A Season of COVID-19 Travel: a Full-time Small Trailer Owner Tells Her Story

"If you’d asked me a year ago how many face masks I owned, I would have simply stared at you in confusion, not quite understanding the reason for the question. Ten months into 2020, I can answer it easily: four cloth masks and two boxes of disposable ones." --Annie Wynn

Face masks, social distancing, campground security, and shopping for gas and groceries--I'm fortunate to have been given permission to guest-post an article by Annie Wynn of Wynn Worlds blogging fame. About a year ago, I wrote an owner profile, "Annie Wynn's Wonderful World: 3 Years on the Road," and have followed her blog since. Can anyone doubt that this 4th year of travel has been . . . unique? Want to know what it's like to live on the road during a pandemic? Read on.

November 9, 2020

--by Annie Wynn

In mid-July, I set out on a Southeastern adventure, partly to beat the Florida heat and partly because, well, that’s what I do, I’m a vagabond and my home is my trailer. It was my first outing since COVID-19 hit and that informed a lot of my planning before and behavior during this three month trip. (Note: I also tracked infection rates per 100,000 and death rates for counties and states where I was considering stays. In July, Florida literally had the highest rates in both categories for the Southeast, so it wasn’t like I was going from safety into danger; I was already in the thick of it just being in Florida.)

The goal: The cool forests of the Appalachian Mountains

ROUTING MAP

As with most of my journeys, I keep a map on my corkboard of where I am and where I’m planning to go. I don’t know why, it just makes me happy. Green pins are completed stops, and I use red for planned stops, with the blue pin being my current location. My route would be an arc, heading up to the mountains and then sliding back down to Florida.

PLANNING

Slower pacing: I wanted to drive less and stay longer in places, so most of my reservations were at least 4 days, some were 6 or 7 days, and a few maxed out at the 14-day stay limit enforced by most state and national campgrounds.

Careful Campsite Selection: More than before, I pored over satellite views of campgrounds, read reviews, and tried to pick out sites that had plenty of room around them. About half of the campgrounds I stayed at were repeats, so I had a pretty good idea of which sites had more room than others. But that other half? In general, my picks worked out. Labor Day, always a crowded time in the campground, was probably my worst site of the trip, but since I’d only made that reservation 3 months beforehand, it wasn’t all that bad and with a tiny trailer, I can fit almost anywhere.

Stocking Up: Given the hoarding of food and paper products that went on nationwide in the Spring, I worried about not having enough, especially in areas without a big city nearby. I started with a lot of toilet paper and paper towels, a two big plastic containers full of food staples, and another one mostly full of cleaning supplies (hand sanitizer, wipes, bleach spray, and so on). I felt prepared for almost anything.

Ports in the Storm: By the time I started the trip, I had three places I could go to ground if things went nuts. And I was never going to be more than two days drive away from Gainesville, so if the world exploded, I could retreat and hunker down with friends there.

While I didn’t do coastal spots, I did find a lot of water spots to enjoy

IN MOTION

Masking Up: I started the trip with four cloth masks and two boxes of disposable masks. My plan was to wash the cloth masks after each use and only use the disposables if I didn’t have a dry mask. But, cloth masks with 2-3 layers ake a while to dry, especially when it’s humid outside (and the South is humid in summer, trust me on this one). I ended up using the disposable masks a lot more than I thought I would. I wore them to grocery stores and pharmacies where I’d just toss them after the one use, especially if I noticed more than a handful of people without masks.

Social Distancing: Pretty easy to do in a campground, right? Well, you would actually be slightly wrong there. One of the more popular things to do is walk around the campground, since they are usually loops and paved. Some people stayed safe distance apart but some wanted to walk right up and chat, with no masks in hand. Yikes.

Walking Out: There were a few stores that I walked into and promptly walked out of because about half the people weren’t wearing masks or had their noses uncovered (which I so don’t get). I figured I could always get by until I found another, better-masked, store at the next stop. This is where the food stable storage came in handy; I didn’t have to buy groceries if I didn’t need to. While my intake of fresh fruit and veggies suffered a bit, I still mostly got what I needed on the road.

Meeting Up: It was a somewhat delicate dance to arrange meeting up with friends, whether we were camping together or me just visiting their town. This is where we are in 2020: asking how your friends feel about wearing masks and social distancing, and if they are avid socializers or mostly stayed to themselves this year has become the norm. I was fortunate that my friends were mostly self-isolating, avoiding big gatherings and indoor eating, and so on. We still masked up, for example, at a friend’s house for an afternoon and evening of catching up. And when a larger group of us (six or seven people) gathered several days of camping, we all wore masks even outdoors, as one of us is looking at some serious surgery in November and getting sick with anything would have derailed their plans.

If I hadn’t taken that wrong turn, I never would have seen these pink-wrapped bales of cotton

HOW THINGS WENT

Campgrounds were BUSY: Usually after Labor Day, the demand for sites slacks off, even on weekends. But this year, no way. Campgrounds were usually full every night and reservation changes were hard to do. In a few cases, the small size of my rig (17 feet) got me a site that bigger rigs would have to pass on, such as my Labor Day weekend site. Technically, it was a 20-foot long site, double-wide, so my trailer was on one side, and my Ridgeline on the other.

Most people wear masks: Honestly, they do. But as the summer wore on into the fall, I saw more people without masks walking into Walmart or CVS or the convenience store at a gas station. Even Walmart, which had vigorously enforced wearing masks in July had mostly given up by September, and I can’t recall the last Walmart I saw with someone standing outside making sure you had a mask on. It’s such a simple thing to do, and shows you want to protect other people, so why is it such a big deal? I still shake my head whenever I see a maskless person proudly walking into the store as if they’re daring anyone to say anything to them about it. And no one does, especially not in states with concealed carry. This is America in 2020, and all of it makes me sad.

Most Stores are Well-Stocked: With the occasional exception of cleaning products, most stores had shelves full of food and supplies. I gradually relaxed and started using up my stash of food and supplies so that I was carrying less around with me. (I was also still figuring out how to most efficiently stow stuff in the Ridgeline without having to unpack completely just to get to that one thing I wanted. This is an ongoing adventure in access control.)

Making memories: birthday paddle and hanging with friends in TN

It was definitely different being a vagabond this summer and fall. No museums, no treating myself to an afternoon matinee of the latest movie, and very little meeting of fellow campers. People kept to themselves or their bubbles, so most interactions were with people standing 10 feet away and that kept conversations short.

I’m hanging around northern Florida till early January, exploring some of the state parks and planning on some airbnb time for the holidays. So still in motion, just a lot less mileage and a lot more Gainesville, which is my home base.

What forests look like in north central Florida

TRIP STATISTICS

• Nights: 106
• States Visited: Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia
• Campgrounds: 20 (including one driveway stay at friends)
• Lodging Costs: $2800 ($26.40 average/night)
• Total Mileage: 3500
• Towing Mileage: 2350
• Gas Costs: $450 (rough mpg while towing: 16)

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Love at First Sight: a Tale of a New Trailer Pick-up in Canada during a January Snowstorm and Then the Epic Trip South

Ready to head home, snow and all.

Every RV owner remembers the trip to pick up the rig, whether the trek is short or long. Here is a guest post by Bill Lazzaro, administrator of the Facebook group Alto Trailer R-1713 and R-1723 Fans, where he relates his trailer pick-up story. This story isn't your everyday pick-up, like mine was when I rode with my son-in-law on a two and half hour drive in July to Des Moines, Iowa, to a residence just three blocks off the freeway. Lazzaro's trip was to Quebec City, Canada, in the winter, during a snowstorm. Quite a tale!

January 16, 2018 Pick Up
--by Bill Lazzaro

Our friends told us we were crazy. Family members were worried for our safety. Safari Condo doubted we'd do it.

When we called Safari Condo to place an order for a R-1713 in early January 2017, we expected a 15 month wait time. So when Daniel, who was our salesman, gave us a date only 12 months away, we felt like we had hit the lottery!. But he cautioned us, "No one wants to come to Quebec in the winter." He so strongly believed we'd change our minds that he wrote up our order reflecting spring 2018 prices, which inflated the costs due to the changeover to their new model year. When challenged about that, he said, "We don't think you'll really come up here in January." We convinced him otherwise.

Bill Lazzaro

We know winter very well. Elaine and I grew up in New York state where winter is real. There, winter driving on snow-covered roads is routine. You had to learn to drive safely in those conditions, and we certainly had. We lived in central New York state in our college years, where we occasionally experienced cold temperatures in the negative teens.

We also reasoned that we would be strategic about the trip. If a storm was predicted, we'd adjust our travel plans accordingly. If that meant leaving a day or two early or staying put in a hotel until the roads were cleared, we'd be fine.

But we did anticipate that weather would be a continuous factor from the time we started the trip until we got home.

We started our trip giving ourselves an extra day to get there. A winter storm was forecast for the entire east coast on the day we left. We chose a route that took us along the heavily traveled highways between Washington, Baltimore, Philly and NY City. If any route would be kept clear, it would be that one. As it turned out, we were ahead of the storm.

By the time we made it to Albany, NY, the storm had caught up to us. The highway was slightly covered by snow but still safe for driving. There were five inches of snow on the ground.

We spent the night in Albany and headed north early the next morning. The highway was generally dry. The trip through the snow-covered Adirondacks was breathtaking. We sailed along barely noticing that the accumulated snow from previous day's snow was getting deeper and deeper. We barely noticed the dropping temperatures, too.

Plattsburgh, New York, on our way up to the Canadian border.
Our window washer fluid had frozen into a slushy.

Outside of Plattsburgh, NY, we noticed that our window washer fluid wasn't working. We had used it quite a bit on the previous day, so I thought we might be out of fluid. When I checked it, there was plenty of washer fluid, but it looked like a blue slushy in the reservoir. Our -25 degree-rated washer fluid was freezing. The outside temperature was close to zero degrees.

I added some washer fluid from a new jug, hoping it was warm enough to melt the slush. It worked only for a short time.

After having lunch in Plattsburgh, we were excited to reach the Canadian border. But the border crossing changed everything.

From the moment we entered Canada until we reached Montreal, we were driving hard-packed snow and ice. The road was in terrible shape. There was no apparent road treatment. No sand was applied. Ice-melting chemicals don't work at those temperatures. Elaine was driving this stretch. I was a nervous wreck. We felt like we were on an episode of Ice Road Truckers. There were very few other vehicles on the road with us. For long stretches, we were alone. It was extremely stressful, but Elaine's experience and skills got us through.

Conditions improved when we got to Montreal. The road surface was brown with a mix of road treatments. We felt safe traveling once again.

We set our sights for Levis. There wasn't much to see along that route. We'd be at our destination in a couple of hours.

We wanted to stop and take a break, but noticed accidents on several of the off ramps. The foot of snow that had fallen overnight was causing exiting vehicles to slide off the road when they exited the highway. So we pressed on.

Arriving at Levis, we too did some slipping and sliding when we exited the highway. The road was covered by six inches of unplowed, hard, rutted snow. They were a mess. We stopped at a service station and bought Canadian window washer fluid rated at -45 degrees. That stuff kept our windshield clear.

The temperature was well below zero when we checked into our hotel.

That evening we wanted to get dinner. The roads were in terrible shape so we wanted to stay close. We got in the truck to drive across the parking lots to the nearby restaurants. We needed four wheel drive to make that short trip.

It was -15 degrees the next morning with wind chills of -30. Snow plows had worked overnight, so the roads were better for traveling, but still not good.

Since we had planned an extra day in our trip, we made an early visit to Safari Condo to see the place. It was the middle of the afternoon when we got there. The front door was locked. So were the side doors. We went around the back and found a person there who let us in. He was Daniel, our salesman. We spoke briefly and we looked around. Our Alto wasn't there yet. It was still at the factory. We told Daniel that we were experienced trailer owners so only needed Alto specific information in our walk-through the following day.

Pick Up Day at the Alto factory.

We arrived at SC on our Pick Up Day excited and ready to take our Alto home. It was another brisk morning with temperatures in the negative teens.

Our paperwork and walk through took three hours. Then we left the showroom and made a beeline for the border. Our goal was to cross the border and get as far south as we could that day. More snow was predicted for that afternoon.

We got to the border before dark. It was snowing heavily by that time, but driving conditions were OK. We had no problems getting across with our paperwork. Waiting in line to get to the checkpoint took about twenty minutes. Our conversation with the border agents was less than five minutes.

We had planned to overnight in Plattsburgh, but it was still early enough in the day when we got there that we decided to try to get through the Adirondacks before we stopped. Elaine drove the last few hours in the snow and dark. The road surface was white but not dangerous. The problem we had was being able to see. Our headlights weren't projecting much light. When we stopped for the night at Lake George, NY, we found a thick layer of snow and ice had formed over the headlights, limiting their use.

It was stilling snowing the next morning. Schools were closed to the south of us. The TV was reporting numerous weather-related accidents.

We used our phone to access 511.com for NYS. There we could see traffic cams along our route. Traffic was moving slowly but safely, so we set off for our final day of the trip. There were nine inches of snow by the time we reached the Mid Hudson valley, but we were able to keep moving safely.

By the time we reached the NY/NJ border, the snow had stopped. We were relieved and delighted.

Entering Pennsylvania, we stopped at the rest area. While stretching our legs, we struck up a conversation with the woman at the desk. She had seen us coming in towing the Alto. She had questions. When we told her that we were headed to Maryland, she told us the road ahead was closed. There had been a multi-truck accident, but she handed us a map and marked out an alternate route. We were thankful that we had talked to her.

That afternoon, we saw parts of the Pennsylvania countryside we had never seen before. The route took sixty minutes longer, but we got home safe and sound.

Arrival home.

Using the remote-controlled trailer mover to back the Alto into its narrow garage.

We were home with our new Alto. The long wait was over. Blue Heaven was in our driveway. Life is good.

Picking up in the winter wasn't that crazy after all.

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Mary, Ava, and Retirement in Their Tiny "Woody" Teardrop

Mary McCartney enjoying retirement with her travel companion and her "woody" teardrop.

This post is a guest article written by retired school teacher and tiny trailer owner Mary McCartney, from Missouri. It is a perfect Owner Profile and an inspiration for tiny trailer aficionados, especially with her beautiful custom-built trailer.

--by Mary McCartney

In 2016 I retired from being a public school teacher to concentrate on a new career in the wanderlust industry. Growing up with summers spent traveling the United States in the back of a station wagon, with tents and aluminum lawn chairs strapped on top, was intensive early training in outdoor wanderlust. When not traveling, we were floating the rivers in The Ozark National Scenic Riverways in Shannon County, Missouri. I grew up camping, backpacking, or in a canoe, always with dogs in tow. When my children were growing up, the camping and floating tradition continued with my own little family. My father, "Papa" to the boys, blessed us all with a love of nature and conservation. To date, I feel closer to God, watching the mist rise from a river or a sunset behind an ocean or mountains.

"I bought my first one cheap, on a whim."

So to continue, in 2016 it was natural to look at teardrops for sale. I bought my first one cheap, on a whim, and went to Gary, Indiana, to pick it up. At this point in the story, it is important to introduce my travel partner, Ava. She is my dog, and the position of power shifted immediately after I got her. In other words, she is really in charge. Of course the first night we spent together was in a tent and then in a canoe for a couple of days. So Ava and I went up to Gary to buy this little 4 x 8 teardrop with no air conditioning or heat; it was basically a hard-sided tent on wheels, that we loved. One of the earliest trips we took was with The Heartland Tearjerkers camping group, and we met some of the closest friends that we still camp with four or five times a year.

"I just couldn't get it out of my mind and had to see it to 'rule it out.' I was enchanted from the first glimpse.
The snow was so thick on the way home that we were only going 45 mph."

We took that little camper all over the Midwest and as far south as a month-long trip down to The Florida Keys, and were sold on teardrops and Tearjerkers, so we upgraded to the homebuilt woody that we travel with today. The woody was built by a couple in Wisconsin, Grant and Diane Pipkorn, and when we drove up to see it, we fell in love with this one of a kind, spectacular camper. The craftsmanship and attention to fine detail draws lots of attention, which every teardrop owner becomes used to. The must-have feature for our teardrop is the galley in the back. Being outside in nature is the point, and cooking and hanging out in the kitchen allows for that. (As well as the ability to fight off the inevitable raccoons.) Solar capacity was another must-have feature which we had installed because I was afraid to drill into the wood, but many owners do it themselves. Boondocking without electric hookup, means seeing places that most people never experience. Another great advantage to solar is staying on free BLM land out West. We, the people of the United States, own about 700 million acres of land that is open for free camping or at a minimal cost. The Army Corps of Engineers also manages free camping along rivers and lakes. I highly recommend this option to get off the beaten path.

With an all-wood interior and exterior, the camper weighs around 1,200 pounds dry, so a tow vehicle is quite important. I pull with a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited with a hitch weight of 200 pounds, which works because the camper has a long tongue distributing the weight to the rear. My tow weight is gross 2,000 pounds, but because most of the gear goes in the Jeep, the camper gross is about 1,350 pounds, which is manageable. The back seats of the Jeep can be folded down or removed, and if you have a dog that is really the boss, it allows plenty of room for said dog to stretch out and make demands. It is still a bit slow in the mountains, but who, pulling a trailer, isn’t? Regarding tow vehicles, I highly recommend installing a five point hitch which charges batteries while driving.  This is an easy DIY project for both the vehicle and camper.

Mary is an active member of the Heartland Tear Jerkers.

The best advice to anyone considering a teardrop, especially solo women, is to do it and stretch your comfort level.  It is surprising how nature can change a person's outlook, and doing it in a teardrop is exceptionally empowering.  Of course, doing it with a dog companion enhances all of the above.

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Tiny Trailer Security: the Valentino Approach

Karen and Louis Valentino

Occasionally I run across an online social media post that provides a focused, unified examination of a particular topic of interest to tiny trailer campers. My latest find is on trailer security, explaining a multi-options approach to dissuading thieves. This married couple's approach to discouraging someone stealing their tiny trailer addresses the hitch, the receiver, and the wheels. Without further explanation, here is the "Valentino Approach."

--by Karen Thomas Valentino

I recommend employing multiple deterrents. I first learned about this idea when researching bike theft. Just like with bicycles and other items that can be stolen with relative ease, a large portion of thieves are opportunists who will move on to the next guy if it looks like a hassle to steal your [insert toy here]. For our Hiker Trailer my husband did a huge amount of research. We use four deterrents: Trimax wheel lock, heavy duty latch lock, locking lug nuts AND a Proven Industries receiver lock. 

Trimax: The Trimax lock has a very good reputation, and Louis decided it was the best way to secure the wheel. One comment I read against it was that you can pull the wheel and replace it with another, but that is not a quick and easy task. An opportunistic thief is not likely to be prepared to do that. 

Locking Lug nuts and latch lock: Both of these can be defeated fairly quickly with the right tools, but the point here is to slow down the thief, ensure they have to have the tools on hand, make it more obvious s/he is at work, and to further delay theft. 

Receiver lock: We went with Proven Industries after viewing a good (and, of course, obviously biased) video on their website. It can't simply be beaten off like a lot of other receiver locks. 

GPS Locator: We also have a Tile hidden on our camper; it is a locator that works through Bluetooth and allows us to see the location of our camper on our phones. We have checked several times while on the road, and it has shown us exactly where it is. (Luckily it has always been where we expect it to be!) If you are interested to learn more about how Tile works, I recommend reading more on their web site. 

While a high number of thefts are opportunistic, and the more deterrents you have the better, some are planned. These thieves target their objectives and are patient. Your teardrop trailer is more likely to be stolen from its storage location (apartment parking lot, outside your home) than when camping. Anything you can do there will be helpful. We are lucky; our Hiker lives in our garage when not on the road. Some of you who store yours outdoors have good solutions I haven't had to give thought to. I think a key would be to try to block access to the tow bar/chains.

Editor: Regarding the Tile device, one FB comment was as follows--"As a note, Tile only works as short range because it works off of Bluetooth. Once the Tile is too far away from your phone you won't be able to locate it. (I believe 300 foot range) if you want actual far distance tracking you must buy a real GPS locator that usually has a subscription fee to it."

Karen Valentino responded in the following manner: "Tile is NOT a GPS device. But even if the Tile in my camper goes out of range of my phone, there’s a high likelihood I will locate it. Tile works through crowdsourcing. Say someone steals my camper. Any phone in the area of the camper that is running the Tile app will detect our Tile, and when that phone next connects to the Internet, it will push its location up to the Tile servers. Tile is prolific; it’s on many, many keychains, devices, wallets and valuables because  people use it to find misplaced items. We have been miles away from our camper, and when we access the app we can see that its last recorded location is right where it’s supposed to be. So this option is not as robust as GPS, but the only cost is the Tile itself - no ongoing service fee. And eventually, if not immediately, the thief is likely be somewhere where our Tile (and camper) will be detected."

Here’s a link to a “how it works” video on the Tile web site: https://www.thetileapp.com/en-us/how-it-works .

If interested in an additional perspective on trailer anti-theft security besides the Valentino Approach, try another Green Goddess Glamping article: "Security: A Starter Pack for New Teardrop Owners."

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(Note: As the content for Green Goddess Glamping evolves, sometimes content focus will dictate that articles will be posted on some Facebook groups and not others. Articles on Dutch oven cooking, portable toilets, or bicycle day rides, for instance, could find posts in different groups. The best way to ensure that you are receiving all articles is to subscribe to follow this blog by email notifications.)