Getting un-stuck

The parts are in at Buck's to complete the differential re-build.  That's scheduled for next week Wednesday and Thursday, along with whatever needs to be done about the driver's side air spring.

Total cost -- you don't wanna know.   Srsly.

Moving right along ...  yesterday was a new high in page-views here.  What I started as a way to keep a few friends and family posted on what I was doing, and where, now has readers.  One, even, from Moscow.  Yes, that Moscow, not the one in Idaho.  Welcome, all!  Leave a comment from time to time to remind me you're there.

Recently, Bob Wells has put up a couple of blog posts about a line of small travel trailers: the Runaways.  The first was here and the second (just up today) is here. These are very cool looking little trailers, which can be pulled behind little cars.  There's a picture of one being pulled by a Smart Car, which strikes me as all kinds of unlikely:

Really?!!

As Bob points out, these aren't for everyone.  They're not for me, for a number of reasons which I'll talk about in a minute.  But I find them, and the idea of them, strangely compelling.   One of these would make it possible to get a small SUV to tow it with and use as daily transportation at home.  (I suppose I could tow it with Buttercup the Hyundai Accent, but that strikes me as only a little less unlikely than the Smart Car idea. I've toyed with the idea of towing Buttercup behind the Beast, but that's really unattractive.  Well, the idea is attractive, and people do it all the time, but I've got enough problems navigating in traffic with the Beast by itself.  Not to mention the cost of a decent tow rig (I'm a little sensitive about costs right now!)  The things I find appealing about the Runaway idea is that (1) it'd be new; (2) It'd be so small that I could see around and behind me; (3) I could park it at a campsite and go to town, or some back road, that would be difficult with the Beast.

Here's the problem:  size.  Plus the fact that I've towed trailers and it's not my idea of fun.

Staying in/with one of these strikes me as a kind of hybrid between tent camping and RV-ing.  Here's a picture from Bob' blog (referenced on the right) which shows what it would be like:

Neat, huh?  The killer for me is that the trailer is too low to stand up in.  You'd sleep and haul stuff in the trailer, and essentially live outdoors. Which is fine, except for bugs and bigger critters which want to eat your food, and rain and privacy.  When I first had the idea of getting an RV, my image was of the VW camper vans of yore.  Then I pictured myself in one of those for a multi-day rainstorm in East Somewhere, MT.   Possible?  Sure.  Desirable?  Not for me.  So since I seem to have the option, no matter how appealing the various small-trailer solutions are, I'll leave them for others.

But --- awwwww!  They ARE cute!