HOME

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Nine teardrops and a tiny travel trailer on Treasure Island

The Treasure Island Meet and Greet was a huge success


I arrived at Treasure Island shortly after 7:30 AM to meet all of my Teardrops 'n Tiny Travel Trailer (tnttt.com) kindred spirits. We needed to be there early to park our trailers on the lawn beneath the Bliss Dance sculpture and get them set up for the crowd that would arrive at 10:00 AM when the flea market opened.


It was fun to pull in and park with all of the tiny teardrops as we waited for everyone to arrive.


After parking I set up my awning for the first time ever! Dare I say it was super cute? Because I still haven't found a Sunbrella fabric that matches my yellow paint I used an old tablecloth as a temporary awning. Some rope and a couple of eyelets were all I needed to put it together. I'll make a tutorial later and show you how I did it.

I helped my neighbor Laura put up her awning just to learn how to do it. Then one of the guys helped me put up mine. Two tent poles, four stakes, some rope and tension pieces for the guy lines and I was set.

YAY! I didn't think it was possible for the trailer to look even cuter but turns out it was!


There were ten trailers there on Saturday. We set up and hosted a meet and greet with the public answering any and all questions they had about our tiny travel trailers.


Meals were easy to find at the food truck round up just yards away. I had my first Chairman Bao hum-bao, a Crispy Miso Cured Tofu patty with garlic-tofu mayo and baby choy sum greens. It was delicious! And I don't even like tofu. LOL. The funniest thing was that it took me over three hours to eat it. There were so many people stopping to ask questions I was averaging a bite of food every 15 minutes or so. Laura joked it was going to take me eight hours to finish it. I think it took just under four.


As the sun set we prepared to settle in for the night. . .


Two vintage Benroys awash in the warmth of the setting sun.


That night we gathered around two propane fire rings. If it hadn't been for the wind it would have been a balmy 56º out. With the wind chill? I think it was closer to 41º. It was COLD! But, like troopers, we huddled up and spent the evening chatting around the fire. There was even freshly popped campfire popcorn to be had.


Sadly, Bliss Dance wasn't completely lit at night as she was the year before.


My disappointment about the sculpture not being lit was lifted when all of a sudden a fireworks show began across The Bay. I left the safety of the warm zone and ran to the edge of the lawn to take some pictures. Turned out it was the 35th anniversary of Pier 39. It was a nice, unexpected treat.


Sunday morning was cold, grey, and very windy.

But it was still a very fun time. The top ten questions I was asked most often were:

1. You can't sleep in that can you?
2. What made you want to get a trailer?
3. Where do you take it?
4. You travel alone? Aren't you afraid to travel alone?
5. What kind of vehicle do you tow with?
6. And it gets around ok?
7. So you design trailers for a living?
8. Where do you go to the bathroom?
9. What are the dimensions?
10. How many miles have you driven?


My neighbor Laura had the coolest tow vehicle (she built with the help of friends) hitched to the vintage '46 trailer she restored herself. As a welder and blacksmith she was a fascinating person to meet and talk to. She's been welding for 20 years! I wish I'd taken it up earlier in my life. You can make so many things when you know how to weld.


All of the other trailers at the meet and greet were teardrops with the exception of The Glampette. There were vintage trailers from the 40's and modern teardrops from Camp-Inn and Little Guy.

Congratulations to Debbie and Randy on their trailer winning the People's Choice award. Their handmade wood exterior teardrop measures a whopping 5'x10' is filled with beautiful quilted accessories (made by Debbie), and was the hit of the rally winning by a landslide. Sadly, I didn't get a shot of it set up. I was too busy talking to the public Saturday and they left just as I was leaving my trailer Sunday morning :(


One of the flea market vendors came by Sunday morning with a new piece of recycled art he created overnight. How fun! If I had room to store decorative items I would have been tempted but I can literally only bring on board things I need, then I try to find a way to make them cute and glampy.


As Sunday morning wore on the other campers departed one, sometimes two, at a time. My friend Armando wanted to come by and see The Glampette for the first time so I waited for him. Which made me the last woman standing, well, second to last if you count Bliss Dance.

Photo by Christina Nellemann

I even made it into a blog post about the rally on the Tiny Yellow Teardrop blog. Click here to take a peek :)

0 Click Here to Comment: