Date:         Wed, 4 Oct 1995 17:59:53 -0700 (PDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Jeffrey Olson <jjolson@u.washington.edu>
Subject:      story about bus, heat and winter

20 years ago when Rollin' my 66 camper bus and I did a lot of travelling 
I fell in love with a woman.  I know Rollin' felt betrayed, but hey, 
what's a 21 year old guy to do.  At any rate, she did a semester at 
Hampshire College in Massachesetts and I volunteered to drive her there, 
set up house, get a job, and play at being a couple.  We started from 
Sacramento, her home, in the first week of February.  My eight year old 
heater boxes were pretty shot so we slowly found ourselves getting colder 
and colder as we headed east on I-40.  We drove through Albuquerque at 
night during a minor blizzard/heavy snowstorm.  Now my memory may be 
romanticizing it (I'm sure if Annie were still around she wouldn't 
romanticize the trip), but I remember driving east up a freeway in a 
blizzard IN FIRST GEAR!!! I couldn't go any faster.

There was a 40 mph+ wind blowing right into the nose of the bus.  Big 
rigs weren't doing much better.  My hearty 1300 was struggling mightily 
at a steady 18 mph.  Every screw hole, every spot with missing or twisted 
rubber, every crevace (sp) and crack in the nose let in a powerful wind.
The overhead vent was off but blowing freezingly.  

The heater of course had been ineffective for a couple days.  We wore all 
aour clothes, and finally, at some coffee shop somewhere, we broke out 
our down sleeping bags.  I slithered into the double-zippered bag and 
zippered it at my calves and under my armpits.  I already had on my 
expedition down parka, a pair of gloves and mittens, and a balaclava 
(sp?) I drove like that for much of the trip across Texas and Oklahoma.  
The snow turned to rain in Arkansas, but I'd grown used to being warm in 
my sleeping bag and "wore" it for much of the remaining miles.  

The trip for me was very romantic.  I think she decided deep inside that 
she was happy being used to finer things, like a working heater.  AT any 
rate, the relationship went down hill from there.  No job, little home in 
the snow, and "love for all time".  Rollin' and I were soon back on the 
road, on to more adventures...

Jeff Olson
Seattle Washington, where it's warm, sunny and the freeways are clear...