Date:         Mon, 5 Jun 2006 10:35:46 -0600
Reply-To:     bueses <bueses@EARTHLINK.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         bueses <bueses@EARTHLINK.NET>
Subject:      DETLEF Does Detroit - Trip Report -semi  long?
Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

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