Itinerant Air-Cooled Greetings From Chicago
Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 6:07 pm
It is 55* and misty rainy grey. I say, "that is not fair." The planet could care less.
I have just finished a day with BobD's bus, the sweetest, tightest, cleanest, peppiest, smoothest bus in the country. Today's big big list of projects included dusting the instrument panel, removing smudges from the driver's door glass, wiping clean the upper engine tins, adding exactly 2 psi to each tire, and driving it. Yes, driving the bus was a mandated requirement. I looked through that windshield with the VW-Audi watermark and marvelled at the entire experience.
This. Is. A. New. Volkswagen. Bus.
No two ways about it. And there is BobD sitting next to me, "you could have powered it through this corner" but no, I needed the excuse to double-clutch downshift and feel that transaxle catch 2nd like a
New. Volkswagen. Bus. Here. Now. and I am driving it.
And you want to get going on the freeway on-ramp? Just wind it out barely noticeably and it is 18/32/55/70 lickity split quiet tight snug and clean with a really really white headliner and white sunvisors and big beautiful black windshield seal against perfect white paint and handsome brown door panels and it is a Good Car. Good Spirit. Agreeable. Poised.
I want it. . . .
My bus is tactful when I load my carcass back into it, by reminding me what makes it special too, like it has never belched any horrid clouds of blue smoke when starting in the presence of the BobD bus, and it is quieter. But we both know, and you do too, that 552,000 miles loosens things up, and my bus really does have much more chassis flex, and the ever more obvious and apparent realization that I have massaged most all of its parts past their service lives.
On my way to BobD's this morning, I had the singularly most amazing experience, rivalling the Parting Of The Red Sea, of actually driving into and through Chicago at highway speeds. Of course, it wasn't going to be a flawless passage, traffic did jam up good north of the city on the 94, but it is better! Progress. . . . sometimes DOES occur.
Tonight, I backtrack to Michigan. Tell ya about it later. But let's just say, I'd like to finish what I started. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Colin
Colin
I have just finished a day with BobD's bus, the sweetest, tightest, cleanest, peppiest, smoothest bus in the country. Today's big big list of projects included dusting the instrument panel, removing smudges from the driver's door glass, wiping clean the upper engine tins, adding exactly 2 psi to each tire, and driving it. Yes, driving the bus was a mandated requirement. I looked through that windshield with the VW-Audi watermark and marvelled at the entire experience.
This. Is. A. New. Volkswagen. Bus.
No two ways about it. And there is BobD sitting next to me, "you could have powered it through this corner" but no, I needed the excuse to double-clutch downshift and feel that transaxle catch 2nd like a
New. Volkswagen. Bus. Here. Now. and I am driving it.
And you want to get going on the freeway on-ramp? Just wind it out barely noticeably and it is 18/32/55/70 lickity split quiet tight snug and clean with a really really white headliner and white sunvisors and big beautiful black windshield seal against perfect white paint and handsome brown door panels and it is a Good Car. Good Spirit. Agreeable. Poised.
I want it. . . .
My bus is tactful when I load my carcass back into it, by reminding me what makes it special too, like it has never belched any horrid clouds of blue smoke when starting in the presence of the BobD bus, and it is quieter. But we both know, and you do too, that 552,000 miles loosens things up, and my bus really does have much more chassis flex, and the ever more obvious and apparent realization that I have massaged most all of its parts past their service lives.
On my way to BobD's this morning, I had the singularly most amazing experience, rivalling the Parting Of The Red Sea, of actually driving into and through Chicago at highway speeds. Of course, it wasn't going to be a flawless passage, traffic did jam up good north of the city on the 94, but it is better! Progress. . . . sometimes DOES occur.
Tonight, I backtrack to Michigan. Tell ya about it later. But let's just say, I'd like to finish what I started. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Colin
Colin