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Date:         Fri, 30 Sep 1994 23:00:52 -0700 (PDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Tobin Copley <tobin@unixg.ubc.ca>
Subject:      Planning Trip--Tips?

Hi Gang,

Yep, so I'm quittin' my job* and taking three months in the new year to do some serious travelling in our new (well, to us, anyway) camper. It's a 76, and aside from some rust in the wheel wells, etc, a coupla split boots (cross yer fingers for the CVs!), and a sink pump that doesn't work, it's in pretty good shape. We--that's my partner Christa and me--have got few months to fix any problems we can find and give the old camper a good shake-down before setting off.

* Shhhh. Don't tell my boss, ok?

Comments and suggestions from Steve, Sami, and others on Lee Ann and Sean's planned trip TO Vancouver were helpful. Our day-to-day car has got most of the stuff from Steve's 'essentail tool list' in the trunk: I'm also going to be bringing spare clutch and throttle cables.

I'll give you folks the planned route for the trip. Any suggestions on things to bring/see/do/avoid/etc. would be great. We want to stay off interstates as much as possible. We're both into pop culture stuff, so any 80 foot brontosauruses (already been to Wall, SD) or World's-Largest-Perogy-On-A-Fork tips would be appreciated.

Ok, here goes

Leave Jan 1st 1995: Vancouver, BC to Longview WA, cross the Columbia R, head for the coast. Hit coast around Tillamook, OR and bop on down 101 to somewhere near SF Cruise the wine country Head to Reno, then down Hwy 95 to Las Vegas, detouring for Death Valley. Las Vegas to Grand Canyon, along Northern roads into NM to Santa Fe, to Alamogordo, back to San Diego along southern routes through NM, AZ, CA.

Down the Baja, ferry to Mazatlan, down the coast to the southern border. Maybe to Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica... who knows?

Out to the Yucatan, and back up to Brownsville TX along the Gulf Coast.

Bop along the Gult Coast into FL, then up into GA, SC (see friends near Charlotte), NC, and so on up into Maine. Uh oh! It's getting cold! (Hopefully I can get the auxillary gas heater I bought working!). To Nova Scotia, (over to Newfoundland?), on to PEI (Christa loves Anne of Green Gables), NB, QUE, see friends in Toronto/Hamilton Ontario, through MI, IL, IA (see my Grandma!), up through Minnesota, into Manitoba, and west back to Vancouver.

We got three months, 'cause Christa in taking a 3 month leave of absence for this trip.

Any 'must sees'? Any thoughts/comments/sugestions/etc. would be helpful.

Something I was thinking about related to this trip: is there a list of good (non-dealer) VW specialist shops around? The dealers are way too $$$ for me. Maybe it would be a good idea to get a state by state (prov by prov) list of such places together for this list, as a faq or something. It'd sure be nice to know of a good place to go if you encounter problems on a trip. Thoughts?

BTW, bought oil pressure and temp (w/ dual sender) senders and gauges yesterday, as consensus seems to be these are a good insurance policy against cooking one's engine. Maybe the spare tire/anti-seize lug bolt theorem holds here as well?

T.

Tobin T. Copley | Department of Medical Genetics ======== email: <tobin@unixg.ubc.ca> | Health Sciences Centre, UBC Site /_| |__|:| Phone: (604) 822-7741 | Room F168-2211 Wesbrook Mall O| | Facs: (604) 822-7970 | Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6T 2B5 '-O----O-' '76 VW Camper


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