Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2001 19:59:13 -0400
Reply-To: toby.gun@verizon.net
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Sharon Simpson <toby.gun@verizon.net>
Subject: everybus 2001 as always an adventure
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
First I would like to say thanks to Chris for all the work he put in
getting this thing together. And for all the other people who worked on
everybus. My family and I had a truly wonderful time.
My husband took Elliott (our 82 turbo diesel) on his maiden voyage on
the Monday before everybus. He had to be in Raleigh for school for the
week so I just met him in Greensboro at the campground. Elliott made it,
without any problems, all the way to Raleigh. I was pleasantly surprised
since it hadn't run in about 3 years.
My daughter, Kalle and I, met up with Elliott and my husband Gary around
1pm. I noticed oil all over the back of Elliott and dripping down over
the muffler. Nothing to major. The dipstick goes in a hole in the middle
of the oil cap and it had backed itself out and was oozing oil all over.
I did find out from Chris that we got alot of votes for "wouldn't drive
that bus here let alone around the block".
Saw lots of faces from the previous year, Bob and Nancy Busick, Bear and
his dog daisy (who was Kalle's favorite dog), the couple next to Bear
with the dog Rocky (you know who you are, we talked about scenes from
Blazing saddles after the chili cookoff) Sara and Jose and their kids
(nice side tent you acquired) Beth and Yon and their kids from NJ,
T-Bear who was camped next to us, and Mr Bubble man next to him. The
list goes on and I'm sorry if I didn't mention your name.
We really enjoyed ourselves and Kalle has now gone to EB 2000 and 2001.
If this keeps up everyone will be able to watch her grow up and into the
VW fan that her parents are.
The trip home was much more adventuresome than the trip down. The stupid
dipstick didn't seem to want to stay in the hole and kept spewing oil
down the back of the bus. We finally stopped and shoved a little piece
of hose with a screw in the end to stop the oil flowing. Things were
good and we got to Ladysmith in Va and pulled over to get diesel.
Noticed we were now overheating so we took a rest. Made it all the way
to Fredricksburg and we were in bumper to bumper traffic when I noticed
oil gushing from the back. I'm beeping my horn to frantically tell my
better half to pull over. We pulled into this Mercedes dealership and
shut the engine off. Took one look in the back and noticed we now had NO
oil cap! Luckily the VW gods were not to cruel to us and the cap had
gotten wedged against one of the pipes because of the little piece of
hose that we had shoved in the hole earlier. We cleaned everything up
and waited about an hour for traffic to die down and set off for the
last leg of what should have been a 6-7 hour trip. It had turned into an
11 hour trip. BUT we made it home under our own power.
Yes, I complained that I would like to go to everybus just once without
having trouble on the way back (Chris you'll remember our dual carb
fiasco last year). But my husband just said, "It wouldn't be an
adventure without a story to tell and besides it's just that North
Carolina doesn't want us to leave."
Thanks for everything everyone and we'll see you next year! I can hardly
wait!!!!!!!!!
