Nothing much new. I looked at the weather reports and took March 8th off from work, a Tuesday, to move the val to it's new home. 75 degree in March was nice.
I had reserved a U-Haul car trailer in advance and Jason met me there at 9:30. He has a pretty new F-250 with a towing package. it's kind of a large service station off a major highway. While getting the paperwork done. a mechanic type came in and asked if I was the one who called about the Valiant. (U-haul requires info about the car being hauled and the tow vehicle) I said yeah and he said he bought one from an old lady for $100 when he lived in Florida. Don drove it a pretty long time before he got T-boned in the driver side fender. The poor Val was totaled but he said it held up well. His legs were trapped so had injuries but he said the car held up well. He reminisced for awhile before we left to pick up the car.
Funny thing is, when I called for the reservation, the young woman on the phone had asked me what kind of car a Plymouth was. Huh? "You know, is it a Ford or what?" No It's a Plymouth Valiant, not a Ford. Plymouth is the make. Valiant is the model.
Jason doesn't like to tow so I did the driving.
We drove about 6 miles or so to where the car was and I backed the rig down the drive.
Uh-oh, I hadn't been able to find my come-along so it was going to be muscle power to get it up the ramps onto the trailer. The 2 of us couldn't do it (we tried) so I asked if his neighbor might help. The 3 of us got it done.
So I pulled out and headed down the road to the BMV in downtown Wadsworth right past the service station I got the trailer from. I couldn't resist and pulled into the lot right in front of the office. Don spotted the car right away and came out to have a look and a younger guy also scoped it out. Back on the road heading south.
I've had the car for over a year now and one thing always bothered me. I never had the title transferred because it required an "Out of state inspection" and they have to physically see the car. It has not been driveable since I got it and I don't have a trailer.
Pulled up and double parked in front of the License Bureau on the street. I sent Jason inside to find out if someone could come out to have a look. Lady said to park in the Marathon station so I did. She came out, I opened the door to show her the VIN, she wrote down the mileage and into the office we went. $3.50 later and I had my document. $1.00 extra because it was over 30 days.
Then 2 doors down to the Title Bureau. It went much smoother than I expected except the mileage on the Bill of sale (87,000) did not match the mileage on the car (97,000). Nebraska is a bill of sale state and nothing was notarized. Ohio is VERY strict and I find it hard to believe NE seems to be so casual in comparison.
She asked which number I wanted to use and I froze. Ohio is very anal about title work and they go strictly by the book. Things like, if you make an error signing a title you cannot scratch it out as that voids the title and you must apply for a duplicate first before transferring. I had visions of having to get more documentation from the seller in Nebraska. She asked again and I said, "Is this going to kill the deal?" She said no, just that I would have to sign an odometer statement. So I said use 97,466 that's on the odometer.
The Nebraska title was dated 1970 and it was co-owned by a man and wife. The wife has since passed away but luckily Pete had included a copy of her death certificate. I showed everything I had to her and she went back to her computer terminal. I was so relieved when the printer started up and a new title rolled off. Whew!
I felt like I was on a roll so I took my barely dry title 2 doors down to the License bureau and bought plates.
Ta-da! So now I'm legal.
After that a nice 40 mile or so north on a State Route at about 50-55 MPH. Jason's truck didn't even break into a sweat.
Uh-oh again. The street was too narrow for me to back into the drive with this long rig so I pulled into the neighbor's drive across the street hoping to get a straight shot into it's new home. Her car was parked in the drive and I couldn't pull up far enough so I managed to get everything back on the street. I felt bad because I went across her lawn. She came out and volunteered to park her car on the street so I could pull up further into her drive. I apologized for the lawn and she said "Don't worry about it, I do it all the time."
I stood on the street looking at things and realized it still was not going to be easy as there was a fire hydrant near my drive and the garage was in the back yard up a drive that went between 2 houses. Just then, I saw my next door neighbor pull in his drive just getting home with his family after a long weekend with his family. Ah -hah! "Hey Kenny, can you help push this car?" Sure!
I unstrapped the car and rolled it onto the street. Then we easily pushed it up the drive and stopped right before the garage.
I have to say that the U-Haul trailer was very nice. I give it 5 stars. I loved the straps that just go over the front wheels and ratchet down. I didn't realize it had electric brakes until it was rolling and that was nice too.
So, it's "home" but unfortunately, I have so many other things going on right now, it's going to have to sit untouched for awhile.
