Christmas Day.
On the way to Ohio, we passed a Teardrop Trailer and the whole family gave a big thumbs up to the owners.
Powell, Ohio. We are off to take the kids sledding around the corner from my brother-in-law's house. As we sat in the car warming up, conversation drifted to Teardrops as it is want to do when I have a captive audience. I shared a few images I had on my phone of a Teardrop and told Hans about my dream to build one and use it as the backbone of my future road trips with my kids and later with my wife. Little did I know what would come of this innocent enough sounding exchange.
A day later, Hans is back in Tennessee and he called me, something I don't think he's ever done before.
"I'm looking at a 1947 Tourette Teardrop Trailer...just like the one you showed me in the picture."
After I processed what he was saying, I allowed myself to be politely excited. "Send me a few pictures if you would."
I took a look at the pictures on my phone, but didn't give it too much thought.
I knew we had some projects that we wanted to pursue that were higher up in the cue than buying a 65 year old Teardrop Trailer.
My wife asked to see the pictures. She seemed very interested. She asked Hans to send more pictures and to go and open the doors, check the hatch and so on.
A few more photos came as well as a few phone calls that assured me it was a steel framed trailer and the Teardrop is all aluminum. It has an aluminum frame and aluminum skin.
"You can't go wrong here." The next text said.
I started to get excited, but was guarded and cautious. Erica brought it up with me a few more times. I decided to give the owner a call and ask about it. He knew very little. He had picked it up at a swap meet in Georgia and has had some interest in it. He said he would be raising the price in the spring. The price was not negotiable. In truth, I had a very hard time understanding the man because of his thick southern drawl. I asked Hans to call and 'translate.'
A few more days passed and we got more information about it. We had a few conversations about whether we could do it. Whether we should do it. I researched the trailer and found the original 1947 advertisement that was in Popular Mechanix.
We found out that this trailer was in fairly pristine shape. It still had the original Ice Box and all of the interior was bare aluminum as it had been when it was created, over 65 years before.
Erica helped me see that if we bought this, it could help my 'dream' happen much more quickly than if we started from scratch. I started to allow myself to get excited. A couple more phone calls to Tennessee; I needed to make sure that Hans could store it for me until I could drive down there to pick it up. I needed to make sure the funds would be in place to close the deal
Monday morning, we confirmed. It was all going to happen! Hans was going to pick it up and let me know when he had the Teardrop in his possession.
About 5:30 p.m. that evening, I was on my way to Tae Kwon Do with my son when a text appeared on my phone, which was in the cradle near the dash.
"Sorry, he sold it."
I let loose a slew of obscenities unlike any I had spoken in as long as I can remember. I was heartbroken.
"What's wrong Dad?" Jack asked, worried by my string of obscenities.
"Uncle Hans just told me that the guy sold the Teardrop!" I was crushed. I was heartbroken. I was angry.
"Oh no!"
About that time, the phone buzzed again and the little green bubble from Hans showed another text. I didn't have the heart to read it, thinking it was just more bad news.
"Sike! Ha ha!"
"Grrrrrrrrr!" I growled. Hans, always the trickster sure did get me. I was through with texts. I wanted to speak with him.
Thankfully, all was well. He had it at home. There were no problems and he had it safely in storage.
Now, the planning can begin!
