I'm posting from a hotel room in Farmington, NM. Kathy and I are taking the brand new teardrop trailer on its first road trip. This is a real road trip, not a camping trip or other recreation trip per se, so instead of setting up somewhere and enjoying the place and all it has to offer, we're driving all day and using the teardrop trailer most nights instead of a hotel. It works beautifully so far, and although it's kind of disappointing to leave each campsite every day, this sort of trip was our main motivation for building the teardrop in the first place. We were tired of setting up and breaking camp every evening and morning, and wanted something less time consuming to prepare for sleeping.
We're on a three week loop from California's North Coast to Dallas/Fort Worth, TX, then Denver CO, and finally Sacramento CA before we head home. We have specific times to be in all three places, but will only stay a day or two and have about a week to travel between them, so we're sticking to the blue highways whenever possible. It's a classic transcontinental road trip, much of it through the southwestern desert.
We started late Sunday, July 21-- there were WAY more loose ends to tie up before departure than we'd planned. We only made it about 30 miles the first night and camped in the Forest Service East Fork camp west of Willow Creek on Rt. 299 east. It was already dark when we arrived and I backed the trailer for the first time. Slid it more-or-less into a campsite where we wanted it. The camp is very small, only about half a dozen widely separated sites in the Coast Range. I didn't take any photos at East Fork!
We had breakfast in Willow Creek on Monday morning, then drove through Susanville, CA and Reno, NV enroute to the east side of the Sierras, down highway 395 south. Here is the teardrop at a rest stop outside of Susanville:
As I said in the last entries to the build journal, it isn't polished up yet-- still lots of water stains and such on the aluminum skin.
We spent Monday night at Bootleg camp, another Forest Service camp near the Walker River on Rt. 395 south. Bootleg is a lovely, little used camp with friendly camp hosts and campers that run mostly to long term stay RVers during summer. The host told us it averages about 35 percent full, year after year. It was less filled than that while we were there. A lovely wind blew through the Walker River canyon and kept us cool-- it's about 7000 ft elevation or so. Bootleg camp:
On Tuesday we continued south on Rt. 395, passing the Mono Lake scenic overlook:
After passing through Lee Vining, home of the most expensive gasoline anywhere, I think, we took the Benton loop, Rt. 120 past Mono Craters and through Benton to Nevada. Here is the view toward the Sierras from the Rt. 120 turn off and then a shot of the trailer facing Mono Lake and Mono Craters.
I mean, it's a forum about teardrop trailers, right? So there will be lots of pics of the teardrop.
The Benton loop road is one of my favorite east side camping destinations. It has a lovely view of the towering White Mtns, here in the far distance but later we got closer and then drove past them.
Closer to the White Mtns.
We've traveled a lot these last few days and haven't stopped often to take photos, which I'm beginning to regret, but that's the problem with long drive road trips.
We took NV 95 south for quite a distance. It was a mixed sun and clouds day, with occasional rain squalls although none hit us, at least not on Tuesday.
On Tuesday night we clicked off another teardrop milestone-- boonies camping on BLM land somewhere off Nevada state route 95. We found some elevation in the basin and range country and then found an unmarked road off into the piñon and juniper. We found a nice campsite just at sunset.
The teardrop did great off road, I'm happy to say!
In the transition zone between Great Basin and Mojave deserts we passed a Joshua tree forest.
Here's the teardrop at a rest stop somewhere on NV 95 south. There was a huge sign advertising a brothel across the road, at a place that also promised the world's biggest firecrackers.
We visited the Hoover Dam, where the security is a monument to national paranoia, at a site that is a monument to national ambition and drive. There's irony in them thar hills.
Lake Mead, behind the dam.
Hmmm, I don't have a map handy, but this was on the road to Kingman, AZ. This is a view overlooking Lake Mead and the rugged surrounding mountains.
Here we are at a rest stop further down the road. What's noteworthy about this photo is the wrinkly side of the teardrop on the sun side. It was HOT on Wednesday-- 105 F in Kingman at 6:00 PM. The side facing the sun expanded rapidly, but it cooled later and flattened out.
We managed to find some elevation just outside of Kingman, AZ at a small county run park. While it was still over 100 degrees F in Kingman, it was maybe 75 F at this camp, where we stayed Wednesday night:
We woke up with an elk cow trying to get into our cooler. Today-- Thursday-- was spent mostly on the road, and at the end of the day there wasn't any accessible higher elevation so here we are in Farmington, NM for the night in a hotel. Showers are nice, however, as is the AC. We did pass another teardrop build milestone today, however. Outside of Flagstaff we finally got rained on, hard. Pounding, driving rain, huge drops, a thunderstorm and gumball sized hail. We drove though rain for about an hour, then parked in the rain in Flagstaff while we ate lunch. Truck spray. High wind. The whole water resistance test.
Not one drop made it past the weather seals and the hurricane hinge. The cabin interior was completely dry, and so was the galley, even after pulling it down the road at 65 mph into a howling rainstorm.
So the trailer is performing really well, so far. I wouldn't allow myself to think that SOMETHING wouldn't just fall off as soon as we pulled it down the road, so we're really stoked that it's holding together and doing exactly what we hoped for. Camp set up takes minutes, and that's only if you want to cook. A cold camp with a very comfy bed is only a few steps from the truck cab if it's late or we're just too tired to stay up.
I'll post more photos and progress reports whenever we have internet availability.
--Mike C.
