Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Icy Road To Traverse City


The Drive Home II Gang started another early morning with a series of Fox 17 TV interviews at the station's Grand Rapids studio.


After a couple of news interview segments, I took reporter Annie Szatkowski for a ride-along to our Cars and Coffee event at Lambert, Edwards & Associates, and she did an 11-minute Facebook Live segment during our trip.
When we arrived, Annie also wanted to do a segment with the 1917 Crane Simplex and our team went about unloading it to meet her live-shot deadline that was about 8 minutes away. Dale repositioned the truck and trailer for the unload; at that point we were down to about 4 minutes and the real fun began. The lock on the trailer was unexpectedly frozen so Dale grabbed a propane torch and heated it until it opened. Three minutes to go, and we discovered the back door of the trailer was frozen shut and two people had to put their shoulders to it from the inside with more pulling from the outside to pry it open. Two minutes to go and Dale is scrambling under the car to unhook the axle straps and then winch it off the trailer ramp for the shot. One minute to go and Annie tells me to get in place in front of the trailer as we’re going live. The live shot starts and the camera rolls just in time for the camera to roll – the timing couldn’t have been more perfect.

We then added a new driver, auto industry journalist Steve Purdy, who piloted the Mustang on a snowy four-hour trip north to Traverse City, MI. Steve was new in Grand Rapids, but not new to the Drive Home effort as he drove part of the Drive Home I effort from Tacoma to Detroit last year. Along the road to Traverse City, things got icy and slick with occasional white-out conditions, and at one point Steve looked in the rear-view mirror to see a pickup slide sideways off the highway and roll into the median. It was at that point our good Samaritan mechanic Dale pulled over, called 911 and stayed with the uninjured passengers until the state patrol arrived.

 
We made it to Traverse City and were given a great welcome by the folks at Hagerty Insurance. Hagerty is a specialty classic car and boat insurer that houses its 800 employees at a campus in downtown Traverse City. Hagerty is also a big supporter of the America's Automotive Trust and the America's Car Museum and it shares the Trust's passion and mission to preserve our automotive heritage. It was fascinating to tour their facilities, get an inside look at the culture and compare/contrast it with the State Farm operations I’ve known for 30 years. The evening came and were hosted to a great meal with Hagerty employees, their friends and local car buffs at the Hagerty Garage, which features an impressive display of classic vehicles, many of which have been restored by employees.


 
Thanks to Steve Purdy for relieving me from an icy Mustang drive and thanks to all the folks at Hagerty for their tremendous hospitality.
On to Lansing tomorrow for more events – Go Spartans!!    

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