Well, the journey to Carlisle is probably going to go down as one of 'those' stories years from now to tell grandchildren about. If Mark and I didn't share the same good sense of humor then I think that trip could have dampened our spirits to the point of never wanting to do it again (good thing we're also both stubborn). Since March, it was a huge rush, as many others can attest to, to get the car whipped into shape, so many things to book, look into etc - it really was a killer to make it to the show but I did the best I could under the time constraints.
Thurs May 18th
The morning weather should have been a omen - wet, cold, windy and miserable. Trying to get the car sorted in my 'shop' proved to take too much time sliding along the walls to get by the car so out it went into the rain - Mark and I were soaked within 30 minutes (what a nice guest eh?) but we really had no choice but to finish up what we could and get the car onto the trailer. (see ultimate tow vehicle pic). It's too bad that we got stuck with such a lemon to haul the car with, I called in vain for weeks trying to get a proper tow vehicle/auto transporter/enclosed trailer to rent but had no luck - this would be as good as it gets.
The car literally rolled out of the paint booth on Tuesday for a 'rush' paint job - all done within 10 hours so the paint was laid on a little heavy and so we had some paint creep under the tape in areas but for the purpose of the show, I guess it did the trick as most show attendees never noticed or were kind enough not to say anything! So back for a re-spray later on.
Thurs - On the road
After spending way too long trying to get sorted in the heavy rain, we were off, 4 hours late and $110.00 of fuel later (this tow pig would have us fill up no less than 3 times on the way down) but it felt good to at least get going - one mission down. The entire drive to the border was nothing short of very heavy rain and with our tow pig maxing out at a top speed of 60 mph - it felt like an eternity to get to there.
Now the fun begins-not!
Now, I want all US Customs Officers who are reading this right now to know that your information system sucks! I called directly to 2 separate border crossings and spoke with the appropriate customs officers about what, if any, paperwork I would need to bring the car over the border. BOTH officers said I would need the now infamous T.I.B. or Temporary Import under Bond certificate - which I was told could be filled out by customs, 2 copies for me, one submitted upon leaving the USA and I was good to go. WRONG - When we arrived at the border, I opened my big mouth and asked the customs officer where I could get one of those T.I.B's filled out - the glazed look on the officer face was all I needed to figure we would be in for a very long and frustrating few hours. After parking the tow pig, we went out merry way into the customs office sure we would be in and out in no time. WRONG - turns out to get a T.I.B, I would need a customs broker (what?) to get it done. Hang on, nobody said anything about customs brokers so now what? We were told to visit any of the 12 separate customs broker trailers, in the pouring rain and upon knocking and asking we were kindly told that all closed at 5:00PM - a quick look at the clock showed 5:45PM - yep, all closed for the day. Great. Now what? We asked customs the same thing and were told that there was only one thing we could do - turn around and go back to Canada and try again in the morning. FRACK!!!!!
The very next day-
Mark and I decided to make a stop at Canada Customs to see if there was anything they could recommend. We did have to fill out a form to return to Canada with the car so without issue, were took our stamped release and headed to the US border. This time I would keep my big mouth shut, so as we rolled up to the border booth, we were asked to turn off the truck (I'm thinking - here we go again!). But to our disbelief, after only a few questions and a flash of our Canadian release form - we were told to "have a nice trip". Yee-ha!! Needless to say, I had the go pedal mashed for the next 10 miles, expecting flashing lights behind us at any moment. Not the case, the only consistency being the poor weather and the tow pig's fuel consumption for the remainder of the trip. So with a day lost, we finally rolled into Carlisle on Friday, the car a dirty mess but we made it and Mark and I were ready for the biggest mug of beer(s) we could find!
The Show - or lack thereof
'Turns out Friday was not very busy with the poor weather, cool and wet so but Sat was busy, literally didn't have time to sit or take a wiz all day, which I'll assume was a good thing. Sunday was a repeat of Friday but extremely windy (another omen...) so we packed up early. We struggled to the get the car cover on, the gusts really whipping it up and I had thought that we may end up with having to make adjustments along the way to make sure the cover stayed on. We had no problems with the cover on the way down, and actually had it secured even better for the drive home but - it would prove not to be enough-
Take the long way home-
The drive back was nothing short of fighting gale force winds, 50-70 mph gusts as we drove thru the Pocono Mountains, combined with our driving speed and you get a picture of what the car cover was subjected to. We were almost pushed off the road on no less than 3 occasions which became a concern as to how much further we could go on. The first stop we made to check on the car confirmed our worst fears - the cover was blown to the back of the car, leaving bungee cables to flap freely in the wind - a woodpecker effect would leave my RT fender full of paint ships (approx 50) and on the doors and rear spoiler. At that point we decided to take the cover off, not know what the winds could do with the car exposed, 4 hours into the coming darkness and rain we decided to call it a day and stop for the night.
The final push-
Well, upon leaving in the morning, we caught a glimpse of the local news and the lead story was indeed the weather. No longer raining, it was still extremely windy so the cover option was still a no-go. After an hour we were hoping that the bad news was finally behind us but a few honks from a trucker confirmed one of two things - either he likes the car or there was something wrong - we decided to pull over to make sure and wrong it was. No sooner than i jumped out of the truck, I can hear Mark cursing and so as I rounded the trailer I saw what he was pissed about - no nostril panel. Yep, blown off onto the highway. We had used heavy plastic electrical ties to secure it down, thought no way it could come loose but- You see, the tow pig affords no rear visual to what is going on with the car being a big, boxy piece of moving truck trash so there was no way to tell - hell even if I saw it, there was little I could do about it. About 30 seconds later, a couple of gent's pulled off the highway, got out and asked "is this yours?". Too bad, only one car hit it (and that's all it takes). So, what can you do but throw the panel into the truck and go on. We did eventually make it back without further damage but I have to say - those conditions were the worst I have ever had to drive under in my life!
At least I wasn't in poor Mark's shoes - a quick pit stop at my house to change vehicles and we were off the the airport for his flight back to the UK. What a great guy, great sense of humor - I was glad to have met him finally after 3 years, what a first meeting - it will never happen like that again.
BTW - his flight was delayed 3 hours due to a mechanical failure - Yikes!!
Chris
Thurs May 18th
The morning weather should have been a omen - wet, cold, windy and miserable. Trying to get the car sorted in my 'shop' proved to take too much time sliding along the walls to get by the car so out it went into the rain - Mark and I were soaked within 30 minutes (what a nice guest eh?) but we really had no choice but to finish up what we could and get the car onto the trailer. (see ultimate tow vehicle pic). It's too bad that we got stuck with such a lemon to haul the car with, I called in vain for weeks trying to get a proper tow vehicle/auto transporter/enclosed trailer to rent but had no luck - this would be as good as it gets.
The car literally rolled out of the paint booth on Tuesday for a 'rush' paint job - all done within 10 hours so the paint was laid on a little heavy and so we had some paint creep under the tape in areas but for the purpose of the show, I guess it did the trick as most show attendees never noticed or were kind enough not to say anything! So back for a re-spray later on.
Thurs - On the road
After spending way too long trying to get sorted in the heavy rain, we were off, 4 hours late and $110.00 of fuel later (this tow pig would have us fill up no less than 3 times on the way down) but it felt good to at least get going - one mission down. The entire drive to the border was nothing short of very heavy rain and with our tow pig maxing out at a top speed of 60 mph - it felt like an eternity to get to there.
Now the fun begins-not!
Now, I want all US Customs Officers who are reading this right now to know that your information system sucks! I called directly to 2 separate border crossings and spoke with the appropriate customs officers about what, if any, paperwork I would need to bring the car over the border. BOTH officers said I would need the now infamous T.I.B. or Temporary Import under Bond certificate - which I was told could be filled out by customs, 2 copies for me, one submitted upon leaving the USA and I was good to go. WRONG - When we arrived at the border, I opened my big mouth and asked the customs officer where I could get one of those T.I.B's filled out - the glazed look on the officer face was all I needed to figure we would be in for a very long and frustrating few hours. After parking the tow pig, we went out merry way into the customs office sure we would be in and out in no time. WRONG - turns out to get a T.I.B, I would need a customs broker (what?) to get it done. Hang on, nobody said anything about customs brokers so now what? We were told to visit any of the 12 separate customs broker trailers, in the pouring rain and upon knocking and asking we were kindly told that all closed at 5:00PM - a quick look at the clock showed 5:45PM - yep, all closed for the day. Great. Now what? We asked customs the same thing and were told that there was only one thing we could do - turn around and go back to Canada and try again in the morning. FRACK!!!!!
The very next day-
Mark and I decided to make a stop at Canada Customs to see if there was anything they could recommend. We did have to fill out a form to return to Canada with the car so without issue, were took our stamped release and headed to the US border. This time I would keep my big mouth shut, so as we rolled up to the border booth, we were asked to turn off the truck (I'm thinking - here we go again!). But to our disbelief, after only a few questions and a flash of our Canadian release form - we were told to "have a nice trip". Yee-ha!! Needless to say, I had the go pedal mashed for the next 10 miles, expecting flashing lights behind us at any moment. Not the case, the only consistency being the poor weather and the tow pig's fuel consumption for the remainder of the trip. So with a day lost, we finally rolled into Carlisle on Friday, the car a dirty mess but we made it and Mark and I were ready for the biggest mug of beer(s) we could find!
The Show - or lack thereof
'Turns out Friday was not very busy with the poor weather, cool and wet so but Sat was busy, literally didn't have time to sit or take a wiz all day, which I'll assume was a good thing. Sunday was a repeat of Friday but extremely windy (another omen...) so we packed up early. We struggled to the get the car cover on, the gusts really whipping it up and I had thought that we may end up with having to make adjustments along the way to make sure the cover stayed on. We had no problems with the cover on the way down, and actually had it secured even better for the drive home but - it would prove not to be enough-
Take the long way home-
The drive back was nothing short of fighting gale force winds, 50-70 mph gusts as we drove thru the Pocono Mountains, combined with our driving speed and you get a picture of what the car cover was subjected to. We were almost pushed off the road on no less than 3 occasions which became a concern as to how much further we could go on. The first stop we made to check on the car confirmed our worst fears - the cover was blown to the back of the car, leaving bungee cables to flap freely in the wind - a woodpecker effect would leave my RT fender full of paint ships (approx 50) and on the doors and rear spoiler. At that point we decided to take the cover off, not know what the winds could do with the car exposed, 4 hours into the coming darkness and rain we decided to call it a day and stop for the night.
The final push-
Well, upon leaving in the morning, we caught a glimpse of the local news and the lead story was indeed the weather. No longer raining, it was still extremely windy so the cover option was still a no-go. After an hour we were hoping that the bad news was finally behind us but a few honks from a trucker confirmed one of two things - either he likes the car or there was something wrong - we decided to pull over to make sure and wrong it was. No sooner than i jumped out of the truck, I can hear Mark cursing and so as I rounded the trailer I saw what he was pissed about - no nostril panel. Yep, blown off onto the highway. We had used heavy plastic electrical ties to secure it down, thought no way it could come loose but- You see, the tow pig affords no rear visual to what is going on with the car being a big, boxy piece of moving truck trash so there was no way to tell - hell even if I saw it, there was little I could do about it. About 30 seconds later, a couple of gent's pulled off the highway, got out and asked "is this yours?". Too bad, only one car hit it (and that's all it takes). So, what can you do but throw the panel into the truck and go on. We did eventually make it back without further damage but I have to say - those conditions were the worst I have ever had to drive under in my life!
At least I wasn't in poor Mark's shoes - a quick pit stop at my house to change vehicles and we were off the the airport for his flight back to the UK. What a great guy, great sense of humor - I was glad to have met him finally after 3 years, what a first meeting - it will never happen like that again.
BTW - his flight was delayed 3 hours due to a mechanical failure - Yikes!!
Chris
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