The Green Ford Avion

Some campers are just a place to sleep. This one is the reason people bring their cameras. A green fifth-generation Ford F-Series pickup carrying a gleaming 1960s Avion slide-in camper on its back, parked in the shade of the live oaks at CampEZ, it is pure vintage road-trip style and one of the most memorable stays on the property.

Avion built its campers in Benton Harbor, Michigan, beginning in the mid-1950s. The name is French for “airplane,” and the company built like an aircraft maker: lightweight riveted aluminum shells over a sturdy frame, made to cover serious miles and last for decades. Alongside its travel trailers, Avion made slide-in truck campers that turned an ordinary pickup into a home on the road, and that’s exactly what this one does. Fleetwood bought the brand in the 1970s, and the originals still out there are prized by vintage RV fans today.

The Ford is no lawn ornament, either. It’s a fifth-generation F-Series, the line Ford built from 1967 to 1972, and it wears the bright aluminum grille of the 1968–69 trucks. Half a century on, it still runs with the Avion riding on its bed, keeping the classic lines and deep green paint that newer trucks just don’t have.

Spend a weekend inside a real piece of road-trip history, then wander over for the hot outdoor showers, the sauna and the community kitchen.