Like I said yesterday, we returned last night after being gone for 15 days. Casey’s boss owed him a week of vacation (for free) so we were able to tack on some extra days to the beginning of our trip that we hadn’t originally counted on. We originally intended to leave on the 21st but started thinking about traveling and Brady’s schedules and our sleep schedule etc., and decided that maybe we should leave on the 18th instead. The 18th turned into the 17th (on the 17th about 3 hours before we were to leave) and so our journey began to Colorado.
We had to take the dogs with us since they both would have died had they been boarded. Stoli of stress and Dude of over excitement or some strange ailment he contracted from another animal. Since space would be tight as we knew from our trip moving down here last October, we opted for an exterior storage solution. Originally we were going to go with a tow hitch shelf type thing but after learning we didn’t have a tow hitch (shows how observant we are) or a place to install one (without going to a professional), we started looking at other options. We have factory installed side bars but no cross bars. I looked at the major players (Thule and Yakima) but they were both pretty pricey. In fact just to get their crossbars installed would cost double what we paid for everything. I found a top rated, 15cf roof top cargo bag and a slip-proof mat on Amazon and took a gamble with those. Total investment was $60 and well worth the extra room we had inside the FX. When the cargo bag originally arrived and was unpacked, I was certain the one I selected was way too large and overkill. It ended up being perfect as more contents were added at each stop along the way. After some initial issues with the bag (flapping straps and positioning), we figured things out and it worked perfectly. Such a great investment and much easier to store than the hard topped alternatives!