4Peaks 2017 Festival Report

Well, it's the middle of festival season, and I'm realizing that I hadn't summarized the 4 day music festival around the Summer Solstice yet. So, today is all about 4Peaks. I covered the getting there and getting home odyssey in 4Peaks 2017 Road Report.

Location Location Location
After having this festival hosted at the "Rockin' A Ranch" for the first 9 years, 4Peaks moved to the other side of Bend for it's 10 year anniversary event. The Rockin' A Ranch had been receiving noise complaints from neighbors, and the festival had started to outgrow the space in Tumalo. The new location is Stevens Ranch, on the SouthEast edge of Bend. This new location is at least twice the size, making for larger camping zones for everyone.

With the new location came some welcome new additions, like a map of the entire grounds where areas had names. This made is much easier to tell friends where to find you. In the old location, you had the RV area near the entrance, the valley and the far ridge to give general areas. Otherwise, you gave directions like "over by the van with the big flag". With a festival as small as 4Peaks had been, this worked okay. This year, telling folks we were at "The Junction" made it very easy.

Carabus Camping
As I mentioned, the overall festival space was probably twice the size available in prior years. This meant folks spread out a little bit more, and there were open grassy areas where no one was camped at all. As a result, kids had safe open places to group and simply play. The greater space between camp zones could have created more barriers between each other, but we found that we actually visited with more people than we had in prior years. Whether the space was a contributor, we can't really be sure, but I think our having parked across the road from the Furthur bus may have.

This year, Boo and I carabus'd with GratefulEd and his '73 Riviera poptop, so our camping spread was a little bigger. We parked in an "L" shape, placing our sliding doors on the inside, and our driver's sides pointing at "The Junction" intersection. This really helped keep the dust down as cars and foot-traffic moved through the intersection. Between the buses, GratefulEd erected his BusDepot exclusive canopy, while Boo and I put up our 1st edition version of that canopy. 10 years later, that canopy has about had it, but it held up for the weekend. Last, we put a 10x10 canopy between them, creating a relatively large covered space, keeping us dry for the 1st half of the festival and shaded for the second half. We brought a stack of rugs, so we covered the dust with them, scattered our camping chairs, coolers and new table (See Camping Table). Midway through the festival, after the rain moved on, we put up some wind breaks in the form of tie-dyed sheets to reduce the dust from the wind as well as improve the shade. Overall, it was a very comfortable and welcoming spot.

Friends and Friends of Friends

With each passing year, we seem to find a few friends from the years before, and make a few new ones along the way. We were greeted with appetizers by our neighbor to the north before we were completely set up, for example. Our neighbors to the west were ranch owners from near the old location, and we shared food, drinks and lots of conversation over the course of 4 days. Beyond our neighbors, we had old friends and VW-curious stopping by, sharing stories, whisky and appetizers. As much as we had started coming to this festival for a few bands, increasingly we go to 4Peaks for the festers.

Radio
One big new addition to the festival experience this year was the simulcasting of the music from the main and tent stages on Saturday. Since it was the first year for the community radio station, there were some technical difficulties as they shifted from stage to stage. That's to be expected, though I'd encourage them to borrow some technical help from Portland's KBOO, since they have been live broadcasting the waterfront blues festival in Portland for 25 years. Lots of experience, and also community radio. Most of the music performed on Saturday did make it to the air, though, and I sincerely hope they not only do it again, but broadcast all 4 days.. just don't talk while performers are.

Bands
The bands this year were arguably some of the biggest names yet. While we were first attracted to this festival for Melvin Seals and the JGB, this year's festival was co-headlined by moe and RailRoad Earth with the Infamous Stringdusters, Poor Man's Whisky and Karl Denson's Tiny Universe sharing the second level billing. We were treated to Achilles Wheel, MoonAlice, Warren G Hardings on the tent stage as well as the return of the Students of String Theory on Sunday morning. I had only heard of many of these bands so getting to see them (or hear the simulcast) was a real treat.

moe - I had heard of these guys for years, and somehow never heard anything they'd done. They played for 2 hours straight, and when they laid down a groove, it was real good. Unfortunately, they subscribe to the Phish kind of thinking where if the crowd is diggin on something, change the beat, rhythm and key without warning and decimate the vibe. Over the years, I've called this "Groove Assassin" and moe had this at an award winning level. They weren't as good as their hype, unfortunately, but the festival-goers showed them the love.

RailRoad Earth - Boo and I had first heard of RREarth at the last NYE show by a Dead affiliate on our honeymoon going on 5 years ago (See HNY) from our neighbors on the mezzanine. We hadn't ever heard them, nor seen them, but they were awesome. Closing out the first full day of the festival is a tough slot, especially knowing fest-favorite Poor Man's Whisky is following them in the tent stage afterwards. They crushed it. One of their players was not with them, and they had a guest on the organ, but that guy was killin' it. Billed as more of a bluegrass band, they sounded more Americana... with an organ. So good. Seriously. Definite must see.

Infamous Stringdusters - Most folks from the PacNW or even the western end of the US knows of the Infamous Stringdusters. They are regulars on the festival circuit, though we hadn't seen nor heard them before and they'd hadn't been to 4Peaks at least as long as we've been going. As the last band on the main stage before RREarth, they were kind of the warm-up band for the first night finale, but they brought it, and raised the bar. I'm not usually a big fan of the banjo, and while they had banjo representation on pretty much everything, it didn't dominate like the Death-by-Banjo experience we had at NorthWest String Summit in the Summer of '15. I just realized I never posted on that. Drat. Regardless, the Stringdusters were great.

Karl Denson's Tiny Universe - At the start of the festival, a new stage schedule was released and the Universe had been moved to the main stage, shifting festival favorite Poor Man's Whisky to the tent. When I saw that, I figured there would be a revolt -OR- the Tiny Universe was just that good. Either way, we had to be there. It was so good. These guys completely stole the festival.If you haven't seen them, go. You can't help yourself from dancing once they get started. Karl was the sax player for The Rolling Stones, and he surrounds himself with young talented players. Their energy is contagious and execution fantastic. Mid-set, they brought a young guy, probably 15 or so, up on stage to sit in on one of the keyboards. Even he ripped it up. After their show, they were the only artists I saw walking the festival grounds, in the camping areas, just hanging out. I'm a huge fan and will go out of my way to see them again. I wholeheartedly encourage you to do the same.

The rest of the bands on the list above I heard bits and pieces of. MoonAlice, I've since seen on internet streams, and they sound pretty good. I regret not hearing more of them at 4Peaks. Achilles Wheel, I heard the first song. They played the tent between the Stringdusters and RR Earth, so a sacrifice for food was needed. Unfortunately, they were sacrificed. That one song sounded really good though. Rocked a bit.

Students of String Theory - This is a loose collection of students at the String Theory studio in Bend. Over the years, a few of the students have really grown, and their presence on the tent stage on Sunday morning has become one of our favorite parts of the festival. It's quiet, everyone is a little blurry, and these kids make some great music. This year, they were pre-empted by Pitchfork Revolution (who were really really good), playing acoustic instruments around a single old-skool mic. The first String Theory student, whose name I or course now can't remember, has been playing this stage for as long as we've been coming to 4Peaks. Her teenaged voice is hauntingly mature, bringing tears to the eye as she shares her song of an also-young friend who recently passed of cancer. She will be playing big stages one day.

I think that's it for the festival review. It seems like it gets better every year, and unlike most festivals, 4Peaks doesn't seem to have identity problems. They are small, and like being small. They aren't trying to get bigger name acts which require more money which means more festival attendees which bring more security, etc etc etc. Instead, 4Peaks has figured out how to deliver a great festival with a few small national acts mixed in with regional bands at a price that works. As always, thanks for following along-
1.. 2.. 3.. 4Peaks!

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.

Dog Days and Catching Rays

I'll admit that late July / early August isn't exactly the Dog Days of Summer, but it's pretty darn close. After that last posting, my family and I focused on a camping trip into Central Oregon, and didn't really think about the bus. I'll talk about our camping trip some and then touch on some recent discoveries that I think will be useful as I push through the VAG-COM codes.

East Lake
Since the bus isn't running, we drove my wife's Subaru on a 3 night trip to East Lake, in Central Oregon towing an open-top trailer full of stuff for 2 families. I wasn't familiar with the location, but it is 6400' above sea-level in a dormant volcano crater. This crater is so large, there are 2 lakes within it as well as a large central peak (Paulina Peak) that reaches over 6800' above sea level. if you live in the Rocky Mountains, you may remember what those first few days or weeks were like after moving there - every breath counts. I couldn't believe how quickly I'd get a head-rush, or run out of breath just walking at a NYC pace. the Lake was beautiful, and the kids loved swimming in the clear cool water. The camp sites are large (though without hookups, if you're into that) and clean. While we were there, we visited the Big Obsidian Flow, Paulina Peak and the East Lake Resort as well as tooled about on Ed's electric-motored 10' inflate-a-raft.
On a vehicular note, we got over 25 miles per gallon hauling that trailer. 2 weeks earlier, we took a 2 night trip our to the coast with one of those soft-shell things on the roof and only got 22mpg. I thought it was interesting that we could bring twice as much stuff and get better mileage just by changing the way we transported it. The trailer was a 7' x 4' U-Haul costing us $15 a day. Considering we don't have much use for a trailer, nor a place to store it, renting one was a great solution for us. We'll be doing that again, I'm sure.

VAG-COM Discoveries
If you read my last posting, you'll remember that I was able to get the main electrical systems to power up. Unfortunately, I received 6 different codes that need to be resolved for reliable running. After investigating these codes through the internets, I think I have been able to determine a pattern for 2/3 of them:

00765 - Modulating Piston Movement Sensor (G149) Intermittent

01268 - Quantity Adjuster Upper Limit (N146)

01268 - Quantity Adjuster Lower Limit (N146)
00626 - Glow Plug Indicator Open or Short to Ground Intermittent
All of these codes could be caused by a short in the harness dealing with the injection pump. When next I get a few hours, I'll start working that harness with the multi-meter and find the bad ground / short to the engine.

00522 - Engine Coolant Temp Sensor Open or Short to +
This could be a simple case of an air bubble around the sensor. Since the coolant pump hasn't actually tried to work the fluid around, there are probably lots of air pockets that need to be flushed out. Once the 4 codes above are dealt with, I think starting the engine and getting the air out will be next, and this code should disappear through that process.

00626 - Glow Plug Indicator Open or Short to Ground Intermittent
This could be one or more bad glow plugs. I remembered that I used this engine as a glow plug donor when I was trying to clear this (or a similar) code on my 2000 Jetta so it could clear DEQ. I probably took one or more of the good ones and left one or more bad ones in this engine. I'll deal with this last, after the other codes are gone. It could require a new glow plug harness, but I thought I already did that on this engine. I'll have to check my old posts :)

That's it for now. Work has been very hectic, trying to get up to speed while juggling a "red ball" project. Hopefully, things will settle a little bit now that the red-ball is over, but to that respondent's point, corporate America is always hungry for your time.

mounts fab'd

It took a few hours, but Ed the welder knocked out a set of serviceable mounts for Hapy today. After a quick consultation, he took off to Home Depot for steel stock and assorted supplies. I, then, took the boys and a friend to the local Easter Egg hunt, with the dog. Unfortunately, the dog gets very excited around big groups of kids all hopped-up on sugar, so we had to stay off to the side. Shortly after we returned, Ed got back from Home Depot, and we (well, he, really) got to work.

I just realized I didn't finish the engine extraction story all the way. I left off last Saturday with uncertainty about jamming the new engine in, or fitting in the faux one. I chose the faux one after double checking measurements, and figuring that I was very close if not spot-on. We'll know when the engine install happens in a few weeks. I attached the adapter plate to the transaxle, and fitted the engine to the adapter, aligning it at the 15* angle mostly by eye. I knew where the driveshaft was supposed to go, so centering it was pretty straightforward. The challenge was figuring out where the block-to-adapter points were. I was able to identify one on the bottom and used that to align the rest. A little bailing wire to hold it in place, and the bus was ready for mount fabrication.

The how and the why:
First, we took an old moustache bar from a 72-79 bus, and cut out the middle section. It was then bolted into the stock frame mounts. Starting from the left (driver's) side, a down piece was fitted. Ed worked his way across, then constructed an engine tie-in for each side. On each end of the new moustache bar he attached a mount-point out of basic flat stock. He then welded up a bar from the side of the faux engine to the frame in front of the stock mount. There's an extra plate of flat stock welded in there too, to help support. Between the new bar and the mount-point on the moustache bar, an additional connection was made. At each end is flat stock that will require a bolt-hole boring when the engine is fitted. This design provides a triangular support on each side, connecting the side of the engine to the moustache bar and the frame. Once fitted, there should be "about an inch" of adjust-ability in all directions. The bolt holes will be drilled once the engine is set right, so it is torqued down solid. The picture here shows how they looked when he was finished, and before I metal etched and painted them.

The design did not include a vibration isolator, and we talked about that directly. It was his opinion that, since the transaxle was direct-mounted, any isolation effort would be wasted. We'll feel the vibration because of the direct transaxle-to-frame connections. If this proves to me incorrect, there is opportunity to adjust the design to incorporate an isolation solution later.


While Ed did all of the welding work, I set to work on the fuel tank. He only had the one shield anyway. The tank really wasn't that bad. I found that it had a very clean VDO fuel level sensor that I'll be reusing. The inside of the tank had some light rust, but it was all on the bottom. There wasn't any above the seam, which made my efforts much easier than other folks. The process is pretty straightforward and well-documented on the web: hot water & soap, metal clean, rust treat, metal etch, new tank seal. I was able to get as far as metal etch when the rain and hail began. While the metal etch dries completely overnight, the harsh weather should move out. I'll spread the new liquid seal tomorrow morning and spray-paint the outside shortly thereafter. The tank should be ready for re-install next weekend. Before then, I need to clean, noise-suppress and insulate the fuel tank bay. I'll be doing that next week at some point, work schedule willing.

Lots of progress, and more to come. It feels like this project is starting to gain some momentum. All the prep-work is starting to pay off. More later--