This is a great story about WO and Catherine Greene and Frank and Peggy Broome picking up Frank and Peggy’s unusual car in Charleston, SC.  Check out the picture at the end.

              

 

 

 

 

     First we borrowed Doug Riggin’s trailer which is another story in itself as the trailer is very secure and possibly of national significance.  The trip should have taken us about eight and a half hours but as Frank says, “the lady in the box did not always tell him how to go the way he wanted to go”, so the trip took about twelve hours.  We saw a lot of train stations and very quaint small towns on the way.  In all fairness, the train stations were WO’s idea.  Peggy and Catherine entertained themselves with a movie in the back seat and with chocolate consumption.  The only near mishap occurred in Chattanooga when WO needed to go to a SunTrust Bank.  Frank almost took out the side of the building and a couple of teller windows as we went through the drive-through pulling the empty trailer.  Isn’t there some sort of rule about trying to pull a long trailer, or a short one for that matter through a drive-in window?  If there is, we ignored it.

      The former owner of the Princess is named( We swear.) Turky Burky.  When we finally pulled into Turky’s lot around nine, we had cut a swath through Georgia and South Carolina that could only be rivaled by the path to the sea that Sherman took.  The Princess was stored in the garage and the trailer was put into the compound lot for the night.  We went on to eat seafood at the harbor and to drink a little wine.  We were all exhausted but triumphant.  Half the trip was complete with no significant troubles.

     Once awake on Saturday morning we decided to load up and head back to Madison, Georgia where we would spend the night.  Turky’s guys were very helpful and got everything safely on the trailer.  We were interested in some of the cars outside but one of the guys asked if we would like to see the cars inside the storage shed.  What do you think the answer was?  Several hours later after having left a drool trail over several Morris Woodies and an Austin or two (The old M38 jeep doesn’t count.), we were finally under way.

     We made it to Madison which is about an hour from Atlanta with no incidents.  Frank pulled us into the Hampton Inn and disconnected the trailer over at the side of the hotel where no one else was parked.  We left for a twilight tour of the town and finally went into an antique shop to spend some time and money before dinner.  Everything was absolutely delightful until we returned to the Hampton Inn.  There Frank turned the evening sky black and blue with his invectives against  the @#$%#@$&! Idiot who parked their car right in front of the trailer hitch so that we could not pull it away in the morning.

     Sunday morning dawned and we looked into the lot where the car  was still blocking the trailer.  Catherine had an eye out for someone with a small child because there was a safety seat in the back of the Georgia vehicle.  We sat for a while and finally Peggy went up to the lady at the desk and told her our problem, thankfully with Frank giving no expletives or suggestions.  It turns out that we were in luck because the car belonged to the lady on the desk.  She moved her car while we went on a daytime ride around the truly lovely little town of Madison.  We returned, hooked up the trailer and headed toward Chattanooga where we met the Greene kids for lunch and then headed back to Columbia, the new home of the Princess Vanden Plas.  

     Wait until you see the Princess in person!  Perfect  strangers stopped to admire and ask questions about the car all the way home to Columbia.  The Princess is maroon and black with bird’s eye maple interior wood and original red leather in good shape.  The key fob has a crown on it and the hubcaps each have a delicate P written under glass.  The picnic tables in the back seat are beautiful and will be accessorized to the teeth at show times.  The metal rod on the hood is for the flag of dignitaries and Alabama football fans.  Hopefully, you will see it in the St. Pat’s parade in Erin.  That will give Frank time to do a masterful wax job, and Peggy can look for any necessary accessories.