Sanchius and Tuna ride again...

[Abscate]

TunaSister says “woof” in approval. Hanging in and doing well. Just did an epic trip from NY to VA with me in the T4
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[sanchius]

Day 2 of our daughter & SO's visit: The conditions were near perfect: the air temperatures hot, the wind still, streamflow healthy, and the river deliciously cool.

Still, kayak day on the Truckee proved to be a wet disaster. While our old reliable 2-person yellow/grey inflatable was dead stable as always, the newly acquired red/yellow one-seater proved itself to be high-riding and completely unsuitable for fast water.

After two lightening fast flips in easy water that left me with some painful battle damage, we pulled off the river just a half mile downstream, before we got into the real fun water. Suitably chastened, we retreated/hobbled downtown to go nurse our wounds over lunch at one of our favorite restaurants overlooking the river.

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[joetiger]

[sanchius]

Day 3/4: We went up to Lake Tahoe to paddle around with the kayaks, hoping that the forecast winds would let up.

But, they blew strong and steady all day, creating waves larger than we wanted to take on with the small craft.
So we again retreated to the Lone Eagle Grill at the north end of the lake to take in the warm afternoon sun and the magnificent views over a late lunch.

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[sanchius]

Days 5/6/7 with our daughter and SO were amazing. The goal was to take a desert roadtrip to find the Skyrock/13-moons/Rosetta Stone petroglyph sites I had been researching earlier this year, as well as take in a hot spring or two. Unfortunately, Mrs S had a full weekend ahead of her in town, so she wouldn't be joining us. Still, I couldn't believe so many stars aligned perfectly to make this trip possible.

We prepped the van for a weekend on the road, loaded the camping gear, filled the coolers with meals, liquids, and snacks, and with Tuna as our co-pilot, we hit the road.

We flew by the magnificent Galena Creek span on the way out of town.

Quickly the farms fell away and things became wilder as we climbed along the Walker River...

...and into the high country, with more magnificent views, lush meadows, and dramatic mountains.

The van was running like a top, keeping up with traffic, pulling strongly on the hills and just cruising on the flats.
Only on the big climbs did it struggle; we stayed in the slow right-hand "Vanagon lane" and let others pass as needed.

Once arriving in town, we stopped at a local mercado/restaurant for some amazing lunch burritos.

While in town, we gave rides to a number of cheery hitchhiking PCT trekkers doing zero-days in town to rest and restock, including a very gregarious German young woman thru-hiker, trail named "Luke Warm", who encouraged my daughter and her SO to try hiking the PCT and with whom we shared some trail magic:
"Would you like some dried mango?"
"OH HELL, YEAH! You know that's German for 'Oh, Golly Gee, Yes!'."

The first petroglyph we were trying to find is called "Rosetta Stone", which required parking and hiking a bit into the site.

It was tricky to precisely locate and we quickly learned that exploring through desert thorns and dried willow thickets in sandals was a HUGE mistake.
But we did eventually find it and spent some time just connecting with the history it represented.

The next site, Sky Rock, required driving further up into the volcanic highland desert. I thought we'd missed the window for non-blistering hot weather in the region, but it was a cool, clear, and calm weekend, which was ideal.

The road got rougher and rougher...

..until we reached the point where if we drove any further, we wouldn't be coming back.

We parked and started walking into the desert, with the path getting smaller and smaller.

Eventually we left the road and hunted through the boulders until we discovered Sky Rock, even more magnificent than Rosetta.
We stayed off the rock to avoid damaging the images and, again, just spent some time admiring the location and taking in the drawings .

Getting Tuna close required a lot of coordinated work, hoisting her by her harness past obstructions and over the gaps between the boulders. We were on high alert for buzzworms, but didn't come across any.

After some more hiking we found the final, awesome, 13-moons petroglyph, hypothesized to be a lunar calendar.
Husky for scale.

The hike out was uneventful, but require rehydration when we got back to the van...

...and drove further into the desert to set up camp and get dinner cooking.

Even the next morning, Tunes was still exhausted from the previous days hiking.

She continued playing lazy solar collector dog while we stowed everything and got ready to hit some hot springs on the drive back.

We had a couple springs on our list to visit, but decided one would be enough before pointing the van back towards home.

All in all, it was a near flawless weekend and the van ran like a top for the entire ~500 mile trip.
Thinking back to where I was with the engine on my workbench for a full rebuild less than a year ago,the earlier suspension rebuild, and all the other work I've put into this van, I couldn't have asked for anything more.
For those reading this who are still building their vans rather than driving them, have hope, great things lie ahead!

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[steve244]

way cool. thanks for sharing!

[Abscate]

Husky dreaming of the Tundra…..woof!
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[bobbyblack]

Being a VW afflicted spirit dancer myself, I have to remark that the 13 Moons petroglyph is enormously powerful. It's Turtles (or Vanagon Buses) All The Way Down.

From some local sub-culture study, I spot several features that seem to be common. 'where the dog ran' seem spot on. And, of course, it's Turtles ... all the way down!! I think I see at least several.

Regardless, I wonder; How often does it happen that we have 13 moons in a year? What is significant about these years, and can we identify some portion of the story on that rock from those data points?

Intriguing!

One continuous thread that ties my life to my birthplace, and homeland, is that we all take in, breath, eat, and excrete all of the experiences and things that intertwine through our lives. Here, our petroglyphs are Bear (clan), Buffalo, ThunderBird, and Raven. There is one called Serpent Rock, too. But it was "in the way" of road construction, and moved and no longer "in-situ". I believe it is a map. Below the petroglyph is a very interesting formation. Nobody has looked down.

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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

[fxr]

[Schnippzle]

[steve244]

Dogs age gracefully.

[VdubVanner]

Great adventure!
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"Fritz", a temperamental and unforgiving 1989 Westy that proudly bears his German flags and status as a member of the exclusive GoWesty Belly Flop Club.
1989 Westy Makeover: GoWesty 2.3L Engine plus plus plus https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0

[sanchius]

For Day 8, the last day of their visit, we cruised up to Donner Pass so they could get a taste of a couple scenic miles of the Pacific Crest Trail as it crosses the granite playground summit up there. Arielle Shipe's joyous PCT video log is one of the better produced and more upbeat/nonwhiney PCT2022 vlogs to get a sense of what through hiking the PCT is like.

Then it was back home to unload all the camping gear from the van, clean things up, and and get the kids off to the airport.

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[steve244]

yesssss Donner Pass is known for its good taste!

[Abscate]

[sanchius]

It was a beautiful sunny and still June Saturday morning, perfect for Mrs S and I to take the bikes to a nearby section of the Tahoe-Pyramid Bike Path and pedal downtown on the nice shaded bike path that runs along the Truckee River.

When we got going on the bikes and climbed up to bike path that runs atop the flood control levee above the van, we were immediately greeted on the other side by a big herd of wild horses grazing and watering by the river.

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[sanchius]

Cleaning up the garage & side yard, dropped 190lb of metal off at Reno Salvage and netted a whole $7.60 for my efforts.
Too bad the opposite side pic I took featuring the huge claw machine and the big pile of scrap metal didn't save to my phone.

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[sanchius]

Had a friend join us delivering food today. The two vans got lots of attention, which made for some fun conversations.

In the belly of the beast

Afterwards, the team debriefed and solved the all problems of the world over delicious pints, local beef-jerky, and chips at Pigeon Head Brewery

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[Abscate]

I’m giving a paper at the next National Anthropology Society Association Meeting

“NewUnits in Petroglyphs: 6 Husky by 5 Husky specimen “
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[ndorian]

Are you happy with your awning? If so, mind posting the model? Keep up the good works.