Trip Report Thread

[sjbartnik]

Hey guys,
For those that might be interested, I took a big road trip in the Squareback out west and back over the past month. Gonna add details and photos to this thread over the coming days but for now here are the vital statistics:

Start Date: 8/31/2019
End Date: 9/28/2019

Total Miles: 8,863
Farthest Point East: Brooklyn, New York (start/finish point)

Farthest Point West: Deschutes National Forest west of Bend, Oregon (Green Lakes Trailhead)

Quarts of Oil Used: 10 (including 2 oil changes)

Average Oil Consumption Rate (discounting oil used for oil changes): 1 qt. per 2215 miles.

Best Tank: 37.8 mpg (drive from Glacier National Park to Missoula, Montana - ~2000 ft elevation loss).

Worst Tank: 21.2 mpg (fighting 25 mph headwinds into Wyoming & Montana).

Trip Average MPG: 27.6 mpg

Highest Elevation: ~8900 feet in Bryce Canyon National Park
Lowest Elevation: Probably my start/finish point, at 45 feet.

Number of times crossing Continental Divide:
1) Westbound on U.S. 12 west of Helena, Montana, MacDonald Pass, 6320 feet.
2) Eastbound on U.S. 2 south of Glacier NP, Marias Pass, 5220 feet.
3) Westbound on Going-to-the-Sun Rd. in Glacier NP, Logan Pass, 6646 feet.
4) Eastbound on U.S. 2 south of Glacier NP, Marias Pass, 5220 feet.
5) Westbound on U.S. 2 south of Glacier NP, Marias Pass, 5220 feet.
6) Southbound on U.S. 550 north of Cuba, New Mexico, 7379 feet.

States Transited:
New York
New Jersey
Pennsylvania
Ohio
Indiana
Illinois
Wisconsin
Minnesota
South Dakota
Wyoming
Montana
Idaho
Washington
Oregon
California
Nevada
Utah
Arizona
Colorado
New Mexico
Texas
Oklahoma
Arkansas
Tennessee
Kentucky
West Virginia
Maryland
(then back again through Pennsylvania and New Jersey to New York).
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1965 Volkswagen 1500 Variant S
2000 Kawasaki W650

[Mike Fisher]

48" of snow in Montana now! Snow closed Going to the Sun Road in Glacier Park on Labor Day when we were backpacking there.
Rangers had to shuttle us back to our TR4 at Lake McDonald Lodge.
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https://imgur.com/user/FisherSquareback/posts
69 FI/AT square Daily Driver
66 sunroof,67,70,71,71,71AT,72,72AT,73 Parts
two 57 oval ragtops sold
'68 Karmann Ghia sold

Society is like stew. If you don't keep it stirred up you end up with a lot of scum on the top! - Russ_Wolfe/Edward Abbey

[sjbartnik]

[Tram]

Nice thread. This is how all of us used our Squarebacks in the good old days! Likely why there are so few nice ones left.

One mod I would make if I were you is go to a 123 ignition. Is your car still 6v?
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Немає виправдання для війни! Я з Україною.

[sjbartnik]

[Tram]

[sjbartnik]

The 123ignition product is intriguing, however I’d feel a lot more confident if they knew how to spell Volkswagen and if their web site wasn’t full of scammy ads.

Their web site guy should be shot into the sun.
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1965 Volkswagen 1500 Variant S
2000 Kawasaki W650

[Tram]

[sjbartnik]

[sjbartnik]

OK so the plan was to go out west, hit a bunch of national parks, and do as much as I could do in a month.

Got the car all packed up with camping gear, etc. Being that my car is still 6 volt, I packed some spares of things that would stop me dead and not be readily available on the road. I packed a spare 6V coil, spare 6V voltage regulator, and spare fuel pump. Also had the usual spares of a belt, points, condensor, distributor cap, rotor, clutch cable, accelerator cable. Also packed some spare 6V bulbs.

And here we are ready to go:

Crossing the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge from Brooklyn to Staten Island:

Fun facts: when this bridge was completed, in 1964, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. It is so long, in fact, that the curvature of the earth had to be taken into account during construction. The towers are 1 5/8" farther apart at their tops than at their bases. If you are a flat-earther, you are a fucking moron. This is also the bridge that serves as the starting point of the New York City Marathon every November. It has an upper and a lower roadway. It is also the bridge that Bobby C fell to his death from in Saturday Night Fever (spoiler alert).

My goal for day 1 was to get to Pittsburgh. Most of the day was spent on I-76 until I eventually got off on U.S. 30. Saw a sign for the Flight 93 Memorial and diverted there to pay my respects.

I scored a sweet Airbnb in Pittsburgh with off-street parking:

Caught an Uber downtown and had a great meal at Butcher and the Rye. If ever in Pittsburgh, you owe yourself a stop there. Not only is the food excellent, but they have a decent whiskey selection:

The bartender at Butcher and the Rye turned me on to a spot for breakfast called DiAnoia's.

I had an excellent pork scarpetta there. If in town, you should definitely hit these guys up.

BTW: I put the spare on the roof because I bought a 5-gallon jerry can which happened to fit PERFECTLY in the spare tire well. Figuring it was less likely for someone to want to steal my spare than a 5-gallon jerry can, I moved the spare to the roof rack and put the jerry can in its place.
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1965 Volkswagen 1500 Variant S
2000 Kawasaki W650

[DQDan]

:bowdown:

You passed within a 1/4 mile of my place if went through Ohio on 90.
Sorry that I missed you. I hope to follow in your steps someday in something a tad newer, perhaps a T4 with a pop top. Serious props to you, looking forward to the rest of the tale!

[Erik G]

awesome thread so far, thanks for posting pics on smugmug, work hasn't blocked them (yet lol)

hope some day I can do a long distance trip
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Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

[Bobnotch]

Very nice beginning to a cross country thread. Our last cross country trip was going out to Colorado Springs (in the T-34), and that was fun cruising with a group out, but we soloed the way back. I see you were smart enough to avoid Nebraska and Kansas on your trip.
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Bob 65 Notch S with Sunroof
71 Notch ...aka Krunchy; build pics here;
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=249390 -been busy working
64 T-34 Ghia...aka Wolfie, under construction... http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=412120

[sjbartnik]

On the morning of September 1, after my delicious breakfast at DiAnoia's, it was time to hit the road to Toledo. Why Toledo? Excellent question. Just so happens I have some friends from Brooklyn who now live out there so I had a place to stay and the chance to catch up with some friends.

It was raining lightly leaving Pittsburgh and unfortunately the rain continued off and on (mostly on) all the way to Toledo.

I wanted to avoid the Interstates as much as possible so I left Pittsburgh on U.S. 30 and drove that to around Ashland, Ohio. I didn't take such great notes of my route so I don't recall exactly but I think at Ashland I got on U.S. 250 heading north and then maybe connected with U.S. 224 heading west.

Doing some route planning and stretching in Ashland, Ohio:

I do remember at some point thinking the backroads were taking too long and the incessant rain wasn't helping, so at some point I jumped on I-90 the rest of the way.

In this particular rain storm I had a really weird issue with the fresh air box drains inside the car. Never had an issue like this before, but above about 50 mph or so, water that was draining from the air box was getting pushed back into the car BETWEEN the rubber drain hose and the metal nipple on the body. I have never had this happen before. I don't know if it was a freak of the wind or what. If I let the car sit still or drove slowly, no water entry. But above a certain speed water was getting in that way.

When I got to Toledo I found a lot of water had made its way back into the low point on the passenger side, the battery tray. I spent some time upon arrival soaking it all up with paper towels and getting everything dried off, then started brainstorming potential fixes. Luckily by the time I got to Toledo (Perrysburg more accurately) the rain had stopped.

Then I was able to enjoy my evening. My lovely hosts had cooked up some homemade Indian food so I had a nice hot meal and some cold beer waiting for me which I greatly appreciated.

Toledo happened to be having a street fair downtown so we headed down to hang out. This is what a street fair in Toledo looks like:

Some good local beers were had whose names I can't remember.

The next day, 9/2, was Labor Day and I was pushing to Milwaukee. Don't have a lot of pics from the day, it was sadly pretty much a mindless Interstate slog through Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. I was tempted to stop in South Bend to say hi to Mayor Pete but the road beckoned.

Got to wave hello to Chicago:

Got a pretty nice Airbnb in the Walker's Point neighborhood of Milwaukee. It even had a garage!

Being that it was Labor Day, a lot of spots were closed but I did happen by a (sadly mediocre) brewery called Mob Craft

and had some dinner at a Mexican restaurant that was open. Found a really cool metalhead dive bar called Sabbatic but being that it was a Monday night the crowd was kinda thin.

I spent the whole next day in Milwaukee so more to come later!
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1965 Volkswagen 1500 Variant S
2000 Kawasaki W650

[68vwfasty]

That is an impressive trip in an old VW. I just hiked your furthest point west. Maybe this picture of Green Lakes and South Sister look familiar.

Awesome job. Loo forward to the rest of the trip report.

[Bobnotch]

[W1K1]

nice trip to take in a T3, we were actually just in Brooklyn, New York, and New Jersey the week of September 15th
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http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/manuals/jim_martin_engine_build.php

1973 super
1965 squareback 1500E
1971 bay window westy- subi swap

[sjbartnik]

So I had to kill a day somewhere in order to meet up with my friend in Minnesota so I decided to kill it in Milwaukee, having heard some good buzz and having never been there before.

Kicked the day off with a delicious breakfast at the National Cafe, just a short walk from my Airbnb. Then of course I had to check out the Harley-Davidson museum.

I've never been a Harley-Davidson fan myself but some of my earliest experience riding was on my dad's Sportster and it is of course an iconic American brand woven deeply into our pop culture. The museum is actually set up very well with a great display of motorcycles all the way back to the beginning and lots of exhibits about the cultural influences.

I loved checking out the details on the earliest bikes like the fabled "#1" (though the museum acknowledges that the provenance of this particular bike is shrouded in mystery and it is probably not the first HD ever made):

Check out the leather belt drive! No suspension! Single cylinder! I dug the bikes from the 1920s with their exposed valve trains and hand shifters. Riding a motorcycle used to be a full-time job.

I had forgotten that Harley-Davidson had made an opposed twin in the 1940s.

The Army basically commissioned Harley-Davidson to make a BMW clone. It's a horizontal twin, air-cooled, shaft drive, etc. Exactly what the Germans were working with thanks to BMW.

After the Harley-Davidson museum it was time for the Milwaukee Art Museum. First, what a building! Designed by Santiago Calatrava and featuring movable "wings" which sadly were down for maintenance when I visited. It sits on the edge of downtown right on the shore of Lake Michigan.

Even the parking garage is art:

Nice collection as well. Below are a couple favorites:

"Crying Girl" by Roy Lichtenstein, 1964.

"Woman with Cat" by Kees van Dongen, 1908.

"The Quai, Venice" by Kees van Dongen, circa 1921.

After all that museuming, it was time for a beer. This time I found a decidedly NOT mediocre brewery called Eagle Park Brewing where I sampled a great many delights.

I had an outstanding dinner at Crazy Water which was located in a beautiful 130-year-old building. Great food and cocktails. Finished up my evening at Bryant's Cocktail Lounge, an old-school place with no menu; you just tell the bartender what you like and they make you a drink.

I was very pleasantly surprised by Milwaukee and had a great time.
_________________
1965 Volkswagen 1500 Variant S
2000 Kawasaki W650

[Erik G]

[Erik G]

I'm not a motorcycle guy but I love these :

_________________
Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!