Phil and Phrends Road Report

A few weeks ago, I changed tactics on the sound deadening / interior refresh so Hapy would be ready for a trip to see Phil and Friends play in Eugene. Today's post covers that trip. For my US readers, Hapy belated Independence Day.

Unrelated: Northwest String Summit is having their final festival this year. While this may not arrive as news to some, it may be to others. I failed to get tickets, and have given up looking for myself but I am hoping you might have a line on a pair for my friend and his caregiver. My old dear follow-the-Dead friend was diagnosed with MS a few years ago, and he is now mostly confined to a wheelchair. I don't know how many festivals he has left in him, so I'm using my 'Miracle ticket mojo' to help him get to one more. If you know someone who was going to go onto CashOrTrade, Craiglist or something to offload a pair of tickets and a parking pass, please consider routing him/her/them to me so I can connect them with Mayhem, the merry fester.

Terrapin

rest area

The last time Boo or I saw Phil Lesh play live was 2013. Now, nearly 9 years later, we had the opportunity to see him play with his son, Graham. Over the years, Boo and I visited Phil's now-closed venue, Terrapin Crossroads (TerrapinCrossroads.net is gone now too), but we had not been able to align a trip with a time he was on-stage. When we heard he was coming to the Pacific Northwest, I jumped on tickets, with a hope that we could catch 2 shows, knowing that he may not pass this way again. The closer venue, the Cuthbert Ampitheater in Eugene, offers reserved seats for those willing to pay a premium. Again, I figured our chances to see Phil are decreasing with each year, so I got us a pair of seats maybe 20 feet from the stage, in the center of the house. Arguably, this was the closest I've been to the stage occupied by a member of the Dead since my touring days, and it was really special to see the facial expressions and the non-verbal communication between the players.

On the Road Again

Before we could take our seats, of course, we needed to get there. Boo worked the day before, so I assembled the usual gear without her. This has become virtually automatic, since we have it fairly well organized: 3 milk crates of stuff plus the canopy, bedding stuff, a large water cooler and emergency stuff. Since I had emptied my overflowing toolbox into that new tool cabinet, I needed to assemble a smaller tool set for the road. Rather than carry everything, like I used to, I grabbed my 10mm and 13mm ratcheting spanners, a small set of sockets, a pair of stubby screw drivers and a pair of longer handled screw drivers, a couple pairs of pliers (one needle-nose, one regular) and a couple pairs of scissors (one fine, one larger shears). Last, I tossed in my multi-meter, some wire connectors and a roll of electrical tape. I figured that if something broke beyond those tools, we would flatbed home.

Boo and Hapy, pre-func

On travel day, we assembled a couple of days of clothes, a small cooler of drinks and snacks and hit the road, stopping for some B20 at the corner filling station. Reflecting the new reality, our corner station was charging more than double what we paid in 2019 ($6.05/gal versus $2.99/gal). The price has continued to climb since then, like everywhere else, it seems. The freeway leading to the interstate was very busy, and crawled slow, but it allowed Hapy time to get up to temperature and settle down. Most of the squeaks and moans that used to plague our trips were gone, leaving the low drone of the engine and a wind-whistle near my left ear, coming from the door seal.

By the time we hit I-5 South, his engine temp was steady at 185*. South of the I-205 interchange, traffic spread out a little bit, and we could just cruise. We had all day to get to the Cuthbert, so we didn't push Hapy too hard. We knew that the speedometer reads slow, believing that when it reads 60mph we are closer to 65mph. For fun, we tried to calculate exactly how fast we were actually going by taking stop-watch times between mile markers while I tried to hold speed at 60mph. Of course, holding a steady speed on uneven ground in traffic is not exact. Nor is clicking a stopwatch as you pass a mile marker. Still, we determined that when the speedometer reads around 60mph, we are actually going closer to 62mph. I guess, it's not as far off as I thought.

Wheel

Stu, Phil and Graham

Just the fact that we were talking about speed and speedometer accuracy describes the drive... by what we were NOT talking about: temperature, struggling to keep pace, electrical gremlins, thrown codes, etc. From start to finish, the engine temp peaked at 190*F and that was on the uphill south of Salem where I have seen Hapy's temp climb upwards of 200* in years part. We were able to take the hill in 4th gear, holding steady at 60mph on the speedo. So far, so good. The drive south was dry until around the Corvallis exit, when the rain started. The road remained clear, and traffic good all the way to the venue, but it was a harbinger of things to come.

Of course, we did discover or encounter or develop some things along the way. For example, when I installed the stereo head unit into the glove box, I did not include the metal cage that would have locked it into the box. Why? I wanted to easily remove the head for the inevitable installation of an amplifier. Well, without that cage, pushing buttons with more than the lightest pressure caused the head unit to slide backwards into the holder. Yep, that happened. Repeatedly. So, I will be putting in the cage, and will figure out how to manage an amplifier install which includes a removing the head unit from that cage later.

We discovered that one of the tail lights has a dim brake light. It is not out, it is just dim. Also, that weird issue where I cannot turn off the engine without my foot on the brake pedal re-appeared even after I cut off the entire diagnosis plug. Clearly, I will have to cut off that diagnosis wire from the driver side taillights. If that doesn't work, I may replace the wires from the brake switch to the taillights so any weird grounding from 50+ year old wiring goes away. This may also address the dim bulb.

Speaking of brakes, on the way home, Hapy lost his vacuum/boost brake assist. This could be something as simple as the hose nearest the booster got some brake fluid on it and compromised it to the point where it failed. Or, this could be as big a deal as the booster unit itself has failed. Since Hapy is over 50 years old, and the brake booster is original (and has a healthy coating of rust), I will be assembling parts expecting the worst.

Truckin'

Unbroken Chain

With these downsides, it would be easy to dwell in the negative. Those issues were the only ones we encountered. We used and greatly appreciated the 2-way dome light by the slider. The single position was really handy when we first got back to the bus after the show. Otherwise in the dark, we could find the camping chairs, some snacks and bev's without reaching for a light, shining a flashlight or even setting muddy-foot inside the bus. The floating speakers and the headbanger speakers were very useful for the pre-func after someone parked right next to us, preventing us from hanging out next to the slider. So, we moved to the rear of the bus, popped the rear hatch, and moved the speakers. Boom, we're wrapped in sound, comfy as can be.

 

Regarding Hapy functioning, the rear anti-sway bar had Hapy holding the road like never before. There is considerable open farmland south of Salem where there are fairly consistent, strong gusting winds. The winds are especially strong when a storm is approaching, as it was on this drive. In past years, encountering those winds has been a white-knuckling event, buffeting the bus, pushing us into either the next lane to the left or into the shoulder. Not this year. I drove in a relaxed body position, with gentle arms and shoulders, the entire drive. I felt the wind, but it didn't move us. The topper of it all, though, has to be the new front seats. Unlike prior drives, where I felt like someone had driven over me by the time we got to our destination, these Sprinter seats were so comfortable, my body felt like we had driven across town, not 2+ hours. I believe the relaxed posture and happy body were a result of the anti-sway bar, the stiffer shocks and the new seats combined.

Cold Rain and Snow

After the show, we waited for the crowd to thin before leaving the parking lot. As we started to leave, the staff pro's had assembled in a line with their flashlights to start shepherding stragglers, so our timing was spot-on. The exit routes fairly easily onto I-105 and then on to I-5 North, so we started our way north. By the time we left the lot, it was almost midnight and as the miles ticked by the show afterglow started to fade. Hapy was driving so well, though, neither he nor I wanted to stop. He definitely didn't want to. His temperature was holding at 185* no matter how fast we went. There was a point when our speedometer hit 75mph (the rpm counter near 3500) when we passed a truck and Hapy just cruised without a bump in his temperature. Eventually, I couldn't combat the fatigue. So, we hit the rest area just north of Albany to grab a nap, vagabond-style.

Once we had things set up, we intended to use the USB chargers in the headbanger. They work great, super-fast charging, but they cast a blue light that is super annoying at night. So, I will be covering the LED's with black electrical tape to dull them.

I mentioned the rain on the way South. We had intermittent sprinkles through the evening, but it was mostly clear during the show. It remained clear for our drive as far as the rest area heading north, but when we awoke the next morning, the rain had set in. It appeared to have been raining steadily overnight. It was constant, but varying in intensity from moderate to heavy. And, it was colder, like mid 40F's.

 

rare picture of me

We packed up the vagabond, returning Hapy to a drive-able state and headed back onto the interstate. It was at this point that a lack of a defroster became apparent. Of course, Hapy has never had a working defroster, like most type2 busses, but still, after driving more modern cars, it is becoming a glaring gap in the wet/misty Pacific Northwest. We wiped down the windscreen and front windows with a towel, and pressed into the rain.

I Will Take You Home

Driving Hapy has become such a pleasure, but in interstate traffic, when you can't see terribly well, in rain so heavy that the ruts are becoming hydroplaning ponds, the joy fades. Of course, the brake booster was no longer functional, so I had the need for extra stopping distance playing with my mind as well. By the time we got to Salem, we needed some breakfast to consider our options. The weather system which had settled over the northwest was still just moving in from the southwest, moving northeast, covering our entire trajectory with heavy rain. This was projected to continue all the way to Seattle, our intended next show. As much as I love Phil, and as much as I really wanted to be there, I feared I would be a mess by the time we got there. Then there would be standing/dancing in pouring rain followed by camping in pouring rain, packing up in the pouring rain, and then driving 5 hours back home in... you guessed it... pouring rain. Our best guess was that we were looking at 8-10 hours of driving. I just couldn't do it. So, for the first time since I bought Hapy 20 years ago, the humans gave up before the machine did.

After breakfast, we hit the highway and went home instead of continuing on to Seattle. In the end, this was probably the better choice for Hapy, and for us. We stopped wanting more, but perhaps more importantly, we stopped before Hapy really gave out. I have brakes to fix, a stereo to mount, a pair of USB chargers to dim and a defroster to figure out, in that order of importance.

Thank You For a Real Good Time

I didn't really mention the show, and I won't be posting independently about it. It was a lot of fun, and they played well. We hope we get to see Phil again, but if we didn't, our last time spent with him was far from Plain Jane. Quite the opposite: the jams were tasty, the arrangements purposeful and the execution spot-on. If I had any disappointment it would be the keyboardist (Steve Molitz) not being loud enough in the mix during his solos. He was rippin, but we had to strain to hear his leads over the rest of the band. Arguably, he was putting the most energy into the performance, almost like he was playing with Joe Russo.

This was a highly successful trip. While I will have some work to do before the next one, it is always easier when you are building on success rather than trying to resolve after a failure. Fair warning: the blog may go quiet for a while as I re-enter the work for Zed.

Thanks, as always, for following along-

Phil and Friends setlist:

Set 1: Ripple - Brown Eyed Women - Cosmic Charlie - Loose Lucy - Scarlet Begonias - Sugaree

Set 2: Help on the Way > Slipknot > jam > Dark Star > long jam > Unbroken Chain > another jam > a "Jessica" jam (very Allman Bro's sounding) > Slipknot reprised > Franklin's Tower - Not Fade Away

enc: Phil's Donor Rap - One More Saturday Night