Picking up the new bird...

Alarm went off at 3:30am, and I had a swift kick to get out of bed by my lovely wife.. I swung by Ron's house and we were on the road by ~4:15. The drive up to Marshall, TX was beautiful (at least what we saw of it).. Took 79 almost all the way. The further northeast we got, the more open the countryside was, and huge trees began to line the roads. We arrived about 9:15am, and began loading. The most interesting part of the loading was having the fuselage hanging from the engine mount by a shop lift, while I held the tail end, and Ron stabilized the wing stubs. We slowly proceeded to push the plane back onto the platform we built to support the wheels. The wheel width was wider than the trailer, so we had built a platform for the wheels to sit on. Finally, by about 4pm we were ready to hit the road (only 2 hrs later than planned!) The first 40 miles were really nerve-wrecking. I envisioned the plane flying off the trailer.. However, our only issue was a strap that loosened within the first 2~3mi. We made it back to Austin at about 10:15pm. Michelle had called some neighbors who arrived when we did, and helped to carefully unload it. The Lancair was off the trailer and in the garage by 11:30pm. Pfew.. that was a long day..