Inspiration and Innovation

One of the things that inspires me is seeing creative solutions to life's problems. As an example, a visitor to the site, He Ruide, had a tent stake stuck in the ground. He used the BAL Trailer Leveler to leverage the stake out of the ground.

Our Caboose is filled with our own modifications, some we thought of ourselves, and others were inspired by other campers.

A look at the bookmarks in my browser shows other innovators and creative problem solvers. Finkbuilt is a serious tinkerer. Then there is the artistic tinkering by Nemomatic. There are lots of tools and fun at ThinkGeek, and there is daily inspiration available at Make magazine.

Zion National Park

Sherry and I have been talking about taking the Caboose on something longer than a holiday weekend trip. We were talking about another trip to Yosemite or Sequoia National Park, but I'd like to try someplace we've never been before.

My buddy Jake just got back from Zion National Park and stayed at Zion Canyon Campground. He spoke very highly of it, and judging by the photos and amenities, it looks pretty good. One of the attractive features of the park is that it is just a half-mile from the front entrance and visitor center. They run free town shuttles every few minutes, and then the park has free shuttles through the canyons. Maybe next spring.

[Note: The comments section doesn't allow links, but "He Ruide" sent a couple links to photos of his PUP at Zion. Here is Watchman Campground, and here is the National Park.]

Once in a Lifetime Experience

We were supposed to be camping at Silverwood Lake this weekend, but we canceled for a couple reasons. The most important reason is that it allowed Andrew to go with his Grandma Jackie to Arizona for a once in a lifetime experience.

My Uncle George works for Arizona Game and Fish. This past week, the Arizona Bald Eagle Nest Watch program was working at Lake Pleasure. They cruised an area known to be nesting habitat and once they identified active nests, a biologist rappelled down the cliff and retrieved the eaglets while angry parents circled overhead. They bagged the eaglets and brought them to the top of the cliff. There, they took lots of measurements and gave some inoculations to the young birds.

How many 13 year-old kids get to take part in such a rare event? We'll go camping another time.

How It's Made: Tent Trailers

One of my favorite TV shows, How It's Made, featured a five-minute segment on the construction of pop-up camping trailers. The episode features Fleetwood’s manufacturing facility in Pensylvania and shows the production of a Destiny Series, Sea Pine trailer.