Lately, it feels like if I’m not working, I’m driving somewhere. I was really looking forward to a quiet weekend and home, but Saturday morning, Dave and I were up at the buttcrack of dawn (actually – even early, 2:30 am) to beat traffic as we embarked on another quest.

Nineteen years ago, not long after I met Dave, his friend gave him an old motorcycle – a little 1970 Honda 550. It needed work, but Dave loves a project. It got tarped up and set at the back of the parking spot at his mom’s condo. And there it stayed for the last 19 years. We just never had the time or money (or space) to work on it properly

They are doing some work in the underground, so they needed us to move the bike. It was time to finally bring her home.

We were supposed to get a proper motorcycle trailer with ramps, but Uhaul decided to send us to a location that is no longer a Uhaul dealer (why… I don’t know…. but it’s not the first issue I’ve had with Uhaul. It is however, the last). Friday afternoon we found ourself with no trailer, and a deadline to move the bike.

Happily, Dad gave me his old box trailer back when we first bought the house. It was a little rickety, but it would do the trick in a pinch.

So we hooked up the trailer, and hit the road.

The bike was filthy – covered in 19 years of underground soot. Most of the moving parts were seized, and the tires were flat. Those things were easily solvable. The big issue we had was how the heck we were going to get it in the trailer with no ramps. Happily, Dad built the trailer so the back wall came off, and we only had to lift it about a foot and a half… but that’s still a lot when you’re talking about a 450lb hunk of metal and rubber, and you’re only two people. (and one of those people are me!)

It took about 20 minutes of trial and error and some how we (and by we I mean, mostly Dave) managed it. For my piece of mind while towing, we laid her on her side and strapped her down. I’ve helped Dad with enough loads to know that you have to say the magic words (“That’s not going anywhere!”) after strap something down.

Then we set off.

We made a brief stop by Dave’s grandma’s to pick up a spare windsheild for his Charger that he stored there and set off. You can see by the sun it was still quite early.

We stopped again about halfway home for some breakfast.

I haven’t had McDonalds hotcakes since I was about 15 or 16 (it was a fishing trip I took with Dad) and they were pretty darn good. The same cannot be said for Dave’s breakfast…

Someone murdered his poor Chicken McMuffin. Seriously… who would think it’s okay to send out something like that? Happily, I’d bought him two (the other one was fine) and extra hashbrowns… so for this one, he just ate the chicken and tossed the muffin.

The rest of the trip was long, but uneventful.

By 11:30 am, we were home safe in the driveway. Now we just had to get the darn thing out of the trailer!

I told Dave we’d do it later and promptly went and had nap – lol!

But eventually, with many more swear words and some struggling, we got her out. Gravity made it a little easier than getting her in there, but it still took as a tonne of sheer muscle on Dave’s part.

Now she’s had a quick rinse, and you can see her charm more readily

I think she’ll probably need a full strip down an rebuild… Dave disagrees. We’ll see who’s right in the end. Though who knows how far away that will be – it’s not like we really have the time or money to put into her at the moment. But regardless, she’s home… and doesn’t need to be lifted into or out of a trailer any time soon.

And hopefully, I can stay off the road NEXT weekend!