MOVING AIN'T EASY

In no special order here's what's been going on in our world. To some moving a few beat up old cars and junk parts is no big deal. To me it's mostly a lifetime collecting and playing with cars. Hope you don't mind that it's not all about station wagons.
Four old cars and my riding mower plus more crap than I know are headed north. Wanted to write about it and follow along on internet. Internet was off from Dec 16th to Jan 7th. I couldn't even check the weather since we have no TV either.
Son-in-law, his dad, and a friend drove down with an 18' flat bed trailer Dec 29th. They loaded and left 30th. Got to Illinois 31st and went out New Years Eve. The 1948 Chevy panel truck, riding mower, and a million parts inside all snug in their large building. PERFECT. Cost son-in-law motel and gas because I gave him the panel truck.

But son-in-laws 2002 4-wheel drive Chevy wore a hole in the power divider and lost oil when they arrived in Florida. They JB welded and added a good oil. Seems okay but they were worried about the tall panel truck on trailer backward. Sears riding mower on rear and deck under panel truck.
They had a four car hauler hired with a dually truck to take my three cars back. Engine blew on the dually truck near Orlando, Fl. That's 150 miles souh of us.
Trucker was to be at our place or near it Dec 28th. to be in Illinois 30th. His plan was to be back at Orlando Disney World over New Years with his family from Milwaukee, Wisc.
His truck broke a crank and he decided to just get out of the hauling business. His wife talked him into buying a Freightliner with a Detroit. New plan was to pick up my cars 30th Dec. drive with them to Disney World till Sunday 3rd. He had to pay $125 to park his rig anyway. So this is why son-in-law came a day later.
Heres how the cars were loaded......... On front 1939 Ford coupe. Then 1941 yellow Ford and 1955 Chevy wagon on rear.

They talked about reloading the panel truck to the car hauler. I don't think it would fit and with no windows and rain coming didn't want it sitting for days in central Florida. Glad now we didn't try to reload. We towed all three 1/4 mile to the cross street from our dead end. Worked great.
Keep in mind all four vehicles left this spot on the dirt road not far from our house Dec 30th. The panel truck on son-in-law's trailer was back in Illinois Dec. 31st. The cars on the transporter headed 150 mles further south to Orlando! The weather was perfect! My cars went to Disney World and we didn't!

Now it gets interesting. The hauler left Orlando Sunday and only made it 200 miles or 50 miles north of our house.............. That was with a tow truck to Lake City, Fl. He had tranny troubles.
Driver was towed to a dealership. Supposed to be on the road Tues. 5th. Apparently just got going today Thursday 7th............. All this time, 8 days and only 50 miles from our house and lots of rain.

The transport truck with three cars was supposed to be in central Illinois Saturday 9th in a rain storm. The panel truck went a week ago on son-in-law's flatbed trailer with no windows and no rain.
This haul is costing $1800. I paid $900 so far. Son-in-law had sent $200 ahead of time. Could have gotten a trailer for $1300 to $1500 but this driver specializes in non driverable and old cars.
In a way I am getting the yellow 41 Ford hauled free and will sell later after getting it together again.
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New plan---------- Oldest son whinned about wanting the panel truck. Son-in-law got it because I first gave oldest the '39 Ford, explained it's worth more and easier to get on the road. Then he decided he didn't want any old car.
I also explained I just spent over $500 on the '39 Ford. So said he'd pay $600 for the shipping for '39 Ford. I told him give me $1200. That covers the $600 and $500 for parts, and $100 for a new title.-----So son has to give son-in-law $900 more shipping. I told him keep the $300 for other things I will need for the house there. Like moving washer/dryer upstairs etc.

So if this works out I end up with a 1941 Ford, 1955 Chevy wagon, and 54" cut mower minus $900. We all know I'd never work on the '39 Ford anyway.
At least now I have room to move around and start getting crap sold and dumped in a dumpster.

Moving wasn't this difficult 21 years ago and I could look in the mirrors and see where my cars were!

 

Finally, after twelve days our three cars have just arrived 1/4 mile or so from our new home in central Illinois.
Now to get them off the trailer and drug down the road and into the garage.
Temp is around 11 degrees and feels -4. Oldest son had to shovel snow from the garage door then go get his air tank filled. Two low tires on the yellow '41 Ford.
My biggest worry is getting it pulled the 1/4 mile or so down the busy 2-lane blacktop road and around the corner onto Memory Lane with no brakes of any kind. ( No emergency evan).
Then it and the 1955 Chevy wagon need to be backed into the narrow short two car garage so I can later get to the fronts to work on them.
Last the '39 Ford will be loaded onto son-in-law's flatbed and hauled around 17 miles to oldest son's garage. He also had to shovel snow there and it was very cold and windy.
All of this began in Florida in 90 degree sunny weather. Never expected it to take twelve days, rain storms, and now 3-5" of snow and cold.

 

Some people may think this moving four cars 1000 miles was not a big deal. But for me it was 12 sleepless nights and days of worries.
Finally at 4:15PM eastern time two cars are now snug but salty, dirty, and snow covered safely in their new garage.

The 1939 Ford is sitting in the drive on a trailer ready to be hauled 17 miles to son's nicer garage.
As we speak son and son-in-law are pushing the 1948 Chevy panel truck into his brand new 40' deep garage stall next to two other large wide stalls for their SUV's.
Also already son-in-law told me a neighbor called and said the HOA drove by and stopped to look at the panel truck in his new drive way. Hope they don't try to force him to move it someplace else besides his garage.
I did tell son-in-law Dave I'd sell him our little house and we'd move into his new large home. But no way in Hell would I live in a subdivision like that.

This picture makes me happy! Lots more room than we expected.

 

WHAT HAVE I DONE?
Anytime we drove the old cars on Daytona Beach, Panama City Beach, or other white sand salt water beaches I washed them as soon as possible.
Now look at this fine mess I got them into. Salt, snow, ice, and crude and no way to clean them soon.

 

Life's a Beach then you move.

 

Just checked Pekin weather and its 5 degrees now at 930PM Sunday with an expected low of 6 ( ) tonight! Accuweather calls for a balmy 43 degree high on Thurs with sun......maybe that can be your washing day?

Glad you made it to IL safe and sound anyway(what kind of nut moves North in Jan???)! Me, I'm not moving any further north of west central GA where I am now,haha! As it is anyway, I get to get up at 5AM tomorrow to start school buses in the naughty 22 degree cold and wind we have forecast! and

 

Well Mike I'm not always as dumb as I look. Reread my confusing ranting and you will realize while four of my cars went north I am still snug as a Love Bug here in NW Florida. Sadly it's now 38 degrees with a freeze warning here for tonight. Winter is here wherever we are!
But it's 72 degrees in the springs.

 

Here's another one of my babies safe inside my oldest son's garage. I hope that's snow and ice, not salt on it.



Waiting for pictures of the panel truck in son-in-law Dave's garage. It's there also nice and dry.
I'll need a garage for all the crap in these four cars.

 

Well, that sounds like it turned into quite the ordeal. But it looks like everything worked out in the end. Good luck with the rest of your move. I hope it is a lot less eventful.
Thanks for the update.

 

What was supposed to be a three day drive with the transporter turned into twelve days. For awhile I thought Gilligan was on board.
The driver had to buy a different truck when his dually diesel pickup blew the engine. Then when he got his trailer wiring modified from a semi trailer plug to regular car trailer things went wrong.
After that his transmission stopped transmitting. He was broke down only 50 miles from our home for most of week.
Then when he did get on the road again...on the road again... the trailer wiring went bad and he could only drive in day time.
After that the weather took a dump and he was in heavy rains, then snow, ice, and wind.
My poor cars are not used to this sort of treatment.
What made this more nerve-wracking was the trucker didn't keep us up on where he was or what was going on.

Of course, the dispatcher is in Miami, home of export and containers. I had visions of my three cars being shipped to some exotic island or Australia, or another place those wealthy American car lovers live. I even thought downunderdennis might end up with my '55 Chevy wagon! Notice the trucker's info is taped on a piece of carboard, easy to tear off after turning the corner.
In the end everything worked out well and the cars are dirty but home waiting for us........................ which might be another ten years yet!

Also the road we live on is to the left of the trailer in top photo. The game preserve entrance on left where I parked to supervise.


Sure beats just saying my cars were shipped and they got there!
Here are two more pictures of here and there.
I'm the cute guy in the first photo in the white T-shirt off to the right staying out of the way.

 

Wow. What an ordeal.

 

WOW what a PIA this move has been for you. Glad to hear all your toys made it safely to their new home in the frozen north. lets hope the rest of your move goes better!

 

First I want to say the picture, that you now have as your avatar, I really like it.

There are very few moves that go seamlessly even with the best of planning. But now that you have managed to get all the bad karma out of the way right at the beginning, the rest should go very well.

I didn't realize you had so many awesome cars. I know you spoke of them from time to time but I thought they were cars that your HAD owned.

Please say hello to Dolly for me. I'm sure she must be more then a bit stressed over all of this.

 

We have a lot to do here first, and other things to sell. Then it's give away and trash time. It's amazing what two retired people and a careless son can accumulate.
The problem with the car move was the hauler had a lot of unplanned problems. It was supposed to be fast and the cars to get there the end of December before the weather changed.
My biggest worry was when no one heard anything and I was thinking the worse. After all the dispatcher is in Miami, home of export.
I recently read on another forum of a small flat bed trailer and just a Model A body being stolen. It's just not like it was anymore. Too many lazy out of work people looking for an easy way to make a dollar.
Mostly I posted because the forum here has been slow. Need to get members active and writting something. At least I have one wagon to show.

 

Not all members are interested in posting and that's ok. We give and take from the site what we are comfortable with. And besides all the important people are here.