Every summer, the Virginia Beach area becomes “Land of the Roof Racks,” as scores of tourists (mainly from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania) make their way down to our area to cause much traffic. I don’t begrudge these people their vacations, and indeed, they contribute money to our local economy with their purchasing power (which is nice), but I do begrudge them their roof racks. The picture at right is typical…a large minivan or SUV with extra storage on the roof. Really, how much crap do you need to bring on vacation with you? In fact, there were only TWO people in the SUV pictured, which means that the entire backseat and trunk storage area were NOT ENOUGH to accommodate the vacation needs of TWO people. The sad thing is that this is no anomaly; I rarely see smaller out-of-town cars with roof racks, but people with giant SUVs seem to require them.
How my three-person family survived traveling to our 1980’s beach vacations with no roof rack and only the trunk space of a tiny 1982 Toyota Tercel hatchback, I’ll never know.
