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The Chronicles of Rabfan; H2O 2008

ArrJay — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 21:10:07 +0000

The trip started out from Red Deer on Monday night at about 4pm. Initially Ugly and I were supposed to leave our respective departure points and arrive at the same time in Montana at Lucky’s.
Alas, Ugly was having trouble reinforcing his oil pan no doubt his lack of sleep during the previous 6 days was clouding his creative vision.

Knowing that we were on a tight schedule to arrive in OC on Friday night I elected to leave before him in the hopes that he would catch up.
I arrived in Montana at 3am Tuesday morning and got a hotel. The next day there were several picture messages on the phone of the Bucket on the road.
“This is a good sign I thought. Maybe we will actually make it on time.”

Little did I know that the 8 hour trip from Washington to Montana would take the bucket 16 hours to complete. Sometime around 5pm on Tuesday Ugly showed up and we went to the shop.

At this point we were 1 day late in leaving and both Bucket and Kitty needed some work before the trip.
For reasons I won’t reveal we didn’t get started until about 2 in the morning on Wednesday. Kitty got some new injectors and a fuel filter, for some reason she was running without one, and her stalling rough running problem cleared right up.
Next the bucket needed his rear mount reattached as it had broken loose on the run from Washington to the shop. Off to Rockitt’s place to borrow a welder.

So finally sometime around 5pm on Wednesday we hit the road.

At this point we were now 2 days behind our original schedule. Friday night arrival was not looking good

About an hour into the trip Bucket’s upper timing cover came loose and was rattling. We fixed that and hit the road again. Sometime around 11pm Bucket ran out of fuel mysteriously.

A quick trip and we got a water jug filled with diesel.
Unfortunately a full tank revealed a small problem with the fuelling system. Guess this is why the Bucket ran out of fuel so quickly.

After trying JB weld a couple of times Ugly remembered the soap trick and we were on the way again.
However, at this point we were only 400 miles from our starting point and realised that soap wasn’t going to get us to OC. After some brainstorming we came up with an auxiliary fuel tank system.
MacGyvering in the parking lot of Walmart at 3 in the morning….Billings Montana.
Sprinklers came on.

Finally on the road…

At this point I was still thinking “ok we could still be there Saturday morning…..”
Then at around 2pm on Thursday it became apparent that the Bucket was so badly misaligned from a railroad tie incident in Lucky’s driveway that the tires were simply not going to last to OC and we weren’t even out of Montana at this point. Right about now I was beginning to get discouraged. I admit it. I started thinking “ok, it’s time to turn around. There’s no way we’re going to get there for anything but the show on Sunday.”
It was then that we decided to leave the bucket……on a Native reserve.
Normally I have the attitude that “no one gets left behind” but this was my big adventure! My highly anticipated H2O trip. I’d missed 07’ and I’d be dammed if I was going to miss this year.
So we tarped up the Bucket, bade him farewell and were on our way again….

“And then there were two”

By now it was around 5pm on Thursday. We had been travelling for almost 15 hours and covered less than 500 miles. The realisation that we were still over 2000miles from OC was beginning to sink in. Fortunately Lucky Laid a pretty good guilt trip on me and smacked some sense into my sleep deprived brain.
So now we B-Lined it.
We went through so many States so fast I couldn’t tell you where we were. I know there was a traffic jam south of Chicago and there are jumps on the highway. I know the toll roads in PA must be used for demolition practice by the military and I couldn’t believe I was paying to use them.
We allowed ourselves 2 hours of sleep, twice for the rest of the trip. The texting became furious during the last 24 hours and Paul was very concerned for our safety.
In case anyone wanted to know, you can operate a motor vehicle for 72 hours straight fuelled only on Pixie Stix, Red Bull and coffee.

Driver change;

We finally arrived in OC at 2pm on Saturday. That last 500 miles was brutal!

I really wanted to make the Jolly Roger meet but my sleep deprived brain seemed to think that changing the oil, mounting my Monzas and having a shower was more important.
I almost made it even after all that but then Kitty puked her battery and Ugly and I zipped over to Walmart to grab a new one. I guess we should have known that kitty and Gulf were tired too. That night after cruising the strip and meeting the NEK crew both cars broke down. Kitty with a bad voltage regulator and the Gulf with some kind of mystery power drain.
Fortunately the MK1 crowd is like a family and The DCI crew and Red Wow came to our rescue. Sadly however I was out of steam at this point and after I limped the Gulf back to the hotel I crashed hard.
Next morning up bright and early at 8am still really tired! Ran out the door and the car fired right up. Off to Walmart I went without my camera again Some wiring and a new battery later and the Gulf still wouldn’t start. At this point it was almost 11am and I needed to make it to the show or I’d lose my rockstar parking.
Fortunately there were more rested people than I at the show who remembered their camera so there is proof I was there!

After some screwing around with the steering column Gulf mysteriously fired up. I figured I’d better get it off the grass since there was no way I was going to bump start 23:1 compression on a wet lawn.
Parking in front of Tommy’s tent and his awesome car.

Being mystified at this point after reading the wiring diagrams, changing the alternator and battery, Sofa loaning me a starter, we finally just bump started it out of the show.
That night we met up with a big crowd at the Outback and had a fantastic time. By the next morning the Gulf was starting under its’ own power every time. :screwy:
Breakfast with the DCI crew and the Maushaus crew;

Esher almost dying;

Sadly all good things must come to an end and we had to leave OC.

With the first half of the journey being so rushed, we decided to take it easy on the way home. Hotels and Karaoke every night!

First place we stopped was a vintage car dealer. Over 600 classic cars for sale. Most were complete junk but there is always 1 that makes it all worthwhile.

1977 Scirocco sporting a supposedly factory installed Trans Am body kit with only 40 odd thousand miles on the clock.
Some other stuff;

Ugly and I have decided to sell all the VW’s and get into 4X4’s

Potential;

Next stop was Henry’s Rabbit Ranch! Hare it is!

Ewwwww furry rabbit

We even got some tattoos!

Back on the road again

More stickers

Next Kitty and Gulf went Antiquing

She was very jealous when he found this;

More;

Along the way we even spotted some relatives

The Gulf started giving me gifts….weight reduction

St Louis, MO

Somehow I managed to hit a buck in the middle of downtown St Louis MO. Don’t they spray for wild animals?

Lucky took us out for a lovely dinner that night. Some nice wines for Smegor;

Many miles later

More relatives;

Fuel

Back in Montana…getting close to the bucket!

Much to our amazement the bucket was still there!

Fired right up!

After a little alignment work;

2 hours later BACK ON THE ROAD!

And then 10 minutes later…..

We realised that we forgot to unhook the return from the leaking tank so all the fuel from our cell was going into the main tank. A quick fix

And our final design proven and road tested;

On the road for a long night!

We stayed the night in Anaconda before the final push home.
Next morning the soap on the main tank finally let go;

I parted company with Kitty and the Bucket at this point and headed straight North to Good ol’ Canada!

Some sights along the way

Quick stop at the car wash on the way home

What a great journey spent with new friends!
Till next time;

update from Butte, Montana

Lucky — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 01:13:42 +0000

The boys and I parted ways this morning in Belle Fourche.

Those diesels are just too low and slow.

Kitty and I only got about 4 hours of topless time today because of this crappy rain. So not cool.

Belle Fourche

Lucky — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 06:49:12 +0000

We made it as far as Belle Fourche. Thank goodness Super 8 has internets.

Interesting story about us getting our rooms here… I’ll have to share it in the morning… but it’s definitely true that we are very close to Montana, and our getting the rooms in the way we did, are a sure sign that we are getting close to home.

Tomorrow we go to see what can be done about the Bucket…

Update from I-90 nearing Rapid City, SD

Lucky — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 02:57:37 +0000

Well… we stayed in Davenport, Iowa last night, went to the Rusty Nail for some karaoke, sent Paxton some “we are bitter that you aren’t here with us.” pics, and then got a pretty early start on the day after ArrJay provided a delightful breftast of delicious doughnuts, orange juice, and fat-free milk.

We had no wireless internets at the hotel last night, so we were unable to update… But yesterday provided a fair amount of classic car fun, as well as some MK1 fun, when we paid a visit to Henry’s Hare Ranch. Pics and stories to come.

Tonight we will be stopping in Rapid City or Belle Fourche for the night, and in the morning, it’s off to Ashland, Montana to see if the Bucket survived the week on the Indian reservation.

Wish is luck, and please keep your fingers crossed that the Bucket will make it back to the shop, where we can hopefully round up a diesel tank, and get the Bucket back on the road to scrape and throw sparkz again.

Update from St. Louis, MO.

Lucky — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 15:23:24 +0000

Well… we made it as far as St. Louis today… After changing our route about 4 times. Heh.

Tomorrow we head north through Illinois, and we’ll see where the road takes us from there.

Oh yeah… And RJ hit a deer. Kthnxbai.

stupid phone

UglyBastid — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 20:42:30 +0000

Uofating via Luvkt’s phone – stayed in Evansville last night got a late start\ I suggest avoiding the days inn they suck. hope to make it to Sioux Falls tonightP RJ sang us some Elvis at karaoke last night and some crazy ass hipster kid with a mullet and a vest did the most flamboyant version of Prince’s ‘kiss’ that I’ve ever seen… We’re talkin worse than prince… Pics comin soon.

Update from I-64

Lucky — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:34:37 +0000

Next stop – Evansville, Indiana.

Anybody down for an impromptu G2G? :oD

oil spill…and out of fuel…

Lucky — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 06:09:13 +0000

Just out of Missoula the makeshift oil cap/plug for the bucket broked.

- 38 miles to bozeman and the bucket runs out of fuel.

What a problem child.

always an adventure…

Lucky — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 02:51:26 +0000

Soooo… Bucket got stuck in my driveway as we were rollin out… Pushed it from being stuck…everybody was pushing, Nobody was in the driver’s seat to hit the brakes as it rolled down the hill.

Bucket jumped a railroad tie, then came to a sudden stop when it hit Mr. Boulder.

No worries… “it’ll buff right out.”.

It’s that time of year again…

Lucky — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:46:04 +0000

…and after Kitty got some serious attention from Sparky and RJ last night, we’re heading out!

I am going to try a new gadget to update as often as possible, or whenever anything fun or otherwise noteworthy happens, so feel free to check back if you want to keep track of our travels and (mis)adventures.

Off we go!!!

P.S. First misadventure already… when I got pulled over while driving the bucket to the shop to trade for Kitty.