Chip, the All American Bus

So, not without issues, we finally got fed up waiting & collected the bus. It’s boring going on about the negatives & at the end of the day it’s always buyer beware! Suffice to say that if we hadn’t been there in person we could have been seriously ripped off!


Back to the motel to sort out a few small issues then the following day we started for LA.


A tad too much oil in the motor.


Leaking, useless, water tank.



An unscheduled detour into Camp Pendleton saw a US Marine in the guard house patiently direct us onto the correct road & from there we gingerly nursed the bus north. I say gingerly coz the brakes just didn’t quite feel right. At Dana Point I pulled into a shop & had the guys take a look. The rear drums weren’t on correctly so with this sorted we carried on.

Performance Haus, Dana Point


PCH 1


Dockweiller State Beach, camping US stylee



At Dockweiller, when I plugged in the hook-up it blew right back out again, scorching the cables & tripping the fuses. Screwdrivers & multimeter out & diagnosed that the earth on the camper had been wired to connect to the live on the site! That drama dealt with we woke up to a pool of fluid under the rear tyre where a wheel cylinder had ruptured. A quick scan of the Yellow Book & we found Kent Clemens & his team at Wabbit, just behind Venice Beach.

Venice




Wabbit Wepairs


The fool we bought the van from had fitted a cheap copy 009 distributor to a Type 4 motor. The two don't go & we were only getting about 12 to the gallon. Kent's guys swapped this out, fixed the brakes properly & tuned the bus. Sadly the business is now closed after about 30 years servicing local dubs. Kent succumbed to the Big C last year. We were privileged to know him.

 

I’ve decided to occasionally whack some random pics on here rather than do the “then we went here..” thing.


Sooooo.......

Camping in the redwoods at Boulder Creek, just south of San Francisco



17 Mile Drive, Monterey.



A nice big bridge



Driving underwater, Badwater Basin, Death Valley



A long & not so winding road, somewhere hot!



Local laundry, Boulder Creek



Getting our kicks....



....on old Rt 66



Room for the night



Hackberry General Store, Arizona

 

Time for a Monday morning “where would you rather be” post.


It’s a Utah montage. Anyone seen Cars? The scenery is stylised but you can see where the animators got their inspiration.......


Mexican Hat

 

verry nice trip with a verry verry nice bus.
we have seen the band VENICE for i think 6 times here in the Netherlands, but i like it to see VENICE BEACH for one time in real
( the band VENICE )

 

Before I start work today, here are some of the many pictures of road signs we took on the trip!


err. OK then


!


!!

& this one from the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia looking towards the the Great Smoky Mountains coz. it's beautiful & journeys are what it's all about

 

Busy week ahead so getting these on now. Focus, earn money, get bus done, go........
Yellowstone, Wyoming. A super-volcano which when it goes off again (& apparently it's due soon, in geological terms) will cause a bit of bother.

Mammoth Hot Springs



Early Morning In the Caldera



Old Faithful, goes off every 90 minutes


He would have made a mess of the bus. They reckon we took out 50 million of these in the 1800's



The Yellowstone River



Our camp view at Mammoth Camp Site

 

Isn't that at Langley? It's in the opening credits of every episode of Homeland.

 

Yeah that's right @baybirmingham . Pure American irony, sign post the operational HQ of the CIA & dumb it down in one spectacular move. Hilarious

 

By the time we'd got to Albuquerque the bus had done a little over 6000 miles. I gave it the second service of our ownership & decided it was time to get the front beam greased. We asked the Walmart community if there were any shops that specialised in old VW's & got directed to this massive lot just outside of town.
We were in heaven. The owner, Trey, allowed us unrestricted access to the yard. We spent a couple of days here with the tool box.
The wiper motor in our bus was from an prototype bay & didn't self cancel so I swapped that out. We were lucky enough to find a full set of original chrome locks, keyed to one key, to replace the cheapo ones that were on the bus. I replaced our worn out sliding door hinge & we collected some smaller rare bits & bobs that we sold when we got back here.
The sad end to this story is that when I phoned Trey last year to arrange a trip back he told me the yard had gone!
The landowners sold it from under the feet of the family who'd traded in VW's since the early 60's to put a huge recycling plant on the land.
Most of the steel went to the crusher, with Trey keeping a few choice bits to trade with. The dude was understandably devastated & all that German history is now gone.

 

Hi @MorkC68, no we didn't. We approached DC via the Blue Ridge Parkway/Skyline Drive. I wish we had as the bay area looks stunning but time was getting short as autumn was getting unpleasant.
The weather was foul & we were on a bit of a mission to get to Maine for the Fall.
This is the closest we got to the bay....

 

Route 66. Lucky enough to see some of it, we skipped on & off through Arizona & New Mexico.
Many of the towns along the route are semi-deserted with the Interstate taking much of the trade away. Despite this the scenery through these states is breathtaking & off the beaten track, at some of the more remote campsites, the local people are gems.


Closed gas stations feature prominently along the way.
Interstate 40 is now the main route into California from the east.



The Route is stuffed full of really cool motels with awesome signage from the hey days of the 50's & 60's



This is Cadillac Ranch just outside Amarillo. Cars from 1949 to 1963.
You are encouraged to take a rattle can & make your mark.



Meteor Crater, it's massive at about 3/4 mile across.


Everything about the Route is vintage, including the junk yards.


Winslow's a tired small town with one tourist attraction & a cafe.
There's a great Sonic fast food drive-in here that does fab ice cream! We liked Sonic's...



How cool is this. A bloke who had a truck stop moved this here & intentionally set it leaning to attract attention to his business.
The business burnt down (ironically there was no water in the tower) & this is all that's left.

 

Some great pics. Very jealous

Did you go standing on the corner. ...

 

Hey @matt, yeah did the old touristy thing. It had to be done...There was no one else about. Quite weird.
Mrs Monkey:

 

Very cool

 

I belive they call it boondocking in the states

 

Hey @paradox you're right! Not quite sure why though & often wondered what it means...
Mind you, people who come to watch boats on the canals are called gongoozlers! Work that out.

 

Whatever its called and whatever place on earth it is
Ive always found people who live an alternative life including life on the road interesting