www.carstoriesnorth.com is a site that I created as a business idea to take me into retirement and to have some fun.

One day at work, I was talking about retirement and wondering what my next career would be like. I was thinking seriously about continuing in my field as a business advisor with a focus on financing and business succession – things I had spent a number of years doing. Misgivings about the endless routine brought me to the conclusion it was time to do something different. Something I loved.

I liked cars – always had – ever since my first 1950 Pontiac Silver Streak my best friend Jack and I bought for our summer job in a warehouse. I was always fixing and cleaning my cars, my father’s cars, and learned rudimentary driveway bodywork, learned how to dismantle, repair and reassemble a couple of engines in my cars so they actually ran better than before, brake jobs – and lots of things a teenager needed to know if they had a car and not much money. My father guided me along – mostly by encouragement and by lending his tools (he was not a mechanic).

A few years back, 2009 to be exact, I decided it was time to get a hobby. One night on my way home from work I stopped at a cruise night and it was like I became infected by some kind of bug. I saw a number of cars I wanted but driving home from there I dismissed them all. That night I hopped on the internet to find the one I wanted and by next morning the deal was almost complete – the first time I had bought anything on the internet!

It took about three weeks for the car to actually arrive from “Out West” where salt is less of a problem for old cars – and when it did arrive, it passed the safety check right off the truck. I was on my way to new experiences and new challenges and directions. 

It started with my hobby!!