An introduction and a much overdue Cross Country TR.

[deutschewerks]

Howdy all! My name is Vince, I am a long time watercooled Volkswagen enthusiast. I still own my first VW, a 94 Golf that I purchased in 1998, and have since swapped a big turbo 20v 1.8t in along the way. My daily driver is a 1999 Golf TDI, I've owned it 4 years and 100k miles. Its tastefully modded with some engine mods, heated leather, suspension etc. I've also owned a 1984 Jetta GLI, 1981 Rabbit diesel, and a 1991 Passat Wagon 16v, among a smattering of Jeeps and old Ford trucks. I also helped found a local group of Volkswagen/German car enthusiasts called FastDubs.

The 1994 Golf

I help the local aircooled VW club, VWCCNY, with their annual show, so I had been exposed to Vanagons to a much greater degree than most. In my last year of a on and off college career, I decided that I finally wanted to take a cross country trip. It seemed only natural to begin looking at Eurovans and Vanagons. I initially leaned towards EVs as they seemed more in my area of expertise, and proceeded to have a few deals fall through. I found a Vanagon Westfalia full camper in my price range, located in Boston. The deal was struck, and I took a bus out to Boston to pick up my Westy! This was back in March in this year, with a two tentative time slots picked for the trip, late June- early July, and late July.

The van details- 1985 Westfalia full Camper, 4 spd WBX with 180k miles. Well maintained by the previous owners, with small areas of rust on the driver rear wheel arch and the back lower corner of the kitchen window. The worst rust is along the passenger sheet metal above the propane tank, the notorious "sink rot." The under side is extremely clean. I spotted a leak from the power steering pump, which was bad enough to spray all over the exhaust and make it look like the van was on fire going down the road. Removed the belt and all was fine. Some where along the line, 27x8.50x14 AT tires were installed, which were horribly chopped in the front due to worn shocks and springs. Was told all appliances worked (all except the sink did I found out later), and the PO threw in a Bentley, spare parts, tools, mosquito nets for the hatch and vent, and a interior front windshield cover. Recent service included fuel pump, full tune up, exhaust pipes and oxygen sensor, coolant flush, valve adjustment, new batteries, including an Optima Yellow for the aux battery. It was running 5w30 Motul Synth, which I promptly changed to 15w50 Mobil1 after some research. I also found that the pop top was torn up enough to not be useable, so I added that to the list.

Some early pics:

After much reading here and under the guidance of my good friends from VWCCNY, I set out with my repairs and improvements. I wasn't familiar with this chassis at all, so it was nice to see that DigiJet was essentially the same as the Digifant used in Mk2 Golfs and Jettas.

Fuel lines! Including removing the plastic bulk head fitting.

New 3 window pop top canvas from Bus Depot. Tan was on long back order and I ran out of time, so I went with grey. Installed it by myself over the course of two long nights after work.

Monroe Load Adjusting shocks front and rear.

New tires, scored clearance Futura Dakota RVTs from work for under $100 for the set! These cured the horrible shake in the front end present with the old tires.

Hella 500 driving lights and air horns. Figured I would need some light for night mountain driving, and the old horn didn't work.

Rebooted and repacked the outer CV joint on the passenger side.

Repaired and exhaust leak where the exhaust flange meets the forward driver side cylinder. The gasket was gone, as was some material for the flange.

Shook down bearings and suspension. Passenger front upper ball joint was just starting to move, both front bearings had minimal play, and the driver rear bearing had a lot of movement. No noise at all from any of the bearings, and while I purchased the rear bearing and upper ball joint, I ran out of time and took them with me on the trip.

That was basically it. For the most part, it was driven back from Boston and locally before the big trip. On a WBX that I had no history on for its first 165k of life. Even some of the local Vanagon guys thought it was a bit risky lol.

The trip- Basically a big Transamerican loop. NY down through OH,KY, TN, and Arkansas to OK, TX, NM, AZ, and California. Run south to north in CA to OR, then east through ID, Montana, and Wyoming. Originally, we were supposed to do some OR coast and head south into Colorado after Wyoming, but cut those out due to time constraints. Then from Wyoming into SD, then haul home through MN, WI, IL, IN, and OH. Oh yeah, time constraints- 2 weeks. That is all I could get off from work, and wasn't supposed to get that. I know, crazy, not enough time, etc. Sometimes you have to make the best of what you have, and that's exactly what we did! Due to some unfinished mechanical work on the van, we left a day late, on June 26. The actual TR starts in the next post!
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1985 Vanagon Westfalia 1.8t "Buelah"
1994 Golf GL 1.8t 350+hp monster
1999 Golf GL TDI
2000 Golf GL Race car
1993 Eurovan GL

[deutschewerks]

Trailhead: My house, Syracuse, NY. Keep this shot in mind, it will come up again much later.

The Travelers- Lauren and myself just before getting on the highway.

I had the propane filled 2 days before departure, which consequently leaked from the side Autostop valve, to the point that you would get a headache driving or walking around the van. After some research here, I tried to acquire a regular RV fill valve and bleeder locally, by the RV parts guys had no clue what I was talking about. I decided to roll with it until the propane ran out and take care of it then.

Leaving felt like we were about to cliff jump, that slightly queasy feeling that tries to hold you back until you overcome it and just jump! Other than that, Day 1 was an uneventful 600 miles down Interstate 90 into Ohio, catching Route 71 in Cleveland, down through Columbus, Cincinnati, and into Kentucky. This was the sunset before stopping at a truck stop in Pendleton.

This was the only time we encountered longer lasting rains during the whole trip, thankfully. This night was the first we spent.... ever, in the van. We used the bottom bunk, stowing all of our extra stuff on the top bunk. The night was much colder than expected, and we weren't quite prepared! This also marked the start of our fondness for Love's Truck Stops. I can't count how many we stopped at for gas or crashed at for a while! I kept a log of our fuel stops and mileage; gas prices dropped from $3.90 in NY to $3.26 in OH and KY. Hmmm, something is wrong there!
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1985 Vanagon Westfalia 1.8t "Buelah"
1994 Golf GL 1.8t 350+hp monster
1999 Golf GL TDI
2000 Golf GL Race car
1993 Eurovan GL

[deutschewerks]

We got on the road at about 7:30am, after discovering that the propane had run out. We had a fridge stocked with food and drink, so the issue needed resolving. We turned south onto Interstate 65 in Louisville, and made out first fuel stop outside Mammoth Caves in Munfordville, KY. After some quick searching, we found a propane supplier, Flamegas, that wasn't too far out of the way in Nashville, TN. Michelle at Flamegas asked me when we would be in town and told me she would make sure one of her techs was back off the road to help me out- awesome! One downside, is that we had to skip the Corvette Musuem in Bowling Green. Next time!

Entering Tennessee

Nashville skyline

We arrived at Flamegas after driving through some not so great areas and got to work. It was turning out to be a typically hot and muggy southern day as well. I showed Robert what I needed, and he immediately went to his truck and pulled out the fill valve and bleeder. Working together, we had it done and filled with propane in 30 minutes. The cost- $35! Robert and Michelle were awesome. While we were working, Lauren was hooping beside the van. We went inside, and Michelle told Lauren how that wasn't a good idea, that people of questionable character were known to pick off (or up) outsider girls! She also told us that one night, the trucking company next door had a semi full of Jim Beam stolen and crashed, then the robbers went back for another truck before getting busted! Anyway, it was the beginning of a string of great people we met on the road.

We finally turned due West onto the road that would become our home forthe next few days, Interstate 40.

This portion of Tennessee was particularly pretty, as was southern KY.
We stopped at Exit 108 on Rt 40 for fuel, not sure if it was the State Rt 22 or 104 exit. The owner had secured this gas nozzle to the pump in order to protect the bird's nest behind it.

The manager noticed my NY plates, and asked me where we were heading etc. Then it turned into a conversation about the furthest north he had ever traveled, and then we got to talking about Civil War stuff! I told him we were in search of real Memphis BBQ, for which he recommended Scott's BBQ in Lexington. In hindsight, we should have gone there! We headed out, and chose A+R BBQ in Memphis as our dinner destination. I had found that the gear oil was low, so I stopped at an O'Reilly's in Memphis. Lauren was approached by an unsavory character while waiting for me out in the van, of whom I was watching the whole time and was prepared to sprint out after him. That was just the start. Get back in the van, and click! No start. Parked uphill and it is swelteringly hot. So we waited 10 minutes (after checking for a starter that of course they didnt have), and the van started right up. Phew, on to A+R. A+R turned out to be in a very bad section of Memphis, so much so that we didn't feel comfortable letting the van out of our sights being as loaded as it was. So we continued on to another reknowned BBQ joint, Central BBQ. Central was located in a much nicer area, and old section of town that had been lovingly brought back. There was even a VW shop across the street, always a good sign!

Central BBQ

The food

The VW/German car shop across the street

I was hoping that the food would be mindblowing, but was a little disappointed when it wasn't as good as our local Dinosaur BBQ in Syracuse! I filled the gear oil after dinner, and we were on the road again.

Interstate 40 in Arkansas is very flat and desolate at night. The only establishments were the truck stops at the exits, which were soon joined by porn shops. The bugs hit the van like rain. We found a rest area and parked for the night after 650 miles.

We had the whole thing to ourselves. It was disgustingly hot and humid, temps didn't drop below the mid 80's all night. Fortunately I had been given a 12" diameter 12v fan.. that thing saved our butts! It was a quiet night until we were jarred awake by people right outside the van commenting how cool it was. I got up later to use the bathroom, and some random guy was wandering around aimlessly outside the van. On to Day 3, probably the hardest overall day of driving.
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1985 Vanagon Westfalia 1.8t "Buelah"
1994 Golf GL 1.8t 350+hp monster
1999 Golf GL TDI
2000 Golf GL Race car
1993 Eurovan GL

[madspaniard]

hey, welcome to The Samba, keep posting please, you got my attention, great stuff
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1991 Westy auto w/ Peloquin TBD

"The only difference between me and a madman is that I'm not mad” - Salvador Dali

[camit34]

Great trip - ENJOY!!! - keep us updated!
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In search of a Vanagon
1971 Westy (SOLD)
1971 Deluxe (SOLD)
1967 Freedom Camper (SOLD)

[DAIZEE]

more please
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'09 2.5L Jetta 5 cylinder, 5 spd, super turbo, see thread in H2O Cooled Jetta, etc...
83.5 Vanagon L Riviera Model with 98 1.9L TD AAZ 4 speed Daily Driver 3 out of 4 seasons (sold)
84 Vanagon GL Wolfsburg Westy WBX 4 speed (sold)

[MKIII and Sons]

hey what's up vince! it's rob w/ the white golf variant.
good to see you on here! pretty jealous of your trip.
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broke.status

[wyomingresident]

I love taking pics of state signs!
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Don't tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don't tell them where they know the fish.
Mark Twain

[Ahwahnee]

[deutschewerks]

Hey Rob! Yeah, it took me a while to register here. Thanks for all the kind words thus far!

Day 3- Besides the drive, the one mission of the day was to find a starter and a gas cap (Lauren lost it). We had family back home searching as well, which led to a couple of leads in NM, one place wanted $347. I would rather park downhill the rest of the trip than pay that much! I did find one, I'll get to that in a bit.

Arkansas scenery finally changed in the western portion of the state, where we drove through the Ozark Mountains. Then-

It remained humid until after passing through this:

It was one hell of a storm, complete with hail that thankfully didn't grow larger than pea sized. Lauren didn't even wake up. Then it got very hot (it would be north of 100 degrees most of the day), but at least it was dry heat.

Next stop, Oklahoma City!

OKC is definitely a place that doesn't get enough positive things said about it. A lot of downtown development, stuff is cheap (including the cheapest gas of the trip at $3.09!!), and the people were super friendly. We were keeping an eye out for a national parts chain, finally finding an Autozone on the west end of the city. They didn't have a starter there, but did in their distribution center. After the manager and I scoped out locations further along my route, he called the manager at the Flagstaff store and had him transfer one to his location for me to pick up the next day! Awesome to say the least. He also found a gas cap at a downtown Autozone, even calling the competitors to try to find one. The trip downtown took us down a few miles of Route 66, which being a car nut, I was very excited about. This would be the first of a number of times we would touch the Mother Road.

They like to stick big trucks on top of things in OKC. There was a Peterbilt on top of a sign further up.

So we left OKC with a good feeling, and headed out into what everyone hears about the rest of OK... flat, open plains. Lauren drove through this huge wind farm while I was napping.

Then we crossed into the panhandle of Texas!

Texas continued the OK landscape until we had crossed 2/3rds of the panhandle. It was scorched earth, all of the farms were brown. The truck stops at every exit were replaced by grain silos. Outside of Amarillo, there are very few facilities. It was very apparent that there used to be along Route 66.

Our road trip game was taking pictures of cows, getting as good a closeup as we could. Turned out I was much better than Lauren, so she upped the game a bit. The ultimate prize was a longhorn, of which we saw three the whole trip and were not prepared to take pics of any of them!

After stopping in Amarillo (no we didn't get the 300 lb steak!) the western panhandle gradually turned into mesa land. Also, from here until almost the time we stopped for the night in NM, we fought a severe head wind. I couldnt get the van much past 50mph with my foot to the floor. Very, very exhausting. The only way around it was to try to catch and draft a semi as it went by to use them to cut the air flow. I had a hard time matching speed so that didnt happen to often.

Another Route 66 site.

Finally, New Mexico!

The mesa land became a bit more pronounced and pretty, with some red sandstone mixing in for good measure. I wish we weren't fighting that head wind so we could enjoy the scenery a bit more. This was the first "mountain" of any sort we came across.

The coming sunset over NM scrubland.

We stopped at a (you guessed it!) Love's in Santa Rosa for the night. We had crossed two time zones and almost 700 miles and were beat! After a Subway dinner (Subways are everywhere!) we fell asleep instantly. Day 4- Arizona and the Grand Canyon!
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1985 Vanagon Westfalia 1.8t "Buelah"
1994 Golf GL 1.8t 350+hp monster
1999 Golf GL TDI
2000 Golf GL Race car
1993 Eurovan GL

[deutschewerks]

Things get pretty pic heavy from here on out, so I may split each day into a few posts.

Woke up to the sun hitting the red rocks that surrounded the truck stop and the valley below. We hit the road and were immediately bombarded by this:

Reminded me of South of the Border going down 95. So naturally we stopped, and were pleasantly surprised by the this road side general store that had a wide array of stuff. We picked up our cheap cowboy hats and I began my collection of state magnets for each state we had traveled through. I talked to a biker outside, he said it was 110 degrees yesterday in the areas we had driven through. Outside of the headwinds, the van didnt miss a beat and ran surprisingly cool. High heat test- passed!

The best cow pic ever, shortly after getting back on the road.

I have no clue what this was about, but it looked cool!

Albuquerque, NM

I like this! Not that it mattered for us, we did 65mph most of the time.

Some western New Mexico landscapes:

This would be the first of many, many times that we crossed this:

Arizona! At this point we had learned the importance of keeping lots of drinking water on board, and found this Welcome Center without potable water.

That's OK, it made up for it with these Painted Cliffs!

Day 4 Part 2, the rest of Arizona including the Grand Canyon!
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1985 Vanagon Westfalia 1.8t "Buelah"
1994 Golf GL 1.8t 350+hp monster
1999 Golf GL TDI
2000 Golf GL Race car
1993 Eurovan GL

[danfromsyr]

Nice to see ya posting this on here Vin, Great trip report!

it wouldn't be a proper multi thousand mile roadtrip w/o that sick sinking feeling in your stomach.
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[Salem7]

Great report, looking forward to the conclusion!
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1982 Westfalia 1.6NA diesel. Converted to Turbo 1.6 and sold.

1995 Eurovan Camper

[DAIZEE]

2 thumbs. I didn't notice any tumbleweed in Texas, perhaps it's more south. I've forgotten if you mentionned if you had AC? I could take the dry heat but not the humid heat! Great reporting & pics
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'09 2.5L Jetta 5 cylinder, 5 spd, super turbo, see thread in H2O Cooled Jetta, etc...
83.5 Vanagon L Riviera Model with 98 1.9L TD AAZ 4 speed Daily Driver 3 out of 4 seasons (sold)
84 Vanagon GL Wolfsburg Westy WBX 4 speed (sold)

[snoop]

Welcome to the vanagon OCD nuthouse Vince! Great trip report; thanks!...lookin' forward to your west coast posts.

[deutschewerks]

Hi Dan!

Daizee- that would be a negative on the A/C.

Mike- I got the info from a post of yours, actually. The ones used for non-lifted vans. Fixing that plate is one of this winter's micro projects.

In eastern Arizona, the truck stops were replaced with kitschy establishments such as this:

Petrified logs by the highway while driving through Petrified Forest NP.

My ol' country home

Stopped in Winslow, AZ, for fuel and Sonic beverage goodness on Route 66 again!

One of the fine establishments still left in Winslow. We drove through town followed by two hot rods. Like a good deal of other small Route 66 towns, it was barely hanging on.

Dirt devil!

Heading towards the mountains surrounding Flagstaff.

Route 66 again, in Flagstaff. Picked up my starter ordered the day before, and some supplies. Liquor in drug stores at dirt cheap prices. headed out on US 89 from here.

Two shots on US 89 North

Turned west onto Route 64, with mountains to our south and the Little Colorado River Gorge to the north.

First views of the Grand Canyon came at Desert View with its awesome Watchtower.

Simply breathtaking.

We were pretty stoked! The picture was taken by the father of a family of 5 or 6 children, we chatted with them for a few minutes. It was like they were a rock band, they had a big van with their family name on the side. Then a woman read my shirt and called her husband over. Turns out he was a SUNY Oswego alumni as well, and grew up 20 minutes away from me! Small world!

Inside the Watchtower

I think we made it to Lipan and Moran Points before sunset, and got these killer sunset shots.

The required van pic!

One of my favorite pictures

Not a bad way to cap a day!

We decided to push for California. I had a constant meteor show on my way down Route 64 south, I spent a good portion of it staring out ofthe windshield. We stopped for gas in Seligman, where gas had jumped to $4.09. Originally I had planned on taking Route 66 between here and Kingman, but being night time we decided to stick to the interstate. We settled at a Love's in Kingman for the night, poised to enter California the next day!
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1985 Vanagon Westfalia 1.8t "Buelah"
1994 Golf GL 1.8t 350+hp monster
1999 Golf GL TDI
2000 Golf GL Race car
1993 Eurovan GL

[carterzest]

One of the best trip reports of all time



Thank you






Wow!

Sorry, I never usually use emoticons
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Happiness=Portland, Oregon in the rearview mirror!

[deutschewerks]

Thanks Jeff! So much more to come.

We woke up to this view in Kingman, AZ.

California! After crossing the border, we were forced to stop at a border checkpoint. We had no clue what this was all about. We were asked if we had any fruit.. wait, what? We said we didnt, they asked to poke their head in the van, which we obliged, and they let us go. They were pretty amazed by the space inside the van and that we made it from New York!

An oasis of sorts in the desert. Fuel sticker shock at $4.99/gal, so we decided to wait.

With no bathrooms around for the foreseeable future, took this scenic pitstop just off the highway en route to Route 66.

We had no clue what to expect on this stretch of Route 66 through the Mojave Desert. We found awesome desert scenery, abandoned towns, and other surprises, like this at Cadiz Summit.

We spent almost an hour exploring what looked like an old gas station, the strange things around it, and taking in the views of the Old Woman Mountains. We found this grave on the hill directly behind the foundations- we started to get an eerie feeling!

View from the top.

This picture was taken a little way back from the grave. There were piles of scrap, piles of burned things, and almost organized looking groupings of other stuff. We also found a rectangular hole about 4ft wide by 8ft long. Very very weird.

This is what it used to look like:

Onward to abandoned, and revived Route 66 landmarks. Roy's is in the process of becoming something of a rest area.

Further up the road past a non-existent crossroads called Amboy, I spotted a black mound surrounded by black ground approaching on the left side. Im a bit of an amatuer volcano/earthquake/meteorology nut, so I was convinced that it was a cinder cone volcano. I was right! It was Amboy Crater.

We ran into a BLM employee cleaning graffiti (really! in the middle of no where!) and draining the pit toilets, who was kind enough to give us the low down on the volcano and the Mojave. Being still early, and armed with water, we decided to climb the volcano.

This picture was taken by Lauren from one rim looking across the crater at the other. If you look at the trail leading up the other side, you can make me out on top of the other rim to give some size perspective!

Looking out past the breach.

View from the rim.

Crater stroll

Vanagon and the volcano

I'd like to take a minute to talk about our old friend, the Dometic fridge. Surprisingly, even packed full and subjected to 100 degree heat, it kept water cool and stuff from melting. I didn't refill propane until long after I got back. Given their reputation. I have no complaints!

This stretch of Route 66 has become one of both of our favorite parts of the trip. There was just something about the unexpected experience that really endeared it to us. Part 2- Ludlow to Sequoia National Park up next.


[img][/img]
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1985 Vanagon Westfalia 1.8t "Buelah"
1994 Golf GL 1.8t 350+hp monster
1999 Golf GL TDI
2000 Golf GL Race car
1993 Eurovan GL

[deutschewerks]

We turned back onto Route 40 after gassing up at Ludlow. At Barstow, we left Interstate 40 for good for the first time since Nashville, TN. I can understand the love of Route 66 when that was used to travel west, I get that feeling looking back at the combination 0f 40 and 66 we used.

We stopped at an Autozone in Barstow to pick up a few things, when I noticed that my leaks under the van had grown to the point where they needed to be taken care of. Given that I had to add gear oil in TN, and that fluid looked like it was coming from the axle flanges, I started looking for flange seals. Nothing readily available. So the obvious choices were to grab them from GoWesty or Van Cafe. I decided against wasting a day getting very messy and doing it myself, and called Van Cafe to see if they could get it in for repair. I was in luck, they told me to come in around 9-10am, so we decided to make it a beach day in Santa Cruz. The downside of that change of plans was cutting out Yosemite.. oh well, next time!

We took Route 58 west out of Barstow, when I altered our route again. I had planned to turn north at Kramer Junction to catch Route 178 west through Sequoia National Forest to Route 198. As it was getting late in the day and we needed to make it to Sequoia in hopes of finding a campsite, we decided to head north out of Bakersfield on Route 99.

This enormous wind farm was on the way to Bakersfield on Route 58. It covered the hills for miles!

We now understand one of the reasons why California is called the Golden State:

Heading into Bakersfield, there is a mammoth commercial airliner graveyard. Coming from an Air Force family, I had heard of military graveyards and seen commercial ones on Mythbusters, so I was pretty excited. For some reason, I do not have any pictures besides the one below of the Sierra Foothills, the small fruit towns, the oil fields, and the southern San Joaquin Valley. This is the southern tip of the San Joaquin Valley.

We turned east at Visalia, hooking on to Route 198, the entrance road to Sequoia. The town of Three Rivers is fantastic, but we only took some pics circling Lake Kaweah, including this one:

We both wanted to watch the sunset, but needed to get a campsite. We made it to Sequoia, found that campsites were still available... on the other side of the park. The middle 10 miles of the main park road was due to close for night construction in 15 minutes - we were too late. After an exhuasting day, we had a severe disagreement about what we should do. Our choices were: stay on the south side of the park and stealth camp somewhere, then drive through the park in the morning. The main thing we wanted to see were the sequoias, and I knew there was a grove just inside the entrance to Kings Canyon. The other option was drive to the entrance to Kings Canyon. After trying to find someplace to park, I said the hell with it and drove to the other entrance.

Let me tell you something about Route 245 from Woodlake to Route 180 outside Kings Canyon. It looks tame enough on maps... its not. Forty miles of switch backs. No guardrails. No signs. No civilization outside of a few hamlets dotting the way. 90 degree left turns. Mirror scraping on right turns. The switches were so closer together that I barely had time to straighten out before hitting the next turn. I could see lights in the valley growing more distant. After 2 hours of white knuckle driving, I found a pull off in Sequoia National Forest just south of Route 180.

Day 6- Big trees, criss cross Cali, and Santa Cruz!
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1985 Vanagon Westfalia 1.8t "Buelah"
1994 Golf GL 1.8t 350+hp monster
1999 Golf GL TDI
2000 Golf GL Race car
1993 Eurovan GL

[RBEmerson]

Oh, jeeze! Don't stop now! More! We want more!
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Lord, give me coffee to change the things I can change, and wine to accept the things I can't change.