Nancy’s Tips on Packing for a Miata Road TripIf you are new to Miata touring, you will soon find out the trunk of the Miata doesn’t hold much. It takes some special planning for two people (especially if one or two are female) to bring enough clothes and such for a few days and still have room for shopping purchases along the way.
On a tops down drive you need:
· Sunscreen
· Sun protective shirts and pants
· A hat (neck coverage and a string to keep it from blowing away)
· Sun Glasses
· Lots of water, and /or other fluids
· A small cooler – soft-sided is best
· Your tunes
· Road maps or GPS, especially if you lead
· A radio and antenna or FMR to keep in contact
with the group
· A camera
For a longer trip you need to consider the weather and geography. Mountains are cooler than desert. Spring and fall are the most difficult to predict. Plan on dressing in layers. Bring simple, comfortable clothes and shoes.
Our club trips are casual affairs. You don’t need to bring dressy clothes, and you don’t need to make a fashion statement for us. Trunk space is too valuable, and we want to be able to shop!
For luggage, use small pieces of the soft-sided kind that can be squished around into the oddly shaped corners of the trunk of the first generation trunk. There are deck bags available, too. We stash jackets under our boot.
Try to keep toiletries to a minimum. (We never leave civilization for very long).
Use small bottles and packages. If you can leave the hair dryer behind, do or bring a small one.
Everyone on these outings gets either severe hat hair or crazy wind blown hair in the first 15 minutes of driving with the top down. We’re all in the same boat, so don’t worry what your hair looks like.
If you can’t help worrying, my advice is to get a cute hat you can wear all day. It’s probably a good idea to bring a good conditioner for your hair to revive it after a
day of sun and wind.
For a mid-summer trip, weather likely will be hot most of the time.
· Shorts for the days, but pack a pair of jeans for cool evenings
· Jacket, sweater, or sweatshirt for cool mornings and evenings.
· Lightweight tops. A lightweight long sleeved shirt is nice to put on
when you’ve had too much sun.
· Swimsuit. That pool looks very inviting after a day in the hot sun!
For spring and fall trips, mornings and evenings can be cold and the days are shorter.
· Warm coat that will break the wind and Gloves
· Warm hat and/or ear muffs and Sweater or sweatshirt.
· Long pants, but you may want to throw in a pair of shorts in case
an afternoon gets hot.
· Blanket to have in the cockpit, ready for your passenger’s legs. It gets colder in
the passenger seat than in the driver’s.
Car Stuff, just in case.
· Cell phone and Emergency tool kit.
· Rag or two to clean up a mess and a car duster to get some of the shine back.
· Tie down for the trunk lid just in case something is just too good to pass up.
· Umbrella and Car Cover
· Your Les Bois Miata Club Membership Directory – to look up
cell numbers of your companions
Hopefully you can get all this in the car with no trouble. Don’t forget to use those little nooks and crannies.
Don’t cram the trunk! Leave room for treasures you find along the way.
These packing tips were originally published in 1998 September/October Tops Down. Thank you Nancy for sharing your tips!