Headed up to Dallas this weekend with a Roady full of five kids, our 104-pound Lab, and my wife and I. I had to finally pull out the X-Cargo roof carrier for all the bags. First time I've put "Aunt Edna's" home on the Roady. Used it last on the '89 Custom Cruiser. It looked just fantastic up there... :banghead3: My wife Misty signed up up for a 15K walk/run at Fair Park in Dallas early Saturday morning http://www.hotchocolate15k.com/dallas/ . As luck would have it, the weather went from the 70's last week to 30's and 40's in Dallas for the weekend. We had to be there are 7:30am and it was windy and 31-degrees. Miserable cold! I wimped out. We got there and it was SO COLD I was not going subject the 3-year-old to it...or myself. Also Lily, my son's 11-year-old friend, flat refused to get out of the car. So my wife, her father, her sister, my nephew, my son's buddies Joseph and Jonathan, and my oldest son all did the event, and I took Lily and Tuck to Dennys for breakfast and then took them for a drive around Downtown Dallas. She wanted to see where JFK was shot...and I was just glad to be in the heated car! Ha! Happily everyone finished the race by 10:30 and ALL were ready to get out of the cold. After the race we took all the kids to my sister-in-law's office on the 44th floor of the Trammell Crowe skyscraper. The kids just LOVED seeing downtown from up there. We finished the day by taking them ice-skating at the Dallas Gallaria Mall and then went and got Mongolian BBQ for dinner. All in all a great day! On the trip home yesterday, just south of Waco, it SNOWED on us. The kids freaked out. It was not cold enough to stick, but sure felt weird to be driving the Roady in the flurries. Happily today it's in the 60's and it'll be 75 tomorrow. It's fun to visit the cold...but glad it doesn't last long! Anyway here's some pics from the trip. Roady in full-on road trip dress Can't say my wagon doesn't get used! This Buick ragtop is near my sister-in-law's in Red Oak Texas. Really sad, was a fust-free car but the top is shot and the tarp he had on it has shredded, so now water is getting in it. He won't sell it! :evil: Here's me and all the kiddos after eating Fried Alligator at Buzzard Billy's in the way home in Waco. And poor Texas children trying to figure out ice-skating. Hahahahaha I like these....here's Lily trying to figure out skating. She's 11 and had never been ice skating before.. Can't say it's not fun being a Dad!! Oh and I posted about rebuilding my front end, adding new front shocks and heavy duty rear springs last month. It's 1000% better. It doesn't bottom out or scrape the driveways. Also, the roads around Fair Park on the east and southeast side of downtown Dallas are horrible. Patches, cracks, potholes, a mess, and before, with the old Monroe Severe Service shocks on the front, the car would crash all over the place when we drove in that area. With the new KYB's it was SO MUCH better. I was VERY happy about how the car did this weekend. Here's a pic I took just after loading up. Kids and dog are in the car and roof carrier is loaded. It doesn't sit nearly as low as it did before. Here's some pics from downtown Dallas. This is West End....but at 8am on a Sat morning I could not find any West End Girls.... This was looking up at the parking lot of Jorge's Cafe, where we went for brunch after the race And here's the Roady with some of downtown Dallas behind it. The 2nd building from the right is where my sister-in-law works, and we had fun taking all the kiddos up to her office on the 44th floor and looking out at downtown below us. Really a good weekend and a nice road trip. I love my wagon! This is how a family was meant to travel! -Mike
...i love this shot....it needs a 'thunk balloon' that says ..... ........"WERE GOIN WHERE??????"........... even the dogs face says...."AGAIN???"................. another great road trip with 81 !!!
Great trip, Great story, lots of smiling happy people, and your wagon looks great. Sounds like all is right with the world.
I realy love these travellogs you post, Mike! They make a great family historical document, too. I put one of those cargo pods on a '93 Isuzu Rodeo we used to have. It looked like the Rodeo should have been on top of the pod......
I forgot to mention the one wagon issue I did have on the trip. On the way to Dallas Friday night we stopped for dinner in Georgetown and I told the kids in the 3rd row to pop open the 1/4 windows back there for the dog. Joseph opened the driver's side one fine, but when John popped open the passenger side one the glass broke loose of both pivot hinges. DUMB DESIGN! Poor John thought he'd broken my car and was holding onto the glass by the pivot and yelling "I'm Sorry! I'm Sorry!". Ha. So I sent the family in to order dinner and I drove to Autozone, and in the cold and dark parking lot, scraped all the glue off and used rear-view mirror glue to re-attach the glass, and then bought some packing tape and taped the glass on for good measure. Took the tape off in Dallas on Sat morning but have yet to try to re-open that 1/4 window. I may never open those again.... -Mike
Cool trip, love the story, i havent seen a wagon with one of those pods forever, most people throw there stuff inside there suv. That pod looked good up there, i love your wagon. Where we going next.
How did you make the pod easily removable? I remember I had a heck of a time figuring out how to attach it the Rodeo's rack. I ended up drilling holes through the crossbars and bolting it down with some metal plates reinforcing the plastic to prevent stress on the pod. Couldn't figure out a way to tie it down in the normal manner. The Rodeo didn't have gutters.
The Roady has built-in tie-down loops as part of the roof rack. Used those on the front and just used the '93 sliding rail to attach the back (94-96 Roady wagons use ugly tall rails, but I swapped the flush-rail unit from a '93 wagon years back..looks a LOT better) Who needs tall rails??
Here's the before pic from back in 2010 with the tall SUV-like roof rack rails the 94-96 Roadies came with, and the after with the flush 91-93 style rail. The first picture is from right after I got the car. Only mod at that point was the Impala wheels. Wood trim was shot, no window tint, not detailed yet. Come a long way since 2010!!! Before, tall black SUV-style racks -2010 After adding 91-93 flush-mount chrome and stainless single sliding rail from a '93 salvage-yard Roady wagon :
Yup, mine broke on my 92, same side also. Then the drivers side lock broke, the hinge piece that bolts to the glass. So my dad and I made one out of an old Black Stanley screwderiver handle, and a bench grinder to shape it to size. I used mine on a daily basis, well the drivers side I did, after gutting the cat, the exhaust was really rank and filled the car with exhaust smell any time I let off the throttle or was setting at a stop lite or sign. So I just used the drivers side to prevent the headaches from the stink. I like the flush mount slide rails much better then the 94-96 ones. I ended up getting 2 more from boneyards, one for each wagon. If you slide it all the way back, it helps to act like a spoiler, to help divert some air and keep the rear glass cleaner. Worked great in winter with the snow.
