Date:         Thu, 20 Apr 2000 06:37:41 EDT
Reply-To:     CMathis227@AOL.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Chuck Mathis <CMathis227@AOL.COM>
Subject:      First Longish Trip
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Loaded the family into the '85 Weekender and headed from Cincy to the Smokies
for a few days this past weekend.  This was my first "long" trip with
'Roland' since we purchased the van last spring.  We drove close to 800 miles
quite comfortably with no more serious problems than squeaky front brakes
(new German pads and rotors two weeks ago).  Gas mileage was pretty good for
a 1.9L/automatic averaging 19 mpg.  The combination of KYB shocks, Michlen
MXT's, and an Airlift kit made 'Roland' seem like a wholly different van from
the one I bought with bad shocks, Goodyear Wrangler AT's, and saggy springs.

The only time I got a little nervous was in the most serious traffic jam I've
ever seen in Pidgeon Forge -- nothing in Houston, Boston, Honolulu, or even
New York had prepared me for this thing.  Some bright spark (me) figured he'd
take a short cut down Wears Valley Road back to Townsend after an afternoon
of Gatlin-slumming.  Not really a bad idea unless there happens to be a Rod
Run in town.  Took us over four hours to go three miles!  All the while being
crowded by Camaros, Mustangs, and other cramped noisy things.  The temp
started to climb a little but I could hear the fan kicking in and things
stayed in control.  I discovered that I can use the Digitool to verify slight
changes of the temp guage -- gets kind of scary though when the Temp II
reading goes to -0.01!  Once we got rolling again the temp needle dropped and
the Digitool reading climbed to 0.04.

At one point in the jam I ended up next to a nice looking '69 Camaro (with a
big block from the sound and feel of it).  The driver blipped his throttle a
couple time letting out a thunderous BRAAP BRAAP while looking at me with a
stupid redneck grin on his face.  Not wanting to be out done I quickly goosed
the mighty 1.9L Wasserboxer letting out a gentle vroom room, grinned at him
and shouted "Sleeps four!"  Everybody at the light had a good laugh.

We saw two other Westy's on the trip.  One was a late 70's Pea-Green Loaf
parked in the Gatlinburg Arts and Crafts Community -- when I enquired in one
of the shops who the owner was the lady said "Oh, and I thought you were an
art lover."  She did tell me who the van belonged to but I didn't have a
chance to hunt him down since She-Who-Does-Not-Appreciate wanted to move on.
The other sighting was a white '86-on Westy on Jellico Mountain he was headed
up and south as we were headed down and north.  I waved, he didn't.

The next big test will be the trip to Houston in June with the wife, the dog,
and two cats -- glad I won't have to turn around a come back from that one.

Chuck
'85 Weekender -- 'Roland'