My Story...
I would like to thank my Lord and Savior
for all the blessings he has brought to my life

Let me start at the begining...It's a crazy story so hold on...

One day I got this crazy idea in my head and thought I would put my fully
restored 1964 Chevy Pick-Up on Ebay.  I guess I was bored.  I need a new
project, a new toy!

So I took pictures, wrote all the details out  and submitted my listing.   My Chevy
was up for auction;  the Chevy truck  that I had put so many hours of  labor,
blood and sweat  into restoring.

Not 3 hours later I had a guy named Mike contact me.  He really wanted my
truck.  He begged me to go ahead and sell the truck to him.  I thought "he can't
be serious, he lives in New York!"   Mike told me that if we could reach an
understanding he would catch a plane out of NY City that day.

We finally reached a price that we both agreed, he booked his flight and was
scheduled to arrive in Augusta, GA later that night.   After a couple of plane
delays and other problems, his flight got pushed back a couple of hours and the
location of his landing changed to Columbia, SC, about an hour away from me.

My girl Sadie, her father Charles, and I loaded up for the trip to Columbia.   We
meet Mike at the Columbia airport around 11:00pm.  Mike was crazy about the
truck.  We went to a gas station, fill out the necessary paperwork, and exchange
the money (still to this day I can not believe that Mike flew from NY City all the
way to South Carolina and drove 14 hours back home for a truck).   We finally
get home and it is about 2am.  

Before I go to bed I decide to go on Ebay to find my new toy.   I type the words,
hoping that there is something in my area and price range.  The toy I always
wanted, since I was a small boy and saw one in a parade...
A Dune Buggy!!!

I found one setting in Naples, FL.  It's was a beauty.  I fell immediately in love!  I
put in my max bid,  all that I can  splurge and not get in trouble with the misses.  
It's about 4am in the morning now, so I go on to bed.  

I woke up around 10:00 a.m. Saturday morning and checked on the buggy.  I
was still winning, with 7hrs. to go.  I began to doubt that I would win.  I start to
set myself up for losing, maybe I will buy a Mustang or something.  

When it was down to about a hour left on the bid time, I sat there anxious,
nervous, tense...  By the end of it I was refreshing the page every 2 seconds.  
My girl, her son and I, sit on the bed, hearts thumping, hoping, praying... 10
seconds, 7..  4... 1..  

It is MINE... I can't believe it. I just won the Buggy I have always wanted!!!  IT IS
MINE, and 700 miles away.  Gez... 700 miles didn't seem so far when I was
looking, but now that I have to go get it, 700 miles seems like the other side of
the earth.  How am I going to do this?

So I get this wild hair up my...  Well, you know.   I tell Sadie, lets get in the car
right now and go get it.  It's 5:00pm on Saturday, we can do it by 7:00am on
Monday.  (It is possible, we just didn't get that lucky!)

I  call U-Haul, get all the info on renting a two-wheel car dolly and leave out to
get it while Sadie packs us up.  I'm driving a 2004 Toyota Tundra.  I'm going to
get good gas millage and Sadie and I can take turns driving.  This is going to be
a breeze.  

I get to U-Haul, and the guy informs me that my truck is to small to tow anything.
 Come on now, I haul my motorcycles, furniture, etc. with this truck.  A 1700 lb.
Dune Buggy will be fine.  The guy refuses to let me rent the dolly.  I am getting
mad, I just drove 30minutes out of my way to get this dolly and worse of all I
called before I left.  He could have told me there was a truck size requirement.  I
can defiantly say, customer service is something of the past at that
establishment.  

I get back home,  I don't know what to do at this point.  OK, we can take the car
and I will drive the Dune Buggy back home.  We decide that we might need
additional help, so we recruit Sadie's father, Charles.  We load up.  Sadie,
Charles, Sadie's son and myself and take off  around 7:00pm.  It should take
us a 11 hours to get there.

Some advice for all the readers...  Don't ever attempt something so un-planned.  
Here we are, in the most uncomfortable car (Acura's are not good traveling
cars), with a 6 year old and no one can sleep and then it starts to storm around
1am.   We drive through 4 hours of rain, and make it to Naples, FL around
6:30am.  To early to get the Dune Buggy.  We grab a bite to eat and set off to
see the Gulf.  We get to the beach and it starts to rain, again!   

It's now about 8:30am, we decide we have waited long enough, we call the
Peggy (the lady we got the Buggy from), she directs us in.  The battery has
gone dead on the Buggy and Peggy's husband is out looking for somewhere to
buy a battery at 9:00am Sunday morning.

We are lucky that Peggy was very nice and lets us wait in here home on her
comfortable couch.  The battery has been found and we go out to look and test
drive the Dune Buggy.  I was so thrilled when I saw her,  it was everything it was
described to be.  Love at first sight.

It's about 12:00pm when we leave Peggy's.  We decide that we are going to
drive as far as we can.   About 4:30pm we can go no longer, everyone is tired
and sick of being stuck in the car.  Even me, who was having the time of my life
driving MY DUNE BUGGY!

We find a hotel, make a quick run to a store for those forgotten items and grab
a bite to eat.  We call work and tell them that we will not be in tomorrow.   We
get back to the hotel and it is around 5:30pm.  We shower and get ready for
bed. No later then 6:00pm, everyone is sleeping.  We sleep until 6:30am
Monday morning.  We get our breakfast, and load up for the journey home.  

The journey home was nice.  We had no real problems, even got to stop at
Okefenokee swamps and take in some sight seeing.  The Dune Buggy gave me
no problems.  We finally get home around 7:00pm Monday.  

I started this story saying how I thought Mike (the guy that bought my truck) was
crazy, but in the end, I know that what I did was even crazier!  Crazy are not I
still got one of the nicest Dune Buggy's I have ever seen!
The Dune  Buggy  Club
for Dune Buggy Lovers!
I would like to say hey to my  brothers, Rich and Frank, and my sister Barbra!  I
would also like to say hey to all my family in West Virgina.  
I miss you all and hope to see you soon.
To see pic's of my Dune Buggy; CLICK HERE