Hi All,

This is the first email from my travels into the national parks of the west.  I have not been able to connect with my Verizon wireless connection to send a message before now.  Fortunately, the Wahweap Resort and Campground, where I am now located, has wi-fi and I can get this first installment out.  Wahweap is located on Lake Powell in northern Arizona.  I’m writing this at pool side which overlooks beautiful Lake Powell.  This morning I witnessed the most spectacular sunrise I have ever seen.  I looked out of the teardrop camper at 5am this morning and saw this incredible site.  I hurriedly pulled on a pair of shorts and headed to the lake shore.  The sun was still below the mountains to the east, but the light that it cast off of the clouds was indeed stunning.  I have taken several pictures.  However, I have not downloaded them as yet so, I’ll attach one on my next email.

I got started on the trip on 3 May.  The first 3 days involved getting to my 1st National Park.  Overnight camping was spent at Henryetta, OK where I stayed in the parking lot of the “Pig Out Palace”.  Hey, it was free other than the cost of my pig out buffet dinner that night.  Despite the name it wasn’t too bad.  The next night was spent in Santa Rosa, NM.  I had been in Santa Rosa about 30 years ago.  I had been traveling along I-40 about lunch time and pulled over here.  I ate at a small drive-in style restaurant and had the best Mexican meal I ever had, even to this day.  I remembered that I had Chile Relinos.  I was hoping of course, that this little restaurant was still in business.  I couldn’t remember the name, but knew that it was a drive-in that had indoor seating.  I drove up and down the main street, but couldn’t find it.  I finally stopped at the city hall and ask if anyone remembered such a place.  I was told that it had burned down a number of years ago.  However, it had been built back and was no longer a drive-in, but now a regular cafe and owned an operated by the same family.  The old man was now about 80 years old and supervised his children and used his same recipes as always.  The Chile Relinos were as good as ever much to my delight.

I camped that night at Santa Rosa State Park which was very nice.  I met Mark and Holly, a nice couple from Albuquerque.  Mark persuaded me to go on to

Durango, CO for my next stop instead of Cuba, NM.  I’m glad I did because Cuba is nothing more than a blink as you go through.  My plan had been to camp in the National Forest there which would have been fine except I would have had to shovel snow to make a spot to camp.  I went on to Durango, but couldn’t get a camp site along the river as Mark had suggested.  Instead I went to the WalMart parking lot.  WalMart always welcomes RV’ers for overnight camping, BUT, not in Durango.  I had been there about an hour and having a nice sandwich for dinner, when along came a Durango police officer who said, “You’re not planning to spend the night here are you?”.  I told him I was and had gone inside the store and was told that there is a city ordinance against camping overnight there, that no one is ever bothered by the police in enforcing the ordinance.  Well, I show up and the cops decide to enforce the ordinance!  On to scout for another place to stay.  I finally, ended up in a factory parking lot which is another story in itself, but too much to go into it now.  At any rate, I ended up back in the WalMart parking lot at 4AM.  I figured I had left earlier and coming back at 4AM didn’t constitute staying overnight.

On May 6th I went on to Moab, UT and had arrived at my first national park destination, Arches NP.  I stayed in a campground called Hittle Bottom along the Colorado River.  The location had an excellent view overlooking the river with mountains in the background.  There is more story here regarding the wind and dust.  I’ll just say that on the morning I left, May 9th, I was awaked at 4:15AM with the wind blowing so hard, I thought the camper was going to blow over.  I hurriedly got the camper hooked up to the truck and latterly blew out of the there.

In spite of the wind and dust at the campground, I did spend two great days in Arches NP.  This is a magnificent park with huge mountains, monoliths and arches of sandstone.  On May 7 I hiked to Delicate Arch which is about a 3 mile round trip and well worth the hike.  The next day I had a permit to hike the Fiery Furnace, which can only be done with a group led by a ranger.  This hike required a lot of rock scrambling and squeezes through slot canyons in the sandstone.  Some of the slots were so tight I was concerned about getting through.  However, the ranger leading the was larger than me so, I figured if the ranger made it, I could to.  I have a lot of great pictures of Arches and will attach a few here.

On 9 May I left Arches for Zion NP.  I made a half day stop at Canyonlands NP on the way to see Mesa Arch which is another stunner in its beauty.  I got back on the road to Zion in early afternoon.  I got to wondering, in my haste to leave the Hittle Bottom campground, if I had closed the one window I had opened overnight on the camper.  Since it is now a mixture of precipitation including rain, sleet and snow that I’ve been driving through for the past 3 hours, it might be a good idea to check.  Well you guessed it… the window was open and quilt, down  comforter, sheets and mattress were soaked.  Nothing I can do now but close the window and go on.  I arrived at Zion in early evening and explained my predicament to the ranger as I checked into the Watchman Campground at Zion.  She informed me that there was a Laundromat in the town of Springdale, UT which is on the very edge of Zion.  I got into the my designated camp site, for which I had made reservations a few months ago, and proceed to strip the bed and head off to the Laundromat and dried the wet items.  Of course, it took the next two day of propping the mattress up inside the camper with windows open and roof vent fan running to get the mattress dry.  Fortunately, it dried and there is no sign of mildew.

I did several hikes at Zion including the strenuous and difficult Angels Landing.  This trial is featured on Youtube for those interested to take a look.  I have no adjectives to describe Zion.  You just have to see it for yourself and decide.  To me it is incredible!

I left Zion on May 13 and arrived here at the Wahweap Resort yesterday evening.  Lake Powell, as I mentioned earlier, is beautiful.  I leave here tomorrow for the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

One of Salt Lake City’s 1st sales ever was the Neese Family.

They ordered with some custom requests for graphics, spare, cargo pouches, etc…

He recently wrote us and shared the following:

“Thanks for all your help in getting our LG. We love it! It pulled quite well until we hit the big hills. We had to go down to 4th gear on that one, but cruised right up in 4th gear at 50-55mph which isn’t a major problem. This is a 6% grade so I was expecting to have to gear down. Right now we are working on setting it up the way we want it and will take a trip to try it out in March or April in preparation for our trip back east and visiting the factory!!”

I saw a Lil Guy trailer out on the road 2 years ago and knew that’s what I wanted:  something light that I could mount on my hitch (and if I couldn’t figure out how to park it could pick it up and walk it into a spot), small enough to not feel lonely sleeping alone, and it had to be cute.  I drive over 18,000 kilometres every summer along every road in Northern Canada and can be out on the road for up to 5 weeks at a time, and being a 61 year old female, travelling through isolated territory, I wanted something up off the ground, out of the bugs, that was safe and secure – and saved me money on hotels.  Haven’t slept in a hotel since and it paid for itself the first summer!  It has required absolutely no maintenance besides the good cleaning it gets after a stint on a gravel highway (such as The Dempster) and new tires.  The additional use of gas by my car is negligible.

When I first started driving with it I was using RV Parks  thinking I needed the amenities they provide such as showers and power, but after learning to fill a thermos of coffee from a gas station at night there was no futher need for power.  Parking in wooded campgrounds is preferable where I can take advantage of the privacy of the trees, and the shower can wait until I reach civilization again. And besides, it looks pretty silly squished in between the behemoth motorhomes.

End of day routine:  get parked, kick the chalks under the tires, put my alarm clock, computer (for movies), coffee pot (if I’m plugged in), nightie and clothes for the morning, inside.  Set up a camp chair by the fire, and eat something out of my food box which I carry in the car but place on the shelf in the back hatch when I’m off the road.  If I go for a drive away from the trailer I slip a tow-lock  on the hitch knowing it’ll still be there when I get back!  It never gets dark in the summer in the north so I rarely need the lights, and only occasionally turn on a heater when I’m attached to power.

It’s funny how people respond to seeing my Lil Rascal.  People point and smile as I drive past.  They want it to “do” something:  pop up to something bigger, the hatch to open onto a kitchen, etc., but I laugh and say “It’s my bed.  That’s all it needs to be.”.  Kids want to play in it.  And many women worry about how I get dressed or put on my makeup.  Very creatively!

I can’t say enough about this little trailer and I especially reccommend it to women who are on their own but still want to go camping getting the extra comfort and security without all the fuss of a fully equipped camper.  It’s my own “bedroom” when I am a guest.  It’s cozy and comfortable, and there’s nothing better than stopping at a campground after a long driving day, opening the door and being able to simply hop into bed.  I actually giggle like a kid every night when I’m all snuggled in to my “little treehouse on wheels”.

After the summer I roll it into the trees at my property, throw a tarp over it, then count the months until it’s roadtrip time again.  No system to shut down, water to drain, propane tanks to store – easy easy.  Thanks Little Guys.  It’s a marvel!

Judy Nadon
The MILEPOST
www.themilepost.com

Our maiden voyage of our Little Guy 5 wide trailer was a bit more memorable than perhaps we would have wanted it to be given all of the events that we encountered during this outing; however, throughout it all, our little guy hung in there with us and performed like a seasoned fighter.  Specifically, we ventured out for our first overnight camping trip on what was probably the worst weekend in terms of predicated weather that had the potential to generate a myriad of wild land fires in the mountains of Idaho.

Traveling over some high mountain passes early that morning to get to our designated camping spot at Pine Flats, located on the South Fork of the Payette River, our little guy handled like a champion, with our 6 cylinder 1999, Jeep Wrangler leading the way. We were impressed, given the terrain that we were trying to transverse that day on our way through the Banks-Lowman canyon, now closed today due to fire activity, which actually started the evening of our visit to this camp ground location.

Set up was a breeze and we of course had a multitude of onlookers, who had never seen such a small, yet versatile trailer before. Several of our fellow campers stopped by to ask questions about our trailer and also to take pictures of our campsite set up, which included the side 10X10 Paha Que’ ScreenRoom Tent , REI portable alcove shelter for the kitchen area, a Cabella shower and porta pottie enclosure, a portable ham radio for emergency communications, installed inside one of the nice cupboards in the trailer (we are retired Army Signal Corps Officers, call signs W7LTC and K7LTC) and a nice spacious Thule Storage unit to hold additional equipment.

As the afternoon progressed, high winds out of the north east were steadily picking up strength and the weather prediction was for micro burst storms to hit us that evening, with strong winds, rain and lightening. Already that day, another campground located about an hour north of ours was being evacuated due to a large forest fire that had started earlier in the week and was now threatening that campsite area. So tensions were rising a bit and being assigned to the USFS as a coordinator for IT support for Wildland Fire for the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), it appeared that I was not going to get the restful respite needed that weekend to recharge my batteries.

Just before the storm had arrived, we had a brief visit by my sister and her husband, who took an afternoon drive up the canyon to, see our trailer in action. Needless to say they were impressed and we had a nice family outing in the comfort of our extended kitchen area.  Anyway, to make a very long story short, we successfully made it through the night, with our little guy and adjoining tentage, buffeting the rain and high winds just fine.

We woke very early that morning to the smell of smoke, and found out from the volunteer USFS camp manager, that a fresh forest fire had started down the river from us near Banks. So we felt it was time to pack up and head back to our home in Boise, Idaho before we had to evacuate this area as well.

Again, packing up our campsite was easy. The portability of our trailer also provided us flexibility in our efforts to get out of the area as quickly as possible. Everyone else, camping in traditional tentage was scrambling to try to get their belongings together, while we simply loaded up our plastic cases with our ancillary equipment, threw them in the trailer, hooked up the truck and was on the road back home, and that was after we had a nice bacon and egg breakfast that morning before breaking down our campsite.

On the road home we encountered USFS Helicopters performing fire water dousing operations, dipping buckets into the South Fork of the Payette River and running those buckets of water back up the hillside to the fire location. We also learned that several large fires had started in our home town of Boise that night and several large trees were down, with power outages everywhere. Additionally, we found out a fellow camper had been killed by a falling tree that weekend, when the microburst hit one of the other campgrounds near our location. Fortunately, for us, we came through it all unscathed with our Little Guy  trailer, who is already packed and ready to go on another adventure. But for our sake, I sincerely, hope that it is not as exciting as this first one.  HOOAH!!!

Sincerely, LTCs Retired, Laura and Bart Hill   (Idaho)

This issue’s featured customer is Chad Larsen.  He is truly a pioneer and expanding our demographic….all while having a great time camping with his Little Guy.  Chad doesn’t mess around…he camps A LOT – he gets out, socializes, has a blast, totes his jetski and even went as far as making a custom hat in homage of his Little Guy.

Chad’s Testimonial – I first saw the Little Guy on The Price Is Right and knew I had to have one.  Two months later I had bought myself a brand new Little Guy 5 wide! What really sold me on it was how easy it pulls behind my Honda CR-V.   I hardly notice it behind me.  Without having to fill the gas tank all the time and  knowing that I could just hook up and take off, changed the way I looked at camping it was no longer a hassle to get ready for camping! I went from camping once a year to every other weekend “if not more”!

Welcome to the teardrop community Chad and we look forward to keep hearing about and seeing pictures of your camping adventures!

This issue’s featured customer is Wayne Rogers – below you will find some of his comments and adventures with his new custom 6×10 RT.

It is almost 800 miles from Ipswich, Mass to Sugar Creek.  That went fine and the accommodations were superb. I was so glad that we picked the trailer up at the factory. The questions that we had were corrected quickly by your people. When we left the factory and arrived at the corporate offices in Massillon I wanted to shop the options in the display case but the wife wanted to move on.  She got antsy wanting to reach our camp site early so I had no time to shop.

I had made reservations at camp ground on lake Ontario in NY for Friday night. As it worked out it was a really nice site right on the water. Now I know that you do not have an appreciation for my wife’s phobias. My wife has every phobia that you can think of. You name it she is afraid of it! Well….. when you were describing the integrity of the trailers cabin you told us jokingly that “It is so tight that you need to keep the windows open in order to breath”. This is not a good thing to tell my wife. She took this as littoral. When we camped that night in upstate NY she insisted that all the windows be open because we need to breath. In the middle of the night, about 2 or 3 AM she was awakened by the nose of a local bear pressed to her side screen 5 inches from her nose! I was awakened by her screams. The bear left after 20 to 30 seconds of her screaming. It was a moment that we will both remember for a long time! Nice first night! We still laugh about it.

Now for some first impressions. The trailer pulls effortlessly. It was like there was nothing behind me, no wind buffeting, no effects at all. When we arrived at the site everything went easy we pulled in, plugged in and went to sleep! During the drive starting in Sugar Creek  it took me a few miles to find a happy spot for fuel mileage. On the trip back I split the driving miles almost 50/50. I drove 390 miles on Friday and 385 on Saturday. On Friday because of the late start I found it necessary to push the speed limits. I was doing 80 to 85 MPH on the way to our NY camp site. The Jeep normally gets 20 +-.5 MPG. On Friday at 80 to 85 MPH the fuel mileage dropped to less than 16 MPG! On Saturday I laid back to around 60 to 65 MPH and got 20.8 MPG!!! WOW! Once I found the Jeeps sweet spot the MPG was predictable. The R/T does not seem to burden the drive at all. In NY on the NY thruway there were some terrible rains and winds. All traffic stopped many times for 10 minutes at a time with nothing at all moving! The R/T showed no bad manners in the terrible weather and NO LEAKS. All in all we are very happy.

A final note; You were correct. I got many, yes many inquiries about the R/T along the way. Before we left Ohio I was asked if it was made in Ohio and I said “Yes in Sugar Creek” The reply was “ Where the hell is Sugar Creek”?

This issue’s featured customer is Ann Shirley.  Here’s an excerpt from her email:

“I’ve been the talk of the neighborhood since my Little Guy arrived last September.  There was a crowd watching the unload, then visitors, visitors and more visitors.  I’m still the talk as everyone wants to know when my next trip will be.

Thanks again for your patience and support and for my little Buggy!”