{"id":7094,"date":"2015-06-16T19:38:15","date_gmt":"2015-06-17T02:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=7094"},"modified":"2015-06-16T09:39:59","modified_gmt":"2015-06-16T16:39:59","slug":"a-day-away-king-of-the-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=7094","title":{"rendered":"A Day Away: King of the Road"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Courtesy<\/a>

Glamping Time! Talk about traveling in style! Each luxurious Bowlus Road Chief travel trailer is built to order and made from materials like birch, aluminum and brass, with the body joined together by more than 5,000 hand-bucked rivets to form a single, incredibly tough \u201cmonocoque\u201d shell. Courtesy of Bowlus Road Chief LLC.<\/p><\/div>\n

Roger Miller<\/a> sang about \u201ctrailers for sale or rent,\u201d but if he were writing that old ditty today, \u201cKing of the Road<\/a>\u201d would surely include a chorus about the Bowlus Road Chief<\/a>. Billed as \u201cthe world\u2019s most advanced luxury travel trailer,\u201d the Bowlus Road Chief was engineered by Hawley Bowlus<\/a> in the 1930s (the same fellow who built the Spirit of St. Louis<\/a>, flown by Charles Lindbergh<\/a>), and the design inspired a host of aluminum competitors including Airstream, Streamline, Silver Streak, Avion and Spartan.<\/p>\n

As for the king of them all\u2014the Bowlus\u2014only 80 of these glittering riveted-aluminum capsule-shaped trailers were produced before World War II shut down the camper business.<\/p>\n

\"Courtesy

Courtesy Bowlus Road Chief LLC<\/p><\/div>\n

These beautiful silver machines are being manufactured once again right down the road in Ventura County by recent east coast transplants Geneva Long and her father John. The reimagined Bowlus Road Chief has the same sleek lines as the vintage models but with modern amenities like solar panel hook ups, heated floors, central heating, beds that convert from twins to a king, indoor\/outdoor showers, Wi-Fi charging stations and a cook\u2019s kitchen.\u00a0Plus, at 24 ft. long and 2,000 lbs, the Bowlus can legally follow just about any automobile. Each model is custom-built to order: the 2015 Bowlus Road Chief runs about $110,000.<\/p>\n

\u2014Leslie Dinaberg<\/p>\n

For more info, call 855\/926-9587 or visit bowlusroadchief.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Originally published in the Summer 2015 issue of Santa Barbara Seasons Magazine<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

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