Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

We've returned from our July excursion & here are a few basics for the trip. Total miles were 4,100 as was stated above. Average fuel mileage with the Nissan was 20.26 mpg. Average driving was 178 miles a day, some days were longer, some no miles at all. We took too much stuff, didn't need it all!

The trip was from Tucson to Grand Teton, Yellowstone & then Glacier National Park, with a few stops in between. One memorable stop was to see Tony Latham in Idaho at Meadow Lake. Tony & my wife, Alice.



Another was a visit with a high school buddy I hadn't seen in 45 years at Jackson Hole & his family. This is Randy & his brother David.



We had a great trip, no problems with the truck or trailer. The air bags & new brakes both did their jobs well for the truck & the trailer held up well. Nice to know things work out if the planning is good & luck holds. The brakes were really solid on some of the bigger 6% grades, no fade or excessive heat, but I drive pretty carefully. Slotted & cross-drilled rotors with ceramic pads are worth the price if you don't have brakes on the trailer.

Here are a few random shots from the excursion.























There's so much out there to see & do & a teardrop makes it really easy to set up & take down when it's time to leave. Just do it!

It was super meeting you and your wife.

You forgot to mention the bear that interrupted our lunch and Alice managed to befriend. "You catch more flies with honey."



Tony

You guys are having too much fun!!! (not... never too much fun.)

Nice pics, especially the wildlife. Lucky to see a big elk like that, buffalo and wild horses(?).

I'm interested to hear your impression of the salt flats. I forget if you had said you had been there before. Would love to go for speed week; that would be a bucket list item!

Thanks KC & Tony. It was a great trip! We stopped by at Bonneville for our return trip. just to check on the salt.

The last 2 years were rained out & I'm hoping this year will be different. The salt looks very good this year so far. Since it's a "dry" lake bed during the summer, a rain can ruin racing and put things off another year. I've been 3 times now, but not for 5 years, so this year will be a special one for me. It's the first time I can spend all week at the salt without a schedule to worry about or time lines to deal with.





If you can go, it's not like anything you will see in racing anywhere else. It's still about pure speed, no trophies or prizes, just a chance to get a name in the books as the fastest in the world in a given class. The pits are a mile long & 3 lanes wide with anything you can imagine in cars & bikes & stuff you can't imagine in your worst fantasies. The people-watching is great, cars are incredible & the rides driving around are from all over the country. I've met folks from China, France, New Zealand & Germany there, but all with one common interest, it's the speed!

Awesome! Now I want to go ev en more.

Great trip! I had to check out the online menu at the Hi-way cafe in Idaho, just to see what looked good!

Chicken fried steak!

Thanks for sharing the tale of your trip.

Where is that red rock and water photo? That place looks amazing.

It's outside Page, Az. at the Utah border. Canyons & sandstone deposits, early light. Beautiful country.

How many "tear tours" did you give?

Tony

Hi Tony, not really sure, but it's hard to get out of a gas station at times with people asking so many questions. There's a lot of interest in the build & people are surprised at the amount of room & degree of finish we have in a such a small build. It pretty much runs the gamut between "can you really sleep in that thing" and "it's just like a small house." All in all, I wouldn't change anything, except the stuff we brought with us for the trip, too much junk we didn't need!