Hell In A Bucket! WildIdea's 1977 Sage Green Westy

[WildIdea]

[WildIdea]

A little more to share on the second half of the loop and oil cooler performance.

I have to admit that this activity and sleeping in the bus is a shock to the ol' bod. I'm pretty crippled up in the AM and takes a gallon of coffee and a few Advil to get me normal. Along with all the fidgeting the worst was me having to crawl out in the night to pee. Then the dogs think it's a good idea, and after I get all that sorted and tucked back in one of the kids thinks they might as well pee too. Tough stuff navigating through the walkthrough because I don't want to operate the slider with a clean follow through at 2am out of courtesy. Three failed soft attempts at closing are worse than one good follow through, but that's super loud in the dead of night! Do it all again at 7am and realize I'm just not getting back to sleep and mine as well just start breakfast. It's almost like some sick sort of appreciation training for how cush the comforts of home are.

We knew all that going into it and can hang for a few days. We're all still stoked to just be away from it all punching some sort of fun time ticket. In the morning, there is still that promising feeling a new days potential brings and were excited to go explore the area. Still, we just enjoy the camp fire and lay around and don't jump in the car till 10 or 11am.

We leave the bus at the site for the day and go explore in Cats car. We head off deeper in the canyon towards Ten Sleep on the Cloud Peak Skyway Scenic Byway for some real visual treats. It's an awesome splendor and at one point we pull over and I decide I just have to climb one the treeless peaks. I say if your all cool with waiting an hour I think thats all it will take. It looks like lots of bouldering and possible to summit from one approach. I invite them all to come along and get one taker. My son and I have the most epic of all hikes and some amazing pictures. We just loved scaling the rocks and just mind blown at how awesome it was up there. He had never done anything that technical before and it was a huge confidence builder for him. Continuing on, the canyon just keeps getting more and more beautiful and we pull over several times to watch rock climbers and take pictures. We end up out in the western basin and try a little desert walk but it's easy pushing a hundred degrees and nobody wants to leave the car. We all vote to go back to the camp site and make dinner.

The next night was a little better sleeping but not much, we spend the better part of the morning packing up and get a pretty decent start back home. Our plan is to take another route home and catch some time at Devils Tower and some Tower Power!

As we go east this time we jump onto a highway north of interstate 90 and the scenery is rather interesting. Ranchers pumping water out of the Powder river and growing all sorts of vegetation in seemingly desert sand. Road tracks the river, but it's getting really hot again and I keep it at 65 mph and just cruise along just fine. Monitoring my engine numbers, I'm feeling that I would be approaching meltdown by now without my oil cooler. I'm really feeling like it is a critical piece of gear for summer driving int his area. Of coarse we catch a head wind. It's a weird one where the grass is leaning one way and the tree tops leaning another. Just the hot ass pit of the day and always a good time to just take a break and eat lunch.

We find a nice tree to pull under and rest in a dot town called Arvada. Nobody around whatsoever, just a rooster crowing off at someones place and some horses to watch. Clover decides to roll on the dirt and gets filthy in some talcum powder dust and we try and clean her up some to no avail.

It's back to everyone in Mom's car with the air and I'm solo from here to Devils Tower. That's fine, it is pretty miserable in the heat. I have been tracking a storm cell off in the distance and it keeps getting bigger all day. I hope to out run it of veer off but as we get closer to the Tower, it become obvious its going to cross there. Within sight of the Tower, I eventually pull over on a rise and watch to see what it is going to do as it is starting to look dangerous.

Pretty crazy watching this lightning, high winds and sheets of rain hammering down around us. I feel we might have dodged the worst of this one. I find it exhilarating to stand in the cool wind and watch the storm. I have some awesome memories at the Tower and was able to summit it in 2009 after training sport climbing with a buddy for three years. It was a high point in my life and I'm connected to this place forever.

A tornado warning comes through the phones and I decide it's better to get lower and we head on towards the Tower which puts us lower near the Belle Fouche River at its base. We finish the wait at the resort below and head into the monument after the clouds pass. The park is open no fee and the Ranger station is closed.

We take the mile walk loop, take pictures and tell stories and just jaw drop at the magnitude of the area before considering our way home. I considered camping here one more night, but ruled it out as the park sites are closed and the resort is crawling with tourists. It seems there was two tornados that ripped up some forest near Spearfish and I start getting texts form people in Rapid City that we're getting ping pong sized destructive hail. As we get heading that way home we can see those storms off in the distance.

Once we get to Sundance, we just take I-90 home in the dark. Average speed 65 with Cat behind me. Not much traffic out there that night, which is nice and we press on to get back home all wanting to shower and wake up in our own beds already.

So this was the loop we took. It's about 750 miles give or take. We're pretty pleased to have taken the drive at all and we felt we could safely distance the whole time. The benefits to the family way outweigh the risks if your vigilant about how you conduct the germ thing. Being outside is the way to go right now. It did us all a lot of good I can tell ya. The hot and cold wind and water can really wind rip a lot of tension out of the spirit core. Not sure whats next for the year. We cancelled doing our Rally spot this year. Officials have not cancelled Sturgis Rally events, or feel they can even and were all bracing for the impending convergence of people. We arn't comfortable doing walk up tattoos at the Harley Dealership. Maybe next year who knows, but I'll agree with Cat, it was nice getting away for the 4th without that looming in our future. 23 years in a row of that was a good run if you ask me. I'll try to just keep checking off roads on the map around here and getting the kids involved more. As they get older, more things become possible to do. Thanks for coming along with us on this quick trip.
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1977 Sage Green Westy
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=691987
1965 SWR Walk-Through Standard
1960 211 Panel American Camper Conversion

[WildIdea]

Well this is happening!
Doing driving lessons with my daughter in the Westy. We’ve primarily been doing drives in the shop van that really got going during covid closures. Back in March April and May the roads were perfectly thin on traffic and we made huge process together. We have since up leveled the difficulty and have been doing some manual shifting in the bus at the high school parking lot.

She picked up the shifting concept pretty quick and only stalled it a few times. Getting used to the non power steering wheel and the overall feel of cornering in a bus seemed to throw her a little more.

Pretty surreal for a dad to get to see these days. Pretty awesome!
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1977 Sage Green Westy
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=691987
1965 SWR Walk-Through Standard
1960 211 Panel American Camper Conversion

[orwell84]

I really enjoy reading about your trips. Driving and camping in a bus is definitely a different experience as you get older. We used to drive all day, drink around the campfire until late, wake up early and hike a mountain hungover. Do it all again the next day. A day driving and a night sleeping in the bus...I feel like I’ve been thrown down a flight of stairs. I can still do it...except the alcohol part.

[TomWesty]

Dang! If I’d have known you were so close I would have made an effort to meet up! How was Powder River Pass in a bus? That is quite a climb in my Chevy, I can only imagine doing it in a bus. A good test of engine and brakes! Nices pics Wildidea!
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[Jetfxr69]

[WildIdea]

[WildIdea]

[WildIdea]

[WildIdea]

We just got back home from a run to Denver in our Westy and I wanted to get it all down while it's still fresh.

Cathy and I never miss a Dead and Company show in Colorado and we figured out a way to get the bus involved for this years summer dates. It is exactly what we have this rig for and blasted off with excitement.

We had all agreed that the kids were now responsible enough to stay at home alone and look after the house and dogs, so that was a first time for that. They were both really looking forward to calling the shots around the house for the first time and excited for the chance. We've taken the kids to the shows before, but we wanted to kinda have a few days alone as a bit of extended date with some Dead and Co tickets in our pocket.

We had been prepping the bus for this trip for weeks. Meal planning and supply as well as an oil change and valve adjustment......tire pressure, new halogen headlights stuff like that. Before we knew it, it was the morning of and time to leave. Seems impossible to get everything buttoned up to ignore for 4 days and eventually have to just say let 'er burn down for all I care!! We are heading out!!

My dog tippy always thinks she's going and if you say come on in the house, she drops in her tracks with a sandbag technique. It's never worked in her favor, but its funny to us when she deploys it.

The forecast was showing 90's for a high every day we are out so anticipated being hot. Started off early with excellent conditions. She really purrs after a valve adjustment and oil change. We decided to just take our time going south through Nebraska on hiway 71 at Hot Springs and keep it at 65-70 mph. Very scenic and tall grass from the spring rains. We stopped off at Crawford for a hour or so look at a rock bed by the road. Just a lazy ride jamming out with all day to make a normal 6 hour drive a 12 hour tour with breaks on our whim. I just drove my gauges and went as expected. I have a Setrab oil cooler now that automatically kicks in and keeps my oil at 220* which is critical as it would climb way over that on its way to meltdown in the summer. Nice to not have to worry about being able to dump heat. All I have to watch now is my head temps which I keep under 380*. Now and then I have to drop to 3rd to get the RPMs and fan speed up and crest a long climb at 55, but quickly recover on the down hill. Other than that I can go 65-70 which is plenty in my tall Westy.

We had 3 nights booked at a campground at Lake Standley in Westminster, a lake in the middle of the city between downtown Denver and Boulder. Was perfect for us when we arrived around 7pm. We took a walk before we set up camp to stretch our legs and get the lay of the land and found a temporary pen with 500 horned goats in it. When I asked the rancher if we were making his job harder looking at them he said no, that he was going to move them and could use our help. Us and several other park goers ended up helped block and move the herd with the help of some well trained dogs. Crazy. We looped back around to our campsite and got it set up proper and had our evening meal delighted by a majestic mountain sunset show.

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1977 Sage Green Westy
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=691987
1965 SWR Walk-Through Standard
1960 211 Panel American Camper Conversion

[busdaddy]

Nice!

Was the house intact when you got back?
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[creative native]

WildIdea, I have not been previously aware of your thread and it has been great to read through it all. What a journey you have been on. A good storyteller will make the listener feel as if they've experienced the story and I feel that way.

The Devil's Tower photos are great and that is a powerful photo of your Bus and Devil's Tower. I have Lakota friends who told me the origin of Devil's Tower.

Tippy going limp when she is called indoors is hilarious! The animal people are not so different from us two legged ones.

It is good Medicine to see people using their Buses for their intended purposes and enjoying it. I will be looking forward to future updates.
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"The holy land is everywhere." ~ Black Elk
1979 Westfalia P27, California FI emissions spec. 100% VW fleet: '79 Westfalia, 2013 Touareg Lux (Toffee Brown/Cornsilk Beige), 2005 Passat GLX.

[WildIdea]

Felt awesome to be in the front range again. The bathrooms at the campground were limited and just one primitive shower head with a automatic shut off button and no privacy barriers on the back of the building. Still felt great and so grateful to have something to wash off the days sweat and grounding to have something raw compared to my houses amenities.

First night in the bus went fine and we had a leisurely morning to gather a plan before heading off to Boulder and see the first night of shows. We love to get to them early and see what's up and jump in the market to sling a few tie dyes during the day. Turns out the city of Boulder and CU put a shut down to vending on the CU lot this year for the first time and had the enforcement to keep it tamped down. I respect that and it's always subject to change from year to year and I'm open to whatever comes and want to represent our group as best we can and just go with the flow. I was still a little disappointed though as Boulder shakedowns have been some of the best in the past. I don't know what caused the change, we never heard the same explanation twice from anyone. I just got over it knowing we had a booth that the Boulder market the next day and just took the day to hang by the creek, tailgate, visit and relax instead of worrying about it.

Nevertheless, I ended up getting asked for some dyes and let a few go next to the bus to some neat people. One girl wanted the tapestry I had on the bus and a few folks went in to the show with a new shirt on.

This is simply one of our favorite things to do!! Make art, engage with Deadheads and go see the band make magic!! Part of me worries about the bus when I go in, but it has to get overridden and let go of and simply trust it will be there fine when we return. I feel so fortunate having it I feel like one of the lucky ones I really don't believe it myself sometimes. The whole situation is a bit much sometimes and blows me away.

I'm not posting non bus pics of the trip but the band rocked and there is always an excitement after the show. Everyone exhausted and yelling and hollering at each other just a crazy feeling!! This pic seems to sum up the period of the night perfectly!

I was wondering how we were ever getting out of the merging hell after the event, but people make room for me to back up and Cat jumps in and we cross the road now open that was once gridlocked earlier. The other side now stacked with cars trying to leave. Just then a car in the line stops to let some people walking in their car and makes a gap!! We make our move into the space and Bam, we're flying down HWY 36 in the cool night air and back to the campground in just a few min!!

Another open air nighttime shower and snack then tucked in around 1am for a few hours of recharging.
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1977 Sage Green Westy
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=691987
1965 SWR Walk-Through Standard
1960 211 Panel American Camper Conversion

[Jetfxr69]

love reading about your ‘trips”. we are gonna have an east coast mini mixed tour this summer. TTB, Mule, Jerry Jam, Bonamassa, and a 3 day blues festival. All in all about 15 nights of tunes over the course of a month or so. Seamus is ready to rock and I just added something new.

wife asked if I could at least put a normal looking shower head on. I said no.

you thought your campground shower was bad. we got that beat! dirty hippies no more.

wife also wants that beautiful tapestry of yours. we went looking for ours from back in the Daytona years but cant find it. i think daughter #1 scoffed it and took it college. She took most of my old dye shirts too. damn kids!

If your interested in mail ordering me one, PM me. Cheers
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You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer. Zappa

‘77 westy Seamus
‘76 tintop Crusher
‘77 westy The Judge
‘72 tintop bastard westy Hudson

[WildIdea]

The toughest part of the trip was waking up at 5:45 am that next morning to get up and over to the Boulder High School by 7 am to get checked in and find our space at the Boulder market. It was a tag on vendor mall to a regularly occurring farmers market they have that happened to fall during the shows and we heard about it early and booked a corner booth.

Cathy muscled though knowing how important this is and we arrived at a perfect moment to snag an excellent parking spot for the bus under a maple tree next to a Vanagon from Seattle. The guy was super nice and we had some quick convos about his sunroof opening access to his thule and our travels.

Us vendors were pretty excited to have something going on for this event and the mood was high as we all found our spaces and raising our pop ups while meeting each other and rolling our gear over for a quick hour of set up.

We barely got our set up going and our tie dyes displayed by 9am and the folks started arriving. Our booth was actually open on 3 sides right at the entrance from the farmers market. We realized right away as the crowd grew there are limits to what we can handle. Simply put, we got ate up and sold till 4pm without any break outside of one potty break. The scene was so chill and the appetite to buy was high and we got cleaned out. I live for this! I spend all year making enough dyes for a few days of selling and although on one hand it's tough sometimes seeing my babies go bye bye, it's also an incredible pleasure and validation to see the interest they get and joy they bring.

Cathy and I have been at this long enough to know what to do and we make a great team. A look is all we need to know what the other wants. Talking to all the people is super fun and we love seeing people again from last year and meeting and making new friends. One really important first in person connection with a person I've only known from Zoom. Stuff like that is incredible! One of the neatest things about this set up was the tall grass we were set up on. We've been on dirt and gravel lots before and thats fine but the dust gets in my face and on the product you can see it best at night with headlights on. I get raspy from that. Or maybe worse is asphalt lots in this summer heat, we've been on it all, but nothing is more lush than this green space by the creek in the city. I feel the powers that be might have actually had our best interest in mind after all when they directed the shakedown to this meadow!!!!!

We did better in one day than we did in two last year and with the shakedown a success we packed it up in time to prep for another night of music. I asked around and a few locals made me feel good about leaving the bus at the park and walking to the Folsom Field stadium for the second night of shows. It's not like we could have left if we wanted, the place got stacked up with cars and bikes just wedging in where they could.

Exhausted from the early wake up call, the day in the park selling we took a few min to eat by the bus before heading to the venue to rock out and dance for the evening. The music was tremendous! Killer set list and even higher energy than the night before! A Terrapin for the encore?!!!!! Whoah! The bus was fine when we got back. Had to loop around town to avoid a fire truck police ambulance event of some kind ahead against the insistence of navigation of us to turn back around. It got a little windy and the nighttime shower we were looking forward to was a bit sideways and way colder. We had to get it done and run around the side of the building to dry off and get dressed. Laughing at how rough that was and awesome at the same time.

Back at the bus Cathy surprised me with a loaf of sourdough bread she bought at the farmers market that we ate with peanut butter and with kaleidoscopes and music notes in our brains, we were out in seconds.
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1977 Sage Green Westy
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=691987
1965 SWR Walk-Through Standard
1960 211 Panel American Camper Conversion

[MorkC68]

Great seeing you back out using your westy, happy days!

As Creative-Native said its enjoyable reading about the adventures made in our old buses & long may it continue.

We have just had a 3-week long road trip in our westy, we headed some 400 miles from home to Scotland and toured around. It was great fun & we cant wait for more
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Major; 1977 Westfalia Campmobile
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My blog: https://twolatebays.wordpress.com/

[WildIdea]

With the festivities in the record books we were looking for a later wake up call and a leisurely drive back home. This is the pic of the trip in my book. They don't call them the Grateful Rested and Rejuvenated! The evening air was perfect for sleeping and it didn't get noticeably warmer until around 9:30 10am.

I was saying we needed a new sticker for the bus to commemorate this trip. When I was checking the oil I saw this new one on the window and asked Cat if she put it on, but she said no. Someone put it on last night at some point! We're delighted with the surprise and pretty cool that not only was the bus safe but actually looked after and appreciated. Flatiron mountains of the Boulder Dead. I couldn't have found a better one myself!!

We took forever getting packed and was a little concerned with the chop in the air. We headed off NE on I76 towards Ft Morgan and ended up catching the best tail wind ever!! We flew like a kite 70+mph with 350* head temps the entire stretch. As we drove through Ft Morgan I noticed a sign that caught my eye. Looked like a Dead logo with lightning bolt at first glance, but was actually a Chiropractic. We got a bit of a laugh connecting the two as rough as we felt from the event.

From here we turned straight not back on HYW 71 and the tail wind got even better, more directly behind us. Was insane! The bus gets really quiet and the tall grass in the ditch gets a different color bending away from you. It just never happens this way but it went on for most of the day. We put a shirt in my window to block the sun on my arm and leg and that cooled the cabin up a lot and we just ticked off the miles.

Once we crossed the SD border we caught the edge of some storm cells. Payback on the wind. High side winds buffeted us the rest of the trip for a hundred miles or so. Eventually turning to heavy rain. The two lane hi way 79 stretch from Hot Springs to Rapid was a procession of passing cars, campers and pickup trucks pulling boats from lake Angostura and noticed one with a loose barbecue in back with tiedown flapping. Followed by simi trucks all giving me rain white outs. Remember to not go through there on a Sunday night on Fathers Day. The bus held up fine and we pulled into town with the trip washed off of us. Basically a water smudge. Not a bug on the bus when we pulled into the house.

To our delight the house was spotless! There was a cleaning event that my Mom had supervised and left some coffee beans and mixed nuts wishing me a happy Fathers Day. My Daughter had taken it on her own to get me a cake and made a big deal of the Dad thing!! What the heck, that's badass. The big dog reunion and all the stories! Cathy said the house felt huge and I agreed. A fresh appreciation.

Took the next day to clean up the bus and organize and I'd say she's ready to go again in a moments notice. Thanks y'all!!
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1977 Sage Green Westy
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=691987
1965 SWR Walk-Through Standard
1960 211 Panel American Camper Conversion

[SLVRSRFR]

Love it - sounds like a great trip - I need to finish putting mine back together and get out on the road!
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Brian

'78 westy, '64 sedan

[Type2_Personality]

Great writing ~ nothing like a Dead Show. I can related to a potential theft problem these days, never worried about in the earlier days (80 - 95) but times have changed.

If you really want to see a Dead Show and don't have the time to get there you can livestream the current tour of Dead & Co. shows on Nugs ~ it's not the same as being there but it is pretty cool and you don't even have to leave your couch!

Glad all your travels have been safe and maybe we'll meet along the road one day.

*Don't know if you have ever been to or heard of the Oregon Country Fair, it's your basic Head/Hippie Fair, arts, crafts, food, music, etc. (even the Dead have played there). It's an annual event and will be starting back up after being closed the last 2 years, the weekend after July 4th for a fri,sat,sun event. The fair grounds are like the enchanted forrest and great people all around.
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1971 Type II ~ Adventure Camper
2nd Owner For Over 40 Years
Back To Stock ~ 1600 Dual Port ~ Single Carb
400,000+ West Coast USA Miles
Too Many Dead Shows To Remember

[WildIdea]