Travel
Chris and Nancy Garnham | Article and Photos
Camping in a Teardrop
While I retired fifteen years ago , Nancy only joined me in 2017 . ( She ’ s just a young thing .) This allowed us to try to answer that question : “ What now ?”
We realized that we could continue our love of the outdoors and go camping more often . This certainly pleased Nancy .
After camping and hiking for all but the first five years of my life , I ’ d had enough of sleeping on the ground . I vetoed any big plans based on tenting . As a kid , my camping experiences included a tent camper or trailer . Nancy vetoed these ; folding up and putting away wet canvas was as distasteful to her as lying on rocks was to me .
When I suggested a teardrop trailer as a compromise , she said “ What ’ s that ?” and
Nancy kayaking on Upper Kananaskis Lake immediately dived into a search engine to find out .
Teardrops are little trailers that you pull behind almost any size car ( no truck required ); the backs open up to a galley-style kitchen . “ Hey , that looks neat .” She liked the idea of being out camping but still sleeping under a roof . We started looking for suppliers .
Online , we scoured North America for options , pricing , and levels of trim . Buying from the United States was too expensive with no guarantee of quality . Canada provided fewer choices , with an equal number of hobbyists building out of their garages and less-than professional commercial builders .
We eventually found a good supplier and were able to order a custom teardrop trailer . The details , such as the kitchen cabinets , galvanized frame , insulation , and queen-sized bed with a six-inch mattress were a great bonus !
It arrived in September 2017 and gave direction to our retirement .
We took a week to outfit the trailer with our stuff . Then we took off in late September to Ottawa
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