Christmas at SkiBowl

Continuing my posts from the winter break, I was able to pull my wife away from her seemingly incessant workload to play in the snow for Christmas. Today's post covers that. No bus content this time.

Getting There
On its surface, this should be relatively obvious: get in the car and drive there. Duh. Well, the TDI Jetta, Flash, has been hard starting since the weather started getting colder in the valley. He had some starting issues in late Summer/Fall too. I verified the alternator and replaced the battery, even re-did the vacuum lines and replaced the anti-shudder valve along the way (the original had a bunch of PO goop on it presumably to keep it working). My last resort, which I probably should have done sooner, was to replace the glow plugs. I replaced the glow plugs in the bus a while back and that motor fires right up every time. Since I went off-script for sourcing those plugs, I went to the same source for the Jetta: AccurateDiesel. They are based in Michigan and manufacture glow plugs for all kinds of vehicles, mostly domestic trucks. For $55 delivered, they make TDI plugs. I'm sure some will read this and bristle at not using Bosch plugs. It's okay. Make your own choices. These plugs work great, and the Jetta starts more responsively than before.

Beer Stube deck

Anyway, I replaced the plugs on Christmas Eve, so we were car-ready. Boo had to work until after dinner time on Christmas Eve, so I got all our gear ready while I waited for her to come home. We awoke early on Chirstmas, not wakened by excited little ones, rather, an alarm like it was a workday. Swift shower, breakfast and coffee, and we loaded up Flash. We were leaving the Portland west side by 7:AM.

Expectedly, the traffic through the city was very light. It wasn't until we were on I-84 that we started really seeing other cars. With such light friction, we were in Sandy shortly after 8 and chaining-up along the 26 in the Mt Hood Forest by 8:30. We were met with cries of Merry Christmas from the parking lot attendant at SkiBowl, as well as a less-than-1/3-full lot.

The Fluffy
The weather guys in the Portland area have been trying to outdo each other with their descriptions of the snow that has been hammering the Cascade Mountains this past week. Each day,  there has been measurable snowfall of more than 6". Some days have seen almost a foot. With the weather folks going bonkers and the resorts also describing the snow as some of the best ever, our expectations were suitably high. Very high. We were gloriously not disappointed.
The snow was arguably perfect. There was maybe 2-3" of fluff atop a firm base. Aside from a little bit, and I mean little, of icy at the very top of Upper Reynolds where the sun break had struck, SkiBowl was ice-free. The riding was fast, but controllable, allowing new and experienced riders alike an opportunity to have a day of their choosing. Most of the resort had been groomed, but "Surprise" hadn't so we were able to get our rough-stuff-fluff fix in as well.

The Staff

Upper Bowl from lift

After the horrible season last year, SkiBowl had to almost completely re-staff. While there are a few folks around who have been there for a few years, most of the staff are brand new. Their new-ness was pretty apparent, but not entirely in a bad way. We met Josten, a brand new server in the Cascade Lodge who brought an energetic positive energy. There was a new woman working in the gift shop alongside a couple of old pro's who seemed right with the flow. At the lifts, though, the new folks didn't quite have the vibe yet. On Lower Bowl, there was some confusion, resulting in only one of the picket lines getting used. This created what looked like a backup on the SkiBowl camera, but the queue actually moved quite quickly. The biggest miss was at the Multipor lift where the guy managing the queue didn't have the vibe at all. He created a longer queue of more frustrated people because of how much time he would spend with each person, verifying their pass. I've had an easier time getting on an airplane. I'm sure he'll mellow out, but he needs to be paired with an old-timer to get a better handle on how SkiBowl operates.

The Services
Boo and I tried just about everything SkiBowl had to offer. We started at the Beer Stube after getting our passes, and sampled the platter of fries from the cafeteria next door. The pours were strong, and the pile of fries big enough that we shared it with the ladies at the table next to us. After some runs and another round, we took the shuttle over to the Cascade Lodge (SkiBowl East) for dinner. Once we conquered the queue at Multipor, we hit the Historic Warming Hut for Americano's. At each stop, the servers were great, friendly and responsive. The shuttle driver chatted us up as we negotiated the traffic in Govy.

The Crowd

Upper Reynolds from below

The Govy traffic was completely hidden from us on the slopes, but the crowds that blew in from that traffic were most certainly not. Around mid-day, SkiBowl got quite busy very quickly and the crowd changed from mellow and content. Turns out, there was a major car fire on Timberline Highway, blocking traffic in both directions to/from Timberline Lodge while the fire was put out and the occupants treated. Since it was Christmas, many had their holiday "ruined" by the blocked road, so they chose to suffer the rest of us at SkiBowl with their misery. As awesome as the snow and the workers were, many of the patrons were not. Boo made a point of shouting "Merry Christmas" at the lift riders as we slid under or from the lift as others passed. These calls were almost entirely met with a flat look. The restaurants and bars were filled.... with somber faces. To those who chose to spread their ruined Christmas, I ask that next year you just wander into the forest or go home. SkiBowl doesn't need your second-place attitude.

We had a great holiday, arriving home completely tapped from playing in the snow all day. With comments of the "best Christmas ever", we both look forward to what could be an amazing season on the mountain. So, if you were like me, skeptical of snow after last year, I strongly encourage you to go up... just bring your positive happy-to-be-there energy :)

That's it for today. Thanks, as always, for following along, This will be my last post for the year, so Happy New Year 2016.

bum buh NAH!

In my last post, I talked about getting the coolant to stop dripping.  Today, I'll briefly cover the test flight.

Re-Assembly

rare August rain approaches

Sometimes, when you put a project back together, you almost know it isn't right.  The re-assembly seems to take a little longer, parts don't fit together as easily.  Its almost like the repair gods are trying to tell you "don't bother, you got it wrong", but we press on.  Other times, the re-assembly is flawless.  The hoses just line up, the parts simply click together.  The re-assembly of the bus after trying to fix the coolant leak ran the spectrum.  I got to where I couldn't trust the re-assembly ease as a barometer for when my repair was crap.  So, this time, when everything just fit (I didn't drop any fasteners, and the engine started on the first touch with the key, etc ), I didn't trust that nodding, "oh yeah" feeling.

Taking Flight
I didn't drive very far.  In fact, I didn't actually leave the neighborhood.  Amid cheers from the boys, I drove out the driveway, and down to the end of the street, turned around and backed back into the driveway.  All told, including just letting the engine idle, it took me 15 minutes or less.  The engine didn't get up to normal operating temperature, but in the past it didn't need to for the stream of coolant to appear behind the bus as I drove.  This time.. there wasn't a stream.  There were no well-spaced drips.  There was nothing but dry pavement... and more cheers.  This time from me.  "bum buh NAH!"  we have success!

Bath Time

afterbath

So, after so many months of not operating, the boys wanted to give Hapy a bath.  We played with the hose and some soapy water and then let Hapy sit in the sun drying for the afternoon.  All the windows were open, the pop-top open and they clambered around inside like they were half their current ages again.  There are few things like a microbus for a fort when you're a kid.

So that's really it for today.  I plan to drive Hapy to work a couple/few times this week (with the life-raft bike in the back just in case) to verify the cooling.  I'm very optimistic.  He hasn't been this dry since I first installed the engine with Justin's engine harness.  The boys are already talking about taking the bus to the mountain this winter.  Fortunes can turn that way, I guess.  I suppose I should start thinking about how we should carry skis and snowboards next :)

That Familiar Feel of Snow

You may be happy to know that my blog hasn't been the only thing I've neglected over the last couple of months.  Today, for the first time in over a month, the family and I hit Mount Hood.  I'll touch on that and the latest page in the saga of my Jetta.  No bus news today.  I was going to test drive him this weekend, but I focused on other things instead.  If I have a dry and uneventful morning this week, I'll drive him to work as a test flight.

Flash Lives

Poor Man's Ramp

First, some context.  The symptoms were simple: little power, hard starting, seemingly no turbo and black exhaust.  For codes, I was getting a P1556: low or inconsistent boost.  Yep, the turbo wasn't kicking in properly.  Now, based on the days when the turbo wasn't kicking in on the bus, I knew the sound of a turbo firing up, but not boosting.  That was the sound I was hearing.  On Saturday, I prepared to get the Jetta (Flash) operating right.  Since I'm without a place to work on it, I set up on the street, using the poor-boy's ramp: the curb.  Once the engine is running, crank the wheel all the way so that the back of the front tire is facing the curb.  Then back-up.  Simple.  I slid under Flash and verified the connections from the turbo to the intercooler were good.  From the top-side, though, things were sideways.  The hard-pipe coming out of the intercooler was loose and grinding against the coolant pump.  We have our problem.  I drove it to Johnny, showed him the evidence, and he fixed it.  He did my rear brake pads too, and didn't charge me for either.  Thanks, Johnny.  Flash runs awesome.  Now, I need a pair of tires, and he's ready for another 40k+ miles.

Snow

C resting mid-Molly's

I hit Timberline with my boys and Boo today.  She couldn't slide, needing to grade student work unfortunately.  Turned out C had left his boots at his mom's house anyway, so he went in Boo's (they have the same size feet).  The snow was hard-packed with about 1/2 an inch of puff on top.  It was fast, but the crashes were painful.  I only spilled a couple of times (once on my helmet-protected skull, trying to follow C off a jump).  It really was what my mood needed, though.  There is nothing like a day of playing with your kids.

I Know that Feeling
We left the mountain in a bit of a rush.  T & C were due back at their mom's, so they left in the lead car while Boo and I arranged the ski equipment into the larger carry-car.  As we made our way off the mountain, we discovered an ice-patch.  Ahh... I haven't lost traction on slide-y stuff in years.  Funny how the old skills kick in, though.  Total calm, turn into the skid and lightly tap the brakes.  We righted our descent.  No side-rail impacts, no nerves even, really.  Oddly enough, the car behind us didn't hit the ice, nor were they deterred in their close traveling distance.  Bah!

That's it for tonight.  Have a great week, and thanks for following along.  I'll try to get back to this posting with a couple pictures...

HNY

Happy New Year.  It has been a whirlwind month since I last wrote.  I'll hit the highlights.  There will be NO BUS CONTENT.

Snowblind

SkiBowl Waming Hut

I've mentioned "Boo" over the last year and a half when I flap about personal / non-bus stuff.  We got married in the snow on Mount Hood in late December.  Members of both of our families made the trek to SkiBowl, and stood with us in the snow for a brief ceremony among the trees and flurries.  Boo and I took a run down Mid- and Lower Reynolds with T shooting with a Go-Pro camera.  Then we met the rest of the family for drinks at Beer Stube.  The rest of the day was a mix of playing in the snow and visiting family.  We rented a cabin for the days on either side of "vow day", so while our parents, etc, headed back to the valley, we were 10 minutes from "home".

Saturday Night's Alright for Partying
Yeah, I know the song is a little different.  We threw a reception on the last Saturday of December to celebrate the vows we spoke 2 days earlier.  We were joined by around 85 friends and family, ate Chinese drank Stella and wine, etc.  Good times.  It seems that most of our friends who have kids have little ones, and the party broke up by 11.  Just as well, though, as Boo and I had a morning flight to SF the next day.

If You're Going to San Francisco

Lers Ros

After a night of celebrating, rising before dawn was not exactly easy.  Neither Boo nor I had really unpacked from the mountain, and we had little interest in really dedicating to packing for a few days in SF.  A creaky rise followed by a frigid drive, had us waiting for the long-term parking shuttle as pre-dawn turned to dawn.  We breezed through security, grabbed coffees at the old Coffee People inside the terminal and hit the gate with 15 minutes to spare.  Ahh... The flight was uneventful, and we found the folks at Oakland International to be very friendly and helpful.  We took the shuttle to Oakland Coliseum, and picked up BART....  12 hours after our party ended, we were checked into our hotel.  Things turned interesting at this point.

The hotel (Hotel Renoir) is over 100 years old and sits right on Market Street between the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium and the Warfield Theater in Tenderloin.  The hotel had recently undergone a renovation, but it appeared to exclude the heat system.  For the 4 days we were in the hotel, we were on our own for heat...in late December / early January... during a unusually cold snap.  Hotel management did comp us free breakfasts for the 1st and 2nd, though.  We napped, checked the view from the roof and then walked to Walgreen's and bought a space heater :)  Problem solved.  We grabbed dinner at a fantastic Thai place (Lers Ros) and walked a bit of Tenderloin to get some bearings, including a walk-past of the Civic Auditorium to see what the lines and crowd were like to anticipate NewYears.  It was not impressive.  Lots of drug scene, and not much in terms of quality wares being sold.  The line was ridiculously long too.  Hmm...

New Years Day

Renoir Hotel

The first morning in SF was again clear and cold.  We set out on a day-long walk that took us from Market to Japantown, the Painted Ladies, Haight-Ashbury and back again.  We grabbed some quick eats and hit the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium for Furthur.  We thought the doors opened at 7:30, but that was wen the band was supposed to start.  Clueless, we simply walked up and through the doors into the venue (no line), and headed for the mezzanine.  We set up in a standing-only spot in the walkway, dead center, behind the handicapped zone.  No sooner had we chosen our spot, the lights dimmed, Bob, Phil and friends it the stage and the show started.  The sound was perfect, dancing roomy and the neighbors welcoming.  We celebrated both our new marriage and NewYears with 10+k friends.  The band played until nearly 2, and we didn't get back to the hotel 2 blocks away until after 3.
We spent the better part of NewYears Day sleeping and watching football.  That evening, we had been given a gift of cocktails at "Top of the Mark" (TotM).  Not thinking about the effect of SF hills on legs that spent the prior night dancing for 5 hours, we set off on foot up Russian Hill (I think).  Nearly sweating upon arrival at TotM, the view and the treatment were amazing.  We sat, sipping champagne, watching the shadows stretch from the setting sun across the Bay.  Again, we set off on foot, through the Financial District to the Esplanade, and then along the warfs to Pier 39 for dinner.

Bill Graham Civic Auditorium

I don't know how much we walked in SF, but I'm sure it was multiple miles.  Our last morning was a flash of checking out, BART'ing and bus'ing back to Oakland International.  We absolutely loved SF, and decided right then that we'd adopt the 49ers.  We also discovered we can travel together... we roll and press on the same things.  That's it for now.

White Friday 2012

First, to my readers from the United States, I hope you had a pleasant Thanksgiving full of your favorite delights.  I enjoyed family, food and football.  Watching the Lions finally win and the Cowboys lose to the Redskins were especially enjoyable.  I regret, however, that I was unable to get the bus operational in time for White Friday.  Again, the battery has inexplicably drained, and my charger is back in the storage facility.  I'll need to charge or jump the bus back to life and then drive around a bit before taking the journey to Mt. Hood.  I did celebrate White Friday at Timberline as planned, though, and I'm going to focus on that instead :)

Rain? What Rain?

Mt Hood Hwy

Starting on Monday, we watched the weather forecasts and snow reports.  Every one of them had some form of drizzle in the plan for White Friday.  I thought for sure that we would have a grey one instead.  All reports had the rain starting around noon, so Boo and I got ourselves out of the house early.  Well, it was early for us on a weekend day- 9:30AM.  Driving Flash with gusto, we got to Timberline before 11.  When you arrive at Timberline, you pass the overflow lot first.  This is usually your early signal of how busy the resort is.  Last year, for example, the overflow lot was almost completely full, and the runs were too.  This year, however, there were less than 2 rows of cars in the overflow.  Once you round the corner from the overflow lot, the main lot is visible on your left.  The main lot was less than half full.  Apparently, everyone else heard the rain threats and gave up on the snow.  Sucka's.

... and then there was sliding

mid-run under the Molly's lift.
Mt. Jefferson deep in the background

The upper mountain (Magic Mile and Palmer) was closed due to lack of visibility.  The clouds were low, but the wind was too.  Most of the lower mountain (Bruno's, Pucci, Molly's, Stormin' Norman, Jeff Flood) was open, though, with just Jeff Flood closed because it is the lowest of them all, and those runs were too soft.  Early season brings a funny split crowd.  There are a group of snow junkies who are quite good and a group of brand-new-to-the-sport folks.  On Friday, the junkies mostly went over to Stormin' Norman for the grind rails and jumps and the newbies stayed mostly on the beginner slope Bruno's.  This left the Pucci and Molly's runs lightly populated, leaving Boo and me some open terrain for fun.  The queue for the lifts were maybe as long as 5 chairs long at the peak with some runs ending with no line at all.  The snow was relatively well-tread, but there was an inch of puff on top and plenty of fluffy off the main trails.  We bounced through un-groomed moguls near the top of Pucci, raced down the Thunder bowl and carved Vicky's Run before stopping to meet my brother E and his daughters K&K for lunch.  E, K&K don't slide, but they love the snow.  They drove up just to visit the white stuff, make snow forts and sled.  After a brief visit, they headed for the out-of-bounds and Boo and I went back to carving.  After 9 or 10 runs, we called it a day.  No rain.  It was actually quite nice.

That's it for today.  I hope you all found a way to celebrate White Friday.

Weather Whether Whatever

Yep, its been a month.  I really don't know where the time goes.  When I look at my calendar for that past month, its been all over the place, so I can't point to one thing as my time killer.  I think its simply working too much.  I have had some time playing with the bus.  Boo and I hit the mountain for the first time yesterday, so I'll hit both of those today.

Whether Weather
When I first pulled the electronics together for the bus, I positioned the throttle unit (resistor pack that sends desired speed to computer) under the floor.  This area is protected by a square-ish pan with a couple of silver-dollar-sized machined holes that is supposed to be held on with 6 6mm bolts.  My bus being 40 years old, and having had multiple owners clowning on it, those bolt holes are not dependable.  For example, when I drove to the Futhur show I could hear the pan rattling in the wind.  Yikes.  Now, add the incessant rain we experience in the Pacific NorthWest and the sensitive electronics contained within.  Clearly, the bus was not ready for Fall, Winter and Spring.
First, I closed the machined holes with noise-reduction material.  This reduced the ambient noise as well. On top of that, I glued-in thin closed cell insulation for more noise containment.  I then ran 3/8" window insulation along the lip of the pan.  These 2 efforts solved the water problem, but I still had to get the pan attached to the bus such that the insulation would compress.  Since the bolts were rattling around the holes, I went to Home Despot and bought a handful of every bolt size from 6M to 8M in both metric and US sizes.  None of them worked.  So, I switched it up to thick (size 16) sheet metal screws, and sent one through the front-center and one through the rear-center.  The pan sealed right down and compressed the insulation.  Nice.  I tested the edges with a thin screwdriver, and I was unable to press past the insulation.  Problem seemingly solved.

I apologize for my lack of pictures.  The belly pan work was performed without the benefit of adequate light, so there were limited opportunities for taking pictures then either.  It looks like the drizzle has finally ended, so I'm going to head outside and address the turbo outlet that seems to loosen almost every time I drive the bus.  Once that's done, I just need to solve for the rear cabinet and protecting the electronics hidden underneath it.  Then, the bus will be ready for taking the family to the mountain regardless of the weather.

from 2011-2012 season a-top Palmer

Sister Hood
If you've read this blog long enough to have read entries from last Winter, you're already pretty well aware of my love of snow.  Season lift tickets went on sale a few weeks ago, and I outfitted the family with passes.  Of course, the kids keep growing, so 5 out of 6 of us got new boots (even me; mine were shot), and we spent last weekend at Next Adventure getting extra snow pants, a jacket or 2, etc.  As I write this, I'm starting to figure out where my month went... anyway, Boo and I took a test-flight to Timberline yesterday in my Jetta (bus may go next time).  T-line always has the glacier to slide on.  They call it the Palmer Snow Field; I call it the Palmer Ice Sheet, but either there was snow on Thursday, and it hadn't warmed above freezing since.  As we drove through Government Camp, all the trees had a light snow-dusting on them.  SkiBowl has a couple of inches and even Summit has some.
The road to Timberline was snow covered, but sanded.  We realized our chains were still in storage, so the slight drifts we experienced had us a little on edge.  Still, we made it to the parking lot unscathed.  It was cold.  I mean cold cold.  Almost 0*F cold.  And a wind.  Take the cold and the wind, add that you're suspended in a chair 30' above the ground (and above the tree-line) and finally add that this was out test-run and we both inevitably forgot something.  We couldn't stay very long.  We got 2 runs in and called it a successful test.

That's it for today.  I hope to have the bus winter-ready by ThxGiving so we can take the bus to Timberline for White Friday.  It would really make my season if I could bring my 2 favorite things together.

White Friday

As I've mentioned before, my boys and I have a tradition we started a few years ago (Holding Pattern taking Hold) where we get some snow time during the ThanksGiving break rather than retail time.  On that first holiday weekend, we went on Saturday, but in the last 2 years, we've gone on the day after ThanksGiving.  The newsfolks (and far too many people, in my opinion) refer to that as Black Friday.  The ruckus leading up to ThanksGiving about what sales are where and who's going to have the biggest lines completely blots out the whole being thankful message of the season.  So, to give the sickening consumerism the finger, we get away from the stores, the televisions and the crowds (presumably) and head for the snow.

Departure
My boys slept in.  I told them I wouldn't wake them as a means of getting them to go to sleep ThanksGiving Night, but the excitement of going to the mountain on opening weekend was too much for them.  I finally awoke them around 9.  Since the lifts opened at 9:30, and we were still in Beaverton, we clearly were not going to be there for the first lift.  No matter; both of my brothers were going to meet us up there, and they both have little ones, so we figured they couldn't actually beat us there.  A quick-slam breakfast and we hit the road.

White Friday
We tried a weird longer route, but we got there by 11:15.  The traffic to the mountain was steady.  The climb up Timberline Hwy required chains.  The parking at the lot was to overflow and there were sizable lines at the lifts.  Considering it was considered the beginning of unbridled consumerism season, the turnout for White Friday was fantastic.  Then, came the conditions.  The snow was powdery.  The air dry, the visibility infinite and the winds still.  Perfect day for playing.  C got separated again, so we spent time looking for him at one point, but he wisely realized he was in the wrong spot and stayed put.  We met both of my brothers' families and visited in Wy-East, then headed down the mountain to Summit for some sledding before dark.  We ended the day saying our goodbyes in the Summit Lodge after hot coffee / cocoa.  Perfect White Friday.


I hope you take the opportunity to celebrate White Friday next year.  The retailers will survive without you, but can you survive the retailers without first giving yourself a break?  Go to the snow, play with your kids or your friends and breathe in the crisp fresh air.  The malls will be there for you later.


The bus progresses.  I'm waiting for a replacement engine harness so I can return the borrowed harness to Justin.  I bought some used snow tires too, so we'll be able to take the bus up to Government Camp / Ski Bowl this winter.  I'm not quite daring enough to try Timberline, but we'll see.  Thanks for following along, and I'll post again soon-