Road Trip

Well it all started when I was looking for parts for my 4 door 56 Cadillac that I was planning on converting to a 2 door. My search lead to me to find a Black 2 door Coupe DeVille 9 hours away in Kentucky. It looked super solid and it seemed alot cheaper to start from scratch on the two door instead of trying to convert the 4 door. Problem was that the only vehicle that I had running at the time was a TrailBlazer with an inline 6. Needless to say, it wouldn't tow a 2-3 ton cadillac and the trailer that weighed a ton or more up the mountains.

Solution to the problem was to get my 2004 Chevy Dually back on the road. It was built as a show truck but needed work to get it back on the road. After unplugging the batteries in the back and cleaning all the connectors, which wasn't pleasant because they are underneath the bed; replacing the front airbags; rebuilding the air compressor for the air suspension; and fixing the A/C we got Big Red back on the road. Oh, and installing a new Edge Juice with Attitude programmer on it to up the fun factor.

Problem #2, the lights on the trailer didn't work. After getting my electric genious friend Strawbridge to troubleshoot over 2 to 3 evenings, replacing 2 broken lights, and figuring out the ground system, I was finally ready to go.

THE TRIP

My girlfriend and I had to be ready to leave at 4 am on Saturday Morning to make it to B'ham at 6 to pick up stinson. Then the three of us made the long trip to Kentucky cash in hand. Safety in numbers, right? Everything went fine until we turned to get to the house where the Caddy was located. It was a super short bridge with a sharp left turn. Yeah, the dually wasn't going to make this turn. Luckily I brought every tool and jack I owned. Stinson and I jacked up the rear of the trailer and pulled it to the right edge of the bridge so we could make the turn. And still had to drive into someone's yard. Then we had the search for the house where the Caddy was. Now with our luck, thus far... you would think that we would have a break and have the house right there. Nope, the house was up on a mountain...with a very steep, very narrow driveway and a sharp turn at the top. No way the dually was going to make it up that one. Solution: the family who we were getting Blacky, the Caddy, from hooked up their truck to my trailer and helped us get Blacky.

THE FAMILY:

Now this was an interesting family. They all smoked. Three of them had the same name. And within five minutes the wife had told my girlfriend everything about their family. They were extremely nice and hospitable and helped us in every way they could. They kept offering us cokes and water to drink, I think I lost like three bottles of water and they kept trying to give me more. At one time we were backing up the mountain and they stopped the truck just to give me a bottle water. Seeing Blacky was love at first sight. I knew it was coming home with me as soon as I laid eyes on it. It was just as the gentleman had described it and I was excited because I had been dreaming about this car for a lot of years. The car was solid as a rock, except for one rust hole in the floorboard.

After 2 hours of looking for spare parts in attics and various other locations on their property, we did the paperwork and loaded up the cadillac to take home, which was not an easy feat. Blacky was running, with the original 365, but the drum brakes were locking up. We FINALLY got her on the trailer and started the process of backing up and getting turned around (while on the side of the mountain) so that we could get it down and hitched back to the dually. Stinson was behind the trailer making sure that we didnt go off the side of the mountain. At one point the rear tire of the trailer was inches away from the edge on a pile of dirt they had added to the edge to stop cars from falling off, which apparently had happened a few times.

After 4 hours of loading the car and meeting their entire family, we started the long trip back to b'ham where we would stop for the night. At every gas station we stopped at for fuel, except one, I was asked "How much for the caddy?" Even at the last gas station the attendant locked up the store so she could come out and look at it. I felt like we were the circus in town with Big Red towing Blacky. The trip was a total of 23 hours non stop once we got to B'ham. And I drove the entire time, everyone else seemed to be scared to drive the dually with the trailer behind it.

On Sunday we spent some time with Stinson and his wife. Stinson took some pictures in his neighbor of our little circus on wheels and then we headed home for some much needed r and r.

A few days later we unloaded Blacky and are eager to get started on fixing her up to her natural beauty, plus a few modifications. Stay Tuned...