TRIP REPORT Florida New Years Camping 2005 Summary Keys Camping Auto Train Van troubles. Summary Rochester NY to Bahia Honda state park [ Florida Keys] 3100+ miles RT December 26th January 7th. Stops in Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando and Washington DC. Average mileage 19.5 miles/gallon. Major routes: I81, I95 and Florida turnpike Pictures and daily blogs can be found at my new blog: http://motmyers.blogspot.com/ Trip highlights :Bahia Honda, Amtrak autotrain Camping in the Florida Keys for New Years Started asking around the vanagon list about camping in the keys 2 years ago. Several Listees spoke highly of Bahia Honda state park. So I said ³Great!² and got on the web to make reservations. Campsites book a YEAR in advance at the park due to itıs popularity. I am sure picking New Yearıs for a date did not help anything. The van ran well on the trip down. I was having trouble with the cold idle but I figured it would not be a problem [ha!] Traffic on I95 was not as bad as I had been warned and we had good weather the whole way down. We were tempted to camp out in a Wal-Mart parking lot after everything we heard about the stores allowing the practice. So it figured that the Wal-Mart we stopped at [ Fredericksburg?] has a big sign saying ³NO OVERNIGHT VEHICLES² The Florida turnpike is definitely better to take once you pass Daytona Beach. The traffic on i95 becomes very congested local traffic. The park: http://www.bahiahondapark.com/ Bahia Honda is a beautiful park and has some very nice beachside campsites. The facilities are pretty nice and the views are beautiful. It would make for a GREAT vanagon camping event except for the extreme difficulty in getting reservations. It should definitely be on everyoneıs ³must camp there² list. The reservations are hard to get and there is a trick or two to getting them. [ that could take another entire note to explain..] I spotted a Eurovan camper while we were there AND a European Mercedes camper van as well. Beautiful van complete with its European license plates. I did not get to talk to the owners, nor did I get a picture :O( but it definitely looked as though they brought it over to tour the country with. The park has a couple neat places to explore along with daily guided tours and different rentals and lessons [ snorkel and scuba I think]. January is still a little cold for swimming there [ in my opinion] They do not allow fires on the ground. [ No fire rings provided just charcoal grills] So we hit the HomeDepot on Marathon Key and bought a Chimnea on sale. Worked great. Afterwards we bagged it up and brought it back to NY as a ³seasoned² gift for my friend Shawn. Animals: fairly BOLD raccoons. One scorpion and lotsa hermit crabs. No dogs allowed in the park We had no electric on our site so I was using the fridge in propane mode with the auxiliary battery running the fridge fans. With the campsite hitting 80 midday the rear fan on the fridge was running nearly all the time. The new voltmeter was handy. The battery held 12volts right until the last day. Some listees were talking about the new Sylvania DOT lights so I bought one to try out. I think they could be very handy in the van wired to the battery but the white LED attracts bugs [ even with the screens] After we finished camping and visiting with friends in Ft Lauderdale and Orlando We put the van on the Autotrain back to Washington. The train was GREAT. Eric and I both really liked it. The tickets for the van and the 2 of us in 1st class came to $650 [ I think the week after news years is probably their slowest time] the train runs over night to Washington and includes dinner and a small breakfast. The train was not crowded so we had the lounge car to ourselves and the bar is open till 11. People can complain that Amtrak is always late..but if you get a room.. WHO CARES? They took about an hour to unload the van after we arrived in DC. Van troubles. The van had a cold idle start problem before we left. It was not a big issue once warmed up. However as we got further south I noticed the van stalling on an offramp once in a while when I put it in neutral. The problem gradually got worse so that by the time we returened North and got off the auto train and into Washington DC it was stalling at every light if I was not careful. To compound the problem if it stalled it did not want to start again. I would have to use the gas pedal to get it to restart. That did not make sense to me with fuel injection so I figured that the Digital Idle stabilizer was going bad.. [??] - Still thinking this was manageable we headed back to New York on i95 the next morning when the van did a hiccup on the highway. A momentary loss of power and then back to normal. It was very subtle [ Eric did not even notice..] Being the vanagon hypochondriac I did a mental panic figuring how far I would have to get the van towed from SE PA. Over the course of the rest of the way home via Syracuse NY the problem gradually got worse stumbling every couple of minutes. Several occasions- the van practically stumble/stopped right at 65mph in the middle of the lane. At which time I shut off the engine [coasting 65mph ] and trying to restart [ which it would not ] and then subsequently pop starting the van in 4th [ at 60mph] which would smoothly restart the engine and it would be fine for awhile. The engine was not backfiring so I figure[?] this was not an ignition problem and I was thinking maybe fuel starvation [ fuel pump going bad?] But later I noticed that the stumbling was random and irregardless of how much gas pedal I was using. At which point I hit the gas figuring it would be better to get as close to home as possible. I did make it home and the van is now in storage. I figured I would consult the list and read up on Vanagon syndrome during the spring to diagnose the problem before the summer camping season. If you have ideas for me drop me a line. GREAT TRIP regardless. I recommend the park and the Keys! Happy camping! Tom 90 Westy ³Chilipepper² Rochester, NY
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