OK Listees,
Now you've had ample opportunity for some well deserved California bashing,
(which those of us who live here know only stems from envy & jealousy) I
would like to offer a follow up:
Yesterday morning I drove the 40 miles into a nearby town to revisit the
mechanic.
I now felt certain, thanks to Mark Mages, what had caused the fueling
debacle the previous day.
Seems the mechanic, who himself is German,
& has owned his shop twenty years, & to whom I  paid $55 per hour for that
expertise
& experience, turned the fuel line replacement
job over to his young trainee so that he'd be free
to install my new CV joints.
The young  trainee installed the plastic pipe under the linkage instead of
over.
And as it had been a while since the mechanic had done this particular job,
even after draining & dropping the tank again to re-fit the piece, he again
installed the pipe under the linkage & called it good.  But at my
insistance, the
mechanic took the van for a test drive &
damned if it didn't let go again.
As he prepared to drain & drop the tank a third
time, I headed for the shop computer,
threatening to consult The List!
Apparantly that jogged his memory.

Thanks for the feedback (& fun).
A special thanks to Dan Schmitz for his marvelous piece that served so well
to restore my (then) flagging sense of humor.
Today I wash the van, tomorrow pack & load.
Monday I leave for Reno, then the following day to Black Rock City, Nevada.
Stay tuned!
Phaedra