Date: Fri, 23 Aug 1996 01:28:26 -0700
Subject: Trip Report: The Last Hurrah
Hey now,
It is 11:17PM, 22 August, 1996. We are home. My dad arrived in
Clovis, NM yesterday morning from Spokane, and got to meet his
granddaughter for the first time. Elaine (my niece) was tired and a
little cranky, so grandad will just have to wait a bit Amanda made a
great meatloaf for all of us, and Sam made herself some grits-meat
free. I went out to get gas, and the gas station had a deal-buy more
than 10 gal. and get a video free from a local video rental place. So
we got Blazing Saddles. Funny movie, I'm glad to have finally seen
it, after all the talk of it during the Inuvik trip. We loaded up the
bus yesterday evening, in preparation for this mornings journey. We
left Clovis this morning at 9am, and promptly lost an hour to the
border crossing at Texas (central time zone). The drive through Texas
was uneventful, and a good 
portion went through the scenic Hill Country, nice
area. About 100 miles out from Austin, it began to rain. Its still
raining outside as I write. Around the time we hit Leander, it got so
heavy it became very difficult to see the road. We even hydroplaned
once. Great fun. Texas is humid. Very humid. I was sticky, and icky.
I really dislike the climate here, and an old aircooled bus doesn't
lend itself well to air conditioning :-( Anyway, we sweated it out,
and stopped in north Austin at HEB (a local grocery chain) for milk
and cereal. The final leg through Austin was the hardest. We were
finally home, but not yet home, if you get my drift. The speedometer
kept creeping up to 80, then Id regain self control and back off,
only to repeat the process again. Finally, we pulled onto our street.
Indra smelled something different, and began to look around. We
parked, and went inside, and got to see our cats for the first time
in 7 weeks. In typical cat fashion, they hardly acknowledged our
presence at all, other than to ask for dinner. Cats are cool Tosca is
fully recovered from his bladder stone surgery, and is his normal
self, while kitty just wants to sit on our laps like usual. The
chores remain. We have unloaded the bus, and the living room is a
mess. Its amazing how much one can fit inside a VW bus. Because of
the rain, I will not install the spare engine back in the bug until
sometime this weekend. The stack of mail took half an hour to go
through, just to sort junk from real mail, and now the real mail
stack awaits further attention. I emailed my employer from Clovis,
and they left a message on my machine, I work tomorrow morning at
9am. Austin Lyric Opera also called, so I must return their call as
well. There is a bar on my financial aid package, so I will have to
clean that up as well. And of course, school starts next Wednesday.
Joy. I think Id rather just keep on driving. So it all comes down to
this. We've come 11,455 miles in just over 7 weeks, consuming 530
gallons of fuel. We traveled through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona,
California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Yukon Territory,
North West Territory, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado.
We visited 5 national parks, countless national forests, and several
state and county parks. We've seen some of the most beautiful scenery
Western North America has to offer. We had the pleasure of meeting
droves of wonderful people, both in the USA and Canada. We had our
share of problems, both personal and financial, but we survived. The
bus performed admirably. There were 2 problems due to my negligence,
1 mechanical failure (the after market CDI ignition I installed for
the trip), and 2 problems due to the wonderful surface of the
Dempster Highway. All in all, an excellent record for a 26 year old
vehicle. Now were back to the rat race.
There is a road, no simple highway,
between the dark
and the dawn of time.
And if you go, no-one may follow,
that path is
for your steps alone.
J. Garcia, R. Hunter
Peace,
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Edmund A. "Eddie" Hintz **|** "You may say I'm a dreamer,
Voice Major, UT Austin * | * But I'm not the only one...
<ehintz@mail.utexas.edu> * /|\ * I hope someday you'll join us,
'70 Primered Transporter */ | \* And the world will live as one.
'73 Orange Super Beetle ***** Imagine."
Web page: http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ehintz
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Back to the Main Trip
page
portion went through the scenic Hill Country, nice
area. About 100 miles out from Austin, it began to rain. Its still
raining outside as I write. Around the time we hit Leander, it got so
heavy it became very difficult to see the road. We even hydroplaned
once. Great fun. Texas is humid. Very humid. I was sticky, and icky.
I really dislike the climate here, and an old aircooled bus doesn't
lend itself well to air conditioning :-( Anyway, we sweated it out,
and stopped in north Austin at HEB (a local grocery chain) for milk
and cereal. The final leg through Austin was the hardest. We were
finally home, but not yet home, if you get my drift. The speedometer
kept creeping up to 80, then Id regain self control and back off,
only to repeat the process again. Finally, we pulled onto our street.
Indra smelled something different, and began to look around. We
parked, and went inside, and got to see our cats for the first time
in 7 weeks. In typical cat fashion, they hardly acknowledged our
presence at all, other than to ask for dinner. Cats are cool Tosca is
fully recovered from his bladder stone surgery, and is his normal
self, while kitty just wants to sit on our laps like usual. The
chores remain. We have unloaded the bus, and the living room is a
mess. Its amazing how much one can fit inside a VW bus. Because of
the rain, I will not install the spare engine back in the bug until
sometime this weekend. The stack of mail took half an hour to go
through, just to sort junk from real mail, and now the real mail
stack awaits further attention. I emailed my employer from Clovis,
and they left a message on my machine, I work tomorrow morning at
9am. Austin Lyric Opera also called, so I must return their call as
well. There is a bar on my financial aid package, so I will have to
clean that up as well. And of course, school starts next Wednesday.
Joy. I think Id rather just keep on driving. So it all comes down to
this. We've come 11,455 miles in just over 7 weeks, consuming 530
gallons of fuel. We traveled through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona,
California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Yukon Territory,
North West Territory, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado.
We visited 5 national parks, countless national forests, and several
state and county parks. We've seen some of the most beautiful scenery
Western North America has to offer. We had the pleasure of meeting
droves of wonderful people, both in the USA and Canada. We had our
share of problems, both personal and financial, but we survived. The
bus performed admirably. There were 2 problems due to my negligence,
1 mechanical failure (the after market CDI ignition I installed for
the trip), and 2 problems due to the wonderful surface of the
Dempster Highway. All in all, an excellent record for a 26 year old
vehicle. Now were back to the rat race.