Starling Travel

This video has been very helpful to show me how a portable toilet is used and emptied.

They are showcasing the Dometic 970 toilets, which are VERY affordable:

• Dometic 975 Portable Toilets 5 Gallon at Amazon.com
• DOMETIC 974 PORTABLE TOILET 2.6 GAL at Amazon

I talked about portable toilets a little over a year ago here:

• Starling Travel – What Bears Do In The Woods: Porta-Potty Options

Back then, I said:

We ended up buying this Foldable Toilet at Sportsmans Warehouse for only $14. It is lightweight, stores absolutely FLAT and takes up hardly any space in the trailer storage bins. I tried sitting on it to see if it would hold my weight and it performed beautifully. It’s a little shorter than the Luggable Loo and the Thetford Curve, but not so short that I have to squat uncomfortably to sit on it. I really liked that I was able to use it with the Double Doodie Bags, so the smell wouldn’t be that bad. I found a video about it on YouTube. You can see it here:

It has been a year of camping almost every month and we have yet to use the portable toilet. It still lies under the dinette seat with its bags, untouched. The one time I was tempted to use it, we were in a KOA in North Dakota. It was the middle of the night and we were in the middle of a HUGE downpour. Our campsite was FAR away from the bathrooms, so I suggested we break it out, but Mike’s calm mind prevailed. He said, “I don’t know about you, but I’m getting into the car and DRIVING to the bathroom.”

It was such a stroke of pure logic that it shocked me. Why didn’t I think about that? We have yet to boondock anywhere that didn’t have at least vault toilets, so I don’t know why I obsess about this issue so much. Those Dometic toilets look great, compact and easy to use, but not nearly as easy as taking the walk to the campground bathrooms.

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…

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…)