Author |
Message |
VWinVT Samba Member
Joined: April 21, 2013 Posts: 1541 Location: North East Kingdom
|
Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2015 4:14 pm Post subject: |
|
|
our 81 Aircooled Westy performed flawlessly on our first camping trip as a family of 4! She never got over 410*, and generally ran at about 390, fully loaded with a Thule roof box to boot! Of course we took only secondary roads and 55 downhill was top speed! This was our campsite...
_________________ 1981 Westfalia with a 2001 Cabrio ABA
Small wheel turns by the firing rod,
Big wheel turns by the grace of God.
Every time that wheel turns 'round,
You're bound to cover just a little more ground. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
oldhuldy67 Samba Member
Joined: November 25, 2008 Posts: 506 Location: somewhere with a southern exposure
|
Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2015 5:11 pm Post subject: BLUE RIDGE RUN |
|
|
I discovered "the road"..no decisions, just drive, enjoy the ever changing view, suck in clean cool air at 3000 to 6000ft, meet quiet friendly folks in the middle of Nowhere, North Carolina, stop and eat or nap or take a walk to a scenic spot for lunch..
Drove to Ft. Bragg to see one of my great two sons, slept at Morrow Mountain St. Park on my drive across NC. Then, pulled over in Camden, SC after registering at a Holiday Inn. Apparently, I missed a new set of lanes and drove a short distance from the exit on the wrong side of the road...no complaints, no doubt thought they'd found a drunk driver..slow....having difficulty parking..late at night..and looking like I just crawled out from under a rock, all true except I was sober and completely exhausted. I have my insurance, registration and drivers organized so I don't have to dig around for them and always keep my hands on the wheel in plain view..and always stay in the vehicle. I told the officer I hadn't been drinking or anything, just tired and he said that's what everybody says, I replied, " Yeah I'm sure they do, but I haven't had a drink since July 31, 1987.." which happens to be true. Then, I noticed the other officer was shining his light inside and I thought I was going to be asked to open and empty. I have nothing to hide but, it's late...so, I suggested he open the side door to get a better look, "push down on the handle". All of a sudden he started asking a flood of all the "car show questions". "What year is this.. Did you paint it yourself..is that a sink..where's the motor....I had nothing to hide but, WHEW! I mentioned my army veteran stickers and other SC stickers I had and after being cleared, I asked them to do me a favor...the next time they see an old, split window that looks like it's a home for the pit bulls in the back and the driver, and there are numerous "legalize marihuana" and such stickers, pull him over, say they have a flickering taillight ( who hasn't) and sniff..
I am glad they are trying to get impaired drivers off the roads it's just that these guys have no sense of humor on the job. Good guys...they did ground guide me into the parking spot I was trying to get into...
3 days and 170 miles from the southern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway to the via duct around Grandfather Mountain and out at Blowing Rock...
Helpful signage alonug the way..
Maybe blind drivers should not be allowed on th Parkway..
Not all camp sites are created equal..I saw elk, a bear and her two cubs, groundhogs on the roadside, Eagles soaring and Hawks swooping past the windshield, turkey and deer walking by the windows..
This one was inhabited by fields of field mice...
My guest for coffee..after they scampered all over the outside all night long..
"Posse" rode shotgun..likes to poke her head out the vent wing and surprise passing drivers...which was everyone except the mowers
When's the last time I saw one of these..gotta love NC
And I did actually see the proverbial "light at the end of the tunnel"!
I'm going back..for sure. _________________ Currently:1980 Westy Westfalia Poptop (a total stock-look rebuild with all my favorite camping mods)
1967 stock Sunroof Beetle
Formerly:
1978 Westy Campmobile, the"EM50 Urban Assault Vehicle" code named "The Pickle"
1973 Squareback (sold on a lark)
1973 Super Beetle (crashed..walked away without a scratch)
1972 Standard Beetle (lost in a relationship..)
1966 Beetle (the Black Beauty, my Dad's)
1964 Beetle (the Beige Bug, my beginning beater, also my Dad's) Thanks, Dad. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
winddude Samba Member
Joined: October 30, 2013 Posts: 160 Location: South Vancouver Island
|
Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2015 9:35 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Not today, but last week, got back from a 3000km road trip in my 84 vanagon through Oregon, inland and the coast. Temps ran close to 40c (100+f) for most of the trip, and we didn't overheat, but one close call when traffic came to a hault due to an accident, but after 20mins of bearly moving I pulled off at an exit, seeing the temp gauge rise over 3/4. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
joetiger Samba Member
Joined: January 27, 2005 Posts: 5068 Location: denver
|
Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 7:22 am Post subject: |
|
|
Took a quick weekend trip up to Meadow Creek Reservoir, outside of Tabernash, CO to hang out with friends and get some good fishing time for my daughters (both of whom love to fish.) Got a bike ride in, lots of climbing but the payoff was a really cool reclaimed logging road that went deep into the woods.
Moose! Not a great picture, but he's in the upper right. He stood across the meadow from our campsite on the first evening and ate and stared at us. He was huge. We also saw an eagle with a fish in his talons; I'd never seen that in person before.
Mount Neva (I think?) in the background. You can also see the corner of my low-rent solar luggage rack arrangement.
We got a nasty thunderstorm on Saturday afternoon, which made the arduous task of EZ awning setup worthwhile. My beagle appreciated the shade as well.
All in all, a proper use of 48 hours away from work.
_________________ Joe T.
'86 NAHT Vanagon GL Syncro/ supercharged ABA 2.0 "Pigpen"
'04 GTI 1.8T
'04 Golf R32
"get metaphysical with it. if it's simply a means to get to and from places, it will let you down. if it becomes your zen, it can't fail you." -dabaron
"Still, it's good to be afield."--VWagabond
Available Now! Vanagon to Louisiana--A Two-Lane Reckoning Through Past and Present
www.josephtrussell.com |
|
Back to top |
|
|
joetiger Samba Member
Joined: January 27, 2005 Posts: 5068 Location: denver
|
Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 8:01 am Post subject: |
|
|
Back to the mountains for another group camping trip. Six families, lots of kids and nice folks. We were at Pickle Gulch group campground right outside of Blackhawk.
The campground itself is quite nice; however, all along the Jeep trail that starts by the campsite there are dispersed campsites full of garbage, beer cans, and shell casings. Piles and piles of shell casings.
Around noon Saturday, the constant noise of automatic gunfire filled the forest and went on until sundown. I'm a gun owner and certainly support people shooting their guns safely, but Jackasses with automatic weapons unloading into the mountainside is freaking ridiculous.
So, while the campground itself was nice, the gunfire was not.
_________________ Joe T.
'86 NAHT Vanagon GL Syncro/ supercharged ABA 2.0 "Pigpen"
'04 GTI 1.8T
'04 Golf R32
"get metaphysical with it. if it's simply a means to get to and from places, it will let you down. if it becomes your zen, it can't fail you." -dabaron
"Still, it's good to be afield."--VWagabond
Available Now! Vanagon to Louisiana--A Two-Lane Reckoning Through Past and Present
www.josephtrussell.com |
|
Back to top |
|
|
BulliBill Samba Member
Joined: July 09, 2004 Posts: 4561 Location: St Charles, MO
|
Posted: Mon Jul 27, 2015 1:33 pm Post subject: |
|
|
We just took our '87 Westy Camper GL on a short three-day trip from St. Louis to Little Rock, AR and back. We tried to take routes that kept us off the Interstates and on country highways and scenic backroads as much as possible. Longer driving times, but much more interesting! The Camper never hiccupped once, was well-behaved. Hot as hell out there, but we have a small room A/C unit that we plug into the drivers roll-down window to keep cool while camping.
Why Little Rock in steamy July? Well, we had won tickets in the ticket lottery for the taping of the PBS Antiques Roadshow being filmed there this past Saturday, and we love the show and have been to a taping before (actually got selected to have our appraisal filmed for PBS) back in 2012.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/video/201205W07.html
Here we are in front of the Clinton Presidential Library/museum in the Vanagon. A very nice Presidential Library/museum, if you ever get a chance to tour it, do so!
Getting to tour the Clinton Library, attending the Roadshow and getting our item appraisals, and dining out rounded out the L.R. visit, and lots of windy and hilly country roads in both directions filled out the weekend nicely. Probably put about 700 miles on the camper, and she finally crossed 65,000 miles on the way home.
I gotta go out today and give her a nice wash and dry and put her away for a well-deserved rest!
Bill Bowman _________________ I'm looking for these license plate frames for my fleet:
Coeur D'Alene - Lake Shore Volkswagen
Mission VW - San Fernando
Thornton VW - Stockton
Thanks for any help! |
|
Back to top |
|
|
snatchcat Samba Member
Joined: July 27, 2013 Posts: 4 Location: Lakehood, CO
|
Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2015 11:15 am Post subject: Seeing double |
|
|
Our copilot for a two day trip to Valley View.
The other site I had an option of choosing right next to ours ended up having a brown 85 Westy Weekender already occupying it. The nice one in the foreground is NOT mine, but what she aspires to be. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
cris torlasco Samba Member
Joined: November 08, 2000 Posts: 1363 Location: Delmar, NY/Buenos Aires, Argentina
|
Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2015 11:47 am Post subject: |
|
|
Some playing around with the Doka a couple of days ago. Impressive crawler and very respectable front and rear angles!
Cris |
|
Back to top |
|
|
Paulbeard Samba Member
Joined: July 10, 2015 Posts: 2604 Location: Seattle
|
Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2015 6:15 pm Post subject: Scenes from a road trip |
|
|
This are from a couple weeks back but just realized what this forum was for.
USFS/firefighter base and ranger station
Mt Adams
Somewhere between Ellensburg and Yakima
_________________ Currently -> Frida: 87 Tizian Red (mostly) Vanagon GL Westfalia w/ 2.0L ABA conversion
Formerly -> Steward of a 73 Super Beetle (Beater) and 67 Beetle 1300 (Little Max) both names by POs
— dhaavers |
|
Back to top |
|
|
pbrown Samba Member
Joined: July 15, 2008 Posts: 443 Location: Seattle, WA
|
Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2015 5:21 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I drove the van from Seattle WA to Squamish BC and back again yesterday to pick up a pop-top and new metal roof section for my pop-top conversion. This is the longest I've every driven this van. It was a great day but very hot. The lack of AC made the trip quite uncomfortable. It was a long day of driving and the Southbound border crossing had a long delay.
I noticed that the engine would not return to idle all the way and would vary from 1200 to 2000 RPM. Tapping the gas pedal helped. I'll be replacing my throttle cable very soon and will order two so I have a spare with me all the time. _________________ Patrick Brown
1986 Westy Syncro EJ25
Flickr --> https://flic.kr/s/aHsmQNUXEF |
|
Back to top |
|
|
kamzcab86 Samba Moderator
Joined: July 26, 2008 Posts: 7893 Location: Arizona
|
Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2015 9:38 am Post subject: |
|
|
It went to a car show, which really nice 21-window Buses also attended:
...and all it got was this awesome trophy:
_________________ ~Kamz
1986 Cabriolet: www.Cabby-Info.com
1990 Vanagon Westfalia: Old Blue's Blog
2016 Golf GTI S
"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance." - 孔子 |
|
Back to top |
|
|
Jake de Villiers Samba Member
Joined: October 24, 2007 Posts: 5911 Location: Tsawwassen, BC
|
|
Back to top |
|
|
tarandusVDub Samba Member
Joined: August 27, 2010 Posts: 1649 Location: Between Here and There
|
Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2015 2:23 pm Post subject: |
|
|
My van took me to work! Great cruising road trip on 2 lane blacktop, then about 10 miles of beautiful gravel road. Smooth as buttah.
_________________ 1990 Syncro 16" DoppleKabine 2.1 DJ 112i
________________________
Sold: 1972 Bay Campmobile; 1984 Westy, base model, 2WD. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
Paulbeard Samba Member
Joined: July 10, 2015 Posts: 2604 Location: Seattle
|
Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2015 3:00 pm Post subject: "You ever been in one of those poptop campers?" |
|
|
Caught the attention of a couple guys in a box truck as I was driving back from Peacevans: I could tell because one was pointing and bending his arm, making it go up like the poptop to explain it to the driver. I could almost hear the conversation: "it goes like this, see…" _________________ Currently -> Frida: 87 Tizian Red (mostly) Vanagon GL Westfalia w/ 2.0L ABA conversion
Formerly -> Steward of a 73 Super Beetle (Beater) and 67 Beetle 1300 (Little Max) both names by POs
— dhaavers |
|
Back to top |
|
|
Love My Westy Samba Member
Joined: August 08, 2007 Posts: 1835
|
Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2015 8:43 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Spent a couple of days this week whitewater canoeing with my friend Dan on the Snake River in Wyoming. Dan paddles a kayak and I paddle the open canoe. He's 74 and I'm 68 and we've both been running this stretch of river since the mid '70's. My van's been making the trip at least once per year since 1987.
Packing for the trip in Salt Lake City:
At the campsite:
I met Jeff from Portland, Or. who just happened to drive through the campground. Nice guy, nice van!
|
|
Back to top |
|
|
JDEL Samba Member
Joined: April 24, 2010 Posts: 110 Location: Orange County Ca.
|
Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2015 8:20 am Post subject: trip to the Pomona Swap meet |
|
|
My son and I loaded our 1990 Multivan Vanagon to the top with extra vanagon parts to sell at the Pomona Swap Meet. We had a fun time and meet some cool people. I saw a few vanagons there, a few for sale and a few being used to transport items to sell.
|
|
Back to top |
|
|
campism Samba Member
Joined: September 07, 2007 Posts: 4485 Location: Richmond VA
|
Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2015 11:44 am Post subject: |
|
|
Made a cautious move out to street parking from its berth by the garage so the tree guys working next door didn't squash it by mistake. _________________ '87 Westy in Wolfram Grey Metallic |
|
Back to top |
|
|
Klaus-Reggie Samba Member
Joined: August 12, 2015 Posts: 1 Location: Inland Empire, Ca
|
Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2015 10:02 pm Post subject: Some time at the beach |
|
|
Drove to Santa Barbara, popped the top and took in some ocean breeze (technically this was last week, but you know)
|
|
Back to top |
|
|
Paulbeard Samba Member
Joined: July 10, 2015 Posts: 2604 Location: Seattle
|
Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2015 9:29 am Post subject: |
|
|
Rolled down to Mt Rainier to see the Perseids.
Not the only westy in the lot, might have been half a dozen there. No pics of them, it was dark.
Ran like a top both ways, with a cool 22mpg. Learned that my high beam indicator doesn't work I thought they were hella bright cuz they said Hella on them. _________________ Currently -> Frida: 87 Tizian Red (mostly) Vanagon GL Westfalia w/ 2.0L ABA conversion
Formerly -> Steward of a 73 Super Beetle (Beater) and 67 Beetle 1300 (Little Max) both names by POs
— dhaavers |
|
Back to top |
|
|
oldhuldy67 Samba Member
Joined: November 25, 2008 Posts: 506 Location: somewhere with a southern exposure
|
Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2015 5:35 pm Post subject: The big 190k |
|
|
I know it's a drop in the gas tank to some...but, I almost missed it coming home from work yesterday..
_________________ Currently:1980 Westy Westfalia Poptop (a total stock-look rebuild with all my favorite camping mods)
1967 stock Sunroof Beetle
Formerly:
1978 Westy Campmobile, the"EM50 Urban Assault Vehicle" code named "The Pickle"
1973 Squareback (sold on a lark)
1973 Super Beetle (crashed..walked away without a scratch)
1972 Standard Beetle (lost in a relationship..)
1966 Beetle (the Black Beauty, my Dad's)
1964 Beetle (the Beige Bug, my beginning beater, also my Dad's) Thanks, Dad. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
|