Tin Can Tourist

Once I got past the sale of the family home, (which I managed without hiring a realtor) and disposed of all the leftover stuff, summer rolled in.  Growing up in Colorado birthed a never-ending love of the mountains. The quiet, pristine scenery fills me in so many ways and I am surrounded by beauty at every turn here in the Northwest.  I love my lightweight, 2 man tent and have found the RV scene a curious one whenever I am in a campground.

 

My son and I took a spectacular weeklong backpacking trip into the Eagle Cap Wilderness, and at the end of the trip I had rented a yurt in the state park. Walking out of the wilderness into the RV city was overwhelming, one family actually brought a U-Haul full of stuff deemed necessary for camping.  People rolled out carpets, strung lights around their sites, hung their favorite football team flag and there was every toy imaginable on display. One campsite had a chalkboard menu of their planned gourmet dinner, which spiked our hiker hunger.  We found humor in the campground after spending days of not seeing other people in places like this…

 

 

 

 

As the idea of building a tiny house was forming, I started to think that a small camper might actually be a great addition for the travel that the house was going to afford me. A tour of the National Parks is high on the list of wanderlust.

 

 

I don’t need anything to large or obnoxious, but a roof that would keep me dry for extended trips started to resonate. If you’ve ever camped in the rain you understand, and it rains in the Northwest …frequently.  Instead of a yurt at the end of a backcountry adventure, there would be a small camper, (my son has voiced his concern about using a microwave on camping trips, I assure him that microwaves and TV are not on the camping agenda!)

I fell into a sweet deal on a sweet truck. A one owner 1997 Ford that was loved, garaged, fully loaded with a tow package and low miles …

 

 

Then my boss at the school decided to sell her family camper as she no longer had a truck to tow it with….the universe was aligning!  I jumped on the opportunity and landed another great deal on the perfect little camper. At 16 feet it would be easy to tow and was just enough space to get out of the weather if needed.

 

 

My boss did honestly reveal that the back window had a small leak.  I knew enough to know water & campers were not good friends.  Upon further inspection I found this…

 

 

And so the restoration began and led to this …

 

 

Bill took on rebuilding the back end while I ripped up all the flooring, painted the interior, made new box cushions and curtains, butyl taped all the windows, and installed new J-rail.  Needless to say the learning curve regarding travel trailers was substantial and as the deconstruction began I knew that this was great for camping but for full-time living I wanted the solid construction of a tiny home (so many staples hold these together!)

 

 

I spent a lot of time in this tight, cozy space and began to understand more of what living in a tiny house might feel like.  At the end of a work day I would sit at the table and make notes and think about the first trip I would take in my little gem.

Bill and I set a deadline for the camper restoration with a trip to Lolo Hot Springs where his band was playing.  Like most construction efforts the project was bigger and would take longer than we thought and after a long trying day to make it doable, we ended up in a tent for the trip.  It was late September and the first night brought a hard frost and VERY cold sleeping conditions, making the travel trailer all the more attractive.

Come spring I hope to get the trailer project finished (we are close!) so that I can focus on the tiny house build and use the camper to get out of town and decompress when the build hits roadblocks or fatigue…and it will.  The little camper will also serve as overflow space for those times when I may need to house more than 4 or 5 people I love, or the kids want to stay up late making noise.

 

Thanks for following The Trek to Tiny, and until next time Be Kind, Life Is Short …

Hillary D.