On May 24, 2005, at 5:42 AM, The Bus Depot wrote:

> Nobody writes in to say, "I drove my
> Vanagon and nothing went wrong;"

Just wanted to say that I did a 12,000 mile trip this past autumn in
my 87 GL.  3 months, coast-to-coast and back, best time of my life.

My 87 GL served me very well.  Did have 2 incidents, though, and both
were trivial in the end.  A cylinder stopped firing due to a worn out
sparkplug wire.  Also lost my headlights for a night due to poor
grounding.  Both of these issues are well documented on the list, and
hindsight is 20/20.

I wanted to say "nothing went wrong" on my trip, but what is more
accurate is that "even as a newbie to Vanagons and car maintenance in
general, nothing came up which I couldn't handle or which ruined my
trip or bank account".

I've spent a lot to restore my van, but I am unable to keep track of
the times I am cruising on some beautiful road, sitting up high,
looking through that huge picture-window with an insane grin on my
face, at times almost giggling about how much I love the van and
getting out to the remaining empty areas in this nation.  I've had
hundreds of moments which, taken alone, would make the entire expense
and saga of the Van's maintenance worth it.

Popping the top with a view of Devil's Tower through the windshield
and screen

The "primitive" campground at Badlands, where bison wander by the van

The gentle ticking of rain on the fiberglass on a cool night

Stopping to make a grilled PB&J for breakfast along the side of the
Yellowstone River

Being woken at 4am by burrow-owls in Joshua Tree

and don't even get my started on driving the PCH several times...

Anyway, enjoy your van.