Starling Travel

Last August, we were camping at the foot of the Colossus Roller Coaster at the Lagoon campground and we were near this awesome teardrop camper. The owners were very obliging and let me take a bunch of pictures of it.

The camper is called the Lil Demon and it was made by A-Liner back in 2006.

• Aliner Launches Lil Demon Teardrop Hybrid | RV Business
• 2006 Cabin A Lil Demon Standard Equipment, Prices & Specs – NADAguides

Like a Wild Goose Variation, the top opens up and allows for a lot of head space in the sleeping chamber.

She talked about how her father had built a teardrop when she was a child and she had always wanted one, so when her husband and she came across this cute little camper, they snapped it up.

The galley was really interesting. It not only had a canvas cover to put over it when not in use, it was removable. They showed me how the latches on each side slid out and he lifted out the galley. It fulfilled all my chuck box dreams!

Her brother was also camping with them in a teardrop camper he had made from scratch, but he was too shy to let me take pictures for Starling Travel. Suffice it to say, it was awesome, too!

I had no idea that A-Liner had dabbled in making teardrop campers and I wish they had continued. They had some really good ideas and the Lil Demon was a fantastic example of ingenuity!

I wish I could personally talk to Patricia Moyes and explain camping to her.

It reads:

I simply cannot understand the passion that some people have for making themselves thoroughly uncomfortable and then boasting about it afterwards.

• Patricia Moyes

She might not have been talking about camping when she wrote that, but MANY people believe that camping is something that is thoroughly uncomfortable. And they are right in some respects. I remember nights freezing in the mountains of Northern Utah. I remember nights when the air mattress had lost all its air and we were sleeping on the hard rocks and packed earth. I remember sweating while pounding in tent pegs in the same hard ground.

But you know what?

I ALSO remember waking up, opening up my tent and seeing rabbits eye me warily. I remember a ground squirrel so friendly that we seriously considered taking him home with us. I remember waking up at midnight to go to the bathroom and seeing more stars than I could ever see at home. I remember dipping in the cool water just to take the edge off the heat before popping out again for more relaxing on the beach. I remember snorkeling in a man-made lake and being delighted by the most boring of fish in my gaze. I remember eating burned food out of a foil-wrapped hobo dinner and it tasting better than a dinner at a fancy restaurant.

When I am camping, I experience “hardships” that I could easily avoid by staying in a hotel, but at the same time, I experience beautifully zen moments that I would never see from the comfort of that hotel room. The thoroughly uncomfortable is redeemed by the inexplicably beautiful.

THAT is why those people boast about it afterward.

I took this photo last August on our anniversary trip to Las Vegas. I have NO idea where I was standing when I took the photo, but I adore how it turned out.

Sometimes when I feel like I need a vacation, I pull up my old photos and look at them, remembering my good times. It’s usually just barely enough for me to get back to work and perhaps plan a trip in the future.

I haven’t been this excited to go on a cruise in a long time. I usually can’t defend the expense of a cruise when it is so inexpensive for us to hitch up the camper and go, but this one sounds awesome! Disney Cruise Lines is adding a Star Wars Day to some of their cruises!

• Star Wars Day At Sea | Disney Cruise Line

Star Wars Day at Sea will be available only aboard the Disney Fantasy on select Western Caribbean sailings, January through April in 2016. Star Wars Day at Sea will take place during cruises departing on the following dates:

• January 9
• January 23
• February 6
• February 20
• March 5
• March 19
• April 2
• April 16

The Star Wars Day at Sea is a one-day extravaganza during your cruise. For the rest of your voyage, you’ll enjoy the jam-packed itinerary of excitement and adventure you can only get from a Disney Cruise Line sailing. From Broadway-style shows and innovative dining, to a fun-filled visit to the private island paradise of Castaway Cay!

I wish they were doing this a few years ago when my boy was young enough to really love it. We took him to Disneyland when he was eleven and he was picked to do the Jedi Training Academy. It was the highlight of our trip.

He waited for an hour and a half in the sun in order to be front and center so he could get picked. We kept asking if he wanted to ride Buzz Lightyear or Star Tours and he just stubbornly waited so he could be in the front when the Jedi comes out and chooses the padwans. Fortunately, he got chosen and we loved it. Hopefully, they’ll have something that awesome on the cruises. It is on the list of activities.

I’ve wanted to try a Disney Cruise for a long time, so this just might be the best thing to get me there. I wonder if they choose 46 year old padwans…

I love this photo I saw on Facebook the other day:

When I was little, my dad had a Wagoneer that he said he was going to make into a camping vehicle. He never did that, but this is how I imagined it would look. I have been obsessed with teardrop campers for a long time and any car with a galley set up on the back like a teardrop just makes me swoon. Every car I have looked at, I’ve imagined what I could do to build a galley in the hatchback so we could camp easily.

The tent trailer should have cured that disease for me, but it didn’t and I know why. We can’t make meals when we are traveling. I have a fantasy that looks very much like this picture. It’s lunch time and we are halfway through our day’s drive. We stop at a day use area, use the restroom and eat the bountiful lunch that is just sitting in the back of the car waiting for us. No fast food. Just half a watermelon under Mike’s arm and half-pound burgers on the grill.

I can’t do that with the tent trailer because we’d have to pop it up to access the food in the cooler. I STILL obsess about a galley off the back of my car because in bear country, we keep the food in the car anyway. Ain’t no trailer that can keep a bear out, so we don’t store any food in the camper when we go to Yellowstone.

As good as our little Jayco is, it will never be able to be as inviting as this retro tailgate galley.

I saw this funny bit from College Humor and I had to share it.

I laughed out loud when she said, “How do you let a man in a suit tell you when you can be naked in the sun?” and he replied, “Health insurance.”

The thing is, even if you are POOR, you can find ways to get away. For example, our last trip costs were:

• $50 for the campsite
• $55 for the gasoline

We were able to eat cheaply in the camper by making our own food and we would have eaten whether we were at home or in Buckskin Mountain State Park, so our trip was under $150 over the long weekend. Of course, there was the initial investment of the camper, which was $1000 used and something breaks on it almost every time we camp.

You don’t have to be THAT person to travel. You might not be able to go to Bali or Bangkok, but you can be naked in the sun if you find a secluded enough spot to not get arrested.

I don’t know how I missed it, but there is yet another Canadian wonder building lightweight campers with the bare essentials that can be towed with regular cars.

• Taylor Coach

Here is a video of their 8 foot camper called the Lil El:

Here is one being towed by a Mini Cooper:

They have a 10 foot camper that has room for a port-potti or a permanent toilet:

These campers are perfectly small and are easily towable, both being under 1500 lbs. Unlike the T@B campers, they look like lopped off regular campers, which are cute in their own right. There is no pricing available on their website, so I have no idea how affordable they are. When is the U.S. going to start jumping on the truly light weight camper bandwagon?!

Vintage Camper Trailers Magazine – Vintage Camper Trailers Magazine posted this camper on their Facebook page here:

The craftsmanship is EXCELLENT!

I just wish we knew more about this camper and could see what it looks like all folded up.

I found some ADORABLE camping chairs at K-mart. They match my camper perfectly, so I had to have them, but I HATE the stupid bags to hold and carry them.

So I added a clasp to keep the chair closed and a handle to carry it. If you want to do the same for your chairs, here are the directions.

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