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Date:         Tue, 13 Nov 2007 17:35:43 -0900
Reply-To:     Mark Tuovinen <mst@AK.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Mark Tuovinen <mst@AK.NET>
Subject:      Re: Whoa! Seattle Road Trip (LONG-ish)
Comments: To: Brendan Slevin <brendan@BELLATAZZA.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <200711122254.lACMs2JO011573@ss72.shared.server-system.net>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Congrats on the road trip.

My first experience with owning a Vanagon included driving I-5 from Portland to Seattle. Actually it was a fly/drive road trip involving flying(my SO, myself, and our then 8 month old son) from our home in Anchorage, AK to Sacramento, CA arriving on a Wednesday afternoon. The next day we borrowed a friends car and drove to Berkeley where we purchased our `87 Westy Syncro from it's owner in the parking lot of the Berkeley REI store. Then we drove back to our friends house in Elk Grove in 100+ degree heat without functioning A/C. The rest of Thursday and most of Friday were spent cleaning the van, stocking it with goodwill store purchased supplies, and getting the A/C recharged(Alaskan melt above `85F). After a farewell dinner with our friend we headed for home. Our route from Elk Grove took us back almost to San Francisco so we could drive the Coast highway up to Oregon, then in through Portland and on to Seattle. Arrived in Seattle on Monday afternoon after a 3-4 ho ur delay when the alternator died outside of Tacoma on I-5. Spent Monday night at a friends house, and Tuesday getting a CD player installed, plus hit a couple more thrift shops for more camping supplies. After dinner Tuesday we hit the road for the 2500 mile drive home. Three days of driving took us to Whitehorse, YT where thankfully we stopped for more supplies. I say thankfully because at 9:00PM as we were heading out of Downtown Whitehorse and up "2 Mile Hill" I noticed that the tachometer was accelerating at a much faster rate than we were, our clutch was slipping. Had the road ahead been flat I might have continued but knowing that we had 728 miles and a couple of mountain passes to traverse we turned back and went to a campground. Saturday morning we determined that no parts store in town carried Vanagon clutches, but one was willing to have one aired in from Prince George. I had to teach them how to do this(sometimes it pays to be employed in the auto parts ind ustry) but at least they were quick learners and willing to do so. Unfortunately finding a clutch is only half of the battle as you still need to put it in or have someone do it for you and every shop that we could find was booked until the following Wednesday. On a whim I called a Import repair shop in Anchorage that is a parts client of mine and very knowlwdgeable in all things pertaining to Vanagons. The owner answered the phone on a Saturday when he is closed, and agreed to ship me both a clutch kit and some tools in case I had to do it myself. By this time we had found that there is a Bus Line that runs from Anchorage to Whitehorse 3 times a week including Sunday. My father picked up the clutch kit from the shop and delivered to the Bus Lines at 6:00AM Sunday morning and they delivered it to our campground at 1:00AM Monday morning. By 9:00AM we were parked outside of the one shop that everyone in Whitehorse indentified as THE place to take a VW. When the technicia n arrived he said to us "your the van that needs a clutch", proof that news travels fast in small towns. He then got on the phone and rescheduled every appointment that he could for the day and with my assistance we pulled the transmission and replaced the clutch over the course of the day and between his other customers that could not be rescheduled. After a nice dinner in Whitehorse we headed toward home arriving the next evening after an uneventful drive.

Mark in AK

----- Original Message ----- From: Brendan Slevin <brendan@BELLATAZZA.COM> Date: Monday, November 12, 2007 2:06 pm Subject: Whoa! Seattle Road Trip (LONG-ish) To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM

> 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 > afternoonfrom 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 > campgroundoutside 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 > Woodlandand 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. > Totoroloved 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 > Saturdaywhile 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 >


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