Generally, the Road Trips column serves as a source of for interesting destinations. But sometimes, how you prepare for a road trip is as important as where you go.
For the past two years, my wife Nancy and I have been fortunate enough to be allowed to take our Atlanta grandchildren on road trips to Cherrystone Campground on the Eastern Shore. It’s a place that we took our own kids as far back as 1975. When our children were younger, we had a 26-foot camper and packing was no big deal. Much of the stuff was already in the camper, which we stored on the campground at Cherrystone. But with James and Virginia, we had to start from scratch and that meant taking stuff like three bikes, linens, towels, pillow, blankets, pots, pans, fishing rods, crab buckets, fly swatters, plates, utensils, teddy bears, lacrosse sticks, and … well, you get the picture.
For past trips, we have taken my Jeep Cherokee, which has a luggage rack and a trailer connection, which we have used to connect a rear platform for more storage capacity. Even so, with three coolers, two kids and all their belongings, there was not one square inch of space to spare. Packing and unpacking was like multiple visits to the dentist for root canals.
This year, I was thinking about taking two cars when Nancy suggested a trailer.
A trailer? To put bikes and storage boxes on, along with fishing and crabbing stuff? That was actually a great idea. Trouble is, I didn’t have a trailer.
I was looking into trailer rentals when a friend offered to lend me his own trailer. It was about 12 feet long and 5 feet wide and it made packing a joy. We had room and then some.
So for your next road trip with family and bikes involved, consider a trailer to drag along behind. If you don’t have a friend who has one, you can rent them by the day or the week. It was such a handy piece of equipment, I intend to keep an eye on Craig’s List and maybe buy one for myself.