Long, Long Honeymoon Meetup in Marrakech

I'm finally back from my long trip to Spain and Morocco. It was a true adventure with lots of tapas and Spanish cider, camel treks, crazy Moroccan drivers and souks, but I'm glad to be back in time for camping season. On our travels through Marrakech we were so lucky (and stunned) to run into fellow campers and travelers, Sean and Kristy Michael of the Long, Long Honeymoon blog and video series.

Sean and Kristy have traveled and camped around the entire country in their Airstream Classic and their video series is one of my favorites on the Web. While their aluminum trailer is much larger and more luxurious than a teardrop trailer, their videos on their love of camping, the outdoors and their helpful tips are entertaining, detailed and beautifully filmed. In fact, it was their videos of Grand Teton that inspired us to stay in the same campground.

Photo courtesy of Sean and Kristy Michael

On Vacation

 

 

 I'm heading out of the country for a few weeks on vacation and will be doing some sporadic posting on the Tiny Yellow Teardrop. From the photos—can you guess where we're going?

Too bad we can't bring the trailer along... :-(

Photos by Roco Julie and Mr. Seb

Friday Teardrop Photo

 

During our teardrop camping trips I like to bring along a small rug to throw down in front of my side of the trailer. It's a great place to put on and take off shoes and keep dirt out of the trailer. There's nothing worse than stepping out of the trailer in the morning and putting bare feet or socks right onto the dirt or cold pavement.

On the other side, my husband doesn't like to have a rug, stating that it gets in his way, blows away in the wind and gets dirty. Fair enough...as you can tell my rug does get a little dirty. What do you think? Rug or no rug?

Camping World is not for Teardroppers

Each time we drive on I-80 through California, we pass by the massive and tempting Camping World, but have never stopped. Camping World (with locations around the country) touts a multitude of camping accessories, tools, supplies and sometimes large RV and trailer sales lots. When we finally pulled off the highway to check it out, I was really excited and that excitement soon turned to disappointment.

Camping World does not cater to teardrop trailer owners. Sure, they've got everything from camping furniture and grills to GPS and satellite systems, but everything is geared toward the large RV or trailer. I mean REALLY large trailers. Beyond 30 feet seems to be the norm for this store, which even had an interior design and upholstery department in the back.

Granted the store did have a few cool items for teardropping including cast iron pots and small lanterns, fans and heaters, but many of their items are only available online and can't be viewed in the store. Suffice it to say, I was in and out of the store in about 15 minutes—empty handed.

The funny thing is, many of their items proudly display logos and icons with the quintessential teardrop or tiny standy trailer on them. I don't think anyone wants to drive around with a 45 foot, white fifth-wheel bumper sticker on their tow vehicle.

Friday Teardrop Photo

 

The Sunflower lit up at night. One of the best things about owning a trailer is having a battery and lights to cook and read by. When we were tent camping, it did get a little old having to depend solely on a headlamp in order to see.

CampingRoadTrip

Memorial Day is coming up and the beloved three-day weekend is the official kickoff of the summer camping season. To plan out our summer teardrop camping trips (and some future trips), I've been playing around with the CampingRoadTrip website. This site lets you do refined or broad searches for campgrounds in your chosen city or area of the country.

The site is clean, uncluttered and easy to use. You can search for campgrounds by state, city or by campground name. You can also define your search to a specific mile radius of a city or town. The site also has a review area where you can add your personal review about a campground. The breakdown of each campground gives you the location, photos, basic descriptions, price and ratings. The detail page of each campground gives you everything including weather in the area, larger photos, reviews, electrical hookup details, and facility and service information.

The website also has a forum that has topics on everything related to camping including workamping, types of trailers (teardroppers need to represent!), things to see and do in various regions and the best road trips. CampingRoadTrip also includes tips and articles on attractions and events all over the country.

 

Friday Teardrop Photo

Washing my hair while teardrop camping last weekend.

If we're not camping near a shower, I'll sometimes wash up in our dish pans. It seems gross, but I'm fastidious about washing out our pans after washing dishes and body parts. We use these versatile little containers to not only wash dishes, clothes and hair, but to hold dish cloths, pans and our garbage bags in the back of the galley.

If you are going to wash your hair in a dish pan while camping, it does help to have shorter hair.