Once again, having no plan, I pulled into a Drive-In for some free wifi to work out what I was going to do next..... I needed to eat, pick up fuel & find a place to stay. Still, without a fixed plan, I hopped in Gloria, & followed the rush hour traffic flow until I found a petrol station.
Now, I guess by now you maybe wondering where it went wrong (apart from my lack of licence plate)......
Well, the truth is, nothing , until now, less than 24 hours before I had to get to the shipping agent.
It was getting dark when I refuelled her, & I noticed something on the right headlight, actually, a lack of something. There was a massive hole in the glass where a stone had smashed it. I taped the remainder of the glass together, in a futile effort to salvage the light, but as soon as the lights were turned on, it just gave up & died.
Lets face it, I'm driving a distinctive car, with no number plate & only one headlight in the rapidly dwindling evening light. Not the best of situations to find yourself in.... I asked the guy at the petrol station if he had a spare, he only spoke one language which wasn't mine, & he continued to stare at me as if I'd just landed from Mars. I took a good look around; this garage had a repair shop attached to it, which was closed, & it looked like on this strip of road, there were plenty more like it. I pointed at the light & I managed to get out of the guy there was a parts shop 2 blocks down. So that's where I headed.
I'd noticed a police car drive past me, so as I drove up to the parts shop, I tucked Gloria in behind a handy lorry that was parked in the far corner. Again, sometimes, don't you just feel that the universe aligns somehow to help you out? I popped into the shop & asked the guy, who scratched his head I disbelief when he told me:
"Yes, actually, I have one on the shelf. It'll cost you $12, & if you want me to fit it, another $20".
I didn't have a lot of cash on me, so I asked if I could pull up outside the shop to steal some light, I had my own screwdriver....
Anyway, he came out, keen to see Gloria & for a general natter. It turns out that his Uncle, who had been an actor in LA, had given this guy his old 1973 912E, which had unfortunately spontaneously combusted a couple of years ago, & he was still pretty sad about it. He showed me some pictures of the burnt out shell, in between fitting the headlight for no charge, which I hadn't expected at all...
Grateful for his help, he sent me on my way, all fixed up & whole lot more legal than before. This must be something to do with the Porsche 'ownership experience' I'd heard about....
After spotting a pretty reasonable looking bar (next to a pretty cool charity shop....) , I managed to peel myself out of the drivers seat again, for a well deserved beer & plate of chicken wings before finding another cheap motel for the night.
The drive to Newark the following morning was, again, fairly uneventful. My only objective was to get to the shipping agent by midday, then it was goodbye to Gloria, & hello New York City. Now, bearing in mind the shipping agent is located right beside the docks, it had only been a few weeks since the devastating flood in New York. It was a very sobering thought, that had my vacation time been a month earlier, Gloria could have been one of the sorry write-offs, still holed up in a container. Sadly, many of them had been washed off the container ships into the harbour.
The whole dropping off process is pretty rapid. I met Irene, who was my contact at the shipping agent, & one of her guys who signed Gloria in, marked her up for export, I signed the papers & said goodbye.
It felt slightly surreal that my road trip had come to an end, & I was to continue on to NYC by train. The one plan I had made, was booking a reasonable room in the Big Apple; I had, after all earned it, don't you think? I booked the room, just before leaving Detroit, I didn't want to find myself stranded at the final post.
I literally crashed & burned as I collapsed on the bed in the hotel.
Situated in the East Village, it was above a very cool coffee shop called The Bean, & round the corner from a hot beef shop called This Little Piggy Had Roast Beef. I can't resist a bit of slow cooked cow in a bun, so dinner was just that & a can of Pork Slap.
Is it weird to miss your car? I was...... It felt especially empty the following morning without our routine warm up & wake up & the realisation that the big adventure had reached its finale.
Back in Blighty, it was work as normal, & the odd conversation with the shipping agent. It was the end of November, & with a backlog of cars to ship from New York, it looked unlikely I'd see Gloria before Christmas. I have to mention a big thankyou to Mark at Kingstown Shipping, I don't know how he did it, but Gloria was on a container back to the UK not long after me; & after the fees were settled at Chatham Dockyard, I picked her up on December 21st.
Straight down to the docks after work......
So, what next? Well, Gloria lives with me down in Italy; I drove her down at the beginning of July, again, without a cough or a wobble, just a good solid drive. I'm going to be hammering the alpine passes in the near future, & whilst all this goes on, back in Blighty, after many cups of tea & slices of cake, her new engine is being slowly assembled..... Watch this space for another Neil Bainbridge project.
I didn't carry any special tools, but Marco from TLG, did very kindly loan me a standard toolkit, a spare set of points & some fuses. I had insurance from a broker in California to make me (almost) legal, a sat nav & iPad. The iPad, to be fair, was a bit of a luxury item..... But it was worth its weight in gold. I had the standard Haynes manual, should I need to diagnose a problem, & I made sure I knew how to change a fan belt & a set of points.... It had been quite a few years since I'd last done that. Lastly, I had joined the Early 911S Registry in the USA, & carried the members list with me, should I have to call on someone (even a total stranger) for some help. I was after all, crossing 13 states on my trip.
Mark from Kingstown Shipping was awesome, he took care of all my shipping needs, & got Gloria over to the UK as swiftly as possible. What a great Christmas prezzie that was......
Why do it? Well, why not..... Sometimes you just have to say 'f*** it' & make it happen. As scary & intimidating that may be for some, I can only tell you that the memories & experience will live with me forever. There was no itinerary, no big plan, just a start point, & end point constrained only by the dates of my holiday (& a limited budget)
Life's too short for 'I wish I had.....'
Big thank you's for their help & support:
Marco from TLG in North Hollywood
Mark from Kingstown Shipping
Neil Bainbridge at BS Motorsport(for everything so far..... the project has a way to go yet....)
& my car, Gloria, for being such an awesome drive
