[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index] [New Search]

[T3] 2004 invasion revisited...


just re-read this today and couldn't help but chuckle...  my comments are added in ()

Friday, August 6th - Day 2

Ron and I were up at 6:30 to go get the 18' Budget box truck and trailer to get the Witness car from Newark NJ. So we hop on over to the host hotel by 7:30 to gather Brian... well, as it seemed we woke the hibernating Bear... who was still on Pacific time. Would have made a great picture but I wouldnt have wanted to remove my Camera from where it would have been had I taken the shot. So we went back to gather Ron's new 71 Fastback and bring it out to his house. When we were done Brian joined me and we set out for Newark.

(in my defense... I awoke very disoriented [normal for me anyway, but sounded good] and was running on about 1 hour's sleep)

Trip out (about 3.5 hrs) went well until we were to turn onto the Garden State Parkway... and I should have remembered it was cars only, no trucks! so we continued to the next exit and called Eric. He gave us very straight forward directions but they were right through the middle of Newark. 

(Keith forgot to mention that this was also a major construction zone and there were time the empty trailer actually attempted lane changes on its own!)

About half way across Newark, which took a half hour or so we started seeing ambulances zooming by and hovering helicopters... this cant be good! We made it to the storage facility and met Eric and the car and became aware that there had been a huge pileup on the Garden State, good thing they didnt allow trucks afterall!! There was the Car... after all these years, as it turned out a typical Southern PA salt rat that had had a hard life before Paramount got it and mudded it up and painted it. But it was THE car!! Always wondered what had happened to it. We took a few pictures and Brian pushed the car down the long hallway to the end where there was a little ramp to the exit door... and upon reaching that door and opening it an even STEEPER ramp to the street outside!

(Keith, do you have those pics yet?  And the long hallway was the entire length of the highrise we were under!)

I went and got the truck and trailer and didnt have much luck getting it backed around to the door into the storage facility. I can back a small boat, but it took Brian's expertize to get the trailer around using mirrors only... with a little help from Eric to pull the trailer a bit straighter than we had it. We started to pull it (the car)up with a come-along but quickly realized that this was going to take a while and we had the street blocked. Eric then offered to push the car on with his... and it did have good rear bumper mounts so who were we to say no? He got it most of the way up before his tires broke loose and we pulled it the rest of the way with the come-along. Finally with the car loaded up, we headed out around the Building......

(this only set us behind about 2 hours!)

Only to get stopped by heavily uniformed local cops doing a Homeland Security check!! 

(remember, we can see NYC for the building we are at, we were driving a Ryder truck/van, we sat at a known storage facility for almost 3 hours... i would have pulled us over too!)

They had me open the truck, checked my license, Searched the Witness car... and well... OK, I wont embelish further!

(one of the men was pretty young.  we asked him if he knew of the witness car.  blank look on his face.  then we said, "you know, harrison ford, amish country, kell....", "yeah, now i remember... this is that car?"  after that, they were pretty relaxed)

After just a few moments they let us go and we were off back through Newark with this whole rig... and back onto I78. I could never imagine as I watched the film 20 years ago that I would be the person to bring the car back into the public eye for the first time 20 years later as we hauled it down I 78 and back into Pennsylvania! Its now 4:30 and time for Milking... or in this case Gassing up the truck and grabbing a couple more bags of munchies!

(they don't let you use your atm to purchase stuff in the newark area unless you make a 10 buck minimum purchase!...grrrr  Vader needs his diet coke!)

We got back to the invasion site after 6:30 and unloaded the car under the tent and headed for the host Hotel, quite hungry and very tired! It was a blast meetin up with everyone there... and seeing many cars I hadnt seen yet... or hadnt seen since their restoration (like Sophy!) After the meet and greet I headed back to Ron's, gathered his new Fasty and brought it over to the showfield seeing as we already had the truck and trailer... then returned both of them.

I really owe Brian for This day alone!!! and the Invasion has just started... 

Brian Fye
64 Notchback, 64 Notch Speedster, 67 Squareback, 73 Squareback, 74 412 Squareback

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index] [New Search]