CANYCA: California to New York (and back) pg. 2
On this 30th day of September, 2006, the recovery from a successful trip well under way, I can now take the time to
tell you all about it....I hope I don't bore you with minuteae but remember to mention the myriad events, sights, and challenges
that made this trip a memorable one!Buslist Posting from 17-Sept-06
(Written the night before departing Upstate New York)
Wow....never done this before, at least not to this extent. After a solid week and a day of working almost constantly on the '73 Westy I was "hired" to fix and drive back to CA from NY, we are finally ready to go. At this point, after three oil changes, lots of vacuum leak seeking and plugging, carburetor cleaning and tinkering, mouse de-nesting, cleaning, adjusting, replacing, testing, re-adjusting, testing again, and all sorts of other fun stuff, I feel the bus is as ready as it's gonna get for it's first journey in 18 years.
I feel I have joined the club of people who have done this, and the respect I have for those who had it much harder than I in making a despondent and neglected bus roadworthy has increased tenfold. I hope I didn't miss anything!
The compression is really good (125-137ish), the suspension and steering like new, the brakes are awesome, at the moment, it idles like a clock (after I found that last leak anyway), and accelleration and power seem to be good, although I have some misfiring still when transitioning from cruise to accelleration. Maybe if I ignore it it will go away. Engine temps seem fine, but I do not have gauges, so for a while I'll be checking it manually while I look for oil leaks and to see whether my kluged-together tailpipe is still holding together....
First stop: Niagara Falls....approx. 4 hours from here. Then a real night's rest (it's 2:45am here now, and I'm getting up at 8:00) and then we'll be setting the pace (hopefully) for the rest of the trip.
There was a sleepy bat on my foot tonight.More details and further reports will be posted on the backroadbus.com site as opportunity to post such things presents itself.
Hope you're all having a blast!
Now for a shower, and clean clothes (finally!)
Be well, and thanks to all who put up with my calls and questions! (There will be more of those, I'm sure...) Hope you're all enjoying an awesome weekend!
Gene Cornelius www.backroadbus.com
***End pre-trip post***
So instead of writing ad nauseum about the work I did to the bus, I've uploaded scans of the notes I took during the fixing and prep and will post links to the pages so those interested can peruse them at their leisure, and those not interested don't need to be bored with it all. I have yet to get to the nitty-gritty good stuff of the trip, so bear with me....
Here're links to the first few pages: (1-4)
(Note: On this and further pages, you'll see the thumbnails, and know what they indicate, right? Cool!)
Note the hi-performance fire extinguisher:
Later tonight I will update and post the report up to Niagara Falls at least, and maybe get into the swing of writing again.....