I have returned

In preparation for my canoeing extravaganza this summer I recently equipped my Highlander with a Thule car top carrier which has been a point of contention in our house.  After ten years of service our Chrysler Minivan finally was ready for retirement.  After ten years of driving a minivan I was ready to get back to my driving enthusiasm roots.  The contention is not based on the Highlander and a return to my roots, rather it is the piling of stuff on top of it.

A brief automotive ownership history will add some clarity.  Prior to the Minivan I drove a Jeep Cherokee.  While unreliable it was fun and our Chocolate Lab - Amos and our Golden Retriever - Molson both looked incredible in it, er, I mean there was plenty of room for them.  After sometime I sold the Cherokee and bought a bright red Mazda Miata.  Flipping down the top made my hour commute from Bloomfield to Port Huron a joy - well at least during the two and half months of warm weather.  After two incredible summers with the Miata I sold it in favor of a more practical Michigan winter car, a shiny red Jeep Wrangler which was a blast on the two tracks near our home in Lapeer but not so much fun on my hour commute from Lapeer to Bloomfield.  But when you are driving a Wrangler you never complain about the ride, rather you just keep looking for other Wrangler owners to flip the two finger Jeep salute to which really says, “we look cool even though we are doing irrevocable damage to our spinal columns.”  We then moved to East Lansing and adopted our baby, Jacob.  “Bye, bye Wrangler” and “hello Chrysler Town & Country.”  It wasn’t all bad.  Even though the Chrysler was a lemon and required constant maintenance it had a ton of room which made life easy when it ran.

So yesterday, I stop and look at the Highlander with our new seven month old Chocolate Lab - Cassie in the back and my canoe on top and think, “I have returned.”  To me the vehicle looks natural with a canoe on one side and a car top carrier on the other.  Andria, however, thinks the car looks wonderful just as it was when we drove it off the lot.  Not to interject favorites, but our son who is now ten years old, said, "Mom, it makes us look active."  "Thanks son."  To me not only do we look active thanks to this project, I am getting more active.

I knew Andria's concern as I was at Summit Sports contemplating the bar length of the Thule.  We have one canoe which has capacity for three. I knew we needed another boat to get all four of us on the water at the same time.  I was also thinking about adding a car top carrier to hold the paddles and life jackets and figured we could use it on our upcoming road trip to Florida.  My eighty pound NxStage Hemodialysis machine takes a bit of space so I thought we could use some extra storage.  The storage worked out great, however, suffice it to say it was probably our last road trip to Florida.

I’m at Summit Sports adding up different configurations of canoe racks, kayak saddles and car top carriers to determine the proper bar length when I look out the store window and see Trey, the store manager’s van loaded with four kayaks on top and I think, “what a beautiful sight.”  After a few minutes another vision enters my mind and I think, “think smaller Erich you have to think smaller.”  The only way I can figure out getting two boats on top and a carrier is to buy the 78 inch bars which end up over lapping my roof by a few inches on both sides.  I left them at the shop until a week before our recent Florida trip, putting off the inevitable disappointment to the last possible minute.  Then the day before our trip I put up the sleek black Atlantis cargo carrier.  Andria’s sigh was palpable when she came home and saw it.  However, suffice it to say we both enjoyed being able to look out the rear window when driving.  And, retrieving our gear out of the carrier was a piece of cake.  Andria definitely warmed up to the practicalness of the carrier by the end of our trip.  It wasn’t until yesterday when she came home and saw that the carrier was no longer centered and was instead hanging over the driver’s side so that I could fit the canoe on the other side which was also hanging off the side that any goodwill I may have garnered flew out the window.  I promised her that the good thing about Thule is that they can easily be removed.  That is when canoeing season is over.  Unfortunately, yesterday I found out that I would not be able to get two boats and the car top carrier all on the roof.  I was really thinking that would look sweet.  I came to this realization when I was at Summit Sports having Kyle check my rigging.  I'll still be able to get two boats on top which will be good.  But as I was looking for a small dry bag for my trip out to Lake Lansing yesterday, I saw the solution to my problem - a two kayak trailer.  I knew there was a reason I bought a hitch.  With any luck, before long I'll look like I own a canoe livery.