Date:         Thu, 18 Apr 1996 12:34:40 -0400
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Claralw@aol.com
Subject:      Oly, WA ------> SF, CA (long)

We planned to leave Olympia at 4 o clock on Thursday last.   Didn't actually
 leave  til 6 and by that time were itching to get out of town, out of the
state, away from the insular community in the sog and down to the sun and
into the  dryness and big city.  It was  me and Duncan, who was thinking of
moving to SF with his SO and kid, and was going to visit his sister in law
 and be horrified at the comparative cost of living.

stoppedin Salem, Ore to fill up  the '66, April (the month of production, i
guess she's now 30 and no longer young),  the bus was getting 29 mpg, and
sounding fine. It was low on oil, so i added a quart.  Hmm......  The motor
was a bit greasy, and lo and behold the gas pump and gen stand bolts werent
tight.        It had 3, 500 miles on it, so i suppose it could have shaken
loose.     Back on the road we had the stereo playing Ani DiFranco and the
gas heater going, and felt like we were traveling in style.   It was pretty
late when we stop at a rest stop, and decide to wait and go over  the
Siskiyous in the light.

The next morning (Friday) we had gone about ten miles, almost to Grants Pass
the bus gives and little shudder, and I cuss.   It's running out.  Get to the
next exit, and as the gas can spout was left behind (duh), we pour gas into a
coffe cup, into a paper cup with a hole on the bottom as a makeshift funnel.
  The fuel filter is fouled with particles of rust from a long sitting tank,
so i changed it.   Didn't someone mention  sticking a magnet to the tank to
attract all the rust bits?    I'll have to try it.   Anyway,  the bus was
only getting about 16 mpg.   

remember thebit in the idiot book where it talks about buying a VW?    There
is an ad in the paper for a 63 with a gas eater that turns out to be a gas
heater?   Well, it turned out to be a gas eater after all.

how much  does your BN4 eat?

In Grants Pass we fill up and I adjust the points and timing to go over
themountains.    Saw a little old lady driving a nice looking black oval
window beetle with a sunroof.   Just as we were going to pull out a white
bubble window panel van drove by, so i said, lets follow that bus, which to
Duncan's joy, led us directly to the closest espresso stand.  Also turned out
to be driven by a guy i know from the local swaps, who invited us to his shop
to look at his buses.   He had just got a lovely 49 beetle with the
crankstart, ran with a 25hp motor, and the crash box tranny (I always wanted
to drive one).  It was original, unrestored, a little tatty, but very nice.
  The 54 deluxe was sitting, and he had got the sliding sunroof microbus I
had seen in Portland a year ago.    Gawked and talked for a while, and showed
off the rust repair Mike had done to the 66.

Back on the road and over the mountains.  It was a lot of third gear.
     Close to the top, the dry air hit us.  YUM .  My lips started shapping,
and i settled down for to be baked.   

In Redding I was horified by gas prices.   And i though it was bad in Oly.
   Back up to 22mpg, but lost more oil.   This is really annoying.   Tighten
more bolts more tightly and wiped the motor.  

In the Mount Shasta area  we stpped to pick up a hitchhiker.  He was going to
Hawaii and needed to leave from sf airport.   Had a bongo drum in a patchwork
corduroy case.

I have never more enjoyed driving through the Central Valley  of California.
 This time it wasn't boring.  (!)  I 'm no longer used to expanses of flat,
treeless land.  The hill were slightly green from the spring rains, rooling
hills with oak tress, settling down to huge fields.   

and junkyards!

so we stopped - found a splitty with a  chrome vw symbol and some other bits,
and Duncan found the missing bits for his camper.   

By the time we got to Fairfield it was getting dark  The bus had stopped
leaking :) and was getting 23mpg.  I planned on adjusting the valves in the
morning, and also the trans was not happy.  

  It made a funny noise when you step on the clutch.   Any comments welcomed.

    So I called my brother, but I was too late and he had already left work.
   
Called this guy in Walnut creek, that i was bringing some parts to.  Got
directions to BART to drop off the hitchhiker , who had put up with D& I's
gossip the whole ride down, and then to the shop.   ERK!!! I don't like
Walnut Creek sorry, but i dont.  Culture shock of intersections you are in
third gear by the time you are across.  I didn't realise how podunk Oly is.
 These roads are wider than our freeways.    Well did the Bart thing , then
found his shop. 

 He buys old splits with nice bodys, sends them off to the paint shop, has
motors built, installs new headliners and panel, shines up the shiny bits,
and sells them for beaucoup bucks.   He like hardtop deluxes to sell to the
Japanese.   More shiny bits, i guess.    I guess im a vintage snob or
something, as i wasn't impressed by the repro panels or headliners.    But
the buses he had done were clean and shiny, original colours.   More than i
can say for mine.    Except i get a kick when someone asks if the 66'
headliner's been replaced (no).  I felt bad for this guy having to deal with
acouple roadburned freaks.  I am not at my most coherent after being on the
road all day.

Well after midnight when we got to Coralee's in the Ridgemont district.  or
whatever its called north of GG Park in SF.    Real good people, and sleep at
last!