Date:         Wed, 21 Sep 2005 23:12:49 -0700
Reply-To:     Gerald Masar <azsun99@EARTHLINK.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Gerald Masar <azsun99@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject:      Long trip, short report
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

I'm back and finally got around to opening the floodgate to let in the Vanagon msgs.

3,050 miles from Arizona to my brother's place in Missoula, Montana and environs and
home again, in my '90 Westy now with 171K miles. Averaged 21 MPG. Used less than 1/2
qt. of oil.
Problems? Well, you don't want to know, but I will tell you anyway. The previously
repaired (2-3 years ago) water tank drain cap began leaking. My next repair was not
successful, so my visiting brother from Idaho had a go at it and it has held ever
since. He's a retired surgeon and current county coroner. I think surgeons are
tinkerers anyway. "Hey, let's see what happens when we connect this part with that
part over there!" "Ooops! Quick, Igor, off to the village for a new heart". Or maybe
it was "off to the Depot for a new water cap".

Lots of Vanagons around Missoula, but not much in the way of salvage material at one
of the local yards I visited, Missoula Auto Salvage. Still, it was interesting to see
55 acres of wrecks.
Lots of Eurovans and EVC's around the Hailey, Ketchum, Sun Valley, Idaho area.

My black Lab also enjoyed the trip, especially the time at Placid Lake, where one day
visitors brought 3 more black Labs. Sometimes hard to tell them apart. Unfortunately,
mine thinks his tribe is humans, so there were a couple of tussles resulting in a
small piece missing from two of the other dogs ears. They started calling my dog Mike
Tyson.

Well, that's it. And, yes, I do count myself lucky after another good (meaning
trouble-free) trip.

Jerry