Starling Travel

This boot is the most interesting thing in a radius of 200 miles.

This boot is actually more witty than I thought it was at first. (Continue Reading…)

I have looked at this video of a fold up truck camper many times, but I couldn’t find any information about who made it or how to buy it, so I never posted it here.

The people at Tiny House Talk were able to identify it. (Continue Reading…)

After our blissful night in St. Joseph, Missouri, we left early in the morning on our journey home. We knew we had a long day ahead of us, and we wanted to be able to visit whatever interesting things might be on our journey. The previous day, we had visited two very fun tourist attractions, so we thought we would see at least one or two things on our drive from St. Joseph, Missouri to Cheyenne, Wyoming.

We had the entire state of Nebraska to traverse. There must be SOMETHING there, right?

Umm… no… (Continue Reading…)

Margaret Sweep commented on my blog post: Starling Travel » Some Campsites Aren’t Good For A Teardrop Trailer

Gday from Australia . I have the same American Inc outback travel trailer. Two were imported into Australia, ours is the only one that has survived, the other one was lost in the last Victorian bushfires, we would not part with ours. Draws a crowd were ever we go.

Cheers Margaret and Ibo Sweep— June 25, 2012 @ 12:13 am

I immediately emailed her, asking for pictures. She was nice enough to send me a ton of them.

All these descriptions are Margaret’s: (Continue Reading…)

The beauty of leaving our travel schedule open was that Mike and I could drive as far as we wanted and when we were tired we could find a campsite to stop at and sleep. The irresponsibility of leaving our travel schedule open was that we were driving home during Memorial Day weekend. After visiting The Laura Ingalls Wilder House and Osceola Cheese, we planned on camping at Lake Jacomo near Kansas City, Missouri.

When we arrived there, however, it was packed full and the camp host assured us that the other two campgrounds near the lake were also full for the weekend. Mike and I took one look at the rowdy campground full of people excited for their long weekend and decided to move on.

Mike pulled up the Allstays App [iTunes link] and found Beacon RV Park in St. Joseph, Missouri, about an hour away from the lake. They had room for us and their prices were very affordable. Their office closing time was in thirty minutes, however. The owner told us to head over and he would stay long enough for us to get there. We did our best to get through the Kansas City traffic up north to St. Joseph.

I had a bad feeling about the RV Park when we drove down the Belt Highway. How good could an RV Park be when it’s situated between a used car lot and a Chinese restaurant? I envisioned a night of noise from the big road and an unsecured location. Instead, we found a haven, sunk below the traffic noise. (Continue Reading…)

When they say you packed everything including the kitchen sink, they don’t quite understand what they are talking about. Sinks are easily replaced. A plastic bin that holds my propane cylinders is good enough to replace the kitchen sink.

The kitchen faucet, however, is priceless.

While Mike and I were on our Epic Journey, traveling in our teardrop trailer for twelve days, I missed a sink the most. We noticed the Reliance Sink in our teardrop was leaking into the sleeping cabin (?!), so we had to stop using it. I dumped the propane cylinders out of their plastic bin and washed dishes in it instead.

Even though we had water at every site we camped at, I had to fill my teapot and newfound “sink” right at the water faucet, nearly drowning spiders every time. How I wished I had a hose and a faucet that somehow attached to my camp kitchen.

When I got home, I looked EVERYWHERE for a way to add a faucet to my camp kitchen or a new camp kitchen with a faucet. I didn’t find anything that was made to do that, so I headed to the hardware store to make it myself.

Here’s a video of the final product:

You can see more detailed pictures of how I made the faucet after the break: (Continue Reading…)

Ever since the leak started in our Reliance Camping Sink in our teardrop trailer, I’ve been obsessed with looking at camping sinks again. After depleting Google images looking for a camping sink, I decided to give Pintrest a try. Brian Olsen on Pintrest found this camping sink.

It’s the Classic Melville & Moon Safari Sink from Kanz Outdoors and it costs…

Wait for it… (Continue Reading…)

Margie Barnett on Pintrest uploaded this shoe organizer that she has used for her camp kitchen.

I used to use something similar to that for my camp kitchen. You can see it here:

• Starling Travel: How To Set Up the Portal/Cabela’s Mega Camp Kitchen

Using a shoe organizer is smarter than my setup because it is easier to buy at the store and it folds up flatter than the organizer I used.

While I haven’t been able to find the exact shoe organizer pictured here, I found a few shoe organizers that look like they would work well:

• Honey-Can-Do Over The Door Clear Shoe Organizer at Amazon.com
• Whitmor 6351-1253-JAVA Fashion Color Organizer Collection Over-the-Door Shoe Organizer, Java at Amazon.com
• Household Essentials PET-Cotton Blend Dual Lidded Box, Celery Green at Amazon.com
• Over The Door Clear Shoe Organizer/Storage Rack at Amazon.com

The only problem I have with this setup is that I suspect that cutlery and utensils would fall out of the pockets during transit, so I’d have to set it up EVERY time. Other than that, it looks like it would be a good way to organize things whether you string it up on your camp kitchen or hang it from your awning like this picture.

Via Lifehacker: Turn a Shoe Organizer into the Ultimate Outdoor Kitchen Organizer

Mike and I have loved how convenient our teardrop trailer has been, but we’ve actually found a site that makes having one inconvenient.

We were at Quail Creek Reservoir and the campsites have a bit of a hike from the picnic table and shade to the trailer. In fact, we can’t use our little galley at all, so we just set up our camp kitchen under the shade.

I tried something different with the water in an effort to make a nice water faucet for the sink. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked well enough to wash our hands and rinse dishes.

You can’t beat the view from my bed, though.

Despite the inconvenient campsite, we had a lovely weekend at Quail Creek and can’t wait to go back!

On this trip, Mike and I spent the most time in Little Rock. Mike and his father were taking a class there, which was the whole reason for the epic journey in the first place. So, we spent our most time at the Little Rock North KOA than any of the other campgrounds, yet I have the fewest pictures from them.

Ironically, they were the best campground we stayed at during the whole trip. The bathrooms had plenty of stalls and showers, so I never had to wait. They were clean and because we were in a teardrop trailer, they put us close to them so we didn’t have to walk far. (Continue Reading…)