My how time flies! This little egg has been on the road for 4 great seasons of camping already. It's been a ton of fun and more or less problem free this whole time.
One update last winter was this lovely little ditty:
This has been a pretty important update, really ... it keeps ice frozen much longer than our old Coleman junker, and it slides out, so it doesn't get set down in the mud and then get the inside of the galley filthy when it's loaded. Most importantly, it matches the counters, which is tres chic. Naturally.
It was a fun addition. We started with a little slide-out aluminium tray, held fast with some drawer sliders. The cooler sits inside the raised edges, so it can come out and be filled or serviced as necessary.
The cooler itself is simply a 2" foam box, laminated on the outside with Formica. There are wood inserts wherever we need hinges, latches, or stylish chamfered corners. Early on, here we are:
Here's a slightly later build stage, with a place for hinges, handles, and either a 1 or 2 latch setup at the future builder's option:
The only sightly tough part was the liner. I decided after some thought that a layer of reflective Tuck Tape was in order, to give the liner layer something to stick to, and provide further insulation. Hi-core is the liner, cut and sealed with silicone, and a layer of glossy paint on top. In theory, the liner could be removed and replaced. In reality, that sounds like a pain so it might get repaired a lot first.
Look at how neatly that all fits together:
Lovely! Just a smashing little galley. In practice, it really does make life easier -- no more dirty cooler getting shuffled between the ground and the galley.
We had a great year of camping this year, with 2 long roadtrips for family adventures, including a noteworthy 4300km trip to Moab, UT for some great mountain biking!
Here's the intrepid Egg and Matrix duo passing through Salt Lake City. There were some really high passes on the way, but all were conquered with steely nerves and panache, if not with speed:
Here's our happy family in Utah, soaking up the sun and the magic of the Southwest desert:
A beautiful sight. Summer in Canada brought clear air and more great biking and camping. The intrepid Egg has proved to be such a fun and loyal companion on these trips. I think we'll always remember these days ... and that, dear readers, was the whole point.
