Author |
Message |
BulliBill Samba Member
Joined: July 09, 2004 Posts: 4561 Location: St Charles, MO
|
Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2016 8:35 am Post subject: Re: Detroit to Alaska Adventure! |
|
|
As for Oshkosh man, if I heard right, an inevitable divorce, eventual new lady friend, and apparently they have disappeared into the woods to enjoy each other as well as stealth camping, fishing, hunting and ice fishing... Would love to see him again!
Bill _________________ 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 |
|
|
BarryL Samba Member
Joined: November 01, 2004 Posts: 14218 Location: Casa de Oro, California
|
Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2016 6:49 pm Post subject: Re: Detroit to Alaska Adventure! |
|
|
BulliBill wrote: |
As for Oshkosh man, |
Thought I had read he died. Hope I'm wrong. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
BulliBill Samba Member
Joined: July 09, 2004 Posts: 4561 Location: St Charles, MO
|
Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2016 8:58 pm Post subject: Re: Detroit to Alaska Adventure! |
|
|
BarryL wrote: |
BulliBill wrote: |
As for Oshkosh man, |
Thought I had read he died. Hope I'm wrong. |
Man, I hope your info was wrong, I haven't heard that, I'll have to ask some folks in the know...
Bill _________________ 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 |
|
|
trektheandes Samba Member
Joined: April 04, 2016 Posts: 31 Location: Peru
|
Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 8:16 pm Post subject: Re: Detroit to Alaska Adventure! |
|
|
Made my night coming across this thread. What a read, what an adventure. Good on ya. _________________ Mark
1977 sage green Westfalia- should have a 2litre FI but has a 1.6 Type 1 engine |
|
Back to top |
|
|
BulliBill Samba Member
Joined: July 09, 2004 Posts: 4561 Location: St Charles, MO
|
Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2016 7:28 am Post subject: Re: Detroit to Alaska Adventure! |
|
|
Update on the "rumor" about the demise of John Lago up in Wisconsin. Thankfully it was just a rumor, he is alive and very well, thank you! He has a new woman in his life again and is very busy up north! He hasn't come to regional VW events lately with his "Bondo Condo"...
Bill _________________ 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 |
|
|
Malokin Martin Samba Member
Joined: August 19, 2007 Posts: 3093 Location: E-burg
|
Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2016 2:07 pm Post subject: Re: Detroit to Alaska Adventure! |
|
|
Such a great thread. Burned through it all on a slow day at work.
How does the bus look now? The drip rail fix would be interesting to see. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
cdennisg Samba Member
Joined: November 02, 2004 Posts: 20233 Location: Sandpoint, ID
|
Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2016 7:18 pm Post subject: Re: Detroit to Alaska Adventure! |
|
|
BulliBill wrote: |
Update on the "rumor" about the demise of John Lago up in Wisconsin. Thankfully it was just a rumor, he is alive and very well, thank you! He has a new woman in his life again and is very busy up north! He hasn't come to regional VW events lately with his "Bondo Condo"...
Bill |
Very glad to hear this. _________________ nothing |
|
Back to top |
|
|
SamboSamba22 Samba Member
Joined: August 06, 2015 Posts: 2772 Location: Benton, Arkansas
|
|
Back to top |
|
|
cdennisg Samba Member
Joined: November 02, 2004 Posts: 20233 Location: Sandpoint, ID
|
|
Back to top |
|
|
johny__utah Samba Member
Joined: September 02, 2008 Posts: 426 Location: Arizona/California
|
Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2016 11:27 am Post subject: Re: Detroit to Alaska Adventure! |
|
|
Just read your post page by page.. AMAZING TRIP!! Best one yet! Thank you for sharing! _________________ 1956 L31
1961 L346 L347
1963 L380 L289 |
|
Back to top |
|
|
CamBiscuit Samba Member
Joined: February 27, 2012 Posts: 82 Location: Adelaide Australia
|
Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2016 2:25 am Post subject: Re: Detroit to Alaska Adventure! |
|
|
Great thread Pete, can't wait to kick off my own road trip in a few months.
Where are you heading to next? _________________ 1965 ratty single cab
Instagram @cambiscuit |
|
Back to top |
|
|
motroit Samba Member
Joined: June 12, 2012 Posts: 6 Location: Taylor, Michigan
|
Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2018 2:37 pm Post subject: Re: Detroit to Alaska Adventure! |
|
|
Absolutely incredible! I'm glad that you sent me the link to read this. It looked like an amazing adventure (even with the troubles). You got some great shots, Alaska has to be one of the most beautiful states. My jaw dropped when I seen the picture of the Bus flipped on it's side! I had wondered how it had been damaged when I seen it in person. I can only dream about taking such an adventurous trip, thank you for sharing it with all of us Pete! |
|
Back to top |
|
|
AndyBees Samba Member
Joined: January 31, 2008 Posts: 2312 Location: Southeast Kentucky
|
Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2018 10:38 pm Post subject: Re: Detroit to Alaska Adventure! |
|
|
Wow! Just Wow........... Gawd, what an adventure!
I hope it is okay to bring this Thread back up. If not, delete my post.
It has taken me over 4 hours to read from beginning to end!
Well, I can relate to Pete's adventure but not all of the experiences. In fact, we left from here in Kentucky on July 7, 2014 heading to Alaska and got back on August 9th. We probably crossed paths at least once somewhere. I was driving my 84 Vanagon.
Anyway, in 86 my wife and I drove our 83 Air-cool to Alaska and returned in 93, 96, 97, 99, 01 and 03 in the same Van. Had to pull the engine at Delta Junction. in 97, burnt exhaust valve. We returned to Alaska in the 84 Vanagon in 2014 and 16... had to abort a trip at Saskatoon in the summer of 2017.
We did the Dempster Highway in 1993 all the way to Inuvik. We've been up the Dalton about 100 miles north of Fairbanks (afraid of the Trucks).
Well, the reason I stumbled onto this Thread is I am looking for ideas, info, etc., about Splities. I've found a 67 and hopefully will be buying it next week.
Pete, thanks for sharing your adventure ! _________________ '84 Vanagon Tin-top, ALH TDI. 1989 Tin-top
1983 Air-cool, 225k miles, 180k miles mine. Seven trips to Alaska from 1986 thru 2003. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
sled Samba Member
Joined: February 16, 2005 Posts: 6171
|
Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2018 9:26 pm Post subject: Re: Detroit to Alaska Adventure! |
|
|
AndyBees wrote: |
I was driving my 84 Vanagon. |
if you have enjoyed your adventures in your '84, just wait until you travel those same many miles in a split bus, its a whole 'nother level.
best of luck on the split purchase! theres no going back... _________________ drive your split. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
danfromsyr Samba Member
Joined: March 01, 2004 Posts: 15130 Location: Syracuse, NY
|
Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2018 10:33 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I knew this sounded familiar.. I mean how many stories can be just like this one.. well I read about it in 2016 when I stumbled on the Aussie guys blog posts...
here's his side of the trip/accident. it's nice to see two sides of the same story finally.
http://www.slowburningdreams.com/is-this-some-gnarly-dream/
Wheelie Pete wrote: |
I don't have the best pics during this part of the ordeal (I had other things on my mind), but the aussie chap filmed the whole thing instead of helping out. I swear just like the photographer in Apocalypse now.
Soon after assessing the situation,
and finding out that no one had serious injuries, trucks stopped and offered to help.
The first thing was to roll it back on it's wheels.
Then it was a bit of a ballet to bring it up from the ditch. The rig on left was keeping tension on the frame to prevent it from rolling over as the other rig pulled it up.
It was back on solid ground in no time. I thanked them and all they said, was "no problem - that's what we do." They were true professionals - you could tell they did it a hundred times before and this was nothing unusual at all.
After it was righted, I tried to start it - it cranked but no vroom vroom. I opened the decklid and found the spare battery came loose, rolled out and smashed in the distributer. Broke the cap and the shaft itself. No problem. I pulled out my spare, changed the cap, ignition module, and reinstalled it and put it back to the original timing marks. No easy task to find anything, considering the inside of the bus looked like the inside of the Costa Concordia. However as luck would have it, everything was sorta on top or within easy reach. What a fucking mess.
However, with the distributor reinstalled, it started right up! But I also found it was quicker to totally disconnect the spare battery instead of reinstalling it.
At this time the wind died down and the bugs came out in force. And I mean in force. It was a swarm.
Also, the hunters that had the caribou in the back of their truck stopped by and and helped me with the rest of my gear. I grabbed a hammer and bent the rack sorta back into place, a bunch of us threw it back on top,
We strapped down everything that wouldnt latch, and hit the road again. We were moving quick - it was hell out there I say!
A bit happy that we were back on the road or beat death or just felt incredibly lucky.
But it was raining, and we still had a long long ways to go. This may have occurred 70 miles south of Deadhorse.
But before long, we were nearing the brooks range and things were looking a bit more positive. Its always good to get closer to the sun!
But the roads were still shit,
and a bit scary at times,
but, we were going to make it!
We stopped to re-assess the damage, amazingly little for a complete rollover!!
Keep on trucking!
past the same gorgeous mountains as before!
and obviously, I was a bit dazed after the whole thing
trucks kept a coming. I didnt give them as much room
We camped that night in the same gravel pit we camped in two nights ago. This time was a bit different.
We started a re-org of the van. - what a complete shit-show
and before long, we were back in coldfoot. My friends daughter was there this time (she was traveling when we stopped on the way up), and I was able to drop off a few packages I was lugging around for the last 2 months and 7000 miles!!
So, she took some time to show us around cold foot,
it was a small town, - but they had a bunch of friendly sled dogs!
I imagine this guy runs the show
Thanks Michelle!
we hit the road again,
and took a picture to commemorate the road that tried to eat us!
|
_________________
Abscate wrote: |
These are the reasons we have words like “wanker” |
|
|
Back to top |
|
|
Jamo7 Samba Member
Joined: September 25, 2014 Posts: 124 Location: Seattle
|
Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2018 1:11 am Post subject: Re: Detroit to Alaska Adventure! |
|
|
Wow! What an awesome and inspiring adventure! Love this. Thanks for sharing it.
James _________________ '84 Westy 2.1 wbx |
|
Back to top |
|
|
StefDS Samba Member
Joined: July 14, 2010 Posts: 37 Location: Brussels
|
Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2018 1:02 pm Post subject: Re: Detroit to Alaska Adventure! |
|
|
Read trough this thread for the 3rd time..
epic adventure! |
|
Back to top |
|
|
ZENVWDRIVER Samba Member
Joined: November 07, 2008 Posts: 3340 Location: N.E. Oklahoma
|
Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 6:38 am Post subject: Re: Detroit to Alaska Adventure! |
|
|
Malokin Martin wrote: |
Such a great thread. Burned through it all on a slow day at work.
How does the bus look now? The drip rail fix would be interesting to see. |
X2, GREAT THREAD _________________ 5/50, pastel green 11G - SOLD
8/50, gray 11A Beetle
6/52, pastel green 11C - SOLD
11/4/52, black Zwitter - SOLD to my little bro.
1954 Porsche, pre A, with VW 36 horse- SOLD
1/54, black 11C Beetle - TRADED
2/55 Iceland green Beetle, on a 1965 pan
3/55 113 Beetle, stratos silver
1955 Messerschmitt KR175 - SOLD, sadly
1960 single cab
1962 SO33, with SO 42 interior
9/63 Pacific blue, Ghia
'87 Toyota MR2
'02 WestFORDia E-150, GAVE TO OUR SON
All super-heroes, wear a MASK |
|
Back to top |
|
|
nshaddox Samba Member
Joined: January 18, 2005 Posts: 612 Location: Hammatramma, MI
|
Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2018 2:46 pm Post subject: Re: Detroit to Alaska Adventure! |
|
|
The bus looks the same. Everytime I see it I tell Pete he needs to get a motor back in it and that we should start knocking out some dents.
Its pretty overwhelming though, in his defense. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
mandraks Samba Member
Joined: November 28, 2004 Posts: 7045 Location: Lawrenceville, Ga
|
Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2018 7:41 pm Post subject: Re: Detroit to Alaska Adventure! |
|
|
nshaddox wrote: |
The bus looks the same. Everytime I see it I tell Pete he needs to get a motor back in it and that we should start knocking out some dents.
Its pretty overwhelming though, in his defense. |
maybe you can help him install a neat bubble top and some custom body work? _________________ regards
Uli
----------------------------------------
'53 3-Fold Oval, L35 Metallic Blue, looking for a narrow hatch panel |
|
Back to top |
|
|
|