Greetings from Central Texas

[Lou.Catozzi]

Well, I've decided to come out of the closet on this whole Teardrop thing. I stumbled across TDs in general and the T&TTT forum specifically about a year ago and I have been lurking in the bushes and admiring all the builds ever since.

Twelve years ago when our boys were still young enough to want to travel with us my wife and I bought a 25' travel trailer and a Ford Expedition to pull it. We have dragged that thing all over the place. It's been to Florida twice (once, all the way to Key West), Colorado several times, Vermont, Yellowstone, Minnesota. The kids are starting to wander off so I am looking for something smaller that I can tow with my Jeep.

My wife and I are both 58 and our three boys are in high school and college now so it is a race to see if the empty nest or retirement happens first. I grew up in Vermont, my father was a sign painter and my grandfather was a carpenter so we are all about to see if any of that talent rubbed off on me! Yesterday I ordered a NTE 5x8 trailer kit and my plans are to build a Grumann 2 on top of it, probably very similar to danlott72's design for the video series he produced using SketchUp. I plan to start basic and upgrade after I get it usable and must-have features are dreamed up. Before we had kids my wife and I used to go on month-long car trips in the summer, camping and moteling it along the way with no specific itinerary or routes in mind. I'd love to get back to that style of living/traveling again.

I'm sure I will be looking for a lot of advise on the build, specifically sources for hardware, etc. I've already met one local TD'er thru this forum - Cap'tTelescope lives just a few miles away on the other side of town from me.

Wish my luck!
Lou

[Roly Nelson]

Welcome aboard, Lew. All if the info is right here, just ask and many tips will come your way. Good luck on your build.
Roly, from So Calif