i knew there was some reason I came to Minneaota this time, besides to freeze my ass off, (again).
When I was a kid, we used to refer to certain types of found items as "ground scores", like finding a $20 bill laying in the street or a Zippo lighter on the floor at a concert, etc. It sort of morphed into meaning any screaming deal on something cool or useful.
Today's GS is both cool
and useful. I'm in Minneapolis taking care of some things related to my Dad, who died at Christmas and staying with one of my best friends. We were talking trailers and he tells me about an Airstream sitting in an old lady's back yard on the North side. At least it was there five years ago, the last time he checked. He talked to her and she was not really selling but named an exorbitant price if he wanted it.
At this point, I should mention that my friend is one of those people with a sixth sense for sniffing-out cool stuff. This trailer was in a neighborhood completely devoid of hipsters or anyone who would love an Airstream, (it's the 'hood), and you would need to be turning your head at just the right instant while driving past on a busy street to see it between the houses. It was visible from the alley but no one drives down alleys in N. Mpls. This is 6 blocks from where a cop was shot in a targeted attack last weekend, it was on the national news.
Any who, I told him to show me where it is/was. It was still there and I knocked on the door and bought it from a very nice lady for stupid low price. I guess she changed her mind about wanting it out of her yard, who knows(?) It had belonged to her dad who passed away 5 years ago at 94, he bought it used in '65 or so, from her memory. It's a 1963 24 foot Trade Wind trailer. Her dad was towing it places well into his '80s, like Florida, Nova Scotia, the Grand Canyon, you name it.
I put 2 new tires on it yesterday and towed it out of the yard today to a trailer place that checked and re-packed the wheel bearings and inspected the brakes, etc. Even though it had been sitting for a while, it towed like a dream. Nothing tows like an Airstream.
Here are a couple pics from today:
