Dude, marry this Lauren gal before she gets away.

Daniel Snow
PhD Student
UC Berkeley

'82 Vanagon Diesel
'78 Puch Maxi Luxe Moped
'72 Motobecane Mobylette Moped
'01 Xootr Scooter

>From: Mike Williams <westyvanagon@YAHOO.COM>
>Reply-To: Mike Williams <westyvanagon@YAHOO.COM>
>To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>Subject: Episode II: A Boy and his Van; A trip to Chiricahua National
>        Monument
>Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2001 11:22:16 -0800
>
>So...Listees...it's been a while since I've had time
>to write about my adventures in Van-life.  A lot has
>happened since the last episode and I've taken the van
>a few interesting places!  So sit back...take your
>shoes off...and you'll be magically whisked away
>to...well...just read
>
>The Chiricahua National Monument in Coronado National
>Forest is beautiful this time of year...or any time of
>year for that matter...not to mention one of the few
>places in Southern Arizona that fall foliage occurs.
>Being from central/western Massachusetts...I enjoy the
>fall leaves more than anything...and since I've missed
>them for 2 years in a row because of college...I
>needed some sort of color.  So...me and my good friend
>Lauren set out on a friday morning two weeks ago
>through the east-valley of phoenix on an drive that
>would end up taking a little longer than expected.
>The first part of the drive, through the desert valley
>and into the Superstition Mountains was very pleasant
>indeed...the temperature dropped about 5 degrees in
>the mountains to make it just comfortable enough to
>keep the windows open (i mind you this IS
>phoenix...and it's still hot out here!!!).  The van
>(good ol "Bad Larry") held up very niceley through the
>mountains...while climbing especially...ran like a
>champ.  Onward through the desert valleys...past
>mountains...canyons...and gorges.  We drove through
>the Navajo indian reservation at one point and got a
>lot of smiles from natives in cars driving by.
>Finally arriving at Wilcox, AZ around 10 we took our
>last gas stop before doing the last leg of driving
>into the park itself (the park was only about 30 miles
>away now)...I filled up the tank with gas...went
>inside to pay...and when i came out...ANTIFREEZE!!!
>ALL OVER THE PLACE UNDER MY VAN!!!  I wanted to cry
>(and i came close)...I looked under to see the strong
>leak coming from the thermostat housing where a gasket
>must have blown or melted or something of that
>matter...so then I panic...and i have visions of
>myself making a gasket out of duct tape to finish the
>trip when my cute companion got the idea to go ask a
>trucker if they had any ideas.  Lauren is a very
>resourceful person to bring on a trip...she flashes
>those baby blues and about 20 older men come running
>to see what the problem is.  Luckily...one of the men
>that came over pointed out to us that there was a
>truck repair station across the parking lot open 24
>hours!  Damn...I was lucky.  So...I had the lady go
>over to the front desk and ask them if they had any
>gasket material...and she came back with a good size
>piece...good enough to have plenty room for error
>anyway.  so...i spent the next two hours trying to get
>to the bolts of the coolant pipe that attatched to the
>thermostat housing...and almost got squished by the
>vanagon thanks to that damn unstable bilstein.  With
>lauren holding the light...and even getting her hands
>pretty damn dirty loosening some bolts i couldn't
>reach, we finally pulled through.  Then, lauren being
>the design major at ASU...I asked her to cut up a
>gasket by eyeing it...because there was no way I was
>taking off that whole pipe (if I could eplain which
>one it is...you'd understand why it was so difficult
>to get to)...so she made the gasket...a PERFECT fit!!!
>  I put some gasket sealer on there and tightened up
>the bolts, put all the belt wheels back on and all the
>other parts i took off...and started her up to drive
>across the parking lot to the nearest hill to fill my
>coolant system.  So...I fill the coolant tank and let
>it run...fill it again...awesome...the gasket held!
>Now I was ready for bed...seeing as how all that took
>around 5 hours...Lauren being the trooper she
>is...stayed up with me the whole time.  So I go to
>pull the van off the dirt incline i pulled on to fill
>the coolant system...and yep...you guessed it...I got
>stuck...buried myself a whole about a foot deep...at
>the bottom of the ditch was an even bigger ditch...so
>forward was not an option.  Lauren pulls through for
>me again...and has a trucker pull us out with his big
>rig tow truck out of the kindness of his heart (still
>paid him though)...and we just decided to sleep there
>to end the day of disaster before it got any worse.
>
>In the morning...everything seemed ok...and I ran the
>van to check the coolant level and see if there were
>any leaks...tight as a drum.  So after a breakfast of
>"Westy scrambled eggs and toast"...we headed onto the
>monument...through more beautiful desert...almost
>resembling South Dakota if it weren't for the distant
>mountains.
>
>At the parks entance began a new world...mountain
>roads climing the walls of a canyon...looking out at
>some of the most amazing rock formations I had ever
>seen.  Not just your plain jane rocks either...massive
>volcanic uplifts that had shaped into totems after
>millions of years of erosion.  It felt like we entered
>a time warp that took us back to the days of the
>dinasaurs.  Amazing scenery...and wildlife too!  Trees
>that grew straight out of cliffsides and seemed to
>defy gravity...deer running alongside the road in the
>forest...and large birds that seemed to get a kick out
>of humans.  We climbed to the top of the mountain with
>no problems and hiked a little while before sunset on
>the trails that overlooked this amazing valley of what
>appeared to be volcanic tombstones or totem poles of
>the gods.  We watched the sun set behind the mountains
>in the west and drove to a secluded road to camp for
>the night.
>
>For saving the day, I made Lauren some Vanagon Gourmet
>Spaghetti with garlic bread and garden salad...she
>slept while i cooked, and we had a candle light dinner
>in the Westy to top off the day.
>
>The next morning we woke up and drove into the
>monument again for some more hiking and saw some more
>of those blue birds that we had seen the day before.
>They seem to have NO fear of humans at all...they flew
>up to us...within feet...and stared at us just as we
>did to them.  Since we had already had our share of
>hiking the previous day...we took it easy and made a
>short hike...and decided to drive home before the sun
>set so I wouldn't have to drive all night to get back
>to Phoenix (it was about a 5 hour drive in the Van).
>Off we drove...away from the magical land of
>Chiricahua...back to the city of Phoenix...where it's
>somewhat painful to breathe.
>
>
>
>Coming soon...Episode III: The Grand Canyon Adventure!
>
>
>
>
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