I made it home last night from an 11 day trip across country and back in
my 82 TD Westy. The biggest surprise was how few Vanagons of any type we
saw. From the Calif border to North Carolina I saw a total of 4
Vanagons, one late model Westy in Texas and a couple of air cooled
models in New Mexico and my Aunts 90 Carat in NC. From there we drove to
PA and I saw none. I saw a clean Westy outside of Chicago and then
nothing until we got to Moab and the Grand Canyon where there were a
variety of VW vans of all types.

I can see more Vanagons in my own driveway than I saw in 4000 miles of
travel east of the Rockies. Is this how it really is? I see dozens daily
just going about my business in San Diego or any part of coastal Calif.
Now I understand some of the posts I see from people wanting to know if
a Vanagon they saw somewhere is a list member. Any list member Westbound
on I 20 near Odessa TX on the morning of June 13, in a white late model
Westy?

The second biggest surprise was the number of small metal pieces in the
bottom of my transmission just outside of North Platte Nebraska. Spare
Vanagon tranny availability there is slim to say the least. Fortunately
my list member buddy Mike Snow was able to help my brother in law send
me a spare tranny that same day FedEx P1. It arrived in NE before 10 am
the next morning and I bought some cheap wheel ramps and a crappy floor
jack at a FLAPS. My nephew and I had it in and running early that
afternoon in the Motel 6 parking lot. Only 24 hours from breakdown to on
the road again, a true miracle.

2,400 emails left to read, or not,
Mark Drillock