Date:         Fri, 27 Sep 96 15:09:37 CDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Joel Walker <JWALKER@ua1vm.ua.edu>
Subject:      Unca Joel goes West: Part 3

Part 3: Homeward Bound

Sunday. everybody's up. poof-zoom. everybody's gone!! boy, this crowd
can un-ass a place in no time! :) we're one of the last to leave,
struggling up the hill into Mammoth Lakes (the town). buy some
gasoline, burgers, and down the mountain we go. hi ho, hi ho,
it's backward home we go! we pass a bus junkyard in Bishop. but
it's closed. :(

several cops around Olancha. navy or marine A-6 flies over near
China Lake. we're heading straight down US-395 to Four Corners
(rather than go back over that mountain!), then east to Barstow
and Needles. slowly getting lower and lower in elevation, we stop
for gas in Barstow after seeing a wildly painted 70 bus, all
flowers and psychadelic paint, "Woodstock", "Flower Power", and
such all over. the girl driving it rolls down her window and says
(to us): "Nice Bus.". :)  we call Rusty VanBondo in Phoenix and
beg shelter for the night. we tell him we'll be there by 0100.
actually, we just want to see this Rusto from Hell he keeps talking
about. ;)

somewhere near Needles, we figure out that the time zone change is
at the Arizona-California border, and that it's gonna be more like
0200 when we get there! and we're running late! groan. we talk to
some truckers and they say that 95 is a better road south out of
Needles. off we go in the dark. down to Vidal Junction, over to Earp
and Parker, then down to Quartzsite, onto I-10 and into Phoenix.

good directions put us at Rusty's house pretty quick. not much traffic.
porch light is on, rusty-looking single-cab and a white vanagon camper
are parked in front. this must be the place. ring the doorbell. no
answer. no frightened looks out of the windows. uh oh. :(  we'd tried
to call from some rest stop in california, but the phone service there
(Unitec) was really bad. i tried 1-800-CALL-ATT and got no answer. so
now i'm worried. ring doorbell a couple of more times. no dogs barking
or any signs of life. finally, a sleepy-looking Rusty comes to the
door. looks like Kurt Russell. with glasses. we clamber into his
home and he shows us back to the garage. there it is: the bus. but it
looks like it just came out of the dealer's showroom ... uh, well, ok,
so it's not exactly all put back together. ;)  but it looks NEW. hmmmm.
not quite what i'd expected. we crash in the dog's room (poor dog).
oh yeah, AZ never changes to daylight savings time, so it was only 0130
when we got there. a lucky break for all concerned.

morning comes too soon. Rusty's wife looks like Pam Dawber (Mindy  of
Mork & Mindy). none of us are awake. they have to go to work. we need
to get on the road. or so i thought. ;)  Rusty gives Dave the addresses
of several junkyards and parts places, so armed with a map of Phoenix
(well, we had to buy gas anyway!), off we go. the next four or five
hours are spent finding, surveying, and checking out junked buses in
the dry hot Phoenix junkyards, all of which seem to be somewhere around
the airport and a big wide dry riverbed. one fellow has probably 50
buses, but also has a really bad attitude: $350 for a used transmission.
we move on. Dave doesn't find his tranny, but we buy a bunch of small
stuff. $20. then back on the interstate and eastward.

Phoenix toward Tucson, then Lordsburg, NM, and we stop in Las Cruces,
NM for the night. finally find a decent price on a motel. walk next
door to the Holiday Inn for food, but they are nearly closed and don't
seem to want to wait on us. but it works out ok: they screw up our
orders and decide to charge us for only one meal.

up the next day, and headed to El Paso. wasted some time in some stores
looking for an altimeter ... they got everything else, but no
altimeters!!

do you have any idea how big Texas is?? well, if you don't, let me
tell you: it's BIG. WIDE. LONG. a fer piece from one side to the other.
and it takes a looooooooong time to drive it. drive, gas, drive, gas,
drive, gas. oh, yeah. and eat once in a while somewhere in there.
long about 0100 we reach the outskirts of Ft. Worth/Dallas. it's another
hour or more before we reach "Dallas" proper and head up north to
Dave's house. back at the garage, we have to move my bus out so Dave
can move his Mustang so we can open the door to the house (ever seen
three cars in a two car garage??). :) unpack my stuff  and stuff it
into my bus. crash on the sofa. one cat decides my leg is a scratching
post. that didn't last long.

0930 - daylight streaming in the back window. uhhhhh, hey, Dave ...
weren't you going to work?? yup. scurry, hurry, and everybody is out
on the road. i stop for ice to cool the remaining sodas and food.
1000 is the official departure time. down to I-20 and east. fill up
again in Monroe, LA. fix sandwiches and eat. back on the road. more
cops trying to get my money ... i fool them. i have cruise control!
nyah-ha-ha!!! sun goes down, power mirrors are still great. :)

20:00 and i'm back in Tookalooka. fill up with gas again and drive the
three miles to my house. unload and scatter junk all over the house.
pile the mail in the chair. check the email. groan.

it's finally about 0200 when i get to bed. it has been a looooong week.

would i do it again? hmmmmm. gimme a month to think about it. ;)
was it fun? well ... yeah. i guess. i don't know if i'd describe all
that driving as "fun" ... i wouldn't put it in the same category as
mud-westling with naked wimmen, but then, it was more pleasureable
than visiting the doctor (any doctor!). got to see lots of strange
country that i hadn't seen in many years, some that i'd never seen;
got to meet people in person that i'd only emailed before. of course,
the downside of that is that they had to meet me! ;)

would i want to live in california? hmmmm. not in Mammoth Lakes. too
high. too much snow (and you thought i wouldn't notice them snow-fences
out by the highway!!!). Arizona, New Mexico?? nah, too dry. maybe the
middle of Texas. east of where the  grass starts growing again. Odessa
or Midland. if i was a cowboy or an oil-poker. but i ain't, so i guess
i'm stuck here. besides ... i'm too old to move/change. :(

well, anyway, that's my version of the trip. it probably ain't right
or accurate, but that's the way i remember it. cept them two days at
the campground are kinda fuzzy. but then, i'm kinda fuzzy. so it all
fits together. :)