Date: Fri, 20 Jan 2012 05:36:24 -0800
Reply-To: Stephen Grisanti <bike2vcu@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Stephen Grisanti <bike2vcu@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Friday-Any Orlando camping reccommendation? Trip report
In-Reply-To: <17A7B82A-01C0-4618-8CC5-9FCF8B9818C4@gmail.com>
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Legitimate topic ANY time. Especially post camping. We LOVE trip reports!
Jim Arnott
List Admin
Okay, so I'll post the one my computer ate but which was later regurgitated. I did post a brief version of this with pix on Samba:
Trip report: Alabama alternator adventure (long)
It did not start out that way and was actually a nice vacation. We left on Cyber Monday after the seven day forecast showed the northeast to be cloudy and rainy while to the south it would be sunny. Decision made. And there would be no encounters with police, emergency vehicles or relatives so the trip has to count as a success.
It took two easy days of driving to get us to new territory. Karen does not like to feel like the sole reason for the trip is to drive so if we buy gas once a day that’s enough driving for her. The rest we spend exploring, looking at antiques or finding motorcycles and junkyards. We aimed for Tennessee with the idea of dipping our toes eventually in the Gulf of Mexico.
Dropped off some alley-found treasures to a friend, paused in Pulaski VA at the famous Vanagon yard right at sunset, and reached Hungry Mother SP in Marion VA for a cold night. We brought an electric heater and kept the top down and remained comfortable. Next morning I heard the oil buzzer for the first time.
One thing we did not do was a shakedown trip this year so despite our lists and care we had lost some of our camping smarts. The engine was back together after extensive exhaust work and I’d only driven it a couple of times before we departed, so there was a lot of faith at work. I figure the Fram filter may be to blame for the buzzer.
The big surprise of the trip occurred fairly early. Chattanooga. Never been there or heard much about the actual place, but it seems to be a hip and modern small city with a nice river setting and surrounded by mountains. We could move there tomorrow if the summers aren’t as bad as Richmond’s, and…there’s a brand spankin’ new Volkswagen factory on the outskirts of town that is producing Jettas. I didn’t see a Vanagon factory, guys.
Barbecue and antiques in eastern Tennessee, that corner of Georgia and northern Alabama and by the fourth night at dusk we reached the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum in Birmingham. While checking the hours I noticed the grind/clatter sound that was new. Alternator bearing, I guessed. Karen was cute at one point when she suggested, “Can’t you call one of your Vanagon Rescue Rangers, or whatever they are?” I’d already planned to contact list member John Rodgers in case I needed informed help, but with a spare on board and my tools I was able to swap out the parts in a couple of hours the next morning and we stopped to visit with John and his fleet on the way back to Barber. I’d bought this spare in February of ’09 for $19 and stuffed it and some other spares where the second battery would go under the driver’s seat. Came in handy that I did not carry just the brushes. Thanks to Advance Auto in Pelham for letting me work in the
lot.
At this point Florida was still a day’s drive south and we’d also have to come back. Rather than push that we’d wander some back roads in a new place. The highest point in Alabama is in Mt Cheoha SP and we camped just downhill from it. Then went to FDR’s Little White House in Warm Springs GA. Learned a little more about the man and saw a place I’d only heard of. Crossing that part of Georgia without hitting Atlanta took some doing but we’d been there a time or two before so kept away this trip. Tallulah Gorge SP is about the last thing in the northeast corner of the state and worth the stop. From there we passed Asheville on the easy way home, covering over 2,000 miles at about 19 MPG over nine days. Until this trip I’d only bought gas once in February and once in May this year, but then the eight tanks for the trip so I caught up.
Saw two Eurovans early on in Tennessee and later saw two splits parked in a yard in Chattanooga, but not one Vanagon (John’s and Pulaski excepted, and we’d been expecting those) until our last stop on the last day for lunch in Durham NC, where we parked near one at Whole Foods. Enthusiast owned, it was an ’86 Wolfsburg weekender with 15” alloys, a nifty hatch mounted fork-mount bike rack and a Rabbit diesel 1.6 conversion.
A neighbor lent us her TomTom Via and it was our first GPS experience. It came in handy a couple of times but I still prefer maps. That voice can seem pushy at times.
Stephen
