Hapy Turns 50

Quick post to commemorate Hapy the wonderbus turning 50 years old. Totally unrelated, but a fascinating video, here is a company in the UK looking at building an internal combustion engine that runs on hydrogen. Cool stuff. On to the celebration...

How 50?

I guess we start where I did with every person who asked "how do you know his exact birthdate?". I refer you to this post where I deciphered the manufacturing codes aka M-codes. Basically, every VW of this vintage has the planned manufacturing date imprinted on the plate. So, based on week number and day number, you can determine your vehicle's manufacturing date. Hapy has been in the family for less than half of his life, though.

When I received him, his engine had been replaced, but the interior, exterior, wiring, and everything else was 100% original. Consider "original" does not always mean "good". There was mold in the upholstery, the seats were shot, the pop-top bellows were dry-rotten and torn. But, I made use of him, in his original condition, even trying to return many of the systems to spec. Ultimately, though, safety concerns for my then-young kids started me down the trail I have documented here.

First, it was the sink/icebox unit blocking the handle to the sliding door. I considered the "what if" of getting into an accident that renders me unconscious while my kids are trapped in the back, unable to open the slider because their arm's aren't long enough to reach around the sink. So, that got pulled, and down the rabbit hole I went.

Park Play

To celebrate Hapy, and honestly any excuse to celebrate this year is a fairly good one, we reserved 5 camping spots in nearby LL Stub Stewart State Park. Our long time friends GratefulEd, lovely wife Dawn, and Belle joined us, as did my brother Eric, who rented a Eurovan from Road Trip Oregon for the special occasion with his 2 daughters (K4 and K5). Many other friends and family were on-hand on Saturday for the big party and many of them stayed overnight. We also had arranged a duo to play some jazz and old country in one of the reserved campsites in the center of the reserved spots. Unfortunately, the park rangers shut the duo down before they completed the jazz portion of their set. So, they completed their performance sans-amplification. Undeterred, Boo rolled out a stack of subs, a couple of coolers of bev's and a couple trays of VW-emblazoned cupcakes for a singing of Hapy Birthday. Yes, yes we did.

One of our gests had set up cornhole, another had set up badminton and Eric set up croquet. So, we played yard games while the acoustic duo played. It was the hottest day of the weekend, so impromptu shade was set up. When the official music completed, many of the day-trippers, and our official musicians, headed home. Those who remained shifted from the "venue" campsite to Hapy's front door for some (also mostly acoustic) jamming. For this, we were joined by friends from the Hillsboro bluegrass scene (some pictured, some not). We played until we were shut down by the park rangers again (silence expected at 10:PM), but not before our neighbors had joined us, demonstrating again that we all need a little more joy, and few things bring joy like live music and a small crowd laughing. After we stopped playing, we continued to visit (read: drink) for a while, and we broke up by midnight.

Everyone other than Boo, Hapy and me left the next day. Boo had rented some electric-assist bikes so we took a ride that afternoon after everyone left. There is a paved trail from Manning to Vernonia that passes right through the state park, and we explored a small section of it. That evening, we gazed at the stars through a borrowed telescope. With the lack of white noise from the city lights and no visible moon, there are just so many stars to see. We pointed the telescope first at single noticeable stars, but found it much more interesting to point it at a relatively uninteresting area of space and then see how many stars appeared. We both caught a shooting star through the lens that way, while also noting that in an otherwise uninteresting area of space there are still hundreds of stars visible through a non-commercial tri-pod'd telescope.

There and Back

No trip in Hapy is complete without a review of how well the bus handled. The drive out was late afternoon on a Thursday. Traffic wanted to go faster than Hapy did. Hapy still did well, driving into an on-angle headwind. The handling was much better after the shock-absorber adjustment, though the increased speed and headwind caused his engine temps to run a little high (topped at 198*F). We did not experience meaningful engine stumbling in either direction, nor did we throw a code. So, I think that much of the stumble was some bad fuel or a partially clogged clean filter (which I replaced after 4Peaks) or both. I will still be looking into other causes. The trip back was even better than the drive out. Whatever wind there was, it must have been at least partially behind us. Hapy's temperature rarely ticked above 186*F, and he was happily cruising at 55-60mph*. I had the stereo blasting an old Jerry Garcia Band bootleg, my elbow resting on the open window, and we just cruised with one hand on the wheel. The merge from 47 onto US26 was effortless with the bigger nozzles and chipped computer allowing Hapy to scoot into traffic. Honestly, it was the easiest drive home I can remember.

*: I use the asterisk here because Boo was following in a chase car, and was able to tell me just how fast I was going when... and when Hapy's speedo says "50" I am going 55. When his speedo says "55", I am going 62. So, the speedo is definitely at least 10% off, showing 10% slower than I really am. This is consistent with the odometer checks I have done along the freeway, showing the odometer is closer to .8 of a mile when the mile marker says a full mile. Since my mpg has been getting calculated without this extra math, the mpg is even more impressive. I have been getting just shy of 30mpg with the odometer reading at least 10% low. So, I'm really getting 33mpg or better.... in a bus that's loaded for camping 95% of the time.

That's it for today. Thanks, as always, for following along.

Throw-back to embedded picture captions like I used to do:

top - meadow between the Dairy Creek campgrounds

next from top - (L-to-R) Stevan on Mandolin, Rose (standing) on fiddle, Rodney (back turned) on guitar, Joe (standing) on guitar, Dawn (seated can only see top of her head/hat), Mo (standing), me (back turned) on bass, Ed (back turned) on guitar. Joey (mostly obscured by Ed)

next from bottom - Ed and Belle in full-fest-form

bottom - Boo on the bike trail

And, here are some other pictures:

(L-to-R) Rose, Boo, Joe, Mo
and me (back-turned)

Boo and I sharing
the lot couch

LL Stub Stewart camping

(L-to-R) Rodney, Stevan, Joey,
Joe, Boo (back turned),
Mo (obscured) and
me (back turned)

Fare Thee Okay

Independence Day was observed here in the States a little over a week ago. For Dead-heads, it was the celebration of the Grateful Dead turning 50, so there was a little extra celebrating. Today's post hits that. Beware: limited bus content.

Not Exactly Chicago

Mayhem's Further 2012 shirt

Similar to the pair of shows performed in Santa Clara, 70k people who could come up with the scratch to fly, hotel and see the "Core Four" (Phil, Bobby, Billy and Mickey) in Chicago jammed the city for the 3 day weekend. Like the weekend before, I connected with my friends Mayhem and GratefulEd for a camp-in viewing of the simulcast. Rather than haul out to Wheeler, this time we were in the swanky confines of Lake Oswego: a much shorter drive. GratefulEd, however, had set up The Wall of Sound - the home edition on his back deck. We had a projector beaming the visuals and a much larger crowd than had been in Wheeler tuning in. There were no arrests, no staff pro's or GDP uncover agents. Instead, we had meat snax, liquor and no-wait restrooms. Kidding aside, GratefulEd and his family were wonderful hosts.

Similar to the Wheeler shows, I arrived early, set up Hapy for the lot scene / camping and cracked a beer. After all the festivals and events, I've gotten it down to less than 30 minutes from pull-in to fully set up, complete with awning, middle row pulled out as a lot-couch, bed set up with curtains, etc. Mayhem joined me for some classic lot-style pre-func'ing and then we headed around back for the main event. Boo arrived late, missing part of the first set.

... but Not Exactly the Grateful Dead either

lot ready, 2-bus style

Once we got everything set up, it was up to the Core-Four-plus to provide the evening entertainment. Like the Wheeler review (see: Santa Clara by way of Wheeler), I won't bore you with set lists or a review. The fine folks at JamBase have a more than sufficient rose-colored-glasses review to read. All three shows were better than Santa Clara, but that's really not saying much. None of the three shows were on-balance better than the Furthur shows I'd seen. The last show was probably their best, giving reason to believe that if they kept at it, they could probably sound pretty good. Trey just wasn't as connected as he should have been, and the band wasn't as cohesive.

I trolled around JamBase between the Santa Clara shows and Chicago. I noticed that only Phil from the Core Four had tour dates. Billy and Mickey haven't been playing much in a while so, to me, this just further supports my belief that Bobby has a health issue that he hasn't disclosed, and that's why Futhur stopped touring. JohnK and Jeff are touring under the Golden Gate Wingmen, additionally supporting that Bobby isn't playing anymore (Jeff was his long-time keyboardist). That's really too bad. Love you Bob.

Chong

left-side rear-window blind

No Grateful Dead related music venture is complete without some side adventure. With a venue like Lake Oswego, I didn't expect much in this arena. I actually brought a book so I wouldn't get too bored. Luck smiled on me, though. For those not in Oregon nor a part of any marijuana legalization effort, you may not know that pot became legal for individual use on July 1st. Since we were celebrating "the 4th", weed had been officially legal for 3 days. 3 days, man. 3 days. As I turned Hapy off the freeway on my way into town, I saw a sign announcing a visit from Tommy Chong at the functional glassware shop just outside Lake Oswego. And just like that, we found our adventure: let's meet Tommy Chong.

Mr. Chong has been on tour himself, in a way, doing personal appearances at head shops in support of some personal-use products with his name on them. Neat. On the 5th, he was scheduled to appear at Mary Jane's House of Glass, and he did. The scene was, in a word: weird. The parking lot was roped off for pedestrian traffic, so many people were parking at the Taco Bell next door. In the center of the lot was a circus tent where beverages could be purchased and consumed, and a band was tuning up to play. Between the tent and the front door of Mary Jane's, there was a queue forming for pictures with Tommy Chong. Curious, we passed the queue and entered Mary Jane's. If you've never been in a functional glassware shop, it's hard to explain. Picture a 50' by 50' square commerce-space with glass cases pointing in various directions, all filled with glass pipes. No objects d'art, no brass, no wood, nothing else. Just pipes. Oh, and some incense in the corner. In the corner along the front wall, but opposite from the front door was a table behind which sat Tommy Chong. "$40 a picture," a young woman exclaimed as we entered. Yeah, I'm not paying $40 for a picture with Tommy Chong. No offense, Mr. Chong. We just stopped by to say "hi", so we did.

Mayhem took it one step further. Concluding that Mr. Chong probably didn't have a place to watch the final show featuring the "core four", Mayhem tried to engage is a simple conversation with Mr. Chong. Apparently, that was outside of what the Mary Jane's folks knew how to handle: so, you don't want a picture with him, so you must need to be in the autograph line. No, we don't want an autograph. "Would you take a picture with him if it was free?" Sure, so long as we get to ask him a question. Well, that proved quite difficult, but Mayhem got Mr. Chong invited to our streaming picnic thing.. and found himself in a rather awkward picture with Mr. Chong. Neither of them looked like they wanted to be in a picture. Afterwards, I noticed the look on Tommy Chong's face was the same in every picture. He was a perfect look of "really? this is where I ended up? how did this happen, man? can you help me outta here?". Sorry, Mr. Chong. We tried to spring you for a few hours.

Bid You Goodnight
The final show was just that. For those who were there, I'm sure it felt like closure. For those of us watching from home, we got an extra special post-show interview with Bobby. In answer to the question of will we never hear you guys again, he responded without hesitation that we'll see it again, or something very similar some time real soon. Thanks for stringing us along, Bob. We hope you're serious and we'll see you and Phil on stage together again. We'll have the bus ready to go whenever you declare the next Furthur show... please make it on the west coast :)

Bus Content: I adjusted the windshield washers with a push-pin in the tiny washer nozzle. Now, it streams into the upper half of the windshield dead-center of the wiper path. Perfect.

That's all for today. Thanks, as always, for following along.

A Tale of Two Trips

Since I last posted, Furthur announced they wouldn't tour in 2014.  Within a week of that announcement, VW Brasil announced they would stop production of the VW Kombi (bay-window bus) at the end of 2013.  While seemingly unrelated, for those who drive VW buses around the country to see music, this was quite the double blow.  The day after the VW Brasil announcement, I bought a pair of tickets to see Furthur at Marymoor Park east of Seattle to compliment the pair I already had for the following night in Eugene.  Today's post covers the 3-day adventure.

Getting Out of Dodge

Tuesday is a typical workday for me and the Marymoor venue is 3.5 hours from home with good traffic.  Since the show started at 6,  We had to leave by 2 to have any hope of seeing it start.  I'd written off the lot scene.  Work was, well, work, so I didn't actually get Boo and start driving north until almost 3.  With the compressed timeline, we left the bus at home and took the more consistently reliable Jetta.  As speed limits rose, the rain intensified.  We rolled music off my iToy to keep the mood calm.  Outside Fort Lewis, emergency vehicles were on maneuvers, jamming up traffic in both directions without any actual accident scene.  Lost 20 minutes.  We hit Olympia by 5 and the rush hour traffic that usually arrives with evening.  The Jetta handled well, drove fast, and we found the venue with very little trouble.  We arrived less than 30 minutes late, only missing the first song entirely.  We heard the second while parking and the third while walking to the gate.

Marymoor

Marymoor Map

We met our friend Grateful Ed just inside the gate.  He'd driven up much earlier in the day at a much less frantic pace.  Being a park, he was able to settle before 2, fell into a photo shoot for REI and pre-func'd with some heads from WA.  He'd landed us a spot less than 40 feet from the stage, and led us in to a nice 1/2-Step.  As a location to see music, Marymoor is fantastic.  It is one large flat lawn with a small berm ringing the outer edge.  On the other side of the berm are food carts (though the food options were weird and lines non-moving), beverage gardens (no line) and the restrooms.  Aisles through the lawn are painted: no railings, fences or concrete.  I'll absolutely go back for more shows there.  I just wish they'd have some back-to-back nights and a place to overnight camp nearby (EDIT: found a place: Vasa Park Resort).  The crowd was older and small.  We didn't see any wookies either, so we figured that the folks traveling with the band skipped this show and we'd meet them in Eugene.  The show was good, the second set really good with a foreshadowing "Goin' Down the road Feelin' Bad" encore.

Let the Real Adventure Begin

Since Boo and I hadn't eaten since lunch, and it was almost midnight as we left the lot, we concluded we should grab some eats before heading back to Oregon.  A Denny's stop with Ed later, we're ready to go.  Boo and I had been having some sporadic battery issues with the Jetta around town, with the battery light popping on after starting.  After driving for a bit, the light would go out, so we didn't pay it much heed.  I figured the alternator was failing, and had it tested.  "All good," says the mechanic.  I tossed the car-battery charger into the backseat anyway.  So, as Boo drove us through that construction zone between Seattle and Tacoma, we started to get some weird idiot lights firing.  The battery light was already lit, but the ABS light started to flash and the radio started to cut out.  We turned off the radio, but the ABS light stayed on steady.  The air-bag light then lit up.... then the dashboard lights started to dim... the blinkers stopped working.... the headlights turned off... Within a couple minutes we went from safely following Ed down the I-5 to completely failing electrical system.  We couldn't raise Ed on the phone, so we douche-dived the first exit we came upon: Tillicum, WA, and rolled into the Chevron.  While the engine idled, I spotted an electrical outlet on the side of the building.  We hooked up the battery charger and watch the idiot lights turn off one by one.  Boo asked (and was denied) to use the Chevron bathroom and got us a water.  After 15 minutes of charging (1:50AM), we figured we'd gotten enough juice to get going again, but we had the failures cascade again before we made the freeway on-ramp.  We were lucky enough to get back to the Chevron before the engine died.

Tillicum

from Google maps

Sitting in the middle of the Chevron lot in the wee-hours of the morning was surreal.  An older boy / young man was peddling a bike through the lot and helped us push it into a parking spot.  He then asked for a smoke and rode on.  I called in AAA for a tow home, and learned than my membership got 100 free miles.  The remaining 40 were my problem, but the driver would be there within an hour.  Once we got the immediate problem resolved, Boo and I looked around at where we'd landed.  Sketch.  Very Sketch.  Cyclone fencing, closed businesses and boarded up cheap apartments.  Sweet.  We saw the Taco Bell and McDonald's down the street had their lights on, so we walked down there to sit and wait.  Neither business was open, and we concluded they left the dining room lights on to reduce break-ins.  On the walk and wile waiting in the car, we got a more intense sense of how sketchy the area was.  The young guy on the bike kept re-appearing, clearly following a route from one location to another.  A a light blue cab stopped at the Chevron multiple times (though that could have been innocent enough).  And a young woman all dressed in black appeared multiple times, dashing from one boarded up location to another.

AAA

The flatbed tow truck arrived shortly after 2:30AM, driven by a guy with a long chin-strap beard that ended flat (like ZZ-Top).  He reminded me of a gnome with a plumber's crack.  While hooking up the car, he admitted that he'd worked until midnight, had worked the night before, and had very little sleep.  We climbed into the cab, and Boo told him that we needed first to stop at a restroom.  The driver flipped a U-turn, led her into the Chevron and got the clerks to let her use the restroom.  Apparently, they don't let customers use the restroom because they've been robbed so many times.  Awesome.  With thoughts of "lets get the hell out of here", our gnome wheeled to the freeway and we nosed south.  The truck was bouncy, the bench seat nearly as hard as a bleecher, but fatigue finally caught up to me.  I was awakened by a few big bumps, as was our gnome-driver at least once, motivating Boo to stay awake, chatting him up so he didn't fall asleep.  Her sacrifice meant I could sleep (we thought she'd sleep on the drive to Eugene), and I didn't awaken for good until we were on the Freemont Bridge watching dawn break over downtown Portland.  The Jetta was tucked away on the driveway at 6:AM, and after refusing a cup of coffee, the driver-gnome took my $160 for the 40 miles of towing and headed back to Washington.

Hapy

Boo hadn't slept for more than 15 minutes, and I'd gotten about 2 hours of rough sleep, so we decided to take a nap or a few hours before thinking about Eugene.  At 9, we hosed off, scarfed some instant oatmeal, and started loading the bus.  Since we were going to overnight in Boo's sister's driveway, we didn't need much camping gear, just sleeping bags and food.  We'd agreed to meet at Grateful Ed's at 11:30, and we arrived a few minutes early.  Hapy (the wonderbus) needed to get his gears warmed up, but once we got to operating temperature, he handled great.  I'd driven him to work and back a few times last week to get some confidence up and to confirm that the leak was solved.  Once Mayhem arrived at Grateful Ed's, we started the carabus south, taking turns leading.  Hapy can cruise at 60mph with the RPM's just under 3k.  We discovered that pushing the RPM's above 3k increases the noise significantly, so 60mph became the standard cruising speed.  Because of the late start, we drove straight to the Cuthbert Ampitheater parking lot, agreeing to meet Boo's sister and husband there.  We arrived just after 3, and got a prime parking spot along the main strip (parked with sliders facing each other), but not on Shakedown Street.  We did not see many other old buses, but the few we did see were close by.  Again, we leveraged the removable middle seat as a lot couch, creating seating for all 6 of us easily.  I'm really loving that.  On the whole drive, Hapy's temperature never hit 190*, and stayed at 185* almost the entire time, only climbing above after pulling uphill.  He handled very well, making the drive to Eugene the highlight thus far.

Cuthbert

Furthur farewell

The Cuthbert Ampitheater, unlike the Marymoor, is almost completely pitched ground.  The front now has reserved seats, but the concrete is not flat.  Behind the seats is a narrow non-flat grass area where seats are not allowed, backed by a 18" drop-off down to a cement walkway.  Behind the walkway is the steeper lawn where low beach chairs are allowed.  Simply standing on that grass wears on your muscles like running downhill.  Now, try dancing for 3 hours.  Yeah, that can hurt, but its worth it when the show is smokin'.  They started with a Brother Esau, and kept it funky throughout.  The crowd included many more of the usual road-warriors, supporting our thoughts about them skipping WA.  It also included many of the Oregon old-guard 60's-era hippies.  We sat next to a couple who drove in from the coast, for example, who had been seeing forms of the Dead since the mid-60's.  Ken Babbs was there.  Very cool when you contrast that with the kids dancing on the walkway who were born after Jerry died.  Unlike 2 years ago, the scene in the lot after the show was much more calm.  The staffers weren't trying to cowboy the concert-goers out of the lot 20 minutes after the last note was played.  There were tour-heads swinging beer, T-shirts, posters and coasters.  For the first time since the 90's, I heard a nitro tank filling balloons.  

Homing

Belle heading home

Boo, her sister, Grateful Ed, Mayhem and I skipped the after-party, but Boo's sister's husband went and closed The Cooler.  The band played until almost 2:AM.  If we'd gotten more sleep over the prior couple of days, maybe we would have gone too.  Instead, we tipped a couple beers, played with Boo's sister's dog and visited in the comfort of the old hippie Dr. Seuss house.  We grabbed breakfast at Brail's and headed north.  Hapy again, drove like a dream.  This time, Ed led the carabus (see picture at right), setting a slightly slower pace to help keep his temperatures down.  That also lowered the noise in my bus a little bit, making the drive all the more pleasant.  We got home a little after 2, making the entire Eugene run, including to/from the venue, Boo's sister's house, grocery stops, etc on less than one tank of diesel.  I'll know my actual mileage when I fill again, but I figure I drove 250 miles and I put in just under 10 gallons before leaving home.

As always, thanks for following along.  The long trip with the bus has helped me understand what needs to be looked at next (adjust shifting linkage, headliner, deep-cycle battery charger, tighten steering, better seal for engine hatch, fuel gauge, painting the exterior...).  The journey is the destination.

Furthur - the Return

I know its been a while and I apologize for that.  I've been covering a second job at work, so I'm basically working all the time these days.  Fortunately, a replacement has been selected, so I'll be returning to having only one job again soon.  Today, I'll talk about the adventure I had on the drive home.

out the passenger side while waiting

Carabus
We rolled out of the campground earlier than I really expected - around 10.  After 3 days of late nights, music and dancing, I figured we'd sleep in later.  Since the bus doesn't have much in terms of curtains right now, the morning sun got me up pretty early.  So, after quick-charging our cell phones, slugging some coffee and grubbing some cold cereal, Ed (in Belle) and I (in Hapy) headed north through Coburn and onto I-5 North.
With my currently limited top-speed, Ed eventually grew impatient, passed and disappeared through my windscreen.  Since he had a much longer drive over to the Oregon Coast before wheeling home, I totally expected him to split.  It was shortly after we parted ways that things started to get interesting.

Sputtering

out the windscreen while waiting

One advantage to not having a stereo is being able to get very attuned to what your engine sounds like when its running well.  It also gives you very early clues when things are starting to go wrong.  It started with a little sputter.  Like the engine missed or something.  We kept on cruising, but now I was on high alert.  Another sputter... and then another... and then... I could hear the engine starting to die.  So, I popped it out of gear, let the engine fail and rolled slowly below the speed limit, into the breakdown lane and then eventually to a stop.  Fortunately, I found myself in a very wide breakdown area.  I had an idea of what went wrong, so I went around back to confirm.  When I broke camp, I put most of my stuff on the floor in the passenger area rather than the rear deck.  This made engine access easy.

Fuel-less
My initial guess was proven accurate seconds after I opened the engine lid: the clear primary fuel filter I put between the tank and the stock filter was completely dry. 

Hah.  I jumped back into the driver seat and checked my milage, and I should have half a tank.  Curious.  So, I pulled the filler cap and waited for a break in traffic.  When one arrived, I rocked the bus and put my ear to the filler hole: splash-splash.  So... not fuel-less?  So, the tank has foreign matter in it blocking the outlet.  Drat!  Not something I can fix roadside, so AAA gets the call.

Towed Again

tucking him home

AAA was responsive, but I had to wait an hour while a flat-bed truck became available.  It seems I was not the only northbound microbus that got a AAA call.  Funny.  While I waited, I messed around with some of my interior electrical, and got the poptop dome light to work.  Sweet!  Anyway, Dave the driver was very careful and did a great job hoisting my bus onto his truck.  The drive back to Beaqverton was not nearly as climactic as the drive south was.  Between the completely different weather (now cloudy with spitting rain) and hte different means, I was a little down.  Dave was able to arrange his truck such that he was able to perfectly tuck the bus into his sleeping spot in my garage.

So ends the adventure of attending Furthur.  I did take a peek at the clear filter a few days after getting home and it had some fuel in it, further supporting the floaties-in-the-tank theory.  Since the return, I've taken steps to fix this, and I'll post what those steps were next time around.  As always, thanks for following along.

Furthur - the Lot

I'll cover the experiences from the parking lot over the 3 days of the shows in Eugene.  In the greater scheme, this makes more sense.  Besides, the days kind of run together, so going chronologically isn't really possible.

Shakedown Street

typical owner disposition

The Saturday morning print of the Eugene newspaper declared a successful "bust" of the vending along Shakedown Street.  Now, if you've been to a Grateful Dead-like event, you know what this area is.  For those who have not been so exposed, Shakedown Street is a zone somewhere in the parking lot where a large percentage of the vending takes place.  This zone is usually close to the arena, and is where the highest foot-traffic would naturally happen.  This is not a space designated by anyone.  In fact, it springs up on its own where the first-arrivers think it makes the most sense.  This "bust" had a little effect on the vending scene, though, and actually created multiple mini-Shakedown's as well as walk-about vending.  I liked the walk-abouts.  But even in my touring days, that was how I sold things before dark.  Laying out a sheet or a cooler on Shakedown Street was too high-risk for me back then.  One GDP (Grateful Dead Productions) violation cop, and you could be out hundreds of dollars.  Staff-Pro's usually targetted illegal liquor or drug sales, but from the article in the paper, they were busting everybody for selling anything... except tickets.  Funny how that's turned.

Wares without Art

One of the great contributions the "illegal" vending brought to the event used to be the iconic artistry placed onto T-shirts through 2-4 color silk screens.  This artistry would take a modern icon and "Deadify" it.  For example, one of my favorite shirts from years ago was a Bart Simpson T-shirt where Bart was wearing a tie-die and cut-off shorts.  Under the cartoon drawing was the phrase "Bart it on Down the Line" - playing on the song title "Beat it on Down the Line".  These types of shirts no longer appear at Dead-related shows, and I find that very disappointing.  Disappointing to the point, in fact, that Mike, Ed, Boo and I talked about different creative ideas taking modern cultural references and making T-shirts out of them.  We may just get into the T-shirt business, if we can isolate some time for it.  In the end, I did buy a couple of wood coasters.  These coasters have a Steal-Your-Face in the center or a Tour poster-looking image inside.  I like the creativity in creating a coaster, and they are totally functional!

Belle and Hapy wait for us to return from the show

Tire-kicking
As you may imagine, rolling into the lot as part of a microbus caravan, Ed and I attracted a little attention.  Belle was festooned with a big flag in her luggage rack on the way in on Sunday, and Hapy remained his usual sleeper-looking self the 2 days I drove him in (Fri & Sat).  The looks on the faces of those in-the-know when I passed, though, was pretty funny.  ACVW (Air Cooled VolksWagen) fans know what an ACVW sounds like.  So, when my city-bus sounding microbus passed, a look of confusion followed.  Funny stuff.  By the time we parked, there was usually at least one person wanting to check out our sleds.  As I may have mentioned in the previous post, Ed would park nose in and I'd back in next to him so our sliders faced each other.  This made for a nice little sitting area as we enjoyed our beverages... (yes, staff-pro official, these are coffee's in our coffee cups)...

We met a number of VW folks, over the course of the 3 days.  From the TDI-transplant curious, to BioDieselers, to purists.  The purists wanted to talk to Ed.  I popped the rear hatch a few times, and talked at great length with a guy from Corvallis who is working on a production-able nose-mount radiator for water-cooled engine conversions.  Cool!  I hope to hear more from him about his project.  I may not ave the stomach for moving the rad, but having these kinds of conversations is a great way to learn about improvement ideas.

It was a beautiful 3 days, weather-wise, crowd-wise and music-wise.  The lot wasn't over-burdened with booming stereos, had good Microbus, Vanagon and Eurovan representation and had a good positive energy.  More next time about the ride home....

Furthur - To Eugene

So many things to cover, I'm just going to have to start writing more often.  My last post was before the trip to Eugene, so I owe a trip report, a summary of the shows, the trip home, and inevitable work-that-followed-the-trip stuff.  I'll hit the trip report today.

GDTRFB (well, good, actually)
The first show in Eugene was on a Friday night.  Without a place to stay Thursday, I planned for an early departure Friday morning.  That plan was delayed when my brother (co-pilot for the southbound trip) needed to work until noon.  Still, leaving downtown Portland by 1:PM was pretty good.  We were also supposed to meet-up with Ed and Mike in Belle, but we were unable to connect on that either.  If Ed hasn't posted his trip report yet, he had to run out to the coast to collect Mike the night before.
Anyway, I topped the tank at the local fueling station and calculated my milage: 31mpg.  Yes, that's right, 31mpg... in a bus... without the new (better suited) transaxle.  I still don't know how much capacity the tank has, but if I assume 12 gallons, that's a 372 mile single-fill travel capacity.  By that estimate, I wouldn't need to fuel-up until after returning from Eugene.  This was an important bit of data later.
With the tank full, and the fuel gauge still not operating correctly (showing "E"), I hit US26 into Portland.  I hit cruising speed at 51mph (3100 rpm), stayed in the right lane and enjoyed sitting behind the wheel again.  The bus handled great, traffic was light and the day was starting to get warm.  Perfect.  My brother was ready to go within minutes of my arriving at his office, so we greabbed some Quizno's and headed south.  The bus doesn't have a radio, so we reverted to old-skool travel time-passing: talking and laughing.

Wheels Broke Down, the Leader Won't Draw
About the time we reached Aurora, I noticed we didn't have the power I'd expected on hills.  I know we had some hills during the drive to Champoeg, so there was something amiss.  Also, the cooling fans were not acting as effectively.  The temp was staying under control, but the base temperature was floating between 195* and 200*, not around 185* where I expected it to be.  These 2 indicators were distracting me, so we pulled into the Charbonneau rest area.  After letting things cool off (and eating our Quizno's), I discovered that the pipe leaving the turbo headed for the intercooler had separated from one of the couplings.  As a result, the air headed for the engine was (a) unfiltered and (b) naturally aspirated or non-turbo charged.  I re-connected the pipe, tightened it down and called Ed to see what was going on with his end of the trip.  He was working his way through the Coast Range, so we would'nt be seeing him until Salem at the earliest.  Back onto the road we go.

Bound to Cover Just a Little More Ground
The pipe connection I described above separated again within 30 minutes of leaving the Charbonneau rest area.  This time, I could feel it.  The power loss followed by the slightly raised temperature.  I figured "no problem, now I know what I'll be doing on Saturday".  We stopped again to verify, and re-repair, but I could tell no damage was being done.  I took the opportunity this time to verify the oil level and coolant too.  All good.  So, my brother and I just did the drive, and when we hit hills, just stayed as far to the right as we could go, singing "just a little bit harder just a little bit more, a little bit furthur than you've gone before"... to keep the bus motivated :)

The Music Never Stopped
We didn't need to stop again, and blew through Salem, Albany, etc. at our top speed (51mph).  The campground we chose was just north of Eugene, so we took the exit before (Coburg) and actually got to the campground before Ed, Mike & Belle.  All told, we had 2 stops and made the trip in under 3 hours.  We set up the shed (tiny tent for holding belongings so the bus isn't cluttered with crap), cleared the bus of non-show-critical items, and waited for Ed, Mike and Belle.  I re-attached the pipe again.  They arrived before 6, and we prepared the rest of the site (EZ-up over the table, enjoyed some barley-pops, talked to some fellow show-attending campers, etc.).  There was some interest in the busses, but ours weren't the only ones in the campground, so it wasn't one of those "wow I had one of those" kinds of conversations, it was more along the lines of "oh, so that's a '73 Riviera, I have a '69 campmobile over there (pointing)".

Inspiration... move me brightly
Feeling fresh, we carabused from the campground to the ampitheater parking lot: 1 mile of rural Lane country followed by 4 miles of suburbia.  Being Eugene, we were not the only busses driving around, so the impact of 2 in a row was virtually 0.  Still, it was a great sensation for me to be finally carabusing to a Dead show in my bus.  Another milepost, if you will.  We parked the busses, Belle nose in, me backed in so the sliders faced each other, and we settled into our evening.

I paused a minute to consider the last time I sat in a parking lot waiting for the Dead.  2 years earlier, my bus was a collection of parts, lacking direction, plans for some sub-systems and, mostly, my attention.  I stood outside Belle in that lot and stated "I won't see the Dead again until I can get there in my own bus".  Kennedy had his mission to the moon speech, and I guess that was mine.  In that moment of pause, I had reached that goal.  It's hard to describe the feeling of satisfaction, but to be there with the friends who witnessed my statement was truly special.

More next time--

Riviera Top on... Mostly

With the help of a couple of friends, and my 2 boys, the new Riviera pop top moved from my garage floor to the top of the bus.  We made some discoveries along the way.  Today, I'll back-document what happened.  It was hot and long, so I'm very grateful to both Ed and Toby for sacrificing a nice Saturday afternoon with their families to be with mine.

Preparations and Discoveries

initial placement. Toby eyeing things

After the test run last Thursday, I felt comfortable moving the bus out into the driveway of the complex.  So, as Ed was arriving, I got the bus into position just outside my garage.  While still exchanging pleasantries, Toby arrived, and we were ready to go.  I'd spent a couple of hours before they arrived digging through Toby's photo album dedicated to the Riviera pop top removal he performed.  Through examining his pictures, and my interior, I made some important discoveries.  These were confirmed, as you'll see.

showing cut-out "X"

First and foremost, the Westy was based on the sunroof style transporter while the Riviera was based on a standard transporter.  This drove a few differences which are important.  The sunroof bus has 2 roof panels with a 2" gap between them running from the rear of the opening back to the rear of the bus.  This is where the sunroof slider would hide when the roof was open.  The front of the sunroof opening is not straight, either.  There's a kick-out off-center on the driver's side where the sunroof crank would appear.  Contrast these 2 conditions with the hole cut at the Riviera factory in Beaverton Oregon (where Riviera's were made), and things get interesting.  The transporter has only the one roof section, for starters.  The front of the hole is straight.... and about 3 inches closer to the front.  Also the sides were closer to the drip-rails in the Riviera bus than the Westy hole.  When we looked at how the interior foamy bits all tied together, its clear there will be some customization needed.  More importantly, though, the Riviera facto

after cutting p-side

ry firmed-up the hole by applying wood strips around the underside of the hole and mounting wood strips (which are a-fixed to the bellows) through the steel from above into the wood strips below.  Since these lower wood strips roughly aligned with the support steel Volkswagen installed in the sunroof transporter, the lower strips can be ignored for our install.

Top On

extra 6mm screws.  frame sits in the rail

It is with those differences in mind that I chose to not do anything to prepare for the top install prior to the guys arriving.  This meant that the first step was actually the step I needed them for: muscling the top onto the bus.  They kindly recognized that I'd just painted the roof, but there wasn't a way we were going to get that top installed without scratching it, so I said as much and we jumped in.  I took the back, Ed took the passenger front corner and Toby took the driver front corner.  This put Toby in the spot of having to climb into the bus during the install.  We approached the bus from the rear passenger corner, lifting vertically while moving towards the front.  The 3 of us were better able to get it on the bus than we'd expected.  The quick-part ended there, though.

thanks Toby.

The lower bellows frame for the Riviera top is not flat.  There is a portion of the wood frame that hangs down into the hole.  The Riviera-shaped hole.  I have a sunroof-shaped hole.  They aren't the same.  Enter saws.  To make the frame fit, 3 inches of lower frame needs to be notched out.  The notch needs to be 1" high (up to the bottom edge of the bellows).  With the notch cut out of both the driver and passenger side fronts, the lower frame started to fit.  We spent the next couple of hours measuring and remeasuring, shoving the lower bellows wood frame around to get it into the right spot.  Once we got the spot set, we started chewing through drill bits trying to get a pilot hole bored.  Fun times.  There are 3 hex-topped (6mm) screws on each side holding the lower bellows frame to the bus-roof.  Since we omitted the lower wood strips, we put 2 more 6mm hex screws through the lower bellows frame into the sides of the sunroof hole.  To make sure we were square, we brought the bed plywood sheet (under the bellow frame) and set everything.  Re-measuring. Re-setting.  Then, we marked the holes, moved the lower frame out of the way, bored the holes and screwed it down.  We're square, and the bellows are fixed to the bus-roof.

back home w/top on

Next, I need to resolve the water barrier at the bottom of the bellows and get the scissors-supports mounted. Then, I'll clean-up the top interior and the foamy customization I mentioned earlier in this post.  Should be a productive weekend.  Oh, I almost forgot: he fits in the garage.... once I disconnect the auto-door opening, push the door as open as I can make it, and hold the door open with a vice-grip!  Love it!  As always, thanks for following along,

GPS in a motionless bus

In an earlier post, I mentioned driving to NorCal to see the Dead in my friend's '73 bus. Among the highlights of that trip were the electronic gadgetry that he brought along. Between the MP3 player and the satellite radio to keep us forever surrounded with bootleg live-Dead (or Jerry Band), he had a GPS.

I have to say first seeing a GPS unit attached to the windscreen of that old aircooled bus seemed anachronistic, but I quickly found myself marveling in its glow. Simple things like "where's In'n'Out Burger" in some strange town we were passing through on I-5 were easily answered (there isn't one until Redding). Even watching our estimated time of arrival slowly move further out as we were unable to keep up with the speed limit was strangely satisfying.

When my wife joined us for the second run to see the Dead, she, too, saw the benefits of knowing what lay ahead. We were able to easily find a grocery store, for example, for the weekend camping at the Gorge. (aside) Which reminds me, I don't know if it was the cooking outdoors, or the music, or all the militant vegetarians camping in the lot, but there was something about having seasoned meat in bite-sized chunks that was exceptionally tasty that weekend. I remember sitting inside the Amphitheater during the set break and getting asked by Mike "meat snack? hehehe". Total highlight :) But I digress (/aside). This Christmas, my wife threw down and got me a Garmin 265WT GPS. No sooner than she gave it to me she started wondering if she should have buyer's remorse. I couldn't find a good comparator web site (cnet filtering was unworkable), and she said the other one she was looking at (that many user responses said was "better") was a Magellan 1424.

I looked at the specs for the 2, and I think the Garmin wins hands-down. The Garmin has free lifetime traffic, bluetooth support for handsfree speakerphone, and all the guidance stuff that Magellan has. I couldn't find a single thing the Magellan brought to the table as unique functionality. The real test was using the thing, though. Monday morning brought all of us back to the regular work-week. As one would expect in NW Oregon, it was raining, and traffic was heavy. No sooner did I get on I-5 than the GPS popped up with "traffic ahead" with a little flashing red car icon in the upper left corner. I fingered the icon, and it showed the freeway and the intersecting ones with colored lines to indicate where the traffic was bad. Eyes on the road! Ok, snap back to the 50mph traffic, and the voice pops again with some other warning like "traffic stopped 2 miles ahead". I glance at the GPS and see the color of the freeway ahead is red. Back on the road, I started to see taillights light up. I worked over to an exit ramp and started working surface streets. At the first red light, I zoomed out until I could see a really long stretch of freeway and I could see that the traffic snarl was miles long. I was able to detour and get back on the freeway after the tie-up. I found out afterward that the snarl was a multi-car wreck that delayed traffic for over an hour. It delayed me less than 15 minutes when I add in the time of driving surface streets instead of freeway.

When I think of the advantages of knowing where you are, it is hard to imagine why I would travel without one. Then, I remember that part of the joy of the journey is not knowing what's around the next corner - not knowing what lay ahead. If we already know all that there is to see, will we still look? How much more focus do we really need on the destination? Personally, I find I have to exert more effort than ever to recognize the value of the journey, to remember the process is the goal. I am very grateful for the live traffic alerts, and being able to find out if there's a public restroom within the next few miles. I hope that I can gain the restraint to otherwise ignore the shiny object on the dash and enjoy the vistas beyond the windscreen. More next time -

WALSTIB - 7

Ok, I didn't complete the story of the trip into the Gorge to see the Dead. I'll hit that in this post with a small update on the bus progress. See WALSTIB - 6 for the previous chapter.

The show the night before lasted until after Midnight, and we weren't walking throguh Shakedown Street until after 12:30AM. Even then, the place was bumpin' with vendors and concert-goers. The guy with the PA system was crankin' out a mid 70's Scarlet Begonias, and the foot traffic was kicking up a thin fog of dust. As we noticed all weekend, the vending was very light in terms of variety. It seemed like everyone was selling the same cheap glass pipes and nothing else. We couldn't find anyone selling friendship bracelets on cardboard sheets or good home-made 'dyes. Overall, it was pretty disappointing as a consumer. So, we hit the bus and had beers with our Canadian friends.

The following morning, we were greeted by the smells of breakfast instead of the yells from the Idiots of Yak. The guy a couple of cars away was whipping up pancakes and sausages with OJ for $5 a plate. We figured that was easier than going through the hassle ourselves, so we grabbed some breakfast and made coffee. By the time we finished eating, the lot was on the move. Some cars had already left and most of the remaining were packing up. We did the same and were moving by 10. The lot had only one official exit, so it was pretty jammed up, but we discovered a break in the fence that allowed us to go around the line of cars, so we were out of the lot in uunder 15 minutes. After filling the tank, and checking the oil, we hit the freeway.

We stopped at the same rest area where we met the Canadians for one last pit stop. It was just after leaving that rest area that we had our first mechanical mishap. The engine started firing inconsistently and within a few minutes stopped firing altogether. Rolling in the breakdown lane, we coasted to a stop under a mid-day sun. We quickly diagnosed the coil as bad, so we grabbed a replacement from the parts bin. I noted to Ed that the replacement coil wasn't a hi-fire coil, so we should probably think about swapping out the dizzy at the next convenient stopping point. Belle gave us the signal that we needed to do something quickly by acting up again. We weren't near any ramps, so we pulled over under an overpass. We pulled the dizzy, blocked the vacuum port on the centermount Weber (32/36 progressive) and put in the old 009. During this roadside stop, we saw many buses and vanagons pass. Many honked horns and more than a couple stopped to see if they could help. Even Washington Highway Patrol visited us. While Mike watched for out of control drivers to our rear, Ed and I took turns wrestling the dizzy in. We took the opportunity to eat lunch and then got back on our way.

Just before we crossed over the Columbia River, we stopped at Stonehenge. I didn't know the place existed, but a few other Deadheads did. We pulled up to the sound of a drum circle, and found 3 drummers playing for a couple of dancers in the center of Stonehenge. That was pretty cool. We visited the now-out-of-business visitor's store and found those elusive friendship bracelets. We bought a bunch and some other gifts and headed home.

bus update:
very little progress this week. It has been over 100*, setting record temperatures throughout the Pacific NorthWest. When I get home from work, I've been taking the kids to the pool in attempt to keep cool. So, I haven't done a thing. I'll be getting a few last items for the fuel system tonight on my way home. I should be finishing that out tomorrow or Sunday. On Sunday, Hal will be back to work on the mounts. If there is time, we will be looking into radiator placement.

pictures:
top - leaving the Gorge.
middle - Mike keeping us safe
bottom - Belle at Stonehenge

Camp cancelled, work progressed instead

The day before we were going to leave for Central Oregon, we found out that our reservations had been canceled because of "bear activity". So, while our friends (Belle's owners) tried to find another place to camp, my wife started to suffer through some kind of sinus thing. We packed for the trip, loaded the car and hoped for the best. Our friends found another spot, and called us with the details, and we shared our bad news. Thursday morning, we couldn't go; she was still sick. Friday morning, we couldn't go for the same reason, so we ended up canceling the whole trip. Our friends went, though we haven't heard from them since we called with the bad news, I'm sure they had fun. I already had the 2 days off from work, so between running for tea, making meals, yard work projects and helicoptering the kids around, I got some things done on the bus. Details follow...

Starters for starters
I took the starter to a rebuilder on the SE side (All Battery & Electric) to have the starter I was given by Justin the TDI guru. The starter tested fine, but I noted one thing: the sprocket on the starter pops out about 3/8" when 12V is applied. I thought this was especially interesting since the adapter allows the starter sprocket to mesh with the flywheel when it is not energized. This makes me think that the starter will introduce some drag on the drivetrain that is not typical. I'm going to look into making a 3/8" standoff. I think a piece of pipe for the starter and a couple of nuts on the bolts would do it. Since the starter didn't require a rebuild, I'll be returning the starter to Justin and start shopping for a starter. The rebuild was estimated at $60 to $160 depending on how "toast" it was.

tanks for nuttin
I thought I'd drop the engine, slap in the fuel tank, and get the engine back in on Friday. This would be my first attempt with the ATV jack adapter that I built. The adapter worked beautifully. I was able to set it without a great deal of guessing, and I had complete control of the engine at-pitch. Dropping and raising the engine is now very easy, and I can drop / re-install within 45 minutes by myself. Unfortunately, the engine is still much taller than the old engine, so the rear end of the bus must be raised considerably to get the engine completely free of the bus. Anyway, in order to get the tank in, I had to raise the right side with the BusDepot jack all the way to its highest setting. Once the tank was threaded in, the engine wouldn't go in because of the vacuum pump and the hot coolant exit flange (even the smaller non-US manual version).

So, I dropped the engine again. After giving it considerable thought, I've decided to remove the vacuum pump, and put a block-off plate in its place. I'll be selling the pump to pay for a Cummins electric vacuum pump. For the flange, I am not sure what to do. I had a spare and I cut it up to see how bad the clearances are. The RTV is still setting, so I'll post on that another time. I replaced the thermostat and the pipe that goes with it this morning. I figured it might be a good time to get it done.

Completely tank'd
Since I've decided to keep the original tank and figure out how to fit the engine around it, I had some tasks left. I reconnected the side vents with some fuel line and clamps. The original fuel filler vent was mostly steel, but it used a no longer available (NLA) rubber hose. So, I replaced the whole stretch with a single rubber hose. I grounded the fuel level sensor and strapped the tank down. All that's left is threading in the nipple at the bottom and tying in a "Y" for the return line.

I popped the engine back in this morning. Hal and I will attack the mounts again next Sunday. Hopefully, we'll fab a vacuum pump block-off plate. I'll look into the water flange viability before then. Not sure if I'll make any real movement this week, but I hope to get the "Y" to finish off the fuel delivery and try the flange.

Pictures (from top):
1 - the current state of the engine. No vacuum pump, no water outlet. holes stuffed with rags.

2 - engine in with tank before tank was strapped down, and before the problems were discovered.

3 - engine on the adapter. works better than expected.

4 - finger showing where the badness is with the vacuum pump.

5 - my hacked-down flange after I removed 3/4" of pipe from the mount point to the pipe. I RTV'd the parts together to see if a flange like this would work. Unless something unexpected happens, this is not the permanent solution.