Date:         Mon, 5 Jan 2009 11:11:09 -0500
Reply-To:     Jeff Lincoln <magikvw@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Jeff Lincoln <magikvw@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Trip Report and some Lucky misfortunes
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Hello Volks -

Well, I just wanted to report that my son, Jack, and I took Grover on his
longest traveled outing yet. About 900 miles round trip. We traveled from
Lexington, MI to Watertown, NY to visit my sister's family and spend New
Year with them.

I am proud to say that Grover performed nearly flawlessly - with some minor
poor running near Toronto - but very minor. We crossed to Canada at the Port
Huron, MI / Sarnia, ON Blue Water bridge crossing and took the 402 / 401
East all the way to the Thousand Islands border crossing (I don't recall the
exact towns the bridge is in). We had great weather and beautiful Canadian
scenery the entire trip. Took roughly 8 hours each way - those not driving a
Vanagon can make it in about 7 but I kept it below 65mph the entire trip. We
took the same path on our return trip but much of that was a night so the
scenery wasn't quite as enjoyable.

Needless to say I was very pleased at the buses performance - although I
wasn't worried really it was still the longest haul yet and there was some
minor anxiety in the back of my head.

Now I say lucky misfortunes in the subject line because last night while
going to meet my EX for the child exchange Grover decided to pop a fuel line
and leak gas all over - I say lucky because there was no fire and this
didn't happen during our NY trip. Seems to be leaking from the spot at the
back of that damn plastic fitting that brings the fuel line through the
"fire wall" (that may not be the proper term for that metal barrier but it's
the best description I can give). It was too dark and cold to fix last night
so I have to go retrieve the bus later. I'm not sure if it is a failed
clamp, split line, or the plastic piece is broken. I'll know more later.
Also, just to be clear I have recently inspected the fuel lines and all
seemed well.

--
Thanks,

Jeff
'90 Carat (Grover)
'86 (We call this one Parts)
'78 Bus (Melissa) Patty's Bus