Date: Sat, 24 Apr 1999 12:23:44 -0500
Reply-To: Ken Korn <kkorn@JUMP.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Ken Korn <kkorn@JUMP.NET>
Subject: Trip Report (kinda) (was Re: Replacement steering wheels)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
We took a five day, 1500 mile trip in our '82 aircooled Westy (Hana). The
route took us from Austin, TX, through the east Texas Piney Woods, camping at
Mission Tejas State Park near Nacogdoches, TX. Then through LA to Natchez MS,
camping at Natchez State Park just north of the southern terminus of the
Natchez Trace Parkway. BTW, if you camp there make sure you find the "New
Campground"; opened 3 weeks before and really nice facilities. Toured the
Natchez streets, and visited Longwood (a beautiful mansion started in 1860
and left unfinished when the Civil War got too close for the workmen; it was
on America's Castles on TV), and didn't do any casinos. We then took the
Natchez Trace Parkway north to near Tupelo (about 250 miles). Lots of
interesting exhibit and historical stops along the way, including places
where you could walk on the original trace. We camped at Davis Lake National
Forest Campground SW of Tupelo. Was the worst NF campground we've been in,
which is a shame because the location is very nice, sites are nice, bathroom
facilities were bad news.
From there we headed west through MS fighting a gusty south wind all day. I
really needed to rest around midday and saw a sign for a museum at the
boyhood hometown of Jim Henson, Leland MS. We stopped for about an hour
looking at Kermit and Jim Henson memorabilia. Our kids grew up with early
Sesame Street. It was a nice stop (and my hands/arms got a rest). Our day
ended at Jefferson TX, another town with a lot of history and old homes. We
moteled it, had a nice time touring the town, bought some locally made gifts,
and headed for Austin.
Hana performed perfectly all the way (I'll digress in a moment). Gas mileage
varied from 18.8 to 22.5 (that running at 50 with a tail wind up the Trace
Parkway). I was surprised that the last day (running 65-70 most of the time
and windy from the side and front) we got tanks of 19, 19.8, and 19.1.
Digression follows: We were so happy that nothing broke. Last fall we had
taken our first trip and got as far as Wisconsin where we spent 6 weeks with
my son and his wife while we had the engine completely rebuilt. The return
trip revealed bad pilot bushing (instead of the proper bearing) causing us to
think we had tranny problems. This winter we took a trip to Del Rio, the
starter solenoid failed and the sliding door latch cable got stuck so we
couldn't completely close the sliding door. So we were waiting all through
this trip for the next shoe to drop. Maybe Hana has decided to be good to us
for a while.
The Westy is a great vehicle for a trip like this. Especially on the Trace
Parkway with its 50 mph limit. You can see so well and the ride is very
comfortable. On the other hand, we really would like more room. Since I'm now
retired, we may start looking at larger motorhomes so we can travel more
extensively and for longer periods at a time.
Hey Bill, was my report satisfactory?
Ken
On Saturday, April 24, 1999 12:39 AM, BILL [SMTP:billv2@prodigy.net] wrote:
> So/and what happened on your trip? Did your Westy perform perfectly?
>
> Inquiring minds with an 82 Westy want to know. :-)
>
> Bill VWWESTY "I'd Rather Be Hiking The
> '85 GL [*Magic*Bus*] Greater Yellowstone"
> '82 Westy [FreeBird]
> Big Sky Country <><
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ken Korn <kkorn@JUMP.NET>
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
> Date: Friday, April 23, 1999 9:18 PM
> Subject: Re: Replacement steering wheels
>
>
> >I just got back from a 1500 mile trip in my '82 Westy. We had a lot of
> >wind
> >on this trip including almost a full day with 20-30 mph side winds. I was
> >VERY glad I had that BIG steering wheel (with no power steering). I wonder
> >how the smaller wheel would've been?
> >
> >Ken
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