The van (Trip part 7)

A week ago I ambled across my front lawn towards my van, on my mind were thoughts about what this whole experience would feel like. As crazy as it seems, in a couple of days this upholstered metal box will transform into my home away from home, servicing all my biological needs save for the waste portion of the days. I have thought about creating a toilet utilizing a bucket but I think I would rather carry a shovel and get to know mother nature on a more intimate level - though the necessary incense burns would help me fit in with the hippie population...

During the past few weeks I have slowly been aquainting myself with my van in an attempt to gain a greater understanding into its mechanics before fate inevitably forces me to learn first hand somewhere on the side of the road. Surprisingly, for a guy who spent no time around cars, I am finding I have a decent grasp of most of its components. For those details that elude me I am incredibly thankful that I have great friends willing to teach.

For most of my car questions I rely on my golfing buddy, John. John is my guru of sorts, a man more intelligent than any I have met, yet down to earth enough to love golf and tinkering around cars while discussing life and the workings of the world. Being that he is as knowledgeable about cars as I am about work avoidance and a generous friend he thankfully agreed to play the role of knowing teacher to my ignorant student and teach me the basics about mechanics before I left.

In his driveway we visually tore apart the van's engine and interior, actually taking apart only the easily reconstructed parts, and found that the engine rebuild 13,000 miles ago was a good one and not quite the "war zone" we found in the last van I brought over. We did find some small details that needed attention, par for the course on a vehicle that has been on the road longer than video games have been in our living rooms but, overall, the engine was solid, clean and looked to be well taken care of.

Since neither of us knew the exact history of the van's engine, we - and by that I mean John spoke and I nodded my head accordingly - decided that I should give the van a basic tune up: change out the distributor cap and rotor, connector wires, spark plugs, air and fuel filter and give it an oil change. We did find evidence of a mice infestation problem when John found a mouse trap tucked away in the corner of the engine compartment that gave him fits as to what possible upgrades the engine received, but there were no signs the problem remained current. We also found that the air cooled engine's intake does perhaps too good a job as the air filter was packed tight with an abundance of insulation from the engine cover, but this is nothing a little duct tape can't take care of. Though incredibly foreign to me it turns out most of these maintenance tasks are well within the realm of my ignorant abilities. Besides, the experience of this type of work would be really good for me and much better to attempt near the comfort of home and knowledgeable friends rather than alone on an icy Rocky Mountain.

Sadly, my work avoidance kicked in again and I ended up taking it to Independent Auto Werks in Corvallis to set up an appointment. My hope, outside of minimal manual labor, is that they can provide me more insider knowledge about the many intricacies that a Westy provides than I can gain surfing the web.

And so I am getting close to departure. A sense of the trip is beginning to shape itself in my mind. All that is left is to see whether imagination and reality align themselves even slightly.