First Trip Review

The Carpe Diem's first road trip is in the books!  We had an awesome time; we camped a total of 9 nights, traveled over 2,300 miles through five states and two countries!  In a very roundabout way, we made a loop around Lake Michigan.

We learned about how narrow the turning radius is with the basket on the front of the teardrop. Thankfully, the bumper that I damaged pretty significantly at first glance, literally popped back into place after about 45 minutes.  I don't know how it did it, but the plastic coating was all that was 'damaged' on the car.  It returned to its proper place and you would never know that it had been damaged by me turning too tightly.  Adding the 12" extension made a monumental difference.  It is now so much easier to maneuver the teardrop. We learned how important it is to check that the coupler has completely latched onto the tow ball.  Thankfully, we learned this lesson on a backcountry road away from heavy traffic.

Kenosha to Sugar Island.

Sugar Island to Agawa Bay, Ontario and then further north to Wawa, Ontario.

Back to Sugar Island and then onward to Powell and Columbus, Ohio.

From there we went back to Powell, then to Granville and finally to Athens, Ohio.

Then it was time to close the loop and head home.

Google has us at about 1,950 miles, but in fact, we put on just over 2,300 miles in all.

We had one major repair; the caulking and repairing of the area under the doors where lots and lots of rain got into the cabin.  The 'fix' never really properly set up and in fact, we had more rain on the return trip.  Not to worry, we removed everything, yet again and are currently drying out the teardrop.  When it is dry, we'll re-caulk, add a rubber barrier along the seam and try it all over again!

All in all it was a very successful road trip!  We learned a lot about what we want to add to the teardrop and tiny adjustments we will make to make the Carpe Diem even better!