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Date:         Wed, 29 May 2013 13:01:04 -0400
Reply-To:     Jeff Lincoln <magikvw@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Jeff Lincoln <magikvw@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Trip report - Buses by the Beach - Bus Benefit 2013 (long)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Well gang last weekend was another fantastic Buses by the Beach event. There were great bands - great events - great beer- AWESOME raffle prizes from some great donors - and a community breakfast that would knock your socks off. More importantly wonderful people.

You've heard it all before - this is a special group of volks and these campout events are something to experience. Oh and to top it off $14,000 was raised this weekend for The Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors!!! Amazing! Last count I heard was 80+ buses but I'd bet there were more.

So since you've heard it all before I want to tell you about our traveling woes and just how special the bus community really is.

To get to the BBtB event we have to travel accross Michigan. We leave from Lakeshore Rd. in Lexington, MI on the shores of Lake Huron and travel to Lakeshore Dr. in West Olive, MI on the shore of Lake Michigan - coast to coast :). It's roughly a 240 mile trip for us.

Not far from home we started experiencing some problems. Gertie (our '85 1.9) would just lose all engine power (electrical was fine) - no sputtering nothing just dead. At this point she would start right back up and on we would go. We contemplated turning around but had managed to be trouble free after a few instances and got a good stretch of road behind us. Eventually we hit the point of no return but the issue persisted and continued to get worse. Sometimes we'd make it 30 miles sometimes 2 miles - sometimes she'd start right back up and other's it took 5-10 minutes. However, we were still making progress and knew if we could just get there we'd have a wealth of knowledge to help us figure it out once we were there.

Well, our luck ran out 30 miles from the camp site (yep we made it 200+ miles). We were stranded on the side of 196 - we could have limped the rest of the way but the battery gave out - we were not running for long enough periods of time to recharge her - and all the restart attempts had drained her low.

OK, what do we do? Well, as if on que right about that time we get a call from someone at the camp. Someone had seen us on the side of the road and basing that on our FB updates put 2 and 2 together and figured out it was us.

So they rallied the troops and they came and tow strapped us off of the express way to a safe place where we could sleep (someone's back yard) and we would address the bus issue in the morning. Granted it was 3:30am.

It's now Sat morning and with advice I did everything we could think of to get her started. Eventually we had her flatbeded the final 30 miles to the campout - a free tow offered to us on another camper's roadside package. Decided to look at her on Sunday morning.

Sunday - after a Dist Cap, Rotor, and fuel relay replacement she started up and ran great on a 15-20 miles test drive. Tried several times throughout the day and she started no problems at all. We enjoyed Sunday to the fullest thinking we had the issue taken care of.

Monday, we packed up and prepared to roll out around noon. Gertie wouldn't start at all - again those around helped and we checked everything - tried this and that and eventually she started again running strong. We had to set out.

We made it 10 miles from camp.......she died and wouldn't start. Someone brought us a spare fuel pump - swapped it on the road.....no dice.

So we eventually decided to have her towed to a local Grand Rapids shop - German Auto Service, LTD. The plan was to rent a car and leave Gertie to the experts.

It was a long day - a little rainy - not real warm - and a lot of trying different things and eventually waiting. One of our fellow campers (the same that came and tow strapped us on Fri) stayed with us - drove us to the shop following the tow truck. THen drove us to GR airport where the car rental place was. Jut as we were about to get the car I received a call from Todd Olson - Todd tells me that they have an extra car and he will meet us back at the shop (so we could get our important stuff from the bus) with the car and we can use it until our bus is fixed and we can come pick it up!!!! Can you believe that? Well, if you know Todd you can...but the generosity is something else.

I know this is really long so I will try to wrap it up - we made it home. Geman Auto Sevice, although booked through next week, squeezed us in and got the issue solved (split fuel line - not leaking because it was higher than the tank - so it would stay closed and we would go and then at points suck air and we would stop).

So those my friends, are the caliber of people we have in this community - I know I would do the same for someone else - but when you are on the receiving end of such generosity you can't help but a) feel a little odd/bad for causing such a fuss and b) feel an imense amount of love and grattitude for having such great people in your life. Thanks,

Jeff '85 GL (Gertie) '78 Bus (Melissa) Patty's Bus


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