April 11, 2011

Our night at the Shady Dell.

 A little taste of trailer park heaven...

 While Emery and I were visiting my parents in Arizona two winters ago, we took a weekend road trip to a magical little town, about three hours south of Phoenix, called Bisbee. The home of one of my favorite places on earth: The Shady Dell.


As soon as we pulled in we were greeted with rows of vintage aluminum trailers sitting beside the scenic desert landscape! At this point we had a love of vintage trailers, but we didn't own any yet! This just re-affirmed my desire to get my own aluminum gem! (since then Emery and I bought our own 1959 Shasta trailer for camping, which we are currently in the process of restoring, and Erin and I bought our 1956 Cardinal trailer which is our Olive! It's safe to say we're a little bit obsessed!)

The Shady Dell has every type of trailer we could imagine! There were vintage Airstreams...

There were brightly colored Shasta & Canned Ham trailers...

...and there even was a 1960's tiki bus!


We decided to make our home sweet home for the night inside of an adorable 1957 El Ray trailer! Here's a peek inside this beauty...
As soon as we walked into the kitchen and saw the tiki mugs and floral curtains, it was obvious that this trailer was decorated in a 50's Polynesian theme (and we were loving every minute of it!) The kitchen came equipped with a working stove, tap, and vintage dishware for cooking!

A vintage bed wouldn't be complete without a chenille bedspread and vintage novels and magazines on the nightstand!

The dining table came complete with a working vintage radio, which was playing the sounds of the 40's & 50's when we walked in. This totally made the atmosphere feel authentic right off the hop!

 No detail went overlooked, right down to the lighting and tea kettle.


We quickly made ourselves at home and had some wine & cheese! We played some cards and admired all of the dreamy decor... I especially loved the minty-teal colored walls! This is about when we started to plot how we could get our hands on one of our own!

Then we went for a walk around the trailer park at night before bed because all of the trailers were lit up so beautifully with glowing lights.

In the morning we went to a little diner on the park grounds, called Dot's Diner, for breakfast. It was totally done up like an authentic 50's diner! There was even a little patio outside with an aluminum umbrella! It is definitely one of my dreams to own one of those!

The diner was full of vintage sodas and milkshake machines! Mmm...and not to mention the most delicious breakfast ever! After we finished up it was time for check-out, which was a reminder that unfortunately we couldn't stay forever (even though we wanted to!) We left optimistically though, because we knew that this wouldn't be our last vintage trailer experience, and we would begin the search for the perfect trailer to call our own!

We can't wait to go back... and next time we will bring our own!

Love,
Stefanie
xo

6 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for sharing this! I live in Arizona and had no idea about this place! I am now planning a trip with my husband. Thanks for sharing!!

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  2. This place looks amazing!!! I'd love to plan a trip there. So are the trailers available for nightly rentals?

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  3. Whoah, this place looks incredible!! If I'm ever in Arizona..haha

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  4. Hey Anna!

    Yeah they are! If you go on their website it shows photos of all the trailers, a brief description of each, and what their nightly rate is! The rates are really good, cheaper than staying at some random Holiday Inn, and an amazing experience! Check out the site: http://theshadydell.com/

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  5. ADORABLE! I think I'm in love <3

    Did you know there's a song about Bisbee? It's a lovely little song by Calexico, and apparently they wrote it because it's such a beautiful and interesting little place. This post now solidifies my need to visit!

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  6. How quaint and out of this world!!!

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