When planning this trip, I decided I wasn’t really looking forward to sleeping on the ground for 9.5 weeks. On the other hand, we also had no interest in dealing with a huge RV that we’d have to park at the campsite, leaving us without transportation to local sites unless we also pulled a vehicle behind the RV. So we decided that we wanted a trailer, and it needed to be small and light enough to pull behind our minivan. I eventually discovered Purdy Trailers, a local manufacturer who makes teardrop trailers out of Silverton, Oregon. And so we bought the Blue Bug last fall, when they were clearing out their yearly stock. Unfortunately, we bought it just after camping season last year, so it stayed in our driveway all Winter, taunting us, until Spring Break came around and we got to try it out for the first time.
The Blue Bug is a 5 x 10 ft teardrop trailer with a galley area in the back.
The inside is basically just big enough to fit a queen-sized bed, which is a million times more comfortable than an air mattress. The mattress folds up when not in use (as shown below), giving us space to haul around the rest of our camping gear.
This trailer doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles, but that was part of the appeal for us since it was also a LOT cheaper than some of the fancy hipster teardrops that you will find out there. The galley allows us easy access to our kitchen gear. The trailer both gives us place to store and haul stuff as well as allowing us sleep fairly comfortably. And we can haul the whole thing behind our minivan.
Aaron had a good time adding a couple of solar panels onto the top of the trailer, giving us a good source of power. We don’t have a lot of gear that needs electricity, but this will help us keep our phones powered up and allow us to make posts (such as this one) from my laptop.