Van down! Van down!

Well, it has been a hard two days. Who would have thought going from Bellingham to Seattle would be such a long, arduous journey.

Visiting B-ham was fun - if wet, but it was time to move on to the Big City. I was keen to find out how the van would do in a truly urban setting. Well, the fact is - it apparently disagrees with it violently. 1 hour into my drive on I-5 (doing 68mph!), I smelled gas. A very, very strong miasma of gas that was NOT dissipating. I pulled onto the next off-ramp into a convenient parking lot next to a gas station and across from Lowe's.

Getting out of the van I immediately noticed a trail of wet spots following my van. Peering underneath, and holding my breath, there was a large pool of fuel accumulating as more dripped from my now silent VW. I pulled myself into my old overalls (or should I say I stretched the overalls to partially cover my corpulent flesh) - and immediately felt bad about my weight. Sigh. First - confirm it was fuel and not oil. Yup, smelled like fuel but checked the oil level anyway - it was very, very low. So maybe that was the problem?? Continue to troubleshoot...

Anyway crawling around, and tearing up the engine cover, I quickly (ok, not so quickly) discovered the main fuel supply line to the carburetor had fallen free. The fact that the van's engine and body did not burst into flame is amazing.

Remember Lowe's? Hurray - higher power looking out for me. I ran across and got some clips. A lot of clips (just in case) and got to work reattaching the line. Feeling good about my ability to find and fix a problem, I pulled over to the gas station and refueled (back to 12mpg, but most probably spilled onto the road). So I returned to I-5 determined to fix the other problem. You did remember the low oil level, right? Did I mention the bits of metal (hopefully from the o-rings seating around the new pistons). Hello, Jiffy Lube.

A bit of advice - Jiffy Lube may be convenient but it is staffed by people, kids usually, who are not familiar with VWs. I was told, "They don't make 10w-40 anymore. How about 20w-50?" Well, I might be ignorant, but I know what I don't know. I tried some folks - parents (no cells???), mechanics (no pick up), strangers (ran away), and the Jiffy Lube database. No guidance. So I searched the car again - it was no longer organized, anyway - and found some 20w-50 Dad had left in from 1995. Ok, good enough for me, "Fill her up, guys" I saw authoritatively.

$50 worth of fuel, clamps, oil, and oil filter later I was ready to resume my trip south. But now when I drove down the road the car made a new noise. At this point I had highly tuned senses, a decent degree of paranoia, and no music on. Though the VW continually generates a veritable cacophony of whistles, clicks, and chugs that would impress a horde of blind Swahili speakers, this was a NEW sound. A heavy thumping that increased in direct proportion to the pressure I applied to the accelerator. I thought, "I bet that oil is too thick. The sound will go away once it heats up." Guessing and rationalizing is a bad combination.

The BBB's thumping did go away - in the middle of the intersection of Yelis and 6th Ave. My local expert told me later that this was not a good place for a van to lose its forward momentum and will to live. But with every dark cloud, a silver lining seemed to appear. I was pointed downhill with an empty parking lot within coasting range. I even had a homeless man help me out - what a great city!

So 24 hours later my bike rack is on my friend's car, my stuff is in his house, and the van has been fixed of a busted set of bolts that connect its mechanical hipbone to its legbone (I'm paraphrasing here). Apparently these should be tightened down by the person working on them. Whodathunkit? Nothing that money can't fix.

Still, I think it might be time to reconsider the reliability of the BBB for a long distance trip across the West. It could be prudent to test it out locally, Montana locally, before trying again to negotiate the steep hills and mountain passes with a cranky, cantankerous relic. Its not that I don't trust it. Okay, I don't trust it.

More to follow, I promise.

Note to self - new trucks apparently have either no hip bones or those titanium suckers that can be used to rebuild the $10B man. Check 'em out.