Moving Cars-Continued
In the last post we told you a little about ourselves and the move from Southern California to Tennessee. Now its time for the cars.
Time for the first car to go in the trailer!
Deciding to move from an established life to Tennessee was a big decision to make and just as big of one to execute. There were the normal things involved with moving our home across the Country such as moving the furniture, hooking up utilities, finding a new doctor and dentist. However, the big decision was whether to move the collector cars or sell them. The decision was based more on emotions than logic or financial considerations. We were moving them not selling; they had all become part of the family. At the time, we had seven collector cars, one driver, a trailer plus a motor home. They all needed to get to Tennessee. Since it is a 2,000 mile trip one way, making the move on our car trailer one car at a time was not an option.
The cars were all collected and waiting for the transporter to arrive.
We selected a professional transportation company, Thomas Sunday, Inc. to make the move of our treasured cars. We had previously used them to haul a single car for us but this time it was going to be a full load! It was important for us to know the cars would be safe on the trip so it had to be an enclosed trailer and not an open one. Not just any dude with a car hauler was going to get handed the keys to our prized possessions. I interviewed car haulers like I was hiring a nanny for by kids.
Not only were Thomas Sunday’s prices the most reasonable, they had excellent equipment with immaculate enclosed trailers and very courteous and professional drivers. The truck pulled up in front of our house right on time with a fully enclosed empty trailer. One by one the cars were loaded, covered and packed away. It made quite a stir in the neighborhood. It was a full load of six cars. The seventh car would need to find another way to Tennessee. That was a very difficult day for me. All but one of my prized toys were in one truck and out of my control. It was not unlike the first time one of your children leaves with the car for an out of town trip with friends! You know you have to let them go but you want to go along to make sure nothing happens to them.
As you look at the picture above, remember this was January in Southern California. Notice the trees! We were headed to Tennessee and the weather was a little colder in January.
Katrina and I left a couple of days later in the motor home full of animals (that’s an entirely different story). We raced cross Country to catch up with the car transporter and arrived at our new home just hours before the moving truck. All the cars were delivered safely and soon stored in their new environment.
Two days later I flew back to CA, hooked our Avalanche up to our trailer, put the one last remaining car on the trailer and headed to TN. It was the second such trip in two weeks. The drive was not bad and the reward was getting all the cars back together in one place with only minor damage to one car and that was my fault.
True story; we bought this car two years earlier in Tennessee, in the same town we were moving to. When we bought it we had no idea we would someday moving to were we found it! Thomas Sunday transported it both ways.
It wasn’t major but it became the motivation to do a complete restoration on the car. I was going to do it anyway; this damage just put it at the top of the list.
Was the move worth it? Absolutely! Have we ever been sorry we left? Never! Is there anything we miss? You can’t beat the weather in Southern California and the supply of rust free cars but, in our minds, the pluses in Middle Tennessee far out weigh those in California.
