VW ADVENTURES

October 3, 2008
by Julia
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Our First Night On The Road….

Revived by our lunch break and some food, we are ready for the rest of our day’s journey. Even the camper bus seems to be revived from the rest stop, and purrs along happily. Merging onto Highway 6, we start the steeper climb up Ward Mountain toward Ely and the 7400 ft elevation. The old ‘61 is breathing hard and our power is definitely diminished. The contemporary cars are flying past us but some of the semi trucks are almost as slow as we are. Tommy is thinking something is not right with the bus until we see the sign saying 7387 ft elevation. Altitude diminishes power. That explains why we have not been pulling the mountain with our normal gusto!

About 7 miles from Ely, we see a sign for a forest service campground and decide it is a good time to stop. Ward Mountain Campground is peaceful and quiet with tall cedars and even taller pinon pines. There is no air moving until suddenly a breeze makes it way from somewhere, announcing itself with a soft faraway rushing sound and then passes. The sun is warm but the air is soft and comfortable. It will be cool tonight.

The campground is a bit rustic with water but no showers or flush toilets. There are only a few other campers and a camp host. We set up our camp and begin to relax, enjoying the fresh mountain air. It is nice to be off the road and out of the bus —and cooled off finally, We fire up the laptop and, using the air card on ‘roam’, we are in touch with the world, downloading the 100+ emails that have come in. Now it’s time for some supper before twilight dwindles into darkness, then a good nights’ sleep. Our first night out on our great road trip, bringing joy to folks on the road!.

September 30, 2008
by Julia
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Looking for ET….

We stop at the little town of Alamo for gas and a bathroom break which is about all this town has: a gas station/convenience store! We opt to drive on before having lunch thinking there must be a pull out somewhere along the road.

We choose the alternate route preferred by the Truckers and turn onto Hwy 318. This route is about 40 miles shorter. This is also the road with almost no towns–180 miles or so and only 2 towns. The 110 miles between gas stations gives you an idea of how uninhabited this area is. We settle in for a long drive with no towns. It is still quite warm but noticeably cooler and somewhat more comfortable. Driving on keeps us watching the scenery and always on the lookout for the possibility of a UFO sighting or at least any spaceships that may have been left. This is the Extra Terrestrial Highway and home of AREA 51!.

The scenery doesn’t change much for a long time, then suddenly there are some interesting rock formations and we curve through a small canyon of sorts

emerging to a grand vista of an expansive valley with hay fields cut into the desert sagebrush

We are looking for someplace to have lunch and nothing with shade is available in fact no pullouts even. Finally after some ranches come into view, there is a Rest Stop with covered picnic tables and a lovely view of the valley. Here the temperature is plenty warm with a strong wind which helps cool us off. We have definitely climbed in elevation. We laugh at the expansion in our bag of chips that looks like it is about to explode!

September 24, 2008
by Julia
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Ahhhh..the open road….

Ahhhh..the open road….
The first few miles from home have been a time of adjustment, getting used to the sounds of the VW Camper Bus on the highway, and deciding which noises are from the camper and which are from the road. The new engine is performing well, runs strong and Tommy has to keep slowing down to maintain the 60 MPH he has decided to drive for this trip. Driving that 5 MPH slower pays off at the pump. Mileage went from 18 up to a solid 20 –now that’s a 10% increase or a 10% savings on fuel cost!

Our stop in Las Vegas for a break from the road and a cup of tea refreshed us and we are off to the Great Basin Highway. We leave the city behind, driving north on Interstate 15 toward Utah. The drive is a long uphill pull from Vegas (well, actually all the way from Havasu) and the 1679 cc engine has good torque. After a few coughs and chokes, the engine bus clears itself of what we think might be some vapor locking as we start our very slight climb in elevation and ever so slight relief from the heat. We are excited to finally find our exit onto Hwy 93 toward Ely, Nevada, via Caliente and Pioche. It seems further out of town than we remember. This turn always brings many fond childhood memories for Julia whose family drove this road many times between their home in Buhl, Idaho and her grandparent’s home in San Diego, California. She remembers this drive through Nevada being a soooo long and boring.

The view has changed with adulthood! Over the years our travels have taken us across many wide open, uninhabited and expansive areas of apparent nothingness. Always there is something to appreciate in the scenery. This middle area of Nevada is alive with wonderful scenery and quite interesting hills—even mountains—and lots of desert fauna…and in some areas, rocks that look like they have been shot from a canon. There isn’t a lot of traffic but enough to break the monotony and continue our adventure of bringing joy to folks on the road!

September 16, 2008
by Julia
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On The Road Again

ON THE ROAD AGAIN….

The morning of our departure dawns. It is a beautiful clear, sunny, Arizona summer morning! We finish our packing which includes a few last minute food items into the ice box, closing up the house, and farewell to the dogs. Our goal was to be on the road early to avoid as much heat as possible. In July – in Arizona – that means really early. Remember, we are driving a ’61 Westfalia camper with great amenities like an efficient super cold ice box and a comfortable inner-spring mattress, but the air conditioning is 55 mph, windows slid back or popped open, and a spray bottle with water!

It is 8 o’clock in the morning and already 100 degrees (not early enough!), as we turn eagerly onto AZ Highway 95 heading north on our adventure and toward cooler temperatures. Our first stop: Las Vegas. Of course, Las Vegas is almost as warm as Lake Havasu in the summer, so we won’t find any relief from the heat until a long way past Las Vegas. We stop to refuel the bus and to cool ourselves off before the next leg of the trip which will basically be to the next fuel stop! As you will learn, we like Starbucks®, and other fun coffee establishments (see: Peace, Love, and Espresso!). So we take a break from driving and the heat and visit our favorite Starbucks® in Henderson, Nevada (a suburb of Las Vegas). Once revived, we brave the midday heat and continue north. Our goal for today is Ely, Nevada.

September 10, 2008
by Julia
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We Like Adventures!

We like adventures!– especially in our Volkswagens. And some of the fun we have had is camping in our ’61 Westy. We have enjoyed some long weekends at the Jerome Jamboree (AZ Bus Club annual event), a week-long tour of Anazazi Ruins in Arizona, and a few regular trips out to Huntington Beach, CA for the OCTO shows. So we thought a longer road trip would be an exciting adventure, maybe exploring more of Arizona. The time never seemed to be available….. until this year.

Both of us had invitations to our High School Class Reunions this summer. What fun! Except they were on different weekends (two weeks apart) in different states (two thousand miles apart). Flying to each was expensive and not practical , especially since we have to drive to either Las Vegas or Phoenix to fly anywhere. And once at the destinations, we would need transportation and lodging. So we considered driving. That proposition was time consuming considering the distance and days between the two reunions especially if we drove the camper, unless….we made it a road trip! We would drive to Buhl, Idaho for the first class reunion over the Fourth of July; then mosey on over to Portland, Oregon to visit relatives; out to the coast and across the Columbia River to Washington, then over to Spokane for the second class reunion; rounding out the trip across the Idaho panhandle, into Montana and down through Utah, Nevada and back to Havasu. It was a plan. Touring Arizona would have to be another time, but we would get to experience a longer road trip! We registered for the class reunions and started making the necessary arrangements to be gone for that long a time—dogs, mail, watering etc. Tommy started tuning up the bus and packing the gear.

Do you believe in ‘omens’? We do, especially now! We committed to making this trip and the next day at our weekly business meeting there was a drawing for two gas cards with a value of $100.00 each. Well wouldn’t you know, they drew the first card and it was Julia, then the next drawing and they pulled out Tommy’s card. We had $200.00 for gas! Yes, we had made the right decision!

……..on the road bringing joy to others.

September 5, 2008
by Tommy
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We Like Volkswagens!

61 VW Westy

We like Volkswagens! We enjoy driving, showing, cruising, restoring, even repairing Volkswagens. Over the years, we have discovered that EVERYONE has a Volkswagen experience of some kind and almost everyone wants to share their Volkswagen story. So here we are to share our stories and invite you to share yours. With this Weblog, we will entertain you with our adventures, share pictures, offer advice, and invite you to do the same.