Two Weeks Off - PNW Road Trip

[Clatter]

Gotta love a good tangent...

Here i sit, back at my desk at work.. Dag, it's over.

Anyhow, i'll try and contiue with the tale of the trip,
awhile it's still fresh-in-mind,
cause,
It's already starting to fade, and fast..

So, First day was up to Richardson Grove,
Then we pushed on up North and got some surf just past the Klamath.
While there, i got to geek out on those busses, and a super-cool guy (can't remember name.. ) drew us a map to an off-the-map roadside camp 'area'.
I was all for it, but Mom wanted showers, so we shot for Jedidiah Redwoods State Park.
And,
Dag,
It eneded up being a goose chase!

That navigator woman voice on the phone,
You know the one,
"In 500 feet, turn right".
OOoooohh, she really got us, let me tell you.

Instead of just getting off of the highway and pulling in to the park,
We got re-routed along a 1-lane, first-gear, rock-crawler type of off-road trail.
Now,
make no mistake, it was all first-growth, and beyond beautiful,
But,
It got dark, and after over an hour of crawling in 1st gear, we were pissed.
Everyone was tired and hungry from driving all day,
It was MY fault for surfing and making it late.
I said a bunch of mean things, Mom got madder and madder,
oh, it was a shitshow no doubt...

We were way too far back in there to turn around now,
So we found a little place to pull over and camp.
Right as we were all unpacked and sleeping soundly,
Of course the rangers had to come and throw us out.
(Did they REALLY have to blare the siren FFS? ).
We ended up crawling four more miles out at 1:30Am, and driving North across the Oregon border,
To turn and try and find the hidden camp spot we should have gone to.
(At 2:30AM.. ).
Anyways,
We saw a real campground as we were searching, and made camp there.
Dag, what a shit adventure. I'm NEVER trusting that fusking phone to navigate us ever again!

Anyhow, we packed up and headed out,
Trying to find a little country breakfast spot, and succeeded wildly.
There was just the cutest home-town place with biscuits n' gravy to die for.
Low n' behold, when we went to pay,
An anonymous old-timer sitting nearby had picked up our tab!
It was a fitting entrance to Oregon, and things really started to look up for us.

The weather turned to beautiful/perfect,
And we found a place to pick blueberries,
Something that Mom really wanted to do on this trip.

You can tell by the smile that things are better.

We rolled right in to Coos Bay, got a great lunch,
And a growler of something good.

By dinnertime, we got in to Pacific City,
Where an old friend, who we hadn't seen in over 12 years, has a little business.

Next day, he took us out on his dory boat,
And we got to pull a couple of crab pots.

Johnny doesn't even eat crab,
So after cooking them (18 of them! ) we bought a big cooler and loaded them up to be on our way.
He threw us another dozen pounds or so of fresh rockfish(!),
and we rallied on to Portland at top speed.
My friend (since 1985(!) ) Dan, just bought a house,
Is a seafood chef of sorts,
Always cooks us fabulous meals,
And has a really nice yard for us to camp.

We shoveled seafood until we couldn't possibly stuff down another bite.

So we'll end it there for now.
Not a bad trip so far..
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Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[Clatter]

So, we had a couple of days in Portland..

Mom always wants to go and hit a farmer's market/crap fair thing if she can,
So we went downtown.

Lucky Me! There was a brew fest going on!

We kicked around until Sunday when the Lucky Lab gig went off (as above).
I noticed that everybody got stickered except Xevin (for some odd reason )

My oldest kid went and made sure that situation was remedied..

Really fun time,
Got to meet 'Trestessa' and dig his 1.8T conversion,
As well as D/A/N and Neena, Stuart, etc.
Cool to put faces to some of the names on here.

Only thing we didn't get to do in Portland was spend more time with Xevin.
Was really looking forward to spending time with him and Xatie.
Wish we made that happen, brother.. Too many activities, too little calendar.

Anyways, on Monday we made our way back to the coast, and Astoria.
Mom is -always- on that goddamn phone!
Calling her my 'teenage daughter' now.. Want to smash that thing..!

We plunked our way up into WA a little bit; made it to Ocean Park.

Wanted to go up to Seattle, see the Olympic peninsula, hang with Stuart, etc.
But,
Alas,
It was time to turn back South..

We stayed at a random RV park in Cannon Beach,
Where we got rained on.
Thanks to Tim, the wipers performed beautifully..

The kids got WiFi, so they had all they wanted.
Road tripping through beautiful scenery,
Majestic views, Epic hikes..?
NAH!
We want WiFi!! Fortnite is the only reason for living!!
(See also four people and a fatdog living in a VAN for weeks.. )
Fatdog is one word, as you know...

Breakfast in Cannon Beach.. Rain was actually something we were looking forward to,
What with scorching 100+ temps the last few days.

One thing that started to fester was the smell of raw gasoline.
With the heater on, it got really bad.
Driving without heat to avoid puking from the smell,
Visions of a fiery inferno,
Sounds like a VW Bus running modern ethanol fuels..!

More on this to come..
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Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[Clatter]

So, I really pride myself in being able to leave the decklid closed on road trips...
But,
It was getting bad.



My first instinct was to just leave it like it was.
And i did, for a few days, until the smell got too bad.

I really wanted to just put a match to it.
Yet,
Mom likes the thing,
And it might have been a long walk to get a rental car,
So we found a place to do the old "Get Out and Get Under". Again. *sigh*.

We found a place north of Coos Bay, in North Park, that had hose/fittings..

Wheee!!!

Some place in Salinas had cleaned/flow-balanced the injectors for me a few years ago.
Unfortunately, they used regular natural rubber on the injector stub hoses,
instead of the 'ethanol compatible' stuff.
What i thought was some kind of crimp or compression fitting,
Was instead just a stupid push-lock of some kind,
and the ring is basically just there for decoration..
If i hada known that they were just push-on you can bet i woulda replaced that junk.

The kids had WiFi, Mom found some shopping,
And i got all four re-plumbed in about 1 beer.
Just threw some new hose with a few worm clamps at the injectors;
So i guess it could been worse..

Next time the only tool I'm using is a match..
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Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[Clatter]

Once the high-pressure side of the fuel system was sealed back up,
It was easier to relax.

I'm 100% certain the low-pressure vent/fill side is still leaking (of course),
But I'm not in any real hurry to pull/stuff the motor again for it's bi-annual replacement of the filler neck and sender.


So, Anyways,
Fuel stench gone from the cabin,
And use of the heater now possible, even though not needed,
Spirits lifted considerably.

We plunked along down the coast,
Not in any hurry, just making a few miles each day,
Stopping to see anything that looked interesting (like breweries ).

Our last night, we stayed at this great Mom/Pop RV park at the mouth of the Klamath.

About 8 years ago we had stayed here, and at this exact same spot.

At the time, way back then, We had just stopped at one of those expensive hippy-high-dollar grocery stores in Arcata,
Plus hit the farmer's market.
So Mom had this cooler all set for our travels, and the cooking of her famous camp pancakes.
She does these cakes where the good mix is used, along with some oat flour, buttermilk, a bit of plain yogurt, real ginger and vanilla, lemon, ricotta, twice the normal number of eggs, etc.
Mom makes THE best pancakes on earth.
What with fresh organic milk, half-and-half for the coffee, and a hand-crank mixer for real whipped cream on the spot;
Not to mention the farmer's market blueberries, strawberries, blackberries..

We had probably a three-hundred-dollar cooler full of food sitting outside the bus that night.
The kids were both little, and slept below with Mom back then,
So i was all spread-eagle upstairs by myself when the ruckus came from outside.
We had raccoons raid us the last couple of nights, so i was primed, ready, and sprung into action.
Jumped down from the top bunk,
Grabbed my bigass cop mag-lite, and charged out there buck nekkid ready to beat some raccoon ass..!

Except,
Um,
It wasn't raccoons..

There was a juvenile black bear, probably like 150-200#, chowing down on the feast of a lifetime.
I charged him with my flashlight in his eyes,
And he hesitated only for a split second.
He flinched just a bit,
Before deciding that this was a cooler worth fighting for.

I was back in the bus with the door locked within 1/4 second.

Mom was laughing at me, and the dogs were freaking out;
The bear just had to push on the side of the bus a couple of times to mess with us,
Before taking our big blue water dispenser jug with him off forever into the woods.

He ate every single bit of food.
Only the syrup bottle remained;
Because it was glass, and he couldn't get it open.

We kept the bear paw prints on the side of the bus for as long as we could,
Along with the cooler with all of the teeth marks.

We'll never leave a cooler outside overnight again.
Lesson learned.

So it was freaky getting the same exact spot all of these years later.

_________________
Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[Clatter]

So, for our final day, we decided to put the pedal down and make some time..

After kicking it around the Klamath, we loaded up and went.
Stopping in Trinidad for lunch, and Petaluma for dinner, we made it home at midnight.

All the way down the 101, in the heat of the day,
Gauges show that things are as they should be.
Love my type 4, even if i hate the bus it's in.

See that dangling wire below the dash?
That's my solution to our bus's "stranded as far as possible from home" trick;
to cut all power to the ignition at the farthest point away from help.
It did so half-way between Pacific City and Portland this trip, while yet running perfectly the rest of the way.
It knew that we had some fresh crab onboard,
And that it could ruin several hundred dollars' worth of seafood.
So that's when it tried the "die-and-leave-you-on-the-side-of-the-road" on us.

Luckily, I figured out years ago,
That you could subvert the evil ploy by directly wiring the hot side of the coil,
up to the front under the dash there, right back to the battery +.
Make no mistake,
It took a while to ferret out a solution to that one.
The evil trollop would go ahead and run perfectly within 300 miles of home every time.
Only when we were a long, long ways from home, on a hot day, on the highway, with everything loaded, would it die on us.
Oh, I don't want to hear a solution to this;
I have replaced the main harness, the column harness, the ignition switch, all of the grounds and connectors.
The bus is just a hateful, vindictive POS who wants to ruin our trip,
And this non-fused hoakey bypass is what does the trick.
You can tell we are within 200 miles of home,
Because the wire does not need to be connected.



Total mileage for the trip was 1,764.
We stopped for fuel 10 times (thank you bus no-workie fuel gauge )
.

Average mileage (even though some was leaking out onto the ground) was about 15-17MPG.


All in all, a pretty good trip.
If I coulda changed anything,
I woulda made sure to spend more time with Xevin,
And not packed our itinerary so full.
It's really best to spend at least a day or two at a camp spot;
We set up/packed up every single day!

if you are going to do the major family road trip,
Do yourself a favor,
And spend at least a couple of days at each spot.

If your girl is anything like mine,
She wants to see and do it ALL.
And that makes for a hectic pace.
So take it easy, folks. Keep her in check.

We only saw a couple of busses in CA, and maybe a dozen in Oregon,
So get out there and represent!
Go beat the tar out of these old buses, they deserve it!
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Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[Abscate]

Black bear beats BattlestAr Galactica
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.ssS!

[Clatter]

It’s pretty funny when Mom makes those pancakes and the smell goes around the park..

One time it was drizzling wet,
And there were these poor cyclists staying in a bivy sack, without tents, even.
They were trying to stuff down some energy bars in the morning,
And we SO made their day..!


Also,
When we go to the RV parks, we’re the hippies.
When we go to the tent campground, we’re the Good Sam Club RV Republicans..!
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Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[busdaddy]

Epic post!, all this sounds really familiar from back when my kids still wanted to hang out with me and fit in the bus, outstanding trip that will scar them for life in a really good way, well done!
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Rust NEVER sleeps and stock never goes out of style.

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Слава Україні!

[KentABQ]

[Abscate]

Love the bear story...cue the bears...



Seriously though, please take fuel leaks as Defcon 1. First whiff of fuel The car gets parked until it gets sorted. Fuel injection sprays fuel around which means when it catches, you have a five alarm fire all over the engine bay.

I really like Oetiker clamps for that app, they don’t cut the hose and they don’t walk off. Put the little nipple up where you can easily access it with a pick to remove.
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.ssS!

[WildIdea]

A great read to wake up to. It’s a nice surprise to see all the follow ups this morning!

Sound like you made out great. Everyone looks like they liked the time together. Good on you for going for it. I can relate to many of your emotions so always good to know I’m normal in some respects, ha ha.

Thanks for posting the outing, super cool.

[crownline]

Great post. But if you hate your bus soo soo much. Just get rid of it by sending it to me. I'll be glad to show it some love.
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1972 Bus 1700 cc Single Carb. But not a progressive.
Barelymuvin
Wish I still had the ones I got rid of.

"It"s got some dings and dents and neither of us is going to SEMA."(Update, I went to SEMA in 2019 but the Bus stayed home)
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