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.

More from the sunny Central Valley

Written: Saturday, March 1st – Hilmar, CA

We’re off to find more cheese, we just left a little dutch shop that specializes in Gouda. Today we’ve been wandering around on old farm back roads. There’s lots of small farms here with little shack homes. It’s so different from the large farm houses you see in the northern States and in Canada.

2:30pm – Atwater, CA

California is mini-Mexico. I love the cultural diversity & hearing all the accents. It’s common to see large crowds of Mexicans standing on street corners here, waiting for work, for the day… whoever may need a day labourer. It really makes you wonder how someone can support themselves let alone a family without steady work?

There are houses for sale everywhere - ‘Foreclosed’. When we talk to people around here they say you can sense the desperation in people. There are lots of people out on the street, staying in state parks, sorting out what the heck to do with their families after losing their homes or jobs. Also, one hundred and fifty state parks will be closed by September next year, because of lack of funding. I guess that’s the price of funding the war on terror combined with life spent living on credit.


3:00pm

Well we just ran out of gas. It was kind of funny because neither of us were all that fazed. When the car went dead in the middle of the highway, Geoff simply turned the key off, and casually looked over and said “oh, we’re out of gas…”, said like you’d say “oh, the neighbors are having a yard sale.”

4:00pm
Speaking of yard sales… once we were fueled up and back on the road, we went to a couple. They were in these tiny Hispanic neighborhoods with little stray dogs and kids (not stray) everywhere. I don’t think these are the kind of yard sales that are very well attended. They’re full of overpriced crappy gadgets that look like they were pulled from a dumpster in 1970, and old really old clothing too. I feel bad for these people so I bought a package of dusty ‘key turners’ for a dollar. Also, Geoff has decided that he wants to steal the street dog, and name it Atwater after the town we stole it from…either that or Arfie.

4:30pm

The Almond trees are in full blossom here, and the highways are lined with brilliant wildflowers! We can see the High Sierra mountains of Yosemite to our left. Oh what a beautiful day.

Written: Sunday, March 2nd – Fresno, CA

Went to the University Presbyterian Church, it was nice, they gave us cookies. Took a Sunday drive to Clovis for lunch, had sausage, cheese and beer (James was right - Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is the greatest) all this was followed by a delightful nap. This is the life. Don't worry Dad, I'll eat vegetables with dinner, and stop being so lazy tomorrow.

Written: Tuesday, March 4th – Fresno, CA

It’s Geoff’s 25th birthday today and we’re at Millerton State Recreation Area north of Fresno. Geoff wanted to get away from the city and spend his b-day in Nature. This place is beautiful, a birding hot spot, we’ve pulled out our birding books but there is just too many I don’t know where to begin. We stopped after we id the White-capped Sparrows that hop around our campsite. For today I feel the need to just BE and enjoy the sunshine, the peaceful nature of this place and my fantastic husband on his 25th birthday. To celebrate, we cracked open ‘Firma’, a red wine from California’s Jewel Collection. I’m enjoying a glass right now… actually so is a little bug, can’t say that I blame him. Actually I think he’s drowning.

Today we slept in, did some laundry. We had baths out of the icy water tap on our site. It was quite the site and actually very difficult to have a shower with your clothes on. There are showers here, but they use quarters and of course we don’t have any. There aren’t many people here anyway and we have the place to ourselves. I love it here. I love the gnarly oak trees and abundant birds, the van with her top popped up and the food, the gin and wine, burgers and homemade salsa. There are cows here too, and coyotes. They howl into the night. They’ve started already even though the sun hasn’t set. The cows go crazy too. Last night we had to listen to a mad cow moo into the night a cross between being in heat/labor/and having your baby calf stolen by coyotes. I hope she’s ok tonight. Last night we also had a visit from the local raccoon as he broke into our garbage. I decided, instead of fighting and hiding it all away, he could have it. I mean, I’m just throwing the crap out to sit in a landfill and he’s just going to climb in my garbage can anyways. So I took our garbage out of the can a spread it on the ground by a big tree. I think he liked his dinner of ribs, I also gave him a piece of bread and cheese. And named him Rocky. It was all gone in the morning and he didn’t bother us at all in the night. Yes, I shouldn’t feed the wildlife, and it is unnatural that raccoons eat out of trash cans, not from the wild, like they’re supposed to… but humans aren’t any better. Rocky and I are actually a lot more alike then I’d like to admit – both strangers to the ways of the wild.


Written: Wednesday, March 5th – Fresno, CA

Today we packed up camp after a delish breakfast of eggs and toast. It was nice to take the time to clean out the van, organize the cupboards and wash the moldy mattress upstairs (don’t worry, it’s not as bad as it sounds) We went for a hike too to the top of buzzards lookout. All the different types of hawks were soaring about on the wind currants below us. Today we id’d an Acorn Woodpecker that is native only to this region! Pretty neat. I’ll have to come back here once I’m really serious about this birding thing because there are different species everywhere. That will have to of course wait until I get a big set of intimidating binoculars, and on of those khaki safari hats. Lunch today was our classic tuna and avocado sandwiches with cilantro. Everything we’ve been eating for the past two days has been with cilantro. All because I wanted some for the fresh salsa I made. It just comes in such large quantities. Tonight for dinner we had casserole with cilantro, tomorrow salad with cilantro.

On the way out of the park we took Della on her first off road trip. This picture doesn't look to impressive...but we were impressed.

From Redwoods to Almond Blossoms

Written: Thursday, February 21st - S. of Portland, OR

We slept outside of Portland last night at a rest stop. There was this cool older woman parked a few spots over sleeping in an old Chevy Camper-van with her cat. Geoff and I keep talking about getting a traveling companion of our own. Maybe we’d find a stray kitty or dog along the way. Actually the more we think about it the less sense it makes. I couldn’t imagine a little litter box to go along with our cat, or scratch marks or puppy barf on our seats. I wish we could get one that didn’t do any of those things…like a travel puppy. I guess for now Zeddy will have to do.


A fountain for four in Portland, OR and well...Broadway Street.

5:00pm – Florence, OR

Well we made it to the Pacific Ocean! We’re at the Sand dunes National Recreation Area. The ocean here is so incredibly breathtaking…and loud. The water is especially violent because there’s a storm a brewing. When we came over the dunes and saw the ocean we ran to the water along the dry beach and stood looking out, when everything went strangely silent…in a really unusual way. Then out of nowhere this huge wave came crashing in and we barely made it off the beach dry. The wave, we later learned is aptly named the sneaker wave. After seeing the ocean and driving along cliff edges looking down on the ocean we both have developed a pretty strong fear of the ocean…which will likely complicate any attempts at surfing.



8:00pm – Coos Bay, OR

We snuck onto a truck weigh station…the grand total is 3850lbs!


Written: Friday, February 22nd – California!!

I think that somewhere I was hoping to cross the border to California, and the clouds would part and the sun shine down. It is quite rainy here today but we’re excited to be heading into the redwoods, we are already beginning to see monstrous stumps lining the road.

10:20pm – Eureka, CA

There is a big storm coming on it’s way, and I don’t want to be on the coast when 50mph winds hit. We’re going to head into the central valley in search of warmer/drier weather. Today we went hiking in the redwoods, It was so amazing! We found it so hard to capture the essence of this place on film…”ambassadors from another time” as John Steinbeck refers to them. This is a picture of one of these 'ambassadors' if you look close you can see Zeddy.

Oh, and about this ocean thing…I’ve been thinking. There are times when I’m confronted with majestic things in nature that are initially quite scary, like looking over a cliff, or entering a cave. Once you stand there for a while and let your eyes adjust and you feet firmly plant themselves you inevitably start to feel at ease. But this ocean…It’s been days now and it’s still gives me the heeby geebies. Tonight we are the last people at this lookout spot, up on a large cliff overlooking the surf. The storm is coming in tonight and you can feel the wind shift towards the ocean as the weather system pulls the warm air in from the shore. We are about to hit the road soon, we were going to sleep here tonight but it's just too creepy.

Written: Saturday, February 23rd – Meyers Flat, CA

It’s STILL rainy today. Geoff said that he wouldn’t be surprised if there was moss on Della by the time we made it out of this rainy area.





We went through the drive through tree today! I can’t believe that Delilah made it…She just barely fit. I had to get out and guide the car through.

3:50pm – Willits, CA

The Guy on the cover of my California tour guide holds a big fat glass of wine up to me as if to raise a toast. He is surrounded by his beautiful tanned friends around a table full of flowers, food, and warm sun. I’m so cold in the van my feet went numb, literally. Having no heat really makes a difference when the temp drops a little. We just stopped for some warm soup and hot green tea. I spent a few minutes under the hand dryer in the rest stop bathroom. I’m now feeling quite content with my tea, a fleece blanket wrapped around my legs, and the down slippers I stole from my mom. They are starting to defrost my feet despite the fact that I’m losing feathers through a hole in them that I can’t seem to find.

“Other people’s lives seem more interesting because they ain’t mine” – Modest Mouse

Written: Sunday, February 24th – Fairfield, CA

Bad Day. Don’t want to talk about it.

Written: Monday, February 25th – Rio Vista, CA

The view out my window is like a Microsoft background. Beautiful green hills roll along the road while puffy white happy clouds float overhead. We are on route to Lodi, a region know for it’s wine. Today we sampled a less sophisticated Californian delicacy at the Jelly Belly Factory tour. It was actually pretty neat…but I have no pictures of the inside. Apparently Willie Wonka doesn’t want his recipes stolen by that Mr. Smudgeworth. The air in there smelled so sweet it hurt my teeth. They had a sample bar there and you could try anything. They even made you recipes like mango pineapple salsa (mango + crushed pineapple + jalapeño). And the to end it all I got my picture taken with the jelly belly portrait of Arnold, the governor of California.

Written: Tuesday, Feb 26th – Antioch, CA

I have a sunburn! And it’s February. Today was just perfect. We went to the Black Diamond Mine Preserve for a whole day since yesterday's hike wasn’t enough to fully take this place in. How can I describe this place? If I asked God to make me a piece of land, just for me…this would be it. Giant rolling hills covered in grass, wildflowers, blossoming trees and grazing cattle. We just hung out for the morning, and went hiking to the top of one of the hills in the afternoon. This place is so tranquil and at peace, I can’t help but feeling the same when I’m here.

Written: Wednesday, February 27th – Lodi, CA

We are in wine country, and are of course…touring wineries. We just went to Jewel Vineyards – such a beautiful place. Tip#1 for California Wine tasting: make friends with your wine tasting bar guy and he’ll hook you up. We were in there for an hour, talking about everything from wine to the environment and he let us sample tons of things even from the fancy estate series. Needless to say we need to take a break in the beautiful picnic area before we operate a motor vehicle.
Feeding the goats at Michael David Winery.
The bottling facility at Woodbridge, just like in Laverne and Shirley.
These are giant redwood barrels used for aging wine. Usually it's done in the smaller barrels seen below. In this old room there were frogs hoping around. I guess the love the cool damp environment in there.

Written: Friday, February 28th – Modesto, CA

It’s the last day in February, and the almond trees are in full bloom here. Acres and acres of trees line the road. We are in the home of Black Diamond Almond Co., we even went to the factory and gift shop. Not only are there cheap almonds everywhere but fruit too!! I’m in heaven. Everyday we make it a point to eat at least one orange. These oranges are like no other. They are so juicy it’s hard not to choke while eating them. “Crystal Rousseau, Found dead, drowned in orange juice, with a smile on her face” I could think of worse ways to go.
almond blossoms...so pretty.watching the sunset after dinner.