Belle at the beach (Garibaldi). Successful run. Tune up before hand went very, very well and she's torquing out really well. 62 mph at 3500 rpm. Took all the hills at 50 or better. At's My Girl!
Oh, and new license plates on the way: 73VDUB.

Ahh. Update time.
As the summer moves on, I'm gearing Belle up for a run to the coast next weekend. Currently having some brake work done at Les Schwab. I've done it before, but frankly, it's the one thing I really want done right. So....

Singing, "Thank you, for a real good time!"

Wow! What a run. We did it! 2,000 miles in one week!
The Gorge run was a hoot. A little bit of everything: hot weather, nice people, silly people, good food, great music, pretty scenes, and the quest for the clean Honey Bucket. The show it self was quite good. I personally feel the set list wasn't quite as strong as the Shorline show, but still some real gems in there.
The photos below help document the trip:

Unlike like Shoreline, where there were only a handful of air-cooleds out, this run had a plethora. We caught up some nice rigs on the first hill. Talk about small world, the orange double-cab lives just down the street from me and Paul!


Once we found a spot, we hoisted the colors. You wouldn't believe how many people thanked us for the landmark. It helped them find their way back to their own sites.

Dona strumming the kind tunes on her new axe:


Heading into the show...somewhere....
The Allman brothers simply kicked butt. The Doobies were good too, but one could argue the Allmans stole the show. Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks ripping it up at the same time? Unreal.

The Crew for the second run: Dona, Paul, Mike, Me, unwashed masses in the background.
Sure is predy out here. :-)
The Core 4 with that Warren guy again. Can't imagine what his fingertips feel like.
Phil with his new bass. He was simply outstanding. Keep the bass Phil!




Ready for the home run.

Well, it wouldn't have been an air-cooled trip without one break-down. This nice splitty stopped to help, but by then we had a handle on it. Thanks to Paul's superior diagnostic skills, we narrowed the problem down to the coil/distributor. My fault really. I knew oil was blowing past the o-ring on the distributor, but didn't carry that to the logical next step of "fix it moron before you ruin your distributor"- so it overheated. Fortunately, I had a spare with me, and after a reasonable delay, we were back at it without a mishap.
Stopped by Stonehenge, you know, because it looks like Stonehenge.
Ahhh Belle. Well done old girl!

Roll Away The Dew......

Wow! One of the best shows in a long, long time.
Not sure where to begin, so I'll just toss some stuff out.
Phenomenal run with no significant mishaps. California roads (for want of a better term) managed to rattle my tail-pipe off!
Couple of facts of figures:
Total miles covered: 1,385.6
Fuel used: 72.9 gallons (running about 19 mpg overall. The mountains trimmed the average down. On open freeway I was getting 24 mpg!)
Avg speed: 45 mph

Didn't see many aircooled VW's out there. Maybe a half-dozen or so. People were wandering by taking pictures of Belle. Mike thinks she's the back-drop in about 20 pictures of so.

I'll let the pictures explain the rest:

Need to lose some weight-

Mike's ready to go!
I always obey the local laws:
The crew on the Shoreline Run:

All Flags Flying..
Always nice to see Further!

This must be the place!My favorite view of California...

Ahh, home. Notice the Cali souvenirs on the windshield. Next... The Gorge!

GDTRFB

Southbound...
Updates to follow after the Shoreline show.
Don't know what I did, but I'm getting almost 7 mpg more than I was before all this work. Probably less weight from all the rust I scrapped off and parts I tossed.

BTW: Celebrated 15 years with Belle yesterday!

In the spirit of traveling. one of my favorites:

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."
-Robert Frost