Restaurant Rolls Through Two Counties

     A truly head-turning restaurant rolled through Chatsworth and Dalton this afternoon. That's right, rolled on the back of a heavy-duty moving truck.

    The Smith Heavy Rigginig and Lifting did the "heavy lifting." They moved Dillon's Bar-B-Que restaurant from Chatsworth to Tunnel Hill, giving new meaning to pulled pork.

    Here's the catch. This will not be a barbecue restaurant in Tunnel Hill, but it will be Terry Weaver's actual home. Smith says he plans on renovating it once the building is settled on his plot off Lake Katherine Road. Murray County, Whitfield County and Dalton police escorted the 1,000 square foot building.

   The move also took a lot of planning. Smith elaborated, "The state will issue us a route. We'll ride the route, see if everything clears." And they ran into some close calls, but safely passed under a series of power lines, cables and traffic lights along the path.

    It turns out, a seven inch reason dictated the move down Dalton's busiest street. "This particular move we had an issue with going under Highway 75 on Highway 41. The state requires us to clear the bridge by at least 11 inches. This particular move would only clear by four inches."

   This morning, they also ran into a mechanical problem with the fifth wheel, a necessary ingredient for sharp turns like this one.

    Smith said, "It took some greasing and prying and pulling to get that fifth wheel to turn loose. But we finally got it to slide and got the turning radius that was needed to make this move happen." Several people lined the highway to watch it pass by.

   The rolling building startled a boxer named Stonewall. His owner, Terri Iseman said, "Well, the dog don't know what to think."

   Smith said the owner, Weaver, had to take care of some errands this morning but was expected to be at the plot. NewsChannel 9 went down Lake Katherine road in search of him but didn't see him at the cleared off land.

   This same company recently moved the home of Nascar's Bill Elliot, a much more difficult task. If you're wandering, the price tag on today's move was $25,000, according to Smith.