Chapter 10

"Come on," I said. "We need the lorry."

"Oooo, road trip!" Wendy said, "Where we going?"

"Promise you won't hit me again?"

"Okay."

"No, that won't work. You have to say it," I said.

"It," she giggled.

"Smart ass," I responded.

She wiggled it, "It has a mind of its own."

"Say, 'I promise I won't hit David when he tells me where we're going.'"

"I promise I won't hit David when he tells me where we're going," she said.

"Uncross your fingers and say it again," I told her.

"You are no fun," she said. "Oh, alright! I promise I won't hit David when he tells me where we're going."

"Pussy," I said.

OW!

She hit me again.

"Pussy..." "OW!" " ... is a town in France a little past Geneva." I said. "We're going to pick up the car advertised in the Match. I bought it."

"How do we get there?"

"Drive, that's why we need the lorry," I said.

"The lorry is in Arras."

"So, we go there first."

Hazebrouck to Arras by canal; check out of the hotel; pick up the lorry, fuel it up and grab a bite to eat, then Arras to the A26 ... get ticket for the toll... , A26 around Saint-Quentin, Saint-Quentin to Reims, around Reims picking up the A4. Take the 4 to the 26 split and get on the 26 again. We never really get OFF the 26 ... it's just that the French are like that...

We overnight in Dijon and buy some mustard ... it's the REAL Dijon.

South to Lyon.

Now the road gets tricky ... it's still the same road but it's a lot of turns.

Pussy!

We go to the correct address and knock.

"Who are you?" the man asks.

I identify myself and the man leads us around back. The car is in a barn and it's covered with a car tarp. The tarp is coated in pigeon shit. Removing the tarp we check things.

Tires are up; they're weather checked. There's nothing in the radiator but alcohol and water, the battery had been on a trickle charger ever since the crash.

Just for the hell of it ... Wendy gets in and tries it.

IT STARTS!

"Shut it off!"

Loud ain't in it!

The sound reverberated around the barn ... these Group B cars have no mufflers ... just straight pipes.

We scared pigeons for blocks!

The brakes seemed to work ... sorta. Hose manufacturers use salt in the mix and little critters just love to chew brake hoses ... for the salt. This was before aircraft used armored lines ... they were 30 years in the future ... at least in this iteration. Braided hose ... there's an invention.

Hmm ... I'll talk to Dal.

I backed the car out of the barn. This was because Wendy had enough excitement for a couple of months.

The car is in the lorry ... we did the reverse trip. Except ... Dal met us with the Valmaat barge and tugboat in Amsterdam. We loaded the lorry, tied it down and motored to Uusikaupunki on Finland's west coast.

The car went to Dal's buddy and his restore shop.

That's when we found out the entire car was hand formed aluminum. It was hurt a lot worse under the exterior panels than we thought. The only good part?

The car came apart on its seams. The entire floor pan was hand formed on english rollers ... all of it.

We had nearly half a million dollars in it.

After we had the Toyota in the hands of the restore shop we reversed our trip ... the Audi was ready!!!