Tiny House Blog

The Blonde Coyote travels the backroads of the American West with a pair of trusty canines, a Subaru named “Raven” and a handcrafted teardrop trailer named “Rattler”. Mary Caperton Morton (aka The Blonde Coyote) is a freelance science and travel writer, photographer and a professional housesitter who has spent the past couple of years moving around the country every four to six months. Mary used to live out of her car in between housesitting jobs and carried her camping gear on the car’s roof rack – until she fell in love with teardrop trailers.

“I saw my first teardrop at a campground at Guadalupe National Park in Texas and fell instantly in love,” Mary said. “Less than a month later, I bought my own. I had been casting about for the next iteration of my life on the road. After 7 years of living out of my car in between housesitting gigs, I was craving some personal space, but I wasn’t willing to settle in one place. The teardrop was the perfect solution!” Continue Reading »

If a Moroccan tent and a trailer had a baby, and that baby went to charm school, it might look just like the Opera. The Opera is manufactured by the Netherlands-based Your Suite in Nature (YSIN) and was designed after the Sydney Opera House. The trailer travels around as a nondescript pop-up, but then transforms like a swan into an elegant and luxurious camping space.

The Opera has been designed for people who don’t want to tow around larger, heavier campers or fifth wheels,  but still want comfortable amenities while still enjoying the outdoors. The Opera offers what most camping tents don’t: two electrically adjustable beds that can be transformed into one, a private ceramic toilet and two sinks, a 36 liter (9.5 gallon) top-loading refrigerator, a 30 liter (about 8 gallon) water tank and water pump, LED lighting and even a teak veranda. The Opera also has a boiler that supplies warm water to the outdoor kitchen and the exterior shower, hot air heating, two cupboards, and a wine storage cabinet as well as baggage and clothing storage. Continue Reading »

Tiny House Blog readers who have perused the book “Teardrops and Tiny Trailers” by Douglas Keister may have seen the delightful little Swallow’s Nest trailer owned by Lowell and Janice Vivian. This trailer was originally built in 1961 by the German trailer company, Knaus. For its 50th anniversary, Knaus is selling the redesigned Schwalbennest in a limited edition retro design.

The diminutive trailer is just over 12 feet long and about 7 feet high. It weighs about 1,245 lbs. and has a maximum load capacity of about 400 lbs. It includes an awning, three windows and a skylight, outdoor lighting, integrated blinds, lights, a two-burner stove and sink, a fold-out work surface, a refrigerator, a four gallon water tank and a gas heater. It sleeps two people on the 4.5 ft. by 7 ft. fold-out bed. The trailer also contains a full wardrobe, storage under and behind the benches and above the dining area. Continue Reading »

Rosie has been SOLD!

We are ‘snowbirds’ from Canada, 60 something, who have always tried to have a small footprint. We were environmentalists and vegetarians long before it was the ‘in thing’. In our retirement we sold all the trappings of our old lives and travelled in a van and backpacking tent. That proved to be the most liberating experience of our lives! It came to be though, that we wanted a home base in Canada so we bought a bit of land and built…by ourselves…as small a cottage as the local bylaws would allow. Winters, however, have been spent in Texas pursuing our simple passion for birding. For this purpose we bought an 1983 Airstream Excella, that we named Rosie, to refurbish and be our winter home. We have been comfortably living in ROSIE’s 232 sq ft for 4 months a year. She has everything we need and more. We enjoyed the challenge of making her liveable and easy to maintain.

A change came over us this winter though. We decided that we needed less space! We would like to explore but do not own a tow vehicle for Rosie. We needed to think even smaller and lighter to make more travel affordable; we needed to think even simpler to make boondocking possible. So, to that end, we have purchased a used 17 ft Casita Spirit Deluxe, already named Megg (for the EGG that it is ), that our Toyota can easily tow. We will be downsizing to 102 sq ft! Our plans are to stay down south for even longer periods, maybe up to 6 months. We’ll have the option of summer trips up north too. Continue Reading »

This beautiful gypsy wagon, which was used as a prop in the 1988 movie “Big Top Pee-Wee” has been available for sale since the middle of last year. The wagon, restored by Gary Votapka, was originally purchased for his land in Montana, but it is still sitting in a California neighborhood waiting for its next owner.

The vardo was in terrible shape when Gary purchased it for $10,000 and towed it from Barstow to his home in Fallbrook, Calif. The wagon had been sitting in the sun for over 20 years and gallons of desert dust and sand had settled onto the floor. Since the wagon had also been used as a prop in a movie with Pee-Wee Herman and Valeria Golino, none of the drawers opened and the cabinets were facades. Over the course of four years, Gary, his wife and son restored the gypsy wagon (by using a DVD of the movie) to its original colorful state and added a few workable cabinets and a comfortable bed. Continue Reading »

This is our 13 foot 1974 Boler we have been traveling in around Western Canada, the US, and Mexico since August. We can pull up anywhere, unload our cactus display stand and start selling our handmade guitar straps! We also have an online store at www.bluedogguitars.com.

When we tire of traveling, our plan is to set up our boutique guitar store in Vancouver BC, with the Boler in the showroom as a private space for people to try out guitars, as the acoustics in the Boler are amazing.

(Photo Credits Jenn and Paul)

Sleeping arrangements require the shuffling of a lot of the contents into our car, as we have modified the bed to become almost king-size with the use of two extra-large coolers, so the process makes it more of a camping lifestyle than your typical RV experience. We also have two rather large dogs, so a bivouac in a Walmart parking lot, in the rain, makes for some strategic planning. Continue Reading »