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Date:         Wed, 6 Nov 1996 19:52:27 -0800
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         mholser@Adobe.COM (Malcolm Holser)
Subject:      ramblings...

Wow I got a wave today! I'm soooo thrilled!

Driving to work today, across the long California Central Valley, I passed many busses, but a Vanagon WAVED (I was driving my '80 Westfalia). Vanagons NEVER wave -- it's some sort of rule. Made me feel like I used to driving my old splitty. The waver was a nice Country Homes camper on the Pacheco Pass Road. This trip was somewhat strange in that I saw three Country Homes Campers. Also saw several Westfalias, of course. No splitties )^: Bunch of Beetles.

Looked at a Diesel Vanagon for sale in Los Banos (can you believe they'd name a town "the toilets"? Apt, of course, since it's in the heart of the scenic "Big Valley"). The guy wants $1000 for it. Regular Vanagon, typical desert fare -- no rust, but lots of plastic detruction-by-the-sun. Engine is 1.9l diesel with a spun main bearing. 125k miles. Pretty rough, but might be a good repair or conversion choice.

Saw lots of trucks signalling with their lights as they played leapfrog up the Pacheco. Ever notice how they name the really bad roads? Chilkut Pass, The Grapevine. Truckers all know Pacheco, it's mostly a truck route. I'd swear they all used the flash-your-high-beams-and-I'll-change-lanes-immediately version. Please don't flash your highs on this road at a truck unless you want it to change over to your lane, you'll get squashed by a 22-wheeled monster full of 50 tons of tomatoes, for certain! Lights are required while driving this road, so turning off your lights as a signal might work in the daytime -- I still loathe the idea of turning off my lights at night. Maybe it's brighter out east, and you don't need 'em as much.

Everybody should always drive with their lights on all the time. Many new cars do this (I think it's required on new Canadian cars). It's a requirement on some of the really awful roads around here, like Sears Point Road and Pacheco Pass, for safety. They used to be called "test areas" but the test is over, and it really helped. Pacheco still is pretty grim, with all of the little white crosses-with-plastic-flowers along the road. They called the road "blood ally" when I was a kid (they called Sears Point Road that, too). I suspect there is a road near each of us that is (or was) called such.

Sears Point Raceway perhaps inspired many a teen to drive way too fast going home along that awful levee road. It's a three-laner, too. One lane each way, with a center lane to eliminate people who want to pass from the gene-pool. We lost Bill Graham (the rock music promoter) in a helicopter crash alongside this road, so I guess it's dangerous even flying in that area.

Just South of the Pacheco, on Interstate 5 was the sight of the largest wreck in the US. It was the largest in the world, but a crash in France almost immediately afterwards was even worse. Something like 110 cars and big trucks ended up in a single crash there, I think more than 70 people were killed.

Lights are good, drive with them on, don't grouse about the new rules that are coming that will require them. Just look at a few of those little crosses while you drive. I wonder if they make the electrical item that flashes the lights high-low-high-low like is common on motorcycles. These are sold for planes, but airplane things are $$$.

Thanks for waving, whoever you were. Brightened up my drive along a road I really hate!

malcolm


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