Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2007 08:58:25 -0400
Reply-To: Greg Potts <greg@POTTSFAMILY.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Greg Potts <greg@POTTSFAMILY.CA>
Subject: EB2007 Trip Report (LONG)
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Hi Volks,
OK, we're home safe and sound, and the trip was a great one.
The pics are online here:
http://www.busesofthecorn.com/The_Bug_Pack/EB2007/
The circumstances of Colleen's employment mean that in 2007 we
started the trip later than usual, so I had to push HARD to make up
for it. In this case I came up with a solution to get us there for
Friday AM. It could be done easily enough by sleeping late on
Thursday morning and then driving all night. With Joel Cort and his
buddy Mark crazy enough to follow along in a syncro westy, I was set
to depart at 4:15 PM. Just in time for Rush Hour; all the way from
Scarborough through to Burlington, traffic moved at a crawl. Once we
crossed the Burlington skyway bridge in Hamilton it was clear sailing
all the way to the Duty Free where we stopped for dinner and to get
some US ca$h... after that we lined up for a brief interview at the
border station and we were across the border in the land of the free
and the home of the brave.
I met up with Joel and Mark at about 7:45 at a rest stop in Angola
NY, and after taking a minute or so to block the air vents on my bus
we hit the road westbound to Erie PA, fighting vicious crosswinds to
stop for fuel at 9:30PM. From there we headed south on I-79 and
although the wind was a bit quieter, the weather didn't improve. In
fact, it got quite a bit worse. I turned on my new driving lights and
left the lowbeams on and just kept rolling. The nice thing about
travelling at night is that there isn't much traffic... we hardly saw
anything other than a few tractor trailers.
We motored on through Pittsburgh and down into Morgantown, by then it
was getting late. It seemed to take forever to get to Beckley, but by
the time we got to Wytheville I was hitting my second wind, and we
kept rolling rolling rolling downhill into NC. By the time we got
near Winston-Salem it was near rush hour, and the state troopers were
working hard pulling over speeders left, right and center. It was a
glorious sunny Friday morning, the kind where radar traps are always
lucrative...
But I kept the hammer down, and we rolled on through busy traffic in
Greensboro just to be royally fouled up by the directions I had
downloaded from Google Maps. The last couple of years I have let my
instincts bring me directly to the park, but after a 15 hour
overnight trip I was not ready to trust my instincts and the google
instructions took us about 15 miles off course right at the last
minute. After some goofing around we were able to find our way into
the park and were treated to a very warm welcome.
Once at EB, I had a limited amount of reserve energy to expend. I set
up the westy, washed the oil drippings off the westrailer, and cooked
some breakfast. Not 30 seconds after the pancakes hit my stomach I
could feel the fatigue poisons taking me away. I excused myself and
collapsed in the westy for 3 blissful hours of well-deserved shuteye.
By mid-afternoon, the sun on the westy roof woke me up with the heat.
Lying there and listening to the campout happen around me, I decided
that there was no point in sleeping through a perfectly good
afternoon I had driven 811 miles to get myself to.
And it was an absolutely, positively gorgeous day. The kind of day
where you know you're risking a sunburn and it doesn't matter, you
WANT to feel that sunburn and remember the feeling it brought you.
Like a tattoo, but less permanent. I hope.
So I wandered around and enjoyed the crowd. I said "hi" to lots of EB
friends, and set about sharing around the Red Star Ale. It was made
at my local U-Brew, and turned out very nice. I expect I will use the
same brewery for the BusFusion batch, it was very convenient.
Some guitar, some beer, some cruising around talking, some hanging
out at the CDN pavilion, and before I knew it, it was time for bed.
Saturday started with Breakfast Burritos, which went as good as ever.
Madonna and Dave did a great job of co-ordinating! After Breakfast it
was time for Boccie Ball, and I took a Canadian Team out for a round.
Although Dennis, Mike and Bryon weren't experienced players, they did
have a good time. After Bocce I did some more hanging out,
distributed some Red Star Ale and then went to peel some spuds for
dinner.
Dinner was awesome as usual. The roast pork was amazing, and the
leftover chilis were as excellent as usual. From the humidity it
seemed like it would be raining as soon as the sun went down, and
that was pretty much exactly as it happened. That kept the door
prizes moving promptly and the speeches short. Once the door prize
deal was done the cooks packed up their gear and the bluegrass band
took the stage; I didn't get a chance to check them out in person but
Colleen said they were great. She was particularly impressed when the
crowd was shouting out for "Freebird" --- and the band actually
pulled it off. Next year I will definitely make the time to check
them out.
A few more red cups, some more camaraderie under the White Sky, and
it was time for bed. Much as I enjoyed it at the time, I didn't
really want a repeat of the "stay up celebrating Adam's arrival until
2AM" experience of EB2006. Packing down and driving home is hard
enough as it is. So I hit the hay at a reasonable hour, and got a
good night's rest.
Soggy Sunday arrived soon enough, but at least it was warm out. I set
about getting some coffee going, and then started some dishwater and
sorting out the westrailer. Jamie offered to drop the White Sky but I
deferred, noting that we might as well keep it up until the last
minute, in case the rain came back. That turned out to be a good
call. I strapped a pair of Rabbit fenders to the roofrack of the
westfakia, and slowly but surely the westfakia was reverted back into
traveling mode. Bryon moved his bus, we hooked up the trailer, the
kids said their goodbyes, hugs abounded everywhere, and suddenly the
road was moving under my wheels again. EveryBus can go by in a blur
if you're not paying close attention.
The Northbound EB2007 carabus was as efficient as any I have EVER
travelled in. There were five buses in total, and mine was the
slowest. And I'm not generally regarded as a slowpoke on the
interstate, at least not when the bus is running properly. Which it
was, other than being very thirsty for oil. I think I need to replace
the main rear seal ASAP. We got on the road just before 11AM, and the
first stop was the traditional gas-up in Pleasant Garden. With tanks
and tires topped off, the 'wagens rolled Northbound.
The Sunday trip was mostly uneventful, until we got to the toll stop
at Rt 19 near Beckley WV. Suddenly Bryon was losing power at high
rpms. The bus would idle OK, but the power loss was brutal at high
speed. He pulled over just short of the toll booths and we radio'd
ahead to let the rest of the group know what was going on. For some
reason they couldn't hear us though, so Colleen called Dennis on the
cell phone. That got through OK, and Jamie and Mike hiked back to see
what was going on.
In the meanwhile, Bryon and I had done some basic troubleshooting.
There was a smooth idle and a good strong spark on all 4 cylinders.
None of the cylinders were weaker than any of the others-- I was
pretty sure we could rule out a bad valve. Bryon mentioned that he
had no fuel according to the gauge, so I pulled a hose off the cold-
start injector and had him hit the key... we got a minor trickle of
fuel, but not much. Clearly the problem was as simple as being out of
gas.
I reached into the westrailer and pulled out an empty gas can that I
had brought along... wishing all the time that I had thought to put
some gas into it beforehand. Much to my happy surprise, it still
contained half a gallon. So we wouldn't be needing to siphon anything
out of my tank. We poured that into Alice's tank and then rejoined
the rest of the group and stopped for more gas about a mile or so
down the road.
Cold. Rain. Wind. Snow. Those four words sum up the driving
conditions pretty well. We kept the "Westy Snake" together and moving
steadily all through the afternoon and into the early evening,
planning for dinner and a motel around Cranberry PA. We found the
dinner, but economical accomodations proved a bit more elusive... We
had to travel another 40 miles or so up I-79 to Grove City PA in
order to find available rooms at the rate we were looking for. Once
we landed, it didn't take much time to get to sleep.
Monday was a "Let's git'r done" day, interlaced with a lot of short
stops. Breakfast at the motel was quick and easy, then it was off to
the Walmart in Erie for a 30-minute shopping blitz. After Walmart we
hit the T/A truck stop, and Mike got a great deal on a CB radio for
Murphy. Then it was on to Buffalo, and the Duty Free. From there all
that was left to do was to pay the toll for the peace bridge, and
then roll on homewards.
In rush hour.
Again. All the way from Burlington to Scarborough.
Despite a drive-by-fruiting (Ask Mike and Den about that) along the
401 in Scarborough, we made it home safely. More than 1,600 miles
covered in all, and we had a great time doing it.
Thanks to Chris, Judy and the Staff at Hagan-Stone.
Thanks to Craig Frazier for the awesome pork dinner.
Thanks to the other buses I traveled with: Joel Cort, The Rivers, The
Webers, Bryon & Stacey, Mike, Den & Lea.
...I can't hardly wait for the next road trip. I expect BusFusion
will be our next campout, and the High Country Bus Festival will be
the next major expedition.
Happy Trails,
Greg Potts
1973/74/77/79 Westfakia "Bob The Tomato
www.pottsfamily.ca
www.busesofthecorn.com
