Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2001 09:30:45 -0500
Reply-To: Stephen Steele <steeles@HORIZONVIEW.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Stephen Steele <steeles@HORIZONVIEW.NET>
Subject: Re: cruising speed
Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
> Jenny is cruising best between 60 and 65 mph with 18-20mpg. She gets up to
> 75 but her moaning becomes unbearable!
> Under adverse driving conditions (40 mph, 3rd gear, auxiliary heater on
> full blast (and wow it warms up!!!) the mpg drops to 15!
> But Jenny is an old lady compared to all your punk new waterboxers :-).
>
>
>
> Karl
> '81 Westy "Jenny"
> Wilmington, DE
>
A classic van tale...it is Friday...
I was driving home from my last MBA class after three years' of commuting
two to three times a week, 110 miles round trip to Ohio Univ. in my '81GL
(thank God for those aux. heaters). Earlier, along with fellow students, I
had stopped at a college watering hole and I had a beer before heading home.
Late night, deserted road, barren countryside. Coming out of a series of
sweeping curves, heading downhill to a straight stretch...pedal to the
metal...I pushed the van up to 98 on the speedo. No rattles,smooth sounding.
A set of headlights flashed by at a hidden driveway but nothing...must not
have been the cop that I sometimes would see sitting there. A couple of
miles down the road and doing about 60; I looked back at an approaching set
of headlights. It was an Ohio State Patrolman. Red lights flicked on... OH
HELL! Doing 90 plus, beer on my breath, Crap!....Crap! What was I thinking?
I knew that cop sat there sometimes. ..Crap!
I pulled over, rolled down the window and waited for the "man". He strolled
up to the van. I watched him in the rear view mirror; he was really looking
over the van. He bent down a little to look at the back hatch. After the
typical exchange of license and where and what...he handed back my license
and said, "At first I saw you and thought, that's a VW van. Then I looked at
my radar readout and thought it was broken...it read 92 mph. Then I looked
back up and you were gone. I had to catch up to you and make sure I wasn't
dreaming. You ought to drive that thing slower." Then he walked back to his
cruiser, did a U-turn and drove off.
--
Stephen Steele
Chillicothe OH
'91 Caravelle Hans
'84 Westfalia Fritz or Sunny?
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