In way of intro let me preface by saying "Volkswagons have a way of growing
on you!"... Volkswagon -IS- a state of mind.......

To back up a bit for newcomers to this thread; A fellow list member and I
decided to exchange "projects"....His, a 66' 21 window beluxe for my 65'
SingleCab....To complicate matters we had 30 year old semi-restored
vehicles that were 500 miles apart on a good day and not much time or money
to spare!

I decided to brave the wilderness and drive "LemonHead" up from N.Florida to
Richard in Raliegh, North Carolina.

The trek up was rather uneventful and other than numerous thumbs up & Peace
signs from fellow travelers and the occasional tongue from some back seat
sibling I fared well until I hit the outskirts of Raliegh.

Upon entering Raleigh proper I noticed my mid-range "umpffff" as I call it
decline...Y'know, the mid range of my "power curve" on the 1600 dual port.
General accelleration suffered and upon spying a shade tree in a parking lot
of downtown I quickly cut across traffic and snuggled "lemonHead" under the
cool spot for a r & r...

The day had been hot (100f +/-) since I left South Georgia that morning and
I knew I was running the engine pretty warm. Not much to do but monitor and
hope for the best! I had given up clean ignition in favor of a slightly
cooler plug
before I left knowing I would run into a temperate climate, but that didn't
prepare me for what I found upon examination of the motor. I had (in my
cheap
way of doing things) installed the "no-name" points from places unheard of
when doing the last tune-up and now would pay dearly for that mistake. It
seems that
the "bushing" that rides on the cam of the distributer was made out of a cheap
plastic and under the heat melted to the point where the points would not
even open enough to put my 006" feeler gauge through!  After cursing my
cheap genes
I installed a "spare" Bosch set and reset the timing hopeing I hadn't ruined
anything running it hot...

In the interim, before Richard arrived, a fellow pulled up in a imposing Ford
F150 and in a subtle Red Neckian kinda way said "Hey, is that a Golf Cart?" to
which I in my heat induced recklessness replied, "Yea, kinda like....!" "But
nuthin like that big *^%$ `em up truck you got!"

I heard his engine shut off as I peered into the engine compartment of lemon-
head, and at that instant I thought "Damn Kevin, You haven't learned ANYTHING
in your 37 years of dealing with the world if you haven't learned NOT to piss
off a Redneck in a town not your own......

I hear his truck door open and braced myself for a cacaphony of monosylabic
utterances before being pummeled to death in front of the Raleigh Civic Center
sign proclaiming "July 28-30  Pharmacutical Convention" & was prepared to meet
my maker when all of a sudden I heard..."Dang...there's a motor back there!!?!"
and then "Is this here a real -old- volkswagon?"

I realized at this point there truly IS a higher power responsible for looking
out for fools like me and swore a quick oath not to EVER tip cows again.....

Bubba, (well, maybe not his name, but he'll never read this and I don't think
we actually ever exchanged names) took me into the Civic center where he worked
as a security guard and let me use the phone to call Richard and give him the
location where I was thankfully still alive... Ahhh, friends in high places!!!!

After Bubba and I exchanged our male bonding vows and I made my way back over to
the truck I was shortly surprised by a rainbow painted split window van
madly honking its horn at me as it pulled into the parking lot across the
street...

Richard had arrived...

Continued......

Kevin Murray (cinematographer) -FeetsFirst Films

*59 beetle ragtop* 66 Beetle, 65 SingleCab(sold), 66 Deluxe Samba(soon)
67 Panel Bus, 67 Beetle, 69 Beetle Baha, 72 Bus, 74 412 Station waggin

-------------****** Sparks through the Rubble ******------------------