Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2001 11:22:16 -0800
Reply-To: Mike Williams <westyvanagon@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Mike Williams <westyvanagon@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Episode II: A Boy and his Van; A trip to Chiricahua National
Monument
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
So...Listees...it's been a while since I've had time
to write about my adventures in Van-life. A lot has
happened since the last episode and I've taken the van
a few interesting places! So sit back...take your
shoes off...and you'll be magically whisked away
to...well...just read
The Chiricahua National Monument in Coronado National
Forest is beautiful this time of year...or any time of
year for that matter...not to mention one of the few
places in Southern Arizona that fall foliage occurs.
Being from central/western Massachusetts...I enjoy the
fall leaves more than anything...and since I've missed
them for 2 years in a row because of college...I
needed some sort of color. So...me and my good friend
Lauren set out on a friday morning two weeks ago
through the east-valley of phoenix on an drive that
would end up taking a little longer than expected.
The first part of the drive, through the desert valley
and into the Superstition Mountains was very pleasant
indeed...the temperature dropped about 5 degrees in
the mountains to make it just comfortable enough to
keep the windows open (i mind you this IS
phoenix...and it's still hot out here!!!). The van
(good ol "Bad Larry") held up very niceley through the
mountains...while climbing especially...ran like a
champ. Onward through the desert valleys...past
mountains...canyons...and gorges. We drove through
the Navajo indian reservation at one point and got a
lot of smiles from natives in cars driving by.
Finally arriving at Wilcox, AZ around 10 we took our
last gas stop before doing the last leg of driving
into the park itself (the park was only about 30 miles
away now)...I filled up the tank with gas...went
inside to pay...and when i came out...ANTIFREEZE!!!
ALL OVER THE PLACE UNDER MY VAN!!! I wanted to cry
(and i came close)...I looked under to see the strong
leak coming from the thermostat housing where a gasket
must have blown or melted or something of that
matter...so then I panic...and i have visions of
myself making a gasket out of duct tape to finish the
trip when my cute companion got the idea to go ask a
trucker if they had any ideas. Lauren is a very
resourceful person to bring on a trip...she flashes
those baby blues and about 20 older men come running
to see what the problem is. Luckily...one of the men
that came over pointed out to us that there was a
truck repair station across the parking lot open 24
hours! Damn...I was lucky. So...I had the lady go
over to the front desk and ask them if they had any
gasket material...and she came back with a good size
piece...good enough to have plenty room for error
anyway. so...i spent the next two hours trying to get
to the bolts of the coolant pipe that attatched to the
thermostat housing...and almost got squished by the
vanagon thanks to that damn unstable bilstein. With
lauren holding the light...and even getting her hands
pretty damn dirty loosening some bolts i couldn't
reach, we finally pulled through. Then, lauren being
the design major at ASU...I asked her to cut up a
gasket by eyeing it...because there was no way I was
taking off that whole pipe (if I could eplain which
one it is...you'd understand why it was so difficult
to get to)...so she made the gasket...a PERFECT fit!!!
I put some gasket sealer on there and tightened up
the bolts, put all the belt wheels back on and all the
other parts i took off...and started her up to drive
across the parking lot to the nearest hill to fill my
coolant system. So...I fill the coolant tank and let
it run...fill it again...awesome...the gasket held!
Now I was ready for bed...seeing as how all that took
around 5 hours...Lauren being the trooper she
is...stayed up with me the whole time. So I go to
pull the van off the dirt incline i pulled on to fill
the coolant system...and yep...you guessed it...I got
stuck...buried myself a whole about a foot deep...at
the bottom of the ditch was an even bigger ditch...so
forward was not an option. Lauren pulls through for
me again...and has a trucker pull us out with his big
rig tow truck out of the kindness of his heart (still
paid him though)...and we just decided to sleep there
to end the day of disaster before it got any worse.
In the morning...everything seemed ok...and I ran the
van to check the coolant level and see if there were
any leaks...tight as a drum. So after a breakfast of
"Westy scrambled eggs and toast"...we headed onto the
monument...through more beautiful desert...almost
resembling South Dakota if it weren't for the distant
mountains.
At the parks entance began a new world...mountain
roads climing the walls of a canyon...looking out at
some of the most amazing rock formations I had ever
seen. Not just your plain jane rocks either...massive
volcanic uplifts that had shaped into totems after
millions of years of erosion. It felt like we entered
a time warp that took us back to the days of the
dinasaurs. Amazing scenery...and wildlife too! Trees
that grew straight out of cliffsides and seemed to
defy gravity...deer running alongside the road in the
forest...and large birds that seemed to get a kick out
of humans. We climbed to the top of the mountain with
no problems and hiked a little while before sunset on
the trails that overlooked this amazing valley of what
appeared to be volcanic tombstones or totem poles of
the gods. We watched the sun set behind the mountains
in the west and drove to a secluded road to camp for
the night.
For saving the day, I made Lauren some Vanagon Gourmet
Spaghetti with garlic bread and garden salad...she
slept while i cooked, and we had a candle light dinner
in the Westy to top off the day.
The next morning we woke up and drove into the
monument again for some more hiking and saw some more
of those blue birds that we had seen the day before.
They seem to have NO fear of humans at all...they flew
up to us...within feet...and stared at us just as we
did to them. Since we had already had our share of
hiking the previous day...we took it easy and made a
short hike...and decided to drive home before the sun
set so I wouldn't have to drive all night to get back
to Phoenix (it was about a 5 hour drive in the Van).
Off we drove...away from the magical land of
Chiricahua...back to the city of Phoenix...where it's
somewhat painful to breathe.
Coming soon...Episode III: The Grand Canyon Adventure!
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