June 1st, 2007 I'm on the road

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regalasr
Getting Hooked!
Location: Los Angeles, Cali
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Post by regalasr » Sat Jun 23, 2007 10:17 pm

Probably a good idea to change the oil in the air cleaner after that trip on the Dempster.

Its all downhill on the way back, right :blackeye:
I got all the baywindow parts

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Birdibus
IAC Addict!
Location: Inland SoCal
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Post by Birdibus » Sat Jun 23, 2007 10:34 pm

Pretty cool, Barb. You are the intrepid explorer of the IAC, where the men are men and the women drive to the arctic circle.
71 bus, 74 westy

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hambone
Post-Industrial Non-Secular Mennonite
Location: Portland, Ore.
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Post by hambone » Sun Jun 24, 2007 1:12 pm

Indeed! I humbly hold my hat in my hands.
http://greencascadia.blogspot.com
http://pdxvolksfolks.blogspot.com
it balances on your head just like a mattress balances on a bottle of wine
your brand new leopard skin pillbox hat

VWGirl
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Post by VWGirl » Sun Jun 24, 2007 2:45 pm

wish i could have gone on this trip... someday i hope! But with the bus being prepared for body work (as soon as i can come to terms with not having a camper for a while or get one of my vanagons to step up to the plate for a while) i don't know when that will be :(

Hope You've had a great adventure on the road! I want to see pics!

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Amskeptic
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Post by Amskeptic » Tue Jun 26, 2007 10:23 am

Elwood wrote: Yes Colin the skies were clear that night and you do see the sun go all the way around. I was very disorinated up there and even turned the wrong way out of compound to go to the circle. After driving about 10 min I passed some machine I had remembered seeing on the road in. Got my compass out and it is just weird up there - think about it! Just where is magnetic north at the top of the earth?
LOL hadn't even thought of that magnetic north thing. . .
Elwood wrote: Colin you would love the land but what it would do to your beauty would make you cry. It is just too brutal for a perfectionist, plan a trip somewhere more can go and not beat up there bus.
Not even gonna worry about. My uncle would go stream-bed off-roading with his one-of-a-kind 1911 Pierce Arrow because it really had excellent clearance. My bus has billions of touch-ups on the front, hacked-out rocker panels, a windshield that can be taken out by hand, I'm good.
But you bet I would clean it very thoroughly when I got back to reliable pavement :compress:
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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deadaheadub
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Post by deadaheadub » Tue Jun 26, 2007 7:59 pm

Awesome job, Barb. Way to go, and thanks for sharing it with us. It's so awesome you did it! I'm so envious. Wish I could have joined you. Maybe next year. You're my hero!

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Birdibus
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Post by Birdibus » Tue Jun 26, 2007 10:43 pm

I was exploring part of the route using google satellite images. The quality of the maps is very good in the Dawson area, much better than along the Dempster. East of Dawson, YT lie the Klondike gold fields. The tailings piles have an oddly organic look to them, like the entrails of the earth spilled out along the river. Fascinating from space, it is probably a forbidding landscape in person. There is another tributary to the Klondike (Bonanza Creek?) that comes up from the south. That must be the source of the mother lode. The mines go on for miles and miles. Man's crazy lust for soft yellow metal leaves it's visible scars.
71 bus, 74 westy

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hambone
Post-Industrial Non-Secular Mennonite
Location: Portland, Ore.
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Post by hambone » Wed Jun 27, 2007 7:46 am

Man's crazy lust for things material both escapes me and sickens me. I remember getting my first Oregon Delorme guide years ago in the stacked masses of Chicago...marvelling at all the red veins twisting thru every mountain, some appearing like a bloodshot eye.
"They can't ALL be roads" I thought..."probably just old historic abandoned routes"...
Yes to my shock and sadness they ARE all roads, thousands of miles of them ripping apart entire watersheds and habitats. What gave these men the right? Didn't anyone shed a tear for the loss of a thousand-year-forest? But then again, women were denied equal representation in "the land of the free" until the teens of last century...
I was researching an area in the Wilamette National Forest, not terribly far from Salem OR. The particular area is an old growth stronghold, containing arguably the largest trees in the state. Thus, it is no surprise to learn of intensive logging in the WNF, some of the hardest hit I've seen. What IS a surprise is that most of the roadbuilding and logging occurred between 1960 and 1990. Recent history. Before that, trails and wilderness. And we know better nowadays, right? It's those fuckers with bowler hats and handlebar mustaches that are to blame, those ignorant bastards, right? Not like our current enlightened society with Science on a gilded tower...
And the beat goes on.
Don't get me started.
http://greencascadia.blogspot.com
http://pdxvolksfolks.blogspot.com
it balances on your head just like a mattress balances on a bottle of wine
your brand new leopard skin pillbox hat

mattg
Old School!
Location: Elburn,IL
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Post by mattg » Wed Jun 27, 2007 9:43 am

I agree 100% except for the part about handlebar moustache's - leave the handlebar moustache out of it - I think its going to make a wild comeback.
I'm all out of ideas and I've tried nothing.

77 Westy 2.0 FI

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hambone
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Post by hambone » Wed Jun 27, 2007 10:45 am

Point taken! Ya freak! :drunken:
(I have a gift of a bowler hat some kind gent gave me)
http://greencascadia.blogspot.com
http://pdxvolksfolks.blogspot.com
it balances on your head just like a mattress balances on a bottle of wine
your brand new leopard skin pillbox hat

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Birdibus
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Post by Birdibus » Wed Jun 27, 2007 11:33 am

Ya, Hammy, I thought I wanted to live on the western slope of the Sierra until I realized how altered the landscape was due to the 1849 goldrush. I visited the Malakoff Diggings, a wasteland left over from the hydraulic gold mining that clogged the Sacramento River and delta far downstream. They shot big cannons of water against the hillsides and washed it all away, and this in an area where the gold was only tiny flakes, no nuggets. It's an oddly fascinating moonscape that is barely showing signs of recovery after 130 years. The land-rape attitude is firmly entrenched all over gold rush country. Now I find myself attracted to a different range of mountains, closer to the coast and the tall trees. Logging... bleh! Don't get me started on that. If I lived in nor Cal, I might be found living on a platform in a tree to save it from the saw, holy moley! :cyclopsani:
71 bus, 74 westy

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DjEep
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Re: On my own pace

Post by DjEep » Thu Jun 28, 2007 1:36 pm

Elwood wrote:Sitting in a Starbucks parking lot in Abbotsford. Just watched Gerrie Lou and Max's bus pull off to go who knows what way??? I think they will travel better together and I wish them a safe and happy trip. It just got down to me hanging out for them to get there chores done and I did,nt mind at all, but when I was not ready to roll when they were it got really tense, along with name-calling, not from DjEep but his lady. We don,t need that, she informed that she did not want to travel with me anymore. Oh well Im not afraid or mad just sadly disapointed because I think Anthony is great.

I will continue heading north and post when I can. Wish they would have taken Elwoods pic crossing the border but that is his dash in the one of Geri-Lou. :cheers:
I'm not much for drama, but I have to defend myself and my lady sometime. This is a complete misrepresentation of what happened. If I remember correctly, (which I do) Elwood's pilot got tense and very rude on both these occasions (camp and starbucks) and told us to **** off. Only then did M'lady tell it like it was. Thanks and goodnite.
"Live life, love life. Enjoy the pleasures and the sorrows. For it is the bleak valleys, the dark corners that make the peaks all the more magnificent. And once you realize that, you begin to see the beauty hidden within those valleys, and learn to love the climb." - Anonymous

Do you want to Survive? Or do you want to LIVE?

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Elwood
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Post by Elwood » Fri Jun 29, 2007 8:42 pm

Hello from Portland, Oregon, it is now friday June 29th at 7:45 in the eve.

Elwood and I did make the ferry cruise from Skagway, Ak to Bellingham, Wa. It was wonderfull and felt really good not to drive. I have had no cell phone or internet connection sence I last posted from Dawson City, YT.

I planned my trip to Skagway to stop at a very beautifull rest area overlooking a place where 3 or 5 rivers meet, my notes are in the bus, and planned to drive straight thru to be at the ferry dock a couple days to check out Skagway and the super area, rich in history of the Gold Rush Days. But the Yukon was not going to let us out with no problems....
108 miles from my destination, about 10 miles north of White Horse ( a very large and unatractive town to me ) Came the hummm then the groaning of Elwoods tranny. I was going to pass the town by but knew that would be a mistake. Looked for a room to rent with wifi to get some input from all of you, but it was a week-end and lots going on intown so no rooms available. Sleept in a rest stop close to town, not suppose to camp or stay over nite but no choice, it did have one of the nicest pit toilets on the trip =D> I have become a very good critic of these convienunt (sp) structures that I will include in my final writtings. Anyway I dug out the Bently and found my answers in the Idiots guide. Brought back memories of early off road trips I had been on. Need to add STP to give the gears more lube. I have brought along so very many spare parts and tires ect. but no way to add extra anything to tranny and it had new oil before the now over 4 thousand miles. Next am, Sat. --not a place open till Mon to buy or get help draining or refilling anything. So I scooped out a camp ground with wifi and laundry ect. It also was full of RVS but I talked the owner into letting me park around the back as I was not in need of electricity ect. but needed the wifi. So for $14.00 I parked and took my puter into the laundry room and tried to get on line. Not going happen ----I really felt stranded with out you guys/gals :pale:
I started looking in the yellow pages and low and behold there was a vw repair shop in town, well sorta of, 10 miles past town but on the way to where I needed to be by 3pm Monday,105 miles away. Drove there thinking if the tranny goes it would be a closer towing bill, but of corse they were closed till 9am Mon. But El made it back to the campground to rest and wait. Called the dude "John" at 8:45 and he said Ya Sure we can give it a go but go back into town to a parts place and get Lucas lube oil, I did that and after about two hours of using his compressor to blow the silt off and changing the oil in tranny, engine and a very dirty air filter( original oil bath) he gave it a test drive and said he was impressed at the engine, his fav is like you guys the type 4 fuel inj. needless to say it got me to the ferry in time for a whole other story of joy and beauty.

Sorry I missed the Portland folks, Hammy I left a note on your door, but will return soon , someday. Tranny moaning but will try to get us home to So. Cal. in about 5 more days. REally miss my kitties but not the roads up north---they were and the people I met along the way -- larger than my misspelled words can discribe.

Love, B/E :flower:
'69 weekender ~ Elwood

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Elwood
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Portland connection?

Post by Elwood » Fri Jun 29, 2007 10:23 pm

Anybody in Portland at home this weekend? Staying here Sat nite also and the Sun is out this Am. Please PM me if you know Hambones whereabouts and I will give you my cell number. Would like to get my stuff out of his way. Thanks, B/E
'69 weekender ~ Elwood

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Amskeptic
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Post by Amskeptic » Sat Jun 30, 2007 2:56 pm

Elwood wrote:
about 10 miles north of White Horse the hummm then the groaning of Elwoods tranny. Brought back memories of early off road trips I had been on. Need to add STP to give the gears more lube.
changing the oil in tranny, he gave it a test drive and said he was impressed
So, is the transaxle is still whining/growling/groaning/howling? These gearboxes can go on and on and on with such noises, but for one warning:
if the noise came up out of the blue real quick. . . you have an acute failure in the making. If the sound has been developing slowly, it can go for a long time as long as you monitor any worsening of the sound.

Shifts good?
Proud of you, Elwood =D>
Colin
BobD - 78 Bus . . . 112,730 miles
Chloe - 70 bus . . . 217,593 miles
Naranja - 77 Westy . . . 142,970 miles
Pluck - 1973 Squareback . . . . . . 55,600 miles
Alexus - 91 Lexus LS400 . . . 96,675 miles

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