Day 4: Dinner Fabuloso, and Santa Cruz to Big Sur

Tuesday June 19: Spent a nice quiet day at Mary’s house. She gave me some camping stuff that she didn’t need, and wanted to find a good home for including a nice cooler and a portable toilet (!) so I cleaned them up and got them ready for use while she was at work. Van Cafe called that afternoon, and Mary & I headed back to Santa Cruz to fetch Ollie and get some dinner before I got on the road again.
So, to date, Ollie has:
– new fuel lines
– new coolant hoses/SS pipes
– newly re-sealed gas tank
– fixed odometer (it stopped working around the Oregon/California border)

We had an absolutely delicious dinner at Malabar Cafe in Santa Cruz. The food is Indian/South Indian/Malaysian(?) and was exquisite. The service was prompt and attentive but.. well… the attitude of our waiter was, shall I say, “aloof.” He never smiled, and acted as if he would much rather be watching paint dry. When he took our orders, I ordered the garlic naan, and he countered in a dry monotone, “Why do you order garlic naan when there are so many other delicious breads available?” I asked what he suggested, and he told me (again in the 1000-mile stare deadpan voice), “The coconut roti is excellent. You should order the coconut roti.” Ok, then, I ordered the coconut roti. He was right, it was delicious. Everything was delicious. Between Mary & myself, we had lightly battered fried cauliflower in a tamarind & star anise glaze, samosas (which had a South Indian touch of flavor with curry leaf), vegetable korma, saag paneer fritters in a creamy tomato curry sauce, and some lovely lassis. Weird service, but exquisite food. I’d go there again.

After dinner, Ollie & I said goodbye to Mary, and we headed down the road toward Big Sur. A friend had recommended a nice level pull-off a few miles up Nacimiento-Fergusson Rd, so I headed there. Along the way I drove the nice twisty roads of the Pacific Coast Hwy – so much fun!

I camped for the night and awoke to this view:

Tomorrow: Down the coast on the PCH, Hwy 1.

Day 3: Santa Cruz & Mountain View

Monday, June 18: Woke up early (3:30 am) from my roadside stay near Willits, and drove through the dawn in orchard & winery country in Northern California, and hit San Francisco just at rush hour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arrived at Van Cafe at 9:01am, right on time, and left Ollie in the most capable hands of Rick, the head of the service department.  My good friend Mary picked me up, and we drove to her place in Mountain View.  But first, lunch:

Sushi lunch with Mary

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we drove around Mt. View, saw the Google complex (Google-plex?), and some interesting sights:

In the afternoon, I got a call from Rick at Van Café, saying he had discovered some cooling system troubles. Coolant was leaking from the old rubber hoses, and a previous owner had apparently used duct tape to patch some previous leaks. (!)  There was also evidence of weeping coolant around the heads, but the head gasket wasn’t pushing out, and some stop-leak would probably fix that up well enough until I get home.  So, I’ll spend another day in Mountain View.  I’d much rather be late to the STC conference than stranded from a blown coolant hose.

Ah, the joys of being a new Vanagon owner.

Second day, Second Leg: Oregon to California

 

This was my view when I awoke: 

Eastern Oregon is pretty vast and desolate.  Last night, I was getting a little low on gas, and my GPS said there was a fuel station along the way, but the location turned out to be an empty field.  What gives, TomTom?  So I had to backtrack about 20 miles to the previous town.  I’m glad I did, as I would’ve been out of luck for another 70 miles.

I woke up early, and spent some quality time cleaning and arranging things in Ollie, as I wanted to have everything at the ready whenever I stopped.  Chaos and clutter are your enemies in such small quarters. Then it was time for  tea:

Ahhh… preparations for the first cup of tea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I was on the road again, through Bend, Crater Lake, down through Grants Pass, and into California.  Got on Hwy 101, also known as the Redwood Highway.

No time to write about it all, but I have pictures. Gallery highlights: Northern California redwoods, redwoods, redwoods!  First view of the Pacific Ocean.

 

I got a later start than I had wanted to, so I drove until I couldn’t anymore, stopped at a roadside turnout near Willits, California, set my alarm for 3:30am, woke up, made tea & breakfast, and started driving again to Santa Cruz.  Ollie has to make his 9:00am appointment at Van Café!  More tomorrow!

Reunited! and the First Leg

Saturday June 16: Back in Boise, I sprang Ollie from the clink, and put on my PA plates.  I think the first three letters of my license plate (JBP) stand for “Just Blow Past,” an open invitation to all vehicles behind me on the road.

Did a little shopping, had a little dinner, cleaned Ollie up a little bit, loaded in my stuff, and off we drove into the sunset toward Oregon.

Most of the pictures you’ll see here in my posts from this trip were taken out of the windshield, or through the side windows, and on complete faith as I waved my camera out the window, wholly dependent on autofocus and a fairly steady hand.

Views from the windshield:

A friend advised me to fill up with fuel in Vale, OR, because there was no more gas for ~100 miles.  He was right, and I’m glad I did.  Oregon is one of those states in which the attendant fills your tank for you, so when he asked what I’d like, I said, “Fill up with regular, but … ” and he finished my thought with “… but not all the way, right?”  I smiled and said, “You’ve done this before, haven’t you?” He just smiled and turned to his work.  Vanagons of this age and older commonly have the rubber grommets on the fuel tank dry up and go bad, resulting in fuel spills. The fix is a fuel tank reseal.  Ollie already has an appointment with the good folks at Van Cafe in Santa Cruz, CA on Monday to have this taken care of, along with new fuel lines, and a general check-up, and maybe some other convenience items if there’s time.  I’m looking forward to that, because the fumes coming from the leaky tank are awful, not to mention the safety issue.

I stopped at a turn-out along a lonely road for the night.  I heard 4, maybe 5 cars go by all night.  It was very nice, and the stars were spectacular.

Tomorrow: Oregon to Northern California.

Apologies for the delay…

Hi folks, fans and friends, I’m finally getting a chance to post some items.  It seems I was a little ambitious in my thinking that I would be able to post and drive all at once.  It also seems that I’m spoiled by my east coast experience of having cell service *almost* everywhere, whereas in the vast stretches of wilderness I have been driving through, there is nothing, figuratively, and often literally.  Since my schedule was tight, I drove lots and rested little, and when I did rest, it was usually in a desolate and lonely spot. No cell service.  Even at the conference at the Claremont Colleges, wi-fi service was unreliable and very very slow, so I was dependent on my cell phone.  So no posts.

Currently, I’m in New Mexico, enjoying (?) a little down time at a hotel and using their wifi.  Why, you ask?  Well, yesterday (Sunday) afternoon, Ollie started experiencing loss of power at highway speeds whenever I would step on the accelerator.  He had been idling roughly first thing in the day, but that would smooth out after he was warmed up.  A tune-up would be a good thing, I think.  He would also every now and then experience the same drop-off in power when taking off from a dead stop, warm or cold.  But he loves cruising long and (relatively) fast at highway speeds, between 65-72 mph, so yesterday’s loss of power was disturbing.  My first thought was Vanagon Syndrome.  I pulled into the small town of Gallup, NM, drove around a little more, and the problem did not reoccur, but since Mom was with me and she was nervous about this new intermittent problem perhaps causing a breakdown in the middle of nowhere, I made an appointment at the local Pep Boys service center to have Ollie looked at first thing this morning (Monday).  If not Vanagon Syndrome, my other thoughts were maybe a clogged catalytic converter, or perhaps the fuel pump.  But I’m not a mechanic.  And the Pep Boys may not know the foibles of older Volkswagens.  And since the problem is intermittent, and irreproducible on demand, diagnostics may not find much.  I’m not completely confident.

Gallup is an interesting town. It’s in the middle of the Navajo Nation, and Native American culture is everywhere.  Had dinner last night at El Sombrero restaurant, known for its New Mexican cuisine (yummy!)  Despite mixed reviews online, I found the service to be very good, and the food to be fresh, hot, and tasty.  I got mine “Christmas” which means having both red and green chili (sauces) smothering the food.  Mom had the weekend special of a Chimichanga Carnitas Adovada.  Yummmm, so good, authentic, and so filling.  Sorry, no pictures of that.  :(

Just got a call from Pep Boys: they have been looking at Ollie all morning, and couldn’t find much wrong, except the mechanic said that the fuel pump was a little wonky and was not working quite right.  So Ollie will get a new fuel pump, and hopefully we’ll be on the road again before too long.  We’ve checked out of the hotel room, and are hanging around in the lobby until Pep Boys calls again to say that Ollie’s ready.

Oh, now I’m hungry after talking about last night’s dinner.  Maybe I’ll convince Mom to go to El Metate for dinner before we leave. If we do, I’ll get pictures this time.

Look for more posts in the near future until I leave this hotel lobby.

 

The Route to California

I decided to add a couple extra days to my journey from Boise to So Cal, and travel down the California coast (and thereby avoid barreling through the Nevada desert for long hours in the middle of the day).  I’ll get to visit some old friends along the way, see Crater Lake, the magnificent redwoods, the Pacific Coast Highway, and enjoy life more.  :)

Here’s the route.

Just a few more weeks!

24 Hours in Boise

My flight landed at 1:15pm on Thursday, and Mike & his 18-month-old son met me at the airport in Boise, we drove around, had lunch, and completed the paperwork & transaction. Ollie was all mine! It was a really nice afternoon, hanging out in Ollie with Mike , and getting things done.  Mike is really good people, and I couldn’t have asked for a better, smoother sales transaction and tour of the area.  Mike’s mother in law came to pick him up, and Ollie & I were turned loose. There were a good four hours of daylight left, so  Ollie & I went for a ride around town. Saw several other Westies, a couple Eurovans, Bays, and some nice old Beetles.

I had seen a Baja Fresh while Mike & I were driving around earlier. We don’t have those in PA, and I had fallen in love with fish tacos during my first visit to San Diego back in ’94, so I was all over a takeout fish taco combo dinner this evening. I made sure Ollie was filled up with gas, then we headed out of town on Warm Springs Ave, met up with Rt. 21 and headed southeast towards Lucky Peak Reservoir and beyond.

Mike had told me about good places to park and camp out that way. Gorgeous scenery out here. The landscape is a combination of these velveteen-flocked elephantine hills and vertical basalt column cliffs, often quite flat on top, like a mesa.

   

This section of Rt. 21 basically follows the Mores Creek upstream through to where it tumbles and flows through the canyons it has cut on its way.  Driving through this terrain reminded me of driving through Norway, with its twisting passes, and sudden and sheer mountainsides that rose far above the upper viewing limit afforded by the windshield. I stopped several times along the way to take pictures.

Sunset was later than I was used to — after 9:00pm — and by that time I had found a nice turnoff, creekside, to camp in for the night. I closed all of Ollie’s curtains, strung up some battery-powered LED lights (glad I brought those with me), settled in and had some dinner. Also played some dinner music — when Mike installed the stereo, he wired it to the key sensor in the ignition, so the key doesn’t have to be turned to the accessory position in order for the stereo to get power. It just needs to be *in* the ignition. Brilliant! He also wired in an iPod connector that connects at the back of the unit and comes out inside the ashtray in the dash. Double brilliant!! There’s a remote for the stereo, but it needs a battery. I’m definitely looking forward to kicking back some evening and controlling the tunes from the bed. :)

Here’s the Mores Creek Park day-use area close to where I spent the night:

 

After spending a lovely, relaxing Friday morning in beautiful country, I packed up, and took Ollie back to town where I put him in storage.

He’ll stay in the clink until I come back in mid-June to spring him, then we’ll be on our way west through Oregon, down the California coast to just east of L.A.  I had such a lovely time in Idaho, and Ollie is a fantastic van.  I can’t wait to come back in a month!

More later – I’m exhausted after my return flight.  That’s another story altogether.

The Route Home

My intrepid 74-year-old mother, Janet, has eagerly volunteered to fly out to California and drive back with me.  Actually, those were the first words out of her mouth after I told her I was considering buying a Vanagon and making this trip.

Here’s the route I’ve decided on.  We won’t have a whole lot of time to stop and sightsee, however.  Once I’m back home, though, future trip planning can begin!

Soon….

In a few short days, I’ll be flying to Boise, Idaho, to purchase the VW Vanagon Camper pictured above.  On this blog, I intend to chronicle my travels with Ollie the Vanagon, starting with our very first meeting, which takes place on Thursday May 17th.  Stay tuned and please keep in touch!