VIGO COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - The Southern Indiana Vintage Camper Rally is now underway at Fowler Park in Vigo County.
Campers from all over the region have gathered with their retro travel trailers.
"It's really just about getting together with friends," camper Kevin Reabe says.
Many say it's like going back in time. Fowler Park is filled with camping trailers made before 1979. It's the 10th "Southern Indiana Vintage Camper Rally" and over 60 campers have arrived from across the region. Some campers have spent hundreds of dollars restoring their trailer and they say each trailer has its own character.
"See it's just the different style of the trailers and how they changed over the years and changed to accommodate what people wanted to bring with them when they were camping and how they wanted to camp, what they wanted to enjoy, and you'll see trailers with all different sizes with all sorts of different configurations with kitchens in the front, kitchens in the side. Beds for big families beds for little families" Reabe says.
Reabe traveled from Bloomington, Illinois. Organizers of the rally say everyone at the event is passionate about vintage campers.
"People that have old cars or old trucks you get them and you restore them and it's the same way with these campers," event organizer Roger Dulin says.
Organizers say the event has grown dramatically since it started 10 years ago.
"It's really grown. Like 10 years ago there was the first one and then we were the second one and now there's maybe 20 rallies in Indiana and close in Illinois and close in Kentucky and Ohio," Dulin says.
While keeping a retro way of camping alive is satisfying to many at the event the real draw to the hobby is the friends made along the way.
"The trailers themselves are second only to the people in my view you know they are just the common connection and you know you'll find this in camping groups with people with modern trailers," Reabe says.
