OUR STORY
Pete, Cindy, Tony & Chris
Tony
Pete
Chris
GOOD-BYE ENGLAND
Our Story - a California Adventure
In 2010, three weather-weary residents of Finchampstead, Berkshire in the United Kingdom embarked on an adventure. We sold up and moved out to California.
The move had been in the offing for a number of years but with children still at University and family to care for, it was a dream on the back burner.
UP, UP & AWAY!
Both Tony and I were lucky enough to live in many countries. Also, we both worked in aviation for many years so we definitely have the travel bug! We continued our travels throughout our time with the airlines, visiting most corners of the world. After an early retirement, we decided it was time for a change and an adventure. So we sold up, packed up, and, with Tony’s green card in hand, made the move to the US, continuing our story!
HELLO CALIFORNIA!
Sending our belongings via China bought us time to find a place to live. We were headed towards North County San Diego because we knew the area well.
A real-estate mishap landed us in Temecula, with a dilapidated condo and a house in Wine Country to renovate!
NOW FOR SOME WORK...
Renovations completed, we decided we needed a job. By that time we had fallen in love with the Wine Country, and sampled our way through some fantastic vineyards.
We decided to combine our love of English Black Taxis with our growing love of our Wine Country and the idea of Temecula Black Car Wine Tours was born.
ON THE ROAD...
Anxious to get our venture underway we managed to locate our first cab in Florida (the Duchess) and off we flew to get her…..our story marches on!
We had the most wonderful road trip back on the I-10 through the South, none of which we had seen before.
Though we all struggled a bit with the Southern accents (and they with ours!) we found nothing but kindness and good spirits the whole way.
SETTING UP
We started setting up the company on our return and with all the permits and licenses in place, were off and running with our Temecula Wine Tours.
The second cab (the Duke) was added a few months later and we had a “fleet”!
...AND A HAPPY ENDING
The rest is history. Thanks to the support of our lovely clients, our fleet has expanded and we now have “Louise” our silver bus, “Falcon” our Chevy limo van, “Sally” our Lincoln Limousine, “Angie” our Range Rover, and our Ford VIP limo van, as yet unnamed. Watch this space!
(You have to take your time about these things – after all, they’re family too.)
WITH SOME GREAT PEOPLE!
We’ve had a blast over the past 13 years – met over 5000 great people, had huge adventures, and learned a lot about ourselves and our community. And we couldn’t have landed in a better place! We live in Wine Country, so often you can find us puttering through our orange grove and vines on our ancient tractor (when we’re not driving our beloved LTI TX2s) Our story has a very happy ending!