"You're driving where?"

When I told my Father that I bought the same exact model jukebox as the one he had when I was a kid he seemed excited, but I think his excitement was tempered somewhat when I told him that I intended on picking it up in person (I think he thought I was crazy). However, even though he knew where I was going, and was fully aware that it was going to be a "hard" drive, he said that he wanted to come along.....

Knowing that I needed a cover of some sort, I asked the guys in the warehouse where I work if they had any extra shipping crates from any large pieces of equipment. My intent was to cut one of them down to size, or put one together from pieces of several crates, but after speaking with the warehouse manager and explaining what I needed them for, he told me to give him the dimensions I needed, and they would make a new crate for me- from scratch!

My intent was to leave home Wednesday right after work, be on-site for pick-up on Friday morning, and be back home sometime Saturday afternoon. We hit the road on April 7th, and due to the timing (and rain) we decided to bypass Chicago and drive straight down I-39 in Illinois. We stopped for the night in Indiana, and got back on the road early next morning. Once we reached the Ohio/PA border on I-70 the skies opened-up again, and I started to become concerned that we may have to load the Rock-Ola in the rain the next morning. We reached WV about 8:30 Thursday night, and sadly we were unable to see much of the local scenery due to the rain and low clouds.

Friday morning started with intermittent clouds, but thankfully no rain. We drove out and and met the seller, Paoli, at his friend's shop, where the jukebox was located.

Here's a shot of Dad and I soon after we arrived:

Funny story: When they Sellers pulled the cover off the 1452, I told Dad that I remembered it being much larger than what is shown here, and I asked him if this was the right jukebox! I remember it as being a huge thing since I have clear memories of the turntable platter being around eye-level when I was a kid.

I said, "Dad! Is this the right one"?

When he asked me "Why?", all I could say was, "I thought it was much larger than this!"

Dad laughed, and said, "That's because you were much smaller back then!", and he assured me this was the same model!

Upon close inspection I was happy to see that not only was the jukebox complete, but also in better condition than I expected! I pulled the tubes from the amp, tightened down the sprung TT assembly, removed the fluorescent lights, and tied-down the tonearm. Other than wrapping it in cardboard and plastic wrap we were pretty much "good to go", so with the help of some of the Paoli's friends we tipped it on it's back and gently loaded it into the shipping crate. The jukebox was supported on the bottom with a partially-inflated air mattress, and on the sides, top, and bottom by some fiberglass insulation I had hanging around the house:

We used two layers of plastic sheeting to cover the shipping crate for the trip out, but since we experienced a few rips and tears, and since we drove through so much rain, we decided to cover the unit with everything we had for the return trip, which was four layers of plastic tarp. However, once we were ready for it, it never rained. Go figure!

With his permission, here's a picture of the seller, Paoli, and his little buddy "Dixie":

(Thanks again for everything, Paoli!)

Thankfully we were able to (finally!) view the beautiful countryside on the return trip, and since we took a different (and familiar to me) route home, the return trip was quite uneventful. We drove more or less straight-through, stopping only for gas, food, and driver changes. We arrived home about 9:30 Saturday morning, unloaded the jukebox, and the end result is this:

One Rock-Ola model 1452, safe at home!