Road trips, Cruising and Cal-lookers

[louisb]

I thought it might be cool to start a thread that is a collection of stories and pics about driving your cal-lookers. There have been several threads posted like this but they get lost in the clutter. I though maybe we could keep them in one place. One maybe it will inspire people to drive their Cal-lookers more and post some short stories on their experience and two it will provide something to read during those times you can't drive your VW.

--louis

[louisb]

Last Tuesday was my birthday so I decided to take the day off and do the first real shake down cruise since I did all the suspension mods to the '67. The plan was to get out early, head up to a little town in South GA to get some barbecue ribs at my favorite BBQ joint then do a little touring and stretch the '67s legs some with a cruise through the South GA, North Florida countryside. The day was a perfect day for VW cruising, partly cloudy, mid 70s with a slight breeze and no chance of rain. (Which is good since I still didn't have the driver's side window installed.  ) Going with my on this trip was my good friend Bob Daws who also took pics of our trip.

Unfortunately, the '67 didn't want to play nice and wouldn't start. We tracked it down to a lose starter wire and a dead battery. After getting everything connected and taking a quick drive around the block to make sure the battery would hold enough charge to restart the car we headed out. By now it was noon so we decided to head directly to the BBQ joint which was about an hour form my house. Car ran well keeping a constant 65 down the four lane black top. Oil temp hovered around 150 for most of the trip. We arrived at Faulen's BBQ which is a little family owned place in Thomasville GA which has the best BBQ in the area. Its a bit on the country side as far as atmosphere with your food coming in old tin pie plates and the drinks served in mason jars. (Used for canning fruit.)

After filling up on BBQ ribs we waddled out the car ready to get back on the road but the car wouldn't start again. Starter wire had came lose. Going to have to add that to the list to fix when I get home. Bob managed to get it back on without electrocuting himself and the engine fired right up. Now one of the 'rules' about road trips Bob and I have is you can not go back the way you came. So leaving the BBQ we picked a direction, left, and decided to see where we ended up. We drove for another 45 minutes to an hour taking some pics along the way. I wanted to get one when we crossed back into Florida at the state line so we stopped got out and dodged traffic for a few minutes trying to get a good clear shot. Got the pics I wanted and then we set back off on little journey. Car ran great all the way up to 65 but past 70 and the front end started to shake pretty bad. We eventually ended up in a little town called Monticello Florida and turned back south to head home.

By now it was about 3:30 pm and we were back in my home town of Tallahassee nearing the end of our trip. We decided to make one last side trip to the DQ to get some ice cream. This involved driving on the freeway which was a bit nerve racking with the tight steering. With the rebuilt front end everything is very tight and it takes some effort to turn the car. Its not real smooth to change lanes and with the semi's blowing by at 70+ we were all over the road. Fortunatly we were only on the interstate for about 15 minutes and the DQ is not far form the off ramp. Pulled into the DQ, got me a hand dipped cone and then cruised on back home. All in all a good four hour cruise. I am going to fix a few things and do another one here in the next two weeks. Then it will be time to go to the Silver Dollar Showdown which is about a three hour drive. This show, held in March kicks off the SE US VW drag racing season. There is a dyno day on Sat as well. I am tempted to register for the dyno day and see what the mighty 1500 is putting out. 


Getting ready to head out:





Pics at Faulen's BBQ








Some pics of the North Florida country side. What, did you think all of Florida looked like Miami?  My next shakedown cruise will be down to the coast and I will get you some white sandy beach pics.
 










Entering back into Florida.








Pic of my good friend Bob and my car. He is building a '71 cal-looker with a 1776.  He tends to be more of a resto guy, but I am slowly converting him to the dark side.





Thats it for this trip. Lets see some of your trips.

--louis

[Donny B.]

Man Louis I would love to put some of my trips in here, but text would make it a very long post.  If folks really want to read a long post I am game, but I thought I would check first.  Right now I am thinking of a trip the wife and I made to Colorado for the Fineline Bug In.

[louisb]

Post it! People can always skip the text if they don't want to read it. I would love to read them and I am sure others would too.

--louis

[Rune]

Please post the storys Donny, I am at home with the flu and need a good read..  Cool story and idea Louis, your car turned out really nice..

[louisb]

your car turned out really nice..

Thanks, it is slowly getting there. I can't wait to blow it apart and paint it though. The current paint job looks like crap.  I have finally decided on 2006 Porsche Carrera White. Probably not until the end of the year though. The 2 liter & berg 5 needs to be built first.

--louis

[Donny B.]

Ok, here you go.  Don't say I didn't warn you.  This was back in 1997 when I was really doing a lot of driving.

August 6th I rose early in anticipation of the long drive from Phoenix. Sil and Jerri Modesti, a couple of good friends and members of Wolfsburg Registry were to accompany Lee and me on our trip to Colorado. Sil had planned on driving his single cab until an errant driver in rush hour traffic removed it from the road permanently. Sil was still driving the rental Ford truck provided by the insurance company. It would be the chase vehicle.

Sil and Jerri arrived just before 6:00am. Lee and I anxious to be on our way were waiting outside. Within minutes we were heading north out of Phoenix on 1-17. Our first gas stop would be Flagstaff, Arizona. We paused long enough to get some breakfast, then headed north through the Indian reservation. Our final destination would be Durango Colorado. The trip was uneventful with the exception of the obligatory stop (Lee demanded I stop) at the four comers for pictures. Now recorded for posterity visions of us standing on the only spot in America where the borders of four states intersect we headed into Colorado.
We arrived in Durango in late afternoon. We had encountered some road construction after Cortez that delayed us for a while. It was during this delay that Lee decided to finally roll down her window and was promptly stung by a bee. Whoopee! Just what we needed. She wasn't going to have too much fun for a while. Lee put up with the pain and it got better with time. In Durango I was leading looking for our motel. I was two cars back from a
police car when I inadvertently ran a red light   OOPS! Sil saw it and got stuck at the light while I proceeded
merrily on my way. The police officer either didn't see it or had better things to do and I skated! It was only when I talked with Sil at the motel that I realized what I had done.

We found the hotel in short order and checked in. There were good restaurants close to the hotel and we decided that we would walk to dinner. We had a good meal and took a walk afterward. We walked by the local fair grounds and decided to pass on the rodeo activities. We wandered back to the hotel and settled in for the night. The area was beautiful and cool compared to the heat we left behind in Phoenix. The next morning Lee and Jerri would board the narrow gage train heading for Silverton. Sil and I would drive ahead and meet them in Silverton. Sight seeing would definitely be the order of the day!
Thursday morning August 7th Lee and Jerri were dispatched to the train early. Sil dropped them off while I stayed behind to add oil to the transmission. I had pumped some out the transmission breather the previous day during and early high speed push. I had finished by the time Sil returned.

Sil and I headed out of Durango for Silverton. The road was good and the mountains gorgeous. This was to be a very pleasant trip of about 60 miles. We knew that we would arrive well ahead of the train and planned on checking out Silverton a little before the train arrived. Sil and I got separated due to traffic in the mountains and I arrived a few minutes before Sil. I paused at the entrance to town, waited for Sil and took some pictures. When Sil arrived he spotted a dirt road and decided to investigate. He found that the road ran close to the railroad tracks at one point and suggested that we go down the road and park the car for a photo opportunity as the train arrived. We did! The picture of my '66 in the foreground and the Durango-Silverton train behind it pretty much speaks for itself. This coal burner with the big plume of smoke is pretty impressive with the high mountains as a backdrop. The train rolled by and our wives almost missed seeing us beside the tracks being so caught up in the splendor of the ride.
Sil and I headed back into Silverton where our wives had already disembarked from the train. They were waiting
as we pulled up. The plan was to play tourist and get something to eat   not necessarily in that order. After eating
we wandered around the town taking some photos to support our claims about the grandeur of this high altitude mining town. Sil and Jerri were really impressed with the beauty of Silverton. I told them "wait 'til you see Ouray." We bought the necessary doodads and decided to head for Ouray.

Ouray is a quaint little town just over the mountains from Silverton. The road is referred to as the Million Dollar Highway. I guess when it was built that's what it cost ...don't know for sure. I know it would cost a lot more than that today! Perhaps the phrase Million Dollar refers to the view along the way. Twenty odd miles and countless photo opportunities brought us to a water fall a few miles before entering Ouray. The unique thing about this waterfall is that it passes right under the road. That's right, they must have blasted a tunnel through solid rock for the waterfall to run through. It comes down the mountain, enters the the rock on one side of the road and comes out on the other side. Of course we took the necessary photos. With these moments recorded it was onward to Ouray. Ouray is a little more sophisticated than Silverton with the mountains a lot closer. I was leading and missed the turn that would take us down the road to our motel. This was to be a trip where I continually took the wrong turn or got lost. We drove all the way through Ouray and out the other side before we turned around and headed back. This time I found the street and we made it to the hotel and checked in. The photos from the hotel room give some indication of the majestic mountains securing the town. Sill and Jerri had a picture window in their room and could lay in bed with a full view of the mountains and waterfalls. We walked into town to check out where to eat. We decided on a few potential restaurants and headed back to the hotel to relax. We e~oyed the light afternoon rain shower and prepared for dinner. We walked back into town for dinner and decided to return to the same place for breakfast the next day. It was fun playing the tourist in this little burg high in the Colorado mountains. This will probably become an annual event for us. Next year the plan is to stay an extra day in Ouray and rent a Jeep to explore the mountains.

Friday we rose early, gassed the cars and grabbed a breakfast in Ouray. We plotted our route from Ouray to Colorado Springs. This would be a fairly long day driving north out of Ouray through Ridgeway to Montrose then east to Gunnison, over Monarch Pass through Woodland Park and down into Colorado Springs.

We followed the plan and unfortunately encountered more than our share of road construction. They had just laid down a fresh coat of oil and gravel. Oh Boy! We survived by obeying the law and going slow without passing. The planned route would include climbing the 11312 Monarch Pass and crossing the continental divide. My little car had never been that high before. During the climb that little hot rod was never passed and maintained sixty miles per hour ...OOPS the speed limit was only fifty. "Just havin' fun I guess." We got to the top and took pictures to record and savor the moment. While at the top of Monarch Pass Sil, Jerri, Lee and I took the gondola ride to the summit. What a view! More photos...

We left the continental divide and headed for Woodland Park. Rocky Mountain Works would be hosting a show on Saturday and I was to meet Jeny Spearn there. Jeny was trailering his race car to participate in the racing at the Fineline Bug-In on Sunday, he was also bringing the Vintage Volkswagen Club of America stuff he had picked up from Matt Joy in Lincoln, Nebraska. Matt was supposed to represent the WWCA but Matt was sick and unable to attend. Jeny showed up about a half hour after later. We chatted briefly and he went inside and asked to meet with Duane Singleton who was to be our contact. Duane was most gracious and took our names and verified the correct spelling to prepare VIP passes. This would be a first for me. We left Rocky Mountain Motorworks and their gorgeous location and headed to Colorado Springs to find our hotel. Of course this left me with yet another opportunity to get lost; I did. Lee and I managed to find the hotel after getting separated from our friends in traffic. There were now six of us, Sil, Jerri, Jeny Spearn and his wife Kim, Lee and I. This would really make for a lot of fun as we all got along really well. Friendship is a wonderful thing. This hobby has a way of bringing people from allover the country together.

After getting settled in at the hotel we all decided to get a gourmet meal from Wendy's less than a block away from the hotel. We walked to dinner and talked and laughed most of the way. We regrouped after dinner at the hotel pool and chatted for a couple of hours before calling it a night. While we were sitting around the pool Steve Hernandez showed up. Steve was a phone acquaintance of mine from earlier in the year when he called me asking about the Gene Berg Cruise. He had called me just before I left Phoenix and mentioned that he might look me up in Colorado Springs.

Saturday morning came early and we headed for Rocky Mountain Motorworks again. We found a convenience store near Manatou Springs and got some soda and ice for the day. We arrived at Rocky Mountain Motorworks about quarter to eight and started setting up. We had a lot of memorabilia for sale for WWCA and we would hand out some freebies as well. We had a bunch of VVWCA newsletters to be handed out. By the end of the day all of the newsletters would be gone and we signed up eight new members for the VVWCA.

I entered my car in the show just for grins. I bought some raffle tickets ...the money went for a local charity. Good causes are everywhere. It was nice to see Rocky Mountain Motorworks helping a charity with this event. Their employees were everywhere working to make this a fun event. They must be commended. This was a lot of fun at a gorgeous venue. There were many nice cars and many of them from out of state. When it was all over a nice little '65 convertible came out the over all winner...a really pretty car. They gave out a gold, silver and bronze award for the best three in the show. After that they gave out a certificate to each of the top ten vote getters. I managed to get one of those. Pretty cool! I talked to a lot of people about the car but more importantly about the WWCA and even a little about the Gene Berg Memorial National Cruise. It's always fun meeting new people at these events and sharing experiences. That's what it's all about. We bid a farewell to the gracious folks at Rocky Mountain Motorworks and headed back into town and our hotel.

When we arrived at the hotel Steve Hernandez was back at the hotel waiting for us. It seems that Steve had his own business detailing cars and had some pretty impressive wax to demo on my car. About an hour later the car was looking pretty good. The stuff he used on the car really made it shine. He told me to only wash the car with water... .nothing else after this. He was right that stuff is really neat. Bugs slide right off with water and a towel.

With my car freshly waxed and the sun setting it was time to think about food. It seems that food is the one common denominator on these trips. The wives had gotten together and decided on a steakhouse in Manitou Springs.  It was raining when we all piled into Sil's truck for the jaunt up to the restaurant. We found the steakhouse with no trouble but there was a long wait and they were kind of snobby. Not our kind of people so we looked elsewhere. We wandered up the street past a little bar. The aroma escaping from that bar shouted "STEAK". We inquired about seating and they said "No Problem!" ...Great! We sat in the back next to a window overlooking the river that flows through town. It actually ran right under the building we were in. We ordered our food and when it arrived ...WOW! I had a ribeye steak smothered in grilled onions and a bleu-cheese/mustard sauce. The others in our group seemed equally impressed with their meals. I do believe we were briefly in gastronomic heaven. The food was great and the service fantastic. When we left we noticed the sign over the door claimed the best food in town. Believe it!

Now with full stomachs we decided to walk off some of our dinner. It was still raining but very lightly. Manitou Springs is a pretty, old suburb of Colorado Springs.. .kinda sorta. There were many quaint shops just ripe for spending hard earned money. I managed to skate again, but others in our group bought stuff to take home. We wandered around for about an hour then decided to head back to the hotel. On the way back the decision was made to seek out and destroy some ice cream   what fun. We spotted a 31 Flavors and Sil with some pretty nifty driving got us in there, he didn't even have to drive down the sidewalk. Maybe next time. They must have wondered who these crazies were invading their establishment especially when Jerry Spearn started having laughable dialogue with a woman from Oklahoma. He makes friends wherever he goes. We were sure having a good time, but had to get back and get some sleep for the next day.

Sunday came early and I had this sopping' wet car cover to hang up in the shower...it never did dry out. With Jerry leading, Lee and I in the middle and Sil bringing up the rear we headed for Denver. This would be the first time for me to attend the Fineline Bug-In at Bandimere and I was looking forward to it. The only problem is that it was still raining. We got closer to Denver after negotiating through a lot of fog and it started to clear. Then we turned and headed toward the race track and it started to rain some more. We were making pretty good time and were coming upon some slower vehicles. We were only a few miles away from the track when we spotted what was to be one of the neatest things we had seen all weekend. A car up ahead was traveling rather slowly, then it pulled out and passed the car in front. It was then that I noticed the little split window just cruising about 55mph in the rain. It was a standard and really looked cool driving in that weather. Just DRIVE-EM'! If this guy could drive his split window in the rain to a show then who couldn't???

When we got to the track there was a line and we had to wait for a while. The rain was very light now but there was still some speculation whether the event would happen or not. I didn't care. I was having a good time just checkin' everything out. The split arrived shortly after us and immediately a crowd formed around it. Everyone was genuinely impressed that this guy and his wife had driven it in the rain to the show. It was a little grey standard, about a '51 I think, unrestored with the original interior...really cool! The lines started to move and we jumped into our cars and pulled forward. I entered the show and gave them my money. I usually show the car without any expectations. If you don't support these events they tend to go away. It was still cloudy and raining off and on. I actually was enjoying the weather, we don't get too much rain in Phoenix, although I did feel bad for the racers. Many of the racers had traveled long distances to race here and the racing was looking kind of iffy.

I drove my car to the show area and parked it. Lee and I started cleaning stuff on the car. I took care of the engine compartment and she did the interior then the wheels and tires. It didn't take too long. I usually don't get carried away getting the car clean. I figure if they like it ... they like it. While we were doing this Jerry was up in the pits getting his car ready to race. I set out some of my stuff like the magazine articles on the car etc. The car was as clean as it was going to get. Lee and I sat with the car for a while talking with the many nice folks that enjoy these events. We fielded many questions about the car and the Berg parts used in it. Most people found it hard to believe that I had driven it all the way from Phoenix. We had only been there a short while when Kim came by looking for Sil. Jerry was having trouble with the race car. It seems he couldn't get all the gears. Kim found Sil in short order and he headed to the pits to see if he could help. This would be a short day for Jerry. The newly rebuilt tranny wasn't going into second or forth gear, what a heartbreak after coming all that way. Sometimes that's the way it goes.  It slowed down for a while so I decided to check out the swap area. Lee was left to field questions and keep the car company. Lee has gotten pretty good at answering questions about my car, and has left more than one person puzzled by her knowledge of its mechanical attributes.  Since he wasn't going to be able to race today, Jerry went with me to see what we could find in the swap meet. Jerry managed to score a straight '67 deck lid for only $15. I found two type IV oil coolers for $10 each. I adapt the larger type IV oil cooler into the doghouse on my engines. I'll do anything to make 'em run cooler in Phoenix. I also found an oval radio block-out plate for $40, but stupid me passed on an original Santana pulley for $15 Duh! I ran into Art Thraen from Salt Lake City. Art had driven the Gene Berg Cruise with us back in May. He drove his white '66 to the show from Salt Lake. Art is another person who believes in driving his car to events. We need more folks like Art! After chatting briefly with Art we went our separate ways to seek out more goodies.

Later I went back to see how Lee was holding up, but she was no longer at the car. They had started giving out the awards. I had voted early so I could walk around without interruption. While I was at the car some people came up asking how I had done in the show. I had entered the car in the daily driver class. I really didn't know whether I had gotten anything or not. A few minutes later Kim Spearn walked by and said that I had won. Lee arrived back at the car a few minutes after that with the plaque I won. I was really surprised not to mention pleased. Usually at shows that are participant judged I don't do so well. This was the first time in a long time that I had won my class. The car has a lot of flaws that come from it being in constant use. Some people appreciate that it is driven regularly and some don't care.

About 3 :OOpm with the show awards passed out we decided to it was time to head back to Colorado Springs. Jerry and Kim Spearn had to head back to Omaha so they needed to leave early. The fickle weather had changed again and the sun was out and we had shed our jackets and were in T-shirts. When we left the racers had not even run a single round. I found out later that they did get in all the racing. We bid farewell to our friends from Nebraska and headed back to the hotel in Colorado Springs.
Now we were back to just the four of us. Sil Jerri, Lee and I decided to cap a great day by, you guessed it, eating a great meal. We wandered around Colorado Springs looking for a good place to eat when we came upon an Outback Steakhouse. The rest is history. We headed back to the hotel with full stomachs in a pleasant rain storm. We would leave early on Monday and gas up and get breakfast somewhere out on the road.

Monday morning the weather didn't look too bad. The car cover in my '66 was soaked again. I rolled it up the best I could and put it in a plastic bag. I would have to get it dry later on. With the cars loaded we left around 7:00am. We headed south on 1-25; we were going to Santa Fe and spend the night there. We stopped in Pueblo, Colorado a short distance south of Colorado Springs for gas and breakfast. This is a trip I know very well having gone this route twice before on the Gene Berg Cruise. We would travel south over the Raton Pass at 8900 feet into New Mexico. The next gas stop was Las Vegas, New Mexico then on to Santa Fe. I had never been to Santa Fe and was looking forward to seeing the sights. This was to be a pretty good push so the decision was made to try and make some time. I would be leading until we got to Santa Fe. With the rpm steady at 3600 we motored along at 75mph pretty much all the way to Santa Fe. Sil even took a picture of the speedo in the Ford truck to prove the point. It should now be apparent that by using quality parts these little cars can be driven really hard for long distances without problems.

As we got near Santa Fe we exited the interstate to find a restaurant and get a late lunch. It was about 2:00pm. Sil asked for directions then we followed Sil and Jerry into the center of Santa Fe. It was pretty but confusing. We found the visitors center and got some more information. The decision was made to get a hotel then come back to do some serious sight seeing. We had passed a beautiful motel on the way into the city but it looked really expensive. We decided to price rooms and go elsewhere if they were too high. We stayed at the El Rey Inn. It wasn't as expensive as we had anticipated. This place is gorgeous and pretty much what a tourist would expect a motel in Santa Fe to be like. The service was wonderful. I really recommend this place if you are ever in Santa Fe.

I locked up my car and covered it with the wet car cover. The sun would eventually dry out the cover. Lee and I would ride with Sil and Jerri back into the center of town. We found a parking lot down town and bailed out. We headed for the Loretta a church that Jerri had heard about. There is a spiral staircase in the church with no vertical means of support. They call it the miracle staircase. This is another must see point of interest. We wandered around old Santa Fe. We saw the oldest church in the US and the oldest house in the US. This place is really neat and we discussed coming back and spending more time here at some later date. We found a jewelry store among the many that were there and I bought Lee a silver bracelet to remember the trip by. We also bought some T-shirts to take home with us.

We wandered around looking for a good place to eat. We decided on the Coyote Cafe. I'm not sure how good it really was but we had a lot of fun and the service was great. We ate up on a covered but open 10ft on the roof. It started to storm while we were there and it made for a pleasant end of the day. We returned to the hotel after dinner and decided that we deserved some ice cream. Just so happens there was 31 flavors across the street so we dodged traffic and made it over to get our dessert. We found our way back to the hotel and enjoyed our ice cream on the second story terrace over looking the hotel courtyard. This was beautiful. Tomorrow we would head home in earnest but tonight we were basking in the afterglow of a wonderful vacation.

We rose early and packed the cars Tuesday morning. We went to the hotel lobby to try the continental breakfast better yet feast! (food again) The continental breakfast consisted, depending on your choice, of toast or bagel or cold cereal or bran muffin or blueberry muffin with coffee or orange juice or grapefruit juice or milk any or allof the above. It was free. We ate well and checked out of the hotel. We would drive down through Albuquerque then west on 1-40 towards Flagstaff. We stopped for gas in Grants New Mexico and Winslow Arizona and were home about 3 :OOpm. This was a reasonable push home and we were once again welcomed by the Arizona heat after being very cool for a whole week.

We had covered about 1900 miles and I had averaged 26 mpg. I didn't think that was too bad considering all the mountains we had to climb. The little '66 had climbed it's highest mountain to date when it went over Monarch Pass. The Colorado country side was beautiful and we are all looking forward to going back for this event next year.

Footnote: My wife had her picture taken with the promoters of the show at Bandimere when she accepted my car show award. We recived this photo about a week after returning home from Colorado. This is really a nice jesture and just added an exclamation point to the overall enjoyment of the event. For me this showed real class! Thank you!

[louisb]

Great story!

--louis

[Straight Time]

Top story. Keep em coming 

[Donny B.]

Let me know when you are ready for another one...

[javabug]

Nice pics, Louis.  Hammer Man's story aint so bad, either. 

[Donny B.]

Oh God, will I ever live down the hammer man stuff?

[javabug]

Ha.  I never knew what that was about, just remember reading it in VWTrends.  It did sort of stick.

[louisb]

Ha.  I never knew what that was about, just remember reading it in VWTrends.  It did sort of stick.

lol, yeah that is where I got it from. Must be a story there too?

--louis

[Donny B.]

Back in '97 at the Denver show Henry DeKuyper asked if I would be interested in writing an editorial about driving my car.  Of course I accepted.  Long time friend Matt Joy once said to me "I just get in the car and hammer".  I started the article with that quote.  Then the following year the day before the Kelly Park show a local club put on a road rally.  My wife Lee gave up the passenger seat and rode with someone else to give Dave Cormack an opportunity to ride in my car with me.  He jumped at the chance and we had a great time.  I think we earned a second place.  Larry McKenzie made the trophies as I recall.  Mine has a VW speedometer on it.  Anyway afterward that the end of the rally at a local VW dealership Dave was giving me a hard time about the drive and made me take a hammer out of my tool kit and pose with it.  Every time after that when I saw Dave he would call me the Hammer Man.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.  It's all Dave's fault.

[louisb]

Back in '97 at the Denver show Henry DeKuyper asked if I would be interested in writing an editorial about driving my car.  Of course I accepted.  Long time friend Matt Joy once said to me "I just get in the car and hammer".  I started the article with that quote.  Then the following year the day before the Kelly Park show a local club put on a road rally.  My wife Lee gave up the passenger seat and rode with someone else to give Dave Cormack an opportunity to ride in my car with me.  He jumped at the chance and we had a great time.  I think we earned a second place.  Larry McKenzie made the trophies as I recall.  Mine has a VW speedometer on it.  Anyway afterward that the end of the rally at a local VW dealership Dave was giving me a hard time about the drive and made me take a hammer out of my tool kit and pose with it.  Every time after that when I saw Dave he would call me the Hammer Man.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.  It's all Dave's fault.

lol, that is a great story. Too bad Dave C. is not on this forum. Now, how about some more road stories and pics. Don and I have posted some. Get out there and drive your VW, even if it is to work or around the block, and post a pic.

--louis

[Diederick/DVK]

i just might do that this saturday if the weather remains as sunny!!
well, that is if i'm sober after friday evening of course

[Donny B.]

If you have the August 1998 issue of VW Trends you can read Dave's account of the Rally in the coverage of the Kelly Park show.  It is kinda humorous.

[louisb]

If you have the August 1998 issue of VW Trends you can read Dave's account of the Rally in the coverage of the Kelly Park show.  It is kinda humorous.

I remember that article. I thought you guys got lost. Or maybe that was one of the Berg Rallies. Speaking of, a car rally would be a killer idea.

--louis

[Donny B.]

It looks like this thread is dying.  Soooo......here's another long one.  If I can track down the photos I will add them later.

1997 Sacramento Trip

My wife Lee had to work Saturday, August 30th. I had decided to drive the '66 to the Bug-O-Rama in Sacramento on Labor Day weekend. Lee's brother Chuck agreed to keep me company on the trip. It was going to be a long hard push. One day up and one day back with the show one day in the middle.

I got out of bed just before 1:00am on Saturday morning and drove over to pick up Chuck. We left Chuck's house at about 1:30am and headed out. We would take surface streets to the Loop 101 freeway which would connect us to 1-10 and west out of town. We started by cruising at a decent speed somewhere between 60 and 65mph. The trip west was pretty much uneventful; no, boring. The first gas stop was just before the Arizona-California border. We gassed up at Flying-Js and headed across the border.

We crossed into California and headed westward. We would arrive at Banning about 6:30am. We decided to eat some breakfast at Grandma's in Banning. If you are ever near Banning and getting hungry, I can greatly recommend Grandma's for any kind of home cookin'. With a good breakfast under our belts we headed for the gas station. Chuck had noticed that the right rear tire appeared low. We checked it and found a nail. We gassed up and moved the car to the air station. I have a really slick tire repair kit that I purchased at Karl's Custom in Phoenix. It was used once by Jim Kikuchi on the Gene Berg Cruise. Now I needed to use it on my car. It took about 5 minutes total to plug the tire and air it up. Most of the time spent digging stuff out from under the hood and putting it back. While I fixed the tire Chuck cleaned the windshield. The bugs were giving their all and winning the battle.

From Banning we headed west again on I-10. We continued on I-10 to I-210 then headed for I-5. We got
on 1-5 and immediately started some climbing   we were starting up the grapevine. This is not just one
little hill. It is a series of long grade hills over the mountains. 1-5 is about six lanes wide here with the slower traffic staying to the right. I was in the leftmost lane much to the chagrin of the other traffic. I didn't encounter anyone that was able to pull the hill any better than I was. This was to be the case all the way into Sacramento. ...Sure do get some strange looks as you pass these big cars going up hill at better than 75mph.

We forged on toward Sacramento fortunately the trip remained uneventful. That's the way I like it. We didn't need any major frustrations on this trip. We didn't stop for food, only gas and pit stops. We passed through Stockton a little before 2:00pm and traffic was picking up as was the speed. We had been traveling about 75mph but now we were up to the 80-85mph range. With the cool temperatures the car was running great and never thought about getting hot even with the occasional blast up to 90 or so. The car seems to run better the more I drive it. We arrived at the hotel in Sacramento around 3:00pm and checked in. We unloaded the car and freshened up after the long trip. We had been on the road for over 13 hours and were getting pretty gamey.

Chuck and I went for a walk to check out the neighborhood to see what was available nearby. We returned to the hotel to wait for Richard Zavala. He was driving up from Oakland trailering the former Gary Berg car. We figured he would be there shortly. I called to verify this only to find out he hadn't left yet; this was about 4:30pm. We headed for the bar to wait...OOPS! The dollar beer made time slip by quickly. We feasted on prime rib in the hotel restaurant and were just leaving the table when Richard arrived. He had encountered trouble when he went pick up his trailer making him late. We enjoyed seeing one another again and chatted briefly then decided to settle in for the night. We would rise early the next day.

Sunday morning I was up about 6:30 and ready to go. We briefly prepped the cars and met in the hotel restaurant for breakfast. Richard asked for directions to the track and after breakfast we hit the local 7-11 to load up on beverages for the day. It was a short drive to the track and took only about 15 minutes to get there. We entered the cars in the participant judged class. I was sitting in line when this guy came up to the car saying "Did you drive that car all the way from Phoenix?" When I answered yes he reminded me we had met in Phoenix when he brought his oval to the Phoenix But-O-Rama. It was great talking with Lee Williams again. Lee is an original DKP member neat guy with a lot of remembrances about the hobby. This had already started out to be fun. We were there to have a good time making new friends. Richard and I parked the cars end to end in front of a green BRM equipped right hand drive bug. We had talked with the owner at the Kelly Park show back in April, now here he was helping arrange the cars in this show; small world. We spent most of the day talking with people about the cars and about our journeys around the country. I had brought my album of the 1997 Gene Berg Cruise for folks to see if they were interested. It is truly fun to meet so many people with the same interest. When asked what I did to prepare for this trip I replied "I just put gas in the car".

Rick Zavala, Jim Kikuchi, Chuck and I headed toward the swap area. The swap meet was fairly large.
I hadn't brought enough money for large purchases, but it's always good to check things out. I managed to find some engine tin I needed for $5 and bought another 1300 deck lid emblem. I seem to pick up one of these at just about every event I go to. Owning a '66 I guess I'm partial to these. The prices are starting to go up just like everything else. We kept moving and I had to pass on some convertible deck lids that would fit my car. I also had to pass on some 48 IDA Webers. The prices were right; I just didn't have enough money. It was starting to warm up and we had seen pretty much everything in the swap area so we decided to head back to the cars and get some refreshments.

When we returned there was a large group of people around the cars. This is what makes this so much fun. We talked with so many nice people about the cars and the Gene Berg Cruise. This was pretty much the story of the day.

We watched some of the drags. The PRA was out in force with their beautiful heads up racers. These cars are gorgeous works of art as well as being mechanical masterpieces. There were a number of them staying at our hotel and we had the opportunity of seeing them up close. Boy! Do they ever fly! At Sacramento you seem a lot closer to the action than at some other places I've been to. This makes for great fun!

I wandered back into the car show area. I wanted to get some pictures of the judged portion of the show. There were really some nice cars there. I got the necessary pictures, a really original late model custom green bug with graphics, and early vintage Ghia 'vert and a couple of ovals. Quality was the standard of the day, what a pleasure to see all these beautiful cars in one place.

The day drew to a close and they gave out the awards. I managed an honorable mention of sorts. Cool! After the awards we arranged the three BRM cars for some picture taking, the green right hand drive, Zavala's and mine. This made for some cool pictures not unlike those taken at the Michigan show. With the pictures taken we left said our good-byes and headed back to the hotel.

Steve Hollingsworth, Jim Kikuchi, Richard Zavala, Chuck and I would regroup for dinner in the hotel restaurant. The camaraderie was wonderful and reminded me of the times on the Gene Berg Cruise and what fun we all had. I wish we could get more people to pull the cars out of the garage and run them down the highway on these trips. I realize that not everyone can afford the time or the money this takes, but I'm sure there are more folks out there that could participate than currently do. Once you do something like this you are forever bitten.

For the second night in a row Chuck and I dined on prime rib. The meal was great and was made even greater because of our friends. Everything goes better with friends and these events create the greatest friendships of all. Thank you my friends; it's because of you that all of this is worthwhile. We finished our meals and indulged in some dessert. It was hard to call it a day knowing that we would have to bid a farewell to Steve and Jim this evening. Richard was staying the night and we would part company with
him in the morning. We made our final farewell gestures to Steve and Jim, that's the only difficult part of this. As our friends departed it was time to call it a night. We had a long trip the next day.

We arose early on Monday September 1st. We met Richard for breakfast in the hotel restaurant after loading the car. We ate then bid a fond farewell to Mr. Zavala. This is always the low point on these trips ...saying good-bye. We would get together again but this would be it for now.

We gassed up across the street and were on our way just after 8:00am. We retraced our steps back to I-5 and south toward L.A.. This would prove to be a real push. Chuck had to be back at work Tuesday morning. We pushed the speed envelope all the way home. I had pushed my car all weekend and this was no exception. We stopped only for gas although we did get some tacos at the bottom of the Grapevine where we stopped for gas. We continued over the Grapevine and connected with I-210 and headed east to I-10 and headed for home. Somewhere outside of Indio we started to encounter light rain. This was a good thing! The hill heading east out of Indio is a killer and the rain helped keep everything cool including my engine. Up the hill we went between 70 and 75mph and the engine cool as a cucumber. We pressed on toward Blythe and across the Colorado River, stopping just across the California-Arizona border for gas and headed home. We encountered scattered showers all the way home making the trip really pleasant. I dropped Chuck off at about 8:00pm. We had made it from Sacramento to Phoenix in just under 12 hours, far better than we had hoped. We had no trouble and managed about 26 mpg for the whole trip.

The next day I got up and did my usual after a long trip. I changed the oil in the car and adjusted the valves. A few of the valves had tightened up a little but not significantly. I pulled the filter screen out of my Oberg oil filter and put in a clean screen. When I looked at the screen I was pleased to see that there was absolutely nothing to speak of on it. It was a good feeling to see no abnormal wear material in the filter after a trip like this. This has become pretty much the way it works out any more. If you use good quality parts you can get really good service out of them with little or no problems. Of course you must pull the necessary maintenance.

That should be the last long trip for the car this year. I can't wait until next year! From May to September I have put over 10,000 miles on my car without a single problem save the nail in the tire at
Banning. This has been a truly fun time.   Drive that car!

[louisb]

Great story Don. I am itching to go next month to the show in GA. Not as far as the one you took, but still should be fun.

Come on, someone else must have some stories or pics? What about driving to EBI last year?

--louis

[ESH]

...My wife Lee had to work Saturday, August 30th. I had decided to drive the '66 to the Bug-O-Rama in Sacramento on Labor Day weekend...

Sounds like a good trip, I recently got acquainted with both those hills and both the haul from the LA area to Sacramento and that from the LA area to the Arizona border, putting the two together in a tuned Bug is pretty epic. When we did B-O-R the temperatures on the highway were in the 110 range and getting across to the desert it was around 135 cooling to a chilly 113 at about 3am. I can see why you'd think rain would be a good thing heading back towards Arizona. The Labor Day weekend traffic's hard going too. I've done a few European trips but I think the most was 480 miles each way so about half of that trip.

...Come on, someone else must have some stories or pics? What about driving to EBI last year...

I have a story or two but no time to write at the moment. EBI last year was good, got there no problems, raced all weekend with some kind of miss or something which was cutting in in the upper rev range and progressively got worse. Worried about getting home? No. I just wanted a run where the ET didn't suck! Anyway ended up having to stop 14 times on the way home. There's a complete ignition system spread along a 120 miles of Belgian roadside which was replaced bit by bit. The journey back was no fun but thanks to some good thinking by some good friends we made it in the end!

 

[louisb]

Your stories don't have to be epic odysseys like Donny B. has done. Mine was less than 200 miles total. The idea is just to share the joy of driving your vw, whether it is across town or across the country. 

--louis

[Diederick/DVK]

Driving to EBI last year?? Mmh, that rings a bell... 

My car was only painted on Monday and Tuesday of the week before, due to some unexpected intentional stalling of the guy that carried out the work for me. So, I went to meet him on Tuesday morning, saw my just painted car standing outside and the rest of the parts we'd pick up later that day cos they had not even been painted yet!!! Anyhow, worked on the car all day, installing the bonnet and decklid seals, window rubbers, fitting the doors, fenders and the sunroof etc. My dad turned up with a trailer later that night, and we went home late that night to trailer the not nearly half-done car a 100km home to take to a clubmate's barn the next morning.

From there on, we installed the engine I had been prepping the weeks before (1600 s/p with kadrons and my new merged header and dual QPs) and in one day we had done all the tough jobs including the engine that didn't start. This turned out to be due to the stock fuel pump that couldn't pump any fuel when the car was jacked up. But we found this out after a while and I was able to go for a test drive
Later that night I drove home in the rain with no windows in my doors, but I was having a good time

I have no recollecting of what I did on Thursday, but I decided to stay home on Friday to finish the car completely by installing the windows in the doors with new rubbers, which turned out real nice IMHO. Also, I had been having some issues with the engine. There was oil coming from behind the pulley being spread all over the engine and getting toasted on the merged header (real nasty smell !) So, I kept on tinkering. Finally I decided to try to get the pulley tightened a little more, I thought it was not all the way in yet. And after adjusting the valves on Saturday morning and washing the car again we decided to take the risk and head for EBI. Man, me and my brother were stressed out because something was obviously wrong but I wanted to turn up in Chimay so badly. Unfortunately, while merged onto the motorway and giving the car some good throttle (loved the sound of the kadrons!) there was a sh*tload of smoke coming into the car through the heater tubes and especially on the passenger side. We both thought something had caught fire, so we pulled over opened the decklid and I swear it produced more smoke than a chimney at Christmas    From there on we knew it was GAME OVER 

We then quickly decided to get off the motorway on the first exit by revving like 1,200rpm in 4th and we taxi-ed all the way home. Got my brother's '69 threw in the luggage and we took off again. My brother let me drive to still get the feeling, but we were pretty speechless the first 50km. Then we decided to go through the MacDonalds drive-in at the Belgian border from some comforting food  And from there on we continued with a smile on our face. Then, when we finally found our way through Chimay we arrived at what seemed to us as a giant theme park!! 

You'll understand I'm hoping for a better trip this season 

[Donny B.]

What did you find to be the problem.  Was something overlooked in the rush to get it done or did something just wear out or break?

[Diederick/DVK]

I pulled the engine apart, still have open the case. But I think the cheap pulley didn't seal off and I might have messed up the crank when tightening the pulley bolt cos after a while there was a tick in the engine. (sorry for going slightly off-topic)

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/RMs6qTIpv00" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/RMs6qTIpv00</a>

Also, there was a lot of blow-by on the cylinders, cos they were used before and I didn't keep them matched. Another lesson learned

[louisb]

I remember you posting about your problems last year. Sucks, but at least you got to go. This year you will have to report on your trip.

--louis

[Diederick/DVK]

definitely

i'm going for a drive this weekend, so i might come up with a mini feature on here.
with photos of course