Retrieval

About the time I graduated from high school, I drove the dodge down to my grandparents’ airport to store it while I was going to be away at college for a few years.  After 15 years (3 college degrees, 2 moves across the country, and 1 kid) it was finally time to retrieve the old truck.  My cousin graciously volunteered to make the trip with me and contribute an appropriate tow vehicle, so one beautiful Sunday morning he, my dad, and I drove down to the coast.  This is exactly where the truck had been sitting for probably the last 10 of those 15 long years.  Amazing, the tires still had air in them!

Three of the wheels turned relatively freely, but of couse the one seized wheel was right up against the wall where we couldn’t get to it.  So, out came the trolly jack and tow strap.

The riding lawn mower didn’t have enough umph and we didn’t have enough room to get a real tractor into the hanger, so we put my dad to work with the come-a-long.

After getting the wheel freed up (with the liberal use of a hammer) we drug the truck the rest of the way out of the hanger with a tractor.  It had taken us about 2 hours to get this far, but with about another 30 minutes, a set of aligator clips, and a half-can of starter fluid, we had the truck running.  Miraculously, the clutch took about two pumps and then worked fine.  The brakes showed no signs of being as cooperative, so we didn’t bother with them.

We actually drove the truck onto the trailer under it’s own power.  Not having brakes made it a bit more interesting (as did the 2 hour intermission to load a several hundred pound roto-tiller into the back), but we got it on and strapped down to our satisfaction.

Finally, we were ready start the journey home.  The drive went smoothly (at ~53-54 mph) and we got the dodge stowed away at the back end of my driveway before it got so late that the neighbors would complain about the noise.  All-in-all, it was a very successful trip.