Starling Travel

Just when I was about to let my subscription to Trailer Life Magazine expire, they FINALLY do an article about small trailers that is interesting. If you haven’t picked it up, the January 2014 issue is actually worth buying this time.

Not only did they do an article on a truck camper for their cover photo, they did an entire article about tiny trailers AND one about restoring retro trailers. It’s like they wrote a magazine just for me.

The Unique Trailers article didn’t showcase anything I hadn’t seen before. They covered the following tiny trailers:

• Aliners
• Rooftop Tents
• Livin’ Lite Quicksilver
• Little Guy Silver Shadow
• SylvanSport Go
• T@B Teardrops Trailers
• Tail Feather Campers by Teal

They could have written full articles about each of these trailers (like I have), but at least they acknowledged that the world of camping is more diverse than the GIGANTIC fifth wheel trailers they usually highlight.

Good job, Trailer Life!

I’ve been desperately looking at the local classifieds for a new trailer. We bought the Subaru XV Crosstrek, so we can tow 500 more pounds than we could before and I’ve been obsessive. Then I got some good advice…

from a video game…

The Kap’n sang to me,

Yo-ho, me eyes! Don’t stare at cool new boats. Yours is fine. Just blink, and look skywise!

He’s right. I keep finding myself looking at new campers when my cute little tent trailer is just fine. Just look at how adorable it is with its homemade awning.

I actually LOVE that camper. Sure, I’d like it to have a toilet, but then again, I don’t particularly want to EMPTY that toilet, especially when we camp in places where there are facilities within walking distance.

The problem isn’t that I want a new camper. The problem is that I want to go camping, but we are buried in snow.

Even our usual winter camping favorites, like Saint George and Lake Mead, are too chilly for us right now. Sure, we could go camping in 23 degree weather, but it’s not very pleasant when we do.

It doesn’t help that the dead of winter is the absolute BEST time to look at campers in the classifieds. People are desperate to sell their trailers to pay for Christmas, to get it out of their driveway or to unload it before they move away. There is a screamin’ deal on a 2010 tent camper with a toilet right now that is so appealing to me that I have to stop myself from looking at the listing every day.

I don’t want that camper. I want to go camping.

I just need to blink and look skywise, I guess.

While we were driving back to Salt Lake City from St. George over the Thanksgiving weekend, we saw this awesome lime green motorhome and matching toy hauler.

It’s very hard to take pictures on the road, but Mike was passing him slowly so I could click as many as I could.

I love how the trailer matches the motorhome.

It appears that they race somehow. I don’t know what was in the trailer (motorcycles, a car, etc.), but I was very impressed with their motorhome.

If any of you readers recognize this vehicle, please leave a comment telling me all about it.

I was looking around Google Images for Kampmaster teardrop trailers and I found this website: Gage Enoch – First International Teardrop Gathering, page 3. One of the trailers that he photographed at that gathering was Randy Begger’s teardrop trailer.

If you notice, a door folds down on the driver’s side and out pops a tent. On the other side of the trailer is a tent area for changing clothes.

I really like the design of this trailer and would love to see what it looks like in the cabin area, but I haven’t been able to track down the guy who built it. For now, I’ll just have to stay happy with the photos from Gage’s 56 website.

During Thanksgiving weekend, we took the Subaru XV Crosstrek out on the Mojave Desert Joshua Tree Road. The snow hadn’t hit the St. George, Utah area yet, so we had a dry and enjoyable ride on a rocky road.

It was a difficult drive to find, but now that we have a good map, it’s easier. (Continue Reading…)

With over a foot of snow and temperatures at seven degrees Fahrenheit, I am missing camping. We usually camp all year long, going down to St. George and Lake Mead to camp, but even those areas are dealing with snow and low temperatures this year.

And then I remembered, it’s summer in Australia. I watched this video and loved the UEV-360 trailer with its Wild Goose style pop-up lid.

Rather than satiating me, it only made me miss camping even more. Man, winter is hard for me…

I’ve never been to Epcot Center. Living on the west side of the country, Disneyland is so much easier to visit, but how I wish I had been able to see this ride, Horizons:

With its look at the History of Tomorrow, it was a look forward AND backward. Just like PaleoFuture, it was looking at what our dreams used to be. If only they hadn’t added their current dreams for the future, it would have been a timeless ride that didn’t need to be retired. Well, that and the marshland sinkhole that threatened to topple its roof. It was eventually replaced with Mission: Space.

I really miss the excitement for the future that Walt Disney had and I wish there was a way to revive that. Sure, predictions like flying cars and jet packs never came true, but isn’t dreaming for something and not getting it better than never trying at all?

After over a year driving either the teardrop or our tent trailer, I have yet to learn how to back up with a trailer connected to our vehicle. This video is helpful.

I think the best bit of advice is that learning this takes LOTS of practice. Mike and I chose lightweight trailers because we have been scared of this part of the process. We have tried to learn to back up the trailer properly, but every time we screw up, we just take it off the hitch, put on the wheel and hand roll it into place.

That’s the benefit of having a lightweight trailer, you don’t have to learn how to back it up.

Then again, that’s the BAD thing about having a lightweight trailer. We have never learned how to back it up.

I’m beginning to think that we need to purchase some traffic cones and just practice backing up the trailer over and over until we can do it without thinking about it. If I ever want a cute canned ham trailer, I’m going to need to know how to do this.