Itinerant Travel From Phoenix To Santa Fe

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Amskeptic
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Itinerant Travel From Phoenix To Santa Fe

Post by Amskeptic » Fri Aug 14, 2015 7:07 pm

The back story on my oil change on the way to Phoenix is even worse than the obvious idiocy of draining all of the oil out of an oil-filter-free engine into a drain container of unknown prior contaminations, then and only then asking myself where exactly is the new oil? I looked in the back and no Castrol 5-quart container to be found. I looked in the engine compartment again, but it was obvious that there was no Castrol 5-quart container there, either. Then I thought about the logistics of hiking out of there to the Interstate. Shall I make a sign, "Out Of Oil"? Without a car there to confirm this outlandish tale, I could only surmise that passing cars would totally make sure not to stop.
"Honey, did that, did that sign say 'out of oil'"?
"Who knows? Where was his CAR?"
"I don't trust that."

There was no re-using it. I did manage to find that the quart container I use to actually fill the engine was blessedly full up. That's one quart, yay. I spied the quart of transaxle oil hiding behind the pump bag.
"In you go! Be nice."

Why not? It is oil. It has "excellent shear resistance" and "viscosity stabilizers," and it is designed to not attack brass, which I know the distributor drive gear would appreciate, and it has foaming supressors which I know I needed as I ranted about the difficulties of being absent-minded.

Started the engine. Sounded fine. Hit the interstate almost a quart low. CHT temp was a high 400-415* on the hills, but it was hot outside too, so "do your thing, viscosity stabilizers . . . " There was no Castrol 20w-50 at the gas station. Just some Chevron brew at $5.36 a quart. Much as I like Chloe, no way. Drove further to Gila Bend, past our rendezvous point on I-8 that I have mentioned to innumerable IAC customers, here it is, just go north about 6 miles after the Collapse of Civilization. I'll be there with my goat and my chicken and my bus with the chrome hubcap fire starter/water distiller:

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Rummaged in the back of bus to see if I needed to stock up on water at another gas station as I continued to search for oil. Ha. There's oil . . . right here. Was there all along. It is in a green container because the only 20w-50 I could get two weeks ago was "Castrol High-Mileage" and it absolutely did not register back at my solitudinous oil change vista. I have no doubt that the engine enjoyed having two oil changes in one day. Dipstick looks clean at the full mark + a little.

I was going to research these high CHT temps, check the thermocouple ring around the spark plug for any evidence of gas leakage, re-check the valve clearances, the timing, the mixture, the flaps the oil cooler discharge duct, and I am glad I never got to all of that, because here in Santa Fe, Chloe is munching along the guardrail at 370* imperturbably once more with a spike to 390* at 84* ambient. The reason the engine was running hot in Phoenix? Because it was hot in Phoenix.

After a thoroughly enjoyable visit with wcfvw69, loaded up like a lion after a nice meal of ox, I camped here.

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Peaceful morning shot, but there was a dramatic late night post-Tide/Chlorox washdown automatic windstorm dry-off followed by a shave-by-lightning. This is the life, I tell ya. Sand in your teeth and all:

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Peeled off I-17, Mitch, because I saw a whole clot of clouds just spraying all over Flagstaff. I went east instead. This looked like some big bunny from further back. Watch out for jackrabbit crossing? Uh, no:

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I had no idea that this detour from Flagstaff to Winslow was going to climb to 6,000 + feet and sock me with rain anyway. Out from under the clouds on my descent to Winslow AZ, some inviting sun in the distance. So much more gorgeous in reality, thanx anyway, camera:

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Hit I-40 east of Winslow and the tailwind gave me hours of easy 60 mph and 22 mpg. Got re-acquainted with truck traffic that is not held to 55 mph like in California. The scenery changed on cue at the New Mexico border. I love New Mexico:

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Even the poor (people of challenged income, people of modest means?) people get to live where the views are stunning, I love that about New Mexico:

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Wind eddy caves:

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Industry in New Mexico just plops itself down wherever, like here:

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It took a while to get all the trucks clear of this my favorite iconic New Mexico panorama which I have photographed for years now:

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But look who has to come along with a parade of mobile corporate logos:

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Is it true that water flows to the Atlantic at the top of the hill, and to the Pacific here on this side of the hill?

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More Later . . .
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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asiab3
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Re: Itinerant Travel From Phoenix To Santa Fe

Post by asiab3 » Fri Aug 14, 2015 7:16 pm

:drool:

I saw that green "high mileage" stuff in Chloe at the San Marcos call, and I figured it was a dump container for your dump container or sumpthin'. Any noticeable differences in bearing clearances? (I'm short on vistas like the ones you're puttering through right now, so my mind wanders to technical jargon. Funny, because I'm driving to Phoenix in two days…)

Robbie
1969 bus, "Buddy."
145k miles with me.
322k miles on Earth.

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dingo
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Re: Itinerant Travel From Phoenix To Santa Fe

Post by dingo » Fri Aug 14, 2015 7:56 pm

That country is downright beautiful.

My Uncle joe used to recommend a cupful of Hypoid 90W to cure the oil leaks.....
'71 Kombi, 1600 dp

';78 Tranzporter 2L

" Fill what's empty, empty what's full, and scratch where it itches."

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wcfvw69
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Re: Itinerant Travel From Phoenix To Santa Fe

Post by wcfvw69 » Fri Aug 14, 2015 11:13 pm

I hope you found some cooler weather at altitude and where able to catch up on your Z's! Lord knows Eva tried to contribute to you getting a full nights sleep, by putting you into that food coma you left our place with! lol

Good to hear that Chloe has calmed down now that's she's out of the Dante's inferno, that is Phoenix in August. We did, in fact, dodge a bullet during your visit. The high today was 114* and still muggy as hell. I wouldn't of made the full day in the garage at those temps!

As the famous line goes "I'm too old for this shit"..
1970 Westfalia bus. Stock 1776 dual port type 1 engine. Restored German Solex 34-3. Restored 205Q distributor, restored to factory appearance engine.

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Amskeptic
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Re: Itinerant Travel From Phoenix To Santa Fe

Post by Amskeptic » Sat Aug 15, 2015 9:17 pm

wcfvw69 wrote:The high today was 114* and still muggy as hell. I wouldn't of made the full day in the garage at those temps!
As the famous line goes "I'm too old for this sh*t"..

So I left off with this annoying train wrecking all of my photographs:

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I had to keep up with it because I had to know I could keep up with it. Then I saw what might be a quick solution to my problem, a nice train crash:

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I'm driving at 55 mph dealing with my own traffic issues and trying to catch this epic catastrophe in the making . . . :

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The moment of impact, but I had to get back to watching the road in front of me:

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Well, I didn't want that train wrecking my pictures:

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So now I get punished by a truck invading the serene splendor:

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Alas, I get the train splatted back in the picture AND the truck:

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This picture looks like the train is coming down off the hill to spill onto the interstate, but at the last second, it passed over the interstate (on a bridge made for that very purpose) and continued along the other side:

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Parked at a truck stop briefly and enjoyed the late summer sun:

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Only miles later, I realized that the Perseid Meteor Shower was tonight, and I have very little daylight left to find a campsite, remove and strip the accelerator, clean the front floor, touch up the chips and nicks, paint the accelerator pedal and the front floor, go on a dusk-to-night walk and usher in the first star all the way to the whole canopy of the Milky Way Galaxy. But I got it all in . . . .

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What a beautiful night. What a vast vast cosmos staring into millions upon millions of years. Only got three decent meteors and way too much plane traffic! That's right! Bunch of blinking and blinking and landing lights left on and criss-cross plane paths, it is a traffic jam up there. Saw a satellite's steady bright light suddenly dim and go out as it passed into the Earth's shadow. Woke up back to blue skies and sunshine. Floor was passable:

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Accelerator was passable:

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Drove the whole day in my socks to give the paint time to dry more fully before getting scuffed by shoes:

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It was a shoeless traversal of Albuquerque and Santa Fe:

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I have new photographs of the approach to Los Alamos, it still grabs me the way this town is situated on an outcrop finger of an erode old volcanic caldera . . . .
Turning in after a ten hour day with Atomic City Bug & Son, we have another tenner tomorrow.
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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jtauxe
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Re: Itinerant Travel From Phoenix To Santa Fe

Post by jtauxe » Tue Aug 18, 2015 8:53 pm

Colin, I do believe that bright satellite you saw may have been the International Space Station. My son and I just saw it fly overhead here in Los Alamos, and it repeats its performance each evening, changing the timing as it wanders around the globe. Speaking of wandering around in space, I got a new neighbor a month or so ago: She's the engineer who gets to actually program the Curiosity Mars Rover to drive around on Mars. And a friend of ours is the guy who headed the rover's ChemCam team. It's fun living in a science town.

And, yes, that Main Hill Road approach into town is amazing. Here it is with Snickers, who just got sold to a couple here in town. I hope you will meet them tomorrow during our visit.
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To tomorrow, and the analysis of 3 Type 2s!
John
"The bus came by and I got on. That's when it all began..." - Garcia/Weir/Kreutzman
http://vw.tauxe.net

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Re: Itinerant Travel From Phoenix To Santa Fe

Post by whc03grady » Wed Aug 19, 2015 2:30 pm

Amskeptic wrote:Peeled off I-17, Mitch, because I saw a whole clot of clouds just spraying all over Flagstaff. I went east instead.
"Everybody talks about the weather, no one does anything about it."
Ludwig--1974 Westfalia, 2.0L (GD035193), Solex 34PDSIT-2/3 carburetors.
Gertie--1971 Squareback, 1600cc with Bosch D-Jetronic fuel injection from a '72 (E brain).
Read about their adventures:
http://www.ludwigandgertie.blogspot.com

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Re: Itinerant Travel From Phoenix To Santa Fe

Post by aopisa » Thu Aug 20, 2015 9:49 am

Amskeptic wrote: Drove further to Gila Bend, past our rendezvous point on I-8 that I have mentioned to innumerable IAC customers, here it is, just go north about 6 miles after the Collapse of Civilization. I'll be there with my goat and my chicken and my bus with the chrome hubcap fire starter/water distiller
Noted and marked on a (paper) map. No internet after the Collapse of Civilization. See you then....
1977 Westy 2.0L F.I.

Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free. Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate. - Chuang Tzu

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Re: Itinerant Travel From Phoenix To Santa Fe

Post by Jivermo » Thu Aug 20, 2015 11:05 am

That's one hell of a road you were on a 7:04PM.

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Amskeptic
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Re: Itinerant Travel From Phoenix To Santa Fe

Post by Amskeptic » Fri Aug 21, 2015 8:12 pm

Jivermo wrote:That's one hell of a road you were on a 7:04PM.
You got that right. One little slip and I'd have been high-centered.

"I need a tow."
"Where are you."
"I have no idea, there's a cow trough and a windmill."
"That won't help us, SIR."

Fortunately, the wheel footprints of any VW bus are but an extension of my own legs after 37 years of what can only be considered "excessive" driving, and I can pick my way pretty successfully through the shabby stuff, except when I broke through the desert crust with the BobD last summer.
ColinInEspanola
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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