Anticipation. Excitement. Nerves. All these things and more were what I went through in the brief couple of weeks between agreeing to purchase the Camaro and when I could come pick it up. I had easily convinced my sister Shannon to drive up there to haul her home (yes, the Camaro is a she). Kari's parents had agreed to let us borrow their trailer. Actually it was Paul, Kari's dad, who agreed since it was his trailer that he uses for hauling his tractors around. So on June 19, we were all crashed on Marc and Holly's floor again. Marc was out of town at the time so we didn't get to hang out with him, but Holly was a trooper and put up with us showing up late and leaving early. On the way up, Shannon and I were both a little tired so I grabbed a Monster drink at a gas station (2 for $3) and gave her one. She liked it. A lot. So, those of you who know my sister, she's a little on the bubbly/excited side of the scale most of the time. The Monster put her in a state akin to the squirrel in Over the Hedge (Steve Carrell's character). It was quite humorous.
The seller had agreed to meet at 7:00am in the morning and since we knew he had a potential slow day of travel we/I thought it best to start early, get her loaded and head south. Atascadero is about 30 minutes north of San Luis Obispo, so we were up fairly early. No problem for me as I previously mentioned, I was excited. Shannon? Well, she had Monster! We met at the appointed time and worked with the seller to get her loaded up. There was a little bit of planning and maneuvering to get her situated on the trailer correctly (as evident by my intense look of concentration and bewilderment and general "hmm" countenance).
Without too much trouble, I was able to guide her right up and onto her home. Well, home for at least most of the day.
Much relief was had by all (I believe Kari's nerves were so shot by this ordeal that she had ulcer type symptoms for several weeks afterward. However, kind readers, as you can see, she's resting quite peacefully now despite her attitude about being put on the trailer. 
I remember it was a little chilly that morning but with all the adrenaline of the loading and the excitement of actually getting another Camaro, I really didn't care about the chill. I worked with a quiet resolve at securing the car down at all four corners. The seller was kind enough to lend us a set of axle straps to secure her even better which Kari and I sent back with a big thank you gift after we returned home. 
As I was busy with the task of getting the car secure for travel, Kari got to do the fun part: paperwork. Nah, she enjoyed it and since she did DMV paperwork for a living for a few years, I was more than happy to let her have at it.
After everything was signed and everyone was happy with the results and about 45 minutes of loading, I shook the seller's hand and was ready for the journey homeward. 
Of course, no journey, especially in (or with in this case) a classic muscle car is complete unless you stop at In-N-Out! So, off the 101 at Seaward in Ventura, we had a logical break point for lunch. I cannot tell you how many times we saw people slowing down to look at the car or kids plastered to the windows watching as the past. There was one vehicle that passed us, slowed back down, a hand came out with a camera and then gave us the thumbs up sign before speeding away again. Shannon was beaming the whole time since she envisioned everyone would be thinking it was her Camaro. She is a little bitter that she's wanted one and hasn't had one and I'm on my second. =)
We finally arrived back home in the afternoon and found a relatively steady incline that we could easily drop her off and with only a minor issue of forgetting to take the chalks out, she was off with relatively little problem. You can see in one of the pictures there's a slight "tire print" from where I was trying to back over the front wheel chalk and the metal there doesn't afford much traction. After remedying that oversight, she slid right off. It was very nice to drive her around the neighborhood for the brief time I had her off the trailer. However, without knowing exactly what issues might exist, I didn't want to cause any expense repairs and therefore I drove her right up to the house and into the garage.
The next plan of action was to bring it to Hot Rods and Custom Stuff in Escondido for them to do a four-hour inspection to let us know all that was wrong. Boy, was that a list. Manageable, but still lot of stuff on there. One I already knew would be there: the transmission (Powerglide) was pretty well shot and needed to be rebuild/replaced. I had told the seller I was planning on putting in a 700r4 and he threw in a 700r4 core that he didn't need anymore so that would be a couple hundred bucks I could save right there! I couldn't do too much the following weekend with her as I was going to be on my way to Riverton, Wyoming for a few days on vacation with my Mom and sister. Actually, we were in Pavillion more than we were in Riverton, but that's the closest "big" city.
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