Starling Travel

Here is a great tutorial showing you how to make a keer pot, which is a food cooler that uses clay pots and water evaporation to keep food cool.

It seemed to work pretty well for him. With an ambient temperature of 82 degrees, he was able to bring the temperature in the keer pot down to 51 degrees. There are two disadvantages to this type of setup: weight and humidity.

Clay pots, water and sand are very heavy. If you make your keer pot and leave it in your backyard to use during BBQs and other fun events, then it’s not a big deal, but trying to take that monster with you camping is not practical. I realized I had all the parts of a plastic keer pot at home, so I created one.

Not only are there logistic problems with plastic pots (the sand crushes the sides in and the water makes the inner pot float), the water doesn’t evaporate quickly enough to create any noticeable cooling effect. Additionally, the laundry detergent bucket weighed so much after I added the sand and water that I could barely lift it. A keer pot is definitely not a portable option.

Since this method of food cooling depends on evaporation, this pot won’t work as well in humid areas. Where I usually camp, Utah and Nevada, this thing will work like a dream, but in any area with higher humidity than a desert, the water in the pot just won’t evaporate. This video was filmed in Florida, however, which tends to be WAY more humid than Utah, so maybe we’ll get even better results in the desert.

I love this idea. It made me want to run to the home improvement store to get the supplies to make one of these for my backyard. I had this image of myself showing it off to my family and amazing them with its ingenuity, and isn’t that the best part of a do-it-yourself project?

Via: Lifehacker – Keep Your Drinks and Food Cool in the Sun with a No-Electricity-Required Zeer Pot Fridge

Growing up in Utah, I was a bug-lovin’ girl. I caught every kind of bug that inhabited our neighborhood. When Mike was a kid, he went so far as to have a fully stocked terrarium with pill bugs (armadillidiidae) and plenty of food for them to eat. The terrarium was such a healthy environment for them, they reproduced. Tons of tiny, white baby pill bugs grew to adulthood under Mike’s care.

So, both of us were fascinated by the lovely variety of insects available in the South. We’ve already talked about the Oklahoma Fireflies on our trip, but the day we left, we were swarmed with a huge variety of butterflies and moths.

The first, we saw at the gas station in Oklahoma right before we left the next morning. I believe it’s a Polyphemus Moth (Antheraea polyphemus). There was something the matter with him because he could barely fly and let me take a photo of him.

I wish I had (Continue Reading…)

Our third day traveling was through the last half of Kansas and into Oklahoma. Since the Salina KOA sounded like road noise all night, we decided that we wanted a more rustic campsite. We decided on Gore Landing.

We found it on the Camp Where app by Big Nerd Ranch, Inc. [iTunes link]. I looked through comments about the site and one of them mentioned that there was no sign for the campground on the main road. They weren’t kidding.

We drove off the main road, following the GPS coordinates and all we could see for miles was corn fields and trees.

We were certain that all we were going to find at the end of that road was an angry farmer with a shotgun. (Continue Reading…)

We filmed a tour of our Teardrop American Outbacker at the beautiful Oquirrh Lake. Take a look at it here:

Remember, camping isn’t allowed at Oquirrh Lake. We just filmed our trailer there because it’s so pretty. You’re welcome to stay the day there, fishing and enjoying the sunshine, however.

• Oquirrh Lake on Google Maps
• Daybreak website
• Teardrops and Tiny Trailers on Starling Travel

Our drive from Limon, CO to Salinas, KS was VERY windy. There were gusts up to 35 mph, but the wind didn’t try to push us off the road. That was something I was very scared of when driving a trailer, but we had no problems with that. Our gas mileage never got over 25 mpg because of that wind, however, bringing our average down to 29 mpg.

We had an easy day of driving and ended up at the Salina, Kansas KOA Campground.

It was our first stay at a KOA Campground and it was a pleasant surprise. (Continue Reading…)

Mike and I have just returned from an epic journey that I really can’t believe we achieved with such ease. We drove from Utah to Arkansas for a class for Mike and his father.

The trip was originally planned as a camping trip with the Springbar tent, but after the disastrous wind, rain and cold incidents of the Disneyland trip in March, we decided that we needed a trailer.

We took the newly restored Teardrop American Outbacker trailer. I am still amazed that it worked so well. Both Mike and I slept like logs in the teardrop, despite humid heat in Memphis and bitingly cold wind in Cheyenne. Of the twelve days on the road, we spent eleven in the trailer.

When we planned this trip, we fully expected to spend some days camping and some days in hotels. Mike had looked for hotels and motels along the way, especially in Little Rock, Arkansas, because he was worried about sleeping well for his class. After the first night in a hotel just east of Denver, we never needed a hotel again. In fact, we only stayed in a hotel that first night because Mike had to work and needed a guaranteed Internet connection and a nice desk to sit at all night.

Every other night was a cozy dream in the teardrop together. By the end of the trip, when we were freezing our buns off in the Cheyenne, I had no problem just huddling in the tiny trailer all night. It had become my haven and den, keeping out the cold wind.

The best benefit to the teardrop is that we got such good gas mileage when driving it. The first day, we almost hit 34 mpg.

When we hit the massive headwinds in Kansas (and then again in Nebraska), our gas mileage got as low as 29 mpg, but that still was a phenomenal rate. At the worst mileage of 29 mpg, our cost for gasoline was approximately $365. If we had done the same journey in a motorhome or a big truck pulling a fifth-wheel trailer at 12 mph (which is generous), we would have paid approximately $957 in gas.

Ever since I was a little girl, playing with my Barbie Star Traveler, I wanted to take a cross-country trip in a trailer or motorhome. The practical side of me never allowed that to happen because of the cost of owning a big motorhome and, even worse, the high price of gasoline to drive one. Our little teardrop trailer made this journey possible for both the childhood dreamer and the practical accountant sides of me.

I can’t wait to tell you all about it!

The negative of having a teardrop trailer (and most tent trailers) is that you have to use the bathrooms and showers at the campground. The cold and windy trek in the middle of the night to empty a nagging bladder is a far different experience than just stumbling out of bed and using the bathroom in a behemoth trailer. I’ve even been known to hold my water until I’m nearly bursting just to avoid that freezing walk.

Then again, a benefit of having a teardrop trailer is that you have to use the bathrooms at the campground. Take, for example, my encounter with Sherri Parsons. I was getting ready in the bathroom when she walked in and the awkwardness of the situation made my mouth take over.

“Were you guys cold last night?” I asked uncomfortably. The wind in Cheyenne was over 30 mph and was bone-chillingly cold.

“No. We stayed in one of the cabins. It was warm.” She answered with friendly voice.

“We have a heater in our teardrop, so we weren’t cold at all. I was surprised this morning when I opened the door. I kind of thought it had warmed up.” I laughed.

“I’m glad I didn’t have to do my midnight potty run. I slept all the way through ’til six this morning.” She replied.

I knew how she felt. I am always so grateful when I don’t have to leave the security and warmth of my trailer (or tent) to use the facilities in the middle of the night. Her first sentence finally hit me. She was sleeping in that cabin near us with the cool motorcycle. I asked, “You’re in the cabin? Are you the 50 States in 50 Weeks guys?”

She smiled. “Yeah, but the wind was so bad last night that I couldn’t deal with the tent flapping, so we got a cabin. Both of us are so cheap that we didn’t really want to do it, but I’m sick of being cold. It snowed on us in Denver.”

I replied, “I totally understand. That’s the whole reason we got the teardrop. We’re from Utah and those mountain nights get cold.” We both laughed and I asked, “So, did you get sponsors for this trip?”

She shook her head, “No. We’re just doing this on our own and he’s blogging every day.”

I shrugged. “That’s cool. You can earn money from advertising on your site as long as you keep blogging.”

She smiled wickedly. “Yeah, we’ve earned TWENTY dollars so far.”

We both laughed and lamented the slow burn of blogging for a living. I finished with my makeup and we separated.

Before we left, I knocked on their cabin door and asked to take their picture and link to them on my own blog. Both Kevin and Sherri came out and talked to Mike and me. I realized later that Kevin and Mike had already talked together about the teardrop trailer, comparing weights. They are hauling a tiny tent trailer.

Kevin and Sherri are from Las Vegas and are doing this for their mid-life hurrah. We talked about how hard it is to do an epic trip like this and he showed us the route they’ve taken so far.

After looking at their website for this journey (50 States in 50 Weeks), I’ve been entertained and even a little jealous. When Mike and I traveled through Nebraska, we really wanted to see Carhendge in Alliance, but it would have added three hours to our already long day of driving. Kevin and Sherri were more adventurous and saw it in all its glory: 50 States Day 27: Minden to Alliance, NE.

Meeting Kevin and Sherri was a wonderful highlight of our epic journey (more on that later).

And just think. We never would have met them if either of us had a bathroom in our respective trailers.

I love the site, They Kept Everything. He not only shows all the memorabilia that his grandparents had kept their whole life, he gives some explanation of what he’s showing. This brochure for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, for example is a wonderful glimpse into the past.

He says,

This brochure on one side totes all the benefits of visiting Great Smokey Mountains National Park, while the other side is classic boosterism. This propaganda offers some interesting insight into life 60 years ago.

Click on over to his site to see all the pages of the brochure:

• They Kept Everything: Great Smoky Mountains National Park Brochure, 1950

Via: Great Smoky Mountains National Park Brochure, 1950 | Retronaut

After weeks of restoring the Teardrop American Outbacker, Mike and I took her on her first camping trip. We are still a little worried about the windows leaking, so we camped VERY near home at Utah Lake State Park. She looked lovely at the campsite.

It was a sunny weekend, but the wind was bitterly cold and relentless. Fortunately, the trailer kept us warm throughout the night. Mike said that he had never slept as good camping as he did in our new little trailer.

When he said that, all the work that I had done to perfect the trailer suddenly felt worth it. Every layer of paint I sanded off, every turn of a bolt or screw, and every time I had to cut a cam shorter with a hack saw felt like time well-spent. All that I had hoped for in a trailer came true this weekend. It made camping easier, but it didn’t ruin it by turning it into just a home on wheels. It still felt like camping, but the two of us were able to sleep the night through despite the ragingly cold wind outside.

The camping fees at Utah Lake State Park were $20 a night, which included electricity and water at the site. There was a dump station for RV’s, but no sewer at each site (not that it mattered to us). They allow dogs on the campground, but not the beaches or in the water. There were clean and up-to-date bathrooms and showers onsite as well. Each site had asphalt for campers and plenty of room for pitching your tent on nice, soft grass. There were also shade pavilions at each site, but it was so cold that we didn’t want to be in the shade. We had to stay in the sun to keep warm.

The lake itself was a dark and scary mass of water with waves caused by the wind last weekend, so Mike and I didn’t go kayaking on it. There were many people there on speed boats and along the shore fishing. I was so surprised at how big the fish were and how many people caught some. We passed this man at the end of Saturday and he looked so happy at his catch.

Despite the cold, we had a lovely time camping at Utah Lake. It was just one of many trips camping in the teardrop that we’ll have. I’m so excited for the adventures to come!

While looking at campers on YouTube, I found this Duct Tape Camper from a family in De Pere, Wisconsin. Here is a video of the camper construction.

Using 7 rolls of duct tape, a utility trailer and some PVC pipe, they made a fun little trailer for the kids. The inside of the camper was sticky, so Randy (the girl in the video) and her friend decorated it with wrapping tissue. The trailer survived the drive to the campground 27 miles from their home, but they didn’t drive over 55 mph. Based on that camping trip, they believe the camper wouldn’t have survived highway speeds. After that one camping trip, they broke down the trailer to store for the winter and haven’t made another one since.

When I was looking for a lightweight camper that I could make myself, I never thought of using duct tape. Even though it wasn’t quite what I was looking for, it’s an ingenious idea and a fun project for the family!