Itinerant Air-Cooled's Last Calls
Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 7:51 am
It was on my way from western New York to Pennsylvania that the skies closed in with a grey rainy cold that reminded me that this dumb planet is tilted at a 23* angle, and that angle is currently moving my beloved sun down to the horizon. If Pennsylvania's general latitude is around 40*, the noon sun on June 21st is a reasonable 72* off the horizon, but the winter solstice's sun barely hits 26* off the horizon. That is Totally Unacceptable to your Itinerator.
As was this:
What's this? I swear it looked like the Statue Of Liberty escaping New York, seems to have made it as far as the Susquehanna:
Boxed in by the remnants of the The Big Tectonic Crash Of Africa and America (aka the Alleghanian orogeny) under Pennsylvania's ridiculously inescapable hills, Chloe battled big trucks, big truck tire spray, and pesky Audi A6s for days on end.
The morning of my appointment with psucamper, we had a brief respite from the rain:
There she is again, battling the currents of rock-headed demagoguery:
Yes it is so very beautiful . . . but I am chilled:
I can deal with trucks when they are not throwing water:
See the railroad bridge down at the very bottom?
This Susquehanna River is older than the Ice Age:
Psucamper had me worried. He is an Engineer's Engineer, and he will do crazy things like install his own valve guides at home, and perform a three-angle valve grind at home, and I was afraid he would unmask me as a Hack's Hack:
Fortunately, he is preoccupied with two challenging projects:
We enjoyed a pretty relaxed day with his very helpful son replacing the fuel tank and doing some Beetle defroster hoses and trunk release work. All I can remember, however, is that crazy Penn State vs Michigan football cliff-hanger ( 4 overtimes!).
From psucamper's house, I continued west into more rainrainrain to Runamuck Bus in western Pennsylvania (our day is in another thread here in the 2013 Itinerary forum). Then I drove into more rain on my way to visit vwlover77 in Ohio (our visit is in another thread here in the 2013 Itinerary forum). Then I drove into more rain on my way to Muthashabubu's house in southwestern Ohio.
Muthashabubu has MANY VOLKSWAGENS which have been suffering TOO MUCH RAIN, too! Poor things, all rusty. But the wife's daily driver was a splendid little Fastback Automatic that reminded me of that Doyle Dane Bernbach ad way back in 1969 "Volkswagen Springs Into The . . . Present" with a photograph of an automatic gear shift.
After a tune-up, we test drove it and discovered, like Ethan's Vanagon in Connecticut, no kickdown. I left Muthashabubu with a diagram of how to rig up an electric kickdown switch on the throttle cross-shaft, and a plea to STOP THE RUST in his fleet. Here is why I do not like clearcoats:
Yes, you are forced to put on a clearcoat over metallic paints, but I do not recommend them on solid colors. Anyways, did it rain when I left Ohio?
Of course.
Cumberland Plateau I-75 near Kentucky/Tennessee border:
Last bit of Interstate before Chloe pulled into the storage unit 18,086 miles since May:
As was this:
What's this? I swear it looked like the Statue Of Liberty escaping New York, seems to have made it as far as the Susquehanna:
Boxed in by the remnants of the The Big Tectonic Crash Of Africa and America (aka the Alleghanian orogeny) under Pennsylvania's ridiculously inescapable hills, Chloe battled big trucks, big truck tire spray, and pesky Audi A6s for days on end.
The morning of my appointment with psucamper, we had a brief respite from the rain:
There she is again, battling the currents of rock-headed demagoguery:
Yes it is so very beautiful . . . but I am chilled:
I can deal with trucks when they are not throwing water:
See the railroad bridge down at the very bottom?
This Susquehanna River is older than the Ice Age:
Psucamper had me worried. He is an Engineer's Engineer, and he will do crazy things like install his own valve guides at home, and perform a three-angle valve grind at home, and I was afraid he would unmask me as a Hack's Hack:
Fortunately, he is preoccupied with two challenging projects:
We enjoyed a pretty relaxed day with his very helpful son replacing the fuel tank and doing some Beetle defroster hoses and trunk release work. All I can remember, however, is that crazy Penn State vs Michigan football cliff-hanger ( 4 overtimes!).
From psucamper's house, I continued west into more rainrainrain to Runamuck Bus in western Pennsylvania (our day is in another thread here in the 2013 Itinerary forum). Then I drove into more rain on my way to visit vwlover77 in Ohio (our visit is in another thread here in the 2013 Itinerary forum). Then I drove into more rain on my way to Muthashabubu's house in southwestern Ohio.
Muthashabubu has MANY VOLKSWAGENS which have been suffering TOO MUCH RAIN, too! Poor things, all rusty. But the wife's daily driver was a splendid little Fastback Automatic that reminded me of that Doyle Dane Bernbach ad way back in 1969 "Volkswagen Springs Into The . . . Present" with a photograph of an automatic gear shift.
After a tune-up, we test drove it and discovered, like Ethan's Vanagon in Connecticut, no kickdown. I left Muthashabubu with a diagram of how to rig up an electric kickdown switch on the throttle cross-shaft, and a plea to STOP THE RUST in his fleet. Here is why I do not like clearcoats:
Yes, you are forced to put on a clearcoat over metallic paints, but I do not recommend them on solid colors. Anyways, did it rain when I left Ohio?
Of course.
Cumberland Plateau I-75 near Kentucky/Tennessee border:
Last bit of Interstate before Chloe pulled into the storage unit 18,086 miles since May: