What Not To Do The Night Before Vacation

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by Renae Chiovaro on July 2, 2012

If you have never outfitted your vehicle with a cartop cargo carrier, I suggest not trying the night before you leave for vacation.

It seems so simple. And it probably should be.

Our vehicle came with a factory roof rack and we had bought a used cargo carrier from a friend. The roof rack did not come with the cross bars which of course are needed for the cargo carrier. After a series of events and expedited shipping, we received the cross bars today. The gentleman in the parts department at my dealership said “They are simple to install; just click them in.”

Well, I can tell you the cross bars are only simple to install if you know what you are doing! Which of course we didn’t! The directions were terrible. After an hour, we finally got the darn things mounted.

I also wanted to give a shout out to You Tube for helping us install the cargo carrier. Yep, once we got those pesky cross bars on, the mounting equipment for the cargo carrier gave us fits.

It’s a good thing hubby has a good sense of humor! We kept the jokes flowing as we spent two hours messing with this carrier. I am happy to report that it is securely mounted and ready for our vacation.

If you are going to install a roof top carrier, make sure you do a trial run a few days prior to leaving for vacation. Or better yet, if you can afford a professional installation, do it!

No on to packing….

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Renae Chiovaro

Renae is a married working mom of two handsome boys. She works as a registered dental hygienist by day and blogs here at How to Have it All by night. She enjoys cooking from scratch, working in her vegetable garden and functional training.

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Comments

  1. Heather P says:
    July 2, 2012 at 10:09 pm

    That will just make resting on vacation (as much as you can do with little ones) ALL the better!! Enjoy and stay safe! Oh! And thanks for the chuckle…..I am sure hubby appreciates the angle of the photo….or perhaps it’s his best side??! j/k

    • Renae @How to Have it All says:
      July 2, 2012 at 10:16 pm

      Hi Heather,

      Ahhh, poor hubby! I realized when I uploaded the photo that it was nice shot of his backside! Good thing he is not to computer savvy and won’t be seeing this post!!! Vacation here we come!

  2. Ann says:
    July 2, 2012 at 10:23 pm

    Awwww poor Renae. And I too laughed at the angle of your photo. Have a Tim Horton’s on me!

    Safe travels.
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