happen.
