Saturday, April 03, 2010

Teardrops On Driveways And Whiskers On Kittens..

We were out for a golf cart ride this evening, just before sunset, and passing a few motorbikes which were parked on their owners driveways, I was reminded that I want to take photos of all the unusual vehicles in this park before I leave in just over 3 weeks time. Pause, deep breath, new paragraph.

Then we came upon this little fella that looked like a 'teardrop' trailer on steroids.



Now teardrops can, and do, come in various sizes but none are close to being bigger than the vehicle that tows it, thus making them perfect for midgets who want to tour the English Lake District. Anything bigger and you'd need a crane to get them round most of the corners up there.

You don't see many in America and, not surprisingly, this isn't just down to the lack of midgets here. It's more a case of "why buy a mobile garden shed when you can buy a mobile house" sort of mentality - as you can see from my previous post.

No, anything pulled behind your vehicle here needs to be the size of your house ( and often IS your house ) or why bother ? It would be like camping in a tent. Silly idea best left to the British and those Germans who frequent nudist sites in the Black Forest.

When Americans go touring/camping, they like the kitchen sink to go with them. And the plasma tv, the full size fridge/freezer with ice maker, the shower and toilet, the surround sound audio system, the king size bed, the roof mounted satellite dish and a 700 gallon fuel tank so that they can travel 23 miles before needing a refill.

So I don't see the point of this puffed up teardrop. Yes it has a lot of the above mentioned features but still on the small size for obvious reasons. It has a shower, a toilet, a furnace, a/c, a kitchen (of sorts) and even a monitor (not a tv) , presumably to watch dvds and plug your laptop into. But all these camping necessities have been available in a small type of trailer for decades and they are called popups. I had one myself in fact, back in 2002 when I had a bit more hair and a lot less girth.




But still, this r-pod (a pod not actually made by Apple but looking like a slice of one) is an example of a whacky vehicle in this park and as such, it deserved to be photographed. Sometime soon I'll put up the rest of them as there are plenty more on the driveways around sunny Buttonwood Bay.

Wait till you get a load of the side by side tandem !

5 comments:

Daphne said...

I've never been camping in any kind of caravan-type thing so your popup seems like the height of luxury to me! My parents had a caravan for years but for some reason I never went in it. All my camping has been in tents. The last time was about seven years ago at Robin Hood's Bay where the sun shone and it was idyllic. Shame it's never stopped raining since then!

rhymeswithplague said...

Clever post title, Ian! And a good description in the post on American consumerism, too.

Yorkshire Pudding said...

Of course a philatelist is someone who collects stamps but I wonder if there is a term for someone who stalks around trailer parks snapping pictures of other people's vacation vehicles? Perhaps a silverbackist but there could be other terms!

jay said...

I rather like the teardrop! It's pretty, and yep, bigger than most, so perhaps you could bring it back when you come home? LOL!

Kate said...

Great post Ian! I love the teardrop! To me small is delightful. Why leave home if you have the same amount of cleaning to do?
And your popup is great too!
Unfortunately I am running out of funds to er fund my studies so will be selling my compactavan soon... sigh.

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