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Finally my Ferret has arrived! It's journey from Ohio is like out of a
movie.
First, some background. The guy who trucked the Ferret out to Seattle is a
character. When I first talked to him before he saw the Ferret I asked him
if he had any problems with its height or weight. He said "Naw, I have what
is probably the ugliest trailer you'll ever see, but I can carry anything".
Yeah, sure, I say to myself.
The loading in Ohio was accomplished later than expected, because he had hit
a deer, demolishing the lower driver's side corner of his tractor. He has
to stop to repair the lights that had been damaged. Ben, the trucker, is my
age, and again like me, is a tad "fluffy". The Ferret fit into the truck OK
but there was so little clearance the turret hatches would open only a
couple of inches. This required an "exit" through the driver's hatch.
Finally, the Ferret was on the road, in the company of three Porsches and
two Vipers! All is well as Ben winds his way to the Great State of Texas,
where he is to unload a couple of cars. On the road out of the San Antonio
area Ben encounters the Neanderthals manning the San Marcos weigh station.
Things go downhill for Ben real fast.
First, the idiot misread Ben's driver's license and DOB, and confused him
with some yahoo for which there were some arrest warrants. About the same
time there is a question about "That thar Ferret thing in y'all's truck".
Upon opening the truck these weight control bozos go ballistic. They
apparently thought they had discovered some Militia plot to do some
dastardly deed. They had questions about everything, and in the middle of it
all Ben is handcuffed and told he is being "detained" (I call it a full
custody arrest), and that the "Vehicle Theft Unit" had been notified and was
responding.
Next, one of the nitwits starts to climb around inside the truck. One of
Vipers was a convertible, and the hardtop was on the lower level of the
truck, covered with moving pads. The idiot starts to climb onto the Viper
top, and Ben shouts at him to "get the hell off". Ben is rewarded with a
kick to chest! The goon squad finally figures out how to get into the
Ferret, and immediately have another orgasmic event when they find what
looks like a .30 Browning 1919A4 - which is what it is supposed to look
like. They futz around for a while inside, finally deciding that with a
plugged barrel and other inoperative parts that it really is a replica, not
the real thing. The Vehicle Theft guys show up, and trained investigators
and observers that they are, fail to notice the rather large, prominent
serial number stamped on the pad welded to the hull. Apparently they never
did figure that out, and used the REG number painted on the outside of the
hull - duhhhh.
Finally they released Ben, and aside from rather lengthy stops at the other
weigh stations for the guys to take a peek at the Ferret, he pressed on in
time to be home (Rufus, Oregon - really) for Christmas day. He started out
again early on Monday and arrived around noon (Seattle time), after an
encounter with the area's hideous traffic (4th worst in the US). Ben was
right - he has the ugliest trailer I've ever seen haul exotic vehicles. His
company name is "Farm Truck Called Smith". Don't ask. I never did figure
that one out. But the trailer is amazing. It's a custom built, triple axle,
air ride 50 foot rig originally used for Cadillacs, and train hauled. The
railroad decided to sell them off, and Ben bought ten of them. There is more
hydraulic stuff in there than you cam imagine. Even the whole 50 foot top
raises up on arms to give additional 3' clearance for the mechanisms.
Needless to say this "thing" on my street caused some excitement, and there
were plenty of observers to watch the unloading.
So, now I have the Ferret, and we took our first trip around the area today.
The trip to gas station was a hoot, as was my stop at the Police Academy,
where I work. I did remove the .30 BMG due to the terrorist scares we've had
here in Seattle - no sense my having to go through what Ben did. By the way,
Ben's daughter is a JUDGE in Portland, OR, and already has Federal
investigators looking into his "detainment" by the Texas DPS. I hope he sues
them big time.
Enough for now. Hope I have not overloaded your email - if so, press
DELETE.... So ends the 1999 edition of "Ferret Frolics"....
Ian Wallace
1960 Ferret with EVERYTHING)
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Jan 05 2000 - 22:42:37 PST