Della get's a Makeover

Written: Thursday, March 6th – Fresno, CA

We went to the Pink House this morning to meet with Beth Eckloff, the Program Director. She’s staff with IVCF and one cool lady. The Pink house is a group of people who’ve decided to live together in a sort of intentional community. They live together in a big (you guessed it) pink house right in downtown Fresno. All the people are involved in their own ministries like tutoring kids in the neighborhood or volunteering at drop-in centres and local churches (basically some type of ministry with an urban focus). They meet weekly to eat a meal together, study the bible, discuss, share and pray. Their focus: community, urban ministry and leadership development. I would love to have something like this in life, imagine living and being in community with your neighbors friends. A life spent in service to others. It’s actually quite scary to imagine. I need a better understanding God’s heart for the poor. In the meantime it’s so good to catch a glimpse of this happening in real life and actually working - very encouraging. http://www.fiful.org

On a shallower note, project “get a bus-pet” almost came true, there is a momma cat who has babies under the pink house porch. Unfortunately, they were too young to take…or fortunately...

We’re driving a part of the blossom trail today. Almonds, plums, apricots, peaches, nectarines, apples and citrus trees are in blossom. Driving with the windows down makes the van smell fantastic. There are Mexican workers on all the corners selling mangoes and fruit salad and there are El Camino’s left, right and centre. The highlight of the blossom trail was that we were able to visit the Sun-Made Raisin Factory, and buy lots of delicious cheap dried figs and raisins. yum!



Written: Saturday, March 8th – Pasadena, CA

We’re officially in LA, well, within the city limits. We had to cross the grape vine pass. What a killer. It was hot day and we had to drive up the shoulder with the 4-ways on the whole time, our cylinder head temp was climbing well past 350 degrees F. We're not sure what the exact rules are concerning cylinder head temp. I've heard of people running theirs up to 400 degrees at times. When It’s hot enough to bake cookies…then we stop and cool down. That’s our policy.

We spent the morning in a Wal-mart parking lot, cleaning up Della for the car show tomorrow. She’s covered in a thick layer of tar, grease, and bugs. Also, there was a cheap paint job done on the right side of the van. It holds dirt and if you scrub too hard, the pain just rubs off. All of our window seals are disintegrating and liquidized black rubber runs down the car anytime it rains. After driving cross-country, sitting in Vancouver’s rainy winter, and driving down the coast she was looking a bit bedraggled to say the least. Now she’s shiny and happy again so stay away bugs and dirt!

While washing the van a guy noticed us and came by to say hello. He was reminded of the 3 months he spent living in different Wal-Mart parking lots. He was a little strange, one of those talkative types that doesn’t let you get a word in edgewise. In 5 minutes, he had told us all about his life, his time in NAM, his masters degree, new Spanish girlfriend, old English ex-wife, then his 3 recent murder convictions, trips to Ontario and Victoria, and the time he got attacked with an axe. About his old home in Laguna Beach that he lost to his wife (the English one), about his daughter who’s on the show 'Laguna Beach'. He told us about his cocaine habit, and how they called him Greyhound in Prison, because of his grey hair. The strangest part was how important it was to mention details like the cost of his house (2 million), how tall his daughter was (6’) and how beautiful she was (very), the type of car she drove (Audi) how much her car cost (45 grand). His son’s boat size (40’). It was all rather odd. Even odder than him. Is this shameless self-bragging a Californian thing? Or is it just a crazy man thing?

9:30pm - Pomona, CA

I’m so excited about the swap meet tomorrow, we just went to check it out before we go to sleep. It starts at 5 am tomorrow and we’ve been advised that you want to get there bright and early, since the early bird gets the worm, we’ll be getting up at 4:30 am, since the clocks move forward, tonight it’s actually going to be 3:30 am. The place is already buzzing and we’ve already seen 3 really sweet air-cooled V-dubs buzzing around the area. It should be fun.

5:00 am, March 9th (Sunday)

Driving up Fairplex Drive – It’s like a time warp. There are more cars from the last 50 years than modern ones. Most of them are all street rods, and are of course passing us on this big hill. We didn't sleep at all last night. We slept in noisy spot and were too excited to sleep.

3:00 pm

I am exhausted. 5 to 1:30 = 8.5 hours spent wondering around a parking lot. This morning we were among the first people here. It was still dark but all the vendor's were ready with their parts set out. People were rushing around with flashlights trying to grab the good deals and rare parts. It was pretty fun to wander around in the dark through the endless isles of parts with all sorts of suspicious looking characters, flashlights, and trash can fires. The overall theme of the day however was - parts parts parts, and cheap cheap cheap! We made out like bandits and even snagged a crappy surf board for $15.








11:20 am Tuesday, March 11th - Rancho Cucamunga, CA

Van work day! Geoff adjusted the valves yesterday. He did it with a fancy new remote starter which makes the job way better. Today, Geoff’s adjusting the points, but for some reason it isn’t going well. He just came into the van, cursing like a sailor (which, if you’ve ever met Geoff, is a rare state only achieved by the most frustrating situations). It’s so annoying when you know how to do a job, you know you’re doing it right, but the bus won’t start and when it does, the adjustment is all out of whack anyway. The inside of the van looks like a bomb went off. We just need to get things in order! Next job on the list is getting the transmission fluid changed and then the looming CV job – sure to be a grease-fest I’m warned. Had dinner in a nice park today. It was nice to find a place with shade. All these palm trees are pretty but they got nothing on our big shade trees in Canada Eh?
"shady lane, everybody wants one..." - Pavement

Wednesday, March 12th, Buena Park, CA

We got kicked out of our 1st Wal-Mart last night. It’s silly because their policy is that you can stay overnight. But this particular manager didn’t like overnighters. Oh well, we were leaving anyways. Today we are hoping to adjust our carbs and fix the timing since it’s still not right.

Thursday, March 13th , Huntington Beach, CA (“Surf City USA”)

I keep all our receipts in a bag behind the drivers seat. The pile of them is getting so large it reminds me of the suitcase of IOU’s in Dumb and Dumber. "That's as good as money, sir. Those are I.O.U.'s." We've arrived in Huntington Beach a.k.a. Surf City, USA. Last night we went to the beach excited about our first true California trip the beach. We hadn’t been parked for 30 seconds before 2 hippie, dread-locked stoner dudes came up.

“Hey, you guys from Canada?"
yep.
"Cool man,"
Yeah, it’s pretty nice here
"So, you guys like live in the wilderness?"
Well, no, where we’re from, it’s just like here, people, streets, houses.
"Hey, can I ask you a question?"
Sure.
"Do you know if I go to Canada if I can trap a wolf?"
Silence (Strange furrowed eyebrows, cocked head look)
picking up on our concerned look…
"No, no, I mean if I wanted one for a pet."

I won’t go on with the conversation but you get the idea. He was a nice guy though, they both were, and they offered to buy us a beer, but we declined in search of dinner on the beach and some better conversation. For dinner we just sat and looked out at all the people surfing, playing volleyball and running along the beach sidewalk. We saw a girl riding a bicycle wearing nothing but a bikini with 1980’s stilettos that were the exact colour match and gloss of her bicycle. Sorry no pictures, I wasn't quick enough on the draw. Everyone here seems to be trying to set the next trend. When I first came to the beach I must confess, I was worried about feeling comfortable. Beaches and bathing suits have never been my 'forte' and I worried a bit about being judged. The funny thing is that no one seems to notice you here, they are all too busy watching themselves. Fixing their hair, making sure their shirt is sitting right. It's nutty.

We started calling through our Type 2 rescue list (a list-serve of VW owners willing to help out travelers). We need a driveway to do the CV job since it requires jacking the car up...working on it in a parking lot just isn't a good idea. We got through the to the first person on the list. Glen. He said he was able to help us out and he was actually in the area! Within 30 seconds he was there! poof! like he just plopped down from the sky. Minutes later we were having a drink in the parking lot and shooting the breeze. It was so nice to have other people to talk to! And yes, everyone. They really do use the words dude and gnarly in a sentence.

Thursday March 13th, 11:00 am

So turns out we have gear oil in our transmission as well as a fluid leak. Previously, we were hoping to change the fluid and hope for the best. But now that we can't seem to locate a new gasket we're going to hold off for now. The fluid level has never been low as of yet and she's running fine. Changing the fluid is mainly precautionary at this point anyway. In the picture below you can see where the leak is, it’s mainly evaporating off or getting soaked in the gasket. Even the mechanics recommended we just keep driving it. We'll just have to be prepared for that fateful day...dun dun dunnnnn




Friday March 14th, Huntington Beach

Like most VW jobs...you can never do just one thing quick. It always seems to lead to another task you weren't planning on doing. Our CV, re-packing job turned out to be a wheel-bearing replacement. We conveniently didn’t come to this conclusion until after our CV job was complete. Which I now know is the wrong order to do the job because you have to then take the axle out twice. So one day turned into two and late in the second as we were putting the last wheel nut on it started slipping because the half-shaft was stripped. Glen tried welding a homemade washer remedy, but no luck. I felt so bad for Glen because, this simple job has turned into a not so simple one, and he was expected on a weekend camping trip. In the end Glen's Dad was able to track down a new half shaft and nut at a junkyard are we just had to re-do the left rear wheel bearing. The nice thing is that we are in the right place to find VW parts. It’s quite the luxury to have more than one store that deals only in VW parts. You can just walk up to the counter and just ask for the part and someone turns around grabs it from a magical shelf and hands it to you. No internet, no backorder, and no high prices. All in all this has been a great couple of days. In fact, things just don't seem to feel finished until you have a setback or three. And nothing beats a sunny day working on the van with an ice cold beer. Many thanks to Glen and his family! You fed us and taught us loads. Thanks to you we won’t be stranded in the Desert somewhere. I hope.