You Have to Love Your Westy
…or you'd replace it right quick.
Kristen and I drove down from Canada in our lovely Volkswagon Vanagon Camper. We love Whisker. She's a great van; a home-away-from-home, and a fantastic home at Burning Man. But it was a hard weekend on everyone.
First, I should mention that it was bloody hot, right from the start, and we started in Victoria. The ferry ride to Vancouver was pleasant, but in Vancouver, it was a scorcher.
Once in Vancouver, after a stop for some Indian food, we had gasoline raining out the back of the van. That being a rather serious problem, we stopped immediately (the leak stopped as well, with the engine off), and got towed to Canadian Tire, which, while open at 9:00 P.M. on a Friday, basically refused to work on our van because they don't do Westy's. I now dislike Canadian Tire. Our tow guy then took us to Nic's Garage.
Nic's Garage is awesome. If you break down in Vancouver, go there. Seriously. They were open Saturday AM, and got us back on the road that day. In the meantime, we had a nice day in Vancouver with our friends Marcus and Thomas and Stephanie, and had a lovely (but hot) day around town. Turns out we had a hose go funny on the way to the fuel pump, hence the impressive leakage. We gave them a bottle of wine for the fast turnaround, and continued up past Squamish, for a brief stay at Burn in the Forest. This was quite a nice drive, and the Squamish area is gorgeous.
Then it was time to drive to California. Again with the nice drive through British Columbia, and again with the crazy heat when nearing Vancouver. By the time we got to the U.S. border (we took the truck route, not the Peace Arch), it was brutal, and the wait at the border was killer. Note the van has no air conditioning…
Anyway, beyond the border, we were moving pretty well, and the air flow kept the heat bearable, until we broke down North of Eugene. The engine overheated and we pulled over to the shoulder. The alternator belt had busted off and it caused the V-belt, which powers the coolant system to derail.
So we make a call to AAA and expect a truck in an hour. We get called from the driver, who can't find us, despite our being right at the 231 mile marker on I-5 South. While they are hunting for us, someone stops to help us out. We manage to get a replacement belt (had one in the back) onto the alternator and got the V-belt back in place. At this point AAA calls back and we figure out that my cell phone was talking to a tower in Washington, not Oregon, so they were hunting for us in the wrong state. But we fixed the problem, it seems, so I cancel the service call. (AAA was very apologetic about the confusion.)
OK, so we're back on the road. For about two miles, when the engine overheats again. Apparently, the belts weren't the real problem. So we pull over again, get AAA back on the phone, and wait for a haul to… Well, the Volkswagen dealership sounds like the best bet; likely to have parts and all that. But it's now past midnight, so we find a motel.
Our VW dealer and every shop in town is too busy to look at it that day, so we stay another day. (And spending some time at the very cool Airsteam dealership in Eugene. No offense, Whisker.) We call the next morning and find out that the looked at it (briefly) and think it's a major problem, new engine and all that. A follow-up call to our folks at Van Café convinced us that this dealership in Eugene wasn't the place to get this fixed. But what to do?
Coincidentally, at this point, Kragen drops me a line on IM, to tell me (in Spanish) that he's in Quito, and I mention we're stuck in Eugene. Apparently, he and his wife also have a Vanagon, which overheated in Minnesota, and they brought it home on a U-Haul truck and trailer. Suddenly, we can take our baby home and to the Van Spa in Santa Cruz, where professional hippie vehicle repair folks can give her proper love and attention. We call U-Haul, and $370 gets up a truck and a trailer for 4 days. What a deal! Toss in a bunch more cash for gasoline and we're home at 1:30 A.M. that night.
Anyway, I now have a 17' truck (empty) with a Vanagon in tow in the parking lot here at Apple, to be towed to Santa Cruz tomorrow.
But I had a mocha, so it's time to get to work.