The one that got away!

[fast1]

  The bike, not the girl. You know, the bike you dreamed about, touched and almost owned! Then at the last second something killed the deal. Mine was a GS 1100 cafe/pro-sreet that belonged to a recently divorced notary public motorcycle and party friend of mine. Tipping beers and bullshitting we made a tentative deal, all my Yamaha 650 stuff in trade for this carb coughing beauty. After not hearing from him I called him up to find his son's were against the idea and thought they might want it. I was crushed. Gave me inspiration when building my GS 1000. That was when I finally forgave Dennis. Let's here yours. BEERS & CHEERS.

[MaximX]

This is more a car story.  I had this long time aquaintence who in 2002 bought a brand new Camaro SS here in town.  He was older than me and I am sure he never abused it at all.  I had talked to him about his car once and he said lots of people were always interested in it and of course he was not into selling it.
  So a little over a year ago he dies.  I was still unemployed then and not thinking of buying a car I did not need.  I see a garage sale at his house and stop to ask the lady what happend to his car.  She said she sold it for $11,000....I forgot to ask how many kms but she did say it was low.  Now that I am working again I am wishing I had snapped up that car.  It is one that would hold it's value very well for the price it sold for...and it would be a blast to drive...

[PeggySue]

Years back, we (my mum, brother and I ) bought my dad a fixer-upper- a 1950 Chrysler Windsor sedan... and a parts car to match. They were lovely old beasts, pearl steering wheels, pushbutton shifting, gorgeous body lines... When I moved out to Terrace they were still in the yard, as there were quite a number of other vehicles to fix around the farm, and these girls were pretty low on the 'Honey-Do' list.
Then, a couple of years ago, after one too many car shows,  I got to thinking about owning a nice driver, a vintage car to take to shows, Sunday drives, etc. and thought about the Windsor. Called dad to find out that I'd missed her by 6 months.   He'd sold to someone in Quesnel for the wife to run errands in... lucky lady.

 So, back to the drawing board, and thinking about what exactly I'd be doing if I had the lovely old car. Well, I wouldn't be taking my (someday) restored Enfield Prince to any sort of rally in the back of a car, that's for certain! So a change of heart had me thinking about a truck. An old truck. Something made of metal, and without all the 'extra stuff' under the hood. Something easy to work on... kind of like the old International Cornbinder that I learned to drive on, then worked on in my mechanics class in high school, years back. Fat fenders, short box with a stepside for me to hop up on, slow and steady, with a good heater!  The truck that my dad has been talking about selling off for years. One more call home established that the IH hadn't been moved, except to be parked under cover and for the odd jaunt around the yard. The conversation went something like this:

Peg: So, you get around to selling the 'old girl' (what we call the IH) yet?
Dad: Ha! No... not so much.
Peg: Well, how'd you feel about her moving out, but still staying in the family? Moving up to Terrace...
Dad: .... that'd be better....
( mum has been making noise about clearing out some old vehicles for a while now.)
Peg: ...'cause you know, I'd never be able to take my motorbike anywhere in the back of a car...
Dad: ... yep. You're right.... She'd need a check-up before you could drive her, tho...

At which point, there is much reminiscing, and plans made to have her trailered to a shop in PG to get the basic systems okayed, then trailered up to Terrace. My dad was such a good sport about all this, and was able to get his 'old girl' to a good home, where he can still visit, see the resto come together bit by bit, and be confident that she'll be taken good care of.  What he didn't tell me, tho, was that she's an "Old Man Magnet"! Every fella over 60 that sees the truck is helplessly drawn toward her, and must tell me all about their experiences with an old Cornbinder they grew up with! It's been pretty cool, so far, and I've gotten lots of tips on bugs and troubleshooting from these chatty fellows... not a bad thing at all.

So, though the first car got away, I was able to give the plan a little more thought, and it worked out even better than if I had gotten the Windsor!
Sometimes there's a silver lining on these things...

Peg