VERO BEACH — When Paula and Ray VanWagenen left their jobs in upstate New York and retired to Vero Beach 15 years ago, they thought they’d do a little part-time work and enjoy boating with their son and daughter who were young adults.
Paula, an R.N., worked for a home health-care agency. Ray cleaned pools at John’s Island.
But when Ray tired of cleaning pools – “so many oaks, so many leaves” – he began driving Lincoln Town Cars for a small limo agency.
Within a few years, the owner of the cars asked him if he wanted to buy the business. So Classic VIP Limousine was born – operated by Paula, Ray and their two children.
It didn’t hurt that Ray knew quite a few people at John’s Island, who hired his limos, and that they had friends at Windsor, Orchid Island and The Moorings.
By 2006, Classic VIP had five Town Cars, all properly permitted and credentialed for the Melbourne, West Palm and Orlando airports, as well as the airport in Vero Beach.
With her cell phone, Paula took orders and their daughter helped. Their son drove part-time, as did Ray. They also hired drivers.
Harry Belafonte became a regular, along with Jeff Lynne, songwriter and record producer for The Beatles.
When Carol Channing and Bobby Vinton came to town, they were driven around by Classic VIP.
By 2010, the VanWagenens had eight Lincolns and two stretch limos, and Ray branched off with another service – driving cars and dogs here for the winter season and back at the end – mostly to and from the coastal Northeast.
This week, Ray is driving Alfie, a Tibetan terrier to Providence, R.I., in a Buick SUV, then driving Tanner, a Hungarian Vizsla, to Manchester, N.H., in an Escalade.
A few weeks ago, Ray drove a Bentley to North Carolina and, before that, a Mercedes to Albany, N.Y.
“Not a clunker in the bunch – not the cars or the dogs,” he said.
One change in the recent years is a burgeoning business in calls to go to the Miami airport for international flights. With the skyrocketing cost of gas, parking and permits, which affects prices, a Town Car from Classic VIP costs $60 per trip to the local airport, $85 to Melbourne, $165 to West Palm and Orlando, and $265 to Miami.
Between mid-December and mid-April, Classic VIP does about 14 trips a day. That’s not counting the stretch limos for weddings, birthdays, anniversaries and proms.
Ray’s favorite stretch limo customer is a middle-aged woman who orders one to take her two rabbits to the vet in Pompano Beach to have their teeth filed.
Paula takes the call, which always begins, “I need the stretch for my bunnies again.”
The VanWagenens are surprised that as summer comes on, business is barely waning.
“It’s seven days a week and all hours of the day and night,” said Paula.