Remember the 1953 Flying Cloud I inspected a few weeks ago in Virginia? Well, I bought it and have been trying to figure out how to get it out of there ever since.

Fortunately, Rob Baker (of The VAP and also the guy who helped scam our scammer) once again stepped up to the plate. Rob is a trailer recovery expert, having successfully located and hauled away probably a dozen or more vintage trailers over the past few years.

Pulling out a vintage trailer is always an interesting challenge. If the trailer has been sitting for years, you have to be ready for anything: frozen wheel bearings, dead tires, rusted hitches, non-operable light and brakes, body parts that will fly off in the breeze, etc. Plus, you never know what “environmental hazards” there might be nearby or even in the trailer. This can include mud holes, swamps, toxic chemicals, and even … as Rob recently discovered … deer entrails.

Last night Rob called me about 15 minutes north of Onancock VA, where the 53 FC was sitting. I realized two bad things during that call. (1) I never sent him the key to the Yale deadbolt on the door. That alone could have doomed the mission, because if he was unable to get inside he wouldn’t be able to secure some of the junk that was loosely stacked inside. (2) Rob hadn’t been fully briefed for his mission. He didn’t know the trailer was on blocks, that there was spare house siding materials stored underneath it, that the hitch jack and coupler were likely frozen with rust, etc.

But Rob is a Marine officer who has been to Iraq and has a “can do” attitude. So he went in and got the job done. I can’t do justice to his story, so let me just point you to his blog entry from November 21 2006, entitled “Vintage Airstream Towing!”

Bert and Janie arrived yesterday afternoon, a day earlier than expected, and with them we got a little “cold” weather: upper 50s and 60s with some clouds. But we forgave them for bringing the weather in and had them and Barry over for dinner. Eleanor made pasta with scallops in a cream sauce. … Mmmmmm….

Emma has made a calendar to count down the days to her visit to Vermont, where she will see her grandparents Didi and Papa.