Well, if there is one thing I can say, it’s that the trip didn’t begin as expected.
Our first weekend away was spent camping as a farewell trip with friends. After the panic of packing up the apartment (how could we POSSIBLY have so much stuff after being in Canada for just two years??) being out of the city, and finally living in the car was a relief. We had planned a river float, but forgot that at the start of summer, the river was a fast flowing torrent, complete with rapids, so instead we sat by the campfire, cooked hobo pies and drank beer.
Our first weekend away was spent camping as a farewell trip with friends. After the panic of packing up the apartment (how could we POSSIBLY have so much stuff after being in Canada for just two years??) being out of the city, and finally living in the car was a relief. We had planned a river float, but forgot that at the start of summer, the river was a fast flowing torrent, complete with rapids, so instead we sat by the campfire, cooked hobo pies and drank beer.
Our next stop was a friend’s ranch in Penticton. It was a lovely small town, and his ranch was complete with retired rodeo horses, a band of dogs, and a selection of stuffed moose heads on the living room wall. It all felt very Canadian!
After the ranch is where trouble began..... The car was beginning to overheat. Usually, topping up the radiator, or fixing a problem with your thermostat fixes overheating, but not when you are in a 1979 air cooled VW. Then the problem is far more complicated. Plus, we only had one day to cross from Canada into the USA or we would be overstaying our visa. If we had had more time, we could have returned to Vancouver and our trusty mechanic, but instead we had to push onward , into the Rockies.
We crossed into the USA at a tiny town, where they didn't seem to get a lot of traffic. After asking us for our 'personal use marijuana' (could it be the car that gave them that impression?) searching the car (maybe because they didn't seem to have a lot to do, or... maybe because they didn't quite believe we didn't have any?) and let us through.
Then came 3 days of sheer dread, as we watched the thermometer rise and rise and rise, and the oil temperature light flash red, like a bomb was about to explode in our engine bay. In order to keep the temperature down to a safe level, we drove most of the Rockies in first gear at 30km/h. Not very relaxing, or picturesque, as all we were looking at were the temperature gauges. The logical plan here was to stop at a mechanic, however air cooled VW mechanics were few and far between in those parts, and it was the 4th July long weekend, so most people were closed until Monday, possibly Tuesday. To add to the excitement, reverse gear stopped working, and some kind of problem developed with the starter motor, so every time we wanted to start the car, we had to roll start, or Angus had to roll underneath with a screwdriver and perform some kind of magic. It was beginning to feel like a scene from Little Miss Sunshine.
After the ranch is where trouble began..... The car was beginning to overheat. Usually, topping up the radiator, or fixing a problem with your thermostat fixes overheating, but not when you are in a 1979 air cooled VW. Then the problem is far more complicated. Plus, we only had one day to cross from Canada into the USA or we would be overstaying our visa. If we had had more time, we could have returned to Vancouver and our trusty mechanic, but instead we had to push onward , into the Rockies.
We crossed into the USA at a tiny town, where they didn't seem to get a lot of traffic. After asking us for our 'personal use marijuana' (could it be the car that gave them that impression?) searching the car (maybe because they didn't seem to have a lot to do, or... maybe because they didn't quite believe we didn't have any?) and let us through.
Then came 3 days of sheer dread, as we watched the thermometer rise and rise and rise, and the oil temperature light flash red, like a bomb was about to explode in our engine bay. In order to keep the temperature down to a safe level, we drove most of the Rockies in first gear at 30km/h. Not very relaxing, or picturesque, as all we were looking at were the temperature gauges. The logical plan here was to stop at a mechanic, however air cooled VW mechanics were few and far between in those parts, and it was the 4th July long weekend, so most people were closed until Monday, possibly Tuesday. To add to the excitement, reverse gear stopped working, and some kind of problem developed with the starter motor, so every time we wanted to start the car, we had to roll start, or Angus had to roll underneath with a screwdriver and perform some kind of magic. It was beginning to feel like a scene from Little Miss Sunshine.
After 2 days sitting in a Walmart car park in Sheridan Wyoming (waiting for the long weekend to end), numerous hours contemplating what we would do if the car stopped driving all together (standing us in the middle of the USA, literally hundreds of miles away from anywhere) and much advice from our mechanic, and various experts on online VW forums, we were off again, limping the car to Sioux falls South Dakota. The advice from various folks, varied wildly, from 'your engine is about to explode and your heads are about to melt' to 'the only people who worry about engine temperatures, are people who have installed temperature gauges. Just pull out the gauge and throw it away'. Our mechanics advice, was 'drive faster and hotter, and see what happens'. Turns out we didn’t explode, and after a once over and some very fancy mechanics from Keith at Monkey Wrench, we were off again, feeling much more relaxed.