I'll recover or I should say, "I will recover it"

Actually what I am trying to say is I love going and fetching trailers. If you need your trailer brought to me for work, I am your man. It is not a free service, but it is a job I enjoy. It is a job, but, I turn it into an adventure and sometimes I have a little fun in the process. My most recent recovery was actually a blast and I want to tell you folks about it.

Any recovery begins with getting the coordinates programmed into the GPS. I whipped out my maps and did just that. I do not believe in GPS. I think it is for those out of touch with the beauty of reading the Road Atlas or those following the American adage of "it is so much easier". I prefer to do it the good old fashion hard way. I started out for Holton Michigan at 2 am on Friday to pick up, pay for, and bring back a 1954 Safari to my shop to have some work done. Client #0002 has got aluminitis very badly. He has a 1960 Caravanner that needs to be picked up too. That is another story and will be told soon enough, back to the Safari. I headed out West and North. Someone I admire deeply lives in that direction and I thought, "Why not kill a few birds with one stone?"

I am a huge fan of David Winick. I like his keen design ability and insight into the balance of materials within a trailer. For those that do not know David Winick please go here: www.vintagetrailering.com and check him out. He designed the 75 th Anniversary Airstream. Unlike the Christopher Deam design, he did a brilliant job of improving on the original trailer. Knowing that Grand Rapids was on the way, and a little prodding from Steve Klohn, I reached out with an email and was told "sure come on by".

There were a few trailers waiting their turn out front.

His shop was very nice, It is fairly spacious and much cleaner than mine. He has been in business a little longer than me, so it is only natural. Sitting in the middle of the shop is this 1948 Wee Wind. David is building it on speculation. A buyer will want to have this one for sure. Don, you reading this? I think you are the man, but I also think you are the man...

David is cutting no corners with this one. As you can see, if a panel is not almost perfect, it gets replaced.

It was a pleasure to meet David and see his operation. I could have stood there and bullshit all day. Fortunately, I had a job to do. The Job was another hour and a half up the road. 

And here is the Job... bring this back to The Works.




One little problem though. It seem that the seller says it is a 1954, the title says 1954, but the serial number says 1955. Not sure it makes a big difference to anyone except a trailer geek like me.

I love the front kitchen. Very efficient use of the space.

Full time twin beds with a night stand between them .Those long windows... LOVE IT!!!

I hooked on, got things secured, and started back East and South. I wanted to maximize the day and put as many miles on as possible before dark time. 743 miles to the trailer, that meant I had the same to get back home. The odometer read 986 when I turned off the key for the night. I was towing an Airstream and I intended to use it the way Wally intended it to be used.

A huge boon was finding a White Castle. There are none in Maryland, and when I saw one heading North, I was determined to make White Castle my dinner location. Sitting at the dinette was very relaxing while I enjoyed the view at the campground. If you have anything negative to say about White Castle, save it and keep it to yourself, for I will not publish your comments. I eat there once a year and that makes it very special for me.

The place I shut down for the night was Sterling Point State Park. The park is halfway between Detroit and Toledo. My site, #23 was right on the beach and Lake Eire was all I could see while sitting at the dinette enjoying my sliders and the bottle of margaritas I bought on the way in.

I awoke to the sun rising across the Lake. As much as I was enjoying using Client #0002's trailer, I wanted to beat it on down the road and see my wife and kids. If the tent campers sleeping next door are reading this; sorry for waking you with starting my engine at 6am...

Smooth sailing all the way back. It was as if no one else was on the road almost the whole way

I even made sport of passing more than a few white box trailers....

And a new one for me... a classic British car. The people driving it looked to be a 105, but they sure looked classy in the right hand drive automobile. 

So the  trailer is in the yard all safe and sound and I drove 1489 miles in 20.5 hours. Good to be home, but even better to have a very cool trailer waiting in line right behind the X251