Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2006 11:16:32 -0700
Reply-To: Jake de Villiers <crescentbeachguitar@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jake de Villiers <crescentbeachguitar@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: DETLEF Does Detroit - Trip Report -semi long?
In-Reply-To: <C0A9B982.18BB2%bueses@earthlink.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Great story Tom, but I've already read it!
And for your and all other Americans benefit, you DO NOT need a
passport at land crossings between our countries until January 2007.
Tourism Canada is trying to get that date moved back. From what I
understand, you DO need a passport for air or water crossings of The Longest
Undefended Border in the World.
Jake
On 6/5/06, bueses <bueses@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> I sent this last Friday, but did not see it posted, & when I resent it
> this
> am it came back as an identical post from before so it was rejected! I'll
> see if this works.
>
> Dear fellow vanagonoholics,
>
> As I promised or threatened depending on how you view these things, here
> is
> the trip report for recently completed 6400+ mile round trip between Salt
> Lake City, Utah, & Farmington, Maine.
>
> As you may remember, when we last visited, I was pondering shipping
> DETLEF,
> the 84 Westy to Boston, & flying in to pick up said vehicle, driving to
> Maine for our daughter's wedding & then taking several weeks to drive home
> to SLC.
>
> First to alleviate any anxieties that said trip was unsuccessful, the 6400
> miles driven went by w/o any mechanical problems whatsoever-didn't even
> have
> to add oil. The vanagon never got over 1/2 way on the coolant
> heating-o-meter, & best of all no vanagon syndrome even tho we fought huge
> headwinds coming back thru beautiful Kansas & Colorado. In the past, that
> was when I had the problems, but thanks to Zoltan's sale to moi of a used
> VW
> anti-vanagon syndrome-o-adaptor, DETLEF purred along the entire way.(OG
> 1.9
> gas engine w/ 92,000 +- miles @ start of trip)
>
> Now back to our story-my first wife(we live in Utah, remember) decided to
> drive DETLEF by herself to Maine for fun & profit(not spending $1200+ to
> ship it). She took the direct route along I-80 to Illinois, then I-90 to
> Boston, then up the coast to Maine in 5 days of about 500 miles a day. She
> camped in KOA's along the way, where she was well protected by the KOA
> staff, & unfortunately has decided that we should have our own KOA
> somewhere
> cuz it is so much phun & the places were so clean. But I digress, SO
> claims
> that the solo trip was the most relaxing time she has had in 20
> years(thank
> goodness we have been married 28 years). I think the relaxing part was
> moi
> not being there to worry about her giving moi bad directions, etc. & the
> fact that she had no problems w/ the Westy. As you may recall, my ace VW
> mechanic had checked the westy out before hand & pronounced all was well
> for
> the intended 6000 mile trip. He did replace the fan belt before hand tho!
>
> I flew into Manchester, NH where they picked moi up & the family fun
> began.
> Wedding came off w/o a hitch, except to my pocket book, & a couple of days
> later we set off to drop more family off at the airport in NH & head
> towards
> flooding Boston area. Drove around the flooding & down to Woods Hole, MA,
> to take the ferry to Martha's Vineyard where we stayed for 4 days slumming
> it at a friend's summer place, then head off to Newport, RI, where we saw
> the only other Vanagon on the entire trip east of the Mississippi. It was
> an identical yellow Westy at a state park at the Land's End south of
> Newport. Didn't see an owner, but it had a primo camping?/parking spot
> over
> looking the rugged shore line & Atlantic Ocean.
>
> Drove up to MA & across very picturesque upstate NY to Niagara Falls,
> where
> expecting a very tourista scene, I only planned to do a drive by of the
> Falls & head into Canada. Tourista as it is, Niagara Falls is spectacular
> &
> we spent over a day there. Upon reading more detailed info on
> entering/exiting Canada(we had not been there since 9/11) we discovered
> that
> we might not be able to get back in the USA w/o a passport or other proof
> of
> US citizenship. Oooops! None of those items in hand, we decided to stay in
> the USA, & were also influenced by the 30-50 degree weather up north,
> which
> we were tired of already. So headed to some friends house above Detroit,
> MI, & then down to Ann Arbor, & over to Chicago. Stayed near down town
> Chicago, but took a hotel room 1 nite, as the spouse refused to try &
> stealth camp w/in the loop, & we could find no legitimate camp sites in
> the
> windy city. Toured the city & had a great time, need to go back for a
> week
> to see much more of architectural interest there. I recommend the newish
> Millenium Park, w/ some very cutting edge architecture, sculpture, etc. if
> you are into those things.
>
> Headed to flat central Illinois to see where the wife lived when she was 4
> years old, then to St. Louis, Kansas City, Denver, & back to SLC. Very
> hot
> in Missouri & Kansas on I-70 (95-100 degrees) & no AC-gotta solve that w/
> the new Behr AC unit I just got from a listee-now gotta decide how to
> install & whether I can live w/o fresh air inlets.
>
> We did see a couple of Westies outside Steamboat Springs, CO, but other
> than
> that, we had the VW roads to our selves.
>
> The only thing we did buy for Detlef on the trip was to continue to
> purchase
> souvenir magnets for each state or significant place we visited. They are
> placed in chronological order on the metal shelf that runs along the
> kitchen
> side of the westy. My favorite so far is the Kansas enameled metal
> medallion of Dorothy on The Yellow Brick Road. These serve as
> transferable
> substitute tacky stickers volks used to put on their windows years ago, &
> also as interesting objets de arte for our westy living room to stimulate
> cocktail & dinner hour conversations.
>
> I wonder what other collectibles volks have in their westies?
>
> Since today is Fryeday, I will mention that we coincidently drove by the
> stadia or arenas of the following teams: River Cats, Patriots, Bills, Red
> Wings, Tigers, Lions, Pistons, Wolverines, White Sox, Cubs, Bulls, Bears,
> Rams, Blues, Cardinals, Chiefs, Royals, Broncos, Rockies, Avalanche,
> Nuggets, etc. However, we did not go by any of the Banana Slugs
> facilities
> on this trip.
>
> Regular gas was generally between &2.60 & $3.10 a gallon, with highest
> being
> $3.50 on Martha's, & lowest somewhere in the Midwest at $2.55. Didn't keep
> track of gas mileage, but it seemed like the typical 19-20 highway
> mpg.(YMMV) Bilstein shocks worked well in the crosswinds considering my
> "C"
> rated Michelin LTX M & S tires are under weight rated, Optima aux. Battery
> had no problems, & my SA grille/driving lights never were used. I think
> that covers all the typical Vanagon thread issues. However, I need to
> upgrade the reading lights in the westy-what does everyone recommend?
>
> All in all, a great trip, but I think 3 months to see the same areas
> instead
> of 3 weeks would be better. We did have westy living down to a comfy
> science other than no AC, & I wouldn't hesitate to do it again, if I could
> just get the NY Times delivered to DETLEF on the road.
>
> Pax,
>
> Tom Buese-no Toto, we aren't in Kansas anymore
>
--
Jake
1984 Vanagon GL
1986 Westy Weekender "Dixie"
www.crescentbeachguitar.com
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