I work at the most awesome place!
Back in 2004 the company I work for built and flew the first privately funded spaceship, SpaceshipOne for Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and won the Ansari X-Prize. That was an awesome time of my life that I will never forget.
Shortly thereafter my wife and I purchased a small tear drop trailer as we felt it was time to graduate from tent camping. So we bought a brand new "Little Guy" trailer. It was pretty basic and screamed to be something more unique.
My wife and I argue about who came up with this idea but I will give her the credit. "Lets dress it up like SpaceshipOne and call it TeardropOne?" Excellent! Let's do it!
So I peeled the factory vinyl off started to work out some ideas. Being that I worked at the place that created the spaceship I had access to both the vinyl cutter, the font used for "SpaceshipOne" and my friend who designed and cut the vinyl. He gave me a few pointers and I went to town!
It was mostly the outside that had the likeness of the spaceship. The rest of the customization was for function. I built a small kitchenette in the back that opens. I also found a mattress built just the size I needed. Painted the inside with a deep, dark blue and some type of glitter that would sparkle like looking into night sky.
Finally finished we took it up to our regular camping grounds in California. Man this was great. Well, until I slept in it… You see, I'm 6'5" and probably weighed close to 300lbs at the time. My wife is about 5'11 but on the average (thin) side. The width of the trailer was about 50" if that much. Length for me was not the problem. I found that night that I was claustrophobic. Turned on my side my face was right next to the wall. Needless to say, I got up in the middle of the night and traded spots with my daughter who was sleeping in a tent by herself.
Although we poured a ton of time and work into this trailer there was no way I could use it. I found someone at work that bought it for the amount I paid for it. He has since left the company but did sell it to another guy at work who had added more customization to it. But selling it was the end of my story and the beginning of someone elses.
To this day it has become a sore subject in my home. But it was a chapter of my life that I'm so happy we had. Also, having the photo op with Spaceshipone before it was sent to the Smithsonian was a great opportunity.
Thank you for reading my post! I hope you enjoyed it!