Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2006 23:30:12 -0400
Reply-To: Todd Olson <todd.olson@CHARTER.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Todd Olson <todd.olson@CHARTER.NET>
Subject: FW: We made it! The Great Michigan to Florida Trip. I thumb my
nose at you Alberto!
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
The Great Michigan to Florida Road Trip! I thumb my nose at you Alberto!
We made it back from Florida! We had a great vacation in the bus!
Tropical storm Alberto, tornado warnings, forest fires, terrible road
construction, oil pressure buzzers and engine oil pressure issues, high 90
degree temps, and 50 hours of driving could not stop us from having a good
time. It was quite an adventure to say the least. Anyone can go to Disney in
a new car, we decided to make it a bit more challenging and do it in a 20
year old bus. It became our Everest and we are glad to report that we
reached the summit and safely descended. All in all when I discovered what
made my old friend unhappy and what made her happy she ran like a finely
tuned sports car. (I'm talking about the bus, not my wife) On this trip we
became one with our van.
Thanks to my friends for moral support when I thought my engine was going to
puke in the Smokey Mountains on the way down. Brien Dews was my waiting to
look up help online if broke down, Pete Owsiaowski stared at waterboxer
engine pictures and chanted in German all night, and Scott Hengert did the
rod bearing dance every night before he went to bed. What ever it was, it
worked. Thanks for the help. I discovered that pulling a trailer, running
the AC, being over loaded, and running the engine at 4000 RPM's and doing
70MPH in 98 degree temps while climbing Cumberland Gap is a formula for
raising the engine temperature and thinning out your oil to the point oil
pressure buzzers go off. We shut off the AC, removed the front bra to
increase airflow to the radiator and slowed down and took it easy until we
were out of the mountains. That day it seemed the buzzer would go off all
the time I took my foot off the gas. I added some STP Oil treatment and it
seemed to help and we were cruising again. Then the only time the buzzer
would go off is when I would take an exit ramp from the freeway and when the
RPM's would get to down to 3000. I discovered this could be remedied by
taking it out of fourth gear. I don't understand the correlation yet but it
worked.
I also discovered my drain hose for the AC is plugged. After running it for
an hour my rear AC unit became a waterfall! So we turned it off and went
without AC for most of the trip in upper 90 degree temps.
Last Saturday night as we were heading South we stayed in Lake City, FL and
that was the first we heard about Alberto. It was scheduled to hit Orlando
Sunday afternoon. We decided to get up early the next morning and boogie
down to Orlando before the storm hit and come up with a plan when we get
there. We were on the freeway coming into Orlando when the most ominous
clouds I have ever seen came in. It blacked out the sun and turned day into
night. It was not raining yet but you would swear it was 10:00 at night. Up
ahead I saw a wall of water and brake lights on the freeway. At the last
minute I hit an exit ramp from the middle lane. I knew if I kept going there
would most likely be a pile up accident. As soon as I got off the freeway it
hit us. It was raining sideways and looked exactly like it does on when the
idiot from the Weather Channel stands out there in the wind with a
microphone and a rain jacket getting hit by flying debris. The rain was so
hard you could not see five feet in front of you. The only thing you could
see was palm leaves and tree branches flying by the windshield. The van just
sat there and rocked back and forth. Cars just stopped where they were
because no one could see to drive. After about 10 minutes we limped our way
into a Disney lodge and decided it would not be good idea to camp for the
next three days because Alberto had come to stay. So we stayed at Animal
Kingdom lodge for two nights and the Polynesian one night. The rain was much
needed because it is very dry in the south. The day before they had to shut
down the main road into Disney because of forest fires. We talked to other
guests that said they stayed at the pool and ashes were raining on them the
day before.
It rained most of the time we were at Disney but it was great. I learned
that the rain from a Tropical Storm is like bathwater. So it was so warm and
we just enjoyed the moment and had fun. We felt like little kids jumping
around in the flooded parking lots and sidewalks. The good news is there
were short lines for the rides at Disney. I guess people felt it wise to
stay home when there are tornado watches and warnings. We didn't. :-)
On the way home we got stuck in construction backups to many times to count.
One that was a little scary was when we were in Northern Georgia North of
Atlanta. We were getting into the Smokey Mountain foothills and they had a
four lane super highway down to one lane. As we creep along stopping and
going we noticed up ahead a lot of smoke. It turned out that a forest fire
had broke out along the interstate and the strong winds and spread it up the
mountain side. It was so smoky it was difficult to see. It filled the valley
with smoke. The scary thing is as you were going around these winding roads
you did not know if it was going to be worse around the corner. And if it
was worse then where are you going to go. You are stuck in one lane traffic
and you can't turn around. On one side is a one foot drop off and on the
other is a guard rail. There is only one way out and that was to keep going.
It was a little freaky.
But I am happy to report that on the drive home the bus ran like a well
tuned sports car. We did 70 MPH all the way pulling a trailer and still got
19.5 MPG. And the oil pressure buzzer did not go off as long as I took it
out of fourth gear after doing highway speeds and entering an exit ramp.
It was a great vacation. We set out on this journey knowing it would bring
some clarity to our decision. We have been wondering if we should upgrade to
a Eurovan Camper for speed and reliability or keep our faithful Westy. When
we were going down and had all the stressful mechanical moments I was ready
to sell it. But now that we are home and I am looking back on the experience
and how much fun it was we can not wait to take the bus on her next
adventure.
Wishing you many miles of smiles!
Todd Olson
Buses By the Beach
<http://www.busesbythebeach.com/> www.busesbythebeach.com