Teardrop Stories

One of the things that I heard when I started exploring teardrops is that people are very interested in them.  I read lots of stories of people stopping teardrop owners at gas stations and at camp grounds and asking lots and lots of questions:  "Do you sleep in there?"  "Where do you get dressed?"  "What is that thing?"  Those are just a few of the questions I heard people would ask.   So, when we started out on our very first road trip, I was ready for the 'looks' and the questions.

It started right in my own neighborhood.  I was finishing preparing the teardrop for the trip when a family of four stopped on their bikes in the street in front of our house.

"Did you make that?"  "Do you know how to weld?" the father asked.
"No, I restored it." I answered. "It's a 1947."
"I have a 1947 too.  It's a little taller than yours.  I bought it thinking it would fit in our garage, but its too tall to fit, so I have it in our driveway.  Stop by anytime and take a look at it if you would like."

Hitching it up and starting our 2,300 mile road trip northward, we got lots and lots of fun looks and double takes.  More than a few times I saw people point and get very animated when they saw us on the road.

The Carpe Diem at the rest stop in Escanaba, Michigan.

Whenever we pass a 'classic car,' we see a big smile on the driver's face.  There's a mutual respect for the labor of love put into bringing a piece of Americana back to our modern times.  

When we were camping at Agawa Bay in Canda, which was our first 'official' night in the teardrop where we had to 'pay' to camp, we loved seeing people walk or drive by and look.  We saw a modern, factory made teardrop in the campground.  They didn't seem very interested in us, but we were fascinated by their teardrop's pop up expansion design.  It looked much like ours, but when they parked, the whole roof lifted off to create a huge living room and a second 'bunk.'  When we got home we looked into the design and found out more about it.

It is called a Safari Condo Alto.  It's a slick design that surely game me trailer envy.  We didn't bother the owners, but we did walk by several times, v-e-r-y slowly.  

When we had it parked in my brother-in-law's driveway, we had several families stop to inquire what it was and what it looked like inside.  

As we started back from our visit to Athens, we stopped for gas in Nelsonville, Ohio.  One gentleman came up to me in the filling station.  

"How old is your teardrop?"

"It's a 1947."

"My dad had one just like that," the man from Tennessee told me.  "I had my first spanking in a teardrop like that!  My dad said I was misbehaving and he tossed me inside.  I'm 67 years old!"

"Well, that's how old this teardrop is!"

"I think we had the same one, but yours in a lot better shape than I remember ours.  Everything that should be old, is new!  You've done a really nice job on that thing.  It's beautiful!"

"Thank you!"

"We passed you several times on the freeway, I was hoping you would pull over so I could talk to you.  I was telling my son all about the teardrop when we saw you on the freeway."

It's wonderful how the teardrop pulls people together like that.  There's something about them that breaks down barriers and encourages people to share and ask curious questions.  One of the things I hope to be able to do with this blog in the future is to record those stories. 

First Trip Review

The Carpe Diem's first road trip is in the books!  We had an awesome time; we camped a total of 9 nights, traveled over 2,300 miles through five states and two countries!  In a very roundabout way, we made a loop around Lake Michigan.

We learned about how narrow the turning radius is with the basket on the front of the teardrop. Thankfully, the bumper that I damaged pretty significantly at first glance, literally popped back into place after about 45 minutes.  I don't know how it did it, but the plastic coating was all that was 'damaged' on the car.  It returned to its proper place and you would never know that it had been damaged by me turning too tightly.  Adding the 12" extension made a monumental difference.  It is now so much easier to maneuver the teardrop. We learned how important it is to check that the coupler has completely latched onto the tow ball.  Thankfully, we learned this lesson on a backcountry road away from heavy traffic.

Kenosha to Sugar Island.

Sugar Island to Agawa Bay, Ontario and then further north to Wawa, Ontario.

Back to Sugar Island and then onward to Powell and Columbus, Ohio.

From there we went back to Powell, then to Granville and finally to Athens, Ohio.

Then it was time to close the loop and head home.

Google has us at about 1,950 miles, but in fact, we put on just over 2,300 miles in all.

We had one major repair; the caulking and repairing of the area under the doors where lots and lots of rain got into the cabin.  The 'fix' never really properly set up and in fact, we had more rain on the return trip.  Not to worry, we removed everything, yet again and are currently drying out the teardrop.  When it is dry, we'll re-caulk, add a rubber barrier along the seam and try it all over again!

All in all it was a very successful road trip!  We learned a lot about what we want to add to the teardrop and tiny adjustments we will make to make the Carpe Diem even better!

The Carpe Diem Visits Ohio University and Narrowly Averts Catastrophe!

Both my beautiful wife and I attended The Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.  It is in fact, the place we met and fell in love.  It was quite fitting then that the last 'leg' of our first trip in the Carpe Diem go through there.   

The Carpe Diem at the College Gate in Athens, Ohio.

Before we get there, we need to catch up a little on the trip since the last update.  We loaded up and headed to Granville, OH where our good friends Mike and Christina were in town to visit their family.  We met them for a nice brunch at a place called Day y Noche.

Mike and I with the Carpe Diem.

After a great visit with them, we dropped them off at Mike's parent's home.  We were able to see his Mom and Dad too.  I was very close to them too.  

Erica and I turned towards Athens and things were looking well.  Then, near disaster struck.  We were on one of the many small roads that lead towards Athens.  We heard a loud plunk and then the sound of metal scraping across concrete/gravel.  I was able to quickly check to be sure that it was safe to pull over.  I did so and we carefully got out to take stock of what happened.  The tongue of the trailer popped off the tow ball.  Thankfully the safety chains held, the tongue of the trailer actually rode up onto the basket on the front of the trailer.  If we had been on a larger road, or going faster, things might not have turned out as well.  

The basket took a little bit of a hit; nothing a sledge hammer can't fix.

I learned to pull up on the tongue to make sure it has properly latched! 

The road rubbed the tongue a bit, but nothing a little Rustoleum can't fix.  

We took a huge breath, hugged each other and counted our blessings.  We started back towards Athens.  The rain had held off all morning, but it started again along the way.  Almost everything had changed.  Even the freeways were different; the small towns of Lancaster and Nelsonville had bypasses which were terrific for travel, but I'm not sure they will be good for the small businesses in those towns.  We made it to Athens and went to The Strouds Run State Park.  Neither of us had camped there before and mid July, during the week, is apparently the least visited time in the park.  In fact, we were the only people in the park.  It rained almost all evening and into the night.  Something was going on with our battery and it did not fully charge while we were in Powell.  So, the hot and humid weather, and the relentless rain made for a less than perfect night of sleep.  Well, that and the fact that we were the only people in the entire park, in the middle of Appalachia, without any cell service... Nonetheless, we made it and here is the view we had when we woke up this morning.

Here was our campsite.

I love the panoramic feature on the iPhone!

We hitched up and headed back to Athens.  We thought that early morning would be a good time to try to take the photo of the Carpe Diem at the top of this post.  Then, we headed north to pick up the kids.

My parents and my nephew with my kiddos!

The skies looked ominous as we started toward home.  About half way home the skies opened up.  We stopped for gas and I checked on the teardrop.  I was not happy to see a white, milky-type substance dripping from the front of the teardrop.  The caulk was clearly not dry and it was obviously not reacting well to the pounding rain.  I decided to not think about it and deal with it when we finally got home.  

The arch at the border of Ohio and Indiana; a brief respite from the rain.

About five hours later, we pulled into our driveway.  The kids were great; they jumped out and started clearing out the car and the teardrop like a pit crew at the Indianapolis 500!  A little while later, we had the teardrop on the concrete patio, the luggage and laundry emptied and were ready to assess the damage from the rain.

The aluminum 'drip guard' that we had glued in place came off again.  Thankfully, it fell into the basket again and we were able to retrieve it.  One corner started peeling away a bit.  We'll need to re-glue that corner once everything has dried out.

All our gear washed and ready to dry.

The sheet of linoleum on the back of the teardrop drying after being washed of the liquified caulk.  We put the EZ Up overt the teardrop so that we could let everything dry.  Once it does, we'll start all over with the caulking process.  Hopefully we'll get a stretch of dry weather.  We were all very happy to shower and head to a much needed night of rest.  It was a terrific trip, but we are all glad to be back!