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HeinleinTrooper
Samba Member
Joined: January 23, 2020
Posts: 72
Location: Washington
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 Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2021 10:51 am Post subject: Re: Anxiety as a passenger |
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Keep food and water in the car, AAA card and phone ready, and turn up the radio.
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1990 Vanagon Multivan 2.1 WBX AT |
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bobbyblack 
Samba Member
Joined: May 21, 2015
Posts: 4349
Location: United States, Iowa
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| Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2021 12:38 pm Post subject: Re: Anxiety as a passenger |
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| floodwood wrote: |
| The lack of a hood tends to freak out my first time passengers. It is especially satisfying to watch their faces when I parallel park... |
^^^ is what I thought this thread was going to be about! My passengers litterally are putting their hands out or onto the dash when I get close to another car... I'm like 'what, there's still 5 feet between our bumpers! Jeez!'
I like to drive.
I use the following methodology to defend from anyone else taking the wheel:
1: I drive my rig every day (well over the weekend I drove my Tundra and my Highlander, but that's because cars need to be driven, as in the often quoted Tom Petty; If you don't run you rust) then its my fault if something breaks down, because I should have fixed/maintained it properly before it broke and I know it.
2: If you (meaning spouse, kid, whatever) are driving and something breaks, YOU will feel just awful, and probably feel like you just ruined the trip.
3: If I have to pee, I don't have to ask anyone if they'd mind pulling over...
4: If I know the area better than the GPS, I usually don't end up in the middle of a corn field.
As for anxiety, wow, ya.. I feel it. But perhaps not the sort the OP has.. Mine is more about what exactly might be in my passengers purse, fanny pack, back pack, or that thing they said was a fishing pole case...
Specifically in Mrs. Blacks case, its what might be made of plastic with a chip, and weather or not it would be used to help the bus, or used for an Uber and flying me the bird as they pull off. If it was metal and loaded, weather or not she'd haul it out as a reminder of what dependability means, or if it would be something an officer might be asking if there are any in the vehicle!! Sometimes I am amazed at things that get mentioned on trips... "Ya, I thought we might get lost and end up someplace dangerous..." or "well, it was legal THERE!"
-bobby
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'87 Westy 'Flossie','86 Westy 'R1','86 tintop GL - Subi2.2 'J2','83.5 stock tintop L 'ZoomBus','74 Karmann Ghia, '63 Notch
Last edited by bobbyblack on Wed Apr 14, 2021 10:12 am; edited 1 time in total |
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dabaron
Samba Member
Joined: June 21, 2018
Posts: 2559
Location: Philly, mang
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| Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2021 8:55 am Post subject: Re: Anxiety as a passenger |
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| ?Waldo? wrote: |
| You get to choose what you focus your mind on although habit plays a large part. If you focus on undesirable future events, you will feel anxiety. If you focus on desirable future events, you will feel excitement. It really is that simple. If there is something that can or should be addressed in order to prevent an undesirable outcome, then doing so is prudent, but simply focusing on imagined catastrophes is just a bad habit with no positive result. If there isn't anything that should be addressed, then you can relieve your anxiety by adopting better habits of thought. |
i feel like i just took a huge bong hit. thanks for this enlightened and very true comment.
_________________
1991 Vanagon GL Camper
i had no idea i wanted to be a mechanic
"burnin oil and cookin coils" -- Destructo
BiWerks Design, LLC |
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dougnlina
Samba Member
Joined: January 19, 2016
Posts: 245
Location: San Francisco, CA
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| Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2021 7:03 am Post subject: Re: Anxiety as a passenger |
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This is an interesting thread. While I am at ease in 99% of my adventures, there are the occasional times when my mind wanders into the zome if imagining the "breakdown". Part of this is in years gone by, I HAVE broken down. Specifically in my 20s I was traversing the country in a 69 Bay and the engine called it quits outside Tucumcari New Mexico. I ended up "camping" in a mechanics backyard, having money Western-Unioned to me from dear old Dad, and waiting a week for a replacement engine to arrive at the closest VW dealer which was in Albuquerque. These days I am much more in tune with my van and a better mechanic than I was back then.
This Thanksgiving the wife and I took the syncro back into Striped Butte valley in Death Valley. It was in part due to my fascination with the story of the missing German tourists who perished in that area. (There is an interesting write up on the search which can be read here: https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hunt-for-the-death-valley-germans/ ).
We did not go over Mengal Pass, although there are a few videos of VW syncros doing it, but I prefer to stay within what the van can do well and not push its limits. I have no idea how the Germans managed to get their mini-van back into this valley. It is a slow long 4wd drive and while there are no real "pucker factor" spots, it is not a casual dirt road by any means, we did quite a bit of "crawling". Anyway, to get to the point, once you are back in this valley, you are "out there", if we were to break down in there, getting back out would be extremely difficult, time consuming, and probably really expensive. So yeah, I have moments of anxiety, especially whenever I get that well off the beaten path.
My advise for anyone getting anxious about tripping in their van is to go over it with a thorough inspection before venturing out. Most issues one will face with "breaking down" do not happen suddenly. Pay attention to the van and fix things before they break. Vehicles have a way to speaking to us about what is wearing out before they actually break down. If you work on the van and get to know it, you will find the problems before they find you. There are a few components/sensors that can leave you stranded, pack them in your travel kit.
But most travel on the highways of USA, you are a quick tow to the nearest town where you can do a reset. Worse case scenario is you have to rent a car to continue the journey and have your Van shipped back home.
My wife is also a crazy driver so I don't let her drive the van, that and some really good tunes help a lot too 
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"Olive" a '60 Ragtop Beetle
"Grover" a '87 Syncro Poptop 1.8T |
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rogertj
Samba Member
Joined: October 07, 2008
Posts: 505
Location: Tijuana, Baja California. Mexico
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| Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2021 8:13 am Post subject: Re: Anxiety as a passenger |
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I'll start by saying that I love my Vanagon, I once hated it, now I love it (maybe because of all the camping experiences that I had with it, even my honeymoon).
I guess it had to do with maturity the fact of loving it or not. My story of hating it was that I sold it 2 times, yeap! 2 times, and the 2 times came back to me. Nobody knows how to handle a Vanagon but only its owner. It's like having a Dog, the Dog will respect you and love you but from time to time they will piss and shit inside the house lol!
Its the same with a Vanagon! You have to be ready when it happens, have that bagy of poop not to leave a trace and just respect the fact that things will get bad in some point in time. If I go into details youll surely say this guy is crazy, yeap!
I spent one time 100 dollars in engine oil to get back to my house on a 12 hour trip away from home.
Another I forgot to pay the insurance and it cost me dearly to tow it.
Another I thought !@$%^ it I'm in Mexico there's no problem that's smoking like a meat smoker and that time got a ticket from the police
I can go on and on, but I always make it back. I think it's a matter of knowing your van or not but you are right when you say about the noises. It's natural its by instinct that our brain will focus on the possibilities of failing or surviving.
Don't worry about it, if you own a Vanagon and have good money don't worry and if you don't have money like myself "why worry" lol!
My 2 cents. Have a great one. Great thread!
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Roger
Had a Carbureted ABA after engoing the heck out of it now going for ABA 2.0 Jetta EFI ill put a garrett in to the tin can later or maybe go electric?
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0 |
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