Featured Teardrop: The Blonde Coyote's Rattler

I originally wrote about the Blonde Coyote (aka Mary Caperton Morton) and her teardrop, Rattler, on the Tiny House Blog, but I wanted to catch up with her and her teardrop travels around the country. Mary is a freelance writer and professional housesitter who lives full-time out of her 5 by 10 foot teardrop trailer and travels around the country shooting excellent photos to add to her blog.

Mary purchased Rattler for $4,000 from an “octogenarian craftsman” in Nebraska who builds one teardrop trailer a year. The 550 lb. trailer has a full-sized bed with a memory foam mattress and storage space underneath, a fold-up table, two feet of floor space, drawers, cabinets and counter space. Outside, in the back, is a slide out kitchen/galley area with plenty of storage space for pots, pans and food and a propane burner for cooking. The trailer is insulated and has a large skylight above the bed.

She became obsessed with teardrop trailers after seeing her first one at Guadalupe National Park. The owners gave her a tour and she bought her own trailer a month later. On a photo tour post of her blog she writes:

"Before I bought the Teardrop I lived out of my car between housesitting jobs for seven years. Everything I owned, including my two dogs, fit neatly in my 2-door Volkswagon and then the Subaru (aka “The Raven”). So while the Teardrop looks tiny, it was a major space upgrade for me! Still, I’m ruthless about getting rid of anything and everything extra and I save tons of money by not buying things I don’t need. When you live in less than 50 square feet, it’s kind of amazing to walk through a big box store and realize that whole sections of consumer culture no longer apply to your life."

I don’t have a lot of stuff in the Teardrop, but everything I do have is meaningful to me." Every postcard on the wall reminds me of something, some one or some place. My main impetus for getting the Teardrop was to have a space of my own, without having to settle down. Every morning I open my eyes to this rolling work of art and fall a little more in love with life on the road."

 

Photos by Mary Caperton Morton