So Totoro had its first longer trip and everything went very well.  We live
in Bend, Oregon and went to Portland to meet my parents to give them the 10
year old boy child and the 6 year old girl child for a week!  (A week with
only our 6 month old!  Wow!  That's another story.)  About 160 miles there
over Mt. Hood, 80 miles around Portland and 180 back over Santiam Pass.  It
was so great, only dipping to about 50 and third gear on the steepest parts
of the passes about 60-65 everywhere else just fine.  I was pleasantly
surprised when we filled up in Portland on Sunday, we had gone 227 miles on
10.4 gallons of gas.  21.8 MPG.  I was expecting less. Coming back  we went
over Santiam Pass so we did about 40 miles of freeway on I-5.  Kept up with
traffic well, about 70.  It seemed like Totoro didn't mind at all.  We
haven't filled up since getting back home, I'll be interested to see if our
mileage was less from the 70mph+ freeway jaunt.  Only one small incident the
whole trip:  We were playing space ship on the way there.  You know third
was warp drive, fourth was hyperspace.  Anyway, all of a sudden my son say
to my wife in the passenger seat, "Mama, there's smoke coming from your
bum!"  We laughed it of and told him very funny, but don't joke about smoke
in the van.  Just then my wife noticed there really was smoke form under her
seat!  We were coming down the side of Hood and found a spot to pull off.
Realizing what's under the passenger seat of a Vanagon I quickly shut
everything electrical off and cut the engine.   I set the brake and opened
the battery access.  No more smoke, no embers, no melted wires.  But VERY
hot wires on the + side.  Turns out the guy I got Totoro from had recently
changed the battery and didn't tighten the cables.  All that current trying
to fight through a very loose connection really heated things up.  I easily
tightened everything up and we were good to go.  And hey, the instrument
cluster was much brighter after that (everything else, too, I'm sure.)  All
in all, a wonderful trip.  A question though, the battery in Totoro seems a
bit tall for the space, what group should it be?  I'm thinking an Optima is
in order, is there a model that is appropriate?  Thanks!

Brendan Slevin
84 GL Totoro
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons. -T.S. Eliot