Cakeitrailer story
The cakeitrailer story
We’ve received a lot of interest in our trailer and how we came across it. We are happy to share the story because we think it’s a fun story and we are proud of it.
This is our food truck (trailer) named Nova. Nova is a 1978 Argosy made by Airstream. The model is a six-meter Minuet. That means its about 20ft long and about 7 feet wide. The Argosy line recently celebrated it’s 50 year anniversary. HERE is a link to some fun facts about the Argosy line.
Acquiring NOVA
We bought Nova all the way back in 2010, before Cakeitecture was even founded. Our lives took us from Auburn, AL to Olympia, WA. Looking at the expenses of moving our home and belongings across the country seemed like a lot at the time; we also had a month and a half before the new job started. The decision to sell all our furniture and buy an Airstream really began to make a lot of sense to us. We began searching online for a used Airstream and quickly gravitated to the cute, painted ones (Argosys). That led us to a listing for this 1978 model in Gloucester, VA; and that’s where we first met our NOVA.
2010 Gloucester, VA
2010 Nova in Yosemite National Park
Life as our camper
That Spring day of 2010 in Gloucester we fell in love with NOVA and she’s been a part this family ever since. She was our camping trailer as we moved to Olympia, where our family grew by one with the birth of our first daughter; and also where we started Cakeitecture Bakery. On our move out to Olympia we camped at rocky Mountain National Park, Mesa Verde National Park, Moab, UT (where we visited Canyonlands and Arches National parks), Las Vegas, The Valley in Yosemite National Park, Nappa Valley, Crater Lake National Park; Bandon, OR (pacific coast); and Talbot State park on the Columbia River in Oregon. Again as our means for moving back to Auburn in 2015 (to establish bakery licensure with Auburn University as well as to meet the need for custom cakes and cookies in Auburn) we camped at Steamboat Rock State Park in western Washington; Glacier National Park; Yellowstone National Park; Deadwood, SD and Badlands National Park. She took us to Lake Harwell, SC to witness the 2017 solar eclipse; to Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, AL each year (since 2016) for Mother’s Day; and many other fun family destinations.
In October 2019 we were fortunate to take our family (grown, again by one, with the addition of our second daughter, in 2017) to Disney World where we booked a campsite at Fort Wilderness. Great trip, of course, but it was here that we realized that our beloved NOVA had been perfect, and was perfect at that moment, but these little girls were continuing to grow, and our family would need a more spacious camper. This felt like a gut punch; we’ve made so many memories with this trailer we just couldn’t sell her.
Nova has traveled more than 10,000 miles to 28 different sites with us.
conversion to a food truck
“What if we find a larger trailer and convert NOVA to a food truck?” And with that question the idea of the #cakeitrailer was born. It took us a while to plan for it (and there was a global pandemic) but we got to renovating NOVA, with the conversion to food truck as the goal, in the summer of 2022. We did all the work on the conversion ourselves; with invaluable help from Anthony’s dad and our friend Blake. This included: partial demolition on the interior, cutting the hole for the service window, adjusting the structural framing, installing a new air conditioner, installing the service window, installing LED tail and running lights, adding electrical circuits and interior lights, interior build out, stripping the original paint, priming and finish painting. We finished it off with branding graphics furnished and installed by Auburn Reprographics (they are awesome!).
Partially demolished interior.
Who cuts a hole in a perfectly good Airstream?
Making the service window.
Pops helping out.
Fitting the service window.
Patching the roof.
Testing the service window.
New insulation.
Naked Argosy.
First coat of primer.
Second coat of primer
Painting the orange metallic.
Paint Complete.
Paint detail.
Front.
On the Road in Auburn.
Ready for Business.
