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)
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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