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.