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Tue Mar 23, 2010 9:09 pm

This is the story of my fiancée, brother, sister and I driving across country in a new-to-us bus named Andy. The beginning of this journey and the rationale can be found in this thread: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=397640

At the airport waiting for the seller.

Meeting the bus for the first time. Things weren't entirely as discussed... The fuel gauge didn't work, the speedometer didn't work, it wasn't idling AT ALL, the steering was beyond loose...

All par for the course when buying a bus...

We hoofed it straight to the Kombi Haus. It was St. Patrick's Day and we were a little later than we intended, Justin and the gang were trying to leave to go celebrate. He took a look at us, and it was a good thing! The accelerator pump was squirting gas onto the generator like a water pistol. They stuck around long enough to get us fixed up and on the road safely. Good thing too!

We got on the road.

We didn't make it to the coast by sunset as intended, but we got some decent shots anyway.

We camped at Half Moon Bay on the beach the first night. It was very foggy in the morning

so I figured it was a good time to try to get the turn signals fixed. I was told it was definitely the switch, so I brought a new one along and tested it out in the morning.

It wasn't the switch.

So we resorted to hand signals for the rest of the trip and got on our way.

My crew

There was some nice scenery along the way that second day.

...and some nicer scenery.

There was even a reasonably good view from the back of the bus.

We stopped in Monterey to fix the right side view mirror.

At least the inside of the bus was in pretty good shape...

Then we got back on the road and saw some more scenery

I called Ronnie at Bustoration in Lake Havasu to see if he would be able to help us out with our carb issue.

Saw a few other VWs along the way

After getting off the PCH, we headed inland along some beautiful rolling green hills. The engine stalled out going down one of them, and since it wasn't terribly steep and was terribly long, we just left the bus off and let it roll.

The sun set about as we left the hills and got into the dairy farms (good thing too if they looked anything like they smelled).

We had planned to go through Sequoia National Park, but the road was closed. Luckily, we got to see the sun rise over the mountains.

...and detour through some more rolling hills.

We stopped at a general store near the base of the mountains for some coffee and to stretch our legs.

My brother had a smoke

And Allie and I enjoyed each others' company

Then we got back on the road

We stopped a few times to take in the views and take some photos. This stop had a neat little cliff/hill thing that made for a good photo opp.

We passed one of our younger brothers

On the way back down the mountain, the grade was so steep I decided the brakes needed to rest, so we stopped for lunch and took a few more photos.

After snow in the mountains in the morning, we entered the desert that afternoon.

Entering Death Valley.

In Death Valley

...at sunset.

It was a long trip to this point without much sleep, but the valves were definitely getting tight as we got into Las Vegas, so I took the well lit opportunity to change the oil and adjust a few things.

I was so deliriously tired that I messed something up. I distinctly recall getting the cylinder numbers backwards from front to back... That tired... the fuel pump was leaking oil really bad at the base, so I decided to replace it with a new one that I brought along (which turned out to be defective). I replaced the gaskets, and put the base and the pushrod back on at the same time... then dropped the pushrod into the engine... Yup... Into that little tiny finger-sized hole all the way down. A security guard asked if I might be able to use a magnet on a stick.. "Hell ya!" I said, "oh, just asking, I don't have any" he said. Meanwhile, my sister had purchased a set of tweezers day one (and I made fun of her for it), and they came in handy. With her tiny fingers, a set of tweezers, and with my holding a flashlight over the hole she was able to get a hold of the pushrod, but it kept slipping once it made it to the hole because of the angle. So my fiancée grabbed some needle nose pliers, I'm holding the flashlight, and my sister is grappling with the tweezers, and we got it out! It didn't matter anyway, because it wasn't the fuel pump that was actually leaking. However, I didn't realize the new fuel pump wasn't working, and since it started before I did something to the distributor (because there was still a little fuel in the carb or something), I figured it had to be the distributor and replaced it with a new one.... It still wouldn't start, and my fiancée noticed there was no fuel in the in line filter, so we swapped the fuel pumps back out. I got out the strobe timer, and still couldn't get it to start. I went through the Muir book and the Bentley manual... I even turned that damn thing 360 degrees trying to get it to start, and finally, at about 4:30, broken hearted and discouraged, I gave up. We spent the night on the 8th floor of the Venetian parking garage...

Before we left, I printed the AIRS list and had it in a notebook, and the next morning after a fitful rest, I made some phone calls. "Super Greg" (as my siblings have been calling him) came to the rescue. He took a look at it, turned the distributor a little, and it started right up. I put that thing there a half dozen times before that point, but I did something wrong. While we were working on this, my brother walked 15 blocks down the Las Vegas strip looking for a six pack for "Super Greg".

We were running again, but still pretty limpy because of the carb and such, so he took us across town to The Wagen where George got us going as well as we were possibly going to be able to go. He left a car show on a Saturday to bail us out.

My sister decided she really likes Type 3s and took this picture.

We all really liked these guys

We got back on the road and drove across the Hoover Dam. After all of the long traffic getting down to the dam, there was construction on the other side... So after going up these steep hills with no shoulder and no passing lane, we made a few people a little upset with us.

We drove all day and after freezing our asses off (our styrofoam cooler broke in the back and leaked water along the base of the cargo doors, which promptly froze the rear cargo door shut, meanwhile the food in the cooler stayed comparatively warm), we made it to Albuquerque about 6 the next morning and crashed in a Wal~Mart parking lot. My brother was going to take over driving, and walked across the street for some coffee in the morning. As he was walking back, another bus pulled up and the guy asks "are you the guys that broke down in Vegas?" I was in the back of the bus trying to sleep with the commotion of the new driving crew assuming their positions, and shot up. Who the hell was this and how did he know that????? It turns out the AIRS list is pretty effective. One of the guys I called in Vegas, Eric, had posted something about us on facebook, and Greg posted a video of us leaving The Wagon Parking lot, so Shawn (our new friend) knew we were having issues and knew what we looked like. It was Crazy! We chatted for a bit, exchanged numbers, and went on our ways.

I went back to sleep in the back of the bus and was out until the two in the front woke me up to tell me we were losing power in a bad way...

We broke down on the side of the highway just before the top of the last hill coming into Santa Rosa NM.

We pushed it up over the top of the hill, then jumped in as it rolled down and took the first exit. I pulled out the AIRS phone list again, and started trying. I got a hold of JP in Albuquerque who helped me trouble shoot. It turns out we lost a piston ring in the #2 cylinder and had approximately zero compression. Dead in the water. Since we were going to be there a while, we pulled everything out to dry.

My dad offered to drive up to Santa Rosa from Dallas to tow us home, and we happened to be stopped in front of a UHaul place (one of the independent ones) that was opened on a Sunday. I tried to get a trailer for when he got there so we could get home in time for my siblings to get to class on Monday, but she informed me that my bus "wouldn't fit"... I informed her that the bus had more or less the same wheel base as a Beetle and that it would undoubtedly fit (as politely as possible). She then proceeded to come up with a number of other excuses why I wouldn't be able to rent a trailer... It was a very surprising reaction... I'm guessing it was the oil up to my elbows and all over my jeans, or maybe she has something against "hippies"... either way, it was crazy (Ortega's Towing if anyone wants to know who to avoid in Santa Rosa, NM). We pushed the bus up the road (66 actually) to get to a hotel we were told was less than 2 miles away. We were jeered at by some small town kids in a truck as we pushed the bus up a hill because people in small towns get bored. A cop pulled up beside us and asked where we were pushing the bus, and my brother made the mistake of saying "Dallas". The cop immediately "flipped a bitch" and pulled up behind us. At this point a stranger had pulled into a parking lot right in front of us, jumped out and started to help push us. His name was Howard, and he quietly informed us while pushing that this particular cop was a major dick and we needed to be very careful and just pull into this parking lot... We did. The cop then told us we couldn't push the car without a police car behind us with the lights on, and that neither he nor any other officers had the time to escort us. So we stopped. The cop went across the street and parked, was met by another cop, who then both proceeded to sit there for at least 20 minutes and watch us to make sure we didn't continue to push instead of following us with the lights on for about that length of time to the hotel.... I called dispatch a little later to see if someone was available to follow us, and no one was... oh wait someone just came in! It was the same guy, who proceeded to flex his small town cop muscle and tell me that he didn't have the time... With the exception of Howard, Santa Rosa left a bad taste in our mouths.

Meanwhile, my sister texted Shawn as we pulled into town to let him know that we broke down again to see if he knew anyone in the area that might have been able to help us out. As it turns out, he had a splittie tow bar we could use! He couldn't get it there, but called around to see if anyone would be willing to take it the 70-100 miles (I slept through that leg, suffice it to say, it was a long drive) each way to bring us the tow bar. I called through the Albuquerque people on the AIRS list and got a hold of Michael who informed me that the tow bar was in his back yard and he was on his way home to get it, then head out our way. He had just got off the phone with Shawn. Amazing! We chilled out in the bus for a while playing cards and looking through our photos while Michael drove that boring stretch of highway to our rescue. The sun went down, and we had another photo opportunity.

We took Michael out to dinner although he had apparently eaten right before he got the call from Shawn, so we bought him a few beers and had a good time talking.

Our dad showed up an hour or so after Michael left, and towed us home.

Despite all that went wrong, it was a phenomenal journey. We went through some of the most scenic parts of the country, and experienced the kindness of our fellow VW people. My siblings were EXTREMELY impressed with the kindness of these people, and we all had an incredible time. I'm even given to think that the troubles we had are actually what made the trip what it was. It was truly incredible.

Tue Mar 23, 2010 9:43 pm

sounds like a lot of fun mixed with a little trouble. A winning combination in my opinion. Congratulations on the bus and new friends :)

Tue Mar 23, 2010 9:50 pm

Awesome journey! I'm pretty high-strung, so I would have had about 3 heart attacks.

This pic cracks me up!

Tue Mar 23, 2010 9:52 pm

very cool story brah!
8)

Tue Mar 23, 2010 10:17 pm

Great story, sad to hear about the engine. But what a journey

Tue Mar 23, 2010 10:19 pm

that is awesome. you met some great people. "super Greg" as you called him is a very good friend of mine. he is super Greg to our family also. always willing to help.
very cool that you posted your journey.

Tue Mar 23, 2010 10:30 pm

I have done stupider things, it always an adventure in a bus

Wed Mar 24, 2010 1:12 am

Fantastic account of an epic journey!
Thanks for sharing. How cool!

Wed Mar 24, 2010 2:13 am

It's always the broke-down trips you remember; the smooth ones, not so much.

While I'm sure you could have had a better bonding drive with your new bus, I'll bet next trip you'll be ready for anything.

I'd like to see how big your spareparts stash will be for that one!

Wed Mar 24, 2010 4:38 am

Great story! The bonding experience is well under way. It's true that you and the bus had some bad moments, but you also shared some great sights, and it knows you care ... it saw your dedication and heard the attention of your fellow mechanics and felt your hands pushing it along and it knows that you have plans to give it a better life. :)

Wed Mar 24, 2010 5:43 am

very cool adventure!! well atleast you can say you tried.

you could have made it on 3 cylindars!!! just kidding..

Wed Mar 24, 2010 6:02 am

Great trip!

Wed Mar 24, 2010 6:05 am

Me and Andy (I've never named an inanimate object before, but he's got a little personality to say the least) weren't on the greatest terms that first day, but by the end of the trip all of us were pretty fond of the guy. We made a little improvement every time we stopped; fixing turn signals, mirrors, minor tuning operations on the engine, he got better and better the whole time (until he got too tired and had to stop). He's had a hard life and will soon get a brand new one. He'll be a rolling restoration/camper conversion (of the non-invasive variety) over the next few months.

I've got a factory stock beetle 40-horse sitting in the garage. I need to see if the air filter will fit, but barring that it'll be in there and Andy will be back on the road by the weekend.

Wed Mar 24, 2010 6:06 am

Awsome trip, one of these days I'll buy a bus that I can drive off and not have to tow it off.

Wed Mar 24, 2010 6:08 am

I'm so jealous of your journey. That story was awesome!

Wed Mar 24, 2010 6:29 am

Great story, even greater pictures. Life is in the journey, not in the destination. 8)

I broke down on the way to the very first bulli-brigade. I think it was about 1994. We were rescued by a fellow enthusiast, stayed the night at his house, pulled the motor and replaced a broken valve stem. Only in VW land. :wink:

Wed Mar 24, 2010 6:30 am

Nice pics! Glad y'all got home okay.

Wed Mar 24, 2010 6:34 am

Glad to see you guys made it ok!

Just goes to show that the AIRS list still works. It's just coincidence that Greg, Shawn, Mike, and I are all friends! 8)

Eric in Las Vegas

Wed Mar 24, 2010 6:37 am

great story and pictures... thanks for sharing.... hope you get your bus fixed so you can do it again... 8)

Wed Mar 24, 2010 6:44 am

EZ Gruv wrote: Glad to see you guys made it ok!

Just goes to show that the AIRS list still works. It's just coincidence that Greg, Shawn, Mike, and I are all friends! 8)

Eric in Las Vegas

And JP!