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