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!

Beautiful Michigan

We've been here for three days and now it's time to head further north.  So enjoy the cool temperatures, especially at night.  It makes sleeping a treat.  It's hard to beat views like this!

First Night

We made the 500 mile trip north to Sault Saint Marie, Michigan yesterday. Crossing the river in the ferry and breathing the cool air reminded us how much we like it here! The trailer pulled well; no trouble at all handling or otherwise. It did impact our miles per gallon: we usually get about 26 mpg; our towing mpg was closer to 19 mpg. Granted, a lot of that was on freeways going pretty fast; 70+ mph. When we were on two lane roads, we seemed to get better mileage. Note to self: slow down and take the back roads when possible. It will slow us down, but make us focus a little more on enjoying the journey.

Welcome to Michigan!

 We are spending a couple of days here with family and then my wife and I are heading north to Canada. It's funny because sitting on the deck, I can see Canada across the river! We are heading up to Lake Superior Provincial Park. It looks beautiful. The east shore of Lake Superior is rocky and rugged. The website for the park describes one of the canoe routes as being, "...crystal clear waters in which you can see 60 feet down where boulders the size of houses line the bottom."

Last night was our first night in the completed teardrop. I had spent one night in the teardrop before fully completing everything. My wife was thrilled. She said that she slept really well. I did too. She said that she, '...didn't even know I was there!' The vent provided just enough 'white noise' to drown out the sounds around us. The cool night temperature made sleeping heavenly. With the vent pushing air 'out' there was a delightful cross-breeze created by the sliding windows. At one point my wife closed hers. Amazingly, the mosquitos, which are legendary and HUGE here, were relegated to the outside of the cabin. We had a couple of stowaways in the cabin, but once they were killed, we enjoyed a bug free night.

 A few notes on our first night of sleep. The curtains were welcome; they gave us just enough privacy from nephews walking around the cabin while we were still resting. I do want to add some velcro tabs to the corners of the panels so that when the cross-breeze is pulling air into the cabin that the curtains will stay in place. They tended to blow in and not provide much 'privacy' when doing so. We need to add some velcro hooks for hats, keys, etc. We may need to make some kind of labels for the storage bins in the cabin. As of now, all our stuff is sort of stashed in there together. It made it a little tough to find our things when we wanted them. We found the reading lights to be almost 'too' bright. One light was enough to illuminate the whole cabin. I might try to find some lower wattage bulbs, if there is such a thing. Or, maybe there is a way to 'coat' the bulb to knock down some of the wattage. Where we are 'parked' right now, we don't have a picnic table or other 'surface' to put the stove, etc. I know now that I really want to make that side table so that I can use it to heat water for coffee, etc. I may find some way to do it tomorrow morning. I was missing my coffee made in my french press. I think we will end up purchasing a pop up shelter with sides to give us a little more 'space' outside the camper.

Make shift hat rack on the edge of the curtain rod.

Our first overnight camp site.