Starling Travel

I found out that half the roof of our tent trailer has wood rot. It will easily last another five years or so, but it got me to thinking what I would do if we had to replace the roof.

In all honesty, we’d probably junk the trailer and just buy a new one, but if I got creative, I might be able to replace the roof with something that might make the trailer look interesting and give us a little storage space.

What if I made the tent trailer into a teardrop?

Here’s what it looks like when I paste the top of a T@b trailer onto my tent trailer. It would open the same as a tent trailer and give us a TON of headroom and storage along the sides. I would have to make a spot for the Fantastic Fan, because the addition of that has been a godsend on those 104 degree trips to St. George. I don’t think I’d even have a window or that door because then there would be more room for storage.

This idea has gotten me all excited about replacing the roof of our tent trailer. I could turn it into something adorable AND have all the space I could dream of when the trailer is deployed. I have absolutely NO idea how to make this a reality, but I want it!

I was looking at KSL Classifieds and saw this interesting popup truck camper called the Chevy Blazer Chalet.

The owner described it here:

i have a chellet camper desighned for full size gmc/chevrolet blazers. it is in good condition, it has a 2burner stove,fridge and a furnace. it has bench seats that fold for a bed, and is desighned to be open into the cab of the blazer. the top pops up single hadedly.and reguiers no drilling or mods, it bolts on to the exsiting hole for the shell bolts this camper was built 1976.it will fit all modles up to 1989. i belive these campers wher only made for a few years in the 70s.

Here are the rest of the photos:

I found some photos of a fully restored one here: Photo Gallery – Automobiles

There is a Yahoo! Group Forum for these truck campers: The Big ‘Nook. – Yahoo Groups

I love this advertisement for it that I found here: Pop-Up Truck Camper, The Blazer Chalet From 1976 | Motornomadics

The reason these campers look so good is because they were designed by Chinook. I love how streamlined they look with an original Chevy truck. They’re not the right camper for me, but they definitely have that cool retro style!

I’ve talked before about Oquirrh Lake and how beautiful it is. Here is a walking video that goes past the lake from Starling Fitness:

• Starling Fitness Walking Videos: Daybreak in Winter 2014

The next time you’re feeling trapped and want to escape, take a few minutes and watch this video. You’ll be transported to a Utah wintery walk and return to your life refreshed and a little chilly.

When my grandpa died, I scanned every photo that was in his house and gave copies to all my relatives, but I didn’t really look at any of the photos. My grief was too sharp to reminisce.

The other day, I was looking at those photos and this one looked very interesting.

The man on the left is Lawrence “Shorty” Lipe, my great-grandfather. The man on the right is Wayne Wilcox, my great-uncle-in-law (he was married to my grandmother’s sister). I absolutely adore this photo because Uncle Wayne looks so happy and proud of those fish, whereas, Shorty just looks confused.

In the background, however, is a rare, Hy-Lander Fifth Wheel camper. Hy-Lander was one of the first companies to make fifth wheels.

• RV.Net Open Roads Forum: Fifth-Wheels: Does anyone know how/when 5th wheels came about?

sirdrakejr: The Hy-Lander was 1st introduced about 1965. I tried to get a franchise in California but they were not approved for sale in that state due to electrical and plumbing concerns. later on, two large RV sales giants stated in CA with that 5th wheel. Hy-Lander was the 1st to market a 5th wheel for large scale sales. But they were also not very responsive to user compaints and they had other problems that led to their demise. Many dealers dropped the line when the dealer had to assume the repairs when the manufacturer would not.

I never stepped foot in that camper, even though Uncle Wayne hosted many fun adventures. He took us to Lava Hot Springs, flew us in his airplane to see the damage from the Teton Dam disaster, and took us hiking all around Idaho Falls. All of that, but I never saw that camper. I suspect that by the time I started coming to Idaho Falls (around 1977 and later), it had already been retired.

I wonder what towed the fifth wheel. The only vehicle in the picture is that late Sixties Jeep Wagoneer in the background, but it couldn’t tow a fifth wheel. Uncle Wayne must have owned a pickup back then.

It doesn’t surprise me that Uncle Wayne was an early adopter. He owned the first fifth wheel, just like my grandpa owned computers as soon as they were available and useable. Both of them were willing to be on the cutting edge, even if they got sliced up sometimes.

No wonder he looked so proud…