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Itinerant Air-Cooled Lolling In New Mexico I

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2014 8:06 am
by Amskeptic
On the way to New Mexico from Oklahoma, with a very clean interior I might add, I passed through Texas. Visited the result of what must have been a very odd collision:

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What? did this truck hit? It was a "soft" hit that did not affect the frame rails in the slightest, but it cleaned the hood, the radiator, the cam cover right off the engine, smacked the cab hard enough to cave it in, both doors were buckled, yet the windshield managed to hold itself together. Must have been a major scare for the driver:

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It took barely four hours to cross Texas. I forgot how short of a traverse it is up on Interstate 40 at the top of the state. Passed right by the Big Texan restaurant that promises you a "free 72 ounce steak!" where's the fine print? oh, here it is, "if you finish it within an hour." (a 125 lb mother of four, Molly Shuyler, just broke the record by finishing it off in 4:58 . . . then had another one that she finished off in 9 minutes)

So what do you do when you are a day or two ahead of schedule? I checked my clutch and accelerator cables. You might remember the surprise of finding Chloe's smooth quiet clutch action hiding a clevis pin that was almost bisected, and a cable end whose hole was egg shaped. Imagine then my surprise at this one now almost at the same mileage as Chloe's:

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See the little VW logo stamped on the clutch cable end? So why was there such a difference between the original BobD and the aftermarket Chloe? Well, it is clear that the aftermarket clutch clevis pin is softer metal, but the other interesting detail is how the pin is allowed to rotate on the original. That means it gets to play "single roller bearing" inside the clutch cable end and the pedal actuating lever. You know that I am an inveterate double-clutching addict, yet these parts are almost un-worn. What's it like living in a modern world that can do better in such small ways, but decides not to?

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Here was almost-my-campsite, a railroad access road outside of Tucumcari

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The sunset was gorgeous blah blah blah:
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I got all bucket-bathed, everything put away, took out my on-loan-from-Cindy Peace Like A River by Leif Enger. I was deep in the story set in a Minnesota winter, when this sucker came through at 60 mph . . . brakes screeching as it slowed for Tucumcari:

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It heralded the arrival of a swarm of mosquitoes that drove me onto the Interstate for another hour of driving. I finally camped under the canopy at a ruin of a burned out Stuckeys/Shell station, where I fell asleep to the sounds of gonging sheets of flapping galvanized roof. Life on the road.
Colin

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Lolling In New Mexico I

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2014 8:27 am
by Westy78
Amskeptic wrote:

What? did this truck hit? It was a "soft" hit that did not affect the frame rails in the slightest, but it cleaned the hood, the radiator, the cam cover right off the engine, smacked the cab hard enough to cave it in, both doors were buckled, yet the windshield managed to hold itself together. Must have been a major scare for the driver:

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My guess would be a rear end collision with a flatbed trailer. If so, the driver was lucky to be in a big rig and not a decapitating passenger car. :pale:

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Lolling In New Mexico I

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2014 11:03 am
by asiab3
New parts make inspection of this a routine maintenance item. It pretty much gets done whenever I grease the front beam on schedule.

But this. This is so beautiful.

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Lolling In New Mexico I

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2014 11:58 am
by Jivermo
Nice pic, that of Chloe and that Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe mainliner...

Do you hear that whistle down the line?
I figure that it's Type 2 with an 009...
She's the only one that'll sound that way
On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe
Couldn't get SVDA, had to go with that,
So running up the hill, I'm a little flat.

See the ol' smoke risin' 'round the bend
I reckon that she knows she's gonna meet a friend,
Either that, or the gol-dang ethanol blend
Folks around these parts get the time of day
When Colin breezes through on the Itinerant Way.

Back in ol' Virginie, where I come from
I've done a lot of dreamin' and I've traveled some
But I never thought, I'd see the day
When I ever took a ride In a Westy Bay
(Wanna take a ride on the Santa Fe?)

I would lean across Chloe's window sill
And hear the whistle echoin' across the hill
Then I'd watch the taillights till they'd fade away
Of the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe
Sucked a plastic bag on the good BobD
So Chloe's on the road, doing double du-ty...

What a thrill
(What a great big wonderful thrill)
With the wheels a-singin' 'Westward ho'
(With the wheels a-singin' hum, ho)
With the AFM cog jigged a little mo'

Right from the day I heard them start
(I heard the wheels a-singin')
(I heard the valves a-pinging)
'Cross the Kansas plains through New Mexico
(Across the plains, hum, ho)
I guess I've got a little gypsy in my heart
When that air cooled engine starts to huff and fart

When I'm old and gray and settled down
If I ever get a chance to sneak away from town
Then I'll spend my busman's holiday
Workin' on The Book, keepin' the rust at bay, and
Tryin' to catch the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe

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Colin, steppin' out...

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Lolling In New Mexico I

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2014 2:19 pm
by weisswurst
Amskeptic wrote: Passed right by the Big Texan restaurant that promises you a "free 72 ounce steak!" where's the fine print? oh, here it is, "if you finish it within an hour." (a 125 lb mother of four, Molly Shuyler, just broke the record by finishing it off in 4:58 . . . then had another one that she finished off in 9 minutes)
My wife and I stopped and ate there on our way to be married in Vegas! We went from FL to NV and back in an RV and spend our honeymoon hiking and tent camping at phantom ranch at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
In case you are wondering I did NOT finish the steak and all the sides (required) but have always wanted a re-match!
jeff

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Lolling In New Mexico I

Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2014 8:21 am
by Amskeptic
weisswurst wrote:
Amskeptic wrote: Passed right by the Big Texan restaurant that promises you a "free 72 ounce steak!" where's the fine print? oh, here it is, "if you finish it within an hour." (a 125 lb mother of four, Molly Shuyler, just broke the record by finishing it off in 4:58 . . . then had another one that she finished off in 9 minutes)
My wife and I stopped and ate there on our way to be married in Vegas! We went from FL to NV and back in an RV and spend our honeymoon hiking and tent camping at phantom ranch at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
In case you are wondering I did NOT finish the steak and all the sides (required) but have always wanted a re-match!
jeff
You got married in Las Vegas? Shotgun? Escape From The In-Laws? Tell me in Las Vegas.

I am unsettled by the video of Molly Shuyler chowing down. It is grotesque. But she did two of them one after the other, 9 pounds of meat inside a 125 pound body. Our engineering is amazing, but look at how we abuse it . . .
Colin

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Lolling In New Mexico I

Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2014 11:01 am
by hambone
WOW that is some song!

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Lolling In New Mexico I

Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2014 6:34 am
by weisswurst
Amskeptic wrote:
weisswurst wrote:My wife and I stopped and ate there on our way to be married in Vegas! We went from FL to NV and back in an RV and spend our honeymoon hiking and tent camping at phantom ranch at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
In case you are wondering I did NOT finish the steak and all the sides (required) but have always wanted a re-match!
jeff
You got married in Las Vegas? Shotgun? Escape From The In-Laws? Tell me in Las Vegas.


we being entertainers ourselves decided we didn't want one of those traditional money extracting receptions that we have both
worked SOOO many of over the years and decided to put the price of one of those down on a new RV and just run off and go get married by Elvis at the Viva Las Vegas wedding Chapel. That is a whole other story by itself! :geek:
It was awesome and we still joke about that purchase and tell people when the are in our RV that they are "sitting in our wedding reception"!
Nothing like a 2 week cross-county drive with your honey! :thumbleft: We did some route 66 on that trip too BTW!
jeff

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Lolling In New Mexico I

Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2014 7:47 pm
by Amskeptic
weisswurst wrote: we decided we didn't want one of those traditional money extracting receptions that we have both
worked SOOO many of over the years and decided to put the price of one of those down on a new RV and just run off and go get married by Elvis at the Viva Las Vegas wedding Chapel.
It was awesome and we still joke about that purchase and tell people when the are in our RV that they are "sitting in our wedding reception"!
Excellent priorities. Your wife, she has spirit.
Colin

Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Lolling In New Mexico I

Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2014 7:51 pm
by Amskeptic
hambone wrote:WOW that is some song!
It really is.

I got a little lost on which bus was what, Chloe or BobD, but heck, they both have traversed epic vistas.
Me? I'm just a homebody:

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Re: Itinerant Air-Cooled Lolling In New Mexico I

Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2014 2:25 am
by Jivermo
With all due respects to Johnny Mercer and Judy Garland, from the 1946 film; The Harvey Girls. Seemed ripe for bus amendments...