Me, my dad, and my uncle met at Barnes Concrete to meet the low-bed operator who was going to pick up 'Mater. We were on the road at 7:25am. The trip was uneventful except for Barb crying at the sight of 'Mater being loaded up.

With that, we were on our way back to Putnam, CT.

When we got back to Barnes, we unloaded it and brought it right into their garage, where another of my uncles was working as head mechanic (my dad had also worked for the Barnes family driving trucks for 20 years before going into business in 1980 at the age of 34).

Of course, a bunch of workers wanted to see the beast, and they came around to check it out.

In the few hours we had that afternoon, we straightened out the ears on the body, scraped the melted mud off the tailgate and lifted it up with a forklift and pinned it in place. We also got the driver's window (faded plexiglass) to (sort of) work. Eventually both side windows will have to be replaced with actual glass you can see out of. We took turns trying to break up the thawing chunks of mud in the body, but didn't get very far with it. The power steering reservoir was also filled and we're hoping it works.

We also found out it has a 711 for an engine. Not exactly rare, but no where near as common as the 673.

Pics tomorrow.