I was really surprised that my bride was on board with this, but I was not going to challenge our good fortune too vigorously. The next step was to get it home. Fortunately I have a good friend that has a large goose neck beaver tail trailer. I texted him and asked if he would be willing to help, and if he thought that his rig could carry it. He sent me a photo, "This is what I had on it last week", an International 1600 Loadstar. I laughed, as I knew them well from my days as a school bus mechanic. Arrangements were made, and the seller agreed to have a fork truck available to set the bed on so we could haul as a unit. So, three days later we were there. We connected the battery cable, I pulled the choke, stepped in the starter button, and it started up almost instantly.
The engine sounded great. It was missing the fan belt, so I didn't run it long, just enough to align it up to the gooseneck. The seller used his fork truck and set the flat bed in place and I drove it up on the trailer, strapped it down and headed for home. I don't know how many mice we left in Oconomowoc, or on the 60 miles home, but one was seen making an exit from the truck when we were unloading it at home.
Not much work was done that night, Kevin drove it for the first time as he backed it in the driveway. (It was his first time in anything that big, no power steering and floor shift.) I on the other hand, it felt like home. From 1980-84, I was a mechanic for a school bus fleet. Our first wrecker was a 1964 Chevrolet C-60. I was his age and towing busses on the interstate with that truck. (Honestly it was too small for such heavy service, but I put a fair number of towing miles in that in southeast Wisconsin and northern Illinois.
