Date:         Mon, 8 Jul 1996 02:52:59 -0400
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Eddiehintz@aol.com
Subject:      Trip Report: On to sunny CA!!

Hey now,
     We're back in the Golden State!!!
     We hit CA Friday AM-stayed in  a motel the night before in Flagstaff, AZ
with no phone, hence the lack of trip reports. So we left AZ, crossing over
the CA border about 12 noon friday. A great rousing cheer was heard as we
crossed the Colorado and entered into our home state. Of course, those of you
who know CA know that we spent the rest of the day driving in 110 deg.
weather. Yuck. Sam says that the heat is worse there than in Austin, I would
tend to agree. 
     Spent Friday in a motel in Victorville with friends there-they went on
to the off road race in Barstow, while we headed for San Diego.
     So we hit SD on Sat. Am and proceeded to my mom's house, where I was to
work on her CV joints-she owns a '78 Westy. This was to become the CV job
from hell. A two or so hour CV cleaning and boot replacement ended up taking
8 (!!!!!) hours. Her CV's were installed by a Bavarian named Hans-big on
muscles, low on brains. Took me forever to break the dammed things loose. The
original plan was to do a tune up on our bus after finishing Mom's, but that
was not to be. As I write we are in Solana Beach, on I5 heading for LA, where
I will finally get the tune up done. We've gotten around 23-25 mpg since
Austin, using the new CDI ignition, and my last full tune up was a long time
ago-I'm very curious to see what happens to my mileage once I'm properly
tuned.
     We spent the morning at Cabrillo National Monument on Point Loma in San
Diego-absolutely beautiful location. To the west lies the Pacific Ocean, to
our East the San Diego Harbor, and the city itself. Cabrillo was the first
European to discover the California coast, and we will follow some of his
journey-albeit on land-over the next few weeks. Sam says that our next trip
will have to be on a sailboat, up the coast from Guatemala to N. Cal just
like Cabrillo. Anyone got any ideas how to hook a sail up to a '70 bus?  ;-)
     We are both enjoying the cool coastal CA weather, and I really enjoyed
seeing San Diego again-I grew up there. From Cabrillo we headed up through
Mission and Pacific beaches, before cutting in to I5 for the LA trek. We both
feel like we're finally really on vacation-but I must still to replace the
tranny, put in an alternator, mount the spare tire up front, put in westy
side windows and maybe interior, put in oil temp gauge, maybe a new exaust,
and who knows what else I'll think of. Only then will I truly feel we are
road worthy for Inuvik. At least parts are cheap in CA. So this will likely
be done Mon. and Tue., with the help of my good friend Darryl at Meredith
Automotive in Victorville. I should probably put him down as a sponsor for
Inuvik, what with all his help and parts discounts...
     So for now, we smell the salt laden air, enjoy the temperate climate,
and start to work our way North. Northward HO!!!!
Peace, 
Eddie

PS: as we ride through Camp Pendelton, watching the Pacific Ocean slide by,
the radio plays the Beach Boys "wouldn't it be nice". It sure is...

PPS: Sam's driving, she says "Busted!" I say "Huh?" She expains that a blue
van up ahead had about 4 guys in it, but when they passed the border patrol
station suddenly there was 1. So the BP somhow figured it out, and we watched
them get pulled over. As the lights flashed and they headed for the side, 3
guys popped up. Oops. Better luck next time guys... The things one sees on
road trips...