On To The Next Adventure!

It's been a while since I posted.  Life got busy.

My last photo with the teardrop

I sold the CARPE DIEM to a traveling musician and the idea of the two of them making lots of memories makes me very happy.

CARPE DIEM's new owner!

I wish her the very best!

It's actually been almost two years since I sold the CARPE DIEM, but I haven't lost my wanderlust.  In fact, as I've gotten closer to retirement, my desire to explore has grown even greater.

My wife and I have been exploring custom teardrop builders in the midwest and we think we found a builder and a design that we love.  So, Todd's Teardrop Blog might continue with another build sometime soon!  More on that later!

Another Fellow Teardrop Blogger

I have been reading the blog of fellow teardroppers, Rebecca and Darrel, who built their own teardrop and then have been traveling around the United States in it.  The two of them have embraced the simplicity of teardrop travel and write about their adventures here:  http://turned-about.blogspot.com/

One of the most helpful elements of their blog has been their detailed descriptions of their build.  I particularly was interested in how they installed their solar panels by thoughtfully bringing the charging wires into the ceiling via the ventilation fan.  I am going to consider such a design when I get to that part of my 'build' as well.

Another element that I think makes their blog unique and fun to read is the honesty with which they write about their experience on the road.  They talk about how they solved various challenges and how they adapted their trailer to their needs.  Nobody can predict how they will 'use' the teardrop space, but we can learn from others along the way.  I will surely continue to follow their travels.

Time to Make a Model

I found out that the teeny tiny trailer I had seen was called a Teardrop Trailer.  A few strokes of the keys and Google delivered hundreds of images of these tiny campers in all shapes, sizes and colors.  A few more keystrokes brought me to the Teardrops and Tiny Trailer Forum where people of all sorts share their love of all things Teardrop and much more.  I spent a few days just reading hundreds of posts and looking at the images.

From there, I introduced myself on the board and was immediately welcomed into the forum.  I had invitations to attend gatherings in my area and to come and see a teardrop in person. 

I started thinking and dreaming about what 'my' Teardrop might look like someday.  I'm handy and love working with wood, so I imagined that I would build it myself.  I started exploring profiles and soon found myself building a scale model of my dream Teardrop.

I spent 12 hours meticulously constructing my 1/24th model, all the way down to awning and bedding.  It turns out that my model was perfectly built for Barbies and all of my daughter's bedding accessories temporarily found a home inside my model.

This was going to be it.  This was as close as I was going to get to making my own Teardrop until I finished work on my library school certification and a few bigger projects that we had planned for our house.  I  had come to an understanding with myself and was pretty content to live vicariously through the forum until my 'time' had come...or would I?