Date: Mon, 2 Mar 2009 08:29:40 -0500
Reply-To: Benny boy <huotb@VIDEOTRON.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Benny boy <huotb@VIDEOTRON.CA>
Subject: A nice and a sad sttory (was Yucatan)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
""""having a car issue in the boonies or Mexico or wherever is part of the
fun and adventure.Great way to meet people too.
There is a natural tendency, usually, to help a traveler having a problem.""""
Reading that thread, "Yucatan" and seeing that some are afraid to travel, i
will post the little adventure that happen to me in Florida a few days ago.
Now, it's me who is semi stranded somewhere north of Albany NY, dried up 30k
miles old Lobro drive axle (right outer) trying to outrun the eastern storm.
got to find me some lubricant so i can make the last 180 miles home.
Horrible noise it was, and that lasted 500 miles... he he he.
Here is the story i wrote:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
I’m sitting here in the south enjoying one of my last night in FL and a men
come to me... (It’s like a movie, i start by the end....)
This week i met some Vanagon owner on this campground, about 5. All in their
60+. So I came back here in Fort De Soto south of St-Pete after a few nice
night spent in The Keys, beside my site, a 91 Westy, In the morning the
owner came and talk a bit about westy and stuff, after a wile he told me
that he had coolant leak problem and he was going to a shop! Yea, of course
i’ll do nothing, so i took a look and it was only the EX tank leaking,
cracked. I told him to order one from the dealer and i would change it. The
day after he came with a new tank, so i started the easy job but... of
course, the darn coolant sender broke in 2 pieces... we call VW and NAPA but
nop! Ok, i went to my van hopping i had a spare one, after 30 min i found
one... lucky him! Ok, all good, but now we have 3 more westy owners around
us + a few other curious folks, it’s all good and fun. I’m not done of
course!!!! So the owner ask me a last favour , he said he as a noise in one
wheel (i have notice that but i said nothing...), so i take the van for a
spin and grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr... not nice, i said to him, 2 thing, something is
broken in the left rear wheel braking system or a wheel bearing is really
really torn apart... We came back to the site and i told him to have that
check out. The rest of the afternoon was spent talking about westy stuff
with the guys from Ohio and NY who BOTH owned their westy since new! Just to
say that there is many VW Vanagon owner out there that don’t spend their
days on Internet and The Samba Smile
While i was fixing the tank a saw a few horrible thing, one was of course
the fuel line and second was the very rusty 2.1L oil cooler metal line. I
saw a few other small stuff and told him about it.
Ok, 2 days have passed and no sign of the men... so tonight, i was
wondering? I don’t know, just a small thanks would have been nice. I thought
he was gone. So the first men who came tonight was the guy from Ohio, we had
a beer and he told me about owning his van for more 24 years, WOW! He had
the engine done lately and was still very happy with his van, it was his
first year (65yo) that he could fully enjoy the van... he has been traveling
for 4 month, he had dream of that for many years, finally, he could! That is
the nice story!
So he went and a second men came... it was my guys with the 91. So thankful
for my help but sad in some ways. He said: Ben, it was the wheel bearing,
it’s torn apart, they said at least 4 hours of work + parts, so well over
$500 in FL.
He look at me, thank me again and hug me, he had a $100 bill in his hand...
of course i said no! His wife was as thankful...
He look at me with strange eyes and gave me his phone# and e-mail. He said,
i want to sell it, we took the decision., if you ever know someone.
I feel like shit tonight, i feel like i have broken some dreams!!!! They
have been traveling in that van for more than 15 years without any major
problems. They are an old couple, over 75yo (Respect!). I told them the
truth about what i have seen., just out of respect and for safety. I
understand their need for security, at that age, you don’t want to spend
your nights in a motel wile your van is being fix...
What a nice couple, i hope i have done the right thing!!!
Anyway, that was my story. I’m now sitting around a camp fire writing on my
3G cell connection/10in Netbook and enjoying the sunset. I hope they had a
lot of sunset! I hope you have enjoyed, or even learned something about that
story, i know i have.
Cheers, Ben
--------------------------------------------------------------------
All is fine now, they had the bearing fix and are on they way home.