Hi vanagoneers, loafers and splitties!

We have just done the 1500 miles long leg from the cold notheast to the
pleasant south. Right now I'm typing from a terminal room at
the U of Miami, Coral Gables. I'm attending a conference
at nearby Biltimore hotel. Have to stay there through tomorrow
to give my talk, but after that we are taking off with
the Westy, trailer hobie and canoe to the Everglades NP.
and further exploring in Florida and the keys.

The trip down was relatively uneventful. We waited out a snow storm
at home, and left Thursday last week. Arrived in Miami on
Saturday 48 hours later. Surprisingly the
little diesel doesn't seem to mind hauling the trailer
and boat. I was so encouraged by its willingness so instead of
driving the whimpy, flat expressway (90 to 81 to 95), we
drove rte 15 through the mountains of Pennsylvania. That
worked fine too, although I wished I had a another gear
between 3 and 4. We drove a moderate 55 on flat ground and
35 to 45 uphill on third gear to keep the temp down.
Milage was around 24mpg the first 1000 miles, and increased to
26 in Florida. This could be either due to Floridas flatness, or 
maybe they don't have winter diesel here. Without trailer
and boat milage is around 29mpg.

The higher load on the engine increased the oil consumtion
though. This could have turned nasty, as I was only checking
on my regular 1000 mile intervals, and once the level had gone a good
bit below min. I never lost oil pressure so I hope things are
ok. Now I'm checking every 500 miles, and things seem ok.

/Martin