All Right. Follow-Up Report. More Boring Trip News.
Backround; in order 2get2 places I didn't get to on last trip (above); I took a vehicle last week that should've gotten 2x mileage & been faster, Weather should have been a lot warmer. I took a Iveco Van .. pulling a trailer 2x its height & just as long. Both were full of (empty) pallets. So much for higher-speed; so much for great gas mileage, but weather was fine;).
I left my Lancia filled parking-lot on Sun 12:00; arrivingin Trento without incident at 22:00, taking a leisurly route; staying in the 'slipstream' behind family-vehicles pulling Travel-Trailers (aka "Campers") & averaging 90kph down through the Brenner Pass. Hey, that was a great trip; no snow, ice nor traffic; mileage was acceptable.
Mon AM: Fabio unloaded the pallets at Distillerie Trentine in Trentoland...where I (legally) purchased 20 cartons of Grappa ... so he wouldn't yell at me for asking him to unload & store pallets until they were picked-up by someone else. He knew I was coming, he was smiling when I arrived.
My Haus-Spedition (transport-company) picked-up & returned pallets to their original-home 2 days later, as was planned. They were returned to where the same Spedition was going for me anyway, to pick-up the same # of pallets (45) & bring them back to my parking lot ... but not bringing empty pallets. I had to hurry on the rest of the trip, to be able to unload 45 pallets 4 days later & to be home for Easter.
Yes, there are others who could unload the pallets, but it isn't really their job to do so & they never have any idea where to put the pallets, since 1/2 of the warehouse is filled with Lancia (& newer cars that are deregistered in winter)
I did my errands high up at top of Alps (well, not quite the tippy-top...but very high up...I guarantee you) leaving a now empty-trailer in the valley; where I was returning anyway. The Alps is always an adventure & I spent much of the next few many hours
driving-scared. & thrilled.
I drove thru a Regione of Ital. Alps that I'd never been in before; a Regione of incredible & ancient beauty; a Regione that had recently been covered in German language Ital Car Mag "Auto-Strada"... located E. of Lecco & N. of Bergamo
I had a Caffe`in a Caffe`Bar that was reviewed in the Magazine....visiting this Caffe Bar was worth the entire trip & I got to drink a Caffe` Brand that I had never heard of before...& I thought I knew them all !
The owner of the Caffe`Bar had a rare Fiat he was selling. I read about this car, the owner, the Caffe`Bar & the Caffe` in Auto Strada some weeks previous, not having any idea that I would be there some weeks later.
No, I didn't ask to see the Fiat...I din't want to buy a Fiat 500 that Auto-Strada wrote a "less-then-glowing condition-report about"...at an "inflexible 'too high' price".
I was in Heaven, driving like a maniac, trying to not be run over by the really big vehicles, whose drivers drove like
double-maniacs on-acid. They passed me in the most impossible places....& I let them !!
I was passed by a huge yellow cement-truck...going down a hill. 1km later there was a construction sight with a lot of flashing lights...flashing RED STOP RED STOP !!..so I caught the cement truck again. The smaller vehicles (thank you) were waved into a different lane than the bigger trucks, so I passed the cement-truck ! Yippee !! I have no idea if it was carrying a load of wet concrete or was empty !!
Yes, my hair is now grey & turning white by the minute.
I don't know why, but there was no heavy-traffic anywhere; it was like everyone had left town. Where were the tourists ? OK, it was still early in the Season ! I don't know why, but Hotel prices had dropped 15% as well; since my last trip to Italy (due to season ?) fuel prices didn't increase since my Gamma trip. I was happy, thus far. Still, I wished I had a Gamma in the mountains...but Gamma don't carry cargo & I had a cargo to pick-up.
From the time the 1st trip, in my silver Gamma, was not completed / was broken off, events were occuring that were in the control of persons that I had no wish to stop from being in control. From a sales point of view, the "deal" that was planned to take me to the top of the mountains in a Gamma & didn't, got bigger & bigger & is now contracted to remain big.
We all know the value of a contract executed in 5 languages, in 6 different countries. Value = big if it is big & zero if it is zero. I opted for the 'big' alternative, with a small commission. We all know that a small commission on a (continual, ongoing) big deal should result in a "big-commission". We will see.
Thus, having such a contract in-hand is not really a long-term guarantee of anything, but it could be !! .
However & still, the value of the contract has increased since the "unfinished first trip", with no input from me-
It increased from me filling a Gamma trunk (boot) with roasted Ital Caffe` in lieu of a cash commission ... which I did not get to do ! Increased to filling an Iveco Van with Caffe` in lieu of a cach commission, which I did.
So, if you see me smiling; it is because I am drinking / selling coffee...that didn't cost me a cent !! Well, it did..but when I have sold it all...I get the cash commission.
The big Iveco Van was so overloaded with Caffe that I immediatly drove (slowly) the Caffe`in the Van back down the mountain to my Haus-Spedition, where I loaded 80% of the Caffè into my trailer & where I asked the truck-driver who was driving to my warehouse anyway to pull the very heavy trailer behind his big truck.
He told me I had to hurry to meet him on Saturday AM: in my parking lot to unload the truck.
I hurried, I still made all other appointments I should have made & got home in time to unload. I unloaded the Iveco Van, which was 7/8 full of heavy Caffeè machines & 1/8 filled with Caffé .. then I slept for 2 days.
Of course, the truck didn't arrive on schedule...before Easter. It arrved 3 days after Easter....which was OK with me; I realy didn't look forward to unloading it on the Easter weekend.
When it did arrived, someone else got to unload it ! I was out delivering Caffè
. Yippee !...but I had moved all the cars out of the warehouse prior to leaving, so the pallets could be driven inside.
When I returned from my Caffe` business on that day, the pallets were 90% unloaded & nicely lined up in the courtyard, so I got to put them into the right slots (known only to me) in the warehouse.
The truck had arrived 1/2 a day before it was supposed to & no one in my "office" complained about having to drive a fork-lift. I think that they (the office) think "it is a break from the office & we can smoke as much as we want"; but they have never told me this !!
PS: in 2009 - when a truck load of Gamma arrived in the same parking lot before the owners arrived (enroute to MM I in Torino), one of the 'office - ladies' was pressed into service to assist unloading the Gamma...she was so scared that she would be responsible if they "fell-off" the ramps that, when the owners arrived,...she was still shaking (tu) Good Job Barbara !!
End of Report.
Next Trip: 135 HP Fiat Stilo Coupe...no pallets & no Caffe`. Grappa ? SI ! Destination: South of France
