Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 10:10:41 -0700
Reply-To: Tobin Copley <tobin.copley@UBC.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Tobin Copley <tobin.copley@UBC.CA>
Subject: Re: Diesel Power (in defense of things slow)
In-Reply-To: <20020626.204223.1988.14.wilden1@juno.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed
On Wednesday, June 26, 2002, at 06:41 PM, wilden1@juno.com wrote:
> There is no getting around taking the Westy when I go camping and I
> mostly stick to lakes within 125 miles of home. A longer drive is very
> tiring and I speak from experience because I've been on many 500-800
> round trips out of Dallas. That 2000 mile round trip to
> Albuquerque as a
> spontaneous thing that I'll never do again.
> If I ever take another 2000 mile trip in this Westy slug, it will be to
> deliver it to the purchaser when I sell it.
[...]
> I like my Westy for the camping features and the few other unique
> features but driving it as a long distance traveler is
> frustrating to me.
> I've spent my whole life trying to "Get Ahead" and my relationship with
> this VW slug just often makes me feel like I've accepted less than I
> deserve out of life (in the vehicle area).
>
Wow, Stan. I don't have a problem with the slower pace of the
westies I've owned, but then again I don't have a need to go
blasting around the country at more than a mile a minute, either.
I have a Honda that will fly down the freeway at over 200 km/h,
if I were to wish to do that. Freeways and fast cars are good
ways to get from point A to point B, but to me, it's a lot like
air travel: it serves a utilitarian purpose, but it isn't any
fun and it certainly robs the traveler of the experience of the
*journey*. It bothers me that so much emphasis is so often
placed on getting to a destination, treating the journey as an
inconvenience, or worse, something to try to avoid entirely. I
certainly hope such travelers do not approach their "high speed"
lives in general with the same approach used for "leisure"
travel--"high speed" to what? What is the destination for
life? I hope "destination" people are not trying to run their
lives as they do their vacations, since such a blind focus on
the destination seems morbid and nihilist. We all have the
same *ultimate* destination in this life.
Personally, I need a chance to slow the hell down from time to
time. Life is too fast as it is. My admittedly pokey 82 diesel
westy lets me smell the roses both on the road and at my camp
spot. I travel the blue highways whenever possible. Not only
is the homogeneous corporate generica of the interstate utterly
uninteresting, but I don't get to *see* anything as I drive.
When I get off the interstate and drive minor roads that pass
right through small towns, in front of people's homes, and kids
selling lemonade, I get a sense of the place and people who live
there. I understand better my passage across physical and
social geography, instead of just counting off mileposts and
generic standardized signs pointing me to generic standardized
gas food lodging.
I've taken my westy all around Mexico, nearly to Guatemala,
through the Deep South, through the Canadian Maritimes, across
the American Great Plains, up and down the Rockies, and through
the far north to the Arctic Ocean--and all at a cruising speed
of 57 miles per hour. That's right: a mere 57 mph. On flat
ground, without a head wind. My old diesel will get knocked
down to 27 mph in second gear on steep blue highway mountain
grades. I'm not going to push my engine to accommodate someone
else who wants to drive fast, but I am a courteous slow driver:
I use pull-outs a lot, wave people around so they can pass, and
simply pull over if I have more than three vehicles stacked up
behind me (in compliance with the law in BC). Most blue
highways in BC have a 80 or 90 km/h speed limit (50 or 55 mph)
so my westy can run the speed limit just fine on flat ground.
Most of my life is too fast. My westy gives me a time to slow
down, savour the journey, live life in the present, and
appreciate the world around me for what it is. I'm getting to
*my* destination fast enough as it is. "Slow down and live"
isn't about avoiding fatal traffic accidents--it's about slowing
down and *living*.
T.
(who many now might think is a total new-age flake bar...)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tobin Copley Bowen Island, BC, Canada 49deg 23'N-123deg 19'W
'82 Westfalia 1.6L NA diesel ("Stinky")
'97 son Russell =============
'99 daughter Margaret /_| |_L| |__|:| clatter
SPEED KILLS! {. .| clatter!
Drive a Vanagon diesel ~-()-==----()-~
| 
