Date:         Mon, 12 Nov 2007 14:53:36 -0800
Reply-To:     Brendan Slevin <brendan@BELLATAZZA.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Brendan Slevin <brendan@BELLATAZZA.COM>
Subject:      Whoa! Seattle Road Trip (LONG-ish)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Just rolled into Bend, Oregon (home) around noon and now I am at work for a
couple hours.

Our LTTD, (Longest trip to date.) in Totoro.
Bend, Oregon to Seattle, Washington was a huge success and tons o' fun.
We rolled a total of about 725 miles.
AVG MPG - 18.5  This is lower than it should have been, a combo of a lot of
freeway and, today, a huge 45MPH headwind for about 75 miles.  Lame.

Two of the standout Vanagon sightings (there was SOOO many in Seattle and
Portland, OR):
A cool green doublecab doka parked at the Fremont Sunday Market in Seattle.

A very outfitted Charcoal Westie with racks on the hatch and roof.  I think
it was diesel.  Not sure.  We waved to the driver, a woman.


S.O., 10 month old girl-child and I left Thursday around 2 in the afternoon
from Bend.  We made it up and over the pass with no problems and rolled into
downtown Portland for some dinner. We couldn't find a parking spot on the
street around PF Chang's, and I have the rack on with our big stuff bag up
there so we were to tall for the parking garages around there, too. WE found
a pasta place on 21st, ate, and got back on the road for the campground
outside Woodland, WA.  Finding the campground was easy, right off I-5, the
problem was that the WA parks website neglected to say it was closed for
winter.  We got back on the freeway and drove a few miles more to Woodland
and found an RV park.  $22 bucks wasn't too bad so we set up our bed and
dvd's and chilled out for the night.  The space heater we brought was
overkill, it was either roasting hot and I'd turn it down, or freezing
because it wouldn't come on by itself. Oh well.

Totoro absolutely loved the freeway.  The drive up I-5 is nice for the van
because it has no major hills and the speed limit goes from 50-55 in
Portland to 60 in Vancouver and just outside jumps to 70.  Then around
Chehalis maybe it drops down to 60 for a while then back to 70.  Totoro
loved the break but was anxious to get back up to warp speed.  It was hard
to keep it around 70, Totoro kept creeping up to 75 and a few brief miles at
80.  Coming home today was a different story.  After dropping back down to
the high desert of Central Oregon the winds went crazy.  It was 75 miles of
40-60mph driving against 45MPH wind and dust storms and rain.  I would get
up to 55 in 3rd and shift to 4th then drop back down, floored, to 45-50 then
shift back down to 3rd and repeat ad nauseum until we were almost in our
driveway.

Seattle was a blast and the Coffeefest Trade show I went to Saturday was
pretty good, too.  We ended up adding Friday night to the hotel downtown as
well.  We originally intended to stay cheap at an RV park in Bellevue, but
decided my wife and baby should have a home base during the day Saturday
while I was at the trade show.

We drove to Portland Sunday afternoon and made it to PF Chang's with a
rock-star parking spot out front.  After stuffing ourselves with yummy
Chinese food, we were :-) way too tired to drive in the dark over the pass
so we went down to the Embassy Suites to see about a walk in rate for the
night.  They wanted $199!  We've stayed there before for under $100 so we
nearly resigned ourselves to being fiscally responsible and driving home
when my beautiful wife remembered that we knew the manager of a new hotel
downtown up on Stark, the ACE hotel.  It was soooo incredible.  The room was
wonderful and we got an amazing rate.  Our baby was sooo happy, too.  I
don't think she would have down 10 more miles strapped in that carseat.

So now we have a week or so and we turn around and do it all again, as my
sister lives across the sound from Seattle and we're headed there for
Thanksgiving.  This time the to oldest kids will be with us, should be fun!


Brendan Slevin
1984 GL Totoro
Bend, Oregon
www.bellatazza.com
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons. -T.S. Eliot