Vanagon EuroVan
Previous messageNext messagePrevious in topicNext in topicPrevious by same authorNext by same authorPrevious page (February 2009, week 4)Back to main VANAGON pageJoin or leave VANAGON (or change settings)ReplyPost a new messageSearchProportional fontNon-proportional font
Date:         Sat, 28 Feb 2009 13:57:22 -0600
Reply-To:     Max Wellhouse <dimwittedmoose@CFU.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Max Wellhouse <dimwittedmoose@CFU.NET>
Subject:      Re: Opinion on Long Trip w/young driver to Florida from Texas
Comments: To: David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
In-Reply-To:  <49a93c5e.02578c0a.5a2e.1237@mx.google.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

While a youngster(18 or 19 to be exact). My younger brother and I took a trip from Iowa to California(with parents approval) in my old 60 Beetle that had been converted into a Baja Bug(remember that first generation kit from Meyers Manx?) I pulled out the back seat out to store a plethora of old 356 Porsche parts in boxes that I craftily marked on the outside(visible to the whole world) as "soil samples". I was selling them to a shop in the Bay area.. Four day round trip, so we didn't do much sight seeing. I guess I was lucky as back then renting motel rooms was easier and not one person asked us if we were running away from home. I do remember that climbing up to SLC, the optical illusion of appearing to be going downhill, when you were actually going uphill. For a while I thought the motor was going to crap on us. Got to the top and nobody died....didn't need to crack open the John Muir book, but I think I did check the valve adjustment one morning before starting the motor up.

Today would be a different story.

DM&FS

At 07:29 AM 2/28/2009, David Beierl wrote: >At 08:49 AM 2/27/2009, Michael Sullivan wrote: >>Opinions welcomed. Thanks. > >To me a lot of it comes down to how well you really know your boy, >deep down, and how well he knows himself. I think that anything you >send into Spring Break that you care about (possibly including the >boy) is asking for it; but I could easily have an exaggerated notion >of what Spring Break entails. > >As for the rest, I agree with the folks who say that intimate >knucklebusting knowledge of how the beast works is important to >continued success and happiness. I always considered Dutiful Passage >to be pretty reliable in its own way, and never hesitated to take a >trip in it except when it was officially not working. But part of >the reliable was the reliable expectation that sooner or later I'd be >underneath it or head down in the engine at a campground or parking >lot or off the side of the road somewhere chasing gremlins. I drove >it something like 150,000 miles and never had it towed until the >night it went to Mike Collum's to retire and *he* had it towed the >last 17 miles. But in the course of that I learned an awful lot >about the vehicle and pretty much covered Bentley with grease and >dogeared pages. I used to look at it sitting next to the Corolla >manual which had one greasy thumbprint on the cover from when I >couldn't find the oil pressure sender (under the alternator, of >course). And like an ijjit I gave the Bentley to Mike and when I >started talking on the list again had to beg one from Doug Ford. > >So me, I wouldn't lend one farther away than I could get to except to >a seasoned Vanagonaut, I guess. > >Was my boy, I'd help him get a beat-up loaf and a copy of Muir. That >way he'll be thinking in terms of his own sweat and blood rather than >your money, when it comes to peer pressure and taking care. > >With respect, > > -- >David Beierl - Providence RI USA -- http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/ >'89 Po' White Star "Scamp"


Back to: Top of message | Previous page | Main VANAGON page

Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!


Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com


The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.

Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.