I couldn’t possibly get all my clothing, tech, and kitchenry into Henrietta and still leave room for a sleeping Isy, and a rooftop carrier would kill the mileage and my arms, so I had to come up with an alternative…
I stopped at ProLine in Wallingford, CT since they sell this, which is a cargo carrier with 3 features I really need: an accessible height, plenty of space, and a swing-arm so I don’t have to fight with the box to get to the back of the car.
It turns out that Stowaway ships direct from their warehouse on the other coast, but they had a slightly smaller Thule carrier. I asked to look at it to see if it would suffice. I thought it would, after measuring and peering and playing with the lid a bit…
Then it turned out they didn’t have the swing-arm version… but as he said so, I saw wheels starting to turn. Rather than dashing off, I explained a bit about why I needed it (“my hands don’t work so well; I can’t handle the Transporter’s drop-down hinge”) and stated rather baldly that, without the swingarm, I was screwed.
He said he might have the swingarm itself from a Thule Terrapin (which they discontinued for some silly reason.) He thought there was a spare one lying around somewhere, for some reason, and if the holes lined up…
There was.
And the holes lined up.
And it wound up costing less than my Plan A.
And, bless his heart, he got out a drill, put the whole thing together for me, and popped the monster into place.
Its gaping mouth… its long leggy swing… its sheer enormity…
The answer to my prayers.