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Date:         Sun, 21 Aug 2011 23:21:05 -0700
Reply-To:     Rob <becida@COMCAST.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Rob <becida@COMCAST.NET>
Subject:      Short trip report, tire blow out and lot's of syncros!
Comments: To: wetwesties <wetwesties@yahoogroups.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

This last weekend we went Mogfest 2011 in Sheridan, Oregon. This was a down and back trip, just 493 miles in our '84 Westy powered by a '94 Subie 2.2.

I got off work early Friday and we left around 10pm. I talked my wife into coming, she is in a cast up to her knee and was a bit reluctant but I bribed her with a stop at the Tillamook Cheese factory on the way. She is not supposed to put weight on the foot/cast so she has a roll around cart thingee, paved surfaces are no problem.

Seeing as we were going to stop in Tillamook we went the long way (5+ hrs instead of 3+) and headed on the back roads towards Astoria, gassed up at the Little-Creek casino ($3.649 with the 5 cent discount card) and took off on the back roads. Not too bad, lot of moon light, little traffic and only one small herd of elk. I've done that drive several times in the daylight so I didn't feel I was missing anything. We stopped at the last rest area in Washington state (on 101) before the bridge into Astoria, "Dismal Nitch", it was named by Lewis & Clark. Slept well with the top down, the curtains closed and my palm tree beach blanket snapped in place just behind the front seats. Woke up well after day light, used the bathroom and headed out, a lot of boats on the water. Watched a Coast Guard H60 take off on what had to be a weekend patrol, I remember the weekend BayPats in the SF area, saw it later cruising just off shore... Memories. Stopped for breakfast in Seaside, couldn't find The Pig 'N Pancake again ( I was asked "didn't we do this here before?" Like I remember these things..<g>)! Stopped at McKeown's (cloth napkins, had to ask for coffee more than once & $22 for breakfast for two), next time I'll find "The Pig 'N Pancake".

A fair amount of traffic down the coast. Beautiful weather! More Westies & Vanagons than I could count, white was the predominant color. It was a nice weekend on the coast. Made it to Tillamook and went in to watch them make cheese, had some samples and had to pick up some cheese to take with us. 'Hot Habanero Jack" is always a favorite when we stop (no one carries it around where I live) and this time a sample of the "Garlic Chili Pepper Cheddar" made it easy to pick some of that up too. A couple of empty ice cream buckets and we were on our way (there was a gift shop, so the stop took a 'little' longer than it sounds <g>, I sat on a bench & waited). Then back on the road, traffic, more Westies & Vanagons, sunshine and I followed the GPS directions to Mogfest. Stopped for gas a Fred Myers, don't recall the cost.

Mogfest- Wow! That was neat, more off road types than I'd ever heard of before. Camps set up here and there, people driving things I'd never seen before here and there. Driving everywhere! I talked to a few people, saw some neat things and learned a few things, put a face to a name or two and things like that.

It was hot upper 90's or better and this place is a farm. Dirt paths, 'roads' mowed in the tall grass (hay??), ditches with cars-trucks and who knows what they are going in them and coming out of them. Keep in mind my bride came with me on this trip, I'm parked in the shade not too far from the outhouses (you can drive anywhere on this place). My honey is sitting in the front seat with her casted leg up on the dash, a 12v fan running off the house battery, the stereo playing music & she has the laptop going playing mahjong. I walked all over the place, I was the fool with the camera & a big grin. I checked the 'road' down to the river but that didn't seem like a good idea for my 2wd beast. Talked to a number of people and eventually made my way back to the van. She was doing fine and seemed in good spirits (after 28 years she knows about me and VWs) but it seems like it was time to move on. Started the bus and took a tour of the place, got out to check the 'roads' a couple of times but pretty much took a good look. Maybe next year I can stay longer <g>.

Headed out and followed the GPS towards home, made a detour to Aloha, OR to see the brother in law and headed out. As I was leaving Oregon I thought about the LED strip lights I'd seen in another thread, he picked them up at Ikea & I won't be this close to an Ikea in who know when again? Heck it's only Saturday... I stopped at the first rest area in Washington state on I-5 and we spent another pleasant night in the Westy, just like we'd spent the night before. It was hot out so I used the back door prop tool to keep the door open 2", that helped, towards dawn it wasn't warm so I used the blanket. This morning, we used the facilities, found breakfast (not Dennys this time) and headed towards Ikea. A side note on breakfast..The two of us can have breakfast & coffee at Dennys for 10-12 dollars, we get the biscuit & gravy with an egg and the build a slam, with eggs, hash browns, sausage & oatmeal. We share the oatmeal & sausage, not as cheap as oatmeal & coffee in the van but it is nice.

The LED white strip lights are 12v, powered for the house with a transformer but my bus has plenty of 12v. I bought two sets ($15 each) of three 10" strips (30" total per set), they look like they plug into each other. I'm thinking I'll replace one of the two stock (for an '84) inside lights and see how that goes. I'll get to 'how to mount them' when I beside where to put them. As I was hunting for a coffee cup yesterday I thought how nice it would be to have them where I could just grab one, I saw some cup hooks that I can hang from the drawer/shelf/catchall above the kitchen at Ikea so I splurged with another dollar and am giving them a try. My bus cups are those God-awful expensive ones (when you include shipping) that you can buy from the BD (I bought them on what may have been last purchase from them, I'm still not happy about the way that turned out) but I really like the cups. They look good hanging there! Now to see how well this works in real life...

The trip back was almost uneventful. After the last gas stop in Woodland, WA at the Safeway ($3.62 w/ the discount) we were rolling down the road a touch above 70 with everyone else. As a big truck came up beside me I heard a 'not-good' noise, a loud one at that and wondered what was going wrong with the truck <weak grin>. A moment later my ride felt funny, then I could feel a tire going... let off the gas, put on the turn signal and started moving to the right. A bit rough going over the rumble strip (I was already awake <VBG>) and pretty loud as the bad tire made noise of it's own , add in both the good tires on the rumble strip and it was a bit noisy. This was not a good place, could be worse but it could be much better. There is a barrier on the right edge of the road, not much of a shoulder and those trucks are going by FAST on that 70 mph stretch of I-5. I pulled off as far as I could and still have enough room to change the tire (when you put anything up on a jack you have to leave room to run if it falls your way). I carefully got out and took a look, I left the van running, if I needed to drive on to a better spot I didn't want to give Murphy that opportunity! It was the passenger side, rear tire. I could see no better place to do this from where I was standing...I had my wife turn off the ignition and I got started changing the tire. I pulled the breaker bar out (it has the 19mm 6 pt socket on it, a breaker bar is the only way to go) and took the spare tire bolt out, pulled the tab to drop the clam shell and got the spare out. I put the clam shell back up as I didn't want to spend any extra time there if I could help it, the van shook from the wind every time a big truck went by.

Pop the chrome cap off & lefty loosee is what I say as I loosen all the nuts first thing, just break the torque. If they are really tight I'll stand on the end of the bar, hold on to the roof & bounce a little. That has always done it. Then I jack it up & the stock jack works great, I did put a piece of wood in front of the opposite side front wheel as I really didn't want it to move while it's on the jack. Jack it up just enough to get the old off & the new on, getting the nuts going and then tight, torque it up when it's back on the ground. Put the stuff away, not enough room in the back of the Westy for the trashed tire with the wife's broken leg cart so I put it back in the clam shell. Carefully got back in and drove away. Turned out there was a better spot to have changed it 1/4 mile ahead, I'd have driven looking if the flat had been on the drivers side, no way was I going to have tried that! But I had enough room and things turned out well. 3 photos of the tire http://s197.photobucket.com/albums/aa190/becida/Tire%20blow%20out/

Good weather, great people, lot's of Vanagons, peaceful rest area sleep and a lucky blow out made for a good trip.

Next weekend maybe I need to go fishing at the ocean, the weather looks good! http://www.intellicast.com/Local/Weather.aspx?location=USWA0313 .

Rob becida@comcast.net The Mogfest pictures are in the other camera...


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