Return to CA: Kick Off

It came time to hit the road again. You may recall my “Coast-to-Coast” series from November (shared in January). My wife and I had driven to CA to retrieve my mother’s cremains and some of her effects. What we didn’t expect was to have a change of heart regarding our desire to bring more of her things home with us.

Unfortunately, we were at my limit for cargo capacity in my GTI and the baby trailer. We immediately made plans for a return trip. We had two significant concerns: 1) Winter was coming, so we needed to wait until at least March. 2) Unloading/reloading the baby trailer each day was a pain! Plus, it was an aerodynamic disaster.

I decided to speed my efforts to finish the conversion project that I had started on my cargo trailer. Using the cargo trailer might improve aerodynamics, but would certainly allow me to leave my cargo locked in the trailer each night.

Here is the nearly-finished cargo trailer conversion. I weighed the trailer at 760 lbs (345 kg). I didn’t want to travel with a rooftop cargo box. So the spare tires and fluids that once rode on the roof will now ride in the cargo trailer. That instantly added another 100 lbs.

I also carried some moving blankets, collapsed cardboard boxes, impact wrenches, other tools, and E-Track hardware. I had hoped to depart Virginia below 1000 lbs (454 kg), which allowed me to return with up to 500 lbs of cargo. Time would tell how that would work out.

If you recall, we brought home my mother’s three cats in November. Combined with two of our own, boarding them for 16 days would be quite expensive. So my wife stayed behind with them and then flew out for a weekend to choose what was to come home with me. We had someone who could stand to care for five cats for three nights…. but not for 16. LOL!

I planned to return to Tail of the Dragon, central Texas, White Sands, the Very Large Array, and Kingman. With longer days, there are a few photos that I hoped to get that I missed in November. I also planned to visit several new places. Of course, I hoped to make the trip without any mechanical issues… a redemption for the GTI after the last trip. 😉 Click here for the next entry.

Thanks for following along!