Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Chicago

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Amskeptic
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Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Chicago

Post by Amskeptic » Thu Jun 04, 2009 7:35 pm

Let's see. . . so we finish up in Syracuse NY, drive to Rochester NY, tear up the joint looking for Lexus manuals and repairing the badger excavations under my junk in the barn in NY after pouring sixty thousand little cups of stale gas from the Lincoln to the bus and refilling the Lincoln with fresh gas, replace heat exchanger in bus, run to the post office and DMV to synchronize BMW release with new owner, hug Cindy hard, drive to Binghamton NY where I get a cashier's check for the Lexus AFTER I make sure that I can a) get my brother a flight to Newark NJ from Atlanta so he can drive the unknown-mechanical-condition car to Atlanta, b) make sure I can get insurance documentation down to NJ where the seller of the car is located in time for brother to drive car, find out I have been overpaying insurance premiums for years (they knocked premium down to less than a third of what it was), drive down to New Jersey to drop off cashier's check at seller's:
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call brother to tell him it's a go, call Cindy to warn her of documentation confetti storm yet to come to mail slot, hit the road bound for Chicago, curse the constant rain but enjoy the natural beauty of the Delaware Water Gap:
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. . . then at 72mph in the rain:
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. . . . after just cresting a hill on I-80 with lots of truck rooster tails and blinding spray, the bus just drops dead no power, idiot lights galore when I push in the clutch and it is 70mph-Time-To-Figure-Out-Where-I'm-Going-To-Land-This-Thing. If you look at the top of the picture, you can see a truck going in the opposite direction of where I came from. I had to coast down the exit ramp, blow the stop sign and cross the busy four lane state highway AND pick this abandoned gas station at speed with the lower driveway concrete blocks blocking the entrance (you can see the upper driveway blocks through the weeds) but for this skinny little slot that I had to coast through fast enough to be able to coast up to the leaky gas island cabana, where I sat and surveyed:
a) my good fortune for getting here instead of on the shoulder of the interstate
b) the wet wet pavement and the 48* chilly wind
c) the symptoms
d) the water coursing down the supports and trickling down under the bus
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It, of course, was not the bad five year-old gas from the Lincoln. I am in Pennsylvania here! The bad gas got me to New Jersey just fine! Was it the damn heater blower fuse again? No. I am afraid I must go under the bus, but I don' waNNA GO UNDER TH. . shut up, yer goin under the bus or I will throw you under the bus. So I crawl under the bus from directly behind the engine so I can enjoy the soothing warmth of the heat exchangers and muffler on my tummy while I search the AHA! damn fuel pump quick-disconnect! After a quick re-connect of the quick disconnect, and a strip-tease change into dry clothes for the bored bird under the cabana, I am on my way . . .
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. . . to Ohio, where the skies finally finally finally break:
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. . . . thirteen hours of 72mph motoring, and the engine is as happy as can be in that cold air, and so am I, the heater is no longer killing me. :flower:

That was yesterday. Today, I drove from Ohio to upper west side of Chicago where I will be visiting locoqueso in the morning. First time ever, I drove the toll roads to make up for lost time from yesterday's delay. Never again! I am twenty dollars poorer, and the tolls sure haven't helped to PAVE the Indiana Turnpike, what a jarring rocky cow path.

Such a loyal bus, poor thing. Turned in 19-22 mpg with all of this crazy high speed driving.
ColinInChicago
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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zblair
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Post by zblair » Thu Jun 04, 2009 8:09 pm

Wow. The bad stuff sucks, the good luck is awesome. I can't believe your insurance company overcharged you for such a long time! I can see you rolling your eyes from here when you found that one out. That's an outrage! So are they applying the overage to your insurance or issuing you a check back? I am just curious. Which insurance company did this?
1974 T1 Super Beetle "Fweem"
2017 Honda HRV "Domina"


"Love something? Serve it."
~Roshni Mitra

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glasseye
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Post by glasseye » Thu Jun 04, 2009 8:14 pm

Amazing, as always. I LOVE those rainy windshield shots. :cheers:

See? The gods reward those who live well. Your karma took you to that tiny, dry bit of pavement. That an a li'l bit of Isaac Newton, eh?
"This war will pay for itself."
Paul Wolfowitz, speaking of Iraq.

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Amskeptic
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Post by Amskeptic » Fri Jun 05, 2009 5:27 am

zblair wrote:Wow. The bad stuff sucks, the good luck is awesome. I can't believe your insurance company overcharged you for such a long time! I can see you rolling your eyes from here when you found that one out. That's an outrage! So are they applying the overage to your insurance or issuing you a check back? I am just curious. Which insurance company did this?
Bad stuff? What bad stuff? It is all part of the same adventure.

I was whining and complaining about the cold windy sideways rain as I pumped gas in Scranton PA then hopped back in my nice warm dry bus thinking crabby thoughts.

Yet, an hour later, I was laying in rivulets of water leaks under the cabana of an abandoned gas station with a dead bus, thinking, "boy I like this tummy warmer, now what's the problem here?" and was suddenly focused in the day and on the present adventure . . .

Progressive Insurance was not declaring it an "error", no no no, that would open them up to further scrutiny. No, they gave me this twisted song and dance about "periodic reviews" and "reapplication for coverage". I asked if I was going to lose my "seniority" discount if I am suddenly a new account, and she assured me that it would "carry over".

At the end of the phone call, I told the representative to be sure to thank Andrew Cuomo, Attorney General of the State of New York, for me.
Colin :flower:
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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Amskeptic
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Post by Amskeptic » Fri Jun 05, 2009 5:34 am

glasseye wrote:Amazing, as always. I LOVE those rainy windshield shots. :cheers:

See? The gods reward those who live well. Your karma took you to that tiny, dry bit of pavement. That an a li'l bit of Isaac Newton, eh?
Isaac and I go back long way. Ask Cindy about the 5 mile coast from Mullholland Drive to Brentwood when I ran the rental Passat out of gas in California. See Cindy, NOTHING has CHANGED. . . it is always something or another.

This one was by far more desperate, because it was really raining out there and I had only a second of sight-line to either stop short on the slick pavement, or blow the stop sign across four lanes of varying vehicle speeds coming at me from two directions. :flower:
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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dtrumbo
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Post by dtrumbo » Fri Jun 05, 2009 5:51 am

Amskeptic wrote:. . . . after just cresting a hill on I-80 with lots of truck rooster tails and blinding spray, the bus just drops dead no power, idiot lights galore when I push in the clutch and it is 70mph-Time-To-Figure-Out-Where-I'm-Going-To-Land-This-Thing.
In a helicopter, this is called "auto-rotation". If the engine quits, the rotors still spin because of the stored kinetic energy and the pin-wheel effect. You have precious little time to find a nice safe smooth place to land before the energy stored in the rotor system dissipates and you become a flying rock.

Way to go, Colin. You nailed your auto! I'm glad it turned out as good as it did. That fuel pump has been mocking you, one way or another, since Grants Pass last year. Hopefully that phase of the adventure is finished! Continued safe travels!
- Dick

1970 Transporter. 2015cc, dual Weber IDF 40's
1978 Riviera Camper. Bone stock GE 2.0L F.I.
1979 Super Beetle convertible.

... as it turns out, it was the coil!

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locoqueso
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Post by locoqueso » Fri Jun 05, 2009 6:09 am

Yikes! That had to be a bad feeling. I'm glad everything turned out OK.

Now I have about 50 minutes left to get my stuff together so I'll be ready to go. I better get offline...
1978 VW Campmobile (P-21) Westfalia - T2 2.0L F.I.- 151,000m
1982 Mercedes-Benz Estate Wagon (300TD-T) - S123 3.0L T.D. - 142,000m
1993 Dodge Maxi Van (190 SLF) InterVec Falcon - B350 Magnum 5.9L F.I. - 70,000m

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Cindy
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Post by Cindy » Fri Jun 05, 2009 8:11 am

Amskeptic wrote:[ See Cindy, NOTHING has CHANGED. . . it is always something or another.
:
Exactly what I was thinking when you called me this morning. :joker:

Cindy
“No one can tell what goes on in between the person you were and the person you become. No one can chart that blue and lonely section of hell. There are no maps of the change. You just come out the other side.
Or you don't.” ― Stephen King, The Stand

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glasseye
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Post by glasseye » Fri Jun 05, 2009 11:51 am

Amskeptic wrote: Isaac and I go back long way.
When the throttle cable failed on my Toyota in Matoon, IL, I was able to coast off the freeway, down the ramp, across a road and into a Burger King stall. Even though I'd never heard of those Amskeptics then, one musta bin looking over my shoulder that rainy day. :colors:
"This war will pay for itself."
Paul Wolfowitz, speaking of Iraq.

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locoqueso
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Post by locoqueso » Fri Jun 05, 2009 10:56 pm

Colin just left, my bus is road worthy again, and I'm too excited to sleep. I even got to drive the blue bus this morning. Woo-Hoo!

Drive safe Colin...
1978 VW Campmobile (P-21) Westfalia - T2 2.0L F.I.- 151,000m
1982 Mercedes-Benz Estate Wagon (300TD-T) - S123 3.0L T.D. - 142,000m
1993 Dodge Maxi Van (190 SLF) InterVec Falcon - B350 Magnum 5.9L F.I. - 70,000m

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Oregon72
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Post by Oregon72 » Fri Jun 05, 2009 11:26 pm

locoqueso wrote:Colin just left, my bus is road worthy again, and I'm too excited to sleep. I even got to drive the blue bus this morning. Woo-Hoo!

Drive safe Colin...
Awesome - do tell more!! What did you get done? :cheers:
-'72 Westy-

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zblair
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Post by zblair » Sat Jun 06, 2009 12:16 am

:cheers:


Another satisfied customer!
1974 T1 Super Beetle "Fweem"
2017 Honda HRV "Domina"


"Love something? Serve it."
~Roshni Mitra

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locoqueso
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Post by locoqueso » Sat Jun 06, 2009 8:45 am

The day finally caught up to me, I'm exhausted. For everything that could have went wrong, it turned out to be a great day. More details to follow.

Image
1978 VW Campmobile (P-21) Westfalia - T2 2.0L F.I.- 151,000m
1982 Mercedes-Benz Estate Wagon (300TD-T) - S123 3.0L T.D. - 142,000m
1993 Dodge Maxi Van (190 SLF) InterVec Falcon - B350 Magnum 5.9L F.I. - 70,000m

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Amskeptic
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Post by Amskeptic » Sat Jun 06, 2009 10:25 am

Oregon72 wrote:
locoqueso wrote: I even got to drive the blue bus this morning. Woo-Hoo!

Drive safe Colin...
do tell more!!
You sure?

Well, it started by being surrounded by Illinois town cops telling me I could not drive my own car.

So, locoqueso did.

Called NYS DMV to ask what was my current crime?
Appears that the local constabulary of the little town of Eden NY was miffed that my address on my driver's license was not current back in October of 2007. I tole him, "I'LL TAKECARA IT AIIGHT??" Though I updated it, I had not appeared in front of the Eden Town Judge to tell him that I had updated it. So I got a suspension and a $165.00 fine.

Then we worked gas tank filler couplers and fuel hoses and double relays and injector hose collars and brake adjustments and muffler cinching and chicken until midnight.

Nice Westy! Really nice example of a fresh sage green Westy at 140,000 miles. Thanks for putting up with this scofflaw!
Colin
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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yondermtn
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Post by yondermtn » Sat Jun 06, 2009 11:05 am

Anxiously awaiting my turn. :bounce:
1977 Westy 2.0FI
1990 Vanagon MV 2.1 Auto

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