Hello to the forum (Uncle Lon's rules for the road)

[Uncle Lon]

I recently brought home another Westy for restoration. I drove up beside the Grand Canyon, then along the eastern edge of Nevada in the wide, ancient valleys and dry lakes. I was a little rushed for my liking, but still, it was a Westy Road Trip and I loved it!

All this got me to thinking on the drive, about my ‘rules for roadtrips’, developed over a lifetime of meandering along the highways and backroads of America. I came up with this short list:

1) Drive in a vehicle you know is safe. No bald tires, no leaking brake lines, no squealing bearings, no low oil pressure and no used-up windshield wipers! All these things are fairly easy to check out and fix, so don’t take a chance - fix them before you leave.

2) Pack a picnic. Even if you don’t plan on stopping, pack a little chest with cheese and cold cuts or peanut butter and jelly. A couple bottles of water, that leftover piece of pie, and you’re in business, should you find a new spot that is just there, waiting for you to enjoy. No foolin’ a picnic is almost a forgotten art, and it’s one of the most underrated of life’s little pleasures.

3) Take your time. Plan on taking a little longer to get to wherever you are going. Even plan on the occasional delay. If you are rushed, you probably won’t enjoy the trip, but if you planned on taking extra time, you can consider any unforeseen delay as part of the adventure. Some of my very best experiences while traveling were gathered during an unplanned time when I was forced to slow down and relax.

4) Don’t make a big deal of it. Yeah, the once-in-a-lifetime trip to Didney Whorl is great, but so is that weekend to Walt’s Pond and Campground over in the next county. And, I’ll bet you’ll come back more rested from the little getaway trip than from the Big Deal.

5) Take a kid. Now, listen to your Uncle Lon on this; it’s important. Take your kids traveling or camping! If you don’t have kids, or if they are grown, then take a grandkid, or nephews and nieces, or even borrow a kid from a friend if you need to. And - may the gods of arithmetic forgive me - take a kid, even if it means a missed day of school over a long weekend. Don’t do that every time, of course, but c’mon, what do you think the kid will remember, the day he missed math class or that day he got to see the trees changing colors in the canyon, or caught a fish, or had a picnic with his folks, or Granny, or even with that old guy who lived next door with the funky little camper van that only played Beach Boys songs the whole time? I don't regret ever missing a day of work, but I sure wish I'd taken my sons camping more often.

When I was young, my dad would pile all us boys into the old Dodge, hang a burlap bag on the radiator, and set out on the desert to show us The World. Or at least that is what we thought it was - The World - and we loved it all. Back then, right after WWII, America was finding itself, and finding that it was truly America the Beautiful. Burma Shave entertained us with their silly signs on the roadside. Diners had little juke boxes right on their yellow formica tabletops, and Chevy admonished us to ‘See the USA in your Chevrolet’.

Of course, the Burma Shave signs and the little chrome jukeboxes are gone now; faded into the dust alongside old Route 66. But America the Beautiful is still there, you just gotta try for it a little harder sometimes, or maybe stumble upon it when you least expect to. All you really have to do is look. Slow down and look - at the trees, the colors of the canyon walls, the soaring new buildings, or the sagging old ones. They’re all right there, just beyond the curve, just over the hill. Take it from an old guy. I’ve been fortunate to do a lot of the things I wanted to do in life. But the travels with my family are what I so often think about; they are what come to my rescue when I wonder what ever did I do with my life. It’s not the jobs, not the businesses, not the accomplishments or the money I made or spent, but the memories of those times traveling with my sons that have come to define me when I look in the mirror.

So, whether it’s in a neat little Westy, or in a ginormous motorhome, or in the old Chevy sedan; pack a picnic, throw in a kid or two, and GO! And if you see an old guy tootling along in a funky little van with the Beach Boys blaring on the stereo and grinning like a complete idiot, well, slow down and wave at me!

Uncle Lon
https://www.facebook.com/unclelonswesties?ref=hl

[Uncle Lon]

This is how it begins. NO, not the end of civilization; just the beginning of restoration. Parts are ordered, interior is being rebuilt, shop time is scheduled for engine and drive train work, and I'm doing the little things - like replacement of body moldings, headlight upgrades, cleaning and buffing and stereo replacement and new wipers and cleaning and new mirrors and... (did I mention cleaning?)

I'm calling this one 'The HonoWooWoo' because the interior is getting done with Hawaiian theme fabrics. Another one is brown and getting the southwest treatment, so it's 'The Santa Fe'. A third is rootbeer redish brown, and I've not come up with a dumb name yet...

[maryloucb]

Love it!

[noganav]

Great advice, thanks Uncle Lon, and welcome to the forum!

Only one problem. There is no leftover pie at my house... ever.

[scobax]

Great post. Welcome aboard, Uncle Lon! Those are some good tips, the little things matter more than we know sometimes. It's good to have the reminder.

I for one look forward to your future posts, keep 'em comin'!
_________________
87 Syncro Westy w/ Suby 2.5
RIP: 2.1 WBX. You were a good dog 'ol feller

“The word adventure has gotten overused. For me, when everything goes wrong, that's when adventure starts” -Yvon Chouinard

"It's not expensive, its priceless" -Unknown

[kamzcab86]

[fixedgear]

Hey Uncle Leon:

"There's no sense in going further - it's the edge of cultivation,"
So they said, and I believed it - broke my land and sowed my crop -
Built my barns and strung my fences in the little border station
Tucked away below the foothills where the trails run out and stop.
Till a voice, as bad as Conscience, rang interminable changes
On one everlasting Whisper day and night repeated - so:
"Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and look behind the Ranges -
Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go!"

So I went, worn out of patience; never told my nearest neighbours -
Stole away with pack and ponies - left 'em drinking in the town;
And the faith that moveth mountains didn't seem to help my labours
As I faced the sheer main-ranges, whipping up and leading down.

March by march I puzzled through 'em, turning flanks and dodging shoulders,
Hurried on in hope of water, headed back for lack of grass;
Till I camped above the tree-line - drifted snow and naked boulders -
Felt free air astir to windward - knew I'd stumbled on the Pass.

'Thought to name it for the finder: but that night the Norther found me -
Froze and killed the plains-bred ponies; so I called the camp Despair
(It's the Railway Gap to-day, though). Then my Whisper waked to hound me:
"Something lost behind the Ranges. Over yonder! Go you there!"

Then I knew, the while I doubted - knew His Hand was certain o'er me.
Still - it might be self-delusion - scores of better men had died -
I could reach the township living, but... He knows what terror tore me ...
But I didn't ... but I didn't. I went down the other side,

Till the snow ran out in flowers, and the flowers turned to aloes,
And the aloes sprung to thickets and a brimming stream ran by;
But the thickets dwined to thorn-scrub, and the water drained to shallows,
And I dropped again on desert - blasterd earth, and blasting sky...

I remember lighting fires; I remember sitting by 'em;
I remember seeing faces, hearing voices, through the smoke;
I remember they were fancy - for I threw a stone to try 'em.
"Something lost behind the Ranges" was the only word they spoke.

But at last the country altered - White Man's country past disputing -
Rolling grass and open timber, with a hint of hills behind -
There I found me food and water, and I lay a week recruiting.
Got my strength and lost my nightmares. Then I entered on my find.

Thence I ran my first rough survey - chose my trees and blazed and ringed 'em -
Week by week I pried and sampled - week by week my findings grew.
Saul he went to look for donkeys, and by God he found a kingdom!
But by God, who sent His Whisper, I had struck the worth of two!

Up along the hostile mountains, where the hair-poised snowslide shivers -
Down and through the big fat marshes that the virgin ore-bed stains,
Till I heard the mile-wide mutterings of unimagined rivers,
And beyond the nameless timber saw illimitable plains!

'Plotted sites of future cities, traced the easy grades between 'em;
Watched unharnessed rapids wasting fifty thousand head an hour;
Counted leagues of water-frontage through the axe-ripe woods that screen 'em -
Saw the plant to feed a people - up and waiting for the power!

Well, I know who'll take the credit - all the clever chaps that followed -
Came, a dozen men together - never knew my desert-fears;
Tracked me by the camps I'd quitted, used the water-holes I hollowed.
They'll go back and do the talking. They'll be called the Pioneers!

They will find my sites of townships - not the cities that I set there.
They will rediscover rivers - not my rivers heard at night.
By my own old marks and bearings they will show me how to get there,
By the lonely cairns I builded they will guide my feet aright.

Have I named one single river? Have I claimed one single acre?
Have I kept one single nugget - (barring samples)? No, not I!
Because my price was paid me ten times over by my Maker.
But you wouldn't understand it. You go up and occupy.

Ores you'll find there; wood and cattle; water-transit sure and steady
(That should keep the railway rates down), coal and iron at your doors.
God took care to hide that country till He judged His people ready,
Then He chose me for His Whisper, and I've found it, and it's yours!

Yes, your "Never-never country" - yes, your "edge of cultivation"
And "no sense in going further" - till I crossed the range to see.
God forgive me! No, I didn't. It's God's present to our nation.
Anybody might have found it but - His Whisper came to Me!
_________________
1986 Wolfsburg Weekender

[IdahoDoug]

Welcome to the forum! Great advice on the picnics. Long after our kids have forgotten where we went, they'll remember the lunch stop along the river where a beautiful Raven tried to swipe a potato chip, or collecting a green Preying Mantis that rode with us the rest of the trip an was put in the garden when we got home. Good call. I'd add another item which is to take back roads whenever possible. That way you will be able to stop at a farm market, find a cute diner, or best of all see your next Vanagon poking out of a barn!!
_________________
1987 2WD Wolfsburg Vanagon Weekender "Mango", two fully locked 80 Series LandCruisers. 2017 Subaru Outback boxer. 1990 Audi 90 Quattro 20V with rear locking differential, 1990 burgundy parts Vanagon. 1984 Porsche 944, 1993 Toyota LandCruiser, 2002 BMW 325iX, 1982 Toyota Sunrader

[Uncle Lon]

[desertrefugee]

Wow! What a breath of fresh air!

Welcome Uncle Lon. Your insight and experience is sorely needed. (Not to mention your writing style).

Looking forward to it.
_________________
- 83.5 Westfalia - 2.2 GoWesty "power"
- a bunch of vintage motorcycles
- Numerous telescopes of various size and function

"For I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night." - Sarah Williams

[Uncle Lon]

Wow, fixedgear, that's wonderful. Original? Or what is it from? Sounds like a mix up of Thoreau and Robt Frost.

And, IdahoDoug, I remember when we first moved to Idaho. I kept complaining that I couldn't find a map with the little backroads on it. Then, I realized slowly that there just aren't any! The highways are mostly backroads and the backroads are mostly trails. On certain mornings in the summer or windy afternoons in early fall, I sometimes think "this is the finest day I've every seen!"

[whafalia]

Hurray! A new uncle! Bring on some long-winded geezer stories, and I'm not being sarcastic,
_________________
84 westie 2.2 w/ digijet, AT

[Uncle Lon]

[kamzcab86]

[Wildthings]

I have talked to so many people who think they have travelled because they have taken a cruise ship that docked in a few foreign cities for a couple of hours or flown in and out of Vegas a half dozen times. But they have never seen a North Dakota pothole in the spring, a herd of elk moving over a hill, or a night blooming Sonoran cactus.

Great idea on taking a kid with you.

[fixedgear]

[IdahoDoug]

Our great state is still home to the largest roadless area in the US outside of Alaska. And without the Mosquitos!
_________________
1987 2WD Wolfsburg Vanagon Weekender "Mango", two fully locked 80 Series LandCruisers. 2017 Subaru Outback boxer. 1990 Audi 90 Quattro 20V with rear locking differential, 1990 burgundy parts Vanagon. 1984 Porsche 944, 1993 Toyota LandCruiser, 2002 BMW 325iX, 1982 Toyota Sunrader

[Uncle Lon]

[Uncle Lon]

[Uncle Lon]

So many of you responded about how great a picnic is, that it got me to thinking and then I had to call each of my two grown sons. I asked if they remembered any particular moment, any picnic site in the travels we took. Both are now men, raising debts of their own, but once they were kids #1 and #3 of a family which had regrettably outgrown our Westy. And both remembered the same moment, now frozen in our family memory: an evening in the little park above Carlsbad Caverns. We had driven in just ahead of a desert thunderstorm and from the vantage point high in the Guadalupe Mountains, we ate and watched the thunderstorm and its shivering lightning BELOW us.

I remember the day, of course, but the fact that my sons remember it as well, is a rare gift to an old man, now separated from them by miles and years.

Uncle Lon