Another day... another drama. The phone starts ringing early today, like
7 am, with some rather frantic calls from our friends at Interport. Seems that
somebody (who looks strangely like me) forgot to leave the keys in the
Ford truck when we locked up the container in Vancouver. (After all Bob, who
was going to steal it aboard the ship?). Besides needing the truck keys so
that the container can be unpacked, the appraiser has to be picked up and
taken to the terminal this morning. Of course it's raining so hard I can barely
see the road, but duty calls.
11:00 am: We've (myself and the appraiser) have arrived
at Interport and I finally get to exhale the very deep breath I've been holding
back for the past six weeks.... Everything's still in the container, there's
only one minor scratch on the dragster and a scuff on one fender on the truck...
Whew, what a relief. And what a strange feeling when we finally roll the dragster
out into the bright sun (the rain stopped as we arrived in Brisbane) in Australia.
It's travelled 8000 miles and still hasn't turned a tire in "anger", but it
is here and we've climbed one very large mountain (in my mind) this morning.
The appraisal takes barely an hour and then it's time to load everything,
save the truck, into the container again. Next step in the process is to submit
the appraisal and invoices for the spare parts to the customs brokers who will
submit them to customs for review. Then we have to wait for approximately 48
hours to receive the yea or nay from customs... then the invoice for the duty
and taxes owing. Once that is paid, we still have to go through the quarantine
procedure, which will see everything inspected for cleanliness, cleaned
(pressure-washed) if necessary, then, after that invoice is paid, released
for transport. Then it all has to be trucked approximately 60 kms. south to
Ken Lowe's shop on the Gold Coast.
Simple, eh? Well, it seemed that way on paper when I was planning all this
a few months ago, but when it comes down to actually getting it done, it just
seems to drag on forever. At this point, it's growing very obvious that we
won't have the race car in hand (or anywhere near "in hand") before the
Winternationals. Still, I can't help but smile after seeing the race car
actually here downunder and know that we've moved one step closer today.