Feel Like a Stranger

Its been almost a month, and so much has gone on.  I couldn't possibly cover everything in one post, so I won't try.  I will come back and post about the adventures the last month of Summer has presented, but just to wet your appetite... Ashland camping trip with local swimming holes, transaxle arrival and replacement, discovering a new aqueous-based (non solvent) cleansing unit, test driving, end-of-Summer at Oaks Park, school starting... So much to cover.  Since i haven't been around for a while, it seems appropriate that I start with the road trip to Ashland.

Gonna Be a Long Long Crazy Crazy Night

swimming hole upstream from
Lithia Park, Ashland OR

It seems like the amount of time you need to spend preparing for a trip is completely independent of the number of nights you'll be gone.  Instead, it increases exponentially by the number of persons under the age of 25.  Now, my early-20's readers may take offense to this, but just for a second consider how long it takes to get all your friends together and go somewhere.  Now, think about how fast you can get out of the house when you do it by yourself.  Going to the bar?  By yourself, it takes 5 minutes to find your keys, ID and hit the lights.  Add 2 friends and it takes 40 minutes to get everyone off the couch, finding the bottom of their warm-up drinks, through the inevitable restroom stop, etc.
Extend this simple bar example to a camping trip, and you have the recipe for a very long night prior to leaving.  In fact, the night got so long, we didn't even leave on the original departure date.  We left a day late.  Now, to be fair, this wasn't exclusively because we were shepherding 6 persons.  Boo had to work the first 1/2 of the departure day, so it was 1 on 4 getting the boys going.  It was a losing battle, but I tried.  Ultimately, Boo and I were getting the last of the stuff in the cars around 2:AM.  We left 5 hours later.

Out There on Neon Avenue

Evans Creek swimming hole
outside Rogue River OR

Since I didn't have the new transaxle done, we decided not to drive the bus to Ashland.  We could fit everyone, but a 52mph top speed for 8 hours of driving was more than I thought any of us could take.  Instead, Boo and I took K2 and C in my Jetta and K drove the SUV full of stuff with T (capital letter overload).  We stopped at a Jack in the Box in Eugene for breakfast and made Rogue River State Park by 11:30.  After changing our site from D32 (all-sun all-day) to D2 (almost all-shade all-day), we set up camp and spent the early afternoon lounging.  The boys, of course, couldn't take the slow pace while Boo and I were on 4 hours sleep and needed down time.  Turns out the river is now too dangerous to set foot in now that the dams have been removed.  Its an "attractive nuisance".  So, the boys took off to the town of Rogue River and found a local swimming hole on a creek tributary to the river.  Boo and I met them a couple hours later after stomping around the little downtown of Rogue River.

So Let's Get on with the Show
The purpose for the Southern Oregon trip was to visit with family from Austin and San Diego, and we met up with everyone the next day in Ashland.  We played in the hotel pool with cousins and then met for a big (50 people?) party to celebrate my dad's 80th birthday and my brother's father-in-law's 90th.  Family pieces clustered around Ashland that evening while others attended plays (its Shakespeare Festival afterall).  That became the recurring theme for the weekend; different assemblies of family gathering together at Lithia Park while others attended plays.  We campers usually arrived last, and didn't see any plays, but we had a great time connecting with folks we hadn't seen in a long time.

Inside You're Burnin, I Can See Clear Through

Myrtle Creek swimming hole

We left Rogue River State Park a day earlier than we'd planned.  When we arrived, they were in the middle of a heat wave (over 102* for the day-time high on arrival day), and even the overnight temperature didn't drop below 80* the entire time we were there.  Sleeping in that kind of heat is just very hard.  In the interests of having good sleep at least one night before returning to work, we left.  Before we got as far as Roseburg, though, we were itching to get off the road and have a snack.  Out the window we could see a lazy creek flowing way down below, so we grabbed the next exit, talked to some locals and found a swimming hole to while away the afternoon.

and the Wheels it's Smokin' around Midnight
We pulled around 8:30 and it was just getting dark.  With 4 boys helping, we had the cars unpacked, camping gear stowed and a huge pile of laundry and dirty dishes.  Boo and I started cleaning up and worked late after the boys went to bed.  I tired and crashed too, but Boo kept at it until everything was done.  It was a fun trip, highlighted by swimming in random spots all over Southern Oregon.

That's it for today.  I'll post back in a few days about the transaxle install, test drive, Oaks Park, etc. Now that school has started, there's just that much more going on.  More to post about, I guess.  Thanks again for following along, and if you get some time, check out my friend Ed's blog: Gr8tfulEd

Vanagon Seat Install

Today starts my vacation, yet I'm getting one last post in before I go.  I wanted to give an update on both the Vanagon loveseat as well as the transaxle.  I've kinda wasted the afternoon, so I'll probably keep this short.

Love Seat

what goes with green/blue plaid,
grey, white, and blue?
Why, TAN of course!

Ok, maybe calling it a loveseat is a bit much.  Its a tan 2-seater bench seat from a brown Vanagon.  Once installed, I'll have a '79 Westy folding bed seat, front seats from a '74 and a bench seat from a Vanagon.  It will be a true franken-bus.  Sue me.  I'll be able to carry 5 people (plus me driving), and camp once we get there.  Try that with a stock VW bus.  Anyway, on to the progress report.  In order to fit the bench, I had to pull the stove/sink unit.  That cabinet now adorns my living room floor, but it makes ample room for the loveseat.  Once I made space, I aligned the rails with the seat by aligning the seat mount holes with the mounts within the rails.  I then duct-taped them together and put the whole operation into the bus.  With some wriggling, I set the spot front-to-back by lowering the folding bed and putting the bench up against it.  My thinking was that I may want or need to carry something long while also carrying some folks.  I was able to carry my entertainment center on that folded down section before.  Now I'll be able to bring 3 friends to help me move it.  Last time, I could only bring 1 friend... and he wasn't exactly thrilled at that prospect.

rear left rail location
westy fridge cabinet in
upper right corner

I marked up the wood floor with pencil so I knew where to put the rails and then pulled the seat out again.  Remove the rails from the seat and set the rails back in place.  I then set to measuring all over the place so I was sure that any hole I drilled in the floor wouldn't hit the radiator, the supports, the main front-to-back beams, the brake lines, etc.  I managed to miss everything important on my first try.  Hazah!  I drilled out 6 holes to 3/8" and wrenched bolts through.  From the underside, I lock-washered and nutted the bolts down. Last, I re-inserted the seat the "normal" way by sliding the seat onto the mounted rails.  Done.  All told, it took a few hours, but I move slow.

Transaxle
Well, we're behind schedule a little bit on the transaxle.  The CM code transaxle used the early gear sets and Daryl only had the later sets on hand.  With one of his guys out sick (or following a band around the country), he was behind schedule anyway, so this just put us a few more days out.  Unfortunately, those few days are probably the diffeence between having the new transaxle in time for the trip to Southern Oregon and not.  So, the bus may not go.  We'll see.  If the transaxle arrives tomorrow, there's still time.  I need a few days to do the work (see: I move slow) and we leave in the middle of next week.  Sigh.  So close and yet not quite close enough.

right edge of seat & slider

That's it for today.  The next time we go for a spin, we can carry the whole family.  We'll just be travelling at a max speed of 52MPH for now.  More next time and thanks for following along.

One Slammy of a Sammie

A few years back, I worked at one of those Internet startup companies.  I had a lofty title and a pile of worthless stock options.  My situation was pretty common in the computer business at the time.  As Wall Street started to figure out that most of these companies were glorified Ponzi-schemes, the one I worked for strove to stay open by moving out of our fancy downtown digs in the emerging "Pearl District" to a zoning experiment in Beaverton called "the Round".  Originally intended for condos, the 4 story building was virtually vacant a full year after completing the bones.  No one wanted to live there.  So, they dubbed it "office space", and we moved in.  Of course, it was still the days of perception, so lots of customization was done to the space including open stairways and the like.  Well, it was still an open sewer compared to our last location, with a junkyard out one window and an abandoned building out another.  When contrasted to the bustle of downtown hip Portland, I was less than impressed.  Driven to find something remarkable, I would foray out at lunch.  One of my greatest finds is the subject of today's post.

Beaverton Sub Station

Front Entrance of
Beaverton Sub Station

Situated against the train line that runs through the center of downtown old Beaverton, is perhaps the best sub shop in the greater Portland area.  Sure, there's Kornblats if you want specialty sandwiches, but for a pure sub-shop experience, there is none better than Beaverton Sub Shop.  Chuck, the owner and main behind-the-counter-operator, hails from Chicago.  From the Cubs hat to the quality of the meat, he's all-Chicago.  He has a thing for trains, and his decor reflects that interest and the rail-side location with pictures and artifacts from railroading.  Even the menu has a train-car metaphor.  6" sandwiches average around $5 and foot longs are around $10.  The rolls are huge.  The dressings remind me of the subs I used to get at the deli as a kid growing up in New York.  Very Yummy.  From the day I found them as an employee at an Internet startup thru today, I try to make the Beaverton Sub Station a regular stop.


Bus middle-seat Update
Yesterday, I drove over to Always VW and picked up some mounting rails for the middle-row seat I got in Eugene a few weeks ago.  Not knowing how they originally installed, I was glad to be there watching it get removed from the donor vehicle.  4 bolts hold the seat to the rails, 4 bolts hold the rails to the body.  Simple simple.  I'm assuming that the Vanagon has a set of nuts welded into the body, and I won't have that in the bus, so I'll need a buddy (or careful vice-grip use) to get the rails bolted in safely.  If I can suffer today's heat, I'll be removing the sink/stove unit and start looking at seat placement.  If things go well, maybe I'll have the seats in by the end of tomorrow.


Transaxling
Daryl at AA Transaxle in Seattle is just completing the transaxle rebuild.  I've had a few questions about what I'm doing for gearing, etc, so I'll lay that out here.  First, we started with a '75-only (CM code) transaxle.  It has a stock 4.86 final drive (ring & pinion) like the Vanagons do.  We're leaving 1st and 2nd gear alone. For 3rd, we are using an aftermarket, hardened 1.14 and we're pairing that with a .73 4th from the same company/family.  This combination should provide the right power (HP) to torque curve intersections.  I intend to run my stock 14" rims and rubber through the Summer.  If money appears, I'll slap some larger (in diameter) tires on the 15" rims I have in storage.  I may just wait for Winter and slap 15" snows on instead.  We'll see.  Regardless, the transaxle should appear this week, leaving me next weekend to get it installed if I'm going to run it down to Ashland for our family reunion.  It feels tight, but do-able.  I just need a place to do it, and to dig through my storage facility to get some specialized tools... like the ATV-jack adapter I built.


That's it for today.  Time to drink some coffee and get to pulling that sink/stove unit. I'll update with some pictures. Posting from an iPad doesn't seem to support uploading photos. Grr...