The Gospel of Tears
On this trip, I have had the pleasure and occasional discomfort of explaining the origin, purpose, function, construction of the magnificent Shorty. Having a teardrop is not for the shy…and if you are (as I can be), it forces you to Deal With It.
When I sprinted to the bathroom at Sugarite State Park, I was intercepted by a gentleman that was fascinated by my trailer, and the car, and me. He started speaking as if he knew me, and started saying he really should remember my name but couldn’t at the moment. I looked at him for a minute, and he said “you built your tear! I really should remember!” This was information that one: I did not offer, and two: most random strangers on the road wouldn’t know. Therefore, I deemed it okay to offer my name.
Turns out he’s on the Teardrop and Tiny Travel Trailers board, and is one of the people that cheered me on during my build! We talked for about half an hour, and find out he and his tearmate were camped at the first campground in the park. We headed up and set up camp just across the way from them, then proceeded to do the traditional tour de tear, where you each show off your work, tell what works what doesn’t, and swap genius ideas. Even though we were in a canyon, the wind was howling and there was a fire ban (not even charcoal…no dutch oven cooking!), so we didn’t hang out and socialize long. Roy and I settled down in Shorty and watched an episode of The Twelve Kingdoms (exellent epic anime), giggled about chance, and went to sleep.
In the morning, another couple strolled through the campground, stopped at our neighbors’ rig, and said he had 2 of them back at home, but he built his. (oh, snap!) The neighbor pointed at his and said he built it, then pointed over at us and said “she built hers!” Roy and I strolled over and had good conversation all around about things construction, camping, and teardrop related. We all exchanged contact information, Roy and I went for a short walk along the creek, then we rolled out. Had a nice mosey down to Santa Fe, gave the transmission some love (new fluid), and are currently relaxing out of the midday heat at Santa Fe Brewing.
This afternoon, we head towards Alberquerque, where we will indeed make a right turn.
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